News

In a little over four months, Woodcreek Interim City Manager Paul Brandenburg has helped get a lot done. From bringing finality to a controversial fencing ordinance to helping the city move forward with the Transportation Improvement Plan, it’s been a busy few months, but that time is now coming to a close.
Brandenburg informed the Woodcreek City Council that he will be taking a job in the private sector, and his last day in Woodcreek will be Friday, March 4.
“Paul’s months here helped us tremendously in a critical time,” Woodcreek Mayor Eric Eskelund said. “He is very experienced and he jumped right in with both feet running and took hold of the ship. All of us here on the city council are very pleased with the work that he has done for us.”

For the last nine months, the waters of the Blanco separated two communities, Wimberley and Fischer, by miles with the bridge between them washed away in the Memorial Weekend flood. Now, Fischer Store Road is whole again as a new bridge has been built in just nine months.
“I was looking across the bank and no matter which way people were trying to cross the river, it was so close for the last nine months but so far away,” Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said while pointing to the river at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new bridge. “…It’s very symbolic because bringing back Wimberley, restoring it 100 percent, may seem far away, but it’s really that close. And today is the first step of crossing that bridge.”

Julia Smith stood in front of her soon-to-be new home overwhelmed with emotion.
There were more than 50 Wimberley Valley Habitat for Humanity volunteers as part of the “Big Build” lifting walls as the structure of the home was beginning to take shape. She was standing with her teenage son Jacob. As the emotions over took her, Julia tried to fight back the tears until they were too strong to hold back.
“To go from never having anything to having a home, especially a home for him to grow up in and finish out middle school and high school, it’s pretty emotional,” Smith said.
This will be the 18th home built by WImberley’s Habitat for Humanity. It is a process that can change the lives of individuals and families. Among the volunteers on site, four Habitat homeowners were there to help pay forward the blessings they had already received.

Kids galore were having fun and learning about bicycle safety last Saturday at the parking lot across from Wimberley Cemetery. The Pct. 3 Constable’s office in conjunction with Scudder Primary, and Bike Austin had their second annual Bike rodeo 1 to 3 p.m.
Parents, siblings and over 70 plus kids with their bicycles, tricycles and big wheelies were on hand for free hands-on bike training with activities that were geared to teach and to promote safety while riding.
Students, pre-K to the first grade were instructed on basic bicycle safety fundamentals as well as riding techniques. Experts were also on hand to inspect the bikes and safety helmets.
Pct. #3’s Constable Darrell Ayres and Deputy Travis Brown were on hand to share their safety tips, many of them learned while patrolling on bicycles around Wimberley.

Food trailers have become a craze across the nation, but there aren’t many in Wimberley. That may change as the Wimberley City Council is considering allowing food trucks in certain locations around the Wimberley Square.
“In recent months, we have received several phone calls from people downtown and operators of food trucks wanting to know why we don’t allow them downtown,” Don Ferguson, Wimberley City Administrator said. “We adopted an ordinance after an unfortunate instance with a temporary structure in front of a downtown business.”
Some of that interest is coming from Buck Baccus, who bought the Lumberyard in 2015. He told the City Council that they are looking into long-term plans for the property, but they are trying to “create some energy” down Old Kyle Road.

Joeris General Contractors has filed a lawsuit against the Wimberley Independent School District, because the school district has not paid for the project in full. Wimberley ISD has filed a countersuit in order to keep the money they have withheld while also suing for more damages.
W.I.S.D. has withheld about $2.1 million in retainage and liquidated damages. Retainage is the amount of money generally withheld until the project is complete while liquidated damages are essentially a penalty for late work.
“Joeris General Contractors Ltd’s work was not timely, and it was not acceptable, and it put the students at risk for their safety,” W.I.S.D.’s countersuit said.
Joeris said they felt like the project was done well.

Any small Texas town will boast about its brilliant night sky, but the city of Wimberley is trying to take that a step further.
The Wimberley City Council gave approval to the Planning and Zoning Commission to look into the possibility of becoming a “Dark Sky Community.”
The International Dark Sky Association “is the leading organization combating light pollution worldwide,” according to their website www.darksky.org.
To protect night skies from light pollution, the association designates cities that conform to particular lighting standards as a “Dark Sky Community.”
Last year, Dripping Springs was the first city in Texas, and only the sixth city in the world, to be designated a Dark Sky Community.

While the Primary Elections are on going at the Wimberley Community Center (the last day of early voting of Feb. 26), there are three positions up for vote on the Wimberley City Council. All three will be contested for the May 7 General Election.
Mayor Steve Thurber has filed for what will be his first re-election campaign as Mayor. Thurber will have familiar competition as one of the two people who ran against him in 2014, Mac McCullough, will once again be running for Mayor. McCullough is currently the Place 4 City Councilmember. If he were to win the election for Mayor, he would have to vacate his current council seat.
First time City Councilmembers Cindy Anderson and Pam Showalter drew a challenger for their re-election bid. Craig Fore filed for Anderson’s Place 2 position and Gary Barchfeld filed for Showalter’s Place 4 position.

As they always do, things change, the floods, the sale of 7A Resort, a new Fischer Store Bridge, no Cypress trees shading the Blanco, yes Wimberley is changing. One of these changes was the death of local old-time cowboy, Jack Glover the star attraction of the Cowboy Museum in last August at 91 years of age.
There was a memorial service for him on Sunday, February 21 at Pioneer Town. At the memorial a short documentary with Jack being interviewed by Guiche Koock at the museum, just months before his death. Although the documentary was still in the rough cut mode, Jack’s personality was there, his laugh, stories and twinkling eyes.

MARBLE FALLS - The game programs floating around Max Copeland Gym erroneously listed Wimberley senior captain Will Simpson as a sophomore.

After a sizzling second half performance that willed his Texans to a second round matchup with West Columbia on Friday night, the Lampasas Badgers are no doubt breathing a sigh of relief that they won't have to face him again next year.

The Texans’ gritty, gut-wrenching 55-52 overtime over Lampasas in which Simpson scored 23 of his game-high 27 points in the second half didn’t come with a bit of controversy.