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2020
Volume 33, Issue 51
www.LHIndependent.com
News@LHIndependent.com
November 12, 2020 | 50 Cents
COVID numbers climbing again
By MIKE EDDLEMAN Managing Editor New trends with the COVID-19 virus could be a sign that the late fall and winter months could be as troubling as many health experts feared. Local, state and national numbers are climbing by most every measure, particularly in the last two weeks. “We’ve definitely seen an increase in new cases reported to us, slowly over the past few weeks,” said Nicole Evert, Epidemiology and Emergency Preparedness Director with the Williamson
Liberty Hill community honors its Veterans
MIKE EDDLEMAN PHOTO
Chief Special Warfare Boat Operator Gio Magallon, a Liberty Hill High School graduate, was the guest speaker Wednesday at the Liberty Hill Veterans Day Ceremony. More than 60 gathered to honor local veterans in the ceremony at Veterans Memorial Park.
Hall takes parting shot at new Mayor’s authority
By MIKE EDDLEMAN Managing Editor In his final City Council meeting, outgoing Mayor Rick Hall urged the Council to take action that appeared to be aimed at curtailing the authority and latitude of the incoming Mayor to engage in outside services contracts. “I am bringing this up because I’m not sure the Council is fully aware that professional services agreements, if there’s money that can be budgeted for it without Council approval, can be done without Council approval,” Hall said. “I urge the Council to want to see every one of those professional services agreements just to make sure, because again the Council is the one at the end of the day that is controlling the budget and controlling the services in the city.” When asked why the measure was important now, in his last
meeting – rather than something that would have been important at the beginning of his term – Hall said he wanted to make sure it did not happen in the future. “Prior to my administration there were some done, so I’ve always brought those to the City and want to make sure we continue on the same path we’ve been on,” Hall said. But if money is set aside in the budget for such contracts, that approval would essentially be in place, and while Hall claimed that such contracts existed without council approval prior to his time in office, there were no contracts or agreements in place that Council members were unaware of or didn’t support at that time. Hall said all professional service agreements in place during his time as Mayor were approved by the Council. These would include Sep-
tember 2019 agreements with Buie and Co. for public relations work and Powell Municipal for general consulting. The primary consulting contract the City had prior to Hall’s term was with Diversified Planning for project consulting, and the Council voted not to renew that contract in May 2019, four months prior to its expiration. He also pointed out that City staff had been added to take care of such needs, rather than using these agreements. Over his two years City staffing nearly doubled. The budget approved by the Council in early August included nine new positions above what was approved last September. That approved budget added 18 positions to a staff that previously totaled 37. The City has 63 total positions, and a general fund budget of $5.68 million -- an increase of
33 percent over the 2019 budget of $4.24 million. Hall made the suggestion for the new ordinance, but outside of Council member Kathy Canady requesting clarification on what applied under the proposal, there was no discussion before the Council approved the measure 4-0, with Tony DeYoung absent. Bond projects The Council approved a resolution to get at least one project in waiting moving forward before the bonds are sold after the beginning of the year. “This is one of the final steps before the tax bond is finalized and I think that is the second week of January,” said City Finance director Becky Wilkins. “What this resolution allows us to do is go ahead and get started on some of the
See COUNCIL, Page A6
Local charities providing help for the holidays
By ANTHONY FLORES Staff Writer The spirit of the holidays, at its core, is the spirit of giving. More than just gifts, it’s the time to lend a hand and show compassion to those in need. Now more than ever, with a pandemic affecting families in ways they never anticipated, the need for communities to come together is crucial. Several organizations in Liberty Hill are working to spread the holiday spirit to those in need. With the ever-present COVID-19, Operation Liberty Hill is adjusting its annual Christmas dinner box. “Because of COVID, there’s some unavailability of some of those items because we need 200 of each item to go in the box,” said Executive Director Susan Baker. “We’re requesting people donate $25 gift cards from HEB or Walmart or money to purchase the cards. We’re doing pretty good on that so far, but if people want a way to donate, that’s something they can do.” ©2020 The Liberty Hill Independent
Angel Tree, the nonprofit dedicated to making sure struggling families have gifts under the tree, is making COVID-related changes just like Operation Liberty Hill. The deadline to adopt an Angel is Dec. 1. “It was made pretty clear to parents asking for help. This year, because COVID has hit everybody, we won’t have big-ticket items,” said local attorney and Angel Tree organizer Jamie Etzkorn. “So, no big electronics and no bikes. Instead of people shopping for individual clothing items this year, we took that off the form because people would be handling the clothes. We’re asking that people adopting the angels spend $75 total. That’s a $30 clothing gift card from Kohls, TJ Max, Ross, Target, or Walmart. The remaining $45 is for toys.” With the new gift budget, Etzkorn is noticing a shift in focus to more enriching gift requests but does miss the ability to provide popular requests. Etzkorn also noted that the amount of families almost matches 2019 numbers. In 2019, they had 117 families, and for 2020 they are at 116. “The people asking for help have been very receptive to
that and are asking for a lot of dolls, Barbies, small Legos, trucks, craft, and balls,” she said. “I’ve seen stuff that promotes kids’ minds and gets them thinking instead of in front of a screen. I think it’s been a good thing to take the electronics off. I hate that we won’t do bikes, but that would be the whole budget.” Partnering with Operation Liberty Hill and Angel Tree, the Liberty Hill Police Department has placed donation barrels around town for their Operation Blue Santa program. Locations of the barrels include Classic Bank, Dahlia Café, Dairy Queen, Dollar General, Jardin Corona, Liberty Hill City Hall, Liberty Hill Eye Associates, Liberty Hill High School, Margarita’s Restaurant, Mojo’s, Prosperity Bank, Subway, Tractor Supply, Verabank, Higginbotham Brothers, Texas Honey Hole, Auto Zone, Benny Boyd, Blue Door Gifts, and Agape BBQ. For Thanksgiving, the police department is also working with Operation Liberty Hill to collect non-perishable foods with their Operation Stuff a Cruiser program. Each location will have an officer present to accept donations.
Locations and times for donations are Thursday, Nov. 12, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Wetzel Park; Tuesday, Nov. 17, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Higgenbotham Brothers Hardware store; and Thursday, Nov. 19, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Dollar General parking lot. Like the police department, the Liberty Hill Public Library will be accepting food donations that will go to Operation Liberty Hill’s food pantry. “It’s our Food for Fines program. People bring donations of food, like peanut butter, cereal, canned goods, rice, beans, or boxed children’s snacks. Then we will remove fines and fees off of their accounts,” said Librarian Angela Palmer. “For every item, we take off $1. We will waive fees for all lost or damaged books, too.” Williamson County’s Brown Santa program helps those in need across the county, providing gifts for kids up to age 15. The program takes care of any residents living outside the city limits who aren’t served by a similar program. To participate, people can apply on the county’s website under the Brown Santa section. All
See GIVING, Page A6
ing to 4,914 in October before shooting up to 7,363 per day so far this month. While Williamson County has avoided the trend of higher hospitalizations and fatalities the state has seen, Texas has 6,170 hospitalized with COVID, up from 3,190 on Oct. 1. There have been 839 deaths in November through 10 days, bringing the state total to 18,663. In total cases, the United States has surpassed 10 million cases, with Texas just shy of one million and Williamson County topping 10,000.
“We’re still recommending limiting those social gatherings outside of your household. Obviously choosing gatherings that are outside, and in locations where you are able to social distance, these events are going to be preferred. I know there are a lot of communities talking about drive-thru lights and other unique approaches to try to get into the holiday spirit but not exposing yourself.”
~ Nicole Evert Williamson County and Cities Health District
County and Cities Health District. “In September, I think we were seeing 20 to 30 new cases per day and we’re moving toward that 60 to 70 cases per day, so it’s kind of that gradual increase.” The increase may have been gradual, but it has been easy to notice. The daily new case average in Williamson County was 24 in September after overcoming the mid-summer spike that kept much of the county under tight restrictions. But in October that number was up to 33 and through 10 days of November the daily average is 42 new cases. Statewide number are showing a similar trend, nearly doubling in early November. September averaged 4,651 cases per day in Texas, climb-
Another key indicator in how COVID is trending is the rolling seven day case average published by the Centers for Disease Control. Since Oct. 23, that number has grown steadily from 428,795 to 801,000 Tuesday. In Liberty Hill, the most recent numbers provided by City Emergency Management Director Casey Cobb showed four active cases locally with 228 recovered since March. The Liberty Hill ISD tracker shows six active cases in the school district, including three high school students, one student and one staff member at the junior high, and one student at Bill Burden Elementary.
By MIKE EDDLEMAN Managing Editor Just over a week after a rush attempt to push a new mixed use zoning ordinance through the Planning and Zoning (P&Z) Commission and the City Council, the two groups came together and agreed to slow the process of establishing the new ordinance. “We’re really here because mixed use was being pushed through really quickly without our opportunity to review it,” said P&Z member Steve Messana, who brought his objections to the Council at its Oct. 26 meeting. The Nov. 5 workshop had been scheduled after the Council chose not to vote on the ordinance Oct. 26 after questions were raised about how the ordinance was written and edited and how it was ushered through P&Z. Absent from the joint meeting was Mayor Rick Hall – the driving force behind the proposed ordinance – and Council member Steve McIntosh who also serves on the P&Z Commission. While nothing was decided on the future of the proposed
ordinance, everyone agreed that the issue should get much more attention and be on a longer timeline for development. “There’s a lot of stuff and it’s really important that we take the time to do it right,” said Council member Kathy Canady. Messana shared the same perspective from the P&Z members. “I don’t think Planning and Zoning wants to rush into a mixed use zone,” Messana said. “While we did approve a mixed use zone in our prior meeting it was because we were told that it would be voted on by the Council.” Mentioning additional steps such as a comprehensive plan revision, City Attorney Tad Cleaves said this should be a lengthy process. “This does take time, I’d say at least five to six months,” said Cleaves. Community involvement was also a concern, with Cleaves and Canady both mentioning the need for input at public meetings and
See COVID, Page A5
City taps breaks on mixed use ordinance
See ORDINANCE, Page A4