Preventative maintenance on a 17-mile stretch of RR 1431 from Industrial Boulevard in Marble Falls to south of Texas 29 in Llano County is causing traffic congestion between Marble Falls and Granite Shoals. The Texas Department of Transportation project is expected to last for several months and cost about $7.5 million.

The four-lane highway has been narrowed to two lanes as crews level the surface in preparation for a final overlay of about 2 inches of asphalt concrete.

“They expect to be able to put the final overlay on the roadway this spring and expect to be done with the project in summer 2024, weather permitting,” TxDOT public information officer Kellen Mohrmann told DailyTrib.com.

Workers will be on site for the majority of the near future.

“TxDOT allows its contractors to work sunrise to sunset to maximize work they can get done and minimize the length of time they are on a roadway section,” Mohrmann said. “When they are in the vicinity of schools, we typically ask them to wait until school has started to reduce impacts on school traffic.”

The project is a routine process to ensure state roads remain in good shape for longer periods.

“TxDOT conducts an inspection of all its roadways on an annual basis,” Mohrmann said. “These inspections look at the quality of the roadway, potential problems such as rutting, cracks, and other signs of distress.”

RR 1431 was pinpointed for improvements due to recent and future growth in the area.

“TxDOT also looks at traffic numbers and growth patterns to highlight roadways in areas seeing a lot of growth and determine if the roadways need additional work in anticipation of higher traffic volumes,” Mohrmann said.

nathan@thepicayune.com

Seven-year-old Isa Solorzano of Granite Shoals has been battling cancer for the last four years, and she’s winning. The girl was declared cancer-free on March 21. The Granite Shoals Police Department recently unveiled a new patrol vehicle decked out in Childhood Cancer Awareness decals in her honor.

GSPD Chief John Ortis promoted Isa from honorary police officer to honorary detective during the City Council meeting on Tuesday, March 26. She was also presented with a handmade American flag challenge coin display. The police department and community have been raising money and awareness for Isa’s condition through brisket sales. She was made an honorary officer in August 2022.

Detective Allen Miley, a friend of the Solorzano family, has been especially dedicated to raising funds and visited Isa after her cancer-free diagnosis at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth. Miley will be driving the newly dedicated patrol unit.

Isa was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a cancer that emanates from immature nerve cells, in 2020. She has been in and out of remission for the past four years but received a cancer-free scan in December 2023 after enduring months of treatment in Fort Worth. 

This month’s cancer-free scan was cause for celebration.

“After what felt like a lifetime of waiting for the results to come back, they came back negative!” reads a social media post from the Isa’s Fight Facebook page. “Our baby girl remains cancer-free!”

dakota@thepicayune.com

The Burnet County Commissioners Court declared March 23, 2024, a day of service to honor the late Donald Fawcett, a beloved fixture in the Burnet community. He is known for his decades of dedicated service, support of the local youth, and generosity with chocolate milk. Oh, he’s also the man who coined the phrase: “It’s Burnet, durnet; can’t’cha learn it” — letting people know how to pronounce the city’s name.

The first-ever Donald Fawcett Day of Service on Saturday, March 23, raised over $20,000 and built 20 beds that were donated to the Marble Falls branch of the nonprofit Sleep in Heavenly Peace, said Precinct 2 Commissioner Damon Beierle.

The Commissioners Court unanimously approved the proclamation for the day of service during its regular meeting on Tuesday, March 26. Four members of the court — Beierle, Judge James Oakley, and commissioners Billy Wall and Jim Luther — grew up when Fawcett was with the Burnet Consolidated Independent School District.

“When you’re young, you form these memories, you have these special moments. And part of those, if you went to school at Burnet Elementary School, on a hot day, (was) getting invited to go into a cold dairy truck and get some cold chocolate milk,” said Oakley, choked with emotion. “I’ll never forget that. You’d say, ‘Thank you, Mr. Fawcett,’ and he’d say, ‘Name’s Donald.’”

Fawcett died in June 2023 at the age of 84. He served in the U.S. Air Force, delivered milk to Camp Longhorn on Inks Lake for 58 years, cooked for fundraisers, weddings, PEC events, and everything in between, drove the after-school bus for First Baptist Church of Burnet, and was “the best custom firewood cutter in the state,” according to the county’s proclamation.

His fried fish was also said to be “like no other.”

dakota@thepicayune.com

Llano County commissioners expressed some skepticism of Emergency Management Coordinator Gilbert Bennett’s approach to preparing for the total solar eclipse when he gave one last briefing during a Commissioners Court meeting on Monday, March 25. Bennett has led the charge on county eclipse preparation for over a year.

“Thursday (March 28) will be my twenty-sixth meeting on the eclipse,” said Bennett at the outset of his presentation. “I’m really focused on 48 hours: Sunday (April 7), Monday (April 8), and into Tuesday (April 9).”

The centerline of the April 8 total solar eclipse will pass directly through Llano County, making it a prime destination for eclipse watchers from around the world. Data collected from the 2017 total solar eclipse over Oregon, Wyoming, and Colorado gave local leaders reason to believe that potentially tens of thousands of visitors could descend upon the Highland Lakes on and around April 8.

Bennett and other emergency management leaders have been preparing for the event since March 2023. While Bennett helped create the comprehensive Eclipse Information Guide and has spoken at several community town halls and given numerous briefings on the eclipse, he has consistently made it clear it is up to residents to be personally ready for any challenges that come with a massive amount of visitors.

“Every individual and neighborhood needs to be prepared for this event,” he said during a Llano County Commissioners Court meeting on Feb. 26. “It is not a declared disaster in Llano County yet.”

Burnet, San Saba, Travis, Bell, Kendall, and Kerr counties have all passed disaster declarations in case they need extra emergency assistance. 

Commissioner Peter Jones asked Bennett whether a burn ban should be imposed during the eclipse like ones scheduled for Burnet County and the city of Horseshoe Bay. Bennett said it would not be necessary due to the expected green foliage and wet weather.

Bennett’s office has made extensive preparations to coordinate with local fire departments, law enforcement, and emergency services to ensure effective communication continues during the eclipse and resources are properly allocated. However, he stressed that much of the trouble that could arise from the eclipse is out of his hands.

“We’ll define the things we can’t control: weather, other people and their plans and decisions, traffic, the moon and the sun, and trash,” he said.

Commissioner Jerry Don Moss pointed out he thought some of those things could be helped.

“I’ll disagree with you a little bit, as far as what people do,” Moss said. “We can help that a little bit, (especially with) trash. You and I have actually had this discussion.”

The Commissioners Court approved placing 10 dumpsters strategically across the county for use by eclipse visitors. Bennett plans to wait until after everyone leaves to set out the dumpsters so county residents don’t use them household trash and to discourage trash being generated at all.

“If you put a dumpster out, people are going to use it, even those who would take advantage of a free dumpster,” Bennett explained. “Doing it ahead of time, I think, will create a problem. I have a feeling that the majority of people will not litter. The majority of people will pick up their trash and take it with them.”

Moss questioned Bennett’s reasoning and implied it would make more sense to have the dumpsters available for visitors to use.

“What if there is trash, garbage, that is in bags (after the eclipse)? Who’s going to pick it up?” Moss asked.

Bennett responded that volunteers could be used.

Moss also asked if traffic over the Roy Inks Bridge would be managed at all. The bridge runs through the city of Llano and could become a natural chokepoint for heavy traffic.

“It’s going to be just like Fourth of July traffic,” Bennett said. “It will be like an L.A. freeway, moving two miles an hour across the bridge. You can’t do anything about traffic.”

The Llano County Sheriff’s Office and other first responders will stage units on either side of the bridge to ensure response times remain as low as possible in the event of heavy traffic.

“We’re as ready as we’ll ever be,” Bennett said. “We’ve had enough meetings about it.”

“I’m going to remember you said that,” Moss responded.

dakota@thepicayune.com

Horseshoe Bay Resort dropped its $1 million lawsuit against the Horseshoe Bay Property Owners’ Association on March 6. However, the order to dismiss does not prohibit resort officials from filing a similar suit in the future.

“If I had known how ridiculous all of this was, I would have never bought in Horseshoe Bay,” POA President Donald Beeman told DailyTrib.com. Beeman was individually named in the lawsuit.

Multiple attempts over the past two weeks to contact legal teams representing the resort and the POA were unsuccessful. Others contacted referred all questions as to why the suit was dropped to the two sides’ attorneys.

Resort officials originally filed the suit against the POA, Beeman, and POA Treasurer Belinda Roberts on Oct. 27, claiming the association had caused “irreparable harm” by failing to maintain its landscaped areas in a “first-class manner.”

“The POA has the ‘duty and obligation … to expend’ the money it receives to maintain the (Horseshoe Bay Resort) community,” read the resort’s initial filing on Oct. 27. “This lawsuit concerns the failure of the POA to fulfill its primary duty and obligation to the (Horseshoe Bay Resort) community.”

Other damages sought by the resort included an audit of POA funds and the appointment of a receiver to oversee the association to “prevent material damage” to the resort.

“Monetary damages will be inadequate to remedy the injury of losing access to key evidence and the accumulating physical damage to the subject property,” the Oct. 27 filing continued. 

Horseshoe Bay Resort filed the lawsuit after publicly banning all members of the POA’s Board of Directors from the resort and its associated amenities.

“It is essential for our community to understand these actions against the HSB POA Board were necessary to protect our common interests and preserve the community we all hold dear,” wrote Jordan Jaffe, the declarant of the resort, in an email to Horseshoe Bay residents on Oct. 6.

A temporary injunction hearing in Llano on Nov. 15 resulted in a mediation order from 424th District Judge Evan Stubbs after resort attorneys lobbied the court to “freeze” the POA’s accounts.

“I would hope the mediation will help flesh out logistics for how you work together,” Stubbs told both parties on Nov. 15.

Mediation on Feb. 12 was unsuccessful.

nathan@thepicayune.com

Testing is expected to begin by August on a third reservoir on the Highland Lakes chain that could go online by the end of 2024. Water in the Arbuckle Reservoir in Wharton County will be used to meet demands in the lower basin, mainly for agriculture customers. 

“We expect to see the amount of water required to be released from the Highland Lakes for downstream customers decline,” said LCRA Executive Vice President of Water John Hofmann. “It’s important to note the amount of water LCRA may divert from the river into the reservoir is limited, as some river flow must be allowed to continue downstream into Matagorda Bay.”

Arbuckle will take some of the pressure off of the Highland Lakes, especially reservoirs Buchanan and Travis. Because the two reservoirs now have a combined storage of below-45 percent capacity, all LCRA customers are on once-a-week watering restrictions. No water from the Highland Lakes has been available for most interruptible agricultural customers since July 2022 due to drought conditions.

The Arbuckle Reservoir is about 1,000 acres and 40 feet deep. When full, it will hold 40,000 acre-feet of water. Unlike lakes Buchanan and Travis, it will not be open to recreational use. 

It is the first project that will allow the LCRA to capture and store a significant amount of water downstream of the Highland Lakes.  

According to the LCRA, the new reservoir will: 

• benefit the entire basin by reducing the amount of water released from the Highland Lakes to serve downstream demands, including industrial and agricultural customers;
• add up to 90,000 acre-feet per year to the region’s water supply, with water in the reservoir being used and the reservoir refilled multiple times a year;
• allow the LCRA to capture and store significant amounts of water downstream of the Highland Lakes for the first time;
• improve the reliability of water for agriculture and reduce the chance that interruptible water will be cut back or off;
• and increase the LCRA’s operational flexibility by making managed releases closer to Matagorda Bay possible. About 20 percent of the water released from the Highland Lakes is lost to evaporation and seepage in the on-average, seven-day transit to Matagorda County.

Fill testing is expected to begin this summer and should be completed by the end of August. 

“We expect the reservoir to be available to meet customer demands by late 2024,” Hofmann said. 

suzanne@thepicayune.com

A video recording taken last summer of a Burnet County constable arguing with a woman while serving an eviction notice at 1 a.m. recently surfaced on social media and is raising questions about who regulates elected law enforcement officers.

Former Burnet County resident Halley Kilburn filed a complaint with the Burnet County Sheriff’s Office on Feb. 29 against Precinct 2 Constable Garry Adams for his early morning visit to her home in August 2023 to serve the notice. 

DailyTrib.com obtained footage taken by Kilburn of the interaction. It depicts Adams standing beside his car, which is pulled up to the front of her home just outside of a fenced yard, headlights shining on her front door and through her windows. Adams confronts Kilburn when she opens the door as he throws the eviction notice over the fence into her yard.  

In the video, Kilburn repeatedly asks for Adam’s name and badge number and why he arrived so early in the morning.

Adams initially ignores her request for a name and badge number, stating, “I don’t have one” to both questions, but does eventually tell her his last name. 

Another exchange goes like this:

“There is protocol for this type of thing,” Kilburn says.

“There is not. Is there? What is it, Ms. California?” Adams responds.

Kilburn shouts over Adams, repeatedly saying “bye, bye, bye” and demanding that he leave. Adams mocks her, shouting “bye, bye, bye” as he walks closer to the fence.

The interaction ends with Kilburn telling him to never come back and Adams answering, “I will be back.”

“We looked into the complaint and did follow through,” Burnet County Sheriff Calvin Boyd told DailyTrib.com. “There will be no criminal charges filed (against Adams).”

Legally, a constable can serve civil papers, like an eviction notice, at any hour of any day other than Sunday. Adams didn’t break the law by arguing with Kilburn in the wee hours, but it could be viewed as unprofessional.

“I was recently made aware of the video, and I am very concerned with the level of unprofessionalism displayed,” Precinct 2 Justice of the Peace Lisa Whitehead told DailyTrib.com. “The papers being served were issued out of my court, but the court has no involvement with the actual service of the papers or how they are served.”

Adams and Whitehead represent the same precinct and their jobs do occasionally intersect, but the JP stressed that constables are elected officials and solely responsible and accountable for their actions and behavior. Whitehead handles civil matters, like evictions and small claims court cases, in the precinct; Adams serves eviction notices and informs residents that they are being sued. Both justice of the peace and constable are elected positions, but neither works for or answers to the other.

“The court is only responsible for settling the dispute in the case before the court after the constable has lawfully served the cause of action citation to the parties specified,” Whitehead said.

Like all elected officials, constables are accountable to voters. Adams has been the Precinct 2 constable since 2013, and he just won the March 5 Republican primary. With no Democratic challenger in November, he essentially sealed his re-election bid.

“There’s really not a regulatory agency like the judges have,” Travis County Precinct 5 Constable Carlos Lopez told DailyTrib.com, referring to the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct. “Really, they are elected officials and they are beholden to the people, the voters.”

Constables are law enforcement officers who have the power to arrest, write tickets, or do anything else a certified peace officer can do. Their main function, however, is to serve civil papers in their precinct.

Kilburn told DailyTrib.com that she did not file a complaint against Adams sooner because she believed it wouldn’t be heard in the county, but after seeing Adams’ re-election posters in early 2024, she decided to follow through.

“I didn’t file a complaint sooner because I felt like it was such a ‘men’s club,’” she said. 

Kilburn said she was involved in a disagreement with the landlord of Castle View RV Park in Briggs over a lack of services. 

“There was an eviction notice, but it was based on false information,” she said. “He (Adams) came, not to serve papers, but to harass me. There was no late payment, no behavior issues, no documented reasons to evict me. I had already given my notice that I was leaving within a week. They had him come down anyway.” 

Adams explained that he had attempted to make contact with Kilburn by phone and written notice regarding her eviction several times before his early morning visit.

“She had every opportunity in the world to contact me,” he said. “I did everything I could to get her to talk to me. I drove by (that night) and saw the TV on, so I stopped. I stayed outside the fence.”

dakota@thepicayune.com

The Falls on the Colorado Museum can now expand its exhibit space with $250,000 from the Marble Falls Independent School District. The MFISD Board of Trustees approved the funds on March 19 for repairs to the historic structure, 2001 Broadway, which the district owns and leases to the museum officials.

The money will be spent to stabilize the museum’s second story.

“I think this is something that is precious to our community,” MFISD Superintendent Dr. Jeff Gasaway said during the school board meeting. “It would not be wise to let it go untreated because I think it will fall into a state of disarray.”

The Old Granite Building, now the museum, was constructed in 1891 and was the first Marble Falls schoolhouse, educating students from 1908 until 1987. The district leased it to The Falls on the Colorado Museum board in 2010.

“This is a living monument of Marble Falls history,” Assistant Superintendent of Administration Stan Whittle told the board.

Sparks Engineering identified problems with the building’s crawlspace, attic, floor framing, and second-story interior walls. MFISD enlisted Target Solutions to correct the issues.

The museum will handle other improvements, including replacing 57 windows at an estimated cost of about $240,000. Officials are considering fundraisers to help pay for the project.

“As soon as you tell us to go to work, we’ll go to work fundraising,” museum Vice Chairman Darlene Oostemeyer told the school board.

One plan is to let museum donors purchase a window at a time for $5,000 and add their names to the windowsills.

The work is vital to preserving the past into the future, Oostemeyer said.

“Our vision is to keep that building standing for another 100 years, hopefully, if we don’t have a tornado or other mass catastrophe going on,” she said.

Superintendent Gasaway reminded MFISD trustees of the district’s mission of bringing more students to the site to learn about local history. 

“My hope is that every single one of our elementary campuses will pick a grade level (to send to the museum), because it is a gem,” he said.

The Falls on the Colorado Museum, 2001 Broadway in Marble Falls, is open from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Admission is free.

nathan@thepicayune.com

The Lower Colorado River Authority recently replaced the first of 10 floodgates on Wirtz Dam. The three-year project to remove and replace all floodgates on the structure that separates Lake LBJ from Lake Marble Falls is estimated to cost around $76 million. 

The original nine floodgates were put in place when the dam was completed in 1951. A 10th floodgate was added when the Thomas C. Ferguson Power Plant was built in 1974. 

“Most of the floodgates have been in place for 73 years, so it’s time for them to be updated,” said Kelly Payne, LCRA vice president of Water Operations. “We’re in a drought now, but we’re in Flash Flood Alley, and we know the next flood could be right around the corner.”

Weighing in at 120,000 pounds each, the custom-built floodgates are being constructed near the dam and then moved into place by barges and cranes. Wirtz Dam will remain operational as the project continues. 

“It’s an exacting process to remove and replace floodgates on a working dam,” Payne said. “We gained valuable insight on the first floodgate that is proving to be helpful as we work on removing and replacing the remaining floodgates.”

Replacing rather than refurbishing the floodgates is faster and has the lowest safety and environmental risks, said the LCRA, which is also replacing the existing hoist bridge. 

The project should be completed in 2025. During that time, the area up to about 300 feet upstream of Wirtz Dam on Lake LBJ will remain off-limits to boaters.

In October 2020, the LCRA finished replacing the nine original floodgates on Tom Miller Dam in Austin. In 2021, the authority completed a project to upgrade and rehabilitate each of the 37 floodgates at Buchanan Dam in Burnet County.

Since fiscal year 2010, the LCRA has invested over $165 million in capital projects at the dams along the Highland Lakes, Lake Bastrop, and Lake Fayette, including related hydroelectric generation infrastructure. LCRA plans to invest more than $101 million in similar projects over the next five years.

editor@thepicayune.com