News

BY LISA TREIBER-WALTER

HIGHLAND LAKES NEWSPAPERS

Burnet County's job market is healthier than it was a year ago, according to a Texas Workforce Commission report that shows the local unemployment rate dropping from 4.0 percent in January 2015 to an improved 3.5 percent for the same month this year.

Glynis Crawford Smith/The Highlander

Residents of the Highland Lakes are invited during Passion Week to experience a sacred pilgrimage walk through The Stations of the Cross, newly added to Remembrance Garden of the Church at Horseshoe Bay, 600 Hi Ridge Road, beginning Saturday, March 19.

The exact origin of The Stations of the Cross is not entirely clear, though it is associated with Christian pilgrimages to Jerusalem in early Christian centuries.

By Glynis Crawford Smith

The Highlander

Although the Church at Horseshoe Bay has instituted a new Stations of the Cross feature this Easter season, the Highland Lakes communities share three more of the walks through the passion of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection that have become a shared tradition over the years.

Two are located at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, 105 Ranch to Market Road 1431 East, and a third is found at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, 10063 Cypress Mill Road, in Cypress Mill, just across Llano and Burnet County lines into Blanco County.

Easter events are here and we have compiled a list of some happenings in the area still to come in the way of Easter services and hunts for Easter eggs, one of the earliest Christian celebrations of Eastertide:

Easter Egg Hunts

The Marble Falls High School (MFHS) Technical Design Team delivered seven state qualifiers during the spring University Interscholastic League (UIL) Technical Theatre Design Contest.

The challenge for contestants this year was to start with Macbeth by William Shakespeare, and change the play’s typical location, Scotland, or the typical time period, the 1500s, or both. The team was tasked with creating a unified design for the show using the new setting.

“The competition produced only one other state qualifier (Cedar Park) in Marble Falls’ UIL district,” said Jonathan Clark, MFHS theatre director. “We have the third most State qualifiers in the Division 2 category of 5-A and 6-A schools.”

By Emily Hilley-Sierzchula

Marble Falls Independent School District (MFISD) administrators have started the 10-step process of hiring a principal at Colt Elementary to replace Keith Powell, who announced his retirement earlier this month.

Wade Stanford, assistant superintendent of administrative operations, briefed the MFISD Board of Trustees on the process during the district’s meeting March 22.

Stanford expects the superintendent to be able to make a recommendation to the board during the regular meeting scheduled for May 16.

By Emily Hilley-Sierzchula

The Cottonwood Shores City Council at its meeting on Thursday, March 17, unanimously passed a revised version of noise ordinance 8005, a staple on council agendas since January and an issue within the city for at least two years.
Although the noise ordinance applies to heavy equipment, vehicles and firearms, among many other sources of loud noise, complaints have been directed mainly at On The Rocks restaurant in the Castle Rock section of the city.

Between April and October of last year, two residents called officers 35 times about noise at the restaurant, with 16 of those calls made in one month alone.

The 4th Annual Balloons Over Horseshoe Bay Resort is set to become an Easter weekend tradition for folks from all over the state. Festivities start Friday evening, March 25, and end Sunday, March 27 (for VIP package holders.)

Although hot air balloons are the focus and highlight of the occasion, the festival also features music, food, a crafts fair, skydivers and a powered parachute demonstration.

For children, there is also face painting, a rock climbing wall, bungee trampoline and the Safari Greg Animal Show.

by Alexandria Randolph

Llano County officials said Wednesday that there is no reason to think the apparent drowning death of a 20-year-old San Antonio man on Saturday, March 19 was anything but a “horrific accident.”

Llano County Justice of the Peace Pct. 2 Linda Ballard handled the inquest of the death of Edward David Griffin, who had just celebrated his 20th birthday on Feb. 8 and apparently drowned in Lake LBJ at Kingsland last week.

“He jumped off a dock in the backyard of house in Kingsland,” she said. “It was Spring Break. He and some friends were down at the lake for the holiday.

“There is no reason to think this was anything but a horrific accident,” Ballard said, adding that officials did not believe drugs or alcohol were involved. “We thoroughly checked that out.”

Ballard said the young man jumped into the lake of his own accord and didn’t resurface – he couldn’t swim.