oakhillgazette.com
April 18, 2013 Volume 18, No. 8 Southwest Austin’s Community Newspaper Since 1995
Agreement may open Bowie cave for study by Ann Fowler OAK HILL - The Austin City Council recently approved a fourmonth interlocal agreement with the Austin Independent School District for cave excavation services at Bowie High School. When the school was built in 1988, construction workers discovered a cave under the area designated to become the school’s science wing. Construction crews placed a pillar through the cave to help support the building. According to Nico Hauwert, Senior Hydrogeologist and Senior Environmental Scientist with the City of Austin Watershed Protection Department, the cave is approximately 15 to 20 feet high and 30 to 40 feet in diameter. Workers described larger cave dimensions, but construction
fill obscures a portion of it. “The construction fill in the cave is considerable, and the cave hasn’t been uncovered beyond the first room,” said Hauwert. The cave “funnels down to a subvertical crawl tube,” he said, adding that the cave origins likely go back millions of years. An ambitious and curious student heard rumors of a cave under the school and was able to access it from the school basement. Science teacher Jill Harding gained the support of then-principal Kent Ewing to lead a campaign to restore the cave for use as a teaching tool, according to Hauwert. Bowie is not the only AISD high school with a campus cave. McNeil High School in north Austin has two caves in its courtyard. See AGREEMENT on page 22
Road rage attacker is still on the loose Victim severely beaten in local restaurant parking lot by Tony Tucci OAK HILL - A man who assaulted a truck driver in the parking lot of Jack Allen’s Kitchen on State Highway 71 was still being sought by police this week. The incident occurred at about 9 p.m. April 4, when the truck driver, driving a red Chevrolet Dually pulling a flatbed trailer, attempted to enter the parking lot at Jack Allen’s, 7720 West State Highway 71. Unable to negotiate the turn, the driver motioned to the car behind him, a white sports utility vehicle, to back up and give him room. Instead, according to the police report,
a passenger in the SUV got out of the vehicle and “severely beat” the driver of the truck. The attacker then fled the scene, along with the SUV driver and a woman passenger in the back seat. The truck driver was rushed to University Medical Center at Brackenridge Hospital with “life-threatening injuries.” Police declined to release his name, and his condition is not known. Austin Police Detective James Kerby said the investigation has not progressed much. “I’m still working the case but we have no new leads.” See ROAD RAGE on page 22
Bowie Science teacher Jill Harding in this 2004 photo taken in the Bowie cave by City of Austin Sr. Environmental Scientist Nico M. Hauwert, Ph.D., P.G. It is not known exactly how big the cave is, but the room pictured above is around 20 feet high and 40 feet in diameter.