SEPTEMBER 8, 2021 REMEMBERING 9-11
SPORTS
Local residents recall where they were when the Twin Towers were attacked.
See the results of last week’s high school football and volleyball.
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News-Dispatch
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HaysNewsDispatch.com
Vol. 41 • No. 50
Serving Hays County, TX
Mask mandate decisions left to districts, bill in the works House Bill 141, which The legislature called Sine Die, would not allow school A bipartisan bill that mask mandates, while ending the special session, last week. would have given school State Representative HarSo, without the compromise, the bills districts the option to old Dutton (D) introduced mandate masks was in House Bill 164 that would died and school districts were left to the works, but legislators mandate masks in school. fight the governor if they wanted to ended up closing the 2021 The two representatives Legislative special session agreed to work together mandate masks. without taking up the on a new bill that would bills. make room for comprospecial session, last week. school districts were left State Representative Jeff mise, but the legislature So, without the comproto fight the governor if Leech (R) had introduced called Sine Die, ending the mise, the bills died and they wanted to mandate
BY SAHAR CHMAIS
masks. Parents, public servants and doctors from across Texas had testified in front of the committee – for both sides of the argument. Lacy Waller, Hays CISD parent of two boys, said her nine- and seven-yearold children are too young to be vaccinated. “We’re at the most
Urgent Care?
BY BRITTANY ANDERSON
$0. Given the options of a PDO and larger jail, Shell calculated that the county would need to spend about $878,000 on outsourcing inmates in FY 2022, which became the newly proposed amount for the budget. On the other hand, the sheriff’s office is
A letter demanding local control over COVID-19 protocols drafted by the Hays CISD board and Superintendent Dr. Eric Wright was sent to Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Education Agency (TEA) on Aug. 30. At the board meeting Aug. 30, some board members were outspoken about their desire for a mask mandate, despite their hands being tied legally. “Once upon a time, people told us they wanted us to have local control,” said board member Merideth Keller. “I guess that was only when it was going to be controlled one way.” While Abbott’s Executive Order GA-36 bans mask mandates, the district is looking for other solutions to mitigate the spread of COVID as the Texas Legislature debates what districts can and cannot do. For weeks, parents have attended board meetings to state their case for or against a mask mandate. During this meeting, all five parents that showed up to speak were in favor of a mandate. Board president Vanessa Petrea expressed her frustration with how the board is unable to legally handle the situation, saying that she is going “on the record” in favor of a mask mandate and that local control is desired and needed in order to enforce one. “They want this mask mandate prohibition as law, not just a governor’s order,” Petrea said. “That’s a problem for us. This is a scorched earth legal effort by our governor. Know that.” As active COVID infections in the district more than doubled into the second week of school, from 56 to 134 cases, many parents have expressed concern
INMATE OUTSOURCING, 14
HAYS COVID PROTOCOL, 7
BY SAHAR CHMAIS
NO ICU BEDS, 14
MASK MANDATE BILL, 6
Hays CISD seeks local control over COVID protocols
No ICU beds, so where do you go? No ICU beds are available in Trauma Service Area O (TSA-O), which treats patients in 11 counties, including Hays and Travis. COVID-19 conditions have strained emergency room services, and doctors want residents to know where to go when in need of medical attention. COVID-19 has been a major culprit in the increasing number of patients in the ICU and in the hospital. Hospitals are still seeing the regular emergency cases, but now there is the addition of patients caused by the COVID-19 surge, said local Emergency Care Physician, Dr. Michael Banyasz. As of Sept. 5 there were 518 available ICU beds, nearly half of them, or 245, are occupied by COVID-19 patients, with the remainder occupied by patients with other illnesses. Doctors want patients to know where to go to get the best level of care for their case, especially with the stress put on emergency services. “Most emergency rooms are busy even in normal times, without COVID,” said Banyasz.
dangerous point of the pandemic for children and the state has stripped away the most critical tool to keep students healthy,” Waller told committee members. “Our local leaders must be able to use the most effective tool to keep kids from getting sick.” Unlike Austin ISD,
PHOTO COURTESY OF MANDI REES
Grandparents Day is September 12
The Hays Free Press and News-Dispatch did a call-out last week for pictures of grandparents and grandkids in celebration of Grandparents Day this weekend. We had an overwheling response with nearly 300 photo submissions, so we decided to publish as many as we could in this issue, plus we’ve published an online Grandparents Day edition with all the photos we could collect. See pages 4 and 5 for more photos and visit us online at www.haysfreepress.com to read the Grandparents Day edition under the Current Issue tab. The above photo was provided by Mandi Rees, captioned “Brady, Luca and Grace with their beloved Kiki.”
Despite inmate increase, county moves to reduce outsourcing funds BY SAHAR CHMAIS
county jails, and the hope for this year was to Inmate populazero out the outsourction is increasing, jail ing. outsourcing costs are As the Hays County rising, but Hays County Jail undergoes an explans to hold the line pansion and the county on outsourcing costs creates a Public Defendduring the next fiscal er’s Office (PDO), Hays year. County Judge Ruben In the 2019-2020 Becerra and Commisbudget, $3.8 million was sioner Lon Shell said it spent on sending Hays is possible to severely County inmates to other reduce spending on
PICKLEBALL? New athletice center coming to Buda.
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outsourcing inmates. While the goal is to reduce spending on contract inmate detention, the Hays County Jail expansion is not finished as there continues to be more delays, and establishing a PDO is in its preliminary steps. Becerra’s original proposition on outsourcing inmates for FY 2022 was to allocate
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