News

UPDATE: Wednesday, Oct. 28 at 12:43 p.m.

A Hays County jury today sentenced Louis Anthony Ramos, age 28, to 35 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Institutional Division (and no fine) for one count of Murder; 15 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Institutional Division (and no fine) for one count of Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon; and 10 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Institutional Division (and no fine) for another count of Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon. The sentences will run concurrently.

On Monday, this same jury found Ramos guilty of Murder for shooting to death Johnny Saxon, age 48, and guilty of two counts of Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon for pointing a gun at and threatening the lives of Saxon’s daughter, age 13, and his mother, age 75, on June 4, 2014.

Five to six inches of rain are expected on Saturday in the Wimberley Valley area, according to the National Weather Service.

While rain will continue off and on through Friday, the heavy rain is expected to hit the area between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. on Saturday.

“We are expecting that to be continuous all day tomorrow,” Meteorologist Nick Hampshire with the National Weather Service Austin/San Antonio said. “It will be 12 plus hours of moderate to heavy rainfall totals.”

Hays County, along with most of the Hill Country, is under a Flash Flood Watch until 7 a.m. on Sunday.

There is also potential for higher isolated rainfall totals.

The rain is coming from the combination of an upper level low pressure from the west that is bringing a cold front that is expected to run into the remnants of Hurricane Patricia.

Wimberley’s WAG and Rescue held their 8th Annual Costumed Parade on Saturday October 17th. The parade started at Ozona Bank and proceeded to the Square, then across the street to Wall St. Western Wear and finally ending up behind Cypress Creek Café.

“I love the dogs,” said Jackie Mason, President of the Wimberley Merchants Association. “They are so cool. It’s great to see how creative the owners can get with the costumes. And the dogs in their costumes have a little swag. We have people that are very imaginative.”

This year the Parade was dedicated to WHS graduate Tom Utts, who tragically lost his life this summer, days away from attending college. Tom was a big supporter of WAG as is his family of father Steve, mother Cathy and sister Lilly. 

Those rebuilding after the flood have gotten a temporary reprieve from Wimberley City Council after they did not approve the advisory base flood elevations (ABFE) proposed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“After observing the impact of the flood, FEMA said the (current flood maps) may not be adequate to reflect the potential flood risks,” Wimberley City Administrator Don Ferguson said. “There were faults in that map… FEMA is developing advisory-based flood elevations for both Blanco and Cypress.”

The current maps are based on data from 1998. The maps were updated in 2005 with minor modifications. 

“A lot has happened since the maps were developed in the way of development upstream,” Ferguson said. “The maps change because a lot has happened along those streams.”

Eric Eskelund

Eric Eskelund is running for mayor of Woodcreek against Mike Steinert. 

Eskelund moved to Woodcreek in 2002 after owning property in the area since 1999. He was on the Woodcreek City Council from 2007 to 2009 before he became mayor, which he held until 2013 when he did not run for re-election.

Eskelund said he is running for mayor once again because he doesn’t like the direction the city is headed.

“I don’t like what I see going on here with the city,” Eskelund said. “It’s a toxic environment up there at city hall right now. There is dysfunction in the city.”

He said his first goal is to help the city council “work together as a team.” Then he would turn to the streets.

The city of Woodcreek has hired an interim city manager to fill the position of former City Manager John Sone, who resigned in September.

Paul Brandenburg, who was the City Manager of Georgetown for the past 12 years, will take on the task. He was unanimously selected by the committee formed to find an interim city manager and unanimously approved by the Woodcreek City Council.

Brandenburg spoke about his time in Georgetown overseeing the massive growth of the last decade.

“One thing I tried to do during my 12 years there was preserve the character of the community,” Brandenburg said. “We knew we were going to grow, but how are we going to grow? What do you want to look like? What do you want to be when you do grow up and we went through those exercises with the community.”

Long term means just that. The newly hired executive director of the Blanco River Recovery Regional Team (BR3T) told Hays County Commissioners on Tuesday that his non-profit intends to be in the community for three years to continue to fill the unmet needs of victims of the Memorial Day Weekend flood. James Gabriel, who is the only paid employee of the group formed to help with flood recovery in Hays, Caldwell, Blanco and Guadalupe counties, said its formation is an “unprecedented event.” 

“ This has never been done in Texas before. This is a new effort,” he said. “The state of Texas and county emergency managers decided this approach to flood recovery would be the best way to go in this situation.” 

One of the most flavorful products that is produced and made in Wimberley is Sandra’s Salsa. Not a manufactured product by a named big company, but by local lady, Sandra Schaub.

How did it all come about? “I love salsa,” says Sandra. She tried many different brands for years and decided that they weren’t up to her tastes. So she decided to make her own. “I’ll make my own how I like it.” After much trial and error, she finally hit on the right combination.

Her family loved it, her friends loved it, and then she took it to work at the mortgage company she worked for. Surprise, surprise, they loved it too.

There is no position in sports quite like quarterback in football.

Yet, there is a leadership imperative that comes with the job.

A point guard in basketball usually has to make decisions on the fly, so no one gets to see the question marks in his eyes or hear the doubt in his voice, as can happen in a football huddle.

A pitcher in baseball can dominate the game, yet he plays only every fifth day.

Goaltenders in hockey are often such quirky, superstitious, pressure-haunted individuals that the only place they might lead a teammate would be to an exorcism.

The Texans entered summer two-a-days back in August with a trio of very capable signal callers.

But it only took a few weeks of poor luck to whittle the pecking order down to one.

Expect traffic delays starting tonight (Sunday, Oct. 18) as construction is set to begin on the Ranch Road 12 bridge over the Blanco River.

There are no expected delays during daytime hours, but the bridge will be shut down to one lane from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. on Sunday through Thursday nights.  They do not plan to for any closures on Friday and Saturday nights.

Construction is expected to last three weeks.

It is possible that the bridge could be closed in both directions at certain points of the construction, but according to Wimberley City Administrator Don Ferguson, the contractor currently thinks they can avoid that scenario. If a full closure is scheduled, TxDOT has guaranteed advanced notice will be give.