December 28, 2022 News-Dispatch

How It Started ...

New Year's Babies

The community’s first babies of 2022 were welcomed in local San Marcos and Kyle hospitals on New Year’s Day.

Ezra Bernal was born at 8:46 a.m. on Jan. 1 at Christus Santa Rosa Hospital – San Marcos to parents Janet Salazar and Jovanne Bernal, weighing 6 pounds, 12 ounces and measuring 19 inches. He was delivered by Dr. Virginia Smith.

Fernando Villegas was born at 2:22 p.m. on Jan. 1 at Ascension Seton Hays Hospital in Kyle.

... How It's Going

Emma

won the 2022-23 Spelling Bee title. Her correct spelling of the winning word, “retribution,” came in the schoolrecord 16th round of competition, where she outlasted a field of 20 talented spelling bee participants.

Most Read Stories

HERE, WE COUNT DOWN THE TOP FIVE STORIES OF 2022, BASED ON WEB ANALYTICS.

No. 1 - Texas announces over $600 million in pandemic food benefits

By Megan Wehring megan@haysfreepress.com

Some Texas parents can now feel a bit of relief when it comes to feeding their families.

On April 12, Gov. Greg Abbott announced that the Texas Health and Human Services Commission received approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for a fourth round of federal Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer food benefits for Texas families with children who temporarily lost access to free or reduced-price school meals due to COVID-19.

HHSC received federal approval

to provide more than $626 million in benefits to approximately 2.1 million eligible children in Texas for the 2021-2022 school year, according to a news release.

At the time of the story, HHSC has distributed approximately $6.13 billion in P-EBT food benefits to Texas families.

“We’re thankful for the opportunity to continue this successful P-EBT program in Texas,” said Wayne Salter, HHS deputy executive commissioner of Access and Eligibility Services. “These food benefits provide muchneeded assistance to families and children impacted by school closures.”

No. 2 - Wildfire ignites near Hays/Blanco County line

Staff Report

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

A wildfire on the Hays/Blanco County line ignited Aug. 2. The Smoke Rider Fire moved northwest towards Highway 290 and prompted evacuations in the area.

A wildfire on the Hays/Blanco County line ignited Aug. 2. The Smoke Rider Fire moved northwest towards Highway 290 and prompted evacuations in the area.

The fire was 100% contained six-days later after spreading through 1,210 acres, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service incident viewer. Among the losses were seven homes and recreational vehicles with multiple barns and other equipment, according to the Blanco County Emergency Management.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF CHRISTUS SANTA ROSA HOSPITAL – SAN MARCOS AND CITY OF KYLE/ASCENSION SETON HAYS HOSPITAL Above, Fernando Villegas with his mother. Left, Janet Salazar and Jovanne Bernal with baby Ezra.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Respondek, a Carpenter Hill Elementary fifth grader,

No. 3 - Election yields new faces

By Ashley Kontnier publisher@bartonpublicationsinc.com

There are two new faces on Kyle City Council after Miguel A. Zuniga topped incumbent Robert Rizo for the District 3 spot in the November election. Rizo, who was mayor pro tem, has served on council since May of 2019.

"Thank you to everyone that supported me on this amazing election run and to all my supporters, campaign manager, and especially to my beautiful wife and family,” Zuniga said in a statement. “I want to recognize the work and service of Robert Rizo and wish him the best in his future

endeavors. When I began this campaign, I promised to be a candidate that would help grow our city together and improve the quality of our city in every direction. To achieve these outcomes there will be lots of work ahead of us and opportunities to improve as we continue to grow. As a new City Council member, I am going to promote collaboration and focus on priorities to find solutions for our city. Again, I am honored to be elected for Kyle City Council District 3 and committed to serving our community.”

A run-off election was held on Dec. 13 between Amanda

Stark and Bear Heiser to determine the District 1 Kyle City Council member. This seat was previously held by Dex Ellison, prior to his resignation in August 2022. Bear Heiser won in that run-off.

County Judge Ruben Becerra maintained his position in a close race with challenger Mark Jones.

“Alongside my colleagues, I’m working on building out a robust Public Defender Office; a Mental Wellness Center; a countywide Pet Resource Center; and responsibly reducing our jail population, including the termination of the privateprison contract,” Becerra said

in a statement. “I placed my campaign on a different path — one that compared two incumbents without personal attacks. Our community deserves unity and harmony, and that is what I intend to continue providing even if we don’t all see eye-to-eye. Peace is paramount.”

Michelle Gutierrez Cohen will be assuming the position of Hays County Commissioner Precinct 2.

“I’m just super excited and honored to have the people’s vote. I’ve been working in the community for over two and a half years because of the pandemic. I think with that work, people saw that

I was willing to work as a regular citizen,” Gutierrez Cohen said in a statement. “I think they know my work ethic and I think those people showed out yesterday.”

The three bond propositions on the ballot for Dripping Springs ISD failed to gain voter approval. Voters gave approval for the city of Kyle road bond proposition with a strong margin.

Hays County also gained a new district attorney. Kelly Higgins gained the seat previously held by Wes Mau who did not seek reelection after announcing his retirement.

PICK

Handing over the reins

By Cyndy Slovak-Barton

As we turn the calendar page to a new year, it gives all of us time to reflect back. We might not want to get too melancholy about 2021; instead, let’s think about the recent holidays.

The holidays are the time that we get together with family and friends, and the friends that make up a family. We have those friends at work, in our neighborhood, in relationships through trade organizations.

Friends and family are the beings who get us through tough times, and the people with whom we enjoy spending time.

We all know that some people feel like family, even when they are not blood kin. And the importance of family and local ties is especially important for any local small business.

Barton Publications Inc. has been in the Barton family of Kyle and Buda since the 1950s when Bob Barton and Mo Johnson purchased the Kyle News while they were freshmen students at Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State).

Their “family” included a lot of old Kyle family names, as this team of young people joined together to make sure that a newspaper hit the streets each and every week.

Over the years, the newspaper changed hands several times, some

times being sold for a box of cigars; yet, it seemed to have always come back to the Barton family.

And there was always a member of the Barton family somehow involved. Bob Barton ran it for many years, covering meetings, writing columns, covering sporting events. Jeff Barton and Cyndy Slovak-Barton took over the reins from him in the 1980s, doing all of the same kind of work — writing, taking photos, selling ads, throwing the newspapers to homes, designing the pages. Jeff’s and Cyndy’s children also helped out over the years, doing all kind of odd jobs, from translating copy to Spanish, to sweeping floors, to taking photos and writing stories.

Cyndy has held the reins for many years as publisher, keeping the Hays Free Press and NewsDispatch from running off the rails.

Yes, it was truly a family newspaper and family business.

But, it is time for a younger generation to take over. Someone with more knowledge of social media, video stories, design, websites and more.

So, it is with great pleasure that we announce that Barton Publications was passed on to another family with local ties, effective Jan. 1, 2022.

Tania French with Something More Newspapers, which owns the Port Lavaca Wave, is purchasing Barton Publications, Inc. and will

continue to run these newspapers with all the great stories, photos and investigations that have always been our hallmark. Her company is grounded in newspapers, but also does a lot of work with websites, specialty publications and more.

While Tania French splits her time between her home in Port Lavaca and her home in Kyle, her daughter Ashley Kontnier has lived in Kyle or Buda for the past 10 years, having purchased homes in Kyle and then Buda after her graduation from Texas State.

Ashley lives with her husband and son in Buda, has been a member of several networking groups, is known as a photographer extraordinaire, and is known to many local business owners because of her advertising connections with the Hays Free Press and News-Dispatch.

Another daughter, Schelly Bartels grew up in the newspaper business and has experience in various aspects of newspaper operations, even operating a printing press for a few years.

So, we take a step into the next year confident that these newspapers will still be putting out great publications. Readers can have confidence that city councils will still be questioned, that sports will be covered, and that your business’s ads will be front and center in front of thousands of readers.

Walking the Walk: Graduates celebrated

By Brittany Anderson

Hays CISD seniors recently had the opportunity to participate in an end-of-school-year tradition that celebrates graduating seniors and

from Hays High School, Johnson High School and Lehman High School packed into buses last week and visited the

On May 19, nearly 200 Hays HS seniors visited students and staff at Kyle, Negley, Buda, Tobias and Blanco Vista

On May 23, almost 200 Lehman HS seniors visited Blanco Vista, Kyle, Tobias, Hemphill, Uhland, Pfluger, Fuentes and Science Hall elementary schools, as well as Wallace, Chapa and Simon middle schools.

Hays CISD has held senior walks for the past several years as a way to celebrate graduating students and allow them to walk through the halls of campuses they grew up in. The event also serves as an inspiration to elementary and middle school students who can look up to graduating seniors and see that they will one day be in their shoes.

Local Living Legend: Veteran celebrates 104th birthday

By Brittany Anderson

KYLE — It’s not every day a family can celebrate the 104th birthday of their loved one, and a World War II veteran on top of that — but Milton Behrens, a resident of Orchard Park in Kyle, was the exception. On May 10, his family and the Orchard Park community gathered to celebrate the centenarian. Behrens’ daughter Sherral Coe also provided pictures and other mementos from his life, including his time serving in WWII.

inspires the younger generation of students.

Hundreds of seniors

district’s elementary and middle school campuses for the annual Senior Walk.

elementary schools, as well as Wallace Middle School.

As they made their way through the halls in their graduation caps and robes, seniors were met with congratulatory posters, claps, cheers and high-fives from younger students.

Bear Heiser

Kelly Higgins

Michelle Gutierrez

Cohen

Miguel Zuniga

Ruben Becerra

ASHLEY'S

ARLENE'S PICK

PHOTO BY BRITTANY ANDERSON

Milton Behrens surrounded by his family during his 104th birthday party on May 10.

PHOTO BY BRITTANY ANDERSON

A newspaper clipping from Giddings, Behrens’ hometown, showing Behrens (middle) and two other members of his unit working on telephone lines in Germany during WWII.

COURTESY OF HAYS CISD

Hays High School seniors visited elementary schools during the annual Senior Walk.

student in a month dies in suspected fentanyl overdose

Staff Report

HAYS COUNTY — A 15-yearold Hays CISD high school sophomore, later identified as Noah Rodriguez, died from a suspected fentanyl overdose in San Marcos on Saturday, Aug. 20 — and was the third suspected fentanyl overdose death involving a Hays CISD student..

In late July and early August, two 17-year-old students in two separate incidents died in Kyle at their houses, according to a Hays CISD news release. The three students who died attended, or would have attended, Johnson and Lehman high schools.

Since last May, all three Hays CISD comprehensive high schools (Hays, Johnson

and Lehman) have been affected by students who experienced life-threatening fentanyl overdoses, both on campus and at home, that did not result in death.

Kyle Police Chief Jeff Barnett has been leading the call to bring attention to the increase in fentanyl-related deaths and overdoses. Kyle PD and Hays CISD alerted parents to fentanyl dangers last week, on the eve of the start of this school year. In a Kyle PD Facebook post, shared by Hays CISD and included in a back to school email sent to all parents, Chief Barnett showed photographs of one type of counterfeit pill believed to have caused many of the recent fentanyl emergencies in the Kyle area.

No. 5 - Second arrest for DSISD teacher

TOTAL CHARGES BROUGHT TO 20

Staff Report

DRIPPING SPRINGS —

Former Dripping Springs Middle School (DSMS) teacher

Kevin James McLean is now facing a total of 20 charges after he was again arrested earlier this week, now on charges related to possession of child pornography and more.

McLean, 30, was first arrested and booked into Hays County Jail on May 5 for sending inappropriate images through Snapchat to juvenile victims, as well as providing juveniles with nicotine and THC vapes.

The reporting party was in Austin, and a report was filed with the Austin Police Department (APD). Hays County Sheriff’s Office then coordinated efforts with APD and Dripping

McLean’s

• One charge of Possession of a

Dangerous Drug; $5,000 surety bond.

• Three charges of Distribution of Controlled Substance to a Minor; $50,000 surety bond.

• Four charges of Sale, Distribution or Display of Harmful Material to a Minor; $12,500 surety bond.

McLean was again booked into Hays County Jail on June 13 on twelve additional charges and released June 14, according to Hays County jail records.

McLean’s charges from his June 13 arrest are as follows:

• One charge of Online Solicitation of a Minor; $50,000 surety bond.

• One charge of Improper Relationship Between Educator/ Student; $100,000 surety bond.

• Ten charges of Possession of Child Pornography; $25,000 surety bond.

AND ONE TO GROW ON...

Restaurants popping up around area

By CJ Vetter

HAYS COUNTY – At the last state of Kyle address, Mayor Travis Mitchell revealed a plethora of new restaurants coming to Kyle.

One notable eatery that came to the Buda area is Big’s Meat Market. Relocating from Austin, the newcomer to Buda is offering a meat market alongside brisket sandwiches, sausage, and other quick meals. The new location also provides a unique drivethru for those wishing to pick up meat without ever leaving the car.

“The difference between Austin and Buda is 100%,” said Scott Fiebig, owner of Big’s Meat Market.

“Everybody has been extremely friendly and the folks down here have

been great customers. Overall, it’s a breath of fresh air compared to being in Austin.”

Another offering is Dutch Bros. Coffee. The new drive-thru coffee shop offers variations of coffee, blended beverages, smoothies and more at its new location.

Numerous restaurants are also opening in the Dry River District, next to EVO Entertainment and the up-and-coming Costco off Interstate 35 in Kyle. Willie’s Grill and Icehouse was approved by the planning and zoning commission July 26. Residents will have several options including Torchy’s Tacos, Pizza Patrón, Z’Tejas, Denny’s (Opened December 2022,) Pollo Campero and P. Terry’s.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF JANEL RODRIGUEZ

Noah played football for Johnson High School. RIght, Noah with his mother Janel, middle, father Brandon, right, and two little sisters.

Springs ISD. McLean was released from jail on May 14.

charges from his May 5 arrest are as follows:

Kevin McLean

Local horse farm is a dream come true

BRITTANY'S PICK

By Amira Van Leeuwen

BUDA – Tony Greaves was born in West Texas, Lamesa, where he grew up with Shetland ponies all his life. His mother said he learned to walk holding on to a halter of a little filly they called “dappled filly.” Greaves couldn’t say dappled at such a young age, so they settled on the name “Daffy.” He had her for many years until she died.

Greaves raised his first miniature horse, Big’Un Greaves, in 1963 when he was a senior in high school. In 1978, when the American Miniature Horse Association (AMHA) was founded, Greaves registered Big’Un at 15-years-old. His family always had Shetlands, but he always loved the smallest ones.

“When we would go to an auction or something, I would search the barn and find the smallest one and beg my dad to buy it,” Greaves said.

When Greaves was younger, he had a comic book of Bozo the Clown. Bozo had a miniature circus of animals he carried around in his briefcase that would perform when placed on a table. Greaves said that that was the size of

animals he wanted.

He remembers telling his dad that he wanted to race 22-inch horses.

“Oh, you’ll never get them that little,” his dad replied.

“Well, I’m going to try,” Greaves said. And fortunately for Greaves, his father lived long

enough to see him get his horses down to 28-inches.

Now, Greaves is continuing his dream.

“I had one stallion that I sold two years ago — I didn’t really want to sell him, but I had somebody who just absolutely had to buy him. I popped

off and gave her a price that I thought she would never pay, and she did. But he was only 24.5 inches tall, full-grown,” Greaves said.

Greaves now has one horse named Jackpot, about one year old and 21.5 inches tall.

According to Greaves,

several buyers are interested in him, but he has held onto him because the horse’s father is 26-inches tall.

Greaves thinks Jackpot will be about 23-inches tall when he is fully grown.

Little America Miniature Horse Farm

is a family-owned miniature horse farm in Buda. Tony Greaves and his wife, Carol Greaves, purchased the land in 1995 and have registered over 1,500 horses.

Greaves and his wife have two children and have been married for 56 years.

PHOTO BY AMIRA VAN LEEUWEN

Tony Greaves stands with his favorite horse, El Dorado.

Sellers resigns as city manager amid investigation

By Ashley Kontnier and Amira Van Leeuwen

After almost eight years as Kyle’s chief administrative officer, city manager Scott Sellers announced his

resignation, effective Sept. 6.

The resignation came on the heels of several closed door meetings and was accepted following an executive session during the Kyle City Council meeting Tuesday,

Sept. 6. During the executive session, the council deliberated an internal complaint against the city manager and also discussed the continued employment of the city manager. The council

reconvened at 1:51 a.m., where it unanimously approved a separation release waiver agreement with Sellers and appointed acting city manager Jerry Hendrix as interim city manager.

Sellers went on an

unplanned sabbatical sometime between June 21 and June 25.

City records show that Sellers was present at the regular council meeting on June 21. Although he was on the posted agenda for a June 25 meeting,

minutes show he was not in attendance at that meeting. Instead, Jerry Hendrix stood in as acting city manager.

Third man found guilty of Dean murder

By Megan Wehring

Freddie Lee Smith, 38, was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life without parole resulting from a 2015 murder-for-hire plot of a 29-year-old woman and her unborn child.

Former Austin police officer VonTrey Clark hired Smith to kill Samantha Dean, who was seven months pregnant with Clark’s child, to be named Madeline, for $5,000 because she refused to have an abortion. They had an onand-off relationship for over six years, according to the Texas Attorney General’s Office. At the time of her death, Dean was the Kyle Police Victim

NATALIE'S PICK

Services Coordinator. Clark also hired Kevin Leo Watson to broker the deal to hire Smith. The individuals implemented a scheme involving burner phones to avoid a digital footprint — but records from the burner phones, numbers that were contacted, geolocation data and phone forensic exams provided sufficient evidence.

Investigators also gathered further evidence via a courtauthorized wire intercept

and recordings of the phone calls between the individuals.

In December 2019, Clark pled guilty which ultimately reversed his original non-guilty plea that he made in 2015. He was sentenced to life without parole. After six hours of deliberation, a jury announced a capital murder guilty verdict for Smith on June 30.

“Once they came out and announced their unanimous verdict of guilty, he was sentenced to an automatic sentence of life without parole,” said Bryan Goertz, Bastrop County District Attorney.

Goertz added that Watson previously pled guilty to committing

ASSEMBLIES OF GOD

Faith Assembly of God 1030 Main St., Buda

BAPTIST

First Baptist Church-Buda 104 San Marcos St., Buda

First Baptist Church-Kyle 300 W. Center St., Kyle

Hays Hills Baptist Church 1401 FM 1626, Buda

Sledge Chapel Missionary Baptist Church 709 Sewell, Kyle

Southeast Baptist Church 5020 Turnersville Rd., Creedmoor

Manchaca Baptist Church Lowden Lane & FM 1626

Immanuel Baptist Church 4000 E. FM 150, 4 miles east of Kyle

Center Union Baptist Church Goforth Rd., Buda

Primera Mision Bautista Mexicana Kyle

Baptist Church of Driftwood 13540 FM 150 W.

CATHOLIC

Santa Cruz Catholic Church 1100 Main Street, Buda

St. Anthony Marie Claret Church 801 N. Burleson, Kyle

St. Michael’s Catholic Church S. Old Spanish Trail, Uhland

CHRISTIAN

New Life Christian Church 2315 FM 967, Buda

Iglesia Israelita Casa de Dios 816 Green Pastures Dr., Kyle

murder and was sentenced to 35 years in prison on July 5 of this year — after

a long-awaited trial due to the pandemic.

Watson received a lesser sentence because of his cooperation with the authorities.

“He upheld his end of that deal at Freddie Smith’s trial,” Goertz explained. “VonTrey Clark had previously pled guilty and pursuant to a plea bargain, he was sentenced to life without parole. After Freddie Smith was found guilty by jury and Watson had honored that end of the bargain, he was brought before the court and sentenced to 35 years for murder.”

Evidence at the trial showed that Clark lured Dean to Bastrop under false pretenses. Smith

then shot Dean in the head at a vacant shopping center at the entrance to the Colony, according to Goertz. After Smith shot Dean twice, Clark fired an additional shot.

“She died instantly and her unborn child suffocated,” Goertz said. “Madeline Dean died an agonizing death.”

Goertz said that several agencies partnered in solving the case over the years: the Bastrop County District Attorney’s Office, the Bastrop County Sheriff’s Office, Texas Rangers, the FBI, the Texas Attorney General’s Office, the Travis County District Attorney’s Office and Austin Police Department.

CHURCH OF CHRIST

Buda-Kyle Church of Christ 3.5 miles south of Buda on FM 2770

Southern Hills Church of Christ 3740 FM 967, Buda

EPISCOPAL

St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church 725 RR 967, Buda

St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church RR 3237 (Wimberley Rd.), Kyle

St. Alban’s Episcopal Church 11819 IH-35 South

JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES

Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses FM 2770, Kyle

Jehovah’s Witnesses South 10802 Manchaca Rd., Manchaca

LUTHERAN

Living Word Lutheran ELCA 2315 FM 967, Buda

Redeeming Grace Lutheran LCMS FM 1626 & Manchaca Rd., Manchaca

Resurrection Church, CLBA 401 FM 967, Buda

St. John Lutheran Church 9865 Camino Real, Uhland

The Well Buda

METHODIST

Buda United Methodist Church San Marcos & Elm St., Buda

Kyle

SAMANTHA DEAN

By Brittany Anderson

HAYS

— Residents of the city of Hays pride their home on being a “little piece of heaven on Earth,” but a potential development is threatening to cause a myriad of problems.

Hays, located a few miles northwest of Buda, has a population of just under 300. Since 2013, the city has been negotiating a development agreement (DA) for a proposed development called Hays Commons, then signed with developer Walters Southwest but now under MileStone Community Builders.

The Hays City Council held a public workshop with

MileStone development raises environmental concerns

MileStone on Oct. 20 to discuss the DA and its potential changes, as well as address some of the concerns that have been raised, including requests from MileStone that residents and local environmental groups are pushing back on.

Hays Commons spans over 300 acres and proposes over 200 residential units on a mix of lot sizes — most on quarteracre lots, some on third-acre lots and only a couple dozen on one-acre lots. Parkland and several acres of commercial space are also proposed.

Most notably, the development is situated over the Barton Springs portion of the sensitive Edwards Aquifer

Recharge Zone (EARZ). A 2008 study prepared by ACI Consulting for previous developer Walters Southwest identified 52 karst features, or sensitive environmental features, on the tract of land where Hays Commons is set, 27 of which had the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality rating of “sensitive.”

One of MileStone’s controversial proposals is a Texas Land Application Permit (TLAP) on the development, which allows treated effluent water for irrigation. Many are opposed to this idea including Carol Pennington, a resident of nearby neighborhood Chaparral Park, who said that a

TLAP is the “worst thing” that could be put on this location.

“There are over 36 environmental features, a small creek that floods after three inches of rain and at least one tributary creek on this section of land where you want to spread treated wastewater. That has the potential to go directly into the Edwards Aquifer and our drinking water,” Pennington said. “This is the most irresponsible and negligent plan and needs to be drastically changed.”

Another MileStone request is that the Hays council grant them consent to create a municipal utility district (MUD). MUDs provide

developers an alternate way to finance infrastructure such as water, wastewater and road facilities, but this has also raised red flags for residents and environmental groups.

In a letter addressed to the Hays City Council, Save Our Springs (SOS) Alliance executive director Bill Bunch wrote that MileStone’s MUD request would increase density of the development — consequently, its impervious cover, or artificial surfaces that do not absorb rainfall — and the treatment and irrigation of municipal wastewater over the EARZ. Both would threaten to pollute the many nearby drinking water wells.