Burnet County

Note: Read all the responses, "TCEQ Response to Comments Asphalt Inc 148112," here, at HighlanderNews.com: http://bit.ly/2Aeg8cm

By Lew K. Cohn

Managing Editor

The Highlander

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has granted an air quality standard permit for a permanent rock and concrete crusher to Asphalt Inc. for a new plant to be built south of Marble Falls near US 281.

By Glynis Crawford Smith

The Highlander

The Tree of Angels commemorating victims of violent crime in the 33rd and 424th Judicial Districts will again be displayed at Marble Falls City Hall and the local ceremony, forgone last year, will return on Saturday, Dec. 2.

The ceremony will be held at 5 p.m. at the Marble Falls Church of Christ, 711 Broadway Street.

By Lew K. Cohn

Managing Editor

The Highlander

Public comment deadline for a proposed Air Quality Standard permit for a proposed rock crushing plant south of Marble Falls has been extended by three weeks until Oct. 31, state Sen. Dawn Buckingham, R-Lakeway, said Friday.

Meanwhile, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) will hold a 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 26, informational meeting about the Asphalt Inc. permit application at Lakeside Pavilion, 307 Buena Vista, Marble Falls, Buckingham said.

“To my constituents in Senate District 24 I hear you,” Buckingham said. “Many of you in the Marble Falls and surrounding areas have voiced your concerns and frustrations about a proposed rock crushing permit request and an inability, in some cases, to get your questions answered. That's why I reached out to the regulatory agency involved on your behalf demanding more transparency.

By Lew K. Cohn

Managing Editor

The Highlander

Homeowners, ranchers, government officials, hospital leaders and concerned citizens met together Friday at Baylor Scott & White Speciality Clinic with one common goal in mind — opposing the construction of a new rock crushing plant south of Marble Falls.

Asphalt Inc. applied for an air permit from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to operate a new rock and concrete crushing plant with an entrance 90 feet west of US 281 and approximately 2.6 miles south of the intersection of Texas 71 near Flat Rock Road, which is Burnet County Road 403.

By Glynis Crawford Smith

The Highlander

Estimates have more than 30,000 Texans seeking emergency shelter as the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey continues, but many are safe and dry in the Texas Hill Country.

Mission Marble Falls at St. Frederick Church geared up for a lunch Tuesday, Aug. 29, to welcome people fleeing the storm.

Ann Sherman and Ron Farmer had traveled from Port Aransas.

“When they said Harvey would come as a Category 1, we were going to stay,” said Sherman. “Then they said Category 3 or maybe 4.

“Ron said we are going. We grabbed our cat, our records, our pictures and we got out in 45 minutes.”

A few people stayed behind and the couple said the news was disheartening.

“The roof is gone and the ceiling is on the floor,” he said.

Two groups of people from Sweeney who had never met were lunching in the St. Frederick dining room.

Burnet County Precinct 3 Justice of the Peace Peggy Shell Simon announced last week she will not be seeking re-election to the position she has held since January 1991.

Simon made the announcement Thursday night at the Lakes Republican Club. At least two candidates have announced they want to succeed Simon – former Marble Falls mayor pro Tem and local real estate broker Jane Marie Hurst, and Jeff Sellers, a volunteer firefighter who also has a background in mediation, emergency management, private investigations and law enforcement.

Efforts to reach Simon, who was out of town at a conference Monday, were unsuccessful, but both Hurst and Sellers expressed their appreciation for the longtime public servant.

By Glynis Crawford Smith

The Highlander

A Kingsland motel has been declared “uninhabitable” by the Texas State Fire Marshal and tenants have been barred from staying there unless or until repairs have been made.

State and local officials converged on the LBJ Motel at 13813 Ranch to Market Road 1431 about 11 a.m. Monday, June 5, to investigate.

“Essentially there had been a lot of complaints about the motel, about loose wiring and other things,” said Burnet County Sheriff Calvin Boyd on Tuesday. “The state fire marshal said the people there could stay the night, but they had to be out by 8 a.m. this morning.”

The official notice was posted on the door of the motel office at a little after 2:30 p.m. Tuesday.

A Burnet County Sheriff's Office employee died Friday morning in what officials believe may have been a murder-suicide at a Lampasas home.

Millie Chance, 24, worked in the Burnet County Jail. She died Friday morning at Baylor Scott & White Hospital in Temple, where she had been airlifted the previous day.

Lampasas police officers had responded just before noon Thursday to a disturbance call at a residence at 702 W. North Ave. after a woman called 911 to ask for help, but the call was disconnected. When officers arrived, they knocked on the door but got no answer. Then, they heard two noises that appeared to be gunshots coming from inside the house.

Officers forced entry into the home and found Deborah Chance, 47, dead at the scene from an apparent gunshot wound. Millie Chance was still alive, but had what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the head. A post on the Burnet County Sheriff's Office Facebook page on Friday announced Millie Chance's death.

By Lew K. Cohn and Christi Bertelson

Copyright 2017 Highland Lakes Newspapers

A burned body found in the charred remains of a vehicle in Burnet County last June has been identified by the Travis County Medical Examiner's Office as that of a San Antonio man allegedly under investigation for child pornography.

Brian Lee Magee, 52, of San Antonio, died from smoke inhalation and thermal injuries in a manner consistent with suicide, according to a Travis County medical examiner's report obtained by The Highlander.

A passerby found Magee's body not moving and unresponsive in a vehicle filled with smoke in the 3800 block of County Road 202 in Lake Victor in Precinct 2 at around 8 p.m. June 20, 2016. The vehicle initially did not appear damaged by fire, but flashed over, causing it to be engulfed with flames, according to the report.

By Lew K. Cohn

Managing Editor

The Highlander

The former general manager at Cecil Atkission Motors in Burnet has been arrested and indicted for theft of money from his former employer that was earmarked to pay for a direct credit mailer.

Kirk Edmond Hagen of Bertram, 39, currently a licensed Realtor with RE/MAX Burnet, was arrested by Kerrville Police Department on a warrant from Burnet County on Friday, Jan. 20, and was released on $7,500 surety bond. He was charged with theft of property greated than $1,500 but less than $20,000, a state jail felony under Section 31.03(e)(4)(A) of the Texas Penal Code.