On Saturday, April 22, Cyndy Slovak-Barton, former owner and publisher of the Hays Free Press and News-Dispatch, received the South Texas Press Association’s Chester Evans Award for distinguished service, in recognition of her years of dedicated service to the South Texas Press Association. Slovak-B...

More than 600 kids set to play in spring season BUDA — What began as a baseball field design drawn on a napkin has since transformed into one of Hays County’s most important youth athletic programs. Hays Youth Baseball and Softball Association (HYBSA) celebrated its 2023 spring season and 40th anniv...

By Megan Wehring It was a normal Tuesday morning at the KTSW 89.9 station. I was in my graduating semester at Texas State University, in constant worry of what my next few months were going to look like and probably wired with too many cups of coffee.  Then, something unexpected happened.  The words...

Staff Report  After 38 years in the newspaper business and serving as publisher for the Hays Free Press/News-Dispatch for more than two decades, Cyndy Slovak-Barton is retiring from the paper to take over other family ventures. The current Hays Free Press was founded by the Harwell family of Kyle in...

Staff Report The staff of the Hays Free Press once again has brought home the gold. The newspaper was named the Best Newspaper for its size in all of south and west Texas by the South Texas Press Association Aug. 7 for 2019. Hays Free Press staffers celebrate the good news in a Zoom meeting. Left to...

Staff Report As the COVID-19 clampdown continues, community newspapers are among small businesses struggling to survive. That situation is made worse by the fact many paper mills in the U.S. are expected to be cutting back. All this has forced the Hays Free Press and News-Dispatch to find new ways t...

When it comes to Thanksgiving week, a lot of people go through their lives and post on Facebook what they are thankful for. We are thankful for the people who volunteer to be on city councils and school boards.These folks do a lot of work; they put together budgets, give up their evenings to meet wi...

“Our goal is to make everyone in Kyle look good.” That’s how Izzy Vidauri, proprietor of Barber Palace in Kyle, describes his mission. “Our motto is ‘you look good, you feel good, you do good’ — that’s something I aim to establish,” the native of California said. Vidauri opened his shop at 1501 Bunt...

Ever since he was brought in by legendary Rebels Coach Bob Shelton nearly two decades ago, Joe Muñoz increasingly enjoyed his position as the “voice” of the football team. He wasn’t in it for the money. Being the stadium’s announcer, he says, was more about making sure each kid got his name pronounc...

By Anita Miller Broad based revisions concerning regulations and permitting involving pipelines are thought to be part of changes made by Kyle city leaders to an existing ordinance. However, the Hays Free Press was unable to review those changes as city officials withheld documentation relating to a...