Agility contest is for the dogs
Making friends in Dripping Springs
Tigers host Tuck Tourney
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News-Dispatch Volume XXXVI No. 21
Serving Western Hays County, Texas since 1982
75¢
Thursday, March 3, 2016
Two arrested in Bear Creek drug bust How should Dripping manage growth? BY SAMANTHA SMITH
News-Dispatch Reporter
Two Bear Creek residents were arrested at their home Thursday morning and charged with multiple counts of possession of a controlled substance and a charge of money laundering. The Hays County Narcotics Taskforce acted on probable cause and executed a court
ordered search and arrest warrant for Steve Wayne Lee, 50, and Tara Renee Hankey, 46, of Bear Creek in Hays County. Lee was booked into the Hays County Jail Thursday and was released Friday on $60,000. Hankey was booked into the Hays County Jail Thursday and released on Saturday on $97,000 bond. According to an arrest affidavit, Officer Lee Harris
LEE
HANKEY
with the Narcotics Taskforce found numerous illicit substances in the home
as well as an “elaborate marijuana grow” located on the premises. In a post-Miranda interview Hankey admitted to making a profit of $5,000 a month off of her marijuana grow, which the taskforce weighed at between 5 and 50 pounds. Harris also found currency valued between $2,500$30,000 during the search,
DRUG BUST, 7
BY PAIGE LAMBERT
LAGNIAPPE
News-Dispatch Reporter
Caregivers Support Group Meeting
The Alzheimer’s Caregiver’s Support Group will meet Thursday, March 3, at 1 p.m. at the Presbyterian Church Library located at 956 FM 2325, Wimberley. If you or someone you know is caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s or some other form of dementia, please join us. This is an excellent opportunity to discuss the latest information and to share with other caregivers who are traveling this same journey. For additional info, contact Linda Germain, volunteer for Alzheimer’s Texas, at 512 924-3661.
Wimberley Players groundbreaking
The Wimberley Players invite you to the groundbreaking for their new garden on Friday, March 4 at 4 p.m at 450 Old Kyle Rd. Enjoy refreshments and live music. RSVP will be appreciated: publicity@ wimberleyplayers.org
STEAM Fair
On Saturday, March 5 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. join Wimberley ISD for a free community event at Wimberley High School. STEAM programs include science, technology, engineering, agriculture/arts, and mathematics/mechanics. Anyone interested in STEAM is invited to come out for a fun and educational time.
Texas Night Sky Festival
A star-studded celebration is on its way to Dripping
LAGNIAPPE, 7
PHOTO BY MOSES LEOS III
With the frame of a wall put together, Wimberley resident Julia Smith (second from right) and several other residents raise it up as they work to piece together the skeleton of the home along Lomas Verde Circle in Woodcreek.
Big Builders lend a hand in Wimberley BY MOSES LEOS III
News-Dispatch Editor
A
mid the unmistakable sounds of construction Saturday, Wimberley resident Julia Smith took time to look away from the blueprints of a 1,200 square-foot home and take in exactly where she was. Smith watched as neighbors, friends and even strangers helped raise from the ground up a 3-bedroom, 2 bathroom residence that in roughly six months would be for her and her son. Helping Smith, who is a single mother going through a divorce, is what drove the Wimberley Valley Habitat for Humanity to start on its 18th Big Build event in Woodcreek. For Smith, it showed the generosity of the Wimberley community. “(The support) is priceless. It really is for all of the people that came out today,” Smith said. “It’s this community. Wimberley is a giving community.” Smith said the process of obtaining the home began with the application process. She said she first applied in 2012, and found the application was based on certain criteria, including her income and being a Wimberley resident. Misty Moore, who is part of the Wimberley Valley Habitat board, said they interviewed Smith as part of the application process. Smith also had to work 300 hours of community service to be eligible for the build, and had to be present during the day of the big build. Smith welcomed the support from Habitat. She lauded the support of other Wimberley residents who had been previous recipients of a Big Build house. It wasn’t until fall 2015 when Smith was given the notification that she would be the owner of a Big Build home in Woodcreek.
PHOTO BY MOSES LEOS III
Several residents peer through openings of what will become a wall as they attempt to align the piece with an existing slab during the Wimberley Valley’s Habitat for Humanity Big Build event in Woodcreek.
At the time, Smith said she was going through a bout with strep throat. “I was waiting to go to the doctors and I was tired,” Smith said. “It didn’t hit me then.” From there, the Wimberley Valley Habitat board and volunteers sprung into action to start the process of the Big Build. Rogers Holt, Wimberley Valley board president, said the work began when they received plans for the home from an architect. He said normally plans start three or four months in advance. Because of the Memorial Day flood and many others needing plans for rebuilding their homes, the process for the Big Build house was slightly delayed. He said it took two to three months to get the plans ready. Once they get the plans, the board then reaches out to suppliers for material. The board then compares the bids, awards them and starts to plan out the delivery
process, which is done in two phases. The first phase, which was completed Saturday, is the delivery of lumber, windows and doors to the build site to begin construction. The second phase is the delivery of the roof trusses to the home, Holt said. All told, the project to complete the home is roughly a sixmonth process, he said. Factors such as weather conditions play a role, as volunteers can only work on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Meanwhile, the board’s volunteer coordinator reaches out to prospective volunteers by notifying them of a potential Big Build. The coordinator provides volunteers with location of the build and any other logistics. For Holt, the ability to assist those who may not be able to
BIG BUILD, 6
Each year, Dripping Springs experiences an influx of growth as highly priced homes and large subdivision developments come in. Residents and city officials are now working on how to understand and manage that influx of growth. The city of Dripping Springs’ unique growth began when it was incorporated in 1981, deputy city administrator Ginger Faught said. Area residents created a large extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) to prevent the city of Austin from annexing Dripping Springs into its own ETJ, she said. Dripping Springs’ ETJ is now larger than the city limits and is home to about 30,000 people, said Rick Coneway, director of public works and development. Around 2,000 people live in the city limits. The city is unable to regulate the growth because state law doesn’t give cities full control of their ETJs, Coneway said. Developments in the ETJ only have to meet the city’s site and water quality requirements. “There could a Trump Tower here or a pig farm here and we couldn’t do anything about it,” he said. City officials are trying to plan for unregulated growth by updating its comprehensive plan. The first plan was created in the 1990s and only updated in 2010, code enforcement manager Jon Thompson said. The city’s zoning codes were also created in 1995. The zoning was determined by what was already on an existing property. Undeveloped areas were considered agricultural, Coneway said. “We are updating that because conditions have changed, we are a little wiser and we have more development,” Coneway said. “We have more to look at because we have transportation, water and wastewater issues.” The only other option to regulate growth would be to annex neighborhoods and bring them under city code. Annexations, however, can only occur via petition because the city is a general law city. A city is considered general law when the population is under 5,000 and can only use local government codes established by the state. Thompson said he wouldn’t be surprised if Dripping Springs surpassed the population threshold in the near future. Harrison Hills, Counts Ranch, Founders Ridge and Legacy Trails are soon to be completed developments within the city limits, he said. A petition for annexation for the 189-acre Heritage Subdivision petition will be voted on in April. Once a city reaches 5,000 residents, it can become home rule, meaning it can unilaterally annex land, write its own charter and establish its own growth regulations, Thompson said. The city council could call a charter
POPULATION GROWTH, 5