News8Austin looks at Hays County’s road issues. The station notes that a May bond election would have to be called by early March but TxDOT has insisted on a bonafide answer with funding specifics by the end of this month … The Hays Free Press has more details about the sell of the 2,166-acre Gregg Ranch on the Blanco River for a high-end subdivision. Fifty acres of river frontage and recharge features are protected through a conservation easement held by Hays County but environmental groups are worried about aquifer contamination and destruction of golden-cheeked warbler habitat. The paper quotes Pct. 2 Commissioner Jeff Barton, saying, “We have a good agreement with the state that protects some of the environmental features. I look at the conservation easement as a chair that gives us a guaranteed seat at the table.” … Caldwell County Judge H.T. Wright declared a “state of emergency” this week as mostly volunteer firefighters scrambled to put out a rash of grassfires across the county, the Lockhart Post-Register reports. … The New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung highlights a family whose heirloom property lies in the path of Texas 46, the 40-mile outer loop around the city. The road will take 20 acres of the 55-acre former dairy farm, which has been in Carla Pfeiffer Sievers’ family since 1850. … The Herald-Zeitung also notes the San Antonio Metropolitan Statistical Area being found in compliance with the Environmental Protection Agency’s 8-hour ozone standards, which the paper says is “the only major metropolitan city in the country which can make that claim.” .. Like the city of San Marcos, Seguin is considering an automated meter reading system for its water utility. The city of Seguin also hires a firm to audit “tax remittances from local businesses to ensure they are properly reporting their sales taxes,” the Seguin Gazette-Enterprise quotes the city finance director saying.
TODAY’S PAPERS reads the region’s newspapers and watches the news so you don’t have to.
It has come to be that whenever Commissioner Jeff Barton makes up his mind to FULLY support an issue, bill or bond we, the people, must carefully scrutinize it as an issue NOT in the community’s best interest.