Kingsland

Editor's Note: As of 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 16 the Marble Falls Middle School shelter has reached capacity. Marble Falls First Baptist Church, 901 La Ventana Dr., has been established as a new shelter location.

Compiled by Savanna Gregg •
Staff Writer •

As flood waters continue to plague areas of Burnet and Llano counties Oct. 16, residents – and their pets – were evacuated from their homes to area shelters.

Flood waters in the Llano River ushered in by thunderstorms in a 24-hour period have wreaked havoc in the Highland Lakes.

Area emergency first responders have assisted residents in communities including Meadowlakes and Marble Falls as well as Llano and Kingsland in getting to higher ground.

For those who do not have alternative accommodations, officials have established temporary shelters until the flood waters subside.

Connie Swinney •
Staff Writer •

As the surge of the Llano River subsided, Highland Lakes residents and property owners reported minimal damage Oct. 9 and 10 to lakeside structures as well as some rising water along shorelines inching onto property.

Murky floodwaters from the Llano River from the Junction area crested in Kingsland after midnight just 24 hours earlier, eventually making its way through lakes LBJ and Marble Falls – to be captured in Lake Travis, just west of Austin.

On Oct. 10, the Lower Colorado River Authority reported floodgate operations on Wirtz and Starcke dams to pass floodwaters downstream.

From staff reports

A Richmond woman died after Aug. 18 a personal watercraft she was operating crashed into boathouse on Lake LBJ in an area near the Legends Golf Course, according to Texas Parks and Wildlife.

Debra Stribling, 56, was on the vessel around 8 a.m. that morning when the accident happened.

“(The victim) sustained fatal injuries when the personal watercraft she was operating crashed into a bulkhead and a boathouse,” according to the press release.

Stribling was pronounced dead at the scene by a Burnet County justice of the peace. The victim was a retired pharmacist.

The Texas Game Warden STORM boating accident reconstruction team is assisting with the investigation.

The body of a 38-year-old white male from Austin was recovered Wednesday, July 4, from the Llano River arm of Lake LBJ in Kingsland after the man apparently drowned trying to swim across the lake.

Llano County Sheriff's Chief Deputy John Neff said his department received a 911 call about a missing swimmer at 2:55 a.m. Wednesday. Deputies responded to the scene and requested assistance from Texas Parks & Wildlife game wardens.

By Lew K. Cohn

Managing Editor

The Highlander

On Monday, May 14, Kingsland resident Shaun Daughtry — fed up with the presence of methamphetamine dealers and users in his neighborhood off Lover's Laner — put up a sign on his property declaring the area to be a “meth-free zone.”

By Phil Reynolds

The Highlander

Facing a hostile, but polite, audience that nearly filled the 500-capacity sanctuary at Kingsland’s First Baptist Church Tuesday evening, Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) officials agreed to reconsider a proposal to restripe Ranch-to-Market Road 1431 in Llano County.

The project would have made the four-lane highway into a two-lane highway with intermittent passing and turning lanes, a change TxDOT engineers said would improve the safety of the road.

By Phil Reynolds

The Highlander

A revolution may be brewing in Llano County over what some residents perceive as an unneeded and unwanted change to Ranch to Market Road 1431 and an attitude bordering on contempt for local officials by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT).

At issue is a plan to change the ranch road from four lanes to what is known as a “super two” highway – one lane in each direction with intermittent turn lanes and passing lanes where engineers think they’re needed. The approximately 30 miles of Texas 71 between US 281 south of Marble Falls to Texas 16 in Llano is an example of that type of highway.

A late night accident Thursday claimed the life of one person just west of Marble Falls.

The accident occurred when two vehicles collided on Texas Highway 71 near the Burnet and Llano county line at 11:28 p.m. Thursday, July 14, about two miles west of the intersection with U.S. Highway 281.

One man, J. Lee Rethaber, of Kingsland, was killed in the accident. It was unknown what factored into the crash.