proclamation to acknowledge April as Child Abuse Awareness Month
discussion and action regarding the approval to post a non-paying summer internship at the Burnet County Jail to bridge the gap between the criminal justice system and mental health services
discussion and action regarding the final plat of Phase 1 of The Estates of Dominion Ranch
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A $130 million retail center with big name interest is coming to south Marble Falls by the end of 2025. Developers with Shops at Flatrock Crossing are currently in discussions with potential tenants, including T.J. Maxx, Chipotle, Olive Garden, Longhorn Steakhouse, Ulta Beauty, a “nationally branded sporting goods concept,” an 87,050-square-foot grocery store, and others.
“Those are all businesses that we have reached out with and are talking with,” project associate Josh Robles told DailyTrib.com.
The 350,000-square-foot development will be located along U.S. 281 between the 7/11 convenience store and the Marble Falls Rodeo Arena.
“We hope to bring a realm of shops to the local community to ease the burden of driving into Austin,” Robles said.
The Marble Falls City Council will consider approving an $11.2 million economic development agreement for the project later this April. Financial incentives include a 10-year sales tax abatement.
The Marble Falls Economic Development Corp. Board of Directors approved $3.8 million in incentives for the project earlier in 2024.
“It’s only out of new money,” said EDC Director Christian Fletcher, referring to the structure of the agreement. “We’re not having to spend money out of our current budget and have it be competitive with other things. This is money that we’ve never had before that the project will generate. They’ll get a percentage back over a 10-year period.”
Fletcher explained why the development received support from the city and EDC.
“Something of that size, in a market like Marble Falls, to get the tenants that they’re going to get, needs some public support,” he said. “Not to mention, that tract has some pretty challenging site conditions with rock and topography. It’s Hill Country.”
A regional retail center of that size would have an immense impact on the local economy, Robles said.
“We’re looking at bringing a good amount of jobs for the community and a whole lot of sales tax revenue for the city with national and regional stores that the town has been yearning for,” he said.
A public announcement for more information on Shops at Flatrock Crossing will be presented by tenant representative Bobby Johnson during a regular meeting of the Marble Falls City Council on May 7.
“He’s going to do a presentation and show who the tenants are going to be,” Fletcher said.
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Burnet, Llano, and Blanco counties have backup plans if normal communications fail during the total solar eclipse on Monday, April 8. Highland Lakes Amateur Radio Emergency Services members have already set up command posts at the Burnet County Sheriff’s Office, Marble Falls Fire Department, Baylor Scott & White Hospital in Marble Falls, Seton Ascension Highland Lakes hospital in Burnet, Llano County Office of Emergency Management in Llano, Llano County police dispatch in Llano, and MidCoast Central Medical Center in Llano.
The Texas Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service is set up in Blanco County.
“If the 911 dispatch system gets overloaded and cellphone systems get overloaded and people can’t call in, we will be able to keep communications going,” said Tom Hauer, KOYA, Amateur Radio Emergency Services coordinator for the South Texas region, District 8. “We are asking all our radio guys to be visible and let people know they are there. Some of them are setting up outside in their neighborhoods.”
Hauer’s wife, Toni, will be visible and connected at their home on RR 1431 in Smithwick.
All radio operators will have the ability to contact dispatch in Burnet, Llano, and Blanco counties during emergencies. The amateur radio service will be active on the following frequencies:
VHF Voice and Data
Command Net on 147.020 mHz Repeater (100 Hz)
Monitor Backup Repeater 145.390 mHz (103.5 Hz)
Monitor 146.520 Simplex
Data 145.030 mHz
Data 145.070 mHz
Tactical Simplex assigned as required
UHF Voice and Data
State Operations Center 444.500 Repeater (110.9)
Monitor 446.000 Simplex
Data 441.075 mHz
Tactical Simplex assigned as required
HF Voice and Data
State Operations – 7.255 mHz
Data – 3.5945 mHz or 7.1001 mHz
“Anyone with an amateur license who has an issue can send us a message on those frequencies,” Hauer said. “The Highland Lakes-wide area repeater — 147.020 — that is the most important frequency.”
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The Marble Falls EDC Board of Directors on April 3 approved over $16,000 for a traffic study to collect data on city thoroughfares.
“Traffic counts are important bits of information,” EDC Executive Director Christian Fletcher told the board during the Wednesday meeting. “They help us locally as well as for (generating) prospect interest in terms of what’s happening in Marble Falls.”
The study follows similar traffic studies by the city’s Economic Development Corp. over the past years to gain insight into traffic patterns.
Data will be collected from April 17-19 to mirror those past studies.
“We’re just trying to keep it consistent with times that we’ve done it in the past so that we can say in eight years, for example, this is what it typically looks like,” Fletcher said.
GRAM Traffic Counting will do the work.
“It’s going to be interesting to see,” EDC Director Mark Mayfield said. “It seems like the traffic has just increased.”
Roadways in the study include:
Texas 71, east of U.S. 281 interchange
Texas 71, west of U.S. 281
RR 1431, west of Industrial Boulevard
RR 1431, between Parkview and Mustang drives
RR 1431, east of Manzano Mile
U.S. 281, south of Rodeo Drive
U.S. 281, north of Marble Heights Drive
U.S. 281, north of Colt Circle
U.S. 281, north of Resource Parkway
Traffic counters will also be placed at the intersection of U.S. 281 and FM 2147 and the intersection of U.S. 281 and RR 1431.
IN OTHER BUSINESS
The EDC board granted $14,000 to Highland Lakes Creative Arts for Paint the Town during the meeting. Money will go toward the operating budget for the annual arts festival and the nonprofit’s year-round Sculpture on Main program. The 2024 Paint the Town is from April 21-27.
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The Granite Shoals City Council tasked Interim City Manager Sarah Novo with developing a proclamation to strongly encourage residents and developers to preserve large trees on their properties. The council opted for a proclamation rather than an ordinance out of respect for the property rights of the city’s homeowners.
The request was made during the council’s regular meeting on March 26 following a lengthy discussion.
“I think it’s a wonderful thing to protect the trees, but this is Texas and property rights are number one,” said Councilor Phil Ort, who researched tree protection policies in other cities on behalf of Granite Shoals. “If somebody buys a piece of land with a 400-year-old tree, they can do whatever they want. That is their tree. It might be absolutely stupid to cut it down, but that is their choice because that is their property.”
The rest of the council ultimately agreed with Ort, and Novo volunteered to draft a proclamation that suggests landowners voluntarily preserve their large trees.
“I hate to get caught up in the weeds on this, but at the same time, I think we need to do something just to say that we encourage people to preserve them, if at all possible,” Mayor Ron Munos said.
Munos originally brought the idea of protecting the city’s heritage trees before the council in January when two large oak trees were felled outside of his home at Tropical Hideaway Condominiums. The trees were cut down to make room for a new wastewater treatment plant.
Many cities in Texas have some kind of policy for protecting large trees. Ort included ordinances and guidelines from Cedar Park, Georgetown, and Austin in a research packet he presented to the council.
Cedar Park has a 16-page ordinance detailing everything from required tree surveys before building to the $1,000 fines for cutting down or damaging a tree.
Georgetown has an 18-page guide on the dos and don’ts of tree protection.
Austin has staunch protections for its heritage trees, which it defines as any tree from among 10 distinct species that measure at least 24 inches in diameter at 4.5 feet from the ground.
“As much as I would love to protect these trees, I cannot support any ordinance that takes away somebody’s property rights,” Ort said.
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After months of planning and negotiations, an illegal private dam across the James River in Mason County will be demolished per a stream restoration plan submitted by property owner Bill Neusch to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
The TPWD discovered that Neusch had built an unpermitted dam across the James River on his Mason County ranch in September 2023 and ordered him to remove it in October. Neusch and the department went back and forth over how to handle the removal until late March, when the property owner’s proposed restoration plan was approved.
“Construction (and removal of the dam) is estimated to start before the end of March 2024 and is estimated to take approximately two weeks; however, the construction schedule is subject to change based on weather conditions or other factors,” reads Neusch’s proposal, which was prepared by the Boerne-based environmental engineering firm Westward.
The James River is a tributary of the Llano River, which supplies the city of Llano with drinking water and substantially contributes to Lake LBJ and beyond.
The dam drew considerable public backlash during harsh drought conditions in 2023, not only because it captured water destined for downstream but because it was constructed illegally.
“(Neusch) just went ahead and built his dam without bothering to go through the approval process,” Mason County resident Scott Zesch told DailyTrib.com. “I see (the dam removal) as a great triumph. I think the biggest concern of the people I’ve been in contact with is the precedent it would set (to allow an illegal private dam to exist).”
Zesch began emailing updates on unpermitted private dams to his neighbors in 2006 when another Mason County landowner tried putting up two. He has since built up a formidable email list that includes local media outlets and dozens of residents spanning multiple Central Texas counties.
“I’ve called myself the accidental conservationist,” he said. “I never intended to get involved in these issues, but I had a good email list.”
Neusch’s restoration plan consists of removing about 310 feet of roadway from the bed of the James River. The dam doubled as a river crossing. The plan will allow for semi-permanent ramps so vehicles can cross the river during low-water conditions, but otherwise, the bed will be returned as close to a natural state as possible and allow for unimpeded flow of the James River.
Private dams became a flashpoint for community activism throughout the summer of 2023, ignited by a proposed structure that would have spanned the South Llano River in Edwards County. Landowner Gregory Garland withdrew his permit application for a dam with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality after immense public outcry.
An estimated 12,500 unregistered private dams and ponds impound about 35,000 acre-feet of water in the Upper Colorado Basin, according to a study from Texas Water Development Board hydrologist Jordan Furnans. That acreage is equivalent to nearly four times the size of Lake Marble Falls.
“The (study’s) results suggest that the impact of small ponds and land use/land cover changes accounts for some (if not all) of the differences between streamflows observed in the 1947‐1957 and 2008‐2016 drought periods,” reads the conclusion of Furnan’s study.
The Colorado River and its northern tributaries provide the majority of water to Lake Buchanan and the lower Highland Lakes chain, which ultimately supply the Austin-metro area with most of its water.
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Granite Shoals is offering mass trash disposal services to residents during a city-wide cleanup on April 27 from 8 a.m. to noon on the grounds of City Hall, 2221 N. Phillips Ranch Road. It will run on a first-come, first-served basis until dumpsters are full, so arrive early.
The collection is mostly free. A fee for tossing tires is based on size: $5 for passenger vehicle tires (with or without rims) and $20 for skid steer and 18-wheeler tires (with or without rims).
A water bill or driver’s license is required as proof of Granite Shoals residence.
Document shredding services will be offered from 8-10 a.m. All staples, paper clips, and any other binding must be removed beforehand.
Contractors will not be allowed to dispose of work waste during the event.
The following items are free to toss during the city-wide cleanup day:
branches, bagged leaves, and loose yard waste
water heaters
furniture
appliances like washers, dryers, microwaves, and dishwashers (NO appliances containing Freon, like refrigerators and air conditioners)
stoves
mattresses
toilets and sinks
scrap metal
The following will not be accepted:
appliances containing Freon, like refrigerators and air conditioners
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.
The city of Granite Shoals is offering $20 parking spaces at Quarry Park on the day of the eclipse, Monday, April 8, to recoup some of the cost of safety preparations. Fire Chief Tim Campbell hopes the parking spaces will also draw people off of the main road to reduce traffic and trespassing.
Granite Shoals and the rest of the Highland Lakes communities are in the direct path of the eclipse, meaning the area is a prime destination for visitors from nearby Williamson and Travis counties.
“I’ve said all along what’s going to get us is Williamson and Travis (counties), the several millions of people that decide to get in their vehicle and drive over here for the day,” Campbell said.
The fire chief gave his final presentation on eclipse preparations during the Granite Shoals City Council’s regular meeting on March 26. Additional first responders will be on shift and extra fuel staged to supply emergency service vehicles.
The city will begin adding supplemental firefighters and police officers to standard shifts starting Friday, April 5, then nearly doubling staff on Monday and Tuesday. The additional staff will assist with emergency responses, which might be heavily delayed due to traffic from day-tripping eclipse watchers.
Campbell referred to after-action reports from rural cities that were in the path of the 2017 total solar eclipse, such as Madras, Oregon, a town of roughly 7,000, which had over 90,000 visitors on the day of the eclipse.
Granite Shoals originally budgeted $16,000 for firefighter overtime and $25,000 for police overtime, which it had hoped to fund by renting out 200 RV spots at $500 each for the four days surrounding the eclipse. The RV spots were posted in June 2023, but little came of it. As of April 1, only two of the spots had been rented out. The city has since reduced its budget for those four days to $8,500 for firefighter overtime and $2,500 for police overtime.
Extra helicopters will be staged across the Highland Lakes for emergency medical transports, landlines have been established in case cell service goes down, and Granite Shoals will have a dedicated tow truck on hand for accidents and stranded vehicles.
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