News

An aggravated assault turned into a drug bust and charges of a homemade explosive device in late September in Fischer.

Robert Wallace Snow, 54, of Wimberley, was arrested by the Hays County Sheriff’s Office on Sept. 23 on felony charges including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, illegal restraint, manufacture and delivery of a controlled substance and possession of a prohibited weapon, among other charges.

According to the arrest affidavits, the situation began on Sept. 20 when police were called about a woman on the bridge in Fischer yelling “he is going to kill me.”

The woman would tell police that Snow punched her in the face and on the head an dragged her by the neck along the ground. 

On the beautiful fall evening of September 30, nearly 400 people gathered at the 7th Annual Taste of Hays held at the Texas Old Town Stone Hall in Kyle – a favorite hill country wedding venue. Tickets sold at $75 a pop with proceeds going to benefit United Way of Hays. The event also marked the renaming of the non-profit to United Way of Hays and Caldwell Counties. President and CEO Michelle Harper said “We reached our goal of raising $25,000 which will go to the general fund and support in-house programs and programs of our partner agencies.” This year’s Taste of Hays had an Under the Tuscan Sun theme augmented with sunflowers, acoustic renderings by flamenco guitarist Fernando Delgado and yummy, summer infused bites from 20 area restaurants.

With County Judge Bert Cobb recusing himself, the Hays County Commissioners Court on Tuesday approved a tax freeze for homeowners who are disabled or 65 years of age or older. 

Precinct 2 Commissioner Mark Jones cast the only “no” vote, expressing concerns that the move can’t be reversed by the court in the future no matter what conditions change.

“I agree with the concept of what we’re trying to do helping this population, I understand wanting the certainty but it gives me pause that it’s a permanent action no matter what circumstances come up. As our older citizens are living longer, the population of those over 65 is going to grow.”

Cobb recused himself because he is over 65 years of age. Precinct 4 Commissioner Ray Whisenant said he recently turned 66 but decided to vote anyway. 

After months of debate, the Hotel Occupancy Committee is slated to present the first round of funding recommendations to the city of Wimberley during the Oct. 6 regularly meeting.

Of the five requests for funding, three are slated to be recommended for approval by the committee including a Destination Marketing Organization proposed by the Wimberley Valley Tourism and Lodging Association. The WVTLA has requested $80,000 of HOT funding during the first year to act as an initial line of credit for a strategic marketing plan and a visitor-center type location, among other initiatives. 

The committee will also recommend the funding of a nature photography event, which requested $5,000 in HOT funds, and to partially fund a $20,000 request from the Wimberley Valley Arts and Cultural Alliance for the Wimberley Alive event.

Mike Cook, of Wimberley, watched the Baton Rouge, Louisiana floods on television and knew exactly how it felt. He used to live on the Blanco River at the Fischer Store Bridge. He lost two homes and had no insurance.

A co-worker of his had a sister that lost everything in Baton Rouge. She asked him if he would talk to her sister and be able to give her advice. Having gone through the same predicament, he was more than happy to help.

Single mom Michelle Owens lives in Baton Rouge with a disabled daughter, is a corporate trainer and is busy four days a week. Mike did talk with her and the all too familiar feelings about the situation were brought back.

The main reason Wimberley Valley Radio came into being was that there was no way to notify the area residents to an emergency during last year’s floods. Happily that has changed and now the all-volunteer station is hooked into not only the area-wide Austin based system, but also the national system.

“We’re now getting tied into local Emergency Alert System (EAS) from Austin which pick up feeds to all stations; in the area,” Program Director John Brown said.

Homeland Security hired a new contractor for national alerts and the station passed the first test across the nation. Other established stations did fail the test.

Texas may still be a decidedly “red” state, but some of the results of the 2016 Lyceum poll, which was released Wednesday, show a wide range of attitudes regarding issues that have emerged as hot button topics like immigration, Voter ID, transgender students and the Affordable Care Act. 

Overall, those polled said the economy is the number one issue for the country, followed by national security/terrorism and immigration. On the issue of immigration, a majority of those polled (59 percent) oppose building a wall along the Mexican border and 45 percent believe immigration helps the U.S. more than it hurts. 

The moratorium for Conditional Use Permits for Vacation Rentals and Bed and Breakfast passed the first reading of the Wimberley City Council. If passed during a special city council meeting on Monday, the moratorium will become official. 

The 90-day moratorium seemingly has support from both vacation rental facilities and those against the permits.

“Get more in depth in the situation,” Robbie Walker, owner of Hills of Texas Lodging, said. “Have some HOA presidents, lodging owners, vacation rental companies and everybody who has a stake in tourism to have some real sit-down meetings to see if there is common ground that can be met.”

The issue stems around where vacation rentals should be allowed. The controversy has put neighbors at odds. 

There are still properties in Wimberley that have been deemed substantially damaged by the Memorial Weekend Flood but have not yet started rebuilding. The city of Wimberley is trying to figure out how to deal with those issues.

“One of the things the council and the city in general has been sensitive to is that many people’s lives were turned upside down in the flood and property was significantly damaged,” Wimberley City Administrator Don Ferguson said. “We wanted to give them enough time to get their minds cleared and get plans in place to get back on their feet. It’s been over a year and a half and I think we are at that point where there is some interest in moving forward and trying to address those properties that have yet to be repaired.”

Homes that are in disrepair could be in violation of the city’s codes.

Wimberley Independent School District (WISD) is back in session and enrollment is up. Although there is fluctuation since numbers from the district are from August 19 before the first day of school, they are a good bellwether of student population. 

The approximate enrollment is at 2,290 including: Early Childhood, Pre-K, and kindergarten through grade 12. This is an increase over 2016’s enrollment of 2195 or at 4.2%.

This is a steady increase each year with the past three years especially. For the ten-year period, from 2007 with enrollment at 1941 to 2017 with enrollment at 2195, the district’s student enrollment has an increase of 11.6%, and from 2003 the percentage of growth is 17.75%

The student enrollment at each school, as of August 19 is: 

• Scudder - 183, 

• Jacob’s Well - 676 

• Danforth - 584 

• WHS - 699