T
hank a veteran or a military person every day for their service to our country.
LARRY LESTER Broker Associate
c 210.347.4546 t 830.816.7002 Larry.Lester@SothebysRealty.com KuperRealty.com
Burn Ban ON
THE BOERNE STAR
Since 1906
www.boernestar.com
Friday April 18, 2014
Fireman to run Boston Marathon
•
BY ELENA TUCKER
26 pages
■ Features Writer
$1
elena@boernestar.com
Inside A visit with Jimmy Walker
Pro golfer and Boerne resident Jimmy Walker threw out the first pitch at Champion’s baseball game Tuesday. Walker also answered a few questions for the Boerne Star. For more on the interview, see sports, pages 15A-16A.
Happy... ...Birthday
When thousands of runners stream through Boston’s streets Monday, the Boerne Fire Department will have a representative among them. Toby Vicnair moved to Boerne several years ago, starting out as a volunteer with the department and later assuming a fulltime position. But while Vicnair’s professional responsibilities have been heavily invested with the local firefighting service, much of his off-time hours are spent on the road. Vicnair’s running abilities have even Boerne Fire Chief Doug Meckel, amazed. “He runs to the Alamo and then home,” Meckel said incredulously. “Back when it was so cold, one day his goal was to run 50 miles. It was freezing and the last part of his leg was to come here by the station. You could tell he was tired, but not like me - he was upright! I’d have been on all fours crawling.” Vicnair said his grandpa and dad also ran. Vicnair himself participated in a race with his mother when he
was about two years old, but for most of his youth he concentrated on baseball. “I was good but I wasn’t great, so one day I decided to run,” Vicnair said. “That first day I went out and ran eight miles.” And that was essentially where it began, leading to this Boerne fireman’s first time participation in the Boston Marathon. As he runs the famous race on April 21, Vicnair says he will be mentally juggling “all of those numbers” that help him - as a long-distance runner - to stay on track. Vicnair is also certain that he will spend time thinking of the family members who ran before him, his wife and two children. He also knows that his fellow firefighters will be in his thoughts, running down the miles with him in spirit. Vicnair is awed by the support he receives from the rest of the department. On that winter morning not so long ago to which Meckel referred, Vicnair had decided to run a circuit from Boerne to Bergheim, to Kendalia, to Sisterdale and back to Boerne. “One of the fellows got up at 5:30 in the morning to meet me in Ber-
At the end of an early morning, 50-mile practice run, Boston Marathon participant and Boerne firefighter Toby Vicnair takes a moment to celebrate with other department fellows, Gerard Silva, Keaton Mattick and Lyle Mattick. Photo courtesy of Gary Boyer
Boerne business owner Paula Hayward points out various layers of facing on the old Diamond Hospital building on South Main Street, including plaster over pickets, shiplap wood, pressed tin and rock sheathing. Hayward is renovating the historic structure, parts of which are thought to be more than 150 years old. Star photo by Gail Yovanovich
Historic hospital gets facelift
...Anniversary
BY GAIL YOVANOVICH
April 18 Dillon & Rebecca Snell April 19 Dalton & Connie Harbers April 20 Alton & Joan Felps
Kathie Viola Brannan
For complete obituaries, see page 2A and online at www.boernestar.com.
Index Business Calendar Celebrating the Arts Classifieds Confessions of a Bookaholic Crossword Faith From the Heart Games Hill Country Gardener Mary Alice’s Potpourri Real Estate Service Directory Sports Viewpoints
9A 8A 20A 1B-6B 17A 14A 7A 11A 14A 11A 19A 1B-3B, 6B 4B-5B 15A-16A 4A
Volume 108 • Number 31 All contents copyright 2014 The Boerne Star
Cibolo Creek provides accommodations in the heart of Boerne, with individualized therapy programs that enable one to return home quickly.
See MARATHON, page 18A
Happy Easter!
April 18 Nancy Connett Ruby Itz William Odom Sue Witt April 19 Donna Barker Elsie Becker Mary Herrin Arlene Konde Thomas Morton Larry Myers Faye Smith Nancy Thorne April 20 Michael Deming Laverne Duncan Jack Myers Clarence Oliver Shirley Seiter April 21 Denny Amend Lohman Blaize John Carpenter Jeanne Lutrey Madeline McCord Madalyn Snider
Deaths
his job well, but Vicnair actively represents the department in such activities as the May 3 communitywide fish fry. Proceeds from that event support
gheim,” Vicnair said. “And when I got to Boerne - my route took me by the station - they were all out there running the lights.” For his part, Meckel said that Vicnair is a huge asset to the department. Not only is he a firefighter who does
■ Public Affairs Reporter gail@boernestar.com
Geneva School of Boerne held its annual Flowering of the Cross Assembly in which the entire school community had the opportunity to add a flower to the wooden cross as they reflected on Jesus Christ’s life, death and resurrection. By adding these flowers, the bare wooden cross was transformed into a beautifully fragrant cross, signifying the life and beauty Jesus Christ brings to the world. Geneva School of Boerne second grade students Macy Jamison and Carson Cooper add their flowers to the cross during Geneva’s annual Flowering of the Cross Assembly. Photo by Pam Akin, special to The Boerne Star
Applications for shares of hotel occupancy tax due April 22 Each year, Boerne receives hotel occupancy tax (HOT) revenue from a tax levied on guest rooms at local hotels, inns and bed and breakfast facilities. Organizations that offer programs to attract overnight tourists to the city’s hotels and motels may be eligible to receive a portion of these HOT funds. State law requires eligibility standards for HOT funds to assure every
expenditure will attract overnight tourists to the city’s hotels and motels, thus promoting the city’s hotel industry. The Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) is now accepting applications, available on the city’s website www. boerne-tx.gov listed under the Finance Department. Completed applications will be
See APPLICATION page 18A
Thanks to the efforts of Boerne business owner Paula Hayward, the historic Diamond Hospital building at 421 South Main St. is slated for a much-needed facelift, and work is expected to begin any day now. Hayward purchased the building in 2005, unoccupied at the time and a hodgepodge of small buildings connected over the years by add-ons and porches. “It was four separate buildings all built at different times,” she said. Of the four buildings, the horizontal log cabin and accompanying hand-hewn stone cottage with a dog run between them are thought to be the oldest, the cabin dating possibly from around 1858. Some consider it one of the very early “10 homes,” or first homes, built in Boerne. Next, around 1870, a picket house was built on the Main Street side of the lot, then an addition tacked onto its east side sometime before 1910, complete with tin and wood sheathing to give it a Victorian look. That structure housed Ida Vogt Bower’s dry goods business and served as the Bower family home until 1912.
Also during this time, a wagonservice campground, a feedlot and stables surrounded the building. After the dry goods store moved in 1912 to the new Joe Vogt building at the corner of Theissen and Main streets, the 3,600-squarefoot structure transitioned to a nursing home and then a doctor’s office. From 1949 to around 1957, Dr. Jack Diamond ran it as a 12-bed, state-licensed regional hospital. Although it next served as a boarding house and private residence for more than 50 years, locals still call it the Diamond Hospital. Hayward had purchased the Joe Vogt building in 2000 after leasing it from former mayor and baker Patrick Heath. She started her Bear Moon Bakery there, then bought the adjacent hospital property with the idea of joining the two buildings to enlarge her shop space. “But once I got into the building I realized that wouldn’t work,” she said. Instead, Hayward has plans underway to renovate the old hospital inside and out, starting with the picket house portion. “It has a lot of things going on in it, so it’s taken a long time to decide how to deal with it. It’s really an old building,” she said. “I knew there was cedar in the
See BUILDING, page 18A
Make Your Hometown News Your Homepage. 830-249-7979 222 S. Main Street • Boerne www.hillcountryproperties.net
THE BOERNE STAR eEdition www.boernestar.com