Agendas for Highland Lakes governments are posted 72 hours before a meeting so are not always ready by the time this story is published. Check the links for more information.
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The city of Burnet will not hold its annual rainbow trout release at Hamilton Creek Park this winter due to the long-term effects of the historic July 4 floods. The winter tradition has been a popular activity for local anglers for decades, typically coupled with vendors and good eats.
Burnet City Manager David Vaughn told DailyTrib that the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s deadline for this year’s trout release, which landed around the fall months of 2025, was too soon after the July flooding for the city to know logistically if it would be prepared to hold the event.
“We did not order any trout this year because of all the flood damage at (Hamilton Creek Park),” Vaughn said. “It is my understanding that we had to place the order in August or September and there were just too many unknowns at the time.”
In previous years, Hamilton Creek Park has seen anywhere up to 1,000 trout released as part of the TPWD initiative. TPWD has estimated that over 335,000 trout will be released this year statewide.
For any interested anglers still wanting in on trout action, Llano will be holding its annual release party from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 7, at Grenwelge Park. Fishers can expect fly fishing, free hot dogs, and a Q&A session with TPWD Angler Education Program representatives.
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A Granite Shoals man accused of practicing medicine without a license is now also facing multiple drug charges – including a first-degree felony – for large quantities of “controlled substances.”
Daniel Alejos, 50, was arrested by Granite Shoals police on Monday, Feb. 2, and released the following day on bond after authorities filed five drug-related charges stemming from a months-long investigation conducted by local law enforcement.
Alejos was initially arrested on Jan. 9 on a third-degree felony charge of practicing medicine without a license.
Four of the charges allege manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance in penalty groups 3 or 4, which includes certain prescription medications. Each of those charges is classified as a state jail felony, punishable by 180 days to 2 years in prison, with bonds set at $50,000 per charge.
Alejos is also charged with manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance in Penalty Group 1, involving an alleged amount of between four and 200 grams of an undisclosed substance.
Penalty Group 1 is the most serious classification of controlled substances, and includes drugs such as cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, fentanyl, and ketamine. That charge is classified as a first-degree felony, which is punishable by five to 99 years in prison.
According to Burnet County Sheriff Calvin Boyd, the investigation began after several local physicians alerted law enforcement to concerns that Alejos was practicing medicine without a license. The investigation culminated in the execution of search warrants by the Burnet County Sheriff’s Office and the Llano County Sheriff’s Office in January.
Search warrants were served at Alejos’ home practice at 107 E. Blue Briar in Granite Shoals and at his recently opened clinic, Clinica Hispana Santa Maria, located in Kingsland.
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During a routine traffic stop on Thursday, Feb. 5, Burnet County Sheriff’s Office deputies identified and detained an individual on the national terrorist watchlist. The individual — a passenger in the stopped commercial-grade truck — and the driver were reportedly taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents following the incident.
According to a media release issued by the BCSO, a commercial vehicle enforcement officer pulled over a southbound truck at around 6:16 a.m. on Thursday in the 8100 block of U.S. 281, near the YMCA of the Highland Lakes, for failing to maintain a single lane of travel.
Officers were reportedly told by the vehicle’s occupants that they had left Oklahoma City at approximately 11:56 p.m. the night before. The BCSO media release indicates that officers questioned the story due to travel time discrepancies, prompting further investigation.
The BCSO officers found that the passenger of the truck was on the national terrorist watchlist, a database maintained by the Terrorist Screening Center that keeps track of known and suspected terrorists across the world.
According to BCSO, the driver and the passenger were both from Afghanistan. Their identities were not shared or made available by the publication time of this article.
The truck was searched by a Burnet Police Department narcotics dog, which alerted on it, allowing for a more thorough search of the vehicle and its cargo. No additional substances were located in the search.
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Jackson Street Jams is back with an encore in 2026, ready to rock the stage beginning Saturday, March 14. The free, Burnet concert series will kick off with performances from Moe Bandy and Joe Stampley at 7 p.m.
Food trucks open at 6 p.m. and will remain open throughout the concert.
Jackson Street Jams’ free concert series is an initiative started by the Burnet Community Coalition which serves as a partnership between the city, Economic Development Corporation, Chamber of Commerce, and Burnet County Tourism.
Concerts take place at the intersection of Main Street and Jackson Street on the historic Burnet square, with seats lining each respective street. Food trucks, shops, and street dancing are among other activities that concertgoers can enjoy while listening to strums and hums in the background.
Last year’s Jackson Street Jams included six events, each scheduled throughout the months of March, May, June, July, August, and September. Genres ranged from country and rock, to Tejano and funk.
This year’s full concert schedule has yet to be finalized as of this article’s publication, but interested community members can check the Jackson Street Jams webpage for more information as the event draws closer.
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The 43rd annual Bluebonnet Festival is scheduled to bloom with the opening of the carnival on April 9 and festival on April 10. Vendor applications, pageant sign-ups, and sponsorship opportunities have already opened, with deadlines approaching in late February and early March.
The event is held every year in Burnet on the historic square, celebrating the best of Hill Country culture, with live music, good eats, cold drinks, and wild wiener dog races. See some key deadlines ahead of the festival below:
Scholarship Pageant
The annual scholarship pageant will return on March 29 ahead of this year’s Bluebonnet Festival, featuring the beauty, talent, and spirit of local contestants. Participants will compete in interview, formal wear, and presentation categories, with the winners serving as ambassadors for the Bluebonnet Festival and other local events.
The deadline to apply is 5 p.m. on March 6. Applicants must live in the Burnet Consolidated Independent School District. Pageant applications can be found on the Bluebonnet Festival website here.
Vendor applications
Vendor applications for the festival opened in January, and will remain open until Feb. 27, or until spaces are filled. Arts and crafts vendors can choose from on-square and off-square spaces of various sizes and electricity capabilities starting at $225 per booth. Food court vendors can also choose from spaces of various sizes starting at $675 per booth.
The deadline for arts, crafts, and food court vendors to register is Friday, Feb. 27, at 5 p.m. Vendor applications can be found on the Bluebonnet Festival website here.
Sponsorship opportunities
Sponsorship opportunities for the 2026 Bluebonnet Festival are open, giving local businesses the chance to support the yearly event. Sponsorship applications can be found on the Bluebonnet Festival website here.
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Sunrise Beach Fire Station No. 1 is undergoing a more than $1 million renovation as the community transitions from a volunteer fire department to a professional department aimed at improving emergency response for Emergency Services District No. 5.
The renovation adds living quarters, training space, and safety upgrades to the 10,000-square-foot station, allowing firefighters to staff the facility around the clock. Firefighters will work 48-hour shifts, making on-site living space essential, according to Fire Chief Patrick Cates.
“This is their house for one third of their life,” Cates said.
Upgrades include four bunk rooms with beds, desks, and showers, along with a shared kitchen and living area. The station was designed with firefighter health in mind, featuring a separate, ventilated turnout gear room, in-house washing facilities, and designated locker and shower areas to reduce contamination.
“We’re trying to make sure we do not bring contamination into the building,” Cates said.
The layout allows volunteer firefighters responding to calls to access gear and trucks without entering living areas. Additional improvements include a hazmat tool room, watch office with radio equipment, and a treatment room near the front entrance that remains separated from the rest of the building. Front doors were widened to accommodate stretchers.
Administrative offices, a public-facing front desk, and a conference room are also part of the renovation, along with a multipurpose training room.
“It works out well that we can multipurpose all the rooms we have in here,” Cates said.
The project follows the 2022 creation of Emergency Services District No. 5, a taxing district that funds fire protection and allows the department to hire full-time firefighters. The Sunrise Beach Volunteer Fire Department still owns the station and is covering 40 percent of renovation costs, while the ESD is funding the remaining 60 percent. The ESD will assume responsibility for operating the department once renovations are complete.
“This is a transition from a volunteer department to a career department,” ESD Commissioner Karl Wolfe said.
The Sunrise Beach Fire Department serves an area stretching from Sunrise Beach to Kingsland and along Lake LBJ and the Llano River, encompassing the city of Sunrise Beach Village and the unincorporated areas of Llano County bounded by Honey Creek to the north, Texas 71 to the west, Sandy Creek to the south, and Lake LBJ to the east,” according to their website.
The department is staffed by a blend of 16 career firefighter-EMTs and 30 volunteer firefighters and other first responders.
Cates said the upgrades will allow the department to handle multiple emergencies simultaneously.
“We want to be able to handle two structure fires at the same time,” he said.
Wolfe called the renovation an investment in the community’s future.
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Editor’s note:DailyTrib has hyperlinked to multiple stories from the Associated Pressfor references to “The Epstein Files,” rather than re-reporting information that has already been extensively covered by other publications.
The names of multiple members of the Jaffe family, known locally for their affiliation with Horseshoe Bay, are in documents from the recently-released Epstein Files. The documents surfaced on social media on Wednesday, Feb. 4, prompting further investigation.
The documents include an anonymous 2020 report to the FBI National Threat Operations Center which cited concerns about possible sex and drug trafficking at a resort in Acapulco, Mexico in the “early 2000’s.” The report alleged that Jana Jaffe was one of the resort owners. The anonymous source in the report stated that they visited the resort as a guest of Jana’s nephew, Doug Jaffe III.
The ensuing FBI investigation was “closed” and marked “completed” in 2021 with negative and inconclusive results.
The documents, known more commonly as “The Epstein Files,” include the anonymous FBI report and ensuing investigation that cites the names of members of the Jaffe family. The pages of that publicly-available report can be found at this link.
While the documents are included in the official U.S. DOJ Epstein Library, the only connection between the Jaffe family members and Epstein in the report are the following excerpts:
“ANON (anonymous) believes Greg Horvath and Jana Jaffe, owners of Villa Arabesque in Acapulco, MX (Mexico), were involved in drug and/or sex trafficking in the early 2000’s. Horvath and Jaffe currently live in (redacted), but they used Villa Arabesque to house Henry Kissinger and other high profile individuals who had ties to Epstein. Horvath and Jaffe owned multiple private jets which they used to fly people to Villa Arabesque, including ANON.”
“After ANON saw everything coming out in the news concerning Epstein, she felt the culmination of facts may be enough to warrant an FBI investigation. ANON also thought it may help aid in the current Epstein investigation. ANON remembers seeing several of Epstein’s associates in the Villas guestbook.”
Below are some of the specific excerpts that mark the concerns of the anonymous source in the report:
“In college, ANON was friends with Jaffe’s nephew, Doug Jaffe III (Doug), who invited ANON to spend spring break with him and several others at Villa Arabesque. When ANON arrived, she noticed the armed guards with machine guns surrounding the property, which she figured was common in Mexico. Upon entering the property, which was built into the side of a mountain, ANON noticed a girl, approximately 11-12 years old, who was dressed scandalously. “
“ANON asked Doug about the (redacted) girl being there with all the partying. Doug told ANON the girl was his niece, which she later found out (was) a lie. Villa Arabesque went on to use the girl, dressed inappropriately, for their advertisements. It was not uncommon for elite people to spend at least $10,000 a night to stay at Villa Arabesque.”
”After the show, everyone returned to Villa Arabesque where the party continued. ANON became extremely uncomfortable when she noticed large amounts of cocaine being brought into the villa. ANON had suspicions there could have been tunnels in the mountainside where they would bring the drugs in. ANON confronted Doug about the cocaine and told him she wasn’t comfortable with what was happening. ANON packed her bags and went to meet her other friends who were also on spring break in Mexico.”
Some excerpts were omitted from this story due to their graphic nature. The full report is visible at this link.
Past reporting
In August 2024, a district judge dismissed two charges of child sexual assault against Morris “Doug” Jaffe III, the former CEO of Horseshoe Bay Resort.
A grand jury had originally indicted Jaffe in June 2024 on two charges of sexual assault of a child under 17 years old, but when the charges were increased to aggravated sexual assault of a child under 14 years old, a second grand jury chose not to indict.
An indictment is a formal charge from a grand jury that is required to move forward in severe criminal cases. Without the indictment, the charges carry no legal weight.
At the time of the case, then 33rd/424th District Attorney Wiley “Sonny” McAfee told DailyTrib that his office would not pursue the case further unless new, game-changing evidence came forward.
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The 2026 DailyTrib Burnet County Republican Primary Candidates Forum was held on Tuesday, Feb. 3, at the Burnet Community Center. DailyTrib has assembled a basic guide for navigating the event’s online recording to better share what candidates had to say on the record about some of the biggest issues facing the county.
The forum was held for a live audience, but it was also livestreamed and is still available for viewing on the DailyTrib website.
At the event, Burnet County judge candidates Bryan Wilson and Alan Trevino, along with Precinct 2 commissioner candidates Damon Beierle and Leonard Guenter, introduced themselves, answered pointed questions, and provided closing remarks.
It is important to note that the Republican nominees in the Burnet County judge and Precinct 2 commissioner races will almost certainly take office in 2027 due to the complete lack of Democratic challengers for the November general elections.
The last day to register to vote was Feb. 2. Check your registration status here.
Early voting runs Feb. 17-27
Election Day is March 3
See a list of Burnet County polling locations on the Burnet County Elections website here and a breakdown of the election schedule here.
Forum guide
Use the hyperlinks attached to each timestamp to see excerpts from the video featuring each candidate and their corresponding introductions, responses, and closing remarks. Here is a direct link to the entire show, which is 1 hour, 8 minutes, and 36 seconds in length: 2026 Burnet County Republican Primary Candidate Forum
The forum featured two-minute introductions from each candidate, followed by a series of two-minute responses to five questions from each candidate, and it ended with two-minute closing remarks from each candidate.
Four of the questions were asked to all four candidates. The fifth question was unique to the office the candidates were running for. All questions were developed by DailyTrib staff and they were not shown to the candidates prior to the forum.
The candidates initial response order was chosen at random, then the order was shifted to the right following each prompt to allow each candidate an opportunity to respond first and last.
The initial response order was: Guenter, Beierle, Trevino, and Wilson.
Introductions
Each candidate was given two minutes to introduce themselves to the audience prior to the question and answer portion of the event.
Burnet County Precinct 2 commissioner candidate Leonard Guenter. Staff photo by Caden Senn
Question 1- Transparency
Question: What are your specific plans for ensuring open communication with your constituents and transparency as you conduct the business of the county?
Question: This is a two-part question. What are your stances on the aforementioned projects? And, how do you plan to effectively walk the line between government overreach and protecting the people and property of Burnet County?
Burnet County judge candidate Alan Trevino. Staff photo by Caden Senn
Question 3- Growth management
Preface: Burnet County has seen significant growth in recent years and more is on the horizon. According to Burnet County Development Services, there are 19 pending subdivisions on the books as of January 2025, encompassing 1,062 total lots across a combined 2,036 acres. There were 2,019 new wells drilled between 2020 and 2025. The U.S. Census Bureau shows the county’s population rose by over 13 percent between 2020 and 2024. The Burnet Central Appraisal District shows that the appraised taxable value of property in Burnet County went up by 73 percent from 2021 to 2025.
Question: What is your strategy for navigating Burnet County’s rapid growth and development?
Question: If elected, how do you plan on effectively collaborating with other county officials while still holding them accountable on behalf of your constituents?
Preface: Precinct 2 has multiple unique aspects that set it aside from the rest of Burnet County. Most of the precinct is now within a special groundwater management zone due to the delicate nature of its primary aquifer. There is a 200-acre Firefly Aerospace facility and an 80-acre tungsten carbide recycling campus in the precinct. Growth spreading west from Williamson and Travis counties has led to multiple proposed large subdivisions in the area. Without any incorporated cities, residents of Precinct 2 rely almost exclusively on their county commissioner for representation.
Question: What is your specific plan and platform for addressing the unique challenges Precinct 2 poses and ensuring that your constituents will be properly represented?
Preface: The Burnet County tax rate has dropped by over 16 percent since 2021, but expenditures have risen dramatically. According to publicly published county budgets, between 2021 and 2026, overall budgeted expenditures have risen 108 percent, property tax revenues have risen 44.5 percent, the general fund budget has risen 92 percent, the Sheriff’s Office budget has risen 72 percent, and the salaries of Commissioners Court members have risen 24 percent.
Here are the actual numbers pulled from each budget for comparison:
2025-26 fiscal year
Tax rate- 33.23 cents per $100 property valuation: a 16.8 percent decrease
Budgeted expenditures- $86,416,838: a 108 percent increase
General fund budgeted expenditures- $40,404,882: a 92 percent increase
Expected property tax collections- $34,998,453: a 44.5 percent increase
Sheriff’s Office budget- $10,176,014: a 72 percent increase
County Judge salary- $113,337: a 24 percent increase
County commissioner salary- $95,742: a 24 percent increase
2021-22 fiscal year
Tax rate- 39.97 cents per $100 valuation
Budgeted expenditures- $41,495,116
General fund budgeted expenditures- $20,942,281
Expected property tax collections- $24,207,378
Sheriff’s Office budget- $5,901,351
County Judge salary- $91,104
County commissioner salary- $76,960
Question: The Burnet County judge is responsible for developing the budget that is put forth for approval for the entire Commissioners Court. If elected, what is your plan for balancing the needs of the county, government spending, and the tax burden on property owners?
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