Burnet County might have to redraw its voting precincts in 2025 as population shifts are pushing some out of the state-mandated range of registered voters. The Commissioners Court plans to seek expert advice before changes become necessary.
“My recommendation to the court would be that next year (2025), in March, we begin looking at the precincts because we are already pushing it,” said Burnet County First Assistant Attorney Colleen Davis during a presentation to commissioners on Tuesday, May 28.
Davis was referring to a handful of voting precincts in Burnet County that are growing faster than the others, which could have disproportionate impacts on elections and constituent representation.
All of the county’s precincts are currently in compliance with the code, but some are approaching the limits.
Precinct 19 has the highest population in the county with 4,150 registered class A voters and 417 class S voters, which do not count toward the total. Class A voters are active, while S signifies a registered voter who does not consistently live in the precinct or who has moved out of it.
Precinct 19 includes southern Marble Falls, eastern Horseshoe Bay, Cottonwood Shores, most of Meadowlakes, and the area surrounding the U.S. 281-Texas 71 intersection.
In contrast, the lowest-population precinct is Precinct 14, which has 630 registered class A voters and 40 class S voters. It includes a wide swathe of north-central Burnet County surrounding the unincorporated community of Lake Victor.
These population differences can mean significant challenges for some elected officials, such as party precinct chairs, who must reside within their precinct. A precinct chair in District 14 would only have to win the majority of 677 voters in an election as opposed to a District 19 candidate, who would have to win the majority of 4,567 voters.
Further complicating matters is that voting precincts must be completely within the four precincts that elect county commissioners, justices of the peace, and constables. Redrawing voting precincts can change the area that each of those elected officials serves.
Redrawing these precincts is extremely complicated,” said First Assistant Attorney Davis. “You do want them to be fairly even, but you also don’t want the power of voters to be centralized in one area.”
The Burnet County Commissioners Court took no action on redrawing voting precincts during its Tuesday meeting but plans to bring in an outside expert in January before a March review of the precincts.
“(Changing voting precincts) is not something that can be done quickly or easily,” Davis said. “We are going to need some experts to guide us on how to do that.”
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Bienvenidos Insurance held a grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony in Granite Shoals on Friday, May 24. The multilingual agency is located at 906 Phillips Ranch Road.
“I’ve just loved getting to know the community and the people and teaching them about insurance and what is available to them, especially the Hispanic community,” owner Nancy Ramirez told DailyTrib.com at the ribbon-cutting.
Bienvenidos offers auto, commercial, and home policies.
The Granite Shoals office is open from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Friday. This is the second location for the new agency, which opened its first office in Marble Falls in August.
Granite Shoals Mayor Ron Munos, Councilor Brian Edwards, interim City Manager Sarah Novo, and Fire Chief Tim Campbell attended the grand opening and welcomed Ramirez to the city.
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The city of Bertram is trying to expand its annual groundwater allowance to spur development, but groundwater officials in Burnet County want to see how neighboring landowners would be impacted before additional water is approved.
Bertram’s water supply is totally dependent upon two large wells on County Road 340 just outside of Burnet. The city wants to increase its annual allowable groundwater use from 792 acre-feet to 895 acre-feet.
During a May 23 public hearing and meeting on the matter, the Central Texas Groundwater Conservation District Board of Directors voted to require Bertram to conduct a hydrogeologic study to determine if an increase would harm neighboring wells.
“What the board needs to understand in order to grant this permit is: Will the wells in the permit unreasonably affect surrounding landowners and well owners?” district General Manager Mitchell Sodek told DailyTrib.com. “That’s the question we’re trying to answer through this hydrogeologic investigation.”
Sodek recommended the study, telling the district’s board this would be a first. The study would include pumping each well for 24 hours and measuring the drawdown at surrounding wells on neighboring properties.
Bertram City Administrator Georgina Hernandez told DailyTrib.com the request for more water was due to incoming developments. The city of roughly 2,000 residents is expecting a full build-out of two developments, which will bring 500 new homes.
Right now, Bertram does not use all of its 792 acre-feet of water. About 400 acre-feet services 1,100 customers inside and outside of the city, according to Hernandez. However, once the new subdivisions are complete, the city will approach its current maximum annual allotment.
“The only reason why a city would ask for more water is for growth,” Hernandez said. “With the new subdivisions that are coming in, we knew we’d have to increase our groundwater permit.”
Bertram’s groundwater use permit more than doubled in January 2023 when it acquired 426 acres of additional groundwater rights to accommodate expected growth.
Hernandez expressed frustration with the process, stating that the Central Texas Groundwater Conservation District, which manages groundwater in Burnet County, seemed to be “moving the finish line” when it came to permit approval. Bertram has the needed groundwater rights, and its wells are capable of producing the requested amount.
Now, Hernandez said, the district is requiring a potentially costly and time-consuming study.
The current cost of a study is unknown, but the district has offered to pay for a portion of it through an interlocal agreement once Bertram selects a consultant.
“We’re not saying we expect anything negative to show up in the study, but that’s the whole purpose of doing it: to ensure that we protect those other well owners’ interests as well,” Sodek said.
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After two months of searching for a new city manager on its own, the Meadowlakes City Council unanimously approved $20,000 to hire a recruiting firm during its May 21 meeting.
“Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t,” said Mayor Mark Bentley about the job search. “I don’t think it’s worked out. We need to get someone on board sooner rather than later because Johnnie’s time is limited.”
Meadowlakes relied on free advertising on the Texas Municipal League website to garner interest in the city’s top job. The posting led to about 25 applicants.
“Among those, there was either some problems on what they’ve posted on Facebook, their records, or they just didn’t seem to have the qualifications,” Bentley said.
The mayor pointed to one candidate in particular.
“There was one real nice (applicant), but he was probably like 24 years old,” he said. “He’s going to be a good city manager one day, but not now. We didn’t want to bring him up the learning curve.”
About six candidates were deemed acceptable by the city’s search committee, which includes Bentley, Thompson, Councilor Barbara Peskin, and residents Mike Shaw and Kyle Stripling.
“We’ve had someone making $15 an hour all the way up to people that operated storage buildings,” Thompson said during the meeting. “We really just haven’t had a real good pool.”
Only three of the top six candidates responded to an email sent by Thompson earlier in May to gauge interest. Two replied that they no longer wanted the job.
“The only one that did apply that was still interested was at the bottom of the list,” Thompson said. “He barely made the cut.”
The council is urgently trying to fill the city manager’s role ahead of budget season this summer.
“We need to do this pretty soon,” said Peskin about hiring a recruiting firm. “We’re running out of time.”
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The Central Texas Groundwater Conservation District has downgraded the drought stage for Burnet County and reduced mandatory groundwater restrictions for large-scale users in light of improvements to local aquifers.
The district’s Board of Directors on Thursday, May 23, unanimously voted to drop the drought stage from Stage 4 Critical to Stage 3 Severe. Burnet County had been under Stage 4, the most serious, since June 2022. The board also voted to reduce mandatory restrictions on permitted groundwater users from 15 percent to 10 percent. Mandatory restrictions have been in place since December 2022.
Board President Ryan Rowney told DailyTrib.com that the board made its decision at the recommendation of Groundwater Conservation District General Manager Mitchell Sodek. Rowney explained that local groundwater supplies had improved, according to district findings, and remaining in the highest drought stage with those improvements would not have been reasonable.
“We’re seeing some moderate increase in our groundwater levels,” Rowney told DailyTrib.com. “When you see that ‘extreme’ level for so long, it loses its potency. We do want folks to continue to be aware of the drought, but there have been improvements.”
Stage 3 Severe drought policy recommends that Burnet County groundwater users voluntarily reduce their usage by 20 percent and avoid non-essential watering. This stage also allows for 10 percent mandatory reduced usage for permitted users. The Stage 4 Critical policy recommends 30 percent use reduction and allows for 15 percent mandatory reductions on permitted users.
Burnet County was in an “extreme drought” for most of 2022 and 2023, according to the Palmer Hydrological Drought Index, a system used by the Groundwater Conservation District to help determine the severity of a drought. The county shifted into “severe drought” in November 2023 and remained there through April 2024.
Rowney said he was grateful for recent rain but wary of the coming summer and warned of the potential for a return to harsher restrictions.
“(The rain) is great, it is springtime, but summer is on us and the rain can shut off anytime,” he said.
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discussion and action of Janet Cummings as independent contractor for VetRides
appointments for the local broadband planning committee
discussion and action regarding overtime for Burnet County Sheriff’s Office employees during the April 2024 eclipse and further regarding the funding source for payment
discussion and possible action to amend the conflict of interest section of the county’s personnel polices and employee handbook
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An albino peacock is running loose in Marble Falls, and law enforcement is advising residents to leave it alone.
“It’s living its best peacock life,” said Capt. Jimmy Cole of the Marble Falls Police Central Investigations Division.
The all-white bird was first spotted during the total solar eclipse on April 8. The MFPD has received numerous calls about it since then.
“It’s crazy to think it’s been close to about two months since the first-known sighting of him,” said MFPD Animal Control Officer Bri Freegard.
People have seen the peacock at several locations in Marble Falls, including on Industrial Boulevard and at shops along U.S. 281.
“It’s kind of all over,” Cole said. “People seem to enjoy it.”
Without adequate equipment to catch a bird of its size, police officials have decided to let the peacock roam around town until peafowl breeding season ends in September.
“It’s too soon to tell if we’ll have to catch it or if it will fly back home,” Cole said. “We just want everyone to enjoy it for now.”
The peacock’s origins remain a mystery.
“We’re not 100 percent sure where it lives,” Cole said.
If you cross paths with the peacock, don’t feed it, Freegard advised.
“People think that is the safest and most honorable thing to do, but it’s still a wild animal like deer and geese and ducks at the parks,” she said. “You never know what could happen. We certainly don’t want the public to put themselves in a situation where they could possibly get injured or hurt.”
ABOUT PEACOCKS
The peacock, also known as a peafowl, originates from India, which declared it the national bird in 1963.
Like most fowl, peacocks are omnivores with a wide-ranging diet that includes small snakes, insects, fruits, and berries. In Sanskrit, peacocks are known as “mayura,” which loosely translates to “the killer of snakes.”
Peafowl normally walk or run, but they can fly. They typically prefer to fly in strong, short bursts to escape predators. They also take flight to reach the tops of trees to roost at night.
Wild peacocks live 15-20 years in the wild; domesticated peafowl can live up to 40 years.
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Election Day in the Republican and Democratic primary runoffs is Tuesday, May 28, the day after Memorial Day. Early voting ends on Friday, May 24.
All eligible voters can cast a ballot, even if they did not vote in the March 5 primary. The only restriction is that voters cannot switch parties to vote. If you voted in the Democratic primary in March, you can only vote for Democratic runoff candidates on May 28, and vice versa.
Only registered voters who live in Precinct 3 in Burnet County can vote in the race for a new county commissioner. The same is true in Llano County, where Precinct 3 (mostly Kingsland) voters also will be choosing a new county commissioner. Both seats are open with no incumbent.
Visit the DailyTrib.com 2024 Primary Runoffs guide for local Republican candidates’ views on key issues in their communities and links to their interviews on KBEY 103.9 FM Radio Picayune. No Democrats are running for county office.
Names as they are appear on the ballots are listed below followed by voting locations.
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