All four Burnet County justices of the peace have filed official grievances over their proposed salaries for the 2024-25 fiscal year. A public hearing on the matter is Monday, Aug. 26, at 10 a.m. in the second-floor courtoom of the county courthouse, 220 S. Pierce St. in Burnet. 

At the heart of their grievances is how JPs are compensated for travel expenses.

The four JPs—Roxanne Nelson (Precinct 1), Lisa Whitehead (Precinct 2), Jane Marie Hurst (Precinct 3), and Debbie Bindseil (Precinct 4)—sent their letters of grievance to Burnet County Judge James Oakley, who is also the chairman of the Salary Grievance Committee. The county judge is the chairman by state statute but is not entitled to a vote.

The JPs are evoking Chapter 152 of the Texas Local Government Code, which allows elected officials to protest their proposed salaries or personal expenses and request a hearing on the matter before the approval of the county’s budget. 

The proposed FY 2024-25 county budget shows most elected officials, including the JPs, receiving around a 6 percent raise, the same as all county employees. The only exceptions to this are the sheriff, who is set to get a 16.41 percent raise due to a boost in state funding for rural sheriffs, and the county’s constables, who were the lowest-paid elected officials and now looking at a 17.95 percent increase.

The proposed raises in the FY 2024-25 budget have been heavily debated and met with public scrutiny for weeks.

The grievance letters cite various concerns of the JPs, particularly the desire to be compensated for travel on top of their base salaries.

Each justice of the peace had a $4,500 travel allowance tacked on to their salaries in the FY 2023-24 budget, and they had each asked for another $1,500, which would amount to an additional $6,000 for the coming year on top of the 6 percent raise that all elected officials and employees were set to receive.

Base salaries for the JPs were $85,352.27 in FY 2023-24. The proposed FY 2024-25 budget has their base salaries at $90,541.69, a 6.08 percent raise. 

Burnet County’s proposed 2024-25 budget shows the travel allowance removed from their salaries and instead a $6,000 travel/mileage expense line item added to each of their budgets. 

Under the travel allowance rules, JPs did not have to track their mileage; they received a lump sum of $6,000. Under the travel/mileage expense model, they will have to keep track of their mileage to access that money.

Three of the four letters of grievance, excluding Nelson’s letter, included the following written statement:

“There was never a discussion or representation of the travel allowance #1930 being eliminated from the ‘salaries and wages’ of my budget.”

Burnet County’s Salary Grievance Committee is made up of nine members, including six elected officials and three members of the public. This includes Sheriff Calvin Boyd, County Tax-Assessor Collector Sheri Frazier, County Treasurer Karrie Crownover, County Clerk Vicinta Stafford, District Clerk Casie Walker, County Attorney Eddie Arredondo, and three residents chosen at random from a list of people who served on a grand jury in the current calendar year.

The committee will vote during the Monday hearing to determine whether the grievances from the four justices of the peace have merit. With a unanimous vote, the proposed budget will be changed to meet the request of the JPs. If six or more members of the committee vote in favor of the request, than an official recommendation will be made to the Burnet County Commissioners Court.

The court is scheduled to hold a budget hearing and potentially approve the budget at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 27, at the Burnet County Courthouse.

dakota@thepicayune.com

Marble Falls city leaders hosted the official groundbreaking for the long-awaited Ophelia Hotel and Conference Center on Friday, Aug. 23. Ceremonial golden shovels dug into the site near Lakeside Park. The project is expected to be completed by the spring of 2026.

Dozens of people turned out for the event to mark the culmination of several years of work and collaboration between the city and developers.

“There has been so much planning, so much preparation that has gone into this,” said Marble Falls Economic Development Corp. Executive Director Christian Fletcher to kick off the ceremony. “We want to fulfill some potential here.”

The EDC teamed up with Phoenix Hospitality Group on the project in 2019, but plans were delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, exploding inflation in 2022, and turnover in development partners. Now, construction is set to begin in October.

“This project has had some ups and downs,” Ian McClure, Phoenix Hospitality’s director of development, told DailyTrib.com at the ceremony. “But we’re from the Hill Country—Boerne born and raised—so we like vesting back into the Hill Country with projects like this. The lakes, the water, everything like that is a huge draw, but I think it comes down to the community.”

The Ophelia will overlook Lake Marble Falls and occupy the empty lot at the intersection of Main Street and Buena Vista Drive near Lakeside Park.

The latest designs show The Ophelia standing five stories with the hotel spreading across 96,000 square-feet and the attached conference center taking up 10,000 square-feet. The facility will have a restaurant and bar, a second-floor outdoor patio overlooking the lake, and 127 suite-style rooms. It is a Tapestry Collection by Hilton hotel.

Named after Marble Falls’ first woman mayor, Ophelia “Birdie” Harwood, the hotel/conference center will be an homage to the city.

“The design is really built around the city and the environment, so this is really taking on the look of historic downtown Marble Falls,” Brandon Wallace, the project’s general contractor and president of Alamo System Industries, told DailyTrib.com. 

Marble Falls City Councilor Richard Westerman said the hotel and conference center will satisfy the need for a high-end meeting space in the city. 

He acknowledged it could be difficult balancing Marble Falls’ small-town atmosphere with vigorous economic development, but the project is worth the effort.

“It is a challenge to juggle (the need for growth and maintaining the traditional culture of Marble Falls); however, you have to always be improving,” he told DailyTrib.com. “This is absolutely what the city has needed.”

The Ophelia is the result of a public-private partnership between the city of Marble Falls and the project developers.

Phoenix Hospitality Group and Castle Hospitality are funding the build-out and managing the facility, and the EDC contributed about $7.6 million in total value to the project, including the land the hotel will sit on. 

The hotel is expected to make a $200-million economic impact on Marble Falls in the 10 years following its completion.

The EDC is funded by a half-cent sales tax in the city limits that Marble Falls residents voted to establish in 1991. Its funds can only be used to retain, expand, and attract businesses and industry to the city and foster the retention, creation, and reinvestment of wealth in the Marble Falls community.

dakota@thepicayune.com

The Burnet Police Department has a new officer: 14-month-old German shorthair pointer Raya from Bulgaria. 

The certified narcotics detection dog is trained to sniff out five illegal substances: marijuana, methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine, and MDMA (commonly known as ecstasy). 

She has been with the BPD for three weeks. Her handler, Officer Rhett Levingston, has been on the force for three years. 

Raya’s role is to detect and deter the circulation of harmful drugs, while Levingston is responsible for her care, training, and guidance on the job. This is Levingston’s first experience with a K9 partner, a role he has wanted since the start of his law enforcement career.

“This is the one thing I’ve always wanted to do,” he said. “I mean, dogs are man’s best friend, so she’s the best partner I could have.” 

Officer Raya’s journey to Burnet began in the Balkan nation of Bulgaria, where she was selected for her breed and scent detection abilities. After arriving in the United States, she further fine-tuned her skills, including developing consistent search patterns and learning to alert her handler when she detects illicit drugs. 

“We knew Raya was a good candidate because of her driveability,” Levingston said. “She’s very prey driven. She knows if she does her search and alerts us properly, she’ll get a toy.” 

To maintain her sharp nose, Raya will undergo at least 16 hours of training each month. Her training, day-to-day work, and home life with Levingston strengthen their bond.

“We are together every day, for the majority of the day. We train together, she goes home with me every day, and we play outside,” Levingston said. “Sometimes, on the drive home, I let her sit up front and she rests her head on my lap.”

Raya also has other duties on the horizon. The BPD plans to train her as a tracking dog to find missing people.

elizabeth@thepicayune.com

The Marble Falls City Council has proclaimed the city a “tourism-friendly community,” the first major step toward acquiring a state designation that could elevate the city’s profile and bolster the local travel economy.

“We decided (nearly 20 years ago) we were going to be a destination, and that kind of helped us focus on a direction on who we were going to be,” said Mayor Dave Rhodes prior to the reading of an official proclamation declaring the city tourism friendly during the council’s Aug. 20 meeting.

The proclamation stated clearly that tourism was an integral, and desired, part of Marble Falls and that it would continue to be a major aspect of the city’s identity going forward.

“We acknowledge that all travel, whether related to leisure, business, or sports, is beneficial,” it reads. “Welcoming visitors from near and far always has been, and always will be, the enduring ethos of the travel industry and of Marble Falls.”

The proclamation is one of the necessary steps the city is taking to acquire a certified designation as a Tourism Friendly Community through the Governor’s Office’s Tourism Friendly Texas program. The state initiative encourages communities to use tourism and travel as economic drivers for development.

This is the latest effort on the city’s part to encourage visitation, following its designation as a Music Friendly City in January and a Brew City in June.

“Marble Falls is a trade hub, but it is also a tourism hub,” Kayla Gostnell, the city’s tourism manager, told DailyTrib.com. “(The tourism-friendly designation) says that we are a certain caliber, that we are willing to put in the work, that we see the value in these (tourism-related) industries, and we want more of them coming here.”

According to Travel Texas tourism and visitation statistics from 2023:

• people spent around $52.1 million at travel-related businesses in Marble Falls;
• 710 employees were associated with travel industries in the city;
• employees and businesses in travel-related roles in the city earned $24.2 million;
• and Marble Falls brought in about $1.8 million in taxes from travel-related businesses.

“When visitors come in and shop at our shops, eat at our restaurants, or see our attractions, that’s income to those particular establishments, which makes it easier for them to stay in business,” Gostnell said. “We, as residents, benefit from the visitation.”

Gostnell is in the process of getting Marble Falls certified as a Tourism Friendly Community, which she hopes will happen by the end of 2024. The designation requires the city proclaim its dedication to tourism and receive at least three letters of recommendation from local stakeholders. Gostnell also must complete a thorough online training program and fill out a lengthy state questionnaire about the city’s tourism profile.

“We’re a destination, we’re not just some little-bitty city,” she said. “This is a place that people talk about and want to come to.”

dakota@thepicayune.com

Firefighters from Sunrise Beach Village and Granite Shoals quickly extinguished a blaze Aug. 20 at the old T-Mart building. The structure at 103 Sunrise Drive in Sunrise Beach Village is currently under renovation and was empty. Investigators have not yet determined the cause of the fire.

Sunrise Beach Volunteer Fire Department Chief Dan Gower said the emergency call went out around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday. Firefighters were on the scene within three minutes; an engine from Granite Shoals Fire Rescue arrived in about 10 minutes.

“We’re not sure of how the fire started, but we know where it started,” Gower told DailyTrib.com. 

The fire appeared to have been smoldering in a wall at the northwest corner of the building, Gower said. It was extinguished quickly, but firefighters spent about two hours cutting away the surrounding wall and ceiling to make sure the blaze wasn’t deeper inside. 

Since the fire, the building’s power has been cut off, just in case the origin was electric. According to Gower, no electrical work on the building was recently done.

The former convenience store was cleared out, so the building suffered the brunt of the damage, which was limited to about 10 square-feet. Another few square-feet were cut away by firefighters.

Hamilton EMS provided an ambulance and incident command vehicle to support the firefighters during the incident. No injuries were reported.

dakota@thepicayune.com

Dozens of people lined up to get into the Marble Falls Public Library on Tuesday, Aug. 20, to learn more about a proposed second bridge across Lake Marble Falls. An open house offered information and insight into the Wirtz Dam Bridge project from local leaders and Texas Department of Transportation officials. 

Current plans are to break ground sometime during the summer of 2025. The $35 million project is expected to be completed in 2027.

Along with the 0.33-mile bridge, the project includes improvements to 3.68 miles of Wirtz Dam Road. The bridge would span the Colorado River just below Wirtz Dam, connecting the communities of Cottonwood Shores and Granite Shoals, linking RR 1431 and FM 2147, and increasing mobility.

“As it is, there are not enough crossings on the Colorado River,” KC Engineering President Greg Haley told DailyTrib.com during the open house. “What this is going to do is it’s going to take a substantial amount of traffic off of U.S. 281 in Marble Falls and it’s also going to drastically improve response times for emergency services.”

Currently, the only major north-south crossings on the Colorado and Llano rivers in the Highland Lakes are the RM 2900 bridge in Kingsland and the U.S. 281 bridge in Marble Falls. 

A commuter traveling from Granite Shoals to Horseshoe Bay has to drive either 26 minutes and 15.7 miles through Marble Falls, crossing the U.S. 281 bridge, or 32 minutes and 24.8 miles through Kingsland, crossing the RM 2900 bridge. 

TxDOT spokesperson Kellen Mohrmann echoed Haley’s assessment.

“Population and economic growth in this region (have) led to increased traffic and reduced mobility along major corridors, including U.S. 281 in Burnet County,” she said. “This plan is to provide improved regional mobility and connectivity and, hopefully, improve safety as well.”

TxDOT will completely fund the $35 million construction costs, while Burnet County is responsible for right-of-way acquisitions, easement purchases, and utilities relocation. The total cost for the county’s portion is still being determined but estimated to be over $3 million.

In 2018, TxDOT agreed to fund bridge construction if the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization paid the $3 million necessary to engineer and design it. CAMPO is a regional transportation planning organization that covers Burnet, Bastrop, Caldwell, Hays, Travis, and Williamson counties. 

Burnet County Judge James Oakley, who sits on the CAMPO Executive Committee, pushed for project funding. The committee voted to provide the $3 million in 2019.

Burnet County hired KC Engineering to perform the engineering and design work after funding was acquired and designs were completed in March 2023. TxDOT held up its end of the bargain and included the Wirtz Dam Bridge project in its Unified Transportation Plan in August 2023.

Judge Oakley laid out some of the costs for the county on the project, estimating it would require roughly $2 million to purchase about 40 acres of land and easements and an estimated $750,000 to move utilities for the city of Cottonwood Shores. The Burnet County Commissioners Court approved a $5 million bond on Aug. 13, $1 million of which is slated for easements. 

Pedernales Electric Cooperative power lines also would have to be moved, but how much that will cost is still unknown. Oakley is a member of the PEC Board of Directors. 

Once the land acquisitions and utility relocations are complete, the entire project will be in TxDOT’s hands, said KC Engineering President Haley.

“Once we’re done, we hand over the reins to TxDOT and they take it from there,” he said. 

The project is expected to go out for bid in June 2025. Work should begin by July 2025. Construction should take about two years.

dakota@thepicayune.com

Llano County will host an informational seminar on hotel occupancy tax law and grants to prepare local businesses and organizations for the upcoming grant request process. Hundreds of thousands of dollars will be awarded to those who promote and foster tourism in the county. 

The seminar is free and takes place at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 21, at the Llano County Law Enforcement Center, 2001 Texas 16 in Llano.

It includes a presentation from Texas Hotel & Lodging Association Legislative Director Justin Bragiel, who will explain the ins and outs of what can and can’t be done with hotel occupancy tax funds and how to apply for the money.

Llano County collects a 4 percent hotel occupancy tax on all lodging transactions in its unincorporated areas. The money is kept in a special hotel occupancy tax fund that can be used to award grants to businesses and organizations that promote tourism and further lodging business for the county.

The seminar will help attendees better understand how to acquire a grant, including the essential deadlines and information necessary to file an application.

All grant applications are due by Sept. 27. The county will award grants at a public meeting on Nov. 12.

Historically, Llano County collects $200,000 to $700,000 per year in HOT money, but not all of it is awarded every year. The money can be carried over to the next year or used on county projects that fuel tourism.

During the 2023 grant meeting, the county awarded $741,000 out of its $815,451 grant pool. The grants included $142,265 to the Kingsland/Lake LBJ Chamber of Commerce for visitor center operations and improvements and $5,350 for marketing costs at a Castell bed-and-breakfast.

For more information about the grants or the meeting, contact the Llano County Treasurer’s Office at ckepp@co.llano.tx.us or 325-247-7743.

dakota@thepicayune.com

The Hill Country Humane Society is offering $24 adoptions as it struggles with overpopulation at its Buchanan Dam facility. The shelter needs people to adopt and foster dogs and cats to ease the burden and make room for more animals. 

A canine distemper virus outbreak that began in June halted adoptions until recently. With the outbreak coming to an end, the HCHS is pushing harder than ever to find forever homes and foster families for the overflow of animals that came in this summer.

The Hill Country Humane Society is open from noon to 5 p.m. daily at 9150 RR 1431 West in Buchanan Dam. For more information, contact info@hchstexas.com or 512-793-5463.

The nonprofit HCHS provides shelter for stray dogs and cats from Burnet and Llano counties. Local cities such as Granite Shoals and Burnet have contracts with the shelter to take in a certain number of animals a year. That partnership is not one-sided: Granite Shoals police recently donated several outdoor kennels to help it manage the current population crisis.

The Hill Country Humane Society is able to offer reduced-price adoptions with help from a Clear the Shelters promotion, part of a nationwide campaign by NBCUniversal to find homes for as many pets as possible in August and September.

dakota@thepicayune.com

The Central Texas Groundwater Conservation District held a show cause hearing on Monday, Aug. 19, for three entities in Burnet County that exceeded their permitted groundwater usage. Central States Water Resources-Texas had three violations for wells it owns. The other two violations belonged to Aqua Texas and Giacomo Properties. 

Aqua Texas exceeded its well usage by 3 percent, Giacomo Properties by 15 percent, and CSWR-Texas by 12 percent, 21 percent, and 48 percent. 

“The rules apply to everyone,” district board President Ryan Rowney said. “(Violators) can either follow the agreed orders and be in compliance within one year or pay the penalty fine.”

The Groundwater Conservation District manages groundwater in Burnet County and is responsible for permitting wells and implementing related regulations.

Two of the violators, CSWR-Texas and Giacomo Properties, agreed to follow the regulations, which include reducing water usage to the allowable amount by Aug. 19, 2025, or submitting an application to increase their permit. They also will have to submit monthly production reports and document plans for conservation measures. 

Aqua Texas opted to pay a fine.

Most of the violations only exceeded water usage as prescribed under drought restrictions, not the original permitted amount. Burnet County is currently in a Stage 3 drought, which requires a 10 percent reduction in water usage. The county was previously under a Stage 4 drought, which requires a 15 percent reduction, when the violations occurred.

“I think it’s just been an adjustment to change for many communities,” Rowney said. “A lot of folks are not aware of the drought; that’s why it’s so important for people to be informed and know how to conserve.” 

Recent rains across the region have not had a huge impact on drought conditions.

“We’re still in a serious drought,” Rowney said. “Just because grass is green because of recent rain doesn’t mean we’re out of woods yet with groundwater level.” 

elizabeth@thepicayune.com