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Schools, banks, and some businesses will be closed on Monday, Oct. 14, in observance of Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
Students from Burnet, Marble Falls, and Llano school districts won’t have classes, and bank buildings across the Highland Lakes will be closed for the federal holiday.
Some businesses might also close; check ahead before you go.
For those needing to do government business, Burnet and Llano county offices will be closed along with the city of Burnet. Marble Falls and Horseshoe Bay city offices will remain open.
HOLIDAY HISTORY
Columbus Day has been a federal holiday since 1937. It was established to honor 15th century Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, who came to the Bahamas in 1492. However, in recent years, many have advocated for the day to be repurposed as Indigenous Peoples’ Day, citing Columbus’ violent treatment of native peoples upon his arrival in the Americas.
In 2023, the Biden administration issued a proclamation for the third consecutive year recognizing Indigenous Peoples’ Day, which now shares a date with Columbus Day as a federally recognized commemoration.
While Columbus Day remains a federal holiday, a growing number of states and cities have chosen to observe Indigenous Peoples’ Day. The movement began in 1989, with South Dakota the first state to recognize it followed by cities in California. Now, more than a dozen states celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Texas recognizes the second week in October as Indigenous Peoples’ Week.
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Marble Falls continues its booming growth in 2024 with an estimated population of 8,395, which is 13 percent higher than the 7,423 count from the 2022 U.S. Census. The city also has 1,661 apartment or multi-family housing units on the way.
The growth might seem sudden, but according to one of the city’s longtime leaders, it is decades in the making.
Marble Falls Development Services Director Kim Foutz gave a 2023-24 fiscal year review presentation to the City Council on Oct. 1, laying out the city’s estimated population, building projects, and development.
According to the report, Marble Falls’ population will likely continue to rise, with an estimated 9,578 residents expected by 2027.
The report also laid out big construction numbers for fiscal year 2023-24:
2,535 building permits issued;
$135.74 million in residential construction value;
$140.71 million in commercial construction value;
roughly 10,000 building inspections conducted;
870 multi-family units under construction;
791 multi-family units in the permitting process;
and $364,163 in utility impact fees collected.
“Growth is not spontaneous, even if it appears that way,” Marble Falls Mayor Dave Rhodes told DailyTrib.com about the seemingly rapid rise in population. “Growth takes infrastructure, it takes will, it takes promotion, it takes planning.”
Rhodes said the city started looking at how to accommodate growth and attract a hospital to the region as far back as 1999. This led to the issuance of a $10 million bond in 2008 to build roughly 6 miles’ worth of water/wastewater lines stretching from the heart of Marble Falls all the way to the U.S. 281 and Texas 71 intersection.
According to Rhodes, the water/wastewater infrastructure built by the city paved the way for the Baylor Scott and White Medical Center at 810 Texas 71 and large subdivisions like Thunder Rock, Gregg Ranch, and Legacy Crossing.
Rhodes acknowledged local government’s role in steering growth, but also said Texas is a state driven by property rights and that growth was ultimately up to property owners’ decisions.
“(Growth) might be steered by local government, but it’s about the guy who owns the dirt and whether or not they decide to sell it,” he said.
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Burnet County Precinct 2 Commissioner Damon Beierle on Oct. 8 publicly addressed an anonymous allegation that he violated a local government code concerning conflict of interest.
During the Burnet County Commissioners Court meeting Tuesday, Beierle said he did not violate the code and would fully cooperate with an investigation conducted by an out-of-county prosecutor.
The anonymous letter containing the allegation was received by the Commissioners Court on Oct. 1. It referred to instances when the court voted to allocate sponsorship dollars to tourism events for which Beierle’s entertainment company provided services. The commissioner abstained from these votes.
Beierle is part owner of Double Eagle Entertainment, which mostly provides musical acts for events. The company does not directly receive sponsorship funds, but county money is used to sponsor the events as a whole.
“I don’t make a commission on them or anything like that,” Beierle said. “But common sense always told me to abstain because of my ethics and morals. … In your brain, you’re like, ‘I can’t vote on this.’”
While Beierle abstained from the funding votes, Local Government Code 171.004 also requires a conflict-of-interest questionnaire (CIQ) form be filled out.
The anonymous letter claims Beierle violated the code by not filling out the questionnaire in two separate instances in May 2023, something he admitted to during a Commissioners Court meeting on Sept. 12, 2023.
The two events recorded in the court’s official minutes from May 2023 are:
a May 9 tourism sponsorship vote to allocate $3,600 to the Burnet’s Jackson Street Jams concert series;
and a May 23 tourism sponsorship vote to allocate $5,000 to the Marble Falls Summer Concert Series.
According to Commissioner Beierle and legal counsel he consulted, an official would need to both fail to abstain from voting and fail to file a CIQ to violate Local Government Code 171.004.
“I called the county and district attorney, who called another prosecutor in another county, and they came back and said it takes two actions to violate the code. And not doing both violates the code,” he said.
Beierle admitted that before the Sept. 12, 2023, meeting, he was not aware of the requirement to file a questionaire but had consistently abstained from voting on any matters in which he had a conflict of interest.
“Before Sept. 23, I did not file a CIQ, but I did abstain 100 percent of the time. Ever since I learned of it, I have filed a CIQ. My intent was always to do the right thing,” Beierle said.
In response to the anonymous letter, the Burnet County Attorney’s Office referred the matter to neighboring San Saba County Attorney Russ Baker to investigate.
Assistant Burnet County Attorney Colleen Davis spoke at the Oct. 8 Commissioners Court meeting, explaining the role the attorney’s office will take in addressing an allegation against Commissioner Damon Beierle. Staff photo by Elizabeth De Los Santos
“We take any complaints from the public seriously,” said Assistant Burnet County Attorney Colleen Davis. “Because we work so closely with all members of the Commissioners Court, it was not appropriate, ethically, for our office to look into this. So we did reach out to another prosecutor, and they are going to do a thorough investigation and make recommendations for any follow-through they think is necessary.”
Commissioner Beierle emphasized he will cooperate with the investigation.
“If that prosecutor decides that there is a violation, then I will walk through that like anybody else would.”
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Dozens of high school barbecue teams from across Texas will converge on Granite Shoals in April 2025 for the High School BBQ state championship.
The city will host the event at Quarry Park, 2221 N. Phillips Ranch Road, on a yet-to-be-determined date. Young Lone Star State pitmasters are currently competing in regional qualifiers to earn a spot in the finals.
Granite Shoals Fire Chief Tim Campbell and Police Chief John Ortis are passionate about barbecue, raising thousands of dollars for local charities with their food, and have been working to bring the championship to the city since at least 2019.
“Our goal is to continue to grow and put Granite Shoals on the map,” Ortis told DailyTrib.com. “Maybe this will motivate local schools to participate.”
The regional qualifier for the Highland Lakes region is Jan. 24-25 in Burnet at a site to be determined. An updated schedule can be found on the HSBBQ website.
The championship could draw hundreds of visitors to Granite Shoals as well as a wider national audience.
The 2023-24 event was turned into a TV reality series for the Magnolia Network, the creation of Texas house flippers Chip and Joanna Gaines. Another season of BBQ High has not been greenlit, but Granite Shoals will prepare for a 30-person film crew just in case.
“We are very excited about this,” Ortis said.
Ortis learned the ways of Texas-style barbecue from Cambpell and his four brothers when he joined the Granite Shoals Police Department 12 years ago. The Campbell siblings were highly competitive pitmasters, who won a state title in 2016 in a Lone Star Barbecue Society competition. They even have their own seasoning and sauce brand: 5C Smokehouse Sauces & Seasonings.
Campbell believes the championship could ignite a spark in the next generation.
“If we want to keep competition barbecuing going on, we need that next generation to take over,” he said.
According to Ortis, Granite Shoals secured the championship after High School BBQ President Chuck Schoenfeld attended the city’s first-ever Battle of the Badges Cook-off in June and was impressed with Quarry Park and how streamlined the event was.
The city is allowing HSBBQ to use the park for free, another draw for the organization.
Of course, the championship isn’t about locations or TV shows.
“For these kids, (barbecue) is their sport,” Ortis said. “They may not be in band, or football, or baseball, or track, but they’re getting up at 4 a.m. on a Saturday and meeting in the high school parking lot honing their skills. It’s just something (Chief Campbell and I) are both passionate about.”
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A Burnet County Sheriff’s Office investigation has revealed that a reported armed incident at a Burnet-area church on Sunday, Oct. 6, was largely fabricated by one of the church’s volunteer security people.
The Sheriff’s Office on Oct. 7 announced the arrest of Jacob Wayne Tarver, 45, of Burnet County, an armed safety team member of Church at the Epicenter, on several charges, including making a false report and deadly conduct. At a Monday media conference, the BCSO said it had determined Tarver lied about driving away two armed men attempting to assault the congregation during its Sunday service by firing three shots at the suspects.
“In the course of this investigation, the safety team member who had fired the shots admitted that he had fabricated significant details of this incident and had lied to law enforcement and others about this incident,” reads a Monday media release from the BCSO. “There were no hostile actions taken or directed at the church by any persons, and no weapons brandished toward the church or the safety team member. At no time was the safety of the congregation in jeopardy.”
Burnet County Sheriff Calvin Boyd holds a media conference on Oct. 7 over an incident that happened Oct. 6 at Church at the Epicenter in Burnet. Staff photo by Dakota Morrissiey
Tarver originally told law enforcement that he had come upon two men with weapons attempting to force their way into Church at the Epicenter, located at 2401 U.S. 281 North near Burnet, on Sunday morning. He said he scared them off by firing at them with his own weapon before they could take action. He claimed they had fled north on U.S. 281 toward Lampasas in a white minivan.
Several agencies converged on the church to investigate, including the Texas Rangers and the Burnet Police Department. The Texas Department of Public Safety also used its aircraft in the ensuing search for suspects.
Local school districts and churches all upped their security measures on Monday following the report.
Tarver was arrested on charges of making a false report to induce an emergency (Class A misdemeanor), tampering with or fabricating evidence (third-degree felony), and deadly conduct (third-degree felony). He is currently being held at the Burnet County Jail in Burnet.
Rumors about the incident were widely shared following the incident.
Church at the Epicenter founder Kyle Byrd posted on his personal Facebook page on Sunday that the church’s security team thwarted “jihadists” attempting an assault on the congregation.
Following the results of the BCSO investigation, Church at the Epicenter officials released their own media statement, explaining their shock and confusion in the aftermath:
“It is with confused and broken hearts that we report (news of Tarver’s fabrication),” reads the statement, posted to the church’s Facebook page on Monday afternoon. “We now turn our hearts towards trying to understand what might have led our head of security to fabricate such a serious story. While we know that these types of threats are real around our state & nation, we have absolutely no idea why this happened.”
Other posts on online media outlets called for a search for two men in “headwraps” or “headdresses” after the false report spread.
“There’s enough going on in the world. We don’t need people making things up,” Burnet County Sheriff Calvin Boyd said during the Monday media conference.
The BCSO closed its emailed media release with the following statement:
“Sheriff Boyd asks that members of the public disseminate this update broadly by liking, sharing, re-posting, and freely discussing it. The rumors and speculation surrounding this case have only served to cause fear, mistrust, and animosity within the community. This falsehood can only be counteracted by the widespread announcement of the truth.”
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Twenty-year-old Justin Savilonis of Bertram has spent most of his life fighting for a future. After surviving multiple organ transplants as a toddler then battling a series of medical complications, he now faces a daunting new challenge: finding a living kidney donor.
“He’s been on the transplant list for over three years,” said his mother, Margaret Savilonis. “A living donor would change his life drastically. Right now, we go to dialysis three times a week, and that takes a toll on him.”
Due to the complexities of his case, Justin is on the transplant list at UPMC in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a specialized facility for transplants.
His hardships began when he was just 2 years old. He was diagnosed with Alagille syndrome, a genetic disorder that primarily affects the liver and heart, and underwent liver, pancreas, and small bowel transplants.
In 2020, Justin contracted sepsis after a chemotherapy session intended to treat post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD), a cancer that developed due to his suppressed immune system.
“We spent 325 days in the hospital in 2020,” Margaret Savilonis said. “That’s when he lost both of his legs below the knee and the use of his fingers.”
Now, as Justin waits for a new kidney, his family’s plea is simple yet urgent: Help.
“A kidney transplant would give him strength back. He would be able to go more places, he loves to be in the water. It would let him enjoy life again,” his mother said.
A living donor would need two healthy kidneys so one can be taken without impacting their health. A person can live a normal life with one kidney.
For Justin, this next transplant is a critical step in his fight for a better quality of life. The Savilonis family is urging anyone considering organ donation to visit UPMC’s website and register as a potential living donor.
“We just want to spread the word,” Margaret said. “His story could reach someone who could save his life.”
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.
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.
Higher fees are now in effect at the city of Burnet’s Delaware Springs Golf Course. The price changes started Tuesday, Oct. 1. The City Council originally amended the golf course rates ordinance on Sept. 10 and then added a higher annual dues fee for non-residents on Sept. 24.
The changes are to keep the municipal course, 600 Delaware Springs Blvd., financially stable while maintaining competitive pricing, officials said.
Annual dues at Delaware Springs are up 20 percent for non-residents and 10 percent for residents. Before the change, all players paid the same amount.
“Recently, staff proposed raising the annual dues at the course, which have been the same for the last nine years,” Burnet City Manager David Vaughn said. “Since it was the residents that carried the bill of subsidizing the course, up until just a few years ago … the council adopted an increase in annual dues to try to get closer to other area courses … .”
Residents can pay the lower dues by showing their driver’s license as proof of a Burnet address.
Also going up are weekend, holiday, and twilight green (weekend) fees and range ball prices.
NEW RATES
Annual dues for residents are:
$1,191 per year for a single player, up 10 percent from $1,083, a difference of $108
$595.50 per year for a spouse (half the single-player rate)
$398 per year for a junior player, up from $362
Other adjustments include a 10 percent increase in the trail fee, cart storage, and cart rental charges.
Annual dues for non-residents are:
$1,324 per year for a single player, a 20 percent raise from $1,083, a difference of $241
$662 per year for a spouse (half the single-player rate)
$443 per year for a junior player, up from $362
Other adjustments include a 20 percent increase in the trail fee, cart storage, and cart rental charges.
Weekend (Friday-Sunday) and holiday green fees are:
18 holes—$47, up from $44
9 holes—$30, up from $27
Twilight green fees for Friday-Sunday are:
$28, up from $25
Range ball prices are:
Standard—$7.39, up 14 percent from $6.46
Junior—$3.69, up 33 percent from $2.77
The golf course rates ordinance also gives the city of Burnet the authority to implement necessary operational adjustments.
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