NEW YEAR, NEW LAWN! Purchase by Bag, Bulk or Ton WE DELIVER! CURBSIDE SERVICE AVAILABLE!
2021
Volume 34, Issue 9
www.LHIndependent.com
Sales tax election on tap for ESD #4
Gleason brings immediate change to Sheriff’s Office
By MIKE EDDLEMAN Managing Editor The May local elections are not limited to school board and city council candidates and issues as Williamson County ESD #4 will also have a measure on the ballot seeking to claim an additional three-quarters of a cent in sales tax revenues. The election has been called by ESD Commissioners, and will be decided by voters May 1. The Emergency Services District currently receives one cent of sales tax revenue within the district. If the proposition passes, then all of the maximum 8.25 percent in sales tax would be sewn up in the area, with a quarter cent going to the Library District and 6.25 percent to the state. Inside the Liberty Hill city limits, the 1.75 above the library’s share and the state’s portion goes to the City, not the ESD. “We don’t get anything in the city limits,” said ESD Chief Anthony Lincoln. “We don’t get that because it was already in place for them.” The three quarters of a cent available outside the City limits is what will be voted on, and in some areas outside the Library District the ESD
See WCESD, Page A6
Four file for local office
Four incumbents – two City Council members and two LHISD Board members – have submitted their applications for a place on the May 1 ballot seeking reelection. Incumbent Kathy Major has filed for Place 4 and incumbent Anthony Buck has filed for Place 5 on the school board. Incumbent David Nix has not indicated his intention in Place 3. A fourth place will be added to the Board total on the ballot after Place 6 Trustee Vickie Peterson announced last week that she was resigning due to work obligations. Place 3 Council member Gram Lankford and Place 5 Council member Liz Rundzieher have filed seeking another term. Place 1 Council member Steve McIntosh has not indicated whether or not he will seek
See ELECTION, Page A3 ©2021 The Liberty Hill Independent
News@LHIndependent.com
January 21, 2021 | 50 Cents
By ANTHONY FLORES Staff Writer Two weeks into his term, newly-elected Williamson County Sheriff Mike Gleason is wasting little time making changes in the Sheriff’s Office. Gleason’s first move as sheriff was the evaluation of command staff in the office. With the exception of one individual, Gleason released 19 officers from the previous administration. “It was a matter of the community losing trust in any leadership. There was no leadership,” Gleason said. “That was apparent in the lawsuits, and the staff was doing what it wanted to do. Live PD was a priority, being on TV, and things of that nature. It wasn’t serving the community or having an adequate number of officers in the neighborhoods working calls. CID wasn’t
working cases; nobody was working; they were all riding around collecting a check. So, I made the decision I was not going to be inviting back the entire command staff, which was everybody from the rank of lieutenant and up in law enforcement and corrections.” Following a history of offenses and issues, immediate removal of command staff at the jail was Gleason’s top priority. “Your jail was shut down numerous times by the state regulatory commission, and the training facility was shut down. We had two in-custody deaths. We had a young man who was held in a jail cell for six months and never got to see the light of day or fresh air,” said Gleason. “We had people who were just inhumanely treated in the jail because there was no leadership with any experience at all
and didn’t know how to run a jail. It was the adage that if you don’t like it, don’t come to jail. Some people might believe in that. We have a big fat book and an oversight committee called Texas Jail Standards that tell us we have to treat people humanely, and they weren’t doing that.” After filling out his command staff with handpicked individuals, Gleason is moving forward with his goals. He is in talks with the commissioners court, the sheriff’s association, and the Texas Municipal Police Officers Association. The meeting is to modify or bypass the mandated civil service sets in April to allow entities to come together and discuss employee discipline, promotion process, and employee Newly elected Williamson County Sheriff Mike Gleason is wastcontracts for pay. ing little time bringing change to the Sheriff’s Office. Gleason is working on carrying out several promises made during his 2020 See GLEASON, Page A4 campaign. (Courtesy Photo)
By ANTHONY FLORES Staff Writer Inspiration comes at random moments in life. Opportunity comes in the same fashion. To stand at the crossroads where they meet is rare. Fueled by inspiration, Liberty Hill High School graduate Samantha Carter is at that intersection and taking full advantage of it. “My short story was one of the first short stories I ever wrote that was my own style of writing. I was still trying to figure out how I wanted to write, what I wanted to do. It was the first thing I ever wrote that felt completely like my own,” said Carter. “When I was approached to write a novel by New Degree Press and a program called the Creator Institute, I knew I wanted to make this a book. I wanted to lengthen my story.” To Carter’s surprise, the small ember that grew into a full fire was sparked when she least expected it.
“My novel is called Searching for the Sun. I originally wrote it as a short story about two years ago,” she said. “In my class, we were reading John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, and while I actually don’t like that book or his writing, I did love this emphasis on these two friends Lenny and George. I really connected with their friendship and how much they genuinely loved each other. I latched on to that, and in a few days, I had this 20-page short story.” Inspired by the idea of friendship, Carter’s story revolved around the journey of two friends. “The premise of the story is in the title. It’s about these two friends named Happy and Book who go on this journey to find where the sun lives,” said Carter. “They’re bonded by this isolation that they feel, so they come together and want to go on an adventure. They see this yellow thing in
the sky and decide to find out where it is.” Carter began writing at a young age and views her writing as a safe haven. For the young author, this is also a chance at introspection. It’s a way to ask and explore existential questions. “The question I wanted to answer when I started expanding it into a novel was general mortality and what happens when we die. Where do we go?” said Carter. “I feel like there’s always an answer for something except for that. Through these two characters, I wanted to explore that question. It was my own self-assurance.” Transforming Carter’s short story into a novel started with revisiting her original work. “It was super fun. When I was approached to write the novel, I hadn’t touched the short story for a year at that point,” she said. “The first thing I did was read through the entire thing
By MIKE EDDLEMAN Managing Editor State Rep. John Bucy began his second session representing District 136 in the Texas House of Representatives last week after winning reelection in November. This session promises to be very different from the first when the COVID pandemic and a tighter revenue projection are thrown into the mix. “I think initially the major focus is going to be the COVID pandemic recovery and the budget,” Bucy said. “It’s going to be a challenge. It’s not going to be like my freshman session two years ago where we had an abundance of money that we were able to spend on things like public education and lowering property taxes. This one’s going to be a bigger challenge than the previous
cycle.” Williamson County representation in the Legislature includes Republican Senator Charles Schwertner, Republican Representative Terry Wilson, and Democrat Representatives Bucy and James Talarico. Bucy said the four work closely together on many issues. “Between the four of us we’re two Dems and two Republicans, and our parties matter to us, and there are times we’re not on the same page but those are few and far between,” he said. “Most of the time the four of us work really well together on local county issues, just trying to help out the people of Williamson County.” With what looks like a tighter budget this time around there is not much expectation that there will be additional prop-
erty tax relief, even though it’s a popular topic. Bucy said if it were to happen it would have to come in the form of the state increasing its portion of public education funding. “Ultimately what the state can do to help lower property taxes is to lift some of that burden, which happens by us putting more into public education,” Bucy said. “If the state would pay more of that, as we did last session, that’s ultimately how you lower property taxes. Will there be any major legislation? I don’t think so. With the budget challenge I’d like to see us increase our funding but t a minimum we need to hold our gains from last time.” At the top of Bucy’s personal list of legislative priorities is Medicaid expansion. “It’s a big part of why I ran for office in 2014 and I lost
LHHS grad plans release of first novel
Liberty Hill’s Samantha Carter is preparing for the release of her first novel. Carter took a short story written in high school and began the process of expanding it into a novel. The book is set for an April release. (Courtesy Photo) and made an outline of the story so I could go through it and figure out where I could expand and what I needed to add. A big thing I needed was the main antagonist. In the
short story, there isn’t a set evil they’re up against. In the novel, I needed something more tangible that readers could
See CARTER, Page A4
Bucy set for second legislative session pretty badly, but the fight for Medicaid expansion is what has really driven me to public service,” Bucy said. “It is something we need to get done.” Texas may not participate, but Bucy said it doesn’t save Texans any money. “Medicaid expansion is a federal law and in Texas, even we don’t participate in Medicaid expansion, we still get taxed on it,” he said. “We’re still paying into it, so all we’re trying to do in the Legislature is bring those dollars back to Texas to take care of Texans. We’re talking about $110 billion over a decade that would come home to Texas. It would equal healthcare coverage for about 2.2 million Texans and these are working Texans who make too much money to get coverage under the current
JOHN BUCY State Representative D-District 136
plan.” Not only will it provide additional coverage for those who need it, Bucy said there is a benefit for everyone. “When more Texans have
See BUCY, Page A6