The city of Burnet has big plans for a pedestrian bridge over U.S. 281, possibly near the middle and high schools, and leaders want to hear from residents before moving forward on the project. A public meeting for community input is Thursday, May 29, from 5:30-6:30 p.m. in Burnet City Council Chambers, 2402 U.S. 281 South.
According to a city media release, the city acquired a $5 million federal Community Project Funding Grant for the bridge project in 2024 with the help of U.S. Rep. John Carter. The bridge could take years to complete, but before its design or any work can begin, a location is needed.
“We know a general area, and we’ve been studying this issue, but there might be something we don’t know, so we definitely want to hear from our residents,” Assistant City Manager Keith McBurnett told DailyTrib.com.
The city is eyeing a site between Third and Seventh streets north of downtown and close to Burnet middle and high schools. The bridge would be fully ADA-compliant, designed to match the aesthetics of city architecture, and provide safe crossing of the highway for students and area residents.
The general area at which the city of Burnet is looking for placement of a pedestrian bridge across U.S. 281. This particular section between Third and Seventh streets was chosen because of its proximity to Burnet middle and high schools. Google image
“We’ve just had too many close calls (in that area),” McBurnett said. “We submitted several infrastructure projects (for the grant), but I think it was the safety concerns that brought (the bridge) to the top of the list.”
Burnet Police Chief Brian Lee agrees the bridge is a worthwhile project.
“We had a student hit there, two years ago, just past The Green Mile (where the high school is located),” Lee said. “As far as I’m concerned, (the bridge is) a good thing. It’s going to provide a safe path. Even outside of school times, it’s a fast area in town, and we do have pedestrians who cross there.”
That stretch of U.S. 281 has a speed limit of 50 mph and is lined by homes on both sides.
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Llano County Emergency Services District No. 5 has evolved significantly since it went live in January 2023, bringing badly needed fire protection to a 50-square-mile coverage area on the west side of Lake LBJ. The fledgling ESD is in the midst of a growth spurt, with new personnel, new equipment, and big upgrades for the Sunrise Beach Volunteer Fire Department.
The ESD contracts with the VFD for fire protection services throughout the district, which consists of Sunrise Beach Village, nearby smaller communities, and the rural ranchland between the lake and Texas 71 along the Llano River. Before that deal was struck, the small-town department was entirely dependent upon donations and volunteer firefighters, whose average age was about 68, with some being in their 80s.
Now, it is a hybrid department with 16 part-time professional firefighters supporting the volunteers.
With the staff increase, the VFD has dropped its average response time from over six minutes to less than four minutes, even while seeing a 50-percent increase in call volume over the past two years.
“This is a tremendous accomplishment for our new combination career/volunteer department,” said ESD No. 5 Fire Chief Patrick Cates in a recent media release.
The ESD recently brought in Cates as a full-time professional chief to work closely with Sunrise Beach Volunteer Fire Department Chief Dan Gower, who oversees that department’s dedicated volunteers.
The district is also funding big upgrades, including the purchase of newer first response vehicles to replace older models and a major renovation to the VFD station at 200 Sunrise Drive, which includes living quarters for firefighters to enable 24-hour service.
“The relationship between the (Sunrise Beach VFD) and (ESD No. 5) is vital, and our collaboration and recent progress has helped to improve services for all district residents,” said ESD No. 5 President Karl Wolfe in the release.
ABOUT THE ESD
The general dimensions of 50-square-mile ESD No. 5 in Llano County, which covers a swathe of rural ranchland between the Llano River and Texas 71 along with several lakeside communities, including Sunrise Beach Village. Courtesy map
In November 2022, residents in Llano County’s voting Precinct 108 overwhelmingly were in favor (70 percent) of forming the emergency services district. ESD No. 5 levies a tax of 10 cents per $100 property valuation on its residents to fund fire services. The district is managed by five commissioners appointed by the Llano County Commissioners Court to two-year terms.
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Several books that were returned to Llano County Library shelves by court order might not be there for long. It is now the county’s decision whether or not to reshelve the books, some of which feature LGBTQ-plus issues and one a history of the Ku Klux Klan in America.
On May 23, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a previous decision that sided with plaintiffs in an ongoing free speech lawsuit, filed in 2022 against county leaders, over 17 books that were removed from the library system without following standard procedure.
A 2024 appeals court ruling ordered eight out of those 17 books be returned to shelves on the grounds the removals were motivated by a desire to “prevent access” to particular viewpoints.
Llano County Library System Director Amber Milum, who is one of the defendants in the lawsuit, said the eight books were still on shelves as of Wednesday, May 28, as the county considers its next step.
“We’re excited to move forward,” she told DailyTrib.com.
Plaintiffs in the suit, Leila Green Little, et al. v. Llano County, et al., are now faced with two choices: They can either let the ruling stand unchallenged or appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court by Aug. 28, making it a national issue.
Lead plaintiff and Llano County resident Leila Green Little said she and her team are still deciding.
“I would encourage everybody to contemplate what (the court’s decision going unchallenged) would mean,” she told DailyTrib.com on Wednesday.
In an emailed statement following the appeals court reversal, Little also argued the appeals court ruling by a full panel of judges could set a precedent that would support public libraries adding or removing books to their collections based on any criteria they choose, which could “invite naked censorship.”
DailyTrib.com reached out to Llano County Judge Ron Cunningham about the court’s recent decision, but did not hear back from him by this story’s publication deadline.
The May 23 decision also removed four defendants from the lawsuit: former Llano County Library Advisory Board members Rhonda Schneider, Rochelle Wells, Gay Baskin, and Bonnie Wallace, who are no longer on the board. During their tenure, they oversaw the removal of the 17 books from the Llano County Library System, which instigated the April 2022 lawsuit by a group of residents against members of the advisory board, the Llano County judge and commissioners, and Milum.
Legal drama background
Read more about the lawsuit and its history in the following DailyTrib.com stories:
The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans made its decision based on two points, according to the ruling:
1. “First, plaintiffs cannot invoke a right to receive information to challenge a library’s removal of books. Yes, Supreme Court precedent sometimes protects one’s right to receive someone else’s speech. But plaintiffs would transform that precedent into a brave new right to receive information from the government in the form of taxpayer-funded library books. The First Amendment acknowledges no such right.”
2. “Second, a library’s collection decisions are government speech and therefore not subject to Free Speech challenges. Many precedents teach that someone engages in expressive activity by curating and presenting a collection of third-party speech. People do this all the time. Think of the editors of a poetry compilation choosing among poems, or a newspaper choosing which editorials to run, or a television station choosing which programs to air. So do governments. Think of a city museum selecting which paintings or sculptures to feature in an exhibit. In the same way, a library expresses itself by deciding how to shape its collection.”
The decision was made by a full panel of 18 judges from the Fifth Circuit, rather than the partial panel of three judges that made the initial decision in June 2024.
The 2024 ruling was in partial favor of a March 2023 decision by District Judge Robert Pitman of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin Division, who ordered all 17 removed books be returned to Llano County library shelves. The county’s legal team immediately appealed the decision, bringing it before the Fifth Circuit.
The Fifth Circuit’s three-judge panel condemned the book removals on the grounds they were too biased.
“Government actors may not remove books from a public library with the intent to deprive patrons of access to ideas with which they disagree,” reads the June 2024 opinion.
The 17 books removed from Llano County Library System shelves, as well as its online system, range in content from children’s books about farting to transgender biographies and America’s racial history.
The eight books that were ordered back to library shelves by the Fifth Circuit’s first ruling are:
“Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” by Isabel Wilkerson
“They Called Themselves the K.K.K: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group” by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
“Spinning” by Tillie Walden
“Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen” by Jazz Jennings
“Shine” by Lauren Myracle
“Under the Moon: A Catwoman Tale” by Lauren Myracle
“Gabi, a Girl in Pieces” by Isabel Quintero
“Freakboy” by Kristin Elizabeth Clark
The nine other removed books not included in that decision are:
“In the Night Kitchen” by Maurice Sendak
“It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health” by Robie Harris
“My Butt is So Noisy!” by Dawn McMillan
“I Broke my Butt!” by Dawn McMillan
“I Need a New Butt!” by Dawn McMillan
“Larry the Farting Leprechaun” By Jane Bexley
“Gary the Goose and His Gas on the Loose” by Jane Bexley
“Freddie the Farting Snowman” by Jane Bexley
“Harvey the Heart Had Too Many Farts” by Jane Bexley
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The Lower Colorado River Authority is awarding two $100,000 grants this upcoming fiscal year in celebration of its community grants program’s 30th anniversary. Applications from nonprofits will be accepted July 1-31.
LCRA’s next fiscal year runs from July 2025 to June 2026.
The $100,000 grants are in addition to grants of up to $50,000 each that the LCRA awards twice a year for projects such as improving community centers, fire stations, and sports fields and providing new gear to first responders, according to an LCRA media release. Local nonprofits in Blanco, Burnet, Gillespie, Lampasas, and Llano counties are eligible.
The LCRA established its community grants program in October 1995 and awarded its first grants in March 1996. Since then, the program has given out 2,137 grants totaling more than $54 million.
“We are so proud to support projects in communities throughout our service territory with our grant program,” said LCRA General Manager Phil Wilson in the media release. “These two $100,000 grants are to celebrate the thousands of grants we’ve awarded over the years and help with two substantial community projects.”
One $100,000 grant will be handed out after the July application period; the second will be awarded next year after the January application period.
“Our goal is to support the Texans we serve,” Wilson said. “Thanks to this program, volunteer fire departments across the area have new trucks, museums have roofs that don’t leak, and community centers have commercial-grade kitchens that can enable them to host events and serve as emergency shelters. The grants assist with lights for ballfields, safety equipment for first responders, and so much more, and we look forward to the next 30 years of supporting communities.”
The river authority awards community grants twice a year to tax-exempt nonprofits, including volunteer fire departments, emergency responders, museums, civic groups, and libraries as well as local governments, schools, and hospitals. The grants are not available to individuals, for-profit entities, professional associations, social service projects, or limited-use facilities.
Applications for the next round of grants will be accepted online at www.lcra.org/grants beginning July 1 and ending at midnight July 31. The second grant application period of the fiscal year opens in January 2026.
Applicants requesting more than $5,000 must supply matching funds of at least 20 percent of the project’s total cost. Projects must benefit or be available to an entire community and improve the value of a capital asset through building, renovating, or purchasing equipment.
Visit www.lcra.org/grants for information on eligibility requirements and to submit an application. For more information, contact grants@lcra.org or 800-776-5272 ext. 3140 or ext. 1627.
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A Burnet County jury on May 23 found a former Granite Shoals pastor guilty of aggravated sexual assault of a child. Roy Guerrero, 70, received a prison sentence of 29 years and four months for the 1996 crime.
Guerrero was originally arrested and charged on five counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact in September 2023 after the victim came forward. As the case progressed, the charges were upgraded to five counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child.
Guerrero, who was the pastor of Jesus the Divine Teacher Ministries and head of Joseph’s Food Pantry in Granite Shoals, pleaded not guilty to all five charges. His trial started May 22 in the courtroom of 33rd Judicial District Judge J. Allan Garrett. On the second day, the jury found him guilty on one count of aggravated sexual assault of a child and acquitted him on the other four charges.
Judge Garrett handed down the 29-plus-year sentence at the jury’s recommendation. Aggravated sexual assault of a child is a first-degree felony in Texas, punishable by five to 99 years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines.
Assistant District Attorney Bill Price, the lead prosecutor in the case, sent the following written message to DailyTrib.com in response to questions:
“This case was about more than just a conviction. It was about restoring the faith of a person whose faith in humanity was destroyed as a little girl,” Price said. “The abuse she suffered for years as a child left her believing she was all alone in the world. She and other children who suffer in silence can know that Burnet County will protect them, even if their parents won’t. If a child has the courage to come forward, we will fight to make sure that child has a voice.”
MORE CHARGES
Guerrero still has two other child-crime charges pending against him.
Following his initial arrest in September 2023, he was arrested again in December 2023 on a charge of indecency with a child by sexual contact with a different victim, which was connected to an incident in January 2002. He was arrested a third time in March 2024 on a charge related to another victim, this time from an incident in 1999.
After the March 2024 arrest, Burnet County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Chris King told DailyTrib.com the next two victims came forward after hearing about the initial charges brought against Guerrero.
“We had the original victim come in, and the other victims saw it happen in the paper or were made aware of it through word of mouth,” he said. “I can tell you, just by speaking with victims, they’re afraid people won’t believe them. It just takes someone to step up and talk about it.”
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A mysterious package left at the doors to the Marble Falls Post Office on Memorial Day was treated as a potential bomb threat by law enforcement before being deemed safe. The duct tape-bound parcel was reported around 9:50 a.m. Monday, May 26, leading to an investigation by the Austin Police Department’s bomb squad and local agencies and the evacuation of the post office at 1212 U.S. 281 and a nearby business.
The ordeal lasted more than 3½ hours, ending at around 1:30 p.m.
“It was a package that was wrapped very poorly, not consistent with normal packaging,” Marble Falls Police Department Capt. Jimmy Cole told DailyTrib.com. “No forwarding address. It was just a box wrapped with duct tape placed by the door.”
According to Cole, no charges were filed in connection with the scare. The package was reportedly filled with “junk” and “random stuff.”
“It was just a box. There was nothing to indicate a terroristic threat,” he said. “It was just a creepy box.”
MFPD was backed by the Burnet County Sheriff’s Office, Marble Falls Area EMS, and Marble Falls Fire Rescue locally. The APD bomb squad was accompanied by the Austin Fire Department, Austin EMS, and Travis County EMS.
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Agendas for Highland Lakes governments are posted 72 hours before a meeting so are not always ready by the time this story is published. Check the links for more information.
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The city of Burnet recently approved millions of dollars in infrastructure upgrades to accommodate future growth, including improvements to a high-priority street and a major waterline expansion on the east side.
Projects totaling around $1.5 million should begin soon on about two-thirds of a mile of Wood Street between FM 963 and Texas 29 and a quarter-mile of Northington Street between South Rhomberg and South Hill.
According to City Manager David Vaughn, Wood Street has been high on the city’s list of priorities for years.
“Wood Street is a very, highly traveled street to cut through between (FM) 963 and (Texas) 29,” Vaughn told DailyTrib.com. “This is one that has been on the radar and the to-do list for way too long, but it is more complicated on the engineering side and school scheduling.”
Vaughn was referring to how Burnet Consolidated Independent School District transportation yards run along Wood Street, requiring consistent in-and-out access for buses during the school year and making heavy road work challenging. If everything goes according to plan, the project should be completed by the early fall.
Northington Street was also targeted due to its close proximity to Wallace Riddell Park and for being generally “substandard,” in the words of the city manager.
The contract for the improvements was awarded to Gage and Cade Construction following a competitive May 9 bidding process among five applicants.
The general locations of upcoming work in Burnet on Wood Street (in green) and Northington Street (red) along with a waterline expansion on Wofford Drive (blue). The city recently approved millions of dollars in contracts for the projects to accommodate growth on the east side. Google Map
WATERLINE WORK
Also starting soon is the installation of a 16-inch waterline along Wofford Drive to serve as a primary artery between the established water system of central Burnet and the eastern part of the city.
The new line will help the city keep up with growth on the east side, Vaughn said.
“We’re working really hard to protect what people love about Burnet and preparing for the growth that is coming, and it’s about how we balance that,” he said.
The $755,976 project is being paid for with a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant from the Texas Department of Agriculture along with $255,976 in matching funds from the city.
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News that a proposed quarry railway through Burnet County had been stopped in its tracks might have been premature.
A DailyTrib.com story May 21 quoted county officials as saying the project had been halted after Texas Materials Group Inc. withdrew its federal permit application. However, the company responded to questions after deadline Wednesday and clarified its position, saying it made the decision to “pause development of the proposed shortline railroad between Burnet County and Lampasas to allow for additional assessment and evaluation.”
This “pause” was further backed up by an official comment filed Thursday with the Surface Transportation Board’s Office of Environmental Analysis, the governing body that would oversee the rail line. The comment is official correspondence between Texas Materials attorney Thomas Wilcox and OEA Environmental Protection Specialist Adam Assenza.
“This email follows up on the monthly Teams call this past Tuesday (May 20) between Broken Stone Railroad, LLC (the railroad entity created by Texas Materials) and OEA,” reads the May 22 email exchange. “On that call Broken Stone Railroad informed OEA that due to decisions being contemplated by the corporate parent affiliates of Texas Materials, the parent affiliates have decided to put the Broken Stone Railroad construction project on hold for the time being. This is the sole reason for the pause. As discussed, John Shogren and I will keep OEA apprised of future developments, and hopefully the resumption of the project and the accompanying environmental review by OEA.”
SOURCES:Read all comments filed on the project through the STB’s record search here. To find the proposed railway docket, select “Environmental Comments” in the search field, then “FD” for the docket number, and type in “36815” in the adjoining field before hitting “Search.”
Texas Materials, an aggregate company doing business in the Austin area as well as other major metro areas across the state, also clarified with DailyTrib.com that it had not withdrawn a “permit application” as was reported on Wednesday but rather a “proposal” filed with the STB’s Office of Environmental Analysis for a 26.9-mile railway to transport aggregate material across the county between the Austin Western Railroad near Burnet and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway near Lampasas.
Burnet County Judge Bryan Wilson, who personally received a call from Texas Materials Group President John Shogren on Wednesday notifying him of the project’s pause, told DailyTrib.com that nobody should assume anything beyond the immediate facts.
“(Burnet County residents) should know that (Texas Materials has) withdrawn the (proposal for the railway) at this time, and I wouldn’t assume anything else beyond that,” he said.
Wilson noted he was told there was roughly 130 years’ worth of granite to quarry in the area, according to Shogren, and that some level of growth in the industry was likely inevitable.
“My hope is that we can work with the industry that is already here in our county to allow them to move their product without violating everybody’s use of their own land,” the judge said.
Another major player in the railway saga is Bill Hinckley, a landowner whose 4,000-acre family ranch would have been punctured by the proposed rail line. He adamantly opposes the project and said he built a rapport with Shogren while trying to negotiate an alternative route for the rail. Hinckley said he also received a call from the Texas Materials president on Wednesday.
“(Shogren) gave me a very professional call yesterday, and he said, ‘It doesn’t make commercial sense right now,’” Hinckley told DailyTrib.com. “I think it was just flat out money.”
Hinckley said there were tears of elation from many landowners opposed to the railway after word of the project’s spread on Wednesday. The line would cut through dozens of family ranches along its path through rural Burnet County.
“It’s a victory for the little guy,” he said. “Goliath doesn’t always win.”
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