Law enforcement released the identities of two people killed following what might have been a domestic disturbance on Dec. 26 in Cottonwood Shores. Investigators believe 26-year-old Thomas Diaz IV shot and killed his wife, 24-year-old Vianna Parras, and then took his own life. An official ruling on the deaths is pending.

“To our information that we are receiving from the medical examiner’s office, there were two gunshot wounds: one to her (Parras) and one to himself (Diaz),” Cottonwood Shores Police Chief Johnny Liendo told DailyTrib.com. “We suspect, due to the conditions of the bodies, it happened earlier that afternoon, but that is just an assumption on our part.”

Cottonwood Shores officers discovered the bodies late on the night of Dec. 26 after responding to multiple welfare calls from concerned family and friends earlier in the day, according to an incident report. 

The report indicates that Parras had ended her relationship with Diaz that afternoon and was expected at a friend’s home at a certain time. When she did not arrive, police were called. Officers conducted two welfare checks at the home before finding the bodies, both with gunshot wounds, according to the report.

Patrol Officer David Viergutz conducted the welfare checks but found no evidence or extenuating circumstances to warrant a forced entry into the home. The first welfare check was conducted at about 9 p.m. A second call for a welfare check came at 9:31 p.m. from a friend who said her last contact with Parras was via a text message at 4:34 p.m. that day. 

“I asked (the friend) if she believed Parras to be in danger because of Diaz,” reads Viergutz’s incident report. “She advised that Parras had told her Diaz had threatened to kill himself …”

Viergutz then did a second welfare check and made contact with Diaz’s father, Thomas Diaz III, who had arrived on the scene. Neither of them were able to make contact with anyone in the home or reach Parras or the younger Diaz by phone. 

Sgt. Shawn Scarborough arrived on the scene at about 11 p.m. Officers decided to enter the home after receiving more information from family and friends on Diaz’s state of mind. Scarborough knew Diaz, who worked as a Burnet County jailer, and had met with him on Christmas night to discuss his relationship and possible divorce from Parras.

With the go-ahead from Chief Liendo, officers entered the home and found the couple’s bodies.

The Texas Rangers, Burnet County Sheriff’s Office, and Texas Department of Public Safety are assisting in the investigation.

According to Liendo, Cottonwood Shores police officers had not responded to any domestic disturbance calls at the home before the events of Dec. 26.

“We have our share of domestic issues,” he said. “When I first came here almost six years ago, we had more than our share. Thank goodness we have done some pretty good work here and that is down to a minimum. But we still have domestic issues, and that’s not ever going to go away.”

dakota@thepicayune.com

Built over 25 years ago, Fire Station 1, 700 Avenue N in Marble Falls, currently uses a window as a fire escape in lieu of a door. Replacing the window with a door is at the top of Fire Chief Russell Sander’s renovation wishlist. Staff photo by Nathan Bush

The Marble Falls City Council took a second step in renovation plans for Fire Station 1 when it approved a $246,500 expenditure for design and architectural services during a regular meeting Tuesday, Jan. 3. The project is expected to cost about $3.3 million.

Proposed improvements include larger showers, an elevator, and increased compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“There are some of us that are more advanced in years, and we are happy to have an elevator,” said Fire Chief Russell Sander. 

Another key addition is a door to replace the window that currently serves as the station’s main fire escape. 

“We’ll be able to utilize the exterior staircase that is the emergency exit,” Sander said.

Houston-based architecture firm Martinez Architects will handle the architectural and design process of the renovation. The firm plans to ensure the exterior of the station, 700 Avenue N, visually meshes with the Marble Falls Police Department’s building next door.

“My vision is to look at the exterior and see if we can’t at least try to change it to match next door so that whole public safety area has continuity,” Sander said.

Built over 25 years ago, the fire station originally served the volunteer department before being retrofitted to house the city’s department.

“Literally, the showers upstairs were small enough that I think a middle school kid would have a hard time getting out,” Sander said. “The design was more like a school than a functional fire station.”

Once building renovations are complete, the department hopes to improve accessibility to the station’s parking lot.

“During this whole process, we want (Martinez Architects) to redesign the entire parking lot to make it more user-friendly, make it more easy to navigate,” Sander said. “Then, we’ll sweet talk the public works crew about coming in and pouring some liquid asphalt and helping us repaint.”

Renovation talks began in last summer after the council approved a $13,575 feasibility study for the proposed project. During the June 7, 2022, meeting, Sander mentioned possible mold and other harmful contaminants inside the station’s infrastructure. An environmental study found no evidence of mold.

“I’m happy to report the environmental assessment of the building came back with no major health concerns,” Sander said. “That was a blessing.”

Potential health risks associated with the station hit close to home. Two members of the Marble Falls Fire Rescue team have been diagnosed with cancer over the past several years.

“Two firefighters out of 18 of us total — that’s a lot,” Sander said. “That’s something in my recommendation in the beginning that we do this so that we can at least protect our employees the best we can.”

Marble Falls Mayor Richard Westerman was happy to approve the expenditure motion as a show of support for the city’s first responders.

“I think this is one of the reasons we got elected here: was to take care of the fire department and the safety in our town,” he said. “It’s a priority.”

The Marble Falls City Council’s next regular meeting is 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 17, in council chambers at City Hall, 800 Third St.

nathan@thepicayune.com

Just as we collectively hoped, COVID-19 (mostly) took a back seat in 2022 as a top news story, making way for rapid growth, drought, public policy, and politics. Dominating DailyTrib.com headlines were water management and drought, growth, the Granite Shoals City Council, the Llano County Library System, and crime. 

The most-read online stories were about fatalities, crime, and growth, especially when it concerned new businesses or residential development.

The top five stories accessed by readers in 2022 were: 

1. Swim in Lake Buchanan turns fatal for mother and 4-year-old son

2. Gov. Abbott extends state COVID-19 disaster declaration

3. Illegal subdivision lot owners in limbo; county to meet with developer

4. Bertram man dies in Texas 29 collision

5. Two killed in Texas 29 collision near Bertram; 4-year-old injured

Our choices for the top stories of 2022 are as follows:

LLANO COUNTY LIBRARY LAWSUIT

This story actually began toward the end 2021 but escalated in 2022, ultimately resulting in a federal civil lawsuit now scheduled for trial in October 2023. The first story on the topic in 2022 was published on Jan. 7 about the county disbanding its library advisory board and forming a new one with a different makeup and more members. By March, the board decided to close its doors to the public. 

Not long after, targeted books were removed from library shelves, the Kingsland branch head librarian was fired, and the lawsuit was filed. Currently, only five of 12 positions are filled at the Llano County system’s three libraries, which are no longer open on weekends.

As the new year begins, plaintiffs and defendants in the Little Green et. al. v. Llano County et. al. lawsuit are filing dueling motions in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin Division. District Judge Robert Pitman is expected to rule on a preliminary injunction to return at least 12 books to library shelves and on a motion to compel discovery filed by the plaintiffs. 

The case has drawn national and statewide attention from The Washington Post, The New York Times, CNN, and Texas Monthly, among others.

GRANITE SHOALS CITY COUNCIL

What unfolded over the last year in Granite Shoals could be described as a saga. The city started the year on positive notes, passing an ordinance to clean up properties, welcoming new businesses, and filing for multiple grant opportunities to improve parks. It also completed its new water tower and began to tackle quality-of-life issues, including reworking its mining ordinance, prohibiting the sale of any of its 19 parks, and decreasing speed limits on dirt roads and in parks.

In February, the wheels began to come off as disagreements between council members and then-City Manager Jeff Looney became public in a special meeting to evaluate the city manager’s conduct toward Councilor Samantha Ortis. 

Looney also drew disapproval from the council when he asked to hire an outside consultant to take some of the workload off of staff. Ortis and others noted that the city manager was given a $37,000-a-year raise when he told the council he could handle the workload and should be paid accordingly. At the next meeting, Looney told the council an anonymous donor was going to pay for the consultant, and the council voted to make the hire.

The battle over Looney’s treatment of Ortis was not over. After a series of contentious executive sessions, Looney was fired in June and Assistant City Manager Peggy Smith was appointed interim city manager. She soon reported that the city paid for the consultant after all. The anonymous donor was never made public. The payment of city funds was made by Looney without council approval, according to Smith. 

Then came the resignations. 

City Secretary Elaine Simpson resigned and was replaced with an interim. In October, the council hired Dawn Wright as the new city secretary. 

Police Chief Gary Boshears resigned to take over as Lago Vista chief. Capt. John Ortis, husband of Councilor Ortis, was promoted to replace Boshears. 

Changes in the City Council soon took the spotlight. May elections seated a new member, Aaron Garcia, who was voted mayor pro-tem after two longtime members were nominated and defeated. Within a few months, Garcia was sworn in as mayor after Mayor Will Skinner resigned to move to Kingsland. 

Councilor Phil Ort, who was just re-elected, resigned one day and took it back the next, saying supporters asked him not to leave the council. Ort spearheaded a recall election that scrambled the council makeup in 2020. The recall focused on getting rid of the city manager. 

The council appointed Kevin Flack in October to fill the seat that Garcia left vacant in his move to mayor. 

In November, Councilor Eddie McCoy resigned, and the city had to find another new member, the last it could legally appoint. State law limits the number of appointed members to two in one year. 

In mid-December, Councilor Ron Munos was named mayor pro-tem, and things seemed to settle except that trouble was brewing once again around Councilor Ort. 

In October, the council filed a complaint against Ort with the Burnet County attorney, accusing him of violating the Public Information Act. In December, Ort was arrested on a felony criminal mischief charge stemming from a vandalism incident in the Marble Falls H-E-B parking lot. At the same time, the Granite Shoals Ethics Review Commission sanctioned him for what it determined were violations of several city ethics ordinances and Texas government codes connected to the Public Information Act violation. 

As for overall quality-of-life issues, at the end of 2022, the Dollar General store was shut down for a few days for fire code violations, sewage spilled at a private wastewater plant, and a subdivision was rezoned to cut out commercial development. On positive notes, a new restaurant opened in the final days of the year, and when the council meets again in January, it will be with all seats filled and a hunt for a new city manager underway. 

May 2023 could bring a slate of changes. Five of the seven council positions will be on the ballot: Place 1, Place 2, Place 3, Place 5, and mayor.  

TROUBLED WATER AND WEATHER

Weather and water go hand-in-hand in the Highland Lakes, where five thirsty lakes have been hit hard by drought, especially Buchanan and Travis, the two reservoirs on the Lower Colorado River chain. 

The Picayune Magazine and DailyTrib.com published a series on the drought and its effects on the lakes in the late summer. 

The Central Texas Water Coalition asked the Lower Colorado River Authority to reopen its water management plan before 2025, when it is next due an update, to take in new drought-driven data. The LCRA refused and launched a campaign of letters to local officials, ads in local media, a State of the LCRA meeting for officials, and a public water management plan update meeting to show it believes the current plan is working.

The coalition continued with an information campaign of its own, holding town halls. Its next meeting is a Business Water Roundtable on Thursday, Jan. 19, at the Lakeway Activity Center. 

GROWTH

Plans for and construction of new housing developments shared headline space with other top stories in the Highland Lakes. 

Horseshoe Bay is seeing its first new development in years. Monarch Ridge will have single-family housing, townhomes, walking trails, a six-hole golf course, parks, and commercial space just outside of the city limits on Texas 71 West. Two other developments were approved by the City Council despite opposition from neighbors. Thundercloud and Azurite will have 48 single-family homes in west Horseshoe Bay. 

In Marble Falls, new development includes: 

• Hillside Marble Falls on Rocky Road, which is being developed by Lauren and Seth Martin of Burnet, owners of Perissos Vineyard and Winery. It will have restaurants and music and wedding venues, among other features. 
• Thousand Oak development at the intersection of Texas 71 and U.S. 281, joining Thunder Rock and Gregg Ranch, which are currently under construction at different parts of the same intersection. Both residential and commercial structures are planned for Thunder Oak’s 452 acres. 
• Legacy Crossing, also at the intersection of U.S. 281 and Texas 71, which includes 100 acres of commercial space, 1,324 single-family homes, 264 multi-family units, 150 mixed-use townhome units, six public parks, and more than 3 miles of interconnected walking trails. 
• A long-anticipated hotel-conference center in the planning stages. The Ophelia Hotel Marble Falls will be located at 1 Main St. on the corner of Yett and Main streets downtown. 

Another sign of growth is the need for a new wastewater treatment, which is currently in the design phase. Robert Adams of Plummer Associates called it the city’s biggest-ever infrastructure project. Final cost is estimated at $60 million. 

City Hall needs a new home, and the council is on the hunt for a place to build it. While land acquisition talks are carried on in executive sessions, councilors have hired Randall Scott Architects to come up with designs. 

Shifts and increases in population caused the Marble Falls Independent School District to move its elementary school boundaries, especially in anticipation of increased growth at the U.S. 281 and Texas 71 intersection. Students in that area are now drawn into the Spicewood Elementary School boundaries, taking pressure off of Colt Elementary, which was at 92 percent capacity. 

Big businesses are also opening, including Petco just north of Walmart on U.S. 281. Pizza Hut, at the corner of U.S. 281 and RR 1431, is being rebuilt and expected to open in the new year, possibly with an adjacent business built on. Smaller businesses opening in 2022 were Ayoba Village, Makers Market, TX Tee Box, James Avery jewelry, Downtown Beer Hall, True Texas BBQ, Waggers and Swaggers Pet Boutique, Bright Fire Cigars, and Back and Body Works Massage Therapy. 

Burnet County commissioners have been feeling growing pains in unincorporated areas, especially around Bertram, where some developers have not been 100 percent above board in following county rules and regulations. The county told one developer in Florence to stop selling lots that lacked legal plats. The developer kept selling, which brought angry landowners unable to obtain building permits to the Commissioners Court to complain. Developers told commissioners in September they would meet county requirements so construction can get underway.

The Ranches at Blackbuck Ridge also came under scrutiny when homeowners brought road quality concerns to commissioners. The county eventually released an almost $400,000 road bond to Lone Star Land Partners after taking a look at and approving the roadwork.

CRIME

Several elected officials found themselves on the other side of the law during a year that also saw a spate of murders, police chases, and sexual assaults.

Burnet County Precinct 3 Commissioner Billy Wall was charged with animal cruelty and turned himself in to law enforcement in November. He had already settled a civil suit after the Burnet County Sheriff’s Office seized a herd of 79 cattle. An investigation revealed the cattle were malnourished. They were taken to the Burnet County Fairgrounds, where they were cared for until well enough to sell. Due to the settlement, the auction money went to the county to pay for expenses in moving and caring for the animals. 

Cottonwood Shores Mayor Donald Orr was arrested in the final days of the year on deadly conduct charges. Orr faces two Class A misdemeanor charges for endangering the lives of two first responders while following an ambulance to a hospital on Oct. 4. Orr’s wife, Susan, was in the ambulance, which was allowed through a roadblock set up at an accident scene. Officers tried to stop Orr, who just kept going, striking one of the officers, according to an affidavit.

Granite Shoals City Councilor Phil Ort (see Granite Shoals section above) was sanctioned by the City Council and later a Granite Shoals Ethics Review Commission for refusing to release public documents as part of a Public Information Act request. He was also arrested on a felony criminal mischief charge after being accused of keying a car in the Marble Falls H-E-B parking lot.   

Several killings were committed in the Highland Lakes in 2022, the most high-profile being a double homicide in Marble Falls in September — the city’s first homicide since 2017. William Allen Rutland was arrested in the Sept. 13 killing of siblings Teresa Gail McDowell, 52, and John Arnold McDowell, 49, in Marble Falls. 

In October, Dennis Wayne Price II of Kingsland was charged with killing his wife, Carrie Ann Price, who died from injuries in a domestic violence incident, according to law enforcement. 

Other cases received justice or got a little closer to resolution. 

Other major crimes include: 

Game rooms have been popping up in Marble Falls, Burnet, Buchanan Dam, Kingsland, and Llano. Game rooms fall in a gray area of the law, with game room operators claiming they are legal and many law enforcement officials saying they are not. 

Llano County commissioners passed an ordinance regulating the hours, locations, and physical setup of game rooms, even hiring a game room administrator. Game room operators must pay $1,000 a year for a permit. Despite urgings by District Attorney Sonny McAfee and the proliferation of game rooms in Burnet County, commissioners have yet to take up the issue. Officials have said, however, they are interested in discussing whether or not to join Blanco and Llano counties in regulating game rooms in the 33rd and 424th judicial districts, which include San Saba, Blanco, Llano, and Burnet counties.

County regulations would not affect game rooms operating in municipalities. So far in Burnet County, only Granite Shoals has a game room ordinance.  

PANDEMIC

January 2022 began with COVID-19 closures, renewed restrictions in the schools because of staffing shortages, and the opening in Burnet of a free monoclonal antibody treatment center. 

As the year progressed, masks finally came off and COVID-19 restrictions were relaxed across the Highland Lakes, the state, and the nation as the pandemic eased. Vaccinations and boosters helped keep the number of cases and hospitalizations down. New strains of the virus were not as strong and illnesses were less severe. 

The pandemic affected hiring, especially in schools and law enforcement as people retired, changed jobs, or just stayed home. Local governments also felt the strains of losing employees to higher wages in surrounding counties. Commissioners in Burnet and Llano counties, local school boards, and city councils approved raises in their 2022-23 budgets in an attempt to retain employees and draw new hires. 

Although COVID numbers were dropping through the summer and early fall, the winter season brought a new onslaught of flu, RSV, and COVID in what experts called a “tripledemic.” The uptick in the three respiratory diseases is attributed to the past few years of COVID precautions. Without exposure to viruses, people didn’t build up their usual antibodies to common illnesses. Precautions include hand hygiene, respiratory etiquette, and vaccinations.

editor@thepicayune.com

Robert Jackson “Jack” Rogers was born on February 9, 1931, to Bertie Marie Anderson Rogers and Leonard Russell “Sandy” Rogers in Hargill, Texas.

His family moved to Mt. Calm, Texas, in 1936. Jack’s father passed in 1941, so he, his mom, and three siblings moved to Center, Texas, for a little while and then decided to move in with family in Taylor, Texas. 

While in Taylor, his mom met and married Bert Sawdey. The family moved to California his freshman year of high school. After a few months, Jack decided to move back to Texas and in with his uncle in Hereford. His uncle was a cowboy and Jack learned a lot from him. He moved back to Taylor for his junior and senior year. He graduated from Taylor High School in 1949, having been a football, basketball, and track star. He was also voted “Most Handsome” every year of high school that he attended there. 

After graduation, Jack had a partial scholarship to play basketball at Texas Tech University, but after three days, and hearing about some math credits he was lacking from his time spent in California, he decided he would prefer to continue pursuing his rodeo aspirations. (He had been rodeoing on the weekends.)  

Jack worked for Texas Power and Light the summers during high school after graduation. He worked on a few ranches after that, working on one that was over 40,000 acres, where he worked breaking horses. 

Jack met the love of his life, Shirley Heffington, in 1950 while he was working on the Rippy Ranch in Smithwick, Texas. He had to wait until she was old enough to date to ask her out, he said. They were inseparable from that time on, being a great team and married over 62 years when Shirley passed away in August of 2017. 

When Jack and Shirley were married only 11 days, he had to go to Germany because he was drafted by the Army. He was gone for a year and a half, and they wrote to each other every day. Shirley worked at Home State Bank at the time and worked her way up to vice president there in 1964.

Jack and Shirley were very involved in the community in Marble Falls. In 1957, Jack and two friends, Bobby Burnam and Charlie Taylor, started the Marble Falls Rodeo Association. Jack was the president of the association for over 40 years. He helped countless young people get involved in the sport of rodeo. The rodeo association benefits the youth in the area in many ways, including through college scholarships and 4H support. For their efforts, Jack and Shirley received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Marble Falls Chamber of Commerce in 1999.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Shirley Joan Heffington Rogers; his parents, Marie Rogers Sawdey and Leonard Russell Rogers; his sister, Marjorie Rogers Kimbrough; his brother Dub Rogers; and his cousin Leonard Gray and wife Patsy Heffington Gray.  

He is survived by his brother Tom Rogers and wife Teko of Kalespel Montana and his children: Steve Rogers and wife Nicole, Jacque Horn and husband Charlie, and Bubba Ussery and wife Betty. He will always be lovingly remembered by his grandkids: Ryan Rogers, Clay Rogers, Shilo Nelson, Wyatt Nelson and daughter Malori Jayde, Tyler Horn and wife Jessica, Sheridyn Horn and Denver Horn; and great-granddaughters: Ocie Louise and Eden James Horn. 

His family will hold a memorial service for him on Thursday, January 5 at 2 p.m. at Marble Falls First Baptist Church with a graveside service being held at Smithwick Cemetery afterward. Visitation will be Wednesday, January 4, from 5-7 p.m. at Clements-Wilcox Funeral Home in Marble Falls.

Pallbearers are Troy Fox, Mike Johnson, Hilton Hopson, Johnny Ray Wallace, Dean McDonough, Steve Jenkins, and Craig Seward. 

Online condolences may be made at www.clementswilcoxfuneralhome.com.

Donations can be made to the Marble Falls Rodeo Association in the name of Jack Rogers at P.O. Box 1984, Marble Falls TX 78654.

Auctioneers Mark West and Scotty Gibbs will lead the live auction at the 2023 Chuck Wagon Chow Down and Dinner hosted by the Highland Lakes Service League on Jan. 28. Courtesy photo

The Highland Lakes Service League’s annual Chuck Wagon Chow Down Dinner and Auction is Saturday, Jan. 28. The fundraiser begins at 5:30 p.m. at the YMCA of the Highland Lakes at Galloway-Hammond, 1601 U.S. 281 South in Burnet.

The event features a barbecue dinner by Pok-e-jo’s, live music from David Horner and Patrick Russell, live and silent auctions, a wine pull, and a chance to snag a getaway to the winner’s choice of either Tuscany, Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta, or Colorado, according to a Service League media release. Live auction items include golf and vacation packages, unique collector’s items, and customized sporting adventures.

Tickets are $75 each or $800 for a table of eight and can be purchased online.

The gala is aptly named for a critical component of any successful cattle drive: the chuck wagon, the nonprofit organization proclaimed. 

“And in much the same way that a chuck wagon cook gathered a few simple ingredients that could sustain an entire cattle drive, the Service League Chow Down hopes to gather in a harvest of contributions that will support programs for the entirety of 2023,” the release said.

Proceeds from ticket sales and the auctions fund the following community programs:

• scholarships for women returning to work or seeking updated training and certifications, addressing critical local labor force needs;
• grants to Highland Lakes organizations to provide community services to a diverse and growing local clientele (over $65,000 in grants were awarded in 2022);
• and funding for important outreach activities, including the annual Special Needs Christmas Party.

The Highland Lakes Service League is supported entirely by volunteers, so every dollar donation goes directly into the community, the release said.

For more about the organization, visit its website at hlsl.org.

editor@thepicayune.com