Recent rains caught locals by surprise as witnessed in the Kyle HEB parking lot where shoppers were seen racing to their cars. PHOTO by SEAN KIMMONS

by JEN BIUNDO

Tropical Storm Hermine tracked a soggy path through central Texas Tuesday, dumping several inches of rain on a thirsty region that had declared a burn ban just seven days earlier.

Like low-water crossings around the county, Chaparral Road was impassable at Bear Creek on Wednesday. PHOTO by BRYCE BALES

As of press time Wednesday morning, a flash flood watch from the National Weather Service remained in effect through noon. But local emergency coordinators said the storm, which soaked northern Mexico and the Rio Grande Valley before skirting west of the Austin area, didn’t cause any large-scale problems.

“As far as any significant flooding, there has been none,” said Hays County Emergency Services Coordinator Jeff Turner. “We’ve got a few roads closed in the Wimberley area and the typical spots in Kyle.”

Original projections suggested Hermine could dump a foot of rain on Central Texas. As of Wednesday morning, 5.87 inches of rainfall had been record in Kyle and more rain forecasted for today.

Buda and Kyle saw several road closures at low water crossings, including Burleson Road south of IH-35, Dacy Lane, Plum Creek Lane, Post Road, Cimarron Park, Cole Springs Road and Robert S. Light Blvd.

Hays CISD monitored the storm throughout the day, but didn’t release students early, said Hays CISD spokesperson Julie Jerome.

Local fire departments also spent the day with an eye on the radar, but the storm brought little in the way of emergencies. Buda Fire Chief Clay Huckaby said he wasn’t aware of any major flooding in the area, and said his firefighters didn’t respond to any weather-related accidents.

“Right here in the Buda area, it was pretty uneventful,” Huckaby said.

The Kyle Fire Department also didn’t report any major incidents, said Battalion Chief Marco Wren.

“The storm didn’t come in like they thought it would,” Wren said.

With rainfall expected to continue through Thursday, Kyle Deputy Fire Chief Rick Beaman said the department would continue to monitor levels in local waterways.

“As the storm moves to the north, we don’t want to see any spilling of the rivers from heavy rainfalls north of us,” Beaman said.

Hays County, colloquially dubbed “flash flood alley,” has seen a number of deadly accidents in recent years, with motorists swept away as they tried to cross flooded roads.

In the last three years, Hays County has installed 16 automated flood sensors at the most dangerous low water crossings. The computerized warning systems monitor water levels and automatically begin to flash when water rises, indicating to motorists that the road is flooded. County officials receive notification when roads are flooded, and area residents and commuters can check closures on the county website.

“They’ve been a tremendous asset,” Turner said of the automated crossings. “We can’t be everywhere and we can’t have people on every road monitoring every crossing.”

With rains expected to continue to fall on the saturated region, Turner urged local motorists to monitor the weather, listen for advisories from the National Weather Service, and keep an eye out for flooded low water crossings.

“If you get to a low water crossing or any water over the road that looks significant, turn around, don’t drown,” Turner said.

In a financial twist, Kyle residents will now pay almost four cents less in property taxes next year compared to the three-cent hike first proposed in July.

On Tuesday night, the Kyle City Council approved a revamped Fiscal Year 2010-11 budget, which lowers the tax rate to 41.54 cents per $100 property evaluation. The first proposed budget had a tax rate of 45.39 cents and the current tax rate is 42.4 cents.

“Now we’re looking at a tax decrease,” Interim City Manager James Earp told the council.

The lower tax rate was made possible in part from the council’s earlier decision to reapply $2 million bond from a 2008 bond to buy land for an economic development park.

The funds will be re-appropriated and include $400,000 to help pay for the new library infrastructure and Burleson Road sidewalk project. In addition to the impact seen in this year’s tax rate, the move also allows for a 3.2 cent decrease in property taxes over the next four years, officials said.

Seemingly a win-win situation, the decision still worried a few councilmembers who wanted to rein in spending even further.

“This is a good option. However, it brings about some big concerns,” Councilmember Brad Pickett said.

Pickett, who voted against the move along with Councilmember Jaime Sanchez, said that he was wanting to put money away in escrow to pay off future debt and is concerned about the restrictions that forbid the council to pay off debt already accumulated. Plus, councils, years from now, could tap into the funds to pay off other items, he said.

The revised annual budget stands at $54.6 million, with the combined operating budget at $22.1 million, or 41 percent of the total. The first proposed annual budget was $56 million in July.

The budget, which has an emphasis on the understaffed Kyle Police Department, includes at least 10 new city job positions, with about half of those jobs expanding the police force. The approved budget also includes about $200,000 in pay increases for the police department.

In previous budget workshops, councilmembers spent hours trimming the proposed budget by more than $257,000.

Despite cuts from the council, Councilmember Russ Huebner has said that the property tax rate could potentially double in the next six years due to a variety of factors.

A few, he said, are debt obligations from the last eight years of issuing Certificates of Obligation that need to be paid, the formation of the Hays-Caldwell Public Utility Agency, increasing maintenance and operations costs of the growing city; and the unsustainable method of subsidizing the city’s property tax rate by transferring money from the utility fund.

At the meeting, he cautioned about the future when the newly founded tax rate cuts end.

“My biggest concern is what the tax rate will look like four years from now,” he said. “It’s going to give us a false sense of security. We still got a big hill to climb.”

Earp said that the move will keep the tax rate lower and hopefully when the cuts run out, the economy will have picked up again, bringing more revenue to the city.

Previous city councils have doled out $73 million in debt as the city tried to keep up with its ongoing growth, projected to have surpassed more than 30,000 residents.

By Sept. 30, the city’s outstanding debt will shrink to around $68.7 million, city officials say.

Furthermore, Kyle residents are projected to pitch in around $34 million to lay down the infrastructure of the Hays-Caldwell Public Utility, which will pipe in drinking water from the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer at least 40 miles to the east.

In 2007, Kyle partnered with San Marcos, Buda and the Canyon Regional Water Authority to create the agency, which oversees the $120 million project. The first phase is slated to come online in 2015.

Budget documents are available at www.cityofkyle.com.

By the numbers…

City of Kyle tax rate:
2010/11 – 41.54 cents
2009/10 – 42.40 cents
2008/09 – 37.31 cents
2007/08 – 27.07 cents
2006/07 – 27.24 cents
2005/06 – 27.77 cents
2004/05 – 28.71 cents

ROBERTS

by KAY RICHTER

A Buda man died after being struck by a vehicle early Saturday morning as he walked along the inside lane of the southbound access road of Interstate 35 near Cabela’s.

Donald Scott Roberts, 28, was hit by a 2009 Honda Civic driven by Nathaniel Villegas of Buda at about 5:15 a.m. According to Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson, Lisa Block, Villegas was treated for non-incapacitating injuries at the scene.

Investigators said that Roberts was returning home from his job as a bartender at Comfort Suites in Buda.

According to the victim’s brother, Mike Stuart, also a Buda resident, Roberts did not own a vehicle and was planning to purchase one in the near future.

Roberts leaves behind his wife, Nancy Roberts, 23, and his infant son, DJ (Dorian Jake). His wife described him as an aspiring musician.

“He loved playing the guitar, and every morning he would play the guitar for our son,” Nancy Roberts said.

Stuart also described Roberts as a musically inclined person.

“He wrote all kinds of music including rap and hip hop but his passion was always the guitar,” Stuart said.

Robert’s mother, Carolyn Deripasak, indicated that her son often liked to walk places.

“This allowed him to have more time to think,” Deripasak said.

She also described her son as fun and outgoing.

“He could make me smile just by walking in(to) the room,” Deripasak said.

Funeral services are planned for Thursday afternoon at 2 p.m. at the Shien-Shelton Funeral Home located in Skiatook, Oklahoma.

The city of Buda’s official wish list approved by councilmembers Tuesday night includes nearly $100 million in projects over the next five years.

But city leaders say it’s difficult, if not impossible, to speculate on how much of the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) they’ll actually tackle over the course of the next five years. Though some big-ticket items such as a new $4.4 million library may fall by the wayside in a tight economy, councilmembers said the CIP will act as a placeholder to keep the city on track.

“Sometimes things get forgotten or bypassed,” said Councilmember Cathy Chilcote. “I think it’s really important to keep these projects up front and on the table.”

Early this year, councilmembers had considered floating a bond issuance to fund some of the projects. But Buda Mayor Bobby Lane said that after a tight budget year in which the city struggled to provide services while not making cuts, he didn’t anticipate considering any bond issuances in the next year.

“When the economy starts to pick up again I can definitely see Buda going out to bond to improve the quality of life, but right now we’re just in hold steady mode,” said Councilmember Tom Crouse.

The council approved the five-year Capital Improvement Plan unanimously in a 6-0 vote, with Councilmember Scott Dodd absent. The city’s engineering firm Lockwood, Andrews and Newnam prepared the document.

The biggest slice of the pie includes nearly $60 million in proposed roadwork, including $1.3 million to reconstruct Bluff Street and $7.7 million to extend the Truck Bypass from FM 967 to FM 2770. Meanwhile, the city is also planning to do many road improvements in-house.

“We had $11 million worth of street work that needed to be done, and instead we bought a $93,000 truck and the staff is going to do it,” Councilmember Sandra Tenorio said.

While there’s little chance that the city, with an $11 million annual budget, could tackle $60 million in transportation spending in the next half-decade, councilmembers say some projects could be funded through development agreements or grant funding.

The city is also looking to complete about $16 million each in water and wastewater infrastructure projects, including $6 million the city has committed to the Hays-Caldwell Public Utility Agency for its six percent share in the construction of a pipeline that would supply cheap groundwater from the Carizzo-Wilcox Aquifer.

The CIP also includes about $3 million in debt that the council voted to issue this May for several critical wastewater projects, including the state-mandated expansion of the city’s wastewater treatment plant, which was nearing full capacity. Another $2.8 million could be sued to extend water and wastewater service into the Oxbow subdivision four years down the road.

While the lion’s share of the CIP focuses on infrastructure projects that aren’t likely to get the average citizen jazzed up, it does outline $4.6 million in the 2011-12 fiscal year for construction of a new library.

That’s a price drop from earlier projections. Last January, city staff estimated that it would cost $5 million to expand the library on its current site, $8 million to build a new facility on donated land or $11 million to purchase land and build.

“Do we need things? Yes, but we need to be realistic about what kind of debt our base supports,” Tenorio said. “And sometimes that means we don’t get a big new library.”

In another change from the original plan, the CIP dropped about $10 million in expansion for Buda City Park, replacing it with a $50,000 parks master plan study that could guide future growth.

Each penny on the property tax rate would yield about $1 million in a 25-year bond, meaning the city won’t be able to afford more than a small fraction of the projects without seeking outside funding.

“The challenge is how to do this without incurring a lot of debt,” Chilcote said. “We need to make sure we utilize as much grant funding as we can.”

The city currently carries about $27 million in debt, said finance director Chris Ruiz.

In addition to possible hikes in Buda’s property tax rate, Tenorio said she wanted the city to be cognizant of the financial burden imposed on citizens by other taxing entities like Hays CISD and Austin Community College, which could annex the area this spring and impose a nine-cent property tax, as well as rising utility bills.

“Is it a pipe dream? No,” Tenorio said of the CIP. “It’s something we want to be creative about how we get, all while being responsible to the city.”

Transportation Projects: $59.94 million
Representing about 60 percent of the capital improvements the city hopes to undertake in the next five years, Buda is only undertaking about $95,000 in this budget cycle for ongoing road repairs.

Transportation projects include:
Ongoing Pavement Repairs, $461,800
Main Street Sidewalk and Bridge, $334,000
Bluff Street Reconstruction, $1,322,600
Old Goforth Road Reconstruction, $7,599,300
Dacy Lane Reconstruction from Hillside Terrace to Kelly Smith Lane, $4,843,300
N. Main Street Signals at Sequoyah and Bradfield, $379,600
West Goforth from Cedar Street to IH-35, $3,439,000
Truck Bypass from FM 967 to FM 2770, $7,717,000
Overpass at Truck Bypass and Railroad, $5,960,700
Old Black Colony Road Reconstruction, $7,029,900
Old San Antonio Road, $6,652,200
Overpass at Truck Bypass and FM 967, $6,145,500
Main Street Widening from Garrison Rd. to Cabela’s Dr, $5,179,600
Cabela’s Drive Extension, $2,878,400

Water projects: $16.43 million
The next biggest slice of the CIP pie, the water projects include about $6 million the city has committed to the Hays-Caldwell Public Utility Agency. Buda is covering five percent of the cost for construction of a water line that will pipe water from the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer into Hays County. Kyle recently committed $34 million to cover its 28 percent share.

Water projects include:
Main Street Waterline Replacement, $327,500
Main St. Pump Station and Well #1 Upgrades, $51,600
HCPUA Management, $465,574
HCPUA Construction, $5,638,382
NE Buda Loop, $2,534,900
Oxbow Water Service, $1,316,300
IH-35 East Water Line, $1,309,600
Southwest TM, $2,522,200
NW 18-inch loop at Manchaca Springs Road, $1,333,700
Westside Future Water Supply, $928,700

Wastewater projects: $16.12 million
In May, the city voted to issue up to $3.8 million in debt to upgrade the city’s wastewater treatment plant, which had reached the 90 percent capacity that triggered state requirements for expansion. The city says it can repay that debt through wastewater revenue.

Wastewater projects include:
City Wastewater Model, $75,000
Replace Bluff Street Lift Station, $1,275,600
Garlic Creek Force Main, $1,683,200
Replace Downtown Clay Pipe, $1,466,601
Bradfield-Lifschutz Upgrade, $1,115,200
WCID #1 Lift Station Upgrade, $423,750
12-inch FM 967 Interceptor, $2,380,600
South Buda Interceptor (II), $1,096,500
Garlic Creek Lift Station, $1,355,900
Northeast I-35 Interceptor, $466,200
Southwest I-35 Interceptor (III), $1,221,100
Oxbow Wastewater Service, $1,478,800
15-inch Northwest IH-35 Interceptor, $1,065,600
15-inch Southeast IH-35 Intercpetor (IV), $1,019,400

Facilities projects: $4.6 million
The city issued debt in 2007 for a new Parks Department building in Buda City Park, which is set for construction this year. But plans are less certain for a proposed $4 million-plus library expansion or reconstruction.

Facilities projects include:
Parks Building, $300,000
Buda Public Library, $4,373,000

Drainage project: $164,000
The only project in this category is a City Drainage Master Plan, included in this year’s budget.

Parks projects: $50,000
While the city considered putting large-scale parks projects into the CIP, the only expenditure to survive was a $50,000 study for a parks master plan that could plot out future park development.

STAFF REPORTS

In time for this week’s rain storms, the Hays County Commissioners Court enacted a countywide burn ban effective last Monday, Hays Fire Marshal Mark Chambers said.

The burn ban is due to drying conditions and possible high wind days, which could cause serious fires, the Hays County Sheriff’s Office says.

Under the ban, all outdoor trash and debris burning is restricted in the county. Also, extreme caution should be used with any required vocational fire source activity, such as welding. Be sure to always have an ample supply of extinguishing materials for emergencies, officials say.

Surrounding counties also under burn bans include Travis, Comal, Blanco and Caldwell. The burn ban will remain in effect until further notice of the court. For information, contact the Hays County Fire Marshal’s Office.

News is still scant on law enforcement officials’ announcement late last week that they are investigating a murder that likely took place somewhere in Hays County.

Upon stopping a white Ford pickup, southbound on IH-35 at about 8:45 p.m. Wednesday, New Braunfels police discovered a body in the truck’s open bed, wrapped in plastic, New Braunfels police Lt. Mike Penshorn said.

The Hays County Sheriff’s Office has taken over the case and two male suspects remain in custody. Deputy Mike Thielen said that he was unsure if the two suspects had been charged and would not release the name of the victim or any other details.

“They’re still working it, trying to piece everything together,” Thielen said.

The Hays CISD Board of Trustees last week approved a $146.5 million budget for school year 2010-11, which represents an increase of about $5 million over last year. The board also approved a tax rate ($1.4613 per $100 valuation) to support the budget, which represents no increase from last year’s tax rate.

District enrollment neared the 15,130-student mark, according to Carter Scherff, deputy superintendent, reflecting an increase of 611 students over the same day last year.

David Castro, the district’s new executive director for assessment and accountability, walked the school board through student accountability data, offering a unique perspective to the annual report.

“The numbers surrounding accountability don’t happen once a year,” he told the School Board. “It happens daily. My vision is that is where we’re moving with the data.”

Castro noted that with both state and federal accountability systems, the target is not static.

“By state and federal standards, it really is not about hitting targets, it’s about improving,” he said.

He highlighted some of the district’s areas of growth, including closing the achievement gap between students from the lower-income households and other student groups.

“In this last year, that gap has shrunk dramatically across the district and I think that’s reason for celebration,” he said.

Castro addressed the Texas Performance Measure (TPM), which “is adding significantly to our numbers,” by saying the measure gauges “how strong the system is at supporting students, the system’s attempt to match students’ strengths.”

He said campuses in 2010-11 will be targeting math and science with a focus on commended performance and an eye for dropout prevention and completion rates.

Elsa Hinojosa, new executive director for high school performance, followed Castro with a report on 2010 Project HOPE, a plan for improving the district’s high school completion rate and for dropout prevention efforts.

“In K[indergarten] through 12, we should all be graduation coaches,” Hinojosa told the school board.

She described a “care” team effort by teachers, counselors, administrators and community members to “whittle down the dropout numbers until they are zero,” which includes home visits, mentoring and counseling.

An equally important component of Project HOPE, she said, is dropout prevention.

“If we really want to be graduation coaches, it is imperative that we put together a system that prevents kids from dropping out,” she said. “That’s the way we’re going to get our kids to their lofty goals.”

The Hays County Commissioners Court on Tuesday authorized a call for projects for consideration of funding from the park bonds approved by voters in 2007. Applications will be considered for all types of active and passive parks and recreational projects as well as open space and endangered habitat lands.

The Parks and Open Space Advisory Board (POSAB), a citizens’ group appointed by Court members which counsels the Commissioners Court on allocation of park bond funds and other park-related matters, will review and score the applications based on new criteria developed for this round of funding. The court will make the final funding decisions as early as October.

Since the $30 million bond approval, the court has okayed parks projects throughout the county, and until recently only $600,000 remained. But in August the County realized a savings on its acquisition of endangered habitat land, paying approximately $5 million for 1,000 acres of the Nicholson Ranch, less than the $8.4 million set aside for habitat land. The purchase is expected to bring some 800 acres of endangered golden-cheeked warbler habitat into the County’s Regional Habitat Conservation Plan. The original call for projects requested a preferred tract size of 500-plus acres.

Applications must be submitted to the Hays County Grants Administration Office by 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 1. Additional information and applications are available under Quick Links at www.co.hays.tx.us and from the Hays County Grants Administration Office, 111 E. San Antonio Street, San Marcos, or 512-393-2209.

Volunteers spent a recent Sunday afternoon at Simon Middle School (seen here) and Chapa Middle School, giving the Communities in Schools rooms in those two campuses a complete makeover. The volunteers were from Austin New Church and North Hills Community Church in Austin. (Courtesy photo)

by JIM CULLEN

Those familiar with local schools’ Communities in Schools services know full well the positive impact those services have on students’ lives and education. Students utilizing those services at both Chapa and Simon middle schools had an even more positive surprise last week when they returned to find brightly remodeled rooms.

Communities in Schools, Inc. is a dropout prevention program. Its self-described goal is to create “a network of volunteers, social services, businesses, and community resources that work together to break down barriers and help students succeed.”  What local school district personnel know is that on campuses where CIS has a presence, students naturally gravitate to welcoming staffers and a safe environment.

Still young as school campuses go, Chapa and Simon middle schools’ CIS rooms nonetheless lent themselves to the CIS Room Makeover Program, overseen by Alissa Magrum, the organization’s director of volunteer services and community partnerships.

Magrum matched the schools with volunteers from Austin New Church and North Hills Community Church and the results were remarkable.

Volunteers turned out on a Sunday afternoon in large enough numbers to create noticeably “new and improved” CIS room environments for the students under Chapa’s Aileen Hays and Simon’s Melissa Sustaita. The wish list, for instance, that Sustaita had submitted was for “softer lighting, greenery, separate places for group and individual meetings, privacy for those areas and an inviting place with some color.”

Chapa principal Lisa Walls and Simon principal Michelle Chae expressed similar sentiments of appreciation for the makeovers. Walls says, “They completely turned our CIS room into a warm and cozy looking room where our kids can feel safe and comfortable. We’re thankful to be part of the CIS community and we’re so grateful to the many volunteers who helped.” Chae echoes Walls and adds that “CIS is a a key part of what we do at Simon.”

Student volunteer Rebecca Sarai Nochez surveys a pile a backpacks and school supplies that was donated for distribution to Hays CISD students. (Photo by Julie Jerome)

STAFF REPORTS

More than 160 local students received donated backpacks and school supplies to begin the school year, thanks to the generosity of the community, according to Angie Mendez, Hays CISD Director of Development and Community Partnerships.

“With our school district growing so fast, we had more students in need this year,” Mendez says, adding, “Our community, businesses, churches and friends were anxious to help get our students ready for school. We are thankful for their generous donations and time.”

Student volunteers helped with assembly and distribution of the backpacks. A truckload of school supplies from the annual “For the Children” supply drive helped fill the packs.

The Kyle Chamber of Commerce, Buda Lions, Coves of Cimarron neighborhood drive, Broadway Bank, Devries Family Chiropractic, Starbucks, and a long list of local churches, including St. Anthony’s Catholic Church, Buda Methodist, Generation Church, Connection Church and San Marcos Methodist also donated backpacks or supplies.

The College and Young Adult Ministry headed by associate pastor Ryan Jenson and youth pastor Holly Hood at San Marcos Methodist worked with its students and Texas State University students to match up supply lists from both Hays CISD and San Marcos CISD.