A new multi-agency program designed to prepare the next generation of fire-rescue professionals will launch in the Highland Lakes area starting in January 2026. The Highland Lakes Fire Explorers, Post 343, will welcome volunteers ages 14-20 who have at least completed the eighth grade and are interested in emergency services careers.
The program is part of Scouting America and will meet on the second and fourth Thursday each month. Annual dues are $50, with members required to attend at least 75 percent of meetings. Participants age 18 and older must complete a background check to qualify.
Explorers will receive safety gear and take part in skills training, equipment demonstrations, firefighter shadowing, and EMS exposure. Organizers aim to begin with 10-20 participants, with at least two adult advisers at every session.
Spicewood Fire Rescue Captain Andrew Hunt, who initiated the effort, credited a similar program for launching his own career.
“We want to give back and start (Highland Lakes Fire Explorers) up locally so we can keep growing the next generation,” Hunt told DailyTrib.
The program is a collaboration between Spicewood Fire Rescue, Horseshoe Bay Fire Rescue, Marble Falls Fire Rescue, Marble Falls Area Volunteer Fire Department, and Granite Shoals Fire Rescue.
Meetings will rotate among participating stations to expose explorers to a range of skills, such as Spicewood’s large outdoor area will support vehicle-extrication practice, while Marble Falls Fire Rescue offers a forcible-entry door prop. One session will take place at an EMS station for medical training.
Horseshoe Bay Fire Chief Doug Fowler, once a fire explorer at age 15 with the Los Angeles County Fire Department, said the program can have a lasting impact.
“The experience played a major role in my career path towards being a firefighter,” Fowler told DailyTrib. “As a father of five children, I understand how programs, such as Scouts, can help guide young people in a positive direction… The more positive role-modeling available, the better chance our youth will grow up to be outstanding citizens.”
Once participants age out at 21, they may become adult advisers, and those 18 years old and older are eligible to join a fire department.
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An Eagle Scout was officially recognized and thanked by the Burnet County Commissioners Court on Tuesday, Nov. 25 for his leadership in several renovations and improvements made to Stringtown Cemetery.
Thomas McAnally, 18, of Oatmeal chose to help restore the historical graveyard for his official Eagle Scout project earlier this year, clearing land surrounding the site, and creating a new walking path between the cemetery and a future parking lot for the property.
These grave markers reside in Stringtown Cemetery, the graveyard of a historic Black community that was founded in rural Burnet County following the Civil War. A local Eagle Scout recently helped improve the property, adding to the already ample volunteer hours that have gone into its restoration. Staff photo by Dakota Morrissiey
Stringtown Cemetery, on CR 326A near Bertram, is all that remains of a historic Black community that formed in the rural reaches of Burnet County following the Civil War. The Burnet County Historical Commission has been improving the land to make it an accessible, public historic site since 2023 using a state grant and ample volunteer support.
“It is a marvelous thing that (McAnally and his family) have done for us,” Historical Commission member and grant administrator Lela Goar told the Commissioners Court on Tuesday. “
“We feel that we’re in a much better place now.”
Goar said she hopes to hold a dedication ceremony for Stringtown by September 2026.
This simple footpath is a recent addition to the Stringtown Cemetery property thanks to the work of Eagle Scout Thomas McAnally and his family and friends. Staff photo by Dakota Morrissiey
The cemetery and some nearby land were officially donated to Burnet County in June of this year by the Downing family, who had preserved the property on their own for years. With the donation made, work began on restoring the cemetery and documenting the gravesites.
Stringtown was founded in 1877 by recently emancipated slaves in the aftermath of the Civil War. The community mostly dispersed by the 1920s, but the graveyard remained in use all the way up until 1965. It has an estimated 70 graves total, with 50 of them being unmarked.
Thomas McAnally is the 18-year-old Eagle Scout from Oatmeal that led the charge on making some big improvements to the historic Stringtown Cemetery near Bertram. Staff photo by Dakota Morrissiey
McAnally, his family, and other scouts cleared away trees, brush, trash, and debris that were in between the cemetery and adjacent land that will become a future parking lot for the site, making it easier to get in and out of the property. They also chipped the felled juniper trees and used them to make a footpath.
“(The work is) honoring Texas history and we really appreciate what you’ve done,” Burnet County Judge Bryan Wilson told McAnally.
McAnally also thanked Precinct 3 Commissioner Chad Collier for installing a culvert near the cemetery, which allowed the Eagle Scout and his team to bring in heavy equipment for the difficult work of clearing the property and chipping the trees.
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Burnet County voters approved the formation of two new emergency services districts in the recent Nov. 4 election, guaranteeing emergency medical services for the Briggs/Oakalla area and fire protection services for the Hoover’s Valley area. The Burnet County Commissioners Court officially approved the order to create the new districts on Tuesday, Nov. 25.
With the ESDs formed, Precinct 2 Commissioner Damon Beierle will identify and nominate five potential members to ESD No. 10’s volunteer board during the upcoming Dec. 23 meeting of the Commissioners Court. Precinct 1 Commissioner Jim Luther will do the same for ESD No. 11.
ESD No. 10 encompasses the same boundaries as the existing ESD No. 8, which already provides fire protection services. This new district will specifically fund emergency medical services, including an ambulance, to the Briggs/Oakalla area in northeast Burnet County.
ESD No. 8 Board President James Shamard thanked the Commissioners Court for its support on Tuesday. A resident of the new district, he relayed a story about how his neighbor had recently collapsed from a stroke. He said that an ambulance was at least 30 minutes away at the time of the medical emergency.
“When you have a major stroke, heart attack, or serious trauma, every minute counts,” Shamard said. “This item today will change that response time from over 30 minutes to five minutes.”
ESD No. 11 will help fund the currently unfunded Hoover Valley Volunteer Fire Department, which has historically relied on donations and fundraisers to function.
Once commissioners have been appointed to the boards of both ESDs, those boards will then determine the appropriate taxes to be placed on district residents and how the funds collected should best be used to provide their respective emergency services.
What is an ESD?
An ESD is a political subdivision that generally supports, funds, and provides emergency services to a defined geographical area, or “district.”
The emergency services district functions by collecting a small tax from residents within its boundaries, then using that money to fund emergency services. This could include paying for professional firefighters, buying new equipment for an existing fire department, stationing EMTs and an ambulance in the area, or anything that boosts a local response to fire and medical emergencies.
The maximum property tax an ESD can levy is 10 cents per $100 property valuation.
ESDs are run by a board of volunteer directors appointed to their positions by the respective county commissioners court in which the ESD resides.
An ESD is put on the ballot when a petition that contains at least 100 signatures from qualified voters who own taxable real property in the proposed district is filed with a county and then approved by commissioners. The petitions for both of the above ESDs received the required number of signatures, were filed with their respective counties, and accepted by their commissioners courts.
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Renovations at the Marble Falls Library Thrift Store are now expected to wrap up in mid-to-late January 2026, several weeks later than planned, after summer flooding diverted contractors to emergency response efforts.
Crews from the Pedernales Electric Cooperative and contracted HVAC companies were reassigned in July to assist residents affected by the severe flooding that devastated Central Texas that month.This put the thrift store project on pause until work resumed in October. While the remodel was originally slated to take four to six weeks, the installation of spiral ductwork and other features has extended the timeline.
The construction delays affected the store’s annual Christmas Bazaar, which will now be held at the Marble Falls Public Library on Dec. 12 from 2- 4 p.m. Shoppers can expect to shop high-end jewelry, clothing, shoes, and purses at the event.
The project, at 300 Avenue J, includes new construction and a remodel of the existing building. The expansion, which increases the building’s size from approximately 8,000 to about 15,000 square feet, was completed at the end of October, while interior remodeling has only just begun.
When complete, the store will feature an open-concept layout with wider aisles for shipping carts, wheelchairs, and walkers; upgraded lighting; additional multi-stall restrooms; new water fountains; and a designated rest area. A second checkout register has also been added to reduce wait times.
Manager Cassi Payne said the renovation arrives at a meaningful moment for the organization, which marks its 40th year after beginning on a front porch with what she described as a “simple vision.”
“Our success is credited to the volunteers that got involved early on, the volunteers that are still with us, a great staff that pours their heart into their work, our generous community that keeps the donations coming in, and our amazing customers,” Payne told DailyTrib. “Our mission at the center of it all is to help fund our Marble Falls Public Library, provide scholarships to local students, and provide clothing or household items to anyone going through hardship.”
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Opposition to a proposed state transmission line project that would cut through Central Texas is powering up, with at least three scheduled protests on the calendar and a theme song released online, “Two Hundred Miles of Greed.”
Burnet County residents learned in May that a planned 200-mile 765 kilovolt transmission line would likely cut through the north end of the county if proposed plans from Oncor Electric Delivery and the Lower Colorado River Authority moved forward. Since then, landowners along the proposed lines have become increasingly vocal in their opposition to them.
(See the proposed routes for the Bell County East to Big Hill 765 kV Transmission Line using the LCRA interactive map, available at this link.)
Landowners are not alone in their protests, as the governments of Burnet and Llano counties have both filed official resolutions opposing the project.
A loose coalition of Burnet County-based transmission line protesters plan on holding public demonstrations Jan. 10, Feb. 14, and March 14. This same group was behind the original protest on Oct. 11 at the corner of U.S. 281 and Texas 29 in Burnet. The exact location and details of the demonstrations have not yet been released, but will be updated closer to the events on the BIG HILL 765 kv Transmission Line Project Updates Facebook page.
Clare Nelson is one of the strongest voices in Burnet County speaking out against the proposed transmission line. She is responsible for the protest’s anthem, “Two Hundred Miles of Greed,” a three-minute song she created with help from Grok, a free artificial intelligence chatbot, and hired musician Richy Luke.
The song is available on Youtube here. Other protesters took it upon themselves to create a music video to accompany the song on Facebook.
The song refers heavily to the specifics of the project, citing the intention of the transmission line, and the Permian Basin Reliability Plan, to provide electricity for fueling growth in West Texas related to the petroleum industry, “green hydrogen” generation, cryptocurrency mining, and the operation of massive data centers.
The project would see 15-story transmission line towers constructed every 1,000 feet along the line with all proposed routes running through Burnet County.
“We have a big challenge,” Nelson told the Burnet County Commissioners Court during its Nov. 13 meeting. “We need to raise $100,000 for attorney fees. All of the other segments are engaging attorneys. If we don’t, we lose.”
Nelson was referring to the various “segments” of the proposed transmission line. The exact path of the line has not yet been determined, but there are many different routes it could take based on preliminary plans from Oncor and the LCRA. She, and others, hope that getting an attorney involved could help sway the decisions of the Public Utility Commission of Texas when it decides which path to take or whether it will approve the project at all.
The LCRA and Oncor were tasked with developing a transmission line plan by the PUCT to help fulfill the requirements of the Permian Basin Reliability Plan, which was part of a state legislature decision in 2023. The plan would see hundreds of miles of transmission lines run from north, central, and south Texas out to West Texas to help power the expected growth in that region in the coming years.
Along with Nelson, about a dozen Burnet County residents gave nearly an hour’s worth of public comments during the Nov. 13 meeting of the Burnet County Commissioners Court, all citing strong concerns about the transmission line project.
Ammie Jo Glimp Busby, a fourth-generation Burnet County resident with land along one of the proposed transmission line routes, gave an emotional testimony at court, fearing for the future of the land that has been in her family for over a century.
“My house will be uninhabitable and the land that I had hoped to be a good steward of will be devastated and devalued,” she said.
Her mother, Shirlie Glimp, also spoke.
“These towers will be a constant reminder that our property isn’t fully ours anymore,” she told the court. “Please help us keep Oncor out of our land and out of Burnet County.”
Oncor Electric Delivery, transmissionprojects@oncor.com
LCRA, BCBH@lcra.org
dakota@thepicayune.com
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The Rudy Davalos Horseshoe Bay Sports Club welcomed former University of Texas Longhorns head football coach Mack Brown on Nov. 20, who led the Longhorns to the 2005 national championship, as the keynote speaker for its 2025 banquet, continuing the club’s tradition of featuring influential sports leaders.
The Sports Club meets monthly, hosting guest speakers and community sports mixers while working toward its goal of awarding scholarships to senior athletes in Llano, Marble Falls, and Burnet beginning in 2026.
Brown’s visit highlighted both the club’s mission and the broader conversations happening in college athletics today.
Throughout his remarks, Brown focused on the rapidly shifting landscape of college sports, discussing how name, image, and likeness (NIL) and the transfer portal have brought meaningful opportunities to athletes, but have also introduced academic challenges and competitive instability.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association’s NIL policy, implemented in 2021, allows student-athletes to receive compensation for use of their name, image, and likeness. The transfer portal, implemented in 2018, allows student-athletes to change schools to pursue opportunities with different sports teams.
“The (National Football League) has a better plan for the first time than college football,” Brown told the crowd. “There’s still a core of great kids that are playing that love the game, that care about the game.”
He cautioned that constant roster turnover and increasing financial pressures threaten the stability of athletic departments across the country.
“We can’t keep doing what we’re doing,” he said. “It’s absolutely not sustainable.”
Brown compared the current trajectory of college football to the NFL, noting that NIL could soon force programs to operate more like professional franchises, including limiting how freely schools can hire and fire coaches. He also pointed to expanded playoff schedules as a major strain on coaching staff, who must simultaneously practice, recruit, and prepare without breaks.
“We don’t have a schedule that fits or works,” he said.
Brown questioned whether the recent expansion of the playoffs from four to 12 teams will actually promote competitive balance, arguing that early matchups between “more talented teams,” and “lesser teams,” will still lead to predictable outcomes.
Brown highlighted several memorable moments from his career, including the iconic 2005 season. He described how the team prepared by comparing their performance and statistics each week to powerhouse University of Southern California–which had won back-to-back national titles– and whom Texas ultimately defeated in the championship game.
“You can’t be in the moment because it’s so big,” Brown said of coaching in the championship game.
He closed on a more personal note, sharing how deeply the emotional weight of coaching can affect those in leadership roles. From losing a student-athlete to navigating the aftermath of the deadly 1999 Texas A&M bonfire collapse, Brown said these tragedies shaped his understanding of the job.
“That’s what coaching is really about – decisions where while people are worried about the game, I’m worried about this family,” he said.
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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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Granite Shoals is moving ahead with plans for a new fishing pier at Lakeview Park after the City Council on Nov. 17 approved for the city manager to negotiate a contract with one of three contractors that submitted bids for the project.
The contract, capped at $30,000, must meet all stipulations of the Lower Colorado River Authority grant that will help fund the work, as well as the conditions of the city’s existing LCRA lease agreement for the park.
The pier is the first of several planned upgrades for the small lakeside park, located at 2830 Lakeview Lane.
Earlier this fall, the Granite Shoals Parks Advisory Board, with support from city staff, applied for an LCRA grant to build the pier, which will include LED lighting. The city was awarded $23,370 for the project.
City staff is now seeking council direction to work with the three bidding contractors, Chapman Docks, Texas Decks and Docks, and Cragen Marine, to negotiate the project scope, deliverables, and timeline. The pier must be completed within one year to comply with the grant requirements.
City leaders describe the proposed pier as a quality-of-life enhancement that will provide a new gathering place for residents and help attract visitors.
Granite Shoals will cover a 22-percent match of the total project cost, about $6,500, with $2,000 of that to be covered through in-kind contributions from the city.
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Inks Lake could experience rising water levels as heavy rainfall and potential flash flooding move through the Highland Lakes region over the next few days. Residents who have equipment or tools in the exposed lakebed are urged to remove them and stay prepared for rapid changes in water levels.
Inks Lake is currently 8 feet below its normal level and was scheduled for refilling by the Lower Colorado River Authority from Monday, Nov. 24 to Friday, Nov. 28. The river authority warns that the lake could see a rise sooner than expected due to heavy rains throughout the Hill Country.
The LCRA will track inflows throughout the Highland Lakes closely. Depending on how much runoff arrives, hydroelectric generation may be used to move stormwater through the system, and floodgate operations may be activated if needed. As water releases can occur without advance notice, the public is advised to use caution and avoid entering the water near the dams.
During periods of flash flooding, residents should take standard safety steps: limit travel when possible and never attempt to drive across flooded roads. “Turn around, don’t drown.”
For continuing updates, LCRA encourages checking meteorologist Bob Rose’s Central Texas 5-Day Forecast as well as the River Report, which provides daily water supply information and long-range lake forecasts for lakes Buchanan and Travis.
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