Llano County

A Llano man was killed early Friday morning in a one-vehicle accident on Texas 71, according to a Texas Department of Public Safety report.

The accident occurred at 5:45 a.m. Friday about seven miles east of Llano. A 2006 Chevrolet Malibu P4 driven by Robin Magrath Lacey, 52, was westbound on Texas 71 when, for unknown reasons, Lacey's vehicle traveled off the roadway to the right and then he overcorrected to the left.

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 Lew K. Cohn

Managing Editor

The Highlander

The attorney for Llano Police Chief Kevin Ratliff said Thursday his client has done nothing wrong and is looking forward to his case being “set for trial as soon as the law allows us.”

“Unless there is some evidence out there that I don't know of which convinces me otherwise, I believe my client has done nothing wrong,” said defense attorney Austin Shell. “I believe his presence prevented a situation from getting out of hand and he handled the situation calmly and coolly and his actions prevented a man from being tased.”

As a service to our readers, we have loaded the TCEQ Response to Comments regarding Asphalt Inc.'s air quality permit 148112 on our website in its entirety. This is available for free as an e-edition to our readers. This is the official 58-page TCEQ response to public comments made about the air quality permit for the proposed rock crushing plant to be located south of Marble Falls off US 281.

To read the document, go to http://bit.ly/2Aeg8cm and click on "TCEQ Response to Comments Asphalt Inc 148112"

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 Phil Reynolds

The Highlander

After nearly a week of more or less steady rain, Llano County has lifted its burn ban. The ban was imposed at the Sept. 25 meeting of the Commissioners Court, with the thought that County Judge Mary Cunningham could lift the ban before the next court meeting if conditions warrant.

That happened today, Friday, Sept. 20.

The Texas Forest Service shows Llano County averaged 430 on the Keetch-Byram Drought Index (KBDI) on Thursday, Sept. 28. that number is on the low end of the danger area for wildfires. The KBDI is widely used as an index of wildfire vulnerability.

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.

By Richard Zowie

The Highlander

A weekend on the water turned into a tragedy as a man died in the early morning of July 23 after being pulled from the water at Buchanan Dam the day before.

According to Steve Lightfoot of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Juan Antonio Bolaños, a 28-year-old Mexican national, was on a float tube at the dam Saturday evening when he fell off at some point and was unable to swim.

Friends on shore say it was about 15 minutes before they realized he wasn’t there. They then went out and brought him to shore.

Lightfoot said medical personnel responding were able to detect a pulse from Bolaños, who was then transported by helicopter to a hospital.

The Mexican national was pronounced dead early Sunday morning.

Lightfoot said at this time, no further details of Bolaños’ death are known. He added that there is currently no indication of foul play.

By Phil Reynolds

The Highlander

With no discussion, Llano County commissioners voted Monday to extend a county-wide burn ban for another three weeks. The vote was unanimous, 4-0, with Precinct 3 Commissioner Mike Sandoval absent.

The Texas Forest Service lists Llano County with a Keetch-Byram Drought Index (KBDI) ranging from 328 to 526 as of Monday, July 24. According to the KBDI definition, a range of 400 to 600 means that “Lower litter and duff layers contribute to fire intensity and will burn actively. Wildfire intensity begins to increase significantly. Larger fuels could burn or smolder for several days.”

County Emergency Management Coordinator Assistant Ron Anderson said he didn’t take his usual poll of county fire chiefs to get their opinions because “half the departments were out fighting fires” over the weekend.

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.