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News stories, staff photos, and other online content are copyrighted property of Victory Media. Reproduction in part or in whole is prohibited without the express written consent of the publisher.
Marble Falls is tackling a problematic paving job on Manzano Mile, starting with resealing the asphalt to lock down the loose gravel.
As of Friday, March 21, the full length of Manzano Mile, from RR 1431 to Colt Elementary, has been fog sealed, a process that rejuvenates the existing asphalt and helps contain stray chunks of road that have reportedly been causing issues along the thoroughfare.
“(The fog seal) is the best application that you can come across to hopefully get everything back to where it needs to be,” Marble Falls Public Works Director James Kennedy told the City Council on Tuesday.
Lone Star Paving, which did the original work on Manzano Mile, was brought back for the fog sealing job in mid-March. According to Mayor Pro-tem Craig Magerkurth, more work needs to be done to address patches of bare base asphalt along the road.
“(The original paving) didn’t perform as it should have initially,” Magerkurth told DailyTrib.com. “The rocks weren’t adhering and they were coming up. You could see where people’s tires were going and damaging the road. There will likely be more work done to fix the spots where gravel did not adhere.”
Magerkurth said the city had received complaints from residents about the condition of Manzano Mile, which in part led to the recent work. DailyTrib.com was also made aware of the loose gravel, which reportedly was being kicked up by tires and pelting other vehicles and pedestrians.
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A proposed 26.9-mile rail line to transport aggregate materials between Burnet and Lampasas counties is facing growing opposition from local residents, who are petitioning against it over concerns about property rights, environmental impacts, and community disruption.
The line would run through the heart of Burnet County, potentially impacting property owners along the way.
“I’m opposed to this (railway),” Burnet County Precinct 2 Commissioner Damon Beierle told DailyTrib.com. “I think it is way too impactful on so many residents. The county doesn’t have the authority to stop this train, but we are going to try and amplify the voices of our constituents.”
The rail line would mostly run through Precinct 2, making it of special concern to Beierle. He said he is working with Texas state Rep. Ellen Troxclair (District 19) and U.S. Rep. John Carter (District 31) on a solution to the train trouble.
Texas Materials Group Inc. is seeking approval from the Surface Transportation Board to reconstruct 12.5 miles of abandoned rail and build an additional 14.4 miles of new track to transport aggregate materials from four quarries in the Burnet area. The project is currently under environmental review, with government agencies invited to submit concerns by April 3 as part of the National Environmental Policy Act and National Historic Preservation Act process.
Beierle acknowledged the economic role the aggregate industry plays in Burnet County, providing materials such as rock and gravel for construction, and shared his opinion on how the railway could impact the area.
“There is definitely a balance between what the industry provides, but we have grown a lot, and there are more people here now,” he said. “I don’t think (the railway) would take trucks off the road, I think they’d just ramp up production.”
Petition
A petition started by Leander resident Stephanie Ahr on March 15 has garnered over 1,000 signatures. The petition urges regulatory agencies to reject Texas Materials Group’s proposal, citing concerns about property rights, safety risks, environmental damage, and declining property values.
“The proposed quarry train will run through properties that we own or lease, and we have not given consent for such an operation on our lands,” the petition states.
The petition also lists fears of accidents, derailments, and fires along with noise pollution and disruption to local ecosystems and highlights potential economic consequences, arguing that property values could decline due to proximity to the line and make it more difficult for homeowners to sell in the future.
“It will impact the well-being of our community,” the petition continues. “The introduction of a quarry train will severely disrupt our peaceful, rural lifestyle, including constant noise, vibrations, and the constant movement of a 4-diesel-engine train.”
According to Texas Materials, the railway is intended to improve efficiency in transporting aggregate materials from the Burnet area due to expected population growth over the next decade. The line would connect to the BNSF Railway near Lampasas and the Austin Western Railroad near Burnet.
If approved, 1.64 trains per day—each up to 120 railcars long—would operate along the route.
For more details on the petition or to sign it, visit Change.org.
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Music on Main, a live music series held in the spring and fall in downtown Marble Falls, is in its third year and bigger than ever. The popular event has expanded to nine shows a week this spring and now takes place at two downtown locations.
The shows are free and open to the public. For a full list of acts and times, check out the schedule at livemusiconmain.com.
The 2025 spring series started in late February and will continue weekly through May 31.
A variety of musical acts take the stage at Old Oak Square, 305 Main St., from Wednesday-Sunday. Additional Friday and Saturday shows are at Harmony Park, 209 Main St.
“The whole thing was designed to benefit and bring more (foot traffic) to Main Street,” he told DailyTrib.com.
McManus said he started out doing Old Oak Square shows on his own once a month, which quickly grew into the Music on Main series and featured a couple of shows a week.
This year’s series has concerts scheduled on 190 dates and includes performances at Harmony Park.
“A strong downtown is built on experiences, and Music on Main has become a signature event that keeps our local shops, restaurants, and businesses buzzing after traditional shopping hours have ended,” Marble Falls Downtown and Marketing Manager Erin Burks told DailyTrib.com, backing up McManus’ assessment.
McManus estimates the concert series has a $130,000 to $150,000 price tag, which is mostly paid for from sponsorships, contributions from other downtown businesses, and grants from local governments.
The Marble Falls Economic Development Corp. recently awarded Music on Main $25,000 out of a $30,000 grant application during its March 4 meeting to bolster the series.
“I think it’s a great program for us,” said EDC President Steve Reitz prior to the unanimous grant approval by the board.
The EDC contributed $20,000 to the series in 2024 and $10,000 when it began in 2023.
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Avenue N in Marble Falls could be closed from this April until September 2026 as work progresses on a new bridge over Backbone Creek. The $4 million structure should be better equipped to handle extreme flooding and allow safe crossing when the creek rises.
The Marble Falls City Council on March 18 approved a $4 million bid from Liberty Civil Construction for the bridge. According to a timeline from city of Marble Falls Engineer Jeff Prato, serious work and the road closure are scheduled to begin April 28 and be finished Sept. 9, 2026.
Marble Falls City Engineer Jeff Prato presents the Avenue N bridge project to the City Council on March 18, notifying them that the thoroughfare could be closed for an estimated 499 days. Staff photo by Dakota Morrissiey
“So traffic may be a problem for the next two years,” Mayor Pro-tem Craig Magerkurth quipped during the Tuesday meeting.
The estimated time of construction is actually 499 days, or one year and four months, if Prato’s timeline holds.
While the road is closed, a recommended detour will take northbound Avenue N drivers west on Johnson Street to Avenue S south and then to Second Street. The southbound detour is the same route in reverse, with drivers heading west on Second Street and south on Avenue S, which then ties back into Johnson Street and the open portion of Avenue N.
The detour is intentionally designed to avoid Johnson Park. Avenue N is the primary thoroughfare for Meadowlakes residents entering and exiting that gated city, and Marble Falls leadership hopes to avoid sending too many drivers through the park while the road is closed.
“Our biggest communication to (Meadowlakes leadership) was coming through the park, and we want them to help us alert the people in Meadowlakes that it’s not a matter of not wanting them to come through the park, it’s a safety issue,” said John Packer, Marble Falls’ soon-to-be mayor, during Tuesday’s meeting.
The route through Johnson Park on Avenue J will remain open throughout bridge construction, but Packer noted the area could see additional congestion from work on The Ophelia Hotel and Conference Center at the intersection of Yett and Main streets near the Avenue J convergence.
Liberty Civil Construction had the lowest of seven bids for the Avenue N bridge project at $4 million. The next lowest bid was $4.4 million from Jordan Foster Construction, and the highest overall bid was $5.8 million from CE Barker. Construction will be mostly paid for by grant funding through the Texas Division of Emergency Management and its Hazardous Mitigation Plan.
The current crossing over Backbone Creek is a low-water slab. The new bridge will be significantly higher, include a pedestrian path, and be built to withstand major flooding. The project includes 614 feet of new bridge and about 275 linear-feet of roadway accompanied by grading, earthworks, culvert removal, pavement removal, site improvements, new structures, and trail realignment.
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A proposed 214-lot subdivision is under review by the Lower Colorado River Authority for a development permit on land next to the planned site of a controversial rock-crushing facility in Burnet County.
The subdivision developer is seeking an LCRA Highland Lakes Watershed Ordinance permit, which regulates land use to protect water quality.
Under the permit application, the project includes:
214 tracts over 10 acres
58,505 linear-feet of roads
190 acres of impervious cover (pavement and rooftops)
private wells for water supply
214 septic systems for wastewater treatment
According to the project’s engineers, Cuatro Consultants LTD, the subdivision’s land drains into several local creeks, including Honey, Peters, Long Branch, Backbone, and Mud Spring.
The former landowner of the proposed rock-crushing site and current owner of the land for the subdivision, HVPR4 LLC President Keith Crawford, previously released a statement maintaining he had no knowledge his former property would be used for quarry operations by Austin-based Asphalt Inc. Additionally, Crawford publicly opposed the rock crusher and announced plans to place a covenant on his remaining land—on which Legacy Oaks is planned—to prohibit future mining.
Public comments regarding the application (project #2025-5640) may be sent to the LCRA via email at hlwo@lcra.org through Friday, April 4.
The landowner had not responded to DailyTrib.com requests for comment at the time of this article’s publication on how the proximity to an industrial operation might impact homebuyers or development plans.
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Burnet County commissioners approved the purchase of the Hart InterCivic Ballot on Demand voting system on Monday, March 17, at a special meeting. The paper-based system will replace the previous direct-recording electronic system to meet a state mandate with a 2026 deadline.
During the Commissioners Court meeting, some in attendance expressed their dissatisfaction with the decision, including resident Patty Cope, who said she plans to file a complaint with the Texas Attorney General’s Office for “deceptive trade practices” concerning Hart InterCivic.
Precinct 2 Commissioner Damon Beierle also opposed the purchase with the only “no” vote. Beierle’s specific concern was speculation that a future state or federal mandate would require another voting system upgrade and make the Hart system obsolete.
“I am looking forward to the paper ballot. I just want to make sure it’s the right time,” he told Dailytrib.com. “We have a waiver to use our old machines until the (mandated 2026) deadline, so I just wanted to make sure we’re considering the timeline of an upgrade.”
The Commissioners Court and county officials have been discussing a transition and this specific system since at least June 2024, when they held a public demonstration of the Hart equipment and proposed buying it before the spring 2025 election. The transition is necessary due to Texas Senate Bill 1, passed in 2021, which mandated that all voting systems in Texas provide a voter-verifiable paper trail by September 2026.
Burnet County Elections Administrator Doug Ferguson, addressing Beierle’s concern, said another system upgrade likely would not be mandated anytime soon, but if it were, it would probably be accompanied by federal funding.
“In the early 2000s, (the federal government) mandated the Help America Vote Act, which required electronic voting machines at all polling locations to meet ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) standards,” Ferguson told Dailytrib.com. “They also had this huge national grant that they gave portions to every state to fund this mandate … setting precedence for big mandates like that. The federal government knows it would cost a fortune and be not feasible without funding.”
Cope, who previously filed a lawsuit regarding voting machines in 2022, said she is filing a complaint with the Texas AG claiming the Hart InterCivic master agreement (contract for the voting system purchase) is “misleading, unfair, and deceptive.” She also claims that “at least one Hart employee made factually incorrect statements to voters … in pursuit of ‘sale.’”
Cope refused to comment on what was misleading or deceptive about Hart’s master agreement or sales practices.
Additionally, her complaint claims voters’ rights were infringed upon with this new purchase, declaring potential escalation to legal action if the new contract is not reviewed by the Texas attorney general.
“I want the AG’s office to look at the contract from a constitutional voter perspective,” Cope told DailyTrib.com. “I have questions and I don’t know who to send my questions to and I don’t think the county attorney’s office has the authority to change anything in the contract since it was mandated by the state.”
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The Llano County Library System has not been accredited with the state of Texas since August 2023, leaving it cut off from resources, but library leadership is hoping to change that in September when the new fiscal year begins.
The Llano County Commissioners Court on March 10 approved allowing Library System Director Amber Milum to file for reaccreditation with the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. The library lost its accreditation in the 2023-24 fiscal year, mainly because it ceased meeting minimum standards for local operating expenditures due to cutbacks made in the wake of a federal lawsuit over alleged censorship in the county’s libraries, which was filed in April 2022.
Milum told DailyTrib.com she hopes a recent $15,158 purchase of the CloudLibrary system, an online database of digital books, and increased patron attendance in the 2024-25 fiscal year over 2022-23 will help the county regain its state accreditation. If the accreditation is approved, it will kick in Sept. 1, the beginning of the 2025-26 fiscal year.
“A lot of accreditation has to do with how many people are coming in, how many books you are purchasing, how many books are on the shelves,” she explained. “If we’re not purchasing anything (books), that’s a big deal (for the state).”
Without its accreditation, the Llano County Library System does not have access to the TexShare database of books, magazines, and academic journals. It also cannot participate in the Interlibrary Loan program, which allows patrons to request materials from other participating libraries, or apply for E-rate discounts or state library grants.
According to Milum, the April 2022 lawsuit was the primary reason the Llano County Commissioners Court and library system stopped the purchase and removal of books. The plaintiffis in the civil suit, a group Llano County residents, alleged that the library system had violated their First Amendment and 14th Amendment rights when it removed 17 books from shelves without due process.
Many of the removed books had racial or LGBTQ+ themes, including “They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group” and “Being Jazz: My Life as a Transgender Teen.” Others were children’s books, including “Larry the Farting Leprechaun” and “In the Night Kitchen.”
Two of the books that were returned to the shelves of the Llano County Library following a court order in an ongoing federal lawsuit against the Llano County Library System were ‘Spinning’ by Tillie Walden and ‘Freak Boy’ by Kristin Elizabeth Clark. File photo
“(The book freeze) has a lot to do with both sides wanting a certain policy, so we are just waiting right now to see what the court decides so we can see what their new rules may be so we can follow them and come up with a policy that helps everybody,” Milum said.
The lawsuit, Little et al. v. Llano County et al., is ongoing in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. See the latest DailyTrib.com update on the case and a list of the removed books in this September 2024 story.
“I think there has been a lot of healing,” Milum said. “I just hope that it can come together and everyone can come back to the library and find what they want.
The Llano County Library System has seen a jump in attendance in the past year, but the numbers are still far below its pre-COVID 19 pandemic averages.
According to a report from Milum on library attendance in fiscal year 2023-24, the county’s three facilities—in Llano, Kingsland, and Buchanan Dam—saw 41,541 patrons for the year. That is a 23.77 percent increase from 33,561 patrons in 2022-23.
Both of these numbers fall far short of fiscal year 2017-18, at 106,062 patrons, and 2018-19 at 109,149. The recent numbers are even below the COVID-19 pandemic numbers of 69,441 for 2019-20 and 58,589 for 2020-21.
Milum attributes the low attendance to the controversy surrounding the lawsuit.
“(Patrons) didn’t really know what was on the shelves, they didn’t want their kids to see certain things,” she said. “Now, people are coming in and making their own decisions. It’s just nice that people are starting to come in and kind of look for themselves and choose the books that are appropriate for their family.”
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