Wayne Acton, a sergeant with the Morgan's Point, Texas, police department will begin his duties as Wimberley city marshall on May 1
Send your comments and questions to Mr. Flocke at rflocke@austin.rr.com, 512.847.5421, or click on the "comments" at the bottom of the report
Early voting for Wimberley's May 12 municipal election begins Monday, April 30. The voting schedule is as follows: Monday April 30 2012 from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m.; Tuesday May 1 through Friday May 4 from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m.; Saturday, May 5 from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.; Monday May 7 from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m.; and Tuesday, May 8 from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. On Election Day, Saturday, May 12, voting is from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. All voting will take place at the Wimberley Community Center. Places 2 and 4 on the council currently held by Mac McCullough and Steve Thurber and the Mayor's seat currently held by Bob Flocke are up for election.
April sales tax receipts up 28 percent
Wimberley's April sales tax receipts from the state comptroller's office were $37,187.65, up 28 percent from the same period last year. ApriI sales tax receipts represent sales in February. Seven months into the current fiscal year, the city's sales tax receipts are up six percent from the same period in FY 2011.
Council votes to resurface Mill Race Lane
At a special meeting on March 22, the Wimberley City Council unanimously voted to direct the city staff to develop a plan for resurfacing Mill Race Lane in the downtown area. The council also directed the staff to brief residents on the street on the plan before beginning work.
The vote came in open session following an executive session in which the council met with its attorney to discuss recent mediation efforts among the city and two opposing groups of residents. Because the mediation led by an outside mediator hadn't drawn the parties any closer to a solution, the council decided in its open session to proceed with plans for resurfacing.
Place 2 Councilman Mac McCullough was present at the beginning of the session but opted not to participate in the executive session and did not return for the following open session in which discussion and the vote took place. The vote to proceed was 4-0.
New city marshal to begin work on May 1
At a special meeting on April 10, the city council agreed to hire Wayne Acton as the city's new marshal. Acton, a sergeant with the Morgan's Point, Texas, police department will begin his duties on May 1. The search for Wimberley's second marshal included more than 50 applicants and two rounds of interviews.
Plant The Park II set for Saturday, April 28
The City of Wimberley and Friends of Blue Hole are planning a second Plant The Park Day, Saturday April 28th, from 8:30 – 2:30. Please volunteer if you are able, and let your gardening friends know about this opportunity to see improvements to the upper level of Blue Hole Regional Park. Bring work gloves, a cold drink, and garden tools to the park. Work involves planting new plants as well as removing non-native invasive species. Horticulturalists will be on hand to supervise and help.
19 comments:
How do you intend to irrigate all these new plants?
Anonymous,
They will irrigate the plants with all the sweat off the brows of you obsessed disincorporation junkies who constantly complain about having free water rights but then do your typical flip flops by trashing the people who do something good for the community that requires water.
Schmuck!
what did the first question have to do with disincorporation, water rights, flip flops, trashing people, etc.? It was a very simple question which of course you have neglected to answer. If you can't answer a simple question perhaps you shouldn't respond rather than attacking someone for simply asking the question.
This "park" is being advertised as a model of sustainability. About the only thing being sustained is a continued flow of money from county taxpayers into this place. Certainly the park is not a model of economic sustainability.
Apparently it isn't really sustainable on any level. As you pointed out, more plants means more water. If there wasn't enough before what has been done to solve the alleged water crises or to make this an example of "sustainability"?
The Wimberley city council imposed ordinances and adopted resolutions asking for more restrictions on property owners in that area out of an alleged concern for water availability. Did the city council rescind their resolution? Did city council decide the water situation is not as critical as they led everyone believe? Should the resolutions be recognized as worthless pablum used to buy votes just before an election?
Back to the real question: What will be the source of water to irrigate all these new plants/trees being planted?
Annoying-mous 1. and 3.:
Here's an idea. Why don't you answer the call for volunteers, show up, help out and ask the questions you pose while you are there.
Duh!
Why can't you simply answer the question as to how the plants will be irrigated?
Why would you ask people to spend the day planting plants without some way to irrigate them?
The irrigation question is a fair one given the city's promotion of the park as an example of "sustainability". The city recently filed an application with HTGCD requesting a bunch of variances - claiming that they had to have a permit because they needed to irrigate two soccer fields they planned to put in. Seems like they intentionally created their own problem.
The HTGCD board didn't buy off on the city's claim that it needed 15 acre feet for two soccer fields. New permits for athletic fields is very low on the priorities for groundwater allocation. Wimberley was granted a 6 acre foot permit. This level was better tailored to the amount needed for the purpose Wimberley claimed the water was going to be used for in the first place.
You might want to consider planting mesquite, leucaena, and/or cactus. I can bring a bunch of cactus pads to throw in the park to get them started. They don't really need a big fanfare.
Not mentioned in Mr. Flocke's little propaganda piece is the fact that the City applied for a permit from the HTGCD to pump 15 acre-feet (AF) of groundwater/year for 2 years onto the two new Soccer fields at Blue Hole. For reference; 15 AF = 4,887,771 US Gallons.
Last night (4/18) the HTGCD approved the pumping of 6 acre-feet/year (2 million Gallons) for 1 year to irrigate 2 soccer fields at Blue Hole by a 4-1 vote and approved 4 variances for them. It is a good thing for the City that it wasn't for a Golf Course!
The fact that this considered waste by many rational people there was surprisingly few protests. Board Member (Ed Pope) voted against the granting the permit. Flocke and Ferguson were there as the Applicants.
It is interesting that none of the usual suspects that have protested just about every application for every drop of groundwater pumping ever made, were nowhere to be seen or heard during the several months of the request process. Where were C.A.R.D. and WVWA when there was an opportunity to protest or contest the issuance of this huge pumping permit? Answer; they sat silent or didn't show up. They must have decided that this permit wouldn't increase GROWTH in the Wimberley Valley or the fix was in.
McMeans and his so-called conservation group had attended earlier meetings and hearings, said nothing except to whispered support and actually lobbied the audience FOR the permit. The only two people that contested the issuance of the permit were not members of either group but were ruled as not having "Standing" to contest the case so the hearing proceeded.
Bottom Line; the WVWA and C.A.R.D. now support pumping of millions of gallons of groundwater for sports fields and other low priority uses. What a difference a year makes!
Watch for this; The Friends of Blue Hole will soon come before Council to ask for $50,000 to repair the existing well at Blue Hole to State standards as required by law before the pumping can proceed.
More money and groundwater for "Flocke's Folly".
I think it's outrageous and hypocritical that the so-called conservationists would let a permit to pump groundwater for irrigation of soccer fields and st. augustine slip past without so much as a whimper. But I applaud the HTGCD for at least cutting the requested amount of 15 acre feet to 6 acre feet. I wonder if city/blue hole will be required to do a pump test also before pumping is allowed?
HTGCD is certainly not what I would call a "conservationist" group.
I don't know if that is a political Freudian slip but HDS hit on the obvious hypocrisy of the new definition of economic "conservative."
The local environmentalists have in fact come to be more "conservatives" than the so-called economic conservatives who promote unlimited water use and who are very liberal with their scientific data and vision of future water availability here in Hays County.
True conservatives should be just that: "conservationists." They would try to conserve our water - out of simple common sense, especially in a drought.
Politically, at the state level, another comparative political corollary would be how real conservatives would without question "conserve our personal freedoms and individual liberties" by not allowing the right wing social conservative nuts in state government - who clearly have a dangerous contempt for women's rights and individual free choice - to stay in office.
So, in fact, water conservatives are now the environmentalists - and women's rights advocates are now the real US Constitution conservatives in the policy equation.
The new conservatives who we read here in the Roundup and who are being asked to vote for Mitt Romney - are hypocrites, and mostly in denial about what "conservative" means in their economic and political ideology.
This neo-right wing ideology of what used to be a sensible conservative economic and social agenda has now morphed into this "all about free markets" corporate fascism agenda that the local, state and national citizens have sadly bought into.
At least liberals and progressives are realizing that Obama and the Democratic Party has mostly sold out to the Wall Street corporate totalitarian SuperPac money.
Yet the right wing voters continue to blame Obama and the liberals, which puts them in massive denial.
If the right wing can't see sooner rather than later that their party is the same or even worse now with the likes of Jason Isaac, Rick Perry and maybe Mitt Romney determining local, state and national policy, then they are their own enemy.
Our water issues in Hays County are clearly reminiscent of the local level of the bogus political and econonic debate being waged by the corporate controlled duopoly Party around all the cities, the counties, the states, and the nation.
Everyone needs to stop lying to yourselves. We all get enough lies as it is from the people we are told to trust.
Jeez Rocky,
Talk about the off topic ratings of a man that is losing contact with reality. Your obsessing with right wingers and conservatives and neo-everything and free markets are disturbing to many of us. You should seek medical care for your paranoia. I have seldom seen anyone self destruct right before my eyes.
Mr. Anonymous's attack on Rocky - with no valid or constructive dialogue about the issues raised, is one reason Bob Ochoa is losing readers - especially intelligent readers.
Ochoa choses to publish personal attack responses for no reason other than to justify his egotistical definition of "free speech" - which other commentors have also pointed out as "unconstructive and divisive".
As a result, this will be my absolute last read and interaction with the Roundup.
Quite simply, I have too much self-respect to continue to read such vile hate being spewed against citizens like Rocky, David Baker, Will Conley, Jim McMeans, Jack Hollon and others - and many of the sometimes alternative thinking people in Wimberley and Hays County.
As Richard Nixon once said (with a slight adaptation): you hateful Roundup commentors can continue to kick others around, with the help of a desparate Blog publisher who used to have good intentions.
What the heck are you talking about Rocky?
Make up your mind. Are you saying that Wimberley and the Blue Whole Friends are not conservationists? These are the groups promoting the new well and all the variances.
You seem to be complaining about the actions of HTGCD board. Yet the HTGCD board was considering the request for permit and variances allegedly submitted by Wimberley. Are you conceding that Wimberley and the Blue Whole Friends are definitely not conservationist or "environmental" groups?
You really are quite inconsistent in your definitions. Thanks for conceding that WVWA and its ilk are not environmentalists or conservationists.
Jeez Mr. Anonymous,
How stupid are you? I don't agree with everything Rocky said but I sure an hell understood what he meant.
I know he is correct about one thing: I sure and glad I am an old conservative and not one of you angry new conservatives. You people are becoming more of a problem than a solution.
That's why I will vote for Gary Johnson for President.
Wow, I understood what Rocky said. It seems to be his theme for the last few of his comments.
I agree with him. Conservatives are no longer conservatives anymore.
In fact, Obama's policies would be the same as a moderate Republican back in the 90s.
What is the attacks by this one Anonymous against Rocky about? He obviously has a thing for Rocky.
I hope Rocky keeps writing, although I wouldn't if I were him. What's the point?
Rocky said The local environmentalists have in fact come to be more "conservatives" than the so-called economic conservatives who promote unlimited water use and who are very liberal with their scientific data and vision of future water availability here in Hays County.
The self-proclaimed environmentalists are not conservatives in any sense. Economically, they demand very large tax subsidies. They also demand control of non-monetary resources belonging to others such as water.
Is demanding to get something for free (water belonging to others and tax subsidies via taxes imposed on everyone else) your definition of "conservative", Rocky?
Despite your suggestions to the contrary about these self-proclaimed "environmentalists", the rest of your writing would seem to expose them for not being conservationists at all.
The concept of what "conservative" used to signify is no longer true.
Conservative now means mean spirited, no compromise austerity along with very naive belief in an inceasingly elitist form of big money capitalism.
A reasonable Republican Party is now gone and the Democratic Party is now owned by the more liberal part of Wall Street.
Average Americans are screwed, especially the dumb right wingers who stand by their insane leadership.
Local Developers also get unlimited tax money in the form of goverment provided infrastructure, so does that make them socialists?
Oil companies get billions in subsidies, another form of tax funded welfare. Is that socialism?
My point is that conservative and liberal have no meaning anymore. And those of you who think it does are in political and economic denial.
Why has this thread degraded into a debate about that marginal nut case, Rocky? He tries to get off topic when a subject comes up that he knows nothing about or can't pin on the evil Republicans and free markets. He is a very unhappy chap that should move to Antarctica where there are no right-wingers or socialists, just some dumb-ass penguins. Maybe the penguins would enjoy Rocky's disjointed rants; Most of us do not!
Let's get back on topic, what do you say.
Re: Rocky: The best way to get rid of a pescky pest is to just ignore it.
I agree with Double Standards. Any person or group wishing to prevent wasteful use of groundwater should apply the same standards to themselves. Watering athletic fields, St. Augustine grass and such is just plain dumb in this time of limited resources. Why don't wimberley city officials, blue hole and the crew from WVWA get together and install a rainwater system like they keep advocating for everybody else?
Rocky said...
Local Developers also get unlimited tax money in the form of gover[n]ment provided infrastructure, so does that make them socialists?
Rocky, you've gotten way off topic of the thread but let's clarify a few things.
Developers don't receive the money you are talking about. If you are talking about roads, etc. the reality is that people in the subdivisions are forced to pay (via higher home prices) for a lot of infrastructure even if it will be a public road down the line. To the extent any public funds are used to maintain roads or put in roads, your comment is applicable to all county roads not just roads for new developments. The people in those new subdivisions are being taxed and asked to share in the cost of all the county roads, don't you think the converse should also be true?
The county is the entity promoting this because the county is COUNTING on tax dollars rolling in from the new developments and providing little to no services to those subdivisions.
The county then takes the money and gifts it to organizations like WVWA much to the detriment of all the actual taxpayers out here.
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