News

Three people from Wimberley died in a multi-vehicle accident on Ranch Road 12 on Friday night last week.

The Aqua Texas option is back on the table for the city of Wimberley’s wastewater treatment plant.

Wimberley Mayor Susan Jaggers held a “State of the City” town hall meeting last week that largely focused on the city’s financial health and the sewer system.

Jaggers showed City Administrator Shawn Cox’s financial estimates for the next five years. The estimates showed the city running deficits of anywhere from $270,000 to up to $430,000 a year.

Needmore Ranch’s requested permit for 289,000,000 gallons of water per year from the Trinity Aquifer will head to the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Conservation District Board of Directors for potential approval.

The company received a temporary permit in 2015 for the water under House Bill 3405 and has requested that the permit be made permanent.  The house bill was originally passed with the intention of giving Electro Purification an avenue to request a permit from the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Conservation District. While EP elected to attempt to obtain a regular permit, Needmore elected to use the provisions outlined in the bill.

The Trinity Edwards Spring Protection Association (TESPA) contested the case with the State Office Of Administrative Hearing, which ruled in favor of Needmore last week.

In recognition of noteworthy local efforts to reduce light pollution and promote the benefits of nighttime darkness, the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) designated the Wimberley Valley of Texas as an International Dark Sky Community.

It is only the third such designation to date in the Lone Star State.

The Wimberley Valley, situated in the Texas Hill Country between the Austin and San Antonio metropolitan areas, consists of the cities of Wimberley and Woodcreek and neighboring unincorporated areas subject to limited municipal regulation. The Valley, home to some 14,000 people, has a strong tourism economy and hosts a thriving arts scene. To these characteristics, the community has added a proactive campaign to improve the quality of its outdoor lighting.

Wimberley Players has won an important theater award. The Austin Critics Table presented the Wimberley Players with the award for best Periphery Company for excellence in theater outside Austin proper. Citing, among other things, excellent and consistent production values, the award was presented by Central Texas Live Theatre’s Michael Meigs, June 4, at the awards ceremony in Austin. Other nominees in the first-time category were Fredericksburg Theater Company; Gaslight Baker Theatre, Lockhart; Georgetown Palace Theatre; and Way Off Broadway Community Players, Leander.

The Wimberley Valley Chamber of Commerce extends an invitation to one and all to attend the annual Independence Day Parade, the “Best Little Parade in Texas.”  The parade celebrates the birth of our nation and is a red, white and blue, flag waving observance of the holiday.  Wimberley’s parade theme this year is “Stars Big and Bright.”  The annual parade is the chamber’s flagship event and is one that the whole community can participate in and enjoy.  Thousands of people will be cheering as the parade makes it way through town.

The parade begins at 10:00 a.m. at the intersection of Green Acres Rd. and FM 2325,  proceeds to Ranch Road 12, continues through the Wimberley Square and ends at Blue Heron Run.  Parade participants who are walking or riding horses will exit the parade route at Blue Heron, the remaining participants will exit the route at RR 12 and Stillwater.

At Gov. Greg Abbott’s first meeting on school violence and safety, several local experts had seats at the table. Dr. J. Pete Blair, executive director of the ALERRT (Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training) center at Texas State University, Lt. Jeri Skrocki from the Hays County Sheriff’s Office and Kathy Martinez-Prather, director of the Texas School Safety Center at Texas State, all participated in the first roundtable meeting on Tuesday.

“It was a very productive meeting,” Martinez-Prather said.

Tuesday’s meeting was meant to bring together a variety of stakeholders and start looking at an array of solutions – both short-term and long-term – to the problem of school violence, she said. Superintendents, school resource officers, behavioral threat assessment experts and others participated in the talks.

Graduating seniors at Wimberley High School aim high when it comes to selecting the perfect college and earning scholarships to make their dreams achievable. Parents, loved ones and community donors packed the J. Gary Wyatt-Lydia Miller-Wyatt Lone Star Theatre May 18 to revel in the great news of their students receiving full-ride, merit and local scholarships. During the ceremony, aptly named, Shoot for the Stars, the big scholarship reveal totaled $8.1 million.

“This is an awesome time of year for our seniors. Shoot for the Stars is an evening for them to be celebrated and rewarded for their hard work during their 4 years of high school. I am bursting with pride at their success and am confident that they will stand out among their peers when they set foot on college campuses all over the United States,” said Pamela Phillips, Wimberley High School Junior-Senior Counselor.

Some people can’t help but give. Kay Mayfield was one of those people.

The Wimberley Fire Department opened the Kay Mayfield Substation near Fischer Store Road last week in honor of the former firefighter who succumbed to cancer in 2014.

“She was a neighbor’s neighbor,” Ron Spangenberg, President of the Hays County Emergency Services District No. 4, the governmental entity that raises funds for the fire services in the Wimberley Valley, said. “She loved her community, and volunteered for many things including at the fire department.”

Mayfield started at the Wimberley Fire Department in 2006 and volunteered there for eight years until she passed away at the age of 63. She left her five acres of property and home to the fire department. 

The election results are in for the Wimberley City Council race and the Wimberley ISD Bond issue. 

Susan Jaggers, Craig Fore, Gary Bachfeld and Patricia Cantu Kelly swept the ballot in Wimberley. The Wimberley ISD Bond also passed.

While the voters were overwhelmingly in favor of the Wimberley ISD Bond, voting 67 percent for the item, the council election was much closer. 

For Mayor, Susan Jaggers pulled in 51.42 percent. She beat former Mayor Steve Thurber by 30 votes by receiving 544 votes to his 514.

Incumbent City Councilmember Craig Fore won Place Two with 53 percent of the vote total beating Rebecca Minnick. 

Incumbent City Councilmember Gary Barchfeld won Place 4 with 51.86 percent of the vote edging out Christine Bryne by 39 votes.