A hearse carrying U.S. Army Capt. Paul Peña arrives in San Marcos, accompanied by a motorcade of mourners. Peña, son of Hays CISD teacher Cecelia Peña, was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan on Jan. 19. (Photo by Don Anders)
Compiled by KAY RICHTER
Jan. 6, 2010
• The Hays County District’s Attorney Office stood by its decision on a DWI charge against Texas Longhorn running D.J. Monroe. Monroe accepted a plea agreement for the less stigmatized charge of obstruction of a passageway with deferred adjudication, and received one-year probation.
Jan. 13, 2010
• Five years after the death of his 23-year-old daughter, Hays CISD transportation assistant director Charles Laws was in the midst of pursuing a three-year, $100,000 grant to curb road rage. Laws called for stiffer penalties after Betty Ward, a 51-year-old driver involved in his daughter’s crash, walked away with no charges.
• A finalization on the purchase of an easement on the 2,275-acre Dahlstrom Ranch was underway for Hays County, the city of Austin and the Nature Conservancy. The deal was to be finalized before Dec. 31, but was held up by paperwork at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Service over non-substantive changes to the contract.
Jan. 20, 2010
• After months of frustrations, Kyle police officers were granted a two percent cost-of-living pay adjustment that full-time city employees had already obtained. City officials previously argued that the police were left off the pay raise because in April 2009 the city accepted a Kyle Police Association request to handle meet-and-confer negotiations toward a labor agreement with the city.
Jan. 27, 2010
• U.S. Army Capt. Paul Pena’s combat death in the Arghandab River Valley of Afghanistan reverberated loudly at Kyle Elementary School where his mother, Cecilia Pena, has been a music teacher for 25 years. Pena, 27, and another soldier were killed by a roadside bomb Jan. 19 while on foot patrol searching for a weapons cache in the volatile Kandahar province.
Feb. 3, 2010
• The 2,193-acre Halifax Ranch near Kyle – and its more than two miles of breathtaking Blanco River frontage – was preserved from real estate development forever under a conservation easement donated by its owners. Siblings William “Bill” Johnson, Burdine Johnson and Lucy Johnson Hadac deeded development rights to their property, most of which was acquired from their parents in 1933.
Feb. 10, 2010
• The grisly murder of former San Marcos native Michael Van Dyke, age 23, shocked residents of Bastrop County and Kyle. Van Dyke was reported missing by his mother on Dec. 27 while he was living in Paige with 24-year-old Dustin Dickman. Police reported that 26-year-old Dennis Don Leetch of San Marcos and Dickman worked together in killing Van Dyke with “blunt force” and then transported the body to a wooded area in Hays County.
Feb. 17, 2010
• Lucy Johnson was elected mayor of Kyle on Saturday, Feb. 13. Jaime Sanchez and Russell Huebner were also voted onto the city council in the special election that took place. The election saw close margins for each of the races with Johnson pulling in 529 votes compared to Michelle Lopez’s 476 votes.
• The death of Audrey Gaytan, a Lehman High School 2009 graduate rocked the community. Gaytan was homecoming queen and captain of the girls soccer team. She passed away on Saturday, Feb. 13 at the Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen at age 19.
• The Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District’s board of directors unanimously approved the allotment of an additional 100.7 million gallons of water to the city of Kyle, increasing its future pumpage to 265.7 million gallons annually. The city had originally requested a Class B Conditional Production Permit to jump its pumpage from 165 million gallons to 350 million gallons annually for public water use.
Feb. 24, 2010
• The Pedernales Electric Cooperative board of directors approved a member bill of rights that would help guarantee open elections, open meetings and open records at the nation’s largest electric cooperative on Monday, Feb. 22. The board narrowly missed the two-thirds majority needed to approve a set of bylaw revisions that would have limited board members to four terms of three years each, added provisions for removing board members in the case of misconduct and mandated that vacancies on the board be filled by election rather than appointment.
March 3, 2010
• State Rep. Patrick Rose ended up with 80 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary against Driftwood resident Andrew Backus, the former chair of the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District. Rose, a Dripping Springs native, is known for easily defending his District 45 house seat against challengers from both parties. The primary election on Tuesday, March 2, was no exception to this rule.
• Former Buda Patrol Chief Bo Kidd was returned to his role as top law enforcement official in Buda. Kidd was chosen as head of the newly created Buda Police Department.
• In a rare step, Hays County Democrats decided to oust County Judge Elizabeth Sumter, favoring Pct. 2 Commissioner Jeff Barton in the primary election. Barton won 3,109 votes to Sumter’s 2,416 votes.
March 10, 2010
• Kyle’s newly elected mayor Lucy Johnson and two new council members flexed their political muscle in a vote to push current City Manager Tom Mattis off of the dais and onto a side table with the rest of administration staff. Council members Michelle Lopez and Becky Selbera opposed the proposal while the rest of the council, including Jaime Sanchez and Russ Huebner, approved it.
March 17, 2010
• A recreational vehicle burst into flames along RM 967 on Thursday, March 11 during the afternoon hours. There were no reported injuries in the blaze. The driver had just purchased the 1977 Dodge RV in Uhland and was driving it toward his home in Johnson City. He noticed while driving that the floor was getting hot and noticed flames around his feet. The driver then escaped from the RV, which was almost immediately engulfed in flames.
March 24, 2010
• Two unrelated cases of suspected arson in the Green Pastures neighborhood east of Kyle were reported during the week of spring break. Kyle firefighters quenched a blaze that damaged an unoccupied rental house on County Lane during the early morning hours of Monday, March 15. A smaller fire was set on Thursday, March 18 in a trailer that had been sitting abandoned since a previous arson attack last spring.
March 31, 2010
• Members of the group BudaFirst took their fight against the U.S. Foodservice development to the state Supreme Court. The group was seeking to halt construction of the proposed distribution facility east of Buda in the Sunfield development.
April 7, 2010
• The Kyle City Council voted 5-2 to accept the resignation of city manager Tom Mattis. He will take between $200,000 to $250,000 in termination pay. Council members Michelle Lopez and David Wilson cast the dissenting votes. The annual salary plus benefits for Mattis is around $179,600. Some council members had begun to question the city manager and his strong leadership role in the city.
• The Hays County SWAT team used tear gas after a six hour standoff with a Kyle resident accused of shooting a gun at two friends outside his Green Pastures home. Officials arrested Jimmy Hallford, 45, and charged him with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a second degree felony.
April 14, 2010
• Dripping Springs attorney Rick Green lost a close Republican primary runoff to Fort Worth district judge Debra Lehrmann for a state Supreme Court seat. Green took 160,572 votes to Lehrmann’s 172,813.
• Kyle City Council unanimously selected James Earp, the city’s assistant city manager, as interim city manager. The council approved 5-2 to supplement Earp with a $3,000 monthly stipend on top of his current pay while the city searches for a new city manager. Councilmembers Jaime Sanchez and Russ Huebner dissented.
April 21, 2010
• The last two remaining directors from an old era at Pedernales Electric Cooperative announced that they will not seek reelection at the annual meeting on June 19. O.C. Harmon has served since 1975 on the board while R.B. Felps has served since 1994.
April 28, 2010
• Kyle police arrested the parents of a local child on April 13 for allegedly injuring their two-month-old baby in June 2009. Donald Corbley, 28 and Brenda Rodriguez, 34 were arrested at their home in the 100 block of Spring Branch Cove on active felony warrants.
May 5, 2010
• Texas Department of Transportation employees restriped frontage roads from FM 2001 to FM 1626 and put up one-way signs. This move initially inconvenienced some commuters but emergency workers were in favor of the change due to the large number of accidents caused by the two-way access roads.
• A ceremony for Alyssa Marie Bargsley was held on Tuesday evening, May 4. Bargsley, 17, was a Hays High School junior from Kyle and died in Kingsland, Texas after falling out of a golf cart and striking her head on the pavement, said officials with the Llano County Department of Public Safety. Alcohol was believed to be a factor in the accident.
May 12, 2010
• The botched Miss Kyle Pageant crept up on the Kyle City Council agenda. The majority of the council expressed their disdain for the city being left to pick up the pieces after pageant volunteers miscalculated the results. Juleigh Chapa was first declared the winner during the 2009 pageant. About a week later in the ballot tabulation, Jennifer Hamzy was named the winner and Kim Pastrano as the first runner-up.
• Former trustee Joe Munoz fell short in his bid to return to the Hays CISD school board, drawing 164 votes to Marty Kanetzky’s 358 votes in the May 8 election. Diane Hervol won 337 votes in comparison to Jason Welch’s 186 votes for the Kyle City Council. Brad Pickett, a financial manager running unopposed for the District 3 seat, won 396 votes. He filled the seat left behind by David Salazar, who did not seek re-election.
May 19, 2010
• Lightning strikes from severe thunderstorms that rolled through Hays County charred two homes and struck two others. A Kyle home located at 115 Claudell Drive in the Waterleaf subdivision was struck by lightning causing a fire to ensue in the attic, eventually leading up to the point where 30-foot flames had to be extinguished.
• A divided Hays County commissioners court approved a resolution asking the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization to leave Texas 45 Southwest in its 25-year master plan. The court voted 3-2 in favor on including SH 45 in future construction programs with Pct. 1 Debbie Gonzales Ingalsbe joining commissioners Jeff Barton and Will Conley, who co-sponsored the resolution.
May 26, 2010
• A wreck in front of Buda Elementary school claimed the life of one Buda man and left another man injured. Investigators with the Texas Department of Public Safety said that Joshua “Keith” Hertenstien, 32, died in the head-on collision at 590 RM 967 during the early morning hours of Monday, May 24.
• The Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization’s board voted 17-2 to approve a final version of its 2035 master plan. The master plan serves as a roadmap for transportation spending that is rewritten every five years. Dozens of Hays County projects totaling at least $633 million were added to the plan paving the way for new and expanded roads and other facilities for the next quarter century.
June 2, 2010
• MGT of America, a consulting firm that specializes in criminal justice planning, found that Hays County won’t need nearly as many jail beds in the next decade as originally thought. In what some dubbed a landmark study, the firm did recommend some reforms. However, the firm’s forecasters projected an average daily jail population of 323 in 2020. In practical terms, that means the county can renovate and expand its existing 362-bed Uhland Road jail and avoid building a costly new facility.
• Hays High School tightened its grip on what officials deem to be inappropriate behavior, setting new rules and restricting photo opportunities for its graduating seniors. Every senior at Hays High had to sign a “Student Commencement Participation Commitment” to prevent misconduct and distractions in the ceremony. School officials enforced the commitment by inspecting students for contraband. Lehman and Academy high schools required no such contract.
June 9, 2010
• A 2009 Hays High School graduate was killed in a one-vehicle crash along RM 967 near Driftwood. Adrian Nicholas Acosta, 18, of Manchaca, was driving eastbound when his 2002 Nissan sedan left the roadway and struck a telephone pole on June 2. He was pronounced dead at the scene around 7 a.m., a Department of Public Safety official said.
• Kyle residents living in the Amberwood and Indian Paintbrush subdivisions, were part of a three-cart recycling pilot program run by Texas Disposal Systems. Through engaging in the program, residents were able to divert more than 20 percent of their trash from the local landfill and into recycling and compost piles. TDS hoped to roll out the system citywide, increasing monthly garbage bills by about $4. The Kyle City Council would eventually vote on the proposal following a public hearing during the month of December.
June 16, 2010
• In an unexpected move, a divided board of the Pedernales Electric Cooperative voted in a 5-2 split to fire General Manager Juan Garza on Monday, June 14. Garza was hired in early 2008, replacing former General Manager Bennie Fuelberg. Fuelberg faced felony charges on money laundering, theft in excess of $200,000 and misapplication of fiduciary duty in excess of $200,000.
• The city of Kyle appealed its permit request to pump additional water out of the Edwards Aquifer. The city had originally requested a Class B Conditional Production Permit to more than double its pumpage from 165 million gallons to 350 million gallons annually for public water use. Kyle city councilmembers voted 7-0 to appeal the decision following an executive session at its council meeting on June 1.
• Justices with the Texas Supreme Court shot down a case filed by opponents of Buda’s U.S. Foodservice development, potentially giving the company a green light to move forward with construction of a food distribution facility just east of Interstate 35. Members of the group BudaFirst sued the city of Buda in 2009, arguing that councilmembers violated the citizens’ rights when they refused to honor a petition calling for a referendum election regarding a land use change for the controversial U.S. Foodservice facility in the Sunfield development east of Buda.
June 23, 2010
• A Buda teenager drowned in the Blanco River on the afternoon of June 20 as hundreds of park-goers crowded into Five Mile Dam to celebrate Father’s Day. Witnesses say Jose De Jesus Renteria Contreras, 18, nicknamed Chuey, was swimming across the river several hundred yards north of the dam, where the Blanco River runs wide and deep, when he began to struggle and call for help, then slipped under the water.
• Two newly elected members of the Pedernales Electric Cooperative Board were seated at the organization’s annual membership meeting on June 19, replacing the last two the so-called old guard. Members elected Chris Perry of Dripping Springs and Ross Fischer of Kendalia to board positions formerly held by O.C. Harmon and R.B. Felps, who did not seek re-election.
June 30, 2010
• Residents of the small, close-knit community of Mountain City are coming to terms with the news that their reclusive neighbor passed away weeks before anyone realized he was gone. Michael Dowd, 56, lived alone at his home on Maple Drive and left behind a deteriorating house stacked with years worth of newspapers and hundreds of empty Blue Bell Ice Cream cartons.
• Vandals trespassed into the historic Kyle Cemetery on Old Stagecoach Road late Friday (June 25) evening or early Saturday (June 26) morning, knocking over more than 30 tombstones from Kyle’s most prominent founding families. Many of the desecrated graves date back to the mid-1800s and shattered when they hit the ground.
July 14, 2010
• An 80-year-old man and his son lodged formal complaints on July 12, claiming they were roughed up without justification by Hays County Sheriff’s Office deputies responding to a dispute between neighbors in Woodcreek. Robert Threadgill and Stephen Threadgill, 56, said they were thrown to the ground and dragged by deputies while being detained on June 22 following an argument between the elder Threadgill and an employee of The Lodge at Cypress Creek.
• Kyle councilmembers approved a Comprehensive Plan that could help shape the city’s future growth. Councilmembers voted 5-0 to adopt the 300-page plan that forecasts Kyle’s ongoing growth, which is projected to catapult to more than 90,000 residents by the year 2040. Russ Huebner and Becky Selbera were absent from the meeting.
July 21, 2010
• Two months after the death of 17-year-old Alyssa Marie Bargsley in a golf cart accident, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) announced that it will not pursue criminal charges against any adults for supplying the Hays High School junior and her friends with alcohol. The agency’s source investigation determined that Bargsley and two friends, aged 15 and 17, consumed alcohol prior to the accident. However, the investigation found that the teenagers took the drinks from inside the house without the knowledge of adults.
• A Kyle husband and wife charged with assaulting their Hispanic neighbors were acquitted last week by a jury at the 22nd District Court in San Marcos. The decision has sparked contention with the local branch of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), which called the assault a hate crime.
July 28, 2010
• Buda mourned the passing of Marjorie Martinez, the soft-spoken but quietly determined director of the Buda Public Library, who passed away on Saturday, July 24, at the age of 61, following a long illness. Her admirers said she left behind a lasting legacy of literacy and lifelong learning.
August 4, 2010
• About 20 east side residents that were prepared for a fight filled the Buda council chambers to express their objection to a zoning change that could bring manufactured homes to their neighborhood, but were quickly mollified by councilmembers who shared their sentiment. Buda councilmembers rebuffed a city-led initiative to zone 23 acres of land for manufactured home use and asked city staffers to come back with more options.
• The Kyle City Council recently directed city staff to contact the Texas Department of Transportation for a possible stoplight at FM 1626 and Marketplace Ave. after hearing concerns about its design. The intersection is being blamed for at least 20 vehicle collisions in the past year and could see a traffic light soon.
August 11, 2010
• After nearly six hours of often volatile discussion, a majority of the Hays County Commissioners Court indicated they would accept an offer from city of Kyle officials to return $1.2 million in parks funds it does not plan to use. In May 2008, the city was awarded $2,479,000 from $30 million in parks and open space money to develop a 43-acre regional park east of Interstate 35, later named Kyle Vista Park.
• As temperatures soared to around 97 degrees, nearly 8,000 Pedernales Electric customers lost power Aug. 7 for as many as three and a quarter hours. The outage occurred when a control device in the Buda substation malfunctioned, shutting down power to about 3,650 co-op members on two main lines. Workers quickly were able to restore power to about 350 homes through an alternate line. But when they attempted to switch the remaining 3,300 members to power from the Kyle substation, the system overloaded, and the lights went dark for an additional 4,400 members.
August 18, 2010
• The maturing Kyle Public Works Department officially moved up from its deteriorating headquarters to a new $2.6 million site in the city’s eastside.
• Two years after the fatal wreck that claimed the life of 25-year-old Rebecca Ann Stuckey, the drunk driver who killed her has been sentenced to 15 years in prison. A Hays County jury deliberated less than 30 minutes before convicting Austin resident Miranda Martinez, 24, of intoxication manslaughter.
August 25, 2010
• The Hays County Commissioners Court authorized the county’s road department to perform one-time maintenance and upkeep at the historical site of Antioch Cemetery. The upkeep includes the removal of about 10 dead trees lost during the drought of recent years.
Sept. 1, 2010
• After nearly 25 years in operation, one of Buda’s largest manufacturing employers announced it would shut its doors and outsource 120 jobs to Monterrey, Mexico. Danfoss Chatleff LLC, which builds cooling and heating components, will close its 62,000-square-foot Goforth Road plant by the end of 2010. Danfoss bought the company from local owners in 2007.
• Work began on a long awaited Interstate 35 overpass that could help divert heavy commercial traffic off of Buda access roads. Over the next few weeks, the Texas Department of Transportation will temporarily close a segment of the northbound Interstate 35 access road in Buda due to construction of a bridge at the southern terminus of Buda’s truck bypass.
• In a 6-0 vote, the Buda City Council approved the proposed ad valorem tax rate of 25.67 cents per $100 of property valuation, the highest rate they could issue without triggering a potential rollback election.
Sept. 8, 2010
• In a financial twist, Kyle residents will now pay almost four cents less in property taxes next year compared to the three-cent hike first proposed in July. The Kyle City Council approved a revamped Fiscal Year 2010-11 budget which lowers the tax rate to 41.54 cents per $100 property evaluation. The first proposed budget had a tax rate of 45.39 cents and the current tax rate is 42.4 cents.
• A Buda man died after being struck by a vehicle during the early morning hours of Saturday, Sept 4. He was walking along the inside lane of the southbound access road of Interstate 35 near Cabela’s. Donald Scott Roberts, 28, was hit by a 2009 Honda Civic driven by Nathaniel Villegas of Buda at about 5:15 a.m.
Sept. 15, 2010
• The Buda Fire Department brought its ambulance services in-house during the month of October, marking the latest move to professionalize emergency care in the rapidly-growing district. On Oct. 2, the fire department will take over ambulance services from the San Marcos/Hays County EMS, which currently has a contract to respond to medical emergencies in the Buda area.
• Kyle resident Lamar LaCaze credited his cell phone and speed dial with saving his life from the estimated 1,500 bees that attacked him on Aug. 31. LaCaze, 65, was returning home from his San Marcos barbershop when he decided to mow some pastureland adjacent to his property located on O’Bryant Road on the outskirts of eastern Kyle.
Sept. 22, 2010
• Kyle officials are asking a state agency to review Monarch Utilities’ authorization to provide public water service after residents of eastside neighborhoods complained of a peculiar billing problem. Monarch customers in the Amberwood and Indian Paintbrush subdivisions opened their bills at the beginning of the month to find they were listed as residents of Uhland instead of Kyle.
• The official grand opening of the Five Mile Dam Park Soccer Complex took place Saturday, Sept. 18. The joint operation included $2.26 million from San Marcos and $2.33 million through Hays County. The complex includes 10 soccer fields on 32 acres.
Sept. 29, 2010
• Recalling past fights over land use in the city’s most established areas, Old Town Kyle residents prevailed on the city council last week to not change the zoning designation for the new library site on Scott Street. Plans for the $3.5 million facility include some elements such as a children’s tower that do not meet the 25-foot setback requirement under the property’s current Central Business District 1 zoning.
Oct. 6, 2010
• The Hays County Commissioners Court adopted a 2011 budget of approximately $243 million, a number inflated by several big-ticket construction projects and debt service on road and park construction. The court also set the tax rate at 46.92 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, the same as the 2009/2010 fiscal year, which is about a half-cent lower than the proposed rate of 47.39 cents.
Oct. 13, 2010
• District Judge Charles Ramsay has ordered a Hays County religious leader accused of sexually abusing two teenage girls in the 1990s to remain in the country until a doctor working for the district attorney can make a recommendation on whether he is healthy enough to stand trial. Prakashanand Saraswati, the 81-year-old international leader of the JKP-Barsana Dham sect of Hinduism was arrested in April 2008 for allegedly touching the breasts of then-minors between 1993 and 1996.
Oct. 20, 2010
• A Hays County jury has acquitted a former Lehman High School student accused along with four classmates of sexually assaulting two teenage girls while they were unconscious at a party nearly three years ago. Chad Miles, 20, was found not guilty of sexual assault on Oct. 8 after a week-long trial during which his former co-defendants, Jesse Premeau and Ricardo Carrillo, testified for the state.
• Nine of Buda’s finest donned new blue uniforms and took their oaths of office on Tuesday, Oct. 19, in the inaugural ceremony of the Buda Police Deparment. Buda patrol cars were scheduled to hit the streets at 6 a.m Wednesday, Oct. 20, morning taking over the beat from the Hays County Sheriff’s office.
Oct. 27, 2010
• No one came forward to say they wrote potentially slanderous e-mails at Pct. 2 Commissioner Jeff Barton’s “high noon” showdown on Monday, Oct. 25 and the opposition podium stood empty. Cheered on by about 50 supporters, Barton denounced thousands of e-mails distributed under pseudonyms that allege, among other things, that he has funneled millions of dollars in no-bid contracts to his friends.
Nov. 3, 2010
• Famously purple Hays County turned solid red with Republicans winning all 28 contested races on the local ballot. The defeated included State Rep. Patrick Rose, who became an instant star when the then-24-year-old Princeton graduate defeated incumbent Rick Green. He was bested by Dripping Springs businessman Jason Isaac.
• Voters in the Hays Consolidated School District approved a proposition to join the Austin Community College taxing district on Tuesday, Nov. 2. Their neighbors to the south in San Marcos ISD soundly rejected a similar measure.
• In one of the most heated and messy races of the season, Republican nominee Gary Cutler was elected Hays County Sheriff, replacing former Texas Ranger Tommy Ratliff. Cutler, who will be the third sheriff in two years, said his first priority will be establishing continuity for a law enforcement agency that has been in upheaval since Allen Bridges died in December 2008, weeks before he was to be sworn to his full term.
Nov. 10, 2010
• Officials said they were taking steps to prevent a repeat of a sewage spill that dumped as much as one million gallons of untreated and undertreated wastewater into a tributary of Plum Creek. A pump at the city’s wastewater treatment plant near FM 150 in eastern Kyle did not activate, causing sewage to accumulate at an intake point to the plant and flow out of a nearby manhole.
Nov. 17, 2010
• The only head football coach Hays High School has ever known, Bob Shelton, walked off the field following a loss to Clemens High and announced his retirement. He had been coach for 43 years, since Hays CISD’s and Hays High School’s creation and before that at Buda High School.
• The Kyle City Council voted unanimously to hire Leon Valley City Manager Lanny Lambert for the municipal government’s top administrative position here, closing a search that started with Tom Mattis’ departure in April.
• The owners of a Dripping Springs wild animal sanctuary faced a civil suit after a chimpanzee allegedly attacked a caretaker in 2007, biting off one of her fingers. Kathy Harris is seeking $450,000 in damages from Sunrise Exotic Ranch owners Frank and Karen Glass to cover medical bills, physical pain and mental anguish.
Nov. 24, 2010
• With the last of the “old guard” members finally off the board of the Pedernales Electric Cooperative, the new directors unanimously approved a sweeping set of bylaw revisions last week in the nation’s largest electric cooperative. The new rules establish term limits for directors, eliminate paid advisory director positions, give members more authority to remove board members from office and include an anti-takeover clause.
• The Hays County Commissioners Court unanimously voted on Nov. 23 to move forward with the purchase of a 1,000-acre tract of the Nicholson Ranch to be used for habitat conservation. The property, located in Precincts 3 and 4 in western Hays County is appraised at $5.5 million but will be offered to the county for $5 million, with the funds coming from voter-approved 2007 park bonds.
Dec. 1, 2010
• New felony escape charges will be handed down to two prisoners who broke free from Hays County Jail early Nov. 24. The fugitives were recaptured within hours after an ensuing manhunt, Sheriff Gary Cutler said. James Roland Moore, 38, and Francisco Chavez Medina, 31, escaped from the jails kitchen area through a roll-up door with access to the outside.
• The Hays County Commissioners Court voted 3-2 to appropriate $1.7 million in voter-approved parks bond to the Harrison Ranch Park in Dripping Springs as the pool of available funds grows steadily smaller.
Dec. 8, 2010
• A 16-year-old boy was killed when a Union Pacific train struck him as he walked along the railroad tracks about a quarter mile south of downtown Kyle around 9 a.m. on Dec. 1. The train engineer reported sounding the northbound train’s horn repeatedly and that Ramon Eric Zapata initially stepped off the tracks, but then stepped back on and was hit.
• The Hays County Commissioners allocated $450,000 for two Buda parks in the last rush of appropriations from the $30 million parks and open space bond package approved by voters in 2007. The city will receive $310,000 for improvements to the Bradfield Park trail and $140,000 for construction of a skate park.
Dec. 15, 2010
• A Gillespie County jury convicted former Pedernales Electric Cooperative General Manager Bennie Fuelberg of charges of theft, money laundering and misapplication of fiduciary property on Dec. 10, sentencing the once-powerful leader of the nation’s largest utility cooperative to probation and a $30,000 fine. The jury deliberated for five hours before returning the guilty verdict on third degree felony charges, rather than the first degree charges sought by the state.
Dec. 22, 2010
• Kyle dentist Ray Wolbrecht sued Austin Community College District, seeking to invalidate the results of the November annexation election. Wolbrecht said the college district failed to tell Hays CISD voters how much a successful annexation election could mean to their tax bills.
