News

At Gov. Greg Abbott’s first meeting on school violence and safety, several local experts had seats at the table. Dr. J. Pete Blair, executive director of the ALERRT (Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training) center at Texas State University, Lt. Jeri Skrocki from the Hays County Sheriff’s Office and Kathy Martinez-Prather, director of the Texas School Safety Center at Texas State, all participated in the first roundtable meeting on Tuesday.

“It was a very productive meeting,” Martinez-Prather said.

Tuesday’s meeting was meant to bring together a variety of stakeholders and start looking at an array of solutions – both short-term and long-term – to the problem of school violence, she said. Superintendents, school resource officers, behavioral threat assessment experts and others participated in the talks.

Graduating seniors at Wimberley High School aim high when it comes to selecting the perfect college and earning scholarships to make their dreams achievable. Parents, loved ones and community donors packed the J. Gary Wyatt-Lydia Miller-Wyatt Lone Star Theatre May 18 to revel in the great news of their students receiving full-ride, merit and local scholarships. During the ceremony, aptly named, Shoot for the Stars, the big scholarship reveal totaled $8.1 million.

“This is an awesome time of year for our seniors. Shoot for the Stars is an evening for them to be celebrated and rewarded for their hard work during their 4 years of high school. I am bursting with pride at their success and am confident that they will stand out among their peers when they set foot on college campuses all over the United States,” said Pamela Phillips, Wimberley High School Junior-Senior Counselor.

Some people can’t help but give. Kay Mayfield was one of those people.

The Wimberley Fire Department opened the Kay Mayfield Substation near Fischer Store Road last week in honor of the former firefighter who succumbed to cancer in 2014.

“She was a neighbor’s neighbor,” Ron Spangenberg, President of the Hays County Emergency Services District No. 4, the governmental entity that raises funds for the fire services in the Wimberley Valley, said. “She loved her community, and volunteered for many things including at the fire department.”

Mayfield started at the Wimberley Fire Department in 2006 and volunteered there for eight years until she passed away at the age of 63. She left her five acres of property and home to the fire department. 

The election results are in for the Wimberley City Council race and the Wimberley ISD Bond issue. 

Susan Jaggers, Craig Fore, Gary Bachfeld and Patricia Cantu Kelly swept the ballot in Wimberley. The Wimberley ISD Bond also passed.

While the voters were overwhelmingly in favor of the Wimberley ISD Bond, voting 67 percent for the item, the council election was much closer. 

For Mayor, Susan Jaggers pulled in 51.42 percent. She beat former Mayor Steve Thurber by 30 votes by receiving 544 votes to his 514.

Incumbent City Councilmember Craig Fore won Place Two with 53 percent of the vote total beating Rebecca Minnick. 

Incumbent City Councilmember Gary Barchfeld won Place 4 with 51.86 percent of the vote edging out Christine Bryne by 39 votes.

A rabid bat was found in Wimberley on Tuesday.

The Hays County Sheriff's Department responded to a call for a dead bat at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church on April 16 at around 1:30 p.m. The bat was found in an outdoor breezeway near a set of lockers.

The Department of State Health Services examined the bat and found that it tested positive for the rabies virus.

If you or someone else may have come in physical contact with this animal, please call: Hays County Sheriff’s Office, Animal Control Unit at (512) 393-7896 or The Department of State Health Services Zoonosis Control at (254) 778- 6744.

Here are a few tips for how to deal with bats, either alive or dead, from the Austin Health and Human Services Department:

The Capital Area Metro Planning Organization is in the process of planning the future roads of Central Texas as they work on the long-range comprehensive regional transportation plan which will be adopted in 2020 and run through 2045.

“We are trying to do a more bottom up approach to planning, so we are doing special studies that feed into that long-range plan so we can identify needs,” Kelly Porter, Regional Planning Manager for CAMPO, said. “We can look at specific topics like active transportation with pedestrian and bicycle, which we adopted last year. We are now talking with local governments to see what their plans are.”

All of these plans will be put together to form the long-term regional plan, which represents Bastrop, Burnet, Caldwell, Hays, Travis and Williamson counties.

In new ways to market the supermarket, Brookshire Brothers announced a new service where you can order your groceries online and pick it the order at the side of the store, or have it delivered right to your home.

‘We will deliver within 15 miles of the store,” Sally Alvis, BB’s Marketing and Public Relations Director said. “We will have the curbside service in the near future.”

Once you join Brookshire Bothers Anywhere, on their website, your choices of food are recorded and gathered by Personal Shoppers back at the store. “The personal shoppers get the list and will fill it for you,” Store Manager Dalen Welch said. The website can keep lists and tell you what your most ordered items are. 

Steve Thurber

What are your goals if elected?  

If I am elected, the immediate goal will be to restore civility and respect at the council table. I don’t believe anything meaningful can be achieved when the council is as divided as it is.  Regardless of the council makeup, it is imperative that council members respect one other and work together for the benefit of the community.  Another goal will be to reinstate our road improvement program with the council and the transportation advisory board working together with input from the public to develop and implement a plan to repair/rebuild our city roads.  I would also make pedestrian mobility and safety a priority.  We need sidewalks not only in the central business district but along FM 2325 to make it safe for our many students who walk along that route.

Rebecca Minnick

What are your goals if elected?

Christine Byrne

What are your goals if elected?