LH Independent 12-10-20

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2020

Volume 34, Issue 3

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December 10, 2020 | 50 Cents

New leaders settling in at City Hall

By MIKE EDDLEMAN Managing Editor With a new Mayor in Liberty Hill, and a City Administrator just promoted to the post in October, it is to be expected that adjustments will have to be made at City Hall.

Mayor Liz Branigan and City Administrator Lacie Hale are not strangers, but have also not worked together before.

“I had met Ms. Hale when she was small enough to hold in her grandmother’s arms,” Branigan said, laughing.

The transition, from when former Mayor Rick Hall managed day-to-day operations as well as the City staff, to Branigan’s new leadership role alongside Hale is coming along. “(Things are going) very smoothly,” Branigan said.

“Not as smoothly as I’d like, but we have changed the culture of City Hall and changing the dynamic will be a little bit bumpier, but we can handle it. It’s just a matter of forming a team and doing that teamwork.”

One of the initial challenges for Branigan was getting access to City information.

“At first I met with some resistance in requesting updates and documents, but I think that resistance has begun to cease,” Branigan said.

“I think it’s just a matter of changing the culture.”

Hale admitted it is a bumpy process.

“We’re going through a transition,” she said. “New leadership, new understandings, new preferences as far as what the transition is

See CITY, Page A5

Special mailbox for letters to Santa

Lockie Ealy is giving back to the community with her North Pole mailbox, giving kids the opportunity to deliver their Christmas letters. To drop off a letter, head out to 1320 CR 285. (Courtesy Photo)

©2020 The Liberty Hill Independent

See LETTERS, Page A4

COVID vaccine could arrive in Texas next week

By MIKE EDDLEMAN Managing Editor As the federal government moves quickly to fast-track a pair of COVID-19 vaccines, hoping to get the first doses distributed to states by the middle of this month, many people are considering whether to get vaccinated when the time comes.

There are those who worry about potential side effects, those who oppose vaccination in general, and those who get caught up in the mountain of misinformation health officials say is causing people to react in fear.

“With vaccines, even if this wasn’t the COVID-19 vaccine, there is so much misinformation out there that people become very hesitant and very nervous about it,” said Dr. Caroline Hilbert with the Williamson County and Cities Health District.

But two vaccines are expected to be approved for distribution at the end of this week,

Council votes to curb Mayor’s powers

By MIKE EDDLEMAN Managing Editor It took three attempts, but Monday the City Council unanimously stripped new Liberty Hill Mayor Liz Branigan of the powers it so readily handed over to former Mayor Rick Hall in mid-2019.

The Council first tried to repeal a pair of ordinances that outlined additional powers for the Mayor on Nov. 23, but learned that would not accomplish the goal on its own, so the item was postponed. The following week, a surprise special called meeting by Council members Kathy Canady and Liz Rundzieher was set for

By ANTHONY FLORES Staff Writer A lone red mailbox catches the eye of passers by on County Road 285, boldly reading “North Pole, Express Mail”.

It sits at the entrance to one of several farms in the area, the one belonging to Lockie Ealy, and the mailbox is her attempt at giving back to the community she’s called home for just over a year.

“We moved to Liberty Hill in June of 2019. I grew up in a small town in Northeast Texas, and we’ve been in Austin for over 20 years,” she said. “We

Dec. 4 to address the issue, but that meeting was shifted to Monday.

Claiming the intent of Monday’s action was to return to the intended operational structure of the City, Canady made the motion Monday after a few minutes of comments from members.

“I called for this because it’s just a part of the procedure,” Canady said. “I started working on this when we went to hire a COO.” Former Chief Operating Officer Lacie Hale, who was hired into that role in March after the Council supported the plan to create that position in lieu of a City Administrator, was promoted to City Administrator in October.

“I feel it is important to

See POWERS, Page A5

and state officials have said they may reach Texas by late next week.

Gov. Greg Abbott announced that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has made an initial allotment of over 1.4 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccines to the State of Texas. Additional allotments may be made later this month for December, and increased allotments are expected in January and through the spring.

The two vaccines up for approval are from Pfizer and Moderna, and both require two injections weeks apart. Hilbert said everything health officials have seen to date looks promising.

“We know about the Moderna and the Pfizer vaccines and how both of those manufacturers have filed for an emergency use authorization with the FDA (Food and Drug Administration),” she said. “The preliminary data is really looking phenomenal and is very prom-

ising. There’s just over 44,000 individuals that participated in the Pfizer trial and over 30,000 who participated in the Moderna trial, and during both those

trials, through the manufacturing process, the researching process, all of the clinical trials, they found that the vaccine was both safe and effective.”

The final hurdle this week is a meeting where the FDA will consider that emergency use

See COVID, Page A6

BUSINESS

Integrity Group brings personal touch to insurance business

By RACHEL MADISON Staff Writer Starting Integrity Insurance Group was an adventure Andis and Whitney Goble didn’t anticipate, but one they were excited to be given. Integrity Insurance Group, formerly Monroe Insurance, was purchased by the Gobles Jan. 1, and has been an adventure ever since.

“The agency was originally started by Dell Monroe in the 1970s, and he ran the agency with Germania for many years,” Andis Goble said.

“About 12 years ago, Whitney’s father purchased the business and ran it until he retired. I worked for her father

for two years as part of a transition plan, and then we bought the book of business. We knew this would be a great fit for us, so we created our own business and rebranded.”

Andis Goble’s background in business and finance, along with Whitney Goble’s background in grant writing, resource development and nonprofit leadership, gave the couple the skill set they needed to take on the agency and make it their own, Whitney Goble said.

“Even though we have a fresh STACY COALE PHOTO new name and look, we’re building our business on a Husband and wife team Andis and Whitney Goble, owners of Integrity Insurance Group, are excited to bring a variety of inSee INTEGRITY, Page A4 surance options to Liberty Hill locals.

IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN! Reader voting for the 3rd Annual Best of Liberty Hill is now open!

Winners and runners-up Have a favorite local pizza joint? How about a dog groomer? will be announced in our Best boss? Favorite plumber? Best Margarita? With over 100 Feb. 2021 issue of Liberty Hill Living! categories, you can vote on all those and more. Just go online CAST YOUR VOTES and fill out your ballot by 5 p.m. Dec. 25. www.LHIndependent.com/best-of-liberty-hill

Page A2

THE LIBERTY HILL INDEPENDENT

Thursday, December 10, 2020

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Phillip Jefferson Walker, best known as Jeff or Coach Walker, passed away on November 30, 2020.

He was born on September 10, 1968, in Corpus Christi, Texas, to Pamela Newell and Daniel Lee Walker. Jeff attended Calallen High School where he played football and was an All-State running back. He attended Texas State University in San Marcos, completing his degree to reach his goal of becoming a teacher and coach.

In 2000, he married Miranda Lewis and they were married for 20 years, sharing a love of family, football (and all sports in general), travel, and their twin daughters, Regan and Madison.

He started his coaching career at San Marcos ISD in 1999 under Bruce Bush at both Goodnight and Miller Junior High Schools. In 2001, he started his Varsity coaching career under Coach Jerry Vance at Liberty Hill High School where he stayed until 2008. He served as Offensive Coordinator for the Panthers starting in 2002 and was part of the teams that won back-to-back State Championships in 2006 and 2007.

In 2008, he left Liberty Hill to be Athletic Director/Head Football Coach at Rogers High School. He served there for six years accumulating a record of 59-13.

In 2014, he returned to Liberty Hill as a Special Education Teacher at the Junior High. In 2016, he had the opportunity to serve as Girls Athletic Coordinator, which included the joy of coaching his own daughters.

In 2017, he became Athletic Director and Head Football Coach at Liberty Hill High

School and served until his passing. He accumulated a record of 38-11 and played in the State Championship in 2018.

He completed the regular season of 2020 with an 8-0 record and the team will continue to the playoffs.

While Coach Walker cared little about awards, it was truly an honor to be selected as Coach of the Year in 2018 ALL-CENTEX Sports Awards. His biggest philosophy in coaching (besides the Slot-T) was “we’re going to do what’s best for the kids”. He was tough because he wanted his players to succeed not just in sports but in life. It was an honor and a privilege for him to have the opportunity to be a part of their lives. While Football was the sport he mainly coached, as Athletic Director both at Rogers ISD and Liberty Hill ISD he was focused on supporting the success of all athletic programs. He took great pride in the achievements of each sport and enjoyed the opportunity to attend as many games, meets, and matches as possible. Coach Walker was a

person who intensely focused on family, coaching, and his players.

Coach Walker is preceded in death by his parents. He is survived by his wife Miranda and his daughters Regan and Madison; his brothers and their families, Kent and Sarah Walker, Danny and Alisa Walker; and nephews, Daniel Walker and wife Colleen, Will Walker, and Eli Walker; his stepmother Donice Walker; his stepfather Mike Lingle; and his motherin-law Margaret Lewis.

There will be a Celebration of Life to honor Coach Walker at a date to be determined.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made to the Liberty Hill ISD Education Foundation in Coach Walker’s name. www.

LHeducationfoundation.org or mail checks to the administration office: LHISD Education Foundation ATTN: Kristy Kercheville, Executive Director, 301 Forrest Street, Liberty Hill, TX 78642. Please note on checks or online that the donation is in Coach Jeff Walker’s name.

On November 19th 2020, Elinor Ann Elizabeth Mook was hand-picked to rest in the garden of eternal glory with our heavenly father. She was taken suddenly at the age of 57, but we find peace in knowing that the prettiest flowers get picked first.

Elinor, although most knew her as “Lacey”, was born on September 30, 1963 in Burnet, TX and came from two Burnet county pioneer families and moved to Liberty Hill at the age of 6 where she graduated from Liberty Hill High School.

She participated in athletics, band and 4-H during her academic years. Lacey was also a lifelong member of the United Methodist Church.

Lacey Married Harvey Holbrook and settled in North Carolina, Tennessee and Hawaii as an army bride and gave birth to her first daughter. She later married Louis Mook in Hawaii where she birthed two more daughters and made her new home until 2007. In 2007 she moved back to Liberty Hill, close to her mother and family, where she lived until her death.

Lacey is survived by three

daughters; Heather Olson, Lea Smith and husband Austyn, Kristalyn Mook. Hanai daughter; Jessica Mallard and husband Evan. Mother; Dolly Kruhl Knox. Father; Joel Knox and wife Donnace. Her siblings; Michael Knox and wife Dawn, Jay Knox and wife Amy, Charlotte Knox and half-brother Joseph Knox.

Uncle; David Kruhl of New Braunfels and Aunt; Marc’ Knox Dobbins and husband David of Junction, TX. Nephews; Jayme Knox, Jayson Knox and Chris Knox. Niece; Bethany Kilian and husband Branden. Great nephew; Clayton Kilian.

Lacey dedicated her life to caring for her daughter Kristalyn (Krissy) who is special needs due to an illness as an infant and there was never a moment that Krissy was not her number one priority.

Lacey “Nana” was blessed with five grandchildren; Lilly Olson, Stetson Dunavant, Layce De Los Santos, Brynlee Smith, Knox Smith. Hanai grandchild; Ava Mallard.

She loved having get togethers at the family ranch in Oat-

meal; gardening, cooking, bird watching, fishing, camping, decorating for the holidays and spending time with her grandchildren. Lacey lived a selfless and simple life. She made numerous sacrifices for her family and loved without question, expected nothing in return.

Lacey was no ordinary woman; she was clothed in strength and had an unparalleled love for her family and friends. Her wings were ready but our hearts were not. We find comfort in knowing she rests in the Lord’s garden, watching over us.

To keep our family and friends safe with the COVID pandemic restrictions, Memorial service will be at a later date.

Elinor Ann Elizabeth Mook

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OPINION Throwback Thursday

of his time. “In addition to local patrons, customers from as distant as Houston and Dallas, called in to reserve what they could, and in season, hunters from far and wide brought deer to be processed into his celebrated venison sausage.�

Mr. Jacob recalled the store had no indoor toilet, and the only facility available “was the ‘two-hole’ outhouse on the back of the property. He noted the outhouse became the target of Halloween pranks over the years.

The book does not limit itself to memories of the store. Mr. Jacob shares other recollections about his father and the community, including one gem involving Lyndon B. Johnson that occurred in the mid-1940s when the then-future president was seeking reelection to Congress and appeared in Andice.

We won’t spoil the story by going into details as to what happened, but the story did bring a smile to our face.

Mr. Jacob tells of how his father ďŹ rst came to Andice in the early 1930s and of his work at a cotton gin that was owned by his uncle. During his time at the gin he learned enough to become a broker and while he didn’t become wealthy he did make enough money to help ďŹ nance his later venture into the general merchandise store.

Although the Jacob family

staff notebook Our views and other news and musings from THE INDEPENDENT Staff

Liberty Hill Living plans expanded

The annual Liberty Hill Living magazine has become one of the most highly-anticipated arrivals of the year in the com-

munity. Entering our seventh year to publish the mainstay of the Liberty Hill community, changing times and priorities have led to exciting changes in this publication. In 2021,

EDITORIAL:

Don’t stop now, City Council

Son recalls famed Andice store

By JAMES WEAR Columnist It’s that time of year again, and with 2020 being perhaps a most challenging year for many, perhaps it’s ďŹ tting that a former Andice resident has published a book that includes his recollections of a general store his father and uncle operated for more than 40 years.

The book, entitled I Never Heard My Father Sing, was written by Gus H. Jacob, now a resident of Tomball, and while we were unable to reach Mr. Jacob prior to this column’s publication, we did want to bring his work to our readers’ attention and recommend it as a perfect Christmas gift for anyone on your shopping list that enjoys reading local history. I purchased my copy at the Andice General Store for $10.

Older folks will likely recall Jacob’s Store was located just west of the Andice General Store and may well remember that August night in 1977 when the store burned down. By that time Gus Sr. and Ben Jacob had stepped down from operating the store and Richard Tippi was running it.

It was a retirement well-earned as Mr. Jacob recalls his father working six days a week and often more than 12 hours a day.

And even time off on Sundays was no guarantee as Mr. Jacob wrote that many times folks would come to their house (a few hundred yards east of the store) and express a dire need for a loaf of bread. “By the time he unlocked the door,� writes Mr. Jacob, “the petitioner would have ‘forgotten’ the bread but remembered a more urgent scarcity: a pack of cigarettes. Leaving quickly, he’d call back ‘charge it, Gus!’�

Jacob’s Store was perhaps best known for its meat market, with Mr. Jacob terming that as the “nerve center� of the store and where his father spent most

THE LIBERTY HILL INDEPENDENT Thursday, December 10, 2020 Section A Page 3

(ABOVE) Gus and Ben Jacob operated this store in Andice for more than 40 years. The building burned down in the late 1970s after their retirement. (Courtesy Photo) (BELOW) Gus H. Jacob’s recently released book includes his memories of growing up in the Andice community.

lived in Andice, they attended church in Walburg, and Mr. Jacob includes memories of that community as well in his book.

His uncle operated a beer joint in Walburg, and he recalls, as a teenager, playing pool and listening to the jukebox.

Mr. Jacob also shares a few

family recipes in his book, and memories of individuals he has met during his lifetime who inuenced him. The book includes several photographs and illustrations from days gone by.

The Independent will publish ďŹ ve issues of the community favorite.

Liberty Hill Living is what we enjoy putting together the most, and it made sense as the community grew that perhaps this unique publication should grow with it.

The Independent has grown, and with it has the company’s list of publications, and while each of those has proven to be a success in and of themselves,

it is the Liberty Hill Living name – and what it brings – that the community enjoys most.

We take great pride in what the magazine has become and how much the community of advertisers and readers have supported it and helped it grow through the years. It is what we get the most questions about throughout the year and the publication everyone is most excited about.

Sometimes it is difďŹ cult to get oriented and pointed in the right direction.

Maybe the Liberty Hill City Council is properly oriented now, perhaps it is not. But if it is, let’s make sure we continue down that right path and not stop with this one action toward setting things right.

The Council voted Monday to strip from the position the powers it handed to former Mayor Rick Hall, making claims it was never intended to be permanent, and things should be the way they were before with a City Administrator managing the City and staff in its daily operations.

We can dispense with a drawn out explanation and discussion of how the Council had not done anything to veer off of the path set forward by Hall in the 18 months since this Council was sworn in. No need to talk about how permanent that temporary status appeared to be until as recently as two weeks before the November election.

We don’t have to mention how no one ever mentioned any dissatisfaction with the status quo or a need to shift gears. Let’s just call that water under the bridge at this point as the Council claims the high ground on this recent shift.

The reality is this Council was either conned by Hall for nearly 18 months, or was complicit in dismantling the local city government it claims to value so much today.

But today is a new day. Today is a day that the management and operational structure of Liberty Hill has been resurrected suddenly in the form everyone apparently always secretly wanted. That means we can begin anew – with the old way.

Like Council member Kathy Canady said, “This basically puts us back to a strong council, weak mayor Type A General Law city, which is what I think we need.�

But the old way is much more than inserting a City Administrator between the Mayor and the steering wheel, and having the Council put its foot down in curbing the authority of a single person to run the city.

The old way includes accessibility rather than a response of silence, accountability over ďŹ nger pointing and vague conspiracies, and transparency of action and information over closeddoor meetings and efforts to avoid turning over public records.

Now is the time we can do more than put someone else in charge, and make Liberty Hill the open, accessible City it once was.

So let’s carry on with this new-found fervor for focusing on the community service aspect of being a Council member.

Let’s start by addressing the issues that no one had the stomach or interest in standing up for prior to this month such as more transparency in City decision-making and a willingness to make public the information the public has requested.

Will we get answers on whether the police video of Hall on a ride along was edited after it was requested?

Will we get information on the long-ignored requests for security equipment upgrades and expenses at City Hall in early 2020?

Will we see more transparency on the City budget and monthly ďŹ nancial information?

Will we have the opportunity to freely interview and ask questions of City staff on issues of importance to the community?

In recent weeks the signs look positive that a least the line of communication between The Independent and staff is suddenly open again, and that’s important.

But it will take the Council’s desire – and expectation – for openness and transparency to return to being a City that truly serves the public, and not something that looks like just another power shift among political rivals.

Liberty Hill Living will be delivered to mailboxes across Liberty Hill ďŹ ve times in 2021, providing an expanded reach for advertisers and bringing more in-depth articles and regular features on the subjects readers want most such as cooking, local business, home and garden, travel, local history, and much more. Each issue will have something for everyone and all of the great local feature stories you’ve come to

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Because we live here, work here and are so heavily involved in our community, we proudly use this signature magazine to celebrate what’s best about our hometown.

Look for the ďŹ rst issue in late February when The Independent unveils the Best of Liberty Hill 2021 winners. ~ Shelly Wilkison Owner/Publisher

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INTEGRITY

THE LIBERTY HILL INDEPENDENT

strong foundation,” she added. “Coming from that strong foundation allows us to push forward and meet the needs of this community. It’s changed so much in the last 30 years, from mostly farm and ranch properties to this huge urban sprawl.”

The Gobles have worked to become appointment with a variety of other carriers in addition to Germania, to meet the needs of the community.

“This gives us a lot of creative power,” Andis Goble said. “You can come in and tell us who you are and what you have going on in your life, and we can help you. Having a lot of great brands and top tier carriers is important, because if Germania is not strong in certain areas, then we have other carriers that are strong in those areas.”

Whitney Goble said she knows having insurance is not the most exciting part of life, but because it’s necessary, she hopes that the community comes to know she and her husband are working on behalf

Continued from Page A1 of them.

“There is so much value in knowing the person working for you and trusting them to answer questions you have or find the info you need,” she added.

Since purchasing the business, the Gobles have also invested in new technology, like software that allows them to do one application and get multiple quotes from multiple carriers.

“We have the best of both worlds,” Andis Goble said.

“We are high tech, but we also have an office you can walk in and do business from, too.”

The 50-year-old building Integrity Insurance Group is housed in needs a lot of work, admits Whitney Goble, but it’s a challenge the couple has met head on since purchasing the company.

“When we bought the agency from my dad, remodeling was one of the first things I wanted to do,” she said. “It’s not anything we were scared of—we are as comfortable producing insurance quotes as we are in-

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stalling flooring—it’s just taking longer than we thought.”

Due to COVID-19, the remodeling project has moved slower than the Gobles anticipated, but work is now happening at a steady pace. The Gobles are doing all the remodel work themselves, one room at a time. Whitney Goble said the plan is to have the office and reception area finished by early spring, and then work on the outside of the building will begin. The Gobles also hope to hire some additional support staff in the spring.

Andis Goble said because of COVID-19, a lot of agencies have gone completely virtual, but that’s not something Integrity Insurance Group intends to ever do.

“We can do almost everything over email or video con-

LETTERS

ference, and some people do want to do business that way, but we will always have an office for people to meet faceto-face,” he said. “We are really a convergence of the old and the new. We have this old business, but we’re not throwing it out. We are just adding services to it. We don’t want to lose that personal touch.”

In the future, the Gobles hope to get involved in the community through volunteer opportunities and by providing education to locals.

“We’d love to provide the community support, even if they aren’t our customers,” Whitney Goble said. “I would love to see Andis have coffee with the community once a month, where they can bring in their policy and we can answer questions, even if we’re

Continued from Page A1

bought ourselves a house for our 15th anniversary, and this is it. Our end goal was to always get back to small-town life, be able to know all our neighbors, be involved in the community, and slow down.”

With a farm filled with rescue animals – dogs, cats, a pig, turkeys, peacocks, and chickens, to name a few – it’s clear Ealy can’t resist the pull of her service heart. Feeling the love of her new home, Ealy decided it was time to do her part for others in the community.

“We have met some wonderful people. We got involved in the football community. Our son wanted to play, so this was his first year playing football, and we just quickly fell in love with this town,” said Ealy. “We fell right back into it. It’s been a good transition and change

for us. Because of that, I just wanted to give back to the locals. How can we do something special in this crazy year and show our gratitude to the community.”

With the support of her husband Warren, a special education para-professional at Liberty Hill High School, some inspiration from a friend, and a bit of fate, Ealy settled on her idea, deciding to set up a North Pole mailbox allowing kids to drop off their letters to Santa, and making sure they get a response.

“It was not my original idea.

I did not come up with this. I have a girlfriend, and she is doing the same thing in her town. I wanted to do something, and I didn’t know what it was,” she said. “I kept seeing these cute mailboxes. When I

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Thursday, December 10, 2020

not your carrier. In order to make sure your family is protected, you have to know what your coverage is. As a married couple with a small business and five kids to protect, it’s nonnegotiable for me to not understand what we need, and I think most people feel that way.”

The Gobles have five children, four who are adopted.

Because of that, they have a unique perspective on the importance of community.

“With our history of fostering and adopting our children, we have had so many people pour love into our family in a unique way, and we want to return that,” Andis Goble said. “We are the type of people who care about others and have integrity, which is why we picked that name for our agency. Ulti-

mately, we want people to recognize us as good people who just happen to sell insurance.”

Whitney Goble added that offering protection, safety and security to local families is also a big deal.

“If we can help someone not have to worry, we are making a difference,” she said. “That sounds cheesy, but it spoke to me. Most of us are one paycheck away from an emergency. It feels good to provide a layer of assurance to people.”

Integrity Insurance Group is located at 100 Carl Shipp Drive in Liberty Hill and is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday (closed for lunch). For more information, visit www.integrityinsurance. group or call (512) 515-5533.

saw her post about this, I decided that’s what I’m going to do. I pulled into Walmart, and all the decorations were gone except for one red North Pole mailbox.”

Responding to kids’ letters keeps the joy of Santa alive, giving them a chance to relish the joy of Christmas.

“The magic of Christmas is what we want to keep alive,” said Ealy. “There’s no Christmas like last year when we watched the Christmas parade and did the whole thing with the community. People are missing that, and if they can get in the car and deliver a letter to Santa, that can keep their spirit alive.”

Ealy is a board member for Fortune 500, not-for-profit company Thrivent. Thrivent focuses on helping churches and communities. Ealy will have the help of Thrivent action teams to pen the responses to each letter. Ealy’s children, Tristan and Olive, are jumping into the foray and helping their mother’s cause by checking the mailbox as soon as they

hop off the bus from school.

Being somewhat new to the community, Ealy is relying on social media and a few other resources to spread the word.

“I’ve shared my post. I’ve had people that I’m friends with share it in their communities. I’ve shared the info to Liberty Hill pages,” she said.

“I reached out to the elementary school, and they shared it on their Facebook page. My next move is to contact the other schools.”

Ealy has one goal with her efforts. To bring just a little bit of joy to someone in need. A day after her interview with The Independent, Ealy received her first batch of letters.

“We finally got our first letters, and it was like my own Christmas morning. They were precious,” she said.

To drop off a letter to Santa, head out to 1320 CR 285. It’s impossible to miss the festive front gate. Ealy suggests heading out in the evening to enjoy the decorations in all of their glory.

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POWERS

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move forward with the duties set for our type of city,�

Canady said. “We’ve strayed from those duties over the years apparently, more than I realized, and I think at this time we need to move forward with going back to a ďŹ ve-council form of government with a mayor and a city administrator, which I’m asking for.â€?

Former City Administrator Greg Boatright was pushed out in August 2019, and at that time Hall said an immediate search would begin for a replacement. “Due to my disappointment in the previous City Administrator, I was willing to try the temporary Mayor/City Administrator hybridized form of government,� Canady told The Independent of her support for Hall’s role as Mayor. “The Council decided to move forward in that change. I did not go out of my way as you seem to insinuate, I simply voted my vote as did others and the motion carried. As this was always to have been a temporary plan and has been evolving back to a regular Class A

CITY

THE LIBERTY HILL INDEPENDENT

general law city form of government – albeit slower than I would have liked – I did not feel the need to consult with either mayor.�

Canady vehemently denied that this issue was being suddenly rushed. “For me, again as one person, it has been time for the temporary change to move back to square one for awhile as it was only to have been just that temporary,� Canady said. “As I have said numerous times during the council meetings I have been working towards accomplishing this change for quite some time. It takes time and votes to change things.

I am only one person on the council so waiting and watching for the right times to move forward on anything takes time.�

Prior to Boatright’s departure, the Council had passed a pair of ordinances expanding the supervisory role of the mayor and these ordinances were at the center of the original effort to scale back the Mayor’s powers on Nov. 23.

The two ordinances in ques-

Continued from Page A1

going to be as far as getting the information, but I think in trying to understand how Mayor Branigan works, what her preferences now we’ve been able to accommodate that and fulďŹ ll her needs as far as access to documents and things that she needs.â€?

Branigan applauded Hale for her efforts to help in the transition. “I think Ms. Hale has put a lot of effort into smoothing this transition and I’m very appreciative of that,� Branigan said.

The ďŹ rst example of the new approach in action was with swift action to address questions on the wastewater plant with a potential lawsuit facing the City and growing costs for the expansion project. “We started with the wastewater plant, and we met with all the concerned parties for a brainstorming session, which was put together by Lacie (Hale), and that was vastly productive and we came up with a plan. I think we’re ďŹ nally going to start moving forward on this issue,â€? Branigan said.

That plan got approval at the last meeting when the Council voted to bring in consultant AJ Olson to evaluate the plant and expansion project.

Another area Branigan has been focused on and working to get information on has been the budget and ďŹ nancial reports. She said that took some time and effort but the situation is improving.

“I have spoken with our ďŹ nancial person (Becky Wilkins) about changing the format of the budget and posting it online and she’s agreed to do so,â€?

Branigan said. “It’s deďŹ nitely something we’re working on,â€? Hale added.

Branigan believes her understanding of City operations is not something staff anticipated. “I think I am more knowledgeable than most people at City Hall imagined I would be,� she said. “I guess that’s understandable.�

Tuesday, Hale sent the revenue and expense report for the ďŹ rst two months of the current ďŹ scal year to The Independent.

The reports are the same reports requested through an ofďŹ cial Open Records Request by the newspaper in May covering January 2019 to April 2020. In June, the City’s response to that request was “The City has no responsive documents to this request.â€?

When asked Tuesday why the City had previously said the documents didn’t exist, Hale said it was a misunderstanding and confusion over what The Independent had requested, although the newspaper provided a sample of the requested document the City had produced just months earlier. Hall consistently rebuffed attempts

by The Independent and others ďŹ ling open records requests on access to monthly revenue and expense reports.

tion were passed in June 2019, a month after Council members Steve McIntosh and Gram Lankford were ďŹ rst elected and Rundzieher was reelected. It was about six weeks after Tony DeYoung had been appointed. Both ordinances passed 4-1 with then-Council member Ron Rhea opposed.

McIntosh and Rundzieher – both supportive of the ďŹ rst effort to repeal the ordinances – had fully supported the initial passage of the ordinances 17 months prior. The pair, along with Canady, also supported an October 2019 measure giving Hall temporary City Administrator powers during the search for a new administrator, but by February the position still had not been ďŹ lled and the Council chose instead to hire the COO, which left Hall in his supervisory capacity over the City staff with no indication that situation would change.

Lankford said Monday the powers given to Hall were never meant to be permanent. “The ordinances that were set forth were in a period of time

where we didn’t have a city administrator and they were never meant to be permanent,�

Lankford said. “It was my understanding at some point they would be retracted, so this is just ďŹ nalizing that process.â€?

The Council as a whole stood behind Hall in decisions that led to the termination of four staff members and the non-renewal of the contract for another, never once indicating that a return to having a City Administrator was needed or planned.

At no time between June 2019 when the two ordinances were passed did any member of the current Council question the authority of Hall in his expanded role from the Mayor’s seat.

This most recent shift was something Rundzieher has called “housekeeping.� “Every time we have a new mayor we do this, just to set the limits on the mayor,� she said. “It’s been done every time.�

But this move did require an ordinance that speciďŹ cally reversed authority this Council

had given the Mayor.

Hall continuously argued that the Mayor’s powers being given to him through the new ordinances were what state law had always intended, but the new ordinance seeks to curtail that role today based the powers outlined prior to Hall’s term.

The need to change the ordinance conicted with the regularly voiced argument by Hall throughout the course of his term that the powers he sought and claimed for himself were simply the powers spelled out in Texas State law. It took Monday’s ordinance to scale back those powers. “It takes anything, where the City has gone beyond state law and removed it,â€? said City Attorney Tad Cleaves.

The Council was set on quickly making the change, signaling it would not support Branigan’s authority the same way it had supported Hall’s. “This basically puts us back to a strong council, weak mayor Type A General Law city, which is what I think we need,� Canady said. “That’s

my opinion.�

She repeated that this change would have occurred regardless of who the Mayor was. “For me, I felt like we needed this change a long time ago, so I started this long before the election change,� Canady said. “It would have been the same thing whether you were here or Mr. Hall was here.�

For her part, Branigan campaigned on returning the City’s operational structure to what it had been previously, also pledging not to accept the $40,000 salary approved for Hall in his expanded role. But she told the Council Monday that her focus on the ďŹ scal situation of the City would continue unabated and hoped for common ground. “I am sitting here tonight because citizens and taxpayers of Liberty Hill have voted a mandate for a city government which is transparent and ďŹ scally responsible,â€? she said. “I hope we can ďŹ nd some common ground on which to work together for the government our voters have expressed an interest in.â€?

The newspaper reďŹ led the request this week, covering January 2018 to November 2020.

In looking at daily operations of the City not a lot has changed, according to Hale. “Honestly not a lot has changed as far as staff and operations,� she said. “Mayor Branigan has had an opportunity to meet with our directors and our employees to get a better idea as far as what our operations are. It is a lot to take in as Mayor, there’s a lot of information that’s out there, so we’ve given Mayor Branigan her space to review that infor-

mation and get her whatever she needs and get her caught up with everything.�

When asked about how she planned to deal with the tension and conict between the new Mayor and City Council, Hale said her role was to keep that separate from City operations. “They have the right to have that conict,â€? Hale said. “They’re human beings, they have a right to have a disagreement and my goal as the city administrator is not to let that impact the operations. We as staff, in day-to-day opera-

tions, have our directives from Council, we have our path forward given on the directives of Council, and if there’s a conict that’s something from a political standpoint where they need to either compromise or discuss. As far as that tension inďŹ ltrating into operations, being the go between, I keep it out of the operations.â€?

Branigan hopes that time

helps bridge the current divide. “I think this is hard for our Council because the current Council is composed of people who are personal friends of the former mayor – or the majority of the Council – and I can understand their feelings of grief,� she said. “Hopefully, they will get over that very soon and we will be able to function together.�

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THE LIBERTY HILL INDEPENDENT

Thursday, December 10, 2020

Artist captures magic of Veterans Park

By ANTHONY FLORES Staff Writer At the Stubblefield art exhibit, on the right wall hangs a photo of Liberty Hill’s Veterans Memorial Park. The photo was taken by Williamson County photographer Wes Odell after being overwhelmed with inspiration while visiting the memorial.

“I was out there at a reception for the previous exhibiter, and I knew my work would be up the next time around,” Odell said. “It was still light, and I saw where it was going to be, and I thought the local Liberty Hill people would appreciate a photo of the park. I thought it was a nice image of a vibrant town.”

Odell, a veteran of the photography world, is linked in a generational chain of photographers dating back to the 1800s.

“It’s kind of like I was born into it. My grandfather, in 1892, established a portrait studio in a small town in northern Utah. He was the first photographer up in that part of the world,” said Odell. “My father grew up around photography, and then it passed on down to me. I always had a camera and had my own darkroom when I was 12. Life just doesn’t exist without a camera in my possession. It’s kind of hereditary.”

Before dedicating retired life to his passion, Odell was a part of the software industry, joining IBM in 1961. Odell worked for several other companies throughout the 70s’ but didn’t fully indulge in photography until much later.

“When you try to make money through your hobby, sometimes you lose the fun. You can

still do photography and have a career somewhere else,” he said. “I retired two or three times, and the last time was in 1994. That’s when I got serious about photography. I joined the Wasatch Camera Club, and I thought I was pretty good until I joined that group. I thought, man, I have a lot to learn, and since I was retired, I had time to get better.”

Learning from his peers, Odell received awards and even served as his club’s president. The veteran photographer is a firm believer in amateurs partnering with someone experienced in photography.

Combining his skills with his experience teaching at, what was then, Southwest Texas State University from 1982 to 1985, Odell has taken amateurs under his wing in the past.

“I really enjoyed teaching.

That goes right along with photography because there are so many people who would like to learn more about photography,” he said. “I think I’m a better teacher than I am a photographer, so I’ve been a mentor to people who have gotten good. I’ve been a curator at a couple of places. I’ve been in almost all of the camera clubs and art guilds in this part of the world.”

For Odell, becoming a great photographer requires a lot of dedication and the willingness to learn different techniques one step at a time.

“Photography is like an elevator. The more you put into it, then the higher the elevator will take you. You start out with point and shoot, and selfies,” said Odell. “Then you take pictures that other people

have taken; we call them postcard pictures because anybody can get them. It’s like a picture of a mountain. All you have to do is stand at the bottom of the mountain. After that, it’s usually nature photography, macro photography, and action photography.”

Adding his own flavor to his photos, Odell treats his pictures to give them an antique feel.

“For me, action photography is what really turns me on,” said Odell. “When I can go up to Fort Hood and take pictures of the Army Cavalry on horses or go over to the boxing gym to catch a boxing tournament,” he said. “I can get a picture in an instant, and then that moment goes away. Nobody can get that picture again. I’ve been taking pictures forever, and I’m an old-timer in this field. I like to take action pictures that are classic or antique type pictures.

I put an antique type treatment to make it look like it was taken 100 years ago. That’s my persona I think.”

The art of the action shot requires several sharply honed skills, with the most crucial being a keen eye.

“You can’t go and take action pictures unless you go and study it and have all the equipment. It’s a graduate school of photography,” said Odell. “You have to be there, you have to be quick, you have to anticipate the motion, and that’s how you get the picture you want.”

More than just taking eye-catching photographs, resting at the heart of Odell’s passion is the desire to tell stories with his work.

“You try and put something unique in your pictures that nobody else has done and tell

ARTIST WES ODELL a story. That’s the key thing, telling a story in a picture,” said Odell. “When you go to a shoot, you can take 100 pictures, but what you really want is just one or two perfect ones.

One of those pictures might have a real story to it.”

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COVID

Continued from Page A1

authorization.

“During that meeting, the FDA and members of its staff, and an independent board of experts, will walk through the data that hasn’t been made public and there will be time for public commentary from other experts and I imagine just members of the public as well,” Hilbert said of the process moving forward. “Then, hopefully, if the data shared then is looking as sound as the preliminary data that’s been released in the companies’ press releases, the hope is, and our anticipation is that there should be a vaccine that starts to trickle down as early as next week.”

Concerns have been raised over how safe the vaccines will be in what many people see as a rushed development phase, but Hilbert said the process doesn’t change.

“It’s hard with all of this information coming at us, especially with COVID, it may appear a lot of the time that responses to it have not been planned out or thought through, but when it comes to the vaccines the process for approving any vaccine – be it an emergent public health situation or normal times – these processes have been in place for decades,” Hilbert said. “While COVID itself is new, and the vaccines are new to 2020, the rigorous process they are going through have been in place and refined over decades.”

Each phase of the clinical trials to date have been promising in terms of effectiveness and safety.

“There are three phases of clinical trials,” she said. “The first phase you are really looking at is the vaccine safe and are there any serious side effects? They’re also starting to look (in that phase) at dosage, how much do we need to give a person to start to elicit an immune response?”

The second phase is essentially a ramping up of trial numbers.

“In phase two they build out the number of volunteer participants who are receiving the vaccine,” she said. “So then they start looking at now that there are more people, does it continue to be safe? Is the

immune system of each person responding properly to the vaccine?”

If the success continues, phase three means even more increase in testing and the review of the results. “ In the case of COVID it has included tens of thousands of volunteers,” Hilbert said.

“Then they present that information to the FDA.” Aside from minor reactions, no adverse side effects have been seen so far.

“Not a single one had a serious adverse affect,” she said.

“We do know from the preliminary data that they’re maybe some minor local reaction, like redness around the shot, there may be fever, you might have some joint pain for a day or two, but compared to what COVID does to a person, and the potential it has to do to a person, the concern with having these local reactions really is not nearly as concerning,” Hilbert said.

Distribution plans are taking shape, but ironing out exactly who will get the first doses is still not completely settled.

The directive from the FDA originally was for healthcare professionals, long-term care facility staff, EMS workers and other frontline healthcare workers to be the first group, but then the FDA added longterm care facility residents to the first group as well.

“The vaccine is in extremely limited supply so there’s a federal group called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices that has been working for months to try and figure out ethically which groups do we put first in line,” Hilbert said. “At the same time there’s been an expert group here in Texas called the Texas Expert Vaccine Advisory Panel that has been trying to figure out if the guidance that comes down from the federal level is too vague, and if supply is lower than what we’re needing, how do we then even prioritize within the priority groups?”

The State of Texas will determine distribution throughout the state according to federal guidelines.

As more vaccine reaches the state, Hilbert said it will be important that everyone par-

ticipates, otherwise the effectiveness will be compromised. “(If most people do not get vaccinated) You’d have same problem then that you would have with any other vaccine,” Hilbert said. “If there’s not enough vaccine coverage in a community, then anyone who is not vaccinated will still be at risk of getting the disease and the disease is still going to be able to really spread easily throughout a population. And our hospitals will continue to not get the break they need in order to provide quality care individuals need whether they be there for COVID concerns or not.”

In addition to choosing to get vaccinated, making sure that both doses are taken will be critical.

“Depending on the vaccine it is either three weeks later or four weeks later you have to go back, and the vaccines are not interchangeable,” Hilbert said. “There’s definitely a good amount of leg work for the facilities that are offering these vaccines and for the individuals who get it to stay on top of their care. It is important that they not just get the first shot but that they come back for the second one. We’re all working on ways to make sure individuals that receive the first shot do come back for their second shot.”

When it comes to fear about getting the vaccine, or concern over information people may see or read regarding its safety, Hilbert said it is not unusual in relation to other vaccine concerns.

“I don’t think the misinformation and the fear is anything new with COVID,” Hilbert said. “We’ve seen that same strong base of folks and organizations pushing out misinformation or holding on to misinformation, but COVID has really aggravated that issue and it has really grown.”

It can be difficult to distinguish misinformation, but Hilbert said that recognizing a reaction to the information as an emotional one can be telling.

“There’s always something new every day and every minute,” she said. “The rules applying to that misinformation are not the same rules applying

Several of Wes Odell’s photos can be viewed in the Stubblefield Art Exhibit until Dec. 31.

to truth, so it just spreads so much easier. It preys on fear.

One of the things that may be helpful for people to gut-check information as a starting point is if you feel like you’re having a very strong emotional reaction to something you’re seeing that’s a moment to stop and pause, check your sources or talk to a healthcare professional.”

Referring to the CDC website is the best place to get the most up to date, accurate information on the COVID vaccine.

The Williamson County Commissioners Court last week signed an agreement with Family Hospital Systems, LLC – Family Emergency Room – to provide vaccination services to first responders in Williamson County.

“I am thankful that Family Emergency Room has once again stepped up to help meet critical needs in Williamson County as we have responded to COVID-19,” said Pct. 2 Commissioner Cynthia Long.

November rise into this month, with more than 50,000 new cases in Texas in December.

The state’s positivity rate has also climbed above 14 percent, after being well below 10 percent for nearly 90 days. Hospitalizations dropped slightly to 8,790 on Tuesday, but continue to be higher than at any time aside from the July spike that saw more than 10,000 hospitalized at a time across the state.

In Williamson County, there have been more than 1,500 new cases in December so far.

Local Liberty Hill-area numbers were not available from the City at press time Wednesday for The Independent.

The national death toll has reached 282,785, and in Texas there have been 22,627 fatalities.

COVID numbers New COVID case numbers continue their October and

Thursday 12/10

Rapid Testing expansion Texas launched a COVID-19 Rapid Testing Pilot Program for front line workers at Texas small businesses to help conduct rapid tests on employees to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

Through this pilot program,

local Chambers of Commerce organizations my be provided COVID-19 testing supplies that will then allocate the supplies to local small businesses that choose to participate in the program. These small businesses can then administer these tests to employees who choose to participate.

SNAP Extension The State announced that the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) will provide approximately $204 million in emergency Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food benefits for the month of December as the state continues to respond to the pandemic.

“The extension of these emergency SNAP benefits ensures that Texans can continue to provide nutritious food for their families during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Abbott said.

The emergency December allotments are in addition to the almost $1.7 billion in benefits previously provided to Texans between April and November.

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SPORTS

THE LIBERTY HILL INDEPENDENT Thursday, December 10, 2020 Section B Page 1

Panthers host Glenn in playoff opener

By SCOTT AKANEWICH Sports Editor One perk of moving up to Class 5A for Liberty Hill’s football squad this season was the chance to host a playoff game in the first round and that’s exactly what the Purpleand-Gold will do when they host nearby neighbors Glenn at Panther Stadium on Dec. 11.

Instead of like last season, when the Panthers had to travel 146 miles one-way to Waller for their postseason opener against West Columbia, Liberty Hill will forsake the 300mile round trip this year for a date in the comfy confines of their own stadium.

According to defensive coordinator Kent Walker, the fact he and his team can enjoy some home cooking is a welcome proposition.

“I think it’s huge,” said Walker. “We get to walk right out of our locker room and play a football game. We won’t have to break our routines.”

The Grizzlies feature a balanced offense, led by senior quarterback Tony Holland, who has completed 71-of-143 passes for 991 yards this season to go with 11 touchdowns and six interceptions, as Glenn has averaged 113.3 yards per game through the air.

Junior running back Joshua Contreras is the Grizzlies’ leading rusher, with 567 yards on 122 carries and five touchdowns, part of an offense that produces 188.1 rushing yards on average.

Senior wideout Jaidyn Simpson is Glenn’s leading receiver, with 23 catches for 375 yards and five touchdowns on the season.

Overall, the Grizzlies finished with a 4-5 record, including a 3-4 mark and a fourth-place finish in District 13, with a signature 28-point home win against Cedar Creek on Nov. 13 by a score of 49-21.

Walker expressed concerns

about the Panthers not having been tested all season as they begin what they hope will be a lengthy playoff run.

“Glenn is definitely the best team we’ve faced so far this season,” said Walker. “I’m concerned somewhat, but I believe in our kids and they’ve been doing a great job preparing.”

On paper, one would think the Panthers should have no problems in quickly dispatching Glenn and moving on to face the winner of the Boerne Champion-Edcouch-Elsa game in the second round – especially with the contest at home, but the Panthers must be wary.

Liberty Hill’s defense has been prone to giving up the big play all season, despite the fact they’ve still posted four shutouts and didn’t allow a single point over the course of the entire district schedule.

In fact, the only seven points scored against the Panthers in district was a scoop-and-score

by Marble Falls’ defense in the 40-7 away victory on Oct. 30.

Andon Thomas leads Liberty Hill with 80 tackles on the season, with 17 for loss along with five sacks – all team-leading numbers for the junior ALEX RUBIO FILE PHOTO linebacker, while Aaron Brewer (47), Luke Huddleston (43), Senior and leading rusher Trey Seward (#20) will lead the Panthers’ offense in Liberty Hill’s playoff opener at home against Glenn Lloyd Johnson (37) and Blake on Nov. 11.

Wilson (34) round out the top what to do. Glenn likes to run about the running game, as the quarterback rating 139.2. we’ve even stepped it up the five tacklers. the ball, too, but they have the Panthers’ Slot-T has racked up The game will mark the Pan- past few days.”

However, in order to get his ability to throw.”

As for finally facing a formianother dominant campaign, thers’ first contest since former defense ready to face the GrizRunning the scout team may averaging 417.6 yards per Liberty Hill head coach Jeff dable opponent, Walker said zlies, Walker is employing a seem like a thankless task, but game on the ground.

Walker passed away from can- the Panthers are chomping at scout team comprised of junior Walker said they know what Senior Trey Seward leads the cer on Dec. 1 – something the the bit to get after it – especialvarsity players to mimic the they do is critical for the over- way out of the backfield, with players are certainly cognizant ly after only one game in the Glenn offense in practice – an all success of the team.

1,002 yards on 95 carries and of, but without letting it dis- past five weeks. asset which is vital to provid“Our players are just excited “Our JV players understand 15 touchdowns on the sea- tract them from the business ing the defense with a picture and they know once they son, with fellow seniors Blake at hand. to play a football game,” he of what they’ll be lining up get to that level themselves, Simpson (88-850-13) and Eric In fact, Walker said some- said. “They want to have to against, especially when they they’ll need a scout team to do De La Cruz (62-535-9) com- thing that could’ve been a step it up against a better opgo to the air, said Walker. the same for them,” he said. plete a trio of runners which potential stumbling block has ponent.”

“We’re so run-oriented in “They never complain because combine speed and power. instead become a catalyst. everything we do,” he said. they know what they’re doing Senior quarterback Charlie “Our kids are extremely fo“But, we get a great job from makes the varsity better – we Calabretta has thrown four cused – they know what’s at our scout team – we give them couldn’t do it without them.” touchdown passes this season stake and what Coach Walker cards which tell them exactly Of course, on offense, it’s all and has led the offense with a exemplified,” he said. “I think

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ALEX RUBIO PHOTO

Baylee Laird (#12) is confident the Lady Panthers will fare well once district play begins.

Lady Panthers have up-and-down pre-league showing

By SCOTT AKANEWICH Sports Editor Liberty Hill’s girls’ basketball squad entered its district opener against East View on Dec. 8 as a break-even ballclub – winning four and losing four in the run-up to league play.

Considering the Lady Panthers were without much of the roster during this period due to a quarantine didn’t make things any easier for head coach Chris Lange, but he and his players managed to remain competitive despite being shorthanded.

Even in the four losses, the margin was only 8.25 points, which is certainly a manageable gap for Lange to close, especially now with his entire roster back at his disposal.

Baylee Laird was one of the players who missed out on two games while quarantined – along with eight other teammates – but returned to face Fredericksburg on Nov. 23 and has been in the Liberty Hill lineup for the past four contests, of which the Lady Panthers have gone 2-2, with victories over Belton (42-33) and Salado (53-52) and a pair

of defeats against Frdericksburg (53-45) and Shoemaker (42-35).

The senior guard attempted to stay in shape while away from the team by running in her neighborhood, but the mental side of the team’s progression is perhaps more important to regain – and more difficult – than the physical conditioning aspect, she said.

“It’s been kind of tough to build that chemistry,” said Laird. “We’re still trying to get it back.”

With the way the Lady Panthers play – employing a pressure defense and capitalizing on creating turnovers and taking advantage of them – all hands must be on deck at all times and Laird feels as if making sure that happens is part of her responsibility as a senior.

“I’m always trying to cheer people up when things don’t go right,” she said. “It makes it more fun to play that way.”

However, it can be a bit more challenging to remain positive if she’s having an off-night, she said.

“It can be difficult,” said

Laird. “If I’m not feeling it, though, I just try not to think about it because I know if we stick to our principles as a team and stay together, we’ll be fine.”

As far as the daunting task of facing more fierce district competition than in the past with the move up to Class 5A this season, Laird believes she and her teammates have an extra target on their backs when they take the court.

“I think some teams are going to underestimate us and we’ll be underdogs,” said Laird. “But, they also know here at Liberty Hill we create an image and we’re known for being good at pretty much everything.”

According to Laird, one thing the Lady Panthers always have going for them – regardless of the situation – is an undying desire to never yield.

“Our coaches push us hard,” said Laird. “We’re always going to fight, no matter what it is and we’re never going to give up – ever.”

One thing Laird said she

See GIRLS, Page B4

Page B2

THE LIBERTY HILL INDEPENDENT

Thursday, December 10, 2020

Successful season for Lady Panthers? You bet

By SCOTT AKANEWICH Sports Editor On the surface, it may appear as if Liberty Hill’s volleyball squad failed to progress this season further than they did last year.

After all, an opening-round ouster from the playoffs would certainly suggest the Lady Panthers didn’t even get as far as they did last year, when they advanced to the second round before being eliminated.

But, not so fast.

A little something called moving up to Class 5A provided quite a variable when it comes to determining exactly just how successful the season was.

So, a bit more digging is required in this case to see what hidden gems we can find lurking beneath the surface.

First of all, head coach Gretchen Peterson’s club finished third in the District 25 standings, compared to last season, when they easily won Class 4A’s District 27 with a perfect 10-0 record.

What’s more, the Lady Panthers didn’t even drop so much as a single set in blowing out each and every district opponent in straight sets on both occasions they faced each one.

Contrast that to this season, when they lost the first two sets in the district opener on the road against Rouse – a match they would battle back and force a fifth-set tiebreaker before ultimately going down to defeat.

The match against the Raid-

ers was simply a preview of what was to come all season in being tested every time they took the court in a district that included nearby neighbors from Leander, Georgetown and Cedar Park.

Still, the Lady Panthers battled through the campaign without ever backing down from their fierce, new opponents in posting a 10-4 district mark on the way to a solid third-place showing.

All season long, Peterson talked about how the rugged new landscape of their schedule would better ready them for the crucible of playoff volleyball and she was right on the money with her assessment.

The fact Liberty Hill lost to a very powerful big-city team in Alamo Heights in the first round of the playoffs certainly

shouldn’t take away from what Peterson and her entire roster of players accomplished after being thrown into a gauntlet of unrelenting pressure.

In fact, after they had lost the district opener against Rouse in five sets after trailing 2-0, the Lady Panthers won the opening two sets at Cedar Park – who was unbeaten in league play at the time – before letting from the Timberwolves back into the match and requiring once again a fifth and deciding set.

Only this time, the Purpleand-Gold came through with flying colors in ruining the home side’s perfect district record.

The result was an exact flipping of the script from the Rouse match and showed what the Lady Panthers had learned in the three weeks between the two contests.

Something that definitely wouldn’t have played out if they had been running over everyone in straight sets like the previous season and much of the recent past, for that matter.

On paper, one would expect a big school from San Antonio – like Alamo Heights – to vanquish a relatively small-town squad like Liberty Hill in an opening-round playoff meeting.

Well, that’s what happened.

But, it shouldn’t take anything away from the body of work that was the Lady Panthers’ 2020 season.

“So, we’re a third-place team who lost in the first round,” said Peterson, after the match.

5 NUMBERS 0

Miles traveled for Panthers’ firstround playoff game this year

300

Miles round-trip for Liberty Hill’s playoff opener last season

5

Lady Panthers volleyball players named first-team all-district

29

Points for Panthers’ Hunter Clayton in 92-80 victory over Northeast Early College

7,417

State record rushing yards for Liberty Hill under former head coach Jeff Walker in 2018

“But, I know we’re a hundred percent better now than we were at this time last year.”

Which is the entire point all wrapped up nice and neat in a nutshell.

Peterson and her players stepped up and proved they could not only hold their own against Class 5A opposition, but far more times than not, take it to them.

Guess what?

They’ll only continue to improve by having an entire season of learning what it takes to compete with the big girls under their collective belt by the

time next season rolls around.

For seniors such as Kindsee Escamilla, Lilli Wilkins, Ashleigh Dubbs and Gaby Guerra, they only got to play a part in the beginning of the Lady Panthers’ ascendancy as they move on with the memories made this season.

But, for returners like Emma Becker, Haley Kuhlmann, Emma Parsons, Kaileigh Truslow and a host of others, it’s only the beginning.

A successful season for the Lady Panthers this year?

You bet.

VOLLEYBALL BRIEFS

Lady Panthers named in district honors

ALEX RUBIO PHOTO

Paying Purple-and-Gold respects

On Dec. 6 at Liberty Hill High School, a memorial was held for former Panthers head football coach and athletic director Jeff Walker, who died of cancer on Dec. 1 after an eight-year battle.

Approximately 100 vehicles worked their way through the school’s parking lot in a procession, as the Walker family greeted them in front of the fieldhouse as they passed by to offer condolences.

Liberty Hill’s volleyball squad had several players earn district honors after a season which saw the Lady Panthers finish with an overall record of 16-6 and a district mark of 10-4.

Senior middle blocker Lilli

Wilkins, junior setter Emma Becker, junior setter Emma Parsons, junior outside hitter Maddi Rowley and sophomore outside hitter Kaileigh Truslow all made first-team all-district.

Senior outside hitter Kindsee Escamilla, junior defensive

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specialist Haley Kuhlmann and junior middle blocker Ailie Hair were named second-team all-district.

Senior middle blocker Ashleigh Dubbs and junior middle blocker Bailey Becker received honorable mention.

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Page B3

Clayton helps Panthers remain unbeaten

By SCOTT AKANEWICH Sports Editor With leading scorer Anthony Sierras out of the Liberty Hill lineup for the Panthers when they hosted Northeast Early College on Dec. 4, somebody needed to step up for the Purple-and-Gold to help replace the 24.7 points the kid from California had been contributing to the cause through the first seven games of the season.

Hunter Clayton was that player in scoring a game-high 29 points in Liberty Hill’s 9278 victory over the Raiders.

Clayton had been averaging 10.5 points per contest entering the game – certainly nothing to sneeze at – but Liberty Hill head coach Barry Boren said the senior guard had voiced concern over only scoring four points in the Panthers’ 76-39 win over China Spring in the previous game.

“Hunter came to me and said he was worried he didn’t play well,” said Boren. “But, I told him he had done well – it was just a matter of our point distribution.”

Consider Clayton’s nerves calmed.

Although early on against Northeast, it seemed as if perhaps it wasn’t destined to be his night once again, after being held scoreless in the first quarter, as the Panthers led, 17-15, entering the second stanza.

But, that’s when Clayton heated up.

After Northeast hit a 3-pointer to take a brief lead at 18-17, Clayton buried a three of his own in response.

However, the Raiders hit

points on the game and Cayden Branch eight.

Sierras will be out for 10 days, as he is currently quarantined, but is scheduled to be back for the Panthers’ district opener against Cedar Park on Dec. 15.

ALEX RUBIO PHOTO

Camden Justice (#24) scored 13 points – including eight in the fourth quarter – of Liberty Hill’s 92-78 home victory over Northeast Early College on Dec. 4. right back with another three, 23-23 still early in the sec- attributed to a good, old-fash- ing scoring, rebounding and which was in turn answered ond, Liberty Hill embarked ioned tongue-lashing after a blocked shots, along with taking a charge which led to a pair once again by Clayton, who on a 27-11 run to end the first slow start to the game. moments later drained yet half, as the Panthers poured in “I really chewed them out of Panthers free throws.

Liberty Hill held a 70-50 another before scoring after 33 points in the period – 23 after the first quarter,” said Gunter Daniels had blocked of them by Clayton, who ex- Boren. “We hadn’t come out advantage after three, but the a shot at the other end of the plained his personal assault with the right fervor.” visitors refused to go away The Panthers picked up in the quietly and actually outscored court – a play on which he was on the Raiders was a result of fouled driving to the basket his need to answer the bell on second half right where they the Panthers by a 28-22 marand converted the free-throw the scoring end in Sierras’ ab- left off with an 11-3 run, which gin in the final eight minutes extended the overall run to 38- of the contest. for a 3-point play. sence.

However, it wasn’t enough in But, Clayton was only getting “In that second quarter, I just 14, leaving the score at 61-37 went into take-over mode,” in favor of the home side. the end. warmed up.

Walker Weems added 22 Camden Justice came off the In fact, as he remained on a said Clayton. “I knew I had to roll for the rest of the quarter, step up on offense big-time.” points for Liberty Hill, as the bench to score eight of his 13 According to Boren, his 6-foot-5 junior forward es- points in the fourth quarter, so did his teammates.

Once the score was even at club’s run to the break was tablished a presence, provid- as Kadin Knight added 10

Hutto 74, Liberty Hill 65 Liberty Hill’s nine-game winning streak to begin the new season came to an end with a 74-65 home defeat to Class 6A Hutto on Dec. 8.

Knight led the Panthers with 22 points, while Weems added 14 and Daniels 12, but it wasn’t enough in the end.

However, the home side led 19-13 after one period, on the strength of seven points by senior guard Bobby Mundy – including a three – along with a pair of 3-pointers by Knight and led 30-24 at the half after Clayton continued his hot shooting from the previous game, with two threes of his own.

But, the Hippos came storming back out of the halftime locker room in outscoring the Panthers, 22-10, in the third, for a 46-40 advantage after three quarters.

The teams exploded for a combined 63 points in the fourth quarter – including 25 by the home side, as Knight scored 11 of his 21 – but Hutto held on for the victory.

Liberty Hill (9-1) will next travel to Austin to play St. Dominic Savio on Dec. 12 before returning home to host Cedar Park in the district opener on Dec. 15 at 8 p.m.

Lady Panthers let one get away in district opener

By SCOTT AKANEWICH Sports Editor Perhaps Liberty Hill head girls’ basketball coach Chris Lange will look back on his team’s 51-49 away defeat to East View in the district opener on Dec. 8 as simply one that got away.

Or maybe if the Lady Panthers fail to qualify for the Class 5A state playoffs by the slimmest of margins, he will rue the loss as something quite more altogether.

Despite 12 points by junior center Emma Hubbard, Liberty Hill was reeled in and caught by the Patriots after having led most of the game, as senior guard Mary Brown scored a game-high 14 to lead East View to a come-from-behind home win.

According to Lange, his club’s failure to hold to the lead was due to a couple of basic factors.

“We turned the ball over too many times and missed too many shots,” said Lange. “We also gave up too many offensive rebounds.”

Hubbard began the game strong, with four points in the first quarter, including a putback of her own shot for the first points of the contest, as Liberty Hill led, 11-10, after eight minutes.

The visitors duplicated the effort in the second, outscoring the hosts by the same margin for a 22-20 halftime lead, as senior guard Jessica Holliday came to life, with six points, including a strong drive down the lane and another bucket on a nifty assist by Ashlyn Calhoun.

In the third quarter, Hubbard continued her strong play underneath, with six more points and five rebounds and Liberty Hill led, 30-26, entering the final period.

The Lady Panthers still held a 41-39 advantage with only 2:36 remaining, but shortly thereafter, Liberty Hill began to come unglued.

Not helping the matter was a foul call which awarded East View’s Erin Holmes three shots from the line when the junior forward was clearly inside the arc while taking the shot.

“I’m 100 percent sure it was only a two,” said Lange.

Holmes went on to sink all three free throws – giving East View the lead at 42-41 – and

Madison Walker (#4) drives past an East View defender during Liberty Hill’s 51-49 district-opening away loss to the Patriots on Dec. 8. the Patriots took their good fortune as part of a 9-0 run which saw them turn a twopoint deficit into a six-point lead after Brown ended the run with a 3-point play and a 4741 lead.

Holliday converted a pair of free throws to pull the Purpleand-Gold within 47-43 with 1:00 left, which was followed by a basket on a strong drive and 3-point play by Regan Walker to make it 47-46.

However, when the Lady Panthers attempted to take a time-out on an inbounds play with 13.8 seconds on the clock without having any left, East View was awarded a pair of free throws as a result of the technical foul to increase its lead to 49-46 before the Patriots’ Addie McCormick added two more foul shots, which upped the lead to five points at 51-46.

Morgan Jackson’s 3-pointer just before time expired provided the final margin, but after seeing his side let the game get away – including a 14-5 East View run to finish the game – there was only one thing left for Lange and his team to do.

“Go back to practice tomorrow,” he said.

Holliday added 11 points for the Lady Panthers, while Jackson had eight.

Liberty Hill (4-5, 0-1) will next host No. 19 Rouse on Dec. 11 at 8 p.m.

Shoemaker 42, LHHS 35 Holliday led Liberty Hill with nine points in the Lady Panthers’ 42-35 away loss to Shoemaker on Dec. 4.

Liberty Hill trailed at the half, 24-23, before being held to 12 points in the second half – including only two in the fourth quarter, which led to defeat.

ALEX RUBIO PHOTO

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Page B4

THE LIBERTY HILL INDEPENDENT

Thursday, December 10, 2020

PANTHER OF THE WEEK

ALEX RUBIO FILE PHOTO

Jed Lapuszynski (#53) enjoys playing the piano in addition to holding down a place on the Liberty Hill offensive line.

Melodies along the line

Lineman picked up piano during pandemic

By SCOTT AKANEWICH Sports Editor Jed Lapuszynski is just as comfortable playing a melody as he is running a play on the gridiron.

“I’ve been playing the piano for about a year now,” said the Liberty Hill senior offensive lineman. “I’ve just always really liked songs which had piano in them.”

As for picking up the instrument, he is mostly self-taught, he said.

“I bought some books and took some online lessons,” said Lapuszynski. “I try to practice between 10-30 minutes per day.”

Lapuszynski added there were a couple aspects in particular that provided more of a challenge.

“The hardest thing is getting the tempo down for a particular song,” he said. “Also, it was pretty hard learning to read music.”

Billy Joel and Elton John are among his favorite artists and there’s one song from the latter that inspired him to begin learning the piano in the first place, said Lapuszynski.

“Oh, yeah – the song ‘Tiny Dancer,’” he said. “When I heard that, I said, ‘I need to play this.’”

When Lapuszynski isn’t tickling the ivories, he’s part of a

GIRLS

Panthers offensive line that carves open opposing defenses in opening up running lanes for Liberty Hill’s famed Slot-T offense – something he takes a great deal of gratification from.

“I’ve always been a lineman,” he said. “I played on the defensive side a little, but I like the structure of playing offense better, as far as planning out your moves, although on some plays, we have certain rules to follow depending on what the defense does.”

Lapuszynski is the latest in a long line of lineman in his own family, as older brother Josh graduated in 2018 and played on the Liberty Hill team that advanced to the Class 4A state championship game and helped set an alltime single-season team rushing record. Younger sibling Jarod currently plays on the Panthers’ freshman squad.

However, oldest brother Jacob, who graduated in 2017, bucked the trend, said Lapuszynski.

“Jacob was a safety,” he said.

“He had more of a linebacker build.”

Speaking of build, Lapuszynski stands 5-foot-11 and weighs 185 pounds – rather undersized for a player who does battle against much heavier opponents, but he’s not intimidated by any means when he

Continued from Page B1

must do before each game is consume a healthy amount of carbohydrates.

“Right, I always have pasta for dinner the night before,” she said. “Sometimes it will be with chicken or something, but I need to have it or else I might run out of energy.”

Laird said in addition to her nutritional regimen, she uses free time during the day of a contest to get a look at the opposition she’ll be facing later that evening.

“I’ll watch some film so I’ll

know what’s going on once the game starts,” she said. “ I want to make sure people know what to do.”

Inspiration in the form of a former Lady Panther has helped guide Laird in her newfound role of senior leader this season.

“I remember when I was a freshman, I always looked up to Gracie Whitten,” she said, of the 5-foot-4 guard who helped lead Liberty Hill to a district championship in the 2018-19 season. “She was al-

finds himself looking across the line at a behemoth.

“Most of them are just big teddy bears,” he said. “It’s the leaner, faster guys you have to look out for.”

Although he didn’t begin playing football until fifth grade, he quickly fell in love with life on the gridiron.

“I wanted to play with my brothers and have more of a bond with them,” said Lapuszynski, who up until then was strictly a track athlete who ran the 1600 and 3200 meters.

Liberty Hill defensive coordinator Kent Walker said Lapuszynski is exactly the kind of player who exemplifies the Panthers’ way of approaching the game.

“Jed is a Liberty Hill kid,” he said. “He’ll run through a wall and do whatever it takes to help the team.”

Lapuszynski said his favorite subject in school is environmental science and aspires to possibly go to a trade school and learn to be an electrician once he graduates, but knows when his Purple-and-Gold playing days are over, he’ll have quite a void in his life to fill.

“It definitely won’t be the same without football,” he said. “I’ll miss everybody, but I’ve made friends for life.”

ways really welcoming of me to the team and taught me how to be positive.”

So, once the ball is up for the district campaign, Laird knows she must draw upon prior experience in order to properly perform when the games count most.

“Being a senior really makes me want to be a leader,” she said. “We’re all working really hard to get ready, so we have an idea of what it’s going to be like.”

ALEX RUBIO PHOTO

Hunter Clayton (2#0) scored 29 points – including 23 in the second quarter – of Liberty Hill’s 92-78 home victory over Northeast Early College on Dec. 4.

Hot shooters can change a game

By SCOTT AKANEWICH Sports Editor Hunter Clayton was held scoreless in the first quarter of Liberty Hill’s home hoops contest against Northeast Early College.

However, once the second stanza got under way, something happened to the 5-foot11 senior guard.

He simply couldn’t miss a shot.

Literally.

In fact, Clayton successfully drained four 3-pointers, four two-point field goals and a free throw during the period.

Do the math and that’s a grand total of 23 points – an outstanding number for an entire contest, much less an eight-minute span of a 32-minute game.

Considering Clayton was averaging 10.5 points per outing entering the evening, that’s quite a haul.

So, what was his explanation for the outburst?

“I just went into take-over mode,” said Clayton. “I knew I had to step up my game on offense tonight – big time.”

Liberty Hill was without its leading scorer – junior forward Anthony Sierras – for the game, after he was quarantined, so the Panthers needed to find a way to replace the 24.7 points he was averaging through the first seven games of the season.

Clayton attributed his hot streak to an increase in the tempo of the game, after a sloppy first quarter in which both clubs combined for only 32 points before scoring 52 in the second.

“The first quarter was really slow,” he said. “But, in the second it was more fun because it became a fast-paced game.”

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Certainly the way the Panthers play is conducive to running and gunning and having a weapon such as Clayton will go a long way when a game becomes a shootout, which was exactly what happened against the Raiders.

When Clayton hit the first of his second-quarter shots, the Panthers went ahead by a score of 20-18.

By the time his barrage was complete and the teams headed for the halftime locker room, Liberty Hill held a commanding 50-34 advantage after outscoring Northeast by a 33-19 margin in the period.

Liberty Hill head coach Barry Boren said his troops were in line for some serious chastising after the opening eight minutes and that’s exactly what they got during the in-between periods time-out.

“One of the things I had on my board in the locker room before the game was to be able to respond to adversity,” said Boren, of the white-erase board he uses for his ‘Seven Keys to the V’ – a motivational ploy designed to provide his players with short bullets of information – or ‘mind candy,’ as Boren calls it – before they head out to the court. “Well, we responded by scoring 33 points in the second quarter.”

However, the helter-skelter nature when a game gets more and more uptempo can create an atmosphere of chaos that can quickly get out of control if not properly reigned in, said Boren.

“When you play like that, there’s not a lot of thinking which goes on out there,” he said. “When you’re just seeing bucket after bucket go in, you have to be able to recog-

nize when the game is getting away from you.”

The third quarter was a bit more controlled, as the sides combined to put 36 points on the scoreboard, with the Panthers outscoring the visitors, 20-16, as Clayton remained focused, pouring in a trio of baskets to finish his night with a game-high 29 points.

Clayton failed to score in the fourth quarter, just as he had in the first, but it was then sophomore forward Camden Justice’s turn to wrest hold of the scoring spotlight, as the rangy, 6-foot-2 shooter had his way down low against a soft Northeast inside defense by scoring eight points to help seal the victory.

One player who was consistent through the evening was 6-foot-5 junior forward Walker Weems, who scored seven, four, five and six points in the four quarters, respectively, finishing with 22 on the game.

But, sometimes having a glut of scorers can cause a coaching conundrum – albeit a pleasant one, said Boren.

“Sure, it sounds great when you have guys like Anthony (Sierras), Walker (Weems), Gunter (Daniels) and Camden (Justice) and you want to get all of them in the game at the same time,” he said.

“But, then you have a player like Bobby (Mundy), who’s a great defender you also want out there.”

As for Clayton’s hot streak, Boren said whenever a player gets on a roll, one wants to maximize the opportunity.

“We were trying to run plays for Hunter,” he said. “Kadin (Knight) did a good job of finding him with the ball.”

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THE LIBERTY HILL INDEPENDENT

Page B5

GT program takes unique approach to education

By ANTHONY FLORES Staff Writer A focus on authentic, real-world problem solving through the use of long-term, student-driven projects is the goal. It’s a lot, but it takes a lot to make LHISD’s kindergarten through sixth grade Gifted and Talented (GT) Program all it can be.

The gifted and talented program allows students to think out of the box, engage with their creative sides, and learn to cooperate with others when solving a problem. That starts with student surveys to deter-

mine interests.

“We do creative and advanced things, but we also want to build on their interests as well.

We take a lot of personality interests,” said Gifted and Talented Campus Coordinator Wendy Pleak. “We try and find out if we are a spatial person, musical, logical, mathematical, or body kinesthetic. We find what our top three things are, and then from there, I’m able to build lessons around their interests.”

A critical aspect of the GT program is allowing the students to play a large part in the

direction of the class and what the lesson focus is.

“I’m the instructor, but this class is very much student-led and not teacher-led,” said Pleak. “We find something they’re interested in and dive into it as far as we can go. Kids that may not be strong in one subject explore and find what they’re good at. We play a lot with different activities.”

Students in the program must come up with a project centered on a particular interest.

“The last two years we did a Shark Tank inspired thing,” said Pleak. “We’d explore an

interest and then do a lot of research. We always present our projects to an audience. This year we’re doing a lot more things digitally because we can’t do a lot of hands-on like we normally do.”

Every year in November, the district lets parents know that they can have their children take a test to enroll in the GT program.

“On our district website, we provided a parent referral meeting where parents learn what the difference is between

Wendy Pleak’s GT class embraced creativity and created Macy’s

See GIFTED, Page B6 Day Parade balloons for Thanksgiving. (Courtesy Photo)

Senior softballer to play at Ranger

By SCOTT AKANEWICH Sports Editor When Amber Williams leaves for college next fall, she’ll be staying close to home – just not close enough.

“Personally, the biggest challenges I’ll face are missing my family and friends,” said Williams, who has signed a national letter of intent to play softball at Ranger College.

“Adjusting to the independence of college will be weird at first – especially not seeing my parents every day, but I feel like I’ll get used to it.”

Williams’ new stomping grounds will only be a little over 150 miles from home, after all, so the Lady Panthers senior will have the ability to head south for a weekend at home should the want arise.

The fact Williams can play just about any position on the field – along with a steady bat – should provide her with plenty of opportunities to contribute to the Lady Rangers immediately.

“I feel like my strength and consistency at the plate and my flexibility to play where they need me will really help me find a spot in the lineup and on the field,” she said. “How-

ever, I do feel like I need to keep developing my skills and confidence in myself so I can continue to get better and become the best player I can be.”

According to head coach Kristen Brewer, the ability for Williams to be able to get it done in multiple places is exactly what makes her a valuable commodity.

“Amber is a hard worker and will play anywhere you ask her to,” said Brewer. “Being a utility player like that is extremely beneficial to any coach at any level.”

As for why she chose Ranger, Williams said she felt a familial atmosphere when she visited the school.

“I loved the environment and the welcoming I received as soon as I got on campus,” she said. “I instantly felt like I had a second family and it was where God placed me to be.”

For Brewer, it’s a good fit for a much more simple reason.

“For one thing, it’s still purple,” she said, of the similarity of the school’s color scheme to that of Liberty Hill. “Seriously, though, Ranger College has always had a reputation for a good softball program and is very good at connecting play-

ers to coaches that wish to play at a four-year college. It’s also close enough to home she can still stay connected to friends and see her family often.”

Brewer added Williams will need to develop the ability to juggle multiple responsibilities in order to have both athletic and academic success.

“One of the biggest adjustments as a college freshman is learning how to manage your time,” she said. “Being able to keep up with your studies, practice schedules and newfound freedom can be overwhelming for some. This is the reason many college coaches monopolize much of the day for a freshman with mandatory practices, team meetings, required classes and team study halls to help them get acclimated to college life.”

Brewer added Williams’ perfectionism will serve her well at the next level of competition.

“Amber is always striving for greatness – she’s constantly working to improve all areas of her game to better herself even when she’s already mastered a skill,” she said. “The type of athlete she is, good isn’t good enough. She has

ALEX RUBIO FILE PHOTO

Amber Williams (#10) has signed a national letter of intent to play softball at Ranger College. always wanted the opportunity to play college ball and her hard work and determination has given her this opportunity she deserves. I’m so proud of her.”

Now that she’s signed, sealed and on the way to being delivered, Williams can rest easy and fully enjoy her senior season of softball for the Lady

Panthers, she said.

“Definitely,” said Williams.

“Once I committed, I felt this huge weight come off of my shoulders. It’s really relaxing knowing you already have a place to go and now I know I can just have fun and not worry about where I might end up.”

Finally, Williams – who is

considering studying law – said it’s very gratifying to realize something she’s had in her sights for such a long time.

“I’ve worked so hard for so many years and it’s very satisfying to know my hard work has finally paid off. It’s always been my dream to play college softball and I’m glad I finally get to pursue it,” she said.

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Page B6

GIFTED

THE LIBERTY HILL INDEPENDENT

Continued from Page B5

a creative child and a gifted child because there is a difference. From there, we go through the program and what we do. We call it a genius hour, but this year it’s different.”

Parents looking to place their child in the GT program have to take into account that on top of the work their children already do that there will be more work for them with these classes.

“They have to decide if it’s

something they want for their child, and then from there, they can nominate their child,” said Pleak. “Sometimes, teachers nominate students they feel need a little bit more advanced learning. That needs something extra to stimulate their mind and give them an extra challenge.”

For some kids, the opportunity to learn in an environment tailor-made for them, surrounded by students with

a similar mindset, creates a sense of comfort and makes it easier to be themselves.

“I like this class because it is full of kids that think outside the box and that have different passions and interests.

I push myself and try new things,” said Rancho Sienna fourth-grader Ellie Himmer. “I feel safe like I fit in when I am in Mrs. Pleak’s classroom.”

Fourth-grader Lincoln Hughes is fond of taking on

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Thursday, December 10, 2020

the challenges that come with each unique project they undertake.

“My favorite thing about GT is all the challenging projects we get to do,” Hughes said.

“We made a miniature Macy’s Thanksgiving parade with balloons. A few weeks ago, we did a slide show about us.

The harder ones are more fun to do.”

Along with their Thanksgiving parade balloons, students created their own Netflix shows based on their interests.

“We did this from second up to fourth grade,” said Pleak.

“We invited Mr. Snell and Mrs. Kercheville to come in, along with the principals, and see their work.”

As with all avenues of learning in the modern age, technology plays a key role in education, but finding the balance between technology and a traditional approach is vital.

“Technology is a big part of what we do because we look towards future jobs and play into that,” said Pleak. “We also do a lot of hands-on work when we do engineering. It’s not always on a computer. We tap into a lot of art as well so

that they can get stuff they don’t usually get in their traditional classrooms.”

As the students in the program learn more and more, so does Pleak. Her work with the students is opening up new methods of thinking.

“We learn together. I learn from the kids. It’s an open space, and when they come in here, it’s like an office or lab, and I’m just the director,” said Pleak. “They choose what they want. There’s not a lot of rules, but they have to make sure they get their work done.”

Liberty Hill Police Blotter Prepared by Liberty Hill Police Department

Week of Nov. 30-Dec. 6 The Liberty Hill Police Department responded to or self-initiated a total of 474 incidents resulting in 11 cases, 20 citations, 47 warnings and one arrest.

Weekly Highlights: - On Nov. 30 at approximately 6:44 AM, officers responded to Stonewall Pkwy for an accident.

- On Nov. 30 at approximately 5:28 PM, officers responded to the 10000 block of W. SH 29 to assist the Liberty Hill Fire/ EMS. - On Nov. 30 at approximately 7:52 PM, officers responded to Trellis Blvd. for a 911 hang up call.

- On Nov. 30 at approximately 7:41 PM, officers responded to Continental Ave for a 911 hang up call.

- On Dec. 1 at approximately 8:43 AM, officers responded to the 13000 block of W. SH 29 for a traffic hazard.

- On Dec. 1 at approximately 11:32 AM, officers responded

to the 12000 block of W. SH 29 to assist Liberty Hill Fire/ EMS. - On Dec. 1 at approximately 7:14 PM, officers responded to the 800 block of US 183 to assist the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office.

- On Dec. 1 at approximately 11:37 PM, officers responded to the 14000 block of W. SH 29 to assist the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office.

- On Dec. 2 at approximately 9:51 AM, officers responded to Hillcrest Lane for a harassment complaint.

- On Dec. 2 at approximately 1:14PM, officers responded to the 3000 block of RM 1869 for a 911 hang up call.

- On Dec. 2 at approximately 5:11 PM, officers responded to Horseshoe Loop for a family complaint.

- On Dec. 2 at approximately 9:39 PM, officers arrested a male adult for driving while intoxicated, as the result of a traffic stop on the 400 block of US 183.

- On Dec. 3 at approximately 7:57 AM, officers responded to Continental Ave to assist the Liberty Hill Fire/ EMS. - On Dec. 3 at approximately 6:38 PM, officers issued a citation for possession of drug paraphernalia as the result of a traffic stop on the 1000 block of Loop 332.

- On Dec. 3 at approximately 8:58 PM, officers responded to Bronco Blvd. for suspicious activity.

- On Dec. 4 at approximately 10:21AM, officers responded to Tequiliana Pass for a 911 hang up call.

- On Dec. 4 at approximately 2:52 PM, officers responded to the Deserti Dr. for an assault complaint.

- On Dec. 4 at approximately 5:27 PM, officers responded to the 12000 block of W. SH 29 for a mental health issue.

- On Dec. 4 at approximately 6:06 PM, officers responded to the 15000 block of W. SH 29 for a hit and run accident.

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