Tiger baseball stuns LBJ 4-3
Preventing sexual assault
Winterguard wins state title
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News-Dispatch Volume XXXIX No. 27
Serving Western Hays County, Texas since 1982
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75¢ Thursday, April 11, 2019
D.S. P&Z denies wine distribution center Pipeline BY EXSAR ARGUELLO
Worries about the proximity of a proposed wine distribution center near Walnut Springs Elementary led Dripping Springs Planning and Zoning officials to recommend denial of the project by a 6-1 vote. However, the project stirred conversation among officials on laws
P&Z officials denied the project, located in the 300 block of Sportsplex Drive, as it fell within 300-feet of Walnut Springs. Currently, a variance is required for the sale of alcohol within 300-feet of a campus.
concerning prohibiting alcohol sales near campuses. P&Z officials denied the project, located in the 300 block of Sportsplex Drive, as it fell within 300-feet of
Walnut Springs. Currently, a variance is required for the sale of alcohol within 300 feet of a campus. Facility owners, however, argued the project calls
for a distribution center for other wineries and sellers in Texas. No alcohol would be sold on site in any form and alcohol would never be seen on-site.
“The 300-foot designation is not only in our ordinance but the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC),” said P&Z chair Mim James. “Again, I’m in support of your business model, but it’s just too close to the school.” Larry Epp, owner of Truly Growth Wine Cellars,
WINE DISTRIBUTION, 6
Nonprofit offers $823K grant to change Wimberley wastewater project BY EXSAR ARGUELLO A nonprofit organization’s attempt to revive plans for a city-owned wastewater facility in Wimberley could hang on a proposed $823,000 grant. Friends of Blue Hole (FoBH), a nonprofit organization created to protect the Blue Hole Regional Park, is offering more than $800,000 to Wimberley city officials in hopes of saving plans for a city-owned plant. FoBH officials hope the proposed donation is enough to persuade city leaders to forgo plans for a wastewater facility operated by Aqua Texas, a third-party provider. Current plans for the Aqua-Texas owned plant don’t include irrigation to Blue Hole park, which is needed to water the soccer fields and surrounding landscape. The city-owned facility, as outlined in the Blue Hole Master Plan, included the irrigation for the park. That plan, however, was scrapped by city officials in late 2018. “We had this money saved to plant grass and trees around the park, but without the water to irrigate the park, we couldn’t achieve that goal anyway,” said Andrew Weber, FoBH
WASTEWATER PROJECT, 2
PHOTOS COURTESY OF JIM AND MARY LUKETICH
Dripping Springs resident Jim Luketich (center) plays the harmonica for his band, Midnight Flyer, at Hudson’s on Mercer. Below Jim and Mary Luketich pose for a photo in St. Louis, Mo.
The family that plays together… DNA testing opens doors for local family BY MOSES LEOS III
tich’s birth father, who was in the military followFor as long as he can ing World War II, had also remember, Jim Luketich’s been a notable musician soul has yearned for mu- himself. sic. Through DNA testing, Even at Luketich an early age, and Mary, “It’s a big, Luketich his wife, obalways had tained a coremotional a feeling he nucopia of thing when should play answers that whatever had eluded you find instrument them for deyou’ve got a cades. was at hand. Perhaps it “You can’t whole family was fate that imagine the you have no way it makes Luketich, a Dripping idea about.” you feel Springs when you resident, finally find –Jim Luketich discovered in that mystery January that in your life his biological father, who that you never thought he never knew growing you’d find the answers up, was a sibling of 1950s to,” Luketich said. “It era Honky-Tonk legend makes you want to cry. Stonewall Jackson. Luke- It’s hard to describe how
BY EXSAR ARGUELLO A proposed bill aimed at requiring the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to implement contingency protocols for pipelines survived its first committee hearing Tuesday. House Bill 3324, authored by Rep. Erin Zwiener (D-Driftwood), is in direct response to the proposed 42-inch natural gas pipeline by Kinder Morgan, which will cut through a major portion of the Hill Country and Hays County. HB 3324 was taken up by the Texas House Committee on Natural Resources. “At its core, HB 3224 is a public health bill,” Zwiener said. “Large transmission pipelines cross Texas, and as the industry acknowledges, it’s not a question of if they leak, it’s a question of when.”
PIPELINE BILL, 6
Less is more Support grows for scenic routes bill
BY KATIE BURRELL meaningful it is.” The saga began in late 2018 when their daughter purchased a DNA testing kit for them as a holiday gift. His wife Mary, as it turned out, had been adopted at birth, something she didn’t know. Through the results, Mary found
she had a half-Chippawa lineage. She also found out her birth mother, who was in her late 80s, was living in Minnesota near the Canadian border. Before long, the Luketichs reached out to Mary’s biological sister,
MUSICAL GENES, 6
Officials weigh in... Voting center questions answered BY EXSAR ARGUELLO
bill survives first hearing
eration, some sites might not be able to house a With the prospect voting center. of countywide voting “The idea is, when you centers on the horizon start considering tiny in Hays County, a trio of churches and schools, experts from neighboring many of them will not jurisdictions offered inbe able to meet the new sight into the process and standards for accessibilwhat it could look like. ity, and that becomes an That discussion was issue when you start to part of an April 4 League serve the whole commuof Women Voters of Hays nity,” said Travis County County event that offered Clerk Dana DeBeauvior. more information on the DeBeauvior said proposed centers. The ideal locations for voting PHOTO BY EXSAR ARGUELLO centers are areas that centers could allow voters from across the county A resident tries out a mock version of a “hybrid” voting ma- can accommodate more to go to a predetermined chine at a public meeting in San Marcos. people with the necessary site and cast a ballot, parking, accessibility and large-scale voting centers be selected as a voting regardless of which prebuilding requirements. in recent years. center site. While county cinct they live in. When Guadalupe A major component of officials don’t anticipate a County added voting Among the panel were the conversation cenlarge number of current officials from Travis and centers, officials did not tered on which locations polling locations to be Guadalupe counties, eliminated from considwhich have implemented in Hays County could VOTING CENTERS, 6
Local support is growing for proposed legislation that could limit billboards from springing up along scenic routes in the Hill Country. House Bill 1303 is up for consideration within the Texas Legislature’s Transportation Committee, which would prevent billboards and other manmade structures from being placed along these roads. More than 2,000 Hays County residents petitioned to State Rep. Erin Zwiener (D-Driftwood) to author the bill. The proposed legislation now has the support of Hays County Commissioners, as well as the Kyle City Council. The bill intends to preserve three roads in Hays County including RM 1826, RM 150 and RM 967. Jeanine Christensen, a Hays County resident, authored the petition to Zwiener on Change.org, citing that the billboards and their unnatural lighting are a hindrance to the natural area and the ecosystem. According to the petition, an increase in traffic on ranch-to-market roads has “triggered a proliferation of billboards on our roads.” “Billboards are not mere eyesores: their lighting endangers human health and
BILLBOARD BILL, 2