, n o s a e s s i h t ! s k r c e u h l t n d a o o P ’ G n i t h Fig GOOD LUCK T H I S S E AS O N, F I G HT I N ’ PA N-
2021
Volume 34, Issue 43
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September 16, 2021 | 50 Cents
Council adopts new drought contingency plan
By RACHEL MADISON Staff Writer The City Council called a special meeting Monday to adopt a new drought contingency plan to align better with the City of Leander’s current plan. “We are mirroring what’s going on in Leander so we don’t have restrictions that are more strict than the City of Leander,” said City Attorney Marianella Joseph. The Council voted unanimously to adopt the new ordi-
nance. City Administrator Lacie Hale said information is posted on the City’s website and on social media so that the changes “are clean and clear and understood as far as what goes for our water.” Under the new ordinance, water restrictions will be slightly relaxed, but Liberty Hill will remain in Phase 2. The slightly relaxed water restrictions mean that residential customers are now allowed to use an automatic irrigation
system or hose-end sprinkler one day per week between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. The watering day for street addresses ending in 1, 5 or 9 is Friday; street addresses ending in 2, 4, 6 or 8 is Wednesday; and street addresses ending in 0, 3 or 7 is Sunday, according to the new ordinance. The same parameters apply for commercial, multi-family and homeowners’ association customers, but with different watering days. These customers with street addresses end-
ing in 1, 5 or 9 may water on Fridays; street addresses ending in 2, 4, 6 or 8 may water on Wednesdays; and street addresses ending in 0, 3 and 7 may water on Sundays. According to the ordinance, there are no limits for watering from a hand-held hose, soaker hose or drip irrigation system. All other nonessential water uses are still prohibited. Violations of the restrictions is punishable by a fine of up to $2,000 per day. Lastly, according to a state-
ment released by the City of Liberty Hill Wednesday morning, Wetzel Park will remain closed for the season, and will re-open in 2022. Also at the meeting, the Council unanimously approved the job description for a new finance director for the City. Hale said she removed all the human resources duties, which were previously given to the City’s finance director, so that whoever is hired will have more expertise in the finance arena. The job was post-
ed this week. Interim Finance Director Misti Hancock will stay on board to assist the City with its finances until a new director is hired and trained. The Council terminated the employment last month of Becky Wilkins, former finance director, for substandard productivity and workmanship and discourteous conduct. The Council met Sept. 8 for a monthly workshop. During
See COUNCIL, Page 4
All classes, grade levels learning on campus this week
RACHEL MADISON PHOTO
Garry and Nancy Goerdel stand together in the gallery they built on their property to house his numerous works of art. Garry Goerdel has been painting since he was a child and has decided to share his art with the community through private and invitation-only showings.
Local painter uses memories as inspiration
By RACHEL MADISON Staff Writer When you look at Garry Goerdel’s paintings, it’s a lot like looking inside his memories -- like the times he helped to brand cattle as a young man or the places he has traveled that left an impression of their beauty. Now, he’s sharing those memories with the community inside his “Gallery on a Hill”, a gallery he built just outside his home in Liberty Hill. The gallery opening is set for Sept. 17 and 18, and he hopes it will be the first of many showings of his work. “I would like to host these showings frequently,” he said. “I’m painting new things regularly, so I will be able to switch out what’s on display about
every six months. The gallery won’t be open to the public, but we want to share the art with the community, so we will be doing these showings frequently.” Goerdel, who has been hooked on painting since he won third place in an art competition at the age of 8, said his work is all based on his childhood and life experiences. “I can give you a story for almost every painting,” he said. “I don’t ever just pull something out of the air. I’m motivated by my past experiences.” Goerdel attended Stephen F. Austin University where he earned his degree in art education. He spent much of his career working for the Texas Water Commission, where
he designed everything from magazine covers to brochures. Following his 21-year stretch there, Goerdel became a creative partner in a t-shirt business that designed Texas-inspired wares. He retired in 1996 and spent some time doing freelance work for various organizations, designing book covers, brochures and more, but once he officially exited the working world, he turned back to his original passion -oil painting. “I’ve always enjoyed doing oil painting, but I got so busy with life and my family it dropped to the wayside,” he said. “The work I did professionally was with watercolor or acrylic paints. Since I got back into my studio, all I’ve done is work in oil paints.
Liberty Hill Public Library creating Friends program to raise funds
By RACHEL MADISON Staff Writer A new building for the Liberty Hill Public Library has been a dream of Director Angela Palmer for the last eight years. One way she hopes to help finance it is by creating a Friends of the Liberty Hill Public Library District program. “As we move toward a new building, I’d like to have a Friends group to advocate for us, help us build support, do some fundraising and a number of other things,” she said. “The Friends program can be a 501(c)3 organization and can apply for grants that we can’t ©2021 The Liberty Hill Independent
as a library. It’s basically going to be a support group for the library.” Palmer said she is looking for people from all areas of the community to join, including local business owners, school leaders, community members and representatives from City Hall. “We want to form a broadbased coalition to help us as we move forward with a new building,” she said. “The new building won’t cost the taxpayers anything because the library funds are sales tax based, but we still need to raise money for a new building.” The need for a larger building is becoming more and more of a necessity, Palmer said, citing the area’s growth as the main reason. “We are at the very beginning of the process, trying to find
My collection includes some of my earlier work, from the 1970s, and then my most recent work that I’ve done in the last few years.” Goerdel’s wife, Nancy, said he has worked in a variety of different styles over the years, which has led him to create a wide range of paintings. “A lot of artists can be put into a category of what they’re known for, but I enjoy working in all areas,” he said. “The contemporary and abstract I enjoy doing as much as landscapes. My paintings are not truly photographic; they are more impressionism.” Garry Goerdel said he changes his painting style frequently, so he never gets bored.
See PAINTER, Page 3
By CHRISTIAN BETANCOURT Staff Writer More than 1,000 Liberty Hill students returned to their classrooms Monday after a week of distance learning due to a surge in COVID-19 cases. Liberty Hill ISD officials say all classrooms and grade levels are continuing classes as usual this week, and they are hopeful that case numbers will drop. “So far, it’s been a good week,” said LHISD Superintendent Steve Snell. “Right now, all of our classrooms and grade levels are open, and we’re working hard to keep it that way. Our cases are lower than the week prior. I was able to visit and walk the schools on Monday. Everybody is settling down. We’re seeing cases go down on the campuses, and hopefully, that will continue. Things are going well in our district.” Snell said distance learning helped stop the rapid spread at Liberty Hill Middle School where all grade levels were sent home Sept. 2 for six days. “We had a high spread last week,” he said. “Overall, we feel we stopped the spread, and it has been slow.” According to the district website, which tracks cases in the schools, there have been 578 student cases and 92 staff cases reported for
the school year. Of that total, 154 student cases and 24 staff member cases remain active while 424 students and 68 staff have recovered as of noon Wednesday. On Sept. 9, Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill providing funds for school districts across the state to offer virtual learning for up to 10 percent of their student body. Snell said the district is weighing the interest in a remote option. “We sent out a survey, and we had about 178 parents respond (interested in virtual learning),” said Snell. “We met with principals today to see what that would look like.” Snell added the option for virtual school would be available sometime in October once all details have been worked out. So far this school year, students interested in having a virtual opportunity had to drop out of LHISD to do so. “The cap for us for us would be 10 percent or a rough ballpark of 680 students,” Snell said. “Based on our initial survey response, I don’t see us getting to that cap. Our biggest challenge is staff since we still have openings in the district. As soon as we have the logistics worked out, we can talk with the parents. Once we have a plan, we will send out applications.”
See COVID, Page 3
WCSO team revived to respond during mental health crisis calls
some land,” she said. “We will be going through the process of reaching out to the community to find out what they want the library to do for them. What do you want the library to be like? How can we help local businesses? What resources can be supplemented for the schools? What are we not doing as a library that the community would like to see? There are a thousand different questions we need to have answered, and the Friends of the Library can help with that.” In addition to raising money through fundraisers and grants, Palmer said she sees the Friends of the Library group as an ambassador group for the library’s future. “Liberty Hill is so spread out, and our boundaries as the
By CHRISTIAN BETANCOURT Staff Writer GEORGETOWN -- A mental health crisis can create a revolving door in the county’s criminal system causing overpopulation in jails and overwhelm the courts. The Williamson County Sheriff’s Office (WSCO) restored the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) to alleviate those issues. The program, which started in 2005, was discontinued in 2016 and revived on Jan. 1. “One of our goals is jail diversion and emergency rooms diversion,” said Lt. Frank Saenz. “We don’t believe in taking people to the emergency rooms just because it’s easy. We really try to minimize the trauma
See LIBRARY, Page 3
See CIT, Page 9
CHRISTIAN BETANCOURT PHOTO
Williamson County Sheriff’s Crisis Intervention Team Lt. Frank Saenz (seated) and Sgt. Ron Leboeuf are part of a revived unit within the department that responds to mental health crisis calls to assist deputies in dealing with psychiatric episodes.