The First United Methodist Church of Marble Falls, 1101 Bluebonnet Drive, has opened its gym to those needing to stay warm during the Christmas polar vortex. The warming center will be open through noon Monday, Dec. 26. Come around to the side of the church to the gym on Mission Hills Drive to stay, volunteer, or donate food, drinks, blankets, sleeping bags. Staff photo by Jennifer Greenwell

By Suzanne Freeman

A 24-hour warming center will be open through Monday, Dec. 26 at the First United Methodist Church of Marble Falls, 1101 Bluebonnet Drive. Volunteers are needed to help staff the church gym in shifts. Donations of food, drink, blankets, sleeping bags, and chairs are also needed. Anyone wanting to volunteer or who can bring donations, should come to the church gym on Mission Hills Drive just off Bluebonnet Drive.

“This came together pretty quickly,” said Cristy Everett, administrative assistant at the church. “We don’t have any cots or anything. Everyone will have to bring their own blankets or sleeping bags.”

A hard freeze warning, the result of Polar Vortex Elliot that is sweeping the nation, has been issued by the National Weather Service through noon Saturday, Dec. 24. Sub-freezing temperatures could dip as low as 8 degrees during that time. Temperatures will begin to warm up a bit on Christmas Day with a high expected near 48.

The Methodist church warming center in the gym will be cordoned off into three areas, one each for men, women, and families. It should be able to hold about 150 people, Everett said.

“We haven’t done this before,” she continued. “Right now the temperatures are staying below freezing and we don’t want anyone outside in this.”

The center is open to anyone who is unable to stay warm, whether they are homeless or have homes without heat or electricity.

Anyone staying at the center is also welcome to join the congregation in its holiday services, which begin with La Posada at 3:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve. Two additional Christmas Eve services are set for 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. On Sunday, Dec. 25, the church will hold a Christmas Day service at 10 a.m.

“This is what the love of Christ is about,” Everett said. “We open our doors to people and invite them in. We want to help them.”

Volunteers need to bring their own chairs.

Heating up rice, beans, and tamales for the Highland Lakes Crisis Network’s Christmas Dinner for those in the transformational living program are Rebekah Stephenson (left), Angie Martinez, Jaelyn Nelson, and Pat Hatch. The nonprofit borrowed the kitchen at the First United Methodist Church of Marble Falls for its meal prep. Staff photo by Jennifer Greenwell

Christmas dinner was delivered to 30 families in the Highland Lakes Crisis Network’s transformational living program by volunteer shepherds on Friday, Dec. 23, despite the biting cold temperatures.

Volunteers in the program met at the First United Methodist Church of Marble Falls to heat up tamales and make rice and beans Friday morning. Around 4 p.m. the tamales and meals donated by Chuck Smith, who owns Moonshine Restaurant in Austin and Cedar Park, were loaded up and delivered door to door in the Highland Lakes. The restaurant owner attends a Marble Falls church, according to Jaelyn Nelson, an HLCN employee and director of the Burnet County Hunger Alliance.

“Our transformational living program is for families who used to be homeless or are homeless,” Nelson said. “They are assigned a volunteer shepherd to help them.”

Shepherds are trained to work with families to help them break the cycle of poverty.

“There are a lot of generational cycles of poverty,” Nelson said. “Our goal is to get families out of those cycles.”

Families in the program learn how to seek educational opportunities to get better jobs, how to develop a budget, and how to make responsible spending choices. They also learn about others sources of help.

“To be a shepherd is to basically be a longtime friend,” Nelson said. “You walk through the stuff of life with them. Take them to church. Give them a sense of community. Help them learn to live a sustainable life.”

To become a volunteer, or if you need help, call the Highland Lakes Crisis Network at 325-423-3662. You can also go to the HLCN website at highlandlakescrisisnetwork to find out more.

Kings Circle Drive is the current focus of the Granite Shoals street department. A major thoroughfare, Kings Circle Drive will consume 89 percent of the city’s 2022-2023 budget to repair, meaning other streets in need will have to wait. Staff Photo by Dakota Morrissiey

Just one mile of the 90 miles of streets in the city of Granite Shoals will consume around 89 percent of the city’s 2022-23 streets maintenance budget, a fact that highlights the chronic problems faced when it comes to upgrading residential roadways in the lakeside community. Kings Circle Drive currently ranks highest on a list of streets slated for upgrades because of its high traffic, poor condition, and use as a school bus route.

“When they start jarring the teeth of the kids on the school bus, it’s time to fix it,” Interim City Manager Peggy Smith said.

The city uses a 1-10 ranking system to determine which roads need the most attention. The result is that higher ranked streets end up consuming most of the city’s annual budget before streets with fewer homes and lower traffic can see any improvements.

The city’s street maintenance budget for 2022-23 is $345,000, which is derived from 1 percent of the city’s sale’s tax revenue and a $115,000 transfer from the general fund. Kings Circle Drive alone will cost an estimated $308,407 to repair and repave.

Lifespan is another problem. Asphalt streets have an estimated lifespan of 8-10 years, while seal coated streets last 3-5 years before repaving or major repairs are required, Smith said. Newly fixed roads begin to deteriorate before all the other roads can be brought up to standards — a never ending cycle that keeps the city’s roadways in disrepair.

“It’s a very complex situation running this city with the limited resources that we have,” Smith told DailyTrib.com. “You’ve got to be a good steward of the community’s funds.”

While the city places a high priority on street repairs, that has be be balanced with basic civic needs like police, fire protection, and water utilities. Without commercial and residential growth, setting higher taxes, or cutting funding from other departments, the city has a limited resources for its street budget

The street work that the city can afford is routinely hindered by a lack of staff. The Granite Shoals Streets and Parks Department is responsible for maintaining 90 miles of roads and 19 city parks, and it currently has five out of nine employee positions filled. The understaffing is attributed to low pay and costly health benefits.

“Street work is very important,” Councilor Samantha Ortis said when asked about the subject. “I think the fact that (the street department) is so short handed is why things don’t get accomplished as quickly as they could be.”

Street work has been a consistent point of concern for the council, but it has been interrupted by changes in leadership within the city, she continued. Mayor Pro-Tem Ron Munos agreed.

“It’s been a struggle ever since I’ve been on council,” Munos said. “It’s a real shame, but you can’t get blood out of a stone.”

Both Munos and Smith emphasized the lack of economic development as a limiting factor to the city’s revenue. 

“I don’t speak for the city, nor for the council, but we have a hard time getting commercial development without wastewater treatment,” Munos said. “It’s a conundrum.”

Currently, the city does not have a wastewater treatment plant.

The streets aren’t just hard on school buses, they’re also hard on the city’s emergency service vehicles. Police Chief John Ortis told DailyTrib.com that his patrol vehicles and the fire department vehicles are battered by the busted streets, increasing maintenance costs and reducing vehicle lifespans.

Mayor Aaron Garcia shares the sentiments of his fellow councilors and city staff, and told DailyTrib.com that other avenues have to be found. At the last city council meeting of 2022, he formed a committee dedicated to finding better health insurance for city employees.

“We’ve got to look into pursuing grants for road improvement or sales tax, or other avenues,” he said. “There’s so much on your plate, but you just have to chip away a little at a time.”

Work on Kings Circle Drive is expected to begin in April 2023 after the weather warms up enough to allow for laying asphalt.

Marble Falls Volunteer Fire Department Captain Thomas Jacobs was chosen as 2022 Firefighter of the Year during the organization’s annual Christmas Party in December. Courtesy photo

The Marble Falls Volunteer Fire Department chose Captain Thomas Jacobs as their 2022 Firefighter of the Year during a write-in vote at the annual Christmas Party. Jacobs has been a volunteer firefighter for 11 years. He began in Cottonwood Shores, but soon moved to the Marble Falls department.

“The firefighters look for someone who has leadership qualities, who, when he goes to calls, establishes what needs to be done quickly and sets up the scene,” Fire Chief Michael Phillips said. “A lot of it also has to do with back at the station when we are not on a call. Someone who determines what needs to be done to put equipment back together and takes time on his own to do things at the station.”

Jacobs fits that bill to a T, Phillips said.

In the field, Phillips pointed to three different incidents he recalled when Jacobs was first to the scene and instrumental in directing the action.

“He started the calls off, he was able to make the scene safer,” Phillips said. “Him being there helped that situation out.”

Jacobs is a family man who works for the maintenance department at Marble Falls Independent School District. He and his wife Nikki have been married for 22 years and have three children, Savannah, 24; Shelbi, 16; and Will, 15. They also have two grandchildren. He brings his love of family and community to the fire department.

“I love giving back to the community, helping people in need,” he said when asked why he was a volunteer firefighter. “I love the brother- and sisterhood, the sense of family. And I like the excitement, too.”

Captain for three years, Jacobs was grateful for the support of his fellow firefighters.

“It’s awesome to be in the presence of these men and women and to have the chief that we have,” he said. “Without Chief Phillips, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”

He thanked his family for the support they give to his outside job and to the firefighters who chose him.

“I want to thank my fellow firefighters for believing in me and trusting me and allowing me to continue guiding them and coaching them,” he said. “I love being in Marble Falls. I love the community and I look forward to serving Marble Falls for many more years to come.”

The plaintiffs in a civil lawsuit involving the Llano County Library System are asking a district court judge to compel the defendants to produce documents they have been withholding for the past six months despite repeated assurances they were complying with all discovery requests. 

In the case of Little et. al. v. Llano County et. al., the plaintiffs are also seeking reimbursement by Llano County for expenses accrued in continually having to seek discovery as well as permission to re-depose defendants based on information gleaned from the documents once received. 

The costs of conducting a second round of depositions should also be borne by the defendants, according to a Motion to Compel Discovery Responses filed Dec. 16 in U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas, Austin Division. 

“Defendants appear to have intentionally withheld critical documents that should have been presented to the court at the evidentiary hearing on plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction,” reads the first paragraph of the motion to compel. 

The plaintiffs in the case are Llano County residents Leila Green Little, Jeanne Puryear, Kathy Kennedy, Rebecca Jones, Richard Day, Cynthia Waring, and Diane Moster. 

The defendants are Llano County Judge Ron Cunningham; commissioners Jerry Don Moss, Peter Jones, Mike Sandoval, and Linda Raschke; Llano County Library System Director Amber Milum; and Llano County Library Advisory Board members Bonnie Wallace, Rochelle Wells, Rhonda Schneider, and Gay Baskin. Other members of the board were not named in the suit. 

Judge Robert Pitman heard two days of testimony on Oct. 28 and Oct. 31 in the case and is expected to rule on a request for a preliminary injunction sometime after the first of the year. The injunction seeks to have at least 12 books that were removed from Llano County’s three libraries returned to the shelves and the system’s digital catalog. A jury trial is set for Oct. 23, 2023.

According to the most recent motion filed, the motion to compel discovery, the defendants admitted after the hearing that they did not search for the documents requested in the first set of requests for proposals and that the documents turned over for the second request were deficient. 

“The evidence defendants are withholding is critical and should have been used in depositions and presented to the court at the (preliminary injunction) hearing (in October),” the motion to compel continues. “These missing communications go to the core issue in plaintiffs’ preliminary injunction motion: defendants’ intent when removing books from the library.” 

The lawsuit claims Llano County officials removed books based on their personal beliefs, violating library patrons’ First and 14th amendment rights. Books removed include one meant for adults that calls the Ku Klux Klan a domestic terrorist group, another for adolescents about going through puberty along with several that deal with gender identity, and children’s books that joke about farting and butts.

The defendants testified that the books were pulled to protect children from inappropriate material.

Documents sought include all emails on the librarians’ Yahoo! accounts as well as emails and all attachments that pertain to the issue from the defendants. Llano County librarians use Yahoo! as their work emails. 

“To date, the individual defendants have not provided responses or objections to plaintiffs’ second set of discovery, nor have they produced any documents,” the motion to compel continues. 

The documents that were handed over do not comply with agreed-upon formats, making them unsearchable, the plaintiffs said. Also, any attachments sent were not properly linked to the home emails, so they can’t be matched. 

The plaintiffs are asking the judge to grant the order with a two-week time limit on implementation.

Calls to Llano County Attorney Dwain Rogers and Assistant County Attorney Matthew Rienstra for comment were not returned by deadline. 

suzanne@thepicayune.com