December 3, 2007 23:06 - HCISD settling attendance zones
By Bill Peterson
KYLE – Trustees for the Hays CISD will consider new attendance zones for elementary schools next month after a growth impact committee assented to a plan for opening Camino Real and Blanco Vista elementary schools.
As the names suggest, the new schools are located near the old Camino Real (SH 21) and the Blanco River. Their openings will relieve crowding at elementary schools in the east Kyle area.
Camino Real will considerably remove student load from Tom Green Elementary and, to a lesser extent, Hemphill Elementary.
Presently, Tom Green serves the entire northwest corner of the school district, everything east of I-35 and north of a line including Windy Hill Road, Mathias Lane, a short piece of SH 157 and Rohde Road all the way out to SH 21 at the district's eastern edge. Green's attendance zone would be cut to about half of its present size.
Camino Real will take all that territory except the portion Green will keep between I-35 on the west and a line made up of Turnersville Road, SH 2001, Blackbird Lane, Rolling Hills Drive and Windy Hill Road on the east and south. Camino Real also will take the far northwest portion of Hemphill's zone, between a line made of Rohde Road and Mathias Lane and a line extending southeast from Goforth Village road all the way out to the eastern edge of the district.
Blanco Village will take the lion's share of the present Tobias International School zone, which lies between the school district's southern boundary and a line composed of the Blanco River, Opal Lane, I-35, SH 150, Lehman Road and the Plum Creek out to Dairy Road, Heidenreich Lane and CR 158 on the east. Blanco Vista would take the entire area west of I-35 and everything south of CR 158 east of the highway. Tobias would then take an area between the creek and Bunton Lane from the Fuentes Elementary zone.
Camino Real is projected to open in 2008 with 453 students, while Blanco Vista would open with 404 students. Green's 2008 enrollment would drop to 582, Hemphill would fall to 578 and Tobias would fall to 514.
While school district projections indicate that the elementary school situation in Kyle will stabilize, rapid growth will outpace capacity in the Buda area elementary schools. Between 2008 and 2010, enrollment is projected to increase from 582 to 939 at Green, from 607 to 786 at Buda Elementary and from 649 to 869 at Elm Grove Elementary.
The school board will conduct a public hearing on the elementary school zones before its Jan. 28 meeting.
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December 5, 2007 22:42 - Kohl's comes to Kyle
By Bill Peterson
KYLE – A Target store may still be coming to Kyle, but Kohl's won the race to the southwest corner of Kyle Parkway and Interstate-35, across the parkway from H-E-B.
Tuesday, the Kyle City Council approved a final plat and a site development plan for the 128-acre site, anchored by Kohl's and a movie theatre. Kohl's is planning a 100,000-square-foot facility that would be the first department store in Kyle. The site includes 27 other commercial lots and one lot for multi-family housing.
The plan calls for Kohl's to set back in the middle of the development, which would front Kyle Parkway across from H-E-B with seven commercial buildings and front the western I-35 frontage with ten. An additional building wraps along the corner of the two roads. Most of the front buildings range from about 5,000 to 20,000 square feet.
One building on the far west side of the development is about 50,000 square feet, divisible into four units. Besides Kohl's, no building on the site is nearly large enough for a major department store.
The future location of a possible Target remained a mystery. Kyle officials remained mum Tuesday night.
The council also considered a number of other commercial projects at I-35 and Kyle Parkway. One plan calls for six commercial lots on 216 acres on the front side of the Seton Hospital complex, which will lie east of the interstate. Another calls for a 4,700-square-foot office building within a complex approved two years ago on Goforth Road south of the Seton complex.
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December 7, 2007 21:26 - GIC asks for $86.7 million Hays bond
The Hays Highway
A growth impact committee (GIC) for the Hays CISD gave almost unanimous support Thursday night for an $86.7 million bond package to be financed over 30 years. The GIC will make the proposal to the trustees at their Dec. 17 meeting. The trustees will decide whether to call an election for the bond arrangement on Jan. 28.
The committee focused on two packages, picking the $86.7 million amount over a package that would have funded $95.6 million to be repaid over 35 years. Hays CISD Superintendent Kirk London asked for restraint, saying the school district might need a new high school in three years and he would prefer to put off a tax rate increase until then.
"This one, we can do for $80 or $90 million at no tax rate increase," London said. "The next one will have a high school in it and we're going to need those pennies. We're going to need them but we'll need them more in three years."
One GIC member, Kevin Foley of Kyle, proposed adding $2 million in district-wide improvements and spreading the debt over 35 years. Again, London urged going for the smaller package at no rate increase over 30 years because the school district will have to ask for more later.
"If we're going to have to come back in two to three years, which is probably the case based on our enrollment projections, the next package could be $150 million and we may need the 35-year bonds,” London said. “I may need those extra five years and those extra pennies. I'm looking long term."
The $86.7 million package would pay for two elementary schools, one to open in 2009 and the other to open in 2010, at a combined cost of $38 million. The bonds also would fund a middle school to open in 2010 at $30.8 million. Additional purchases through the package include two middle school tracks ($1.3 million), school buses ($1.2 million), land, infrastructure and contingencies ($3.1 million), parking access and security ($1 million), technology improvements ($2 million), furniture, fixtures and equipment ($2 million) and improvements to existing campuses ($6.1 million).
The trustees will hold public hearings on the bond proposal and new elementary school attendance zones on Jan. 28 before voting on each matter. An election is likely to be called for May.
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December 8, 2007 23:28 - A week in the life of bad living
Commentary
By Bill Peterson
The sadder side of humanity is illustrated by a week in the life of the San Marcos Police Department, which ordinarily deals with common hoods and, sometimes, comes upon the most unfortunate procession of fugitives, runaways, missing persons, wrong-way drivers, the odd pot dealer who somehow can't keep a lid on his operation, and common hoods. Always common hoods.
Something very wicked descended upon San Marcos around 2:30 a.m. last Sunday. It certainly wasn't a full moon. It was a crescent moon. Full enough, evidently.
The fun began at that hour, when police received a tip that man wanted in Galveston County was staying at the La Quinta Hotel at 1619 I-35. Galveston detectives and San Marcos detectives moved in at 2:50 a.m. to arrest and jail Kevin Allen Richter, 24, who happened to be keeping a 14-year-old runaway girl company.
Richter was charged with sexual assault of a child, a second degree felony, as well as harboring a runaway, which is a class A misdemeanor. He also was arrested on felony warrants for theft under $100,000 issued in Galveston County and forgery issued in Chambers County. For good measure, the police recovered a car reported stolen in Gonzales.
The runaway was returned to her family in good condition, according to police. Richter is held under bonds totaling $112,000 for his various charges.
At about the same moment as the Richter bust, San Marcos police officer Joyce Bender spotted a car driving south in the northbound lanes between San Marcos and Buda on Interstate-35. The driver, 25-year-old Joseph Gonzales of San Marcos, was arrested for driving while intoxicated and released on $2,500 bond. Gonzales reportedly drove 15 miles the wrong way.
Meanwhile, a severe beating took place at 2:30 a.m. at the Exchange II apartments at 1101 East River Ridge Parkway. Police are looking for three suspects. Friends transported the victim to a hospital in Houston, where his condition deteriorated due to severe head injuries.
Police are looking for three black males, ages 22 to 26. Two were between 5-feet-8 and 6-feet tall, while the third was 5-6. At least two were carrying backpacks.
Wednesday, San Marcos police put out a search for a missing woman, 30-year-old Jennifer Ann Feeny, who hadn't been in contact with her family since Sunday. A day later, Feeny called her mother in San Marcos with word she was in Colorado. But in making the announcement, San Marcos police said they received calls about "a variety of suspicious circumstances" as they attempted to develop leads in the case.
Finally, Friday, the Hays County Narcotics Task Force swept in on a home at 104 Redbud Trail. According to Sgt. Chase Stapp of the San Marcos police and the narcotics task force, police received a search warrant after a two-month investigation and found that the entire upstairs of the three-bedroom home had been converted into a sophisticated marijuana growing operation.
Gilbert VanZandt V, 26, is jailed by the county on a $100,000 bond. The police found cultivated marijuana worth approximately $30,000. Police said they may file additional charges.
Some week. So many people are just blowing along the ground like tumbleweeds caught in the wind. The highway calls to them.
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December 9, 2007 23:40 - Buda beat (Notes from Buda)
Commentary
By Bill Peterson
BUDA – Downtowners in Buda are a little less encouraged about Main Street's near-term future after learning the asking price for the old Buda bank building at 210 Main Street.
Kyle realtor Don Franke, who represents Jeanette Chelf in the sale, said the asking price is $295,000. Interested parties in Buda say the price is way on the high side, considering the building needs considerable fixing after years of virtual dormancy.
At 25-by-82 square feet, the building comes in at $144 per square foot. Once a buyer has fixed the electrical wiring, painted the inside and otherwise made the facility ready for business, the additional investment is substantial.
Now that Buda has become a home rule city within the last month, it will be interesting to see how the city addresses one of its major problems, which is that a key stretch of Main Street is held hostage by out-of-town property owners with little evident interest in the city's daily life.
For example, the city now has eminent domain powers to go along with its dilapidated building ordinance. The city could certainly claim a public interest in the state of its main street from the standpoints of economics and aesthetics. Of course, it's always touchy, even distasteful to some palates, when governments make claims against individual property rights.
Whatever else it takes to make Main Street more active and vital, it's going to take time ...
The recent flap over the city approving a deal with Buda Business Park is reminiscent of a similar wave of protests when the city approved the Garlic Creek residential development near the intersection of FM 1626 and FM 967 four years ago.
In each case, a developer pushed a project outside the city limits that rankled city residents. In each case, the city, lacking legal powers to restrict the developments, made a deal with the developer.
In neither case did the developer need the city's approval to go forward. Thus, the city council has two options. Either the city can do nothing, in which case the development can proceed without any control by the city, or the city can make a deal with the developer and, thereby, win some concessions.
The city agreed to provide water and wastewater to the business park, which proposes 18 lots on 22 acres outside the city limits off West Goforth Road, right near many subdivisions. In exchange, the business park will provide a drainage easement, build in 50-foot setbacks from residential areas and meet city standards for lighting, noise and buffering. And the city wins an additional benefit, preventing the massive plotting of septic tanks.
If the city doesn't make a deal, it's betting that the development won't secure septic permits from Hays County and well permits from the Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District (BSEACD). With those permits, the development would only have to follow the county rules, which are much less restrictive because counties lack zoning and land use powers. So, nearby residents could have a real nuisance on their hands.
Residents near the development don't like it, but the city lacks the legal means to stop it. The city can only hope to contain it, which it has.
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