Home Care In Burnet, TX

A Lone Star Healthy Streams workshop will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Aug. 18 at the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service office in Burnet County, 607 N. Vandeveer, Suite 100, in Burnet.

The free workshop with lunch provided is offered as a joint effort by AgriLife Extension and the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board, Natural Resources Institute and Lampasas River Watershed Partnership.

Three Texas Department of Agriculture continuing education credits for pesticide applicators are available in the integrated pest management category. In addition, advance training credits will be offered to Master Naturalist. RSVP by Aug. 15 to the AgriLife Extension office in Burnet County at 512-756-5463 or online at https://tx.ag/LSHSBurnet.

The workshop will conclude “The Year of the Water Drop” series hosted by AgriLife Extension in Burnet County. This event is in partnership with Lampasas River Watershed Partnership and many local efforts to improve water quality.

Topics covered will include basic watershed function, water quality and voluntary best-management practices that can be implemented to minimize bacterial contamination originating from grazing livestock and wild pigs.

“The goal of the Lone Star Healthy Streams program is to protect Texas waterways from bacterial contamination originating from livestock, wildlife and invasive species that may pose a serious health risk to Texans,” said Leanne Wiley, AgriLife Extension program specialist and Lone Star Healthy Streams coordinator, Bryan-College Station. “The aim is to increase awareness, provide education materials to Texas producers and landowners, and encourage implementation.”

In addition to the sessions on livestock, weed management and wild pig management, technical and financial opportunities available from the Lower Colorado River Authority, Hill Country Soil and Water Conservation District and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resource Conservation Service will be discussed.

Funding for this effort is provided through a Clean Water Act Section 319 nonpoint source grant administered by the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

For more information on the workshop, contact Wiley at 979-240-8407 or [email protected]; or Kelly Tarla, AgriLife Extension agriculture and natural resources agent, Burnet County, at 512-756-5463 or [email protected].

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BURNET, Texas - Texas DPS is investigating after a plane struck a power line and crashed onto US 281 in Burnet, striking a car on Sunday, Dec. 17.

A trooper was also involved in a separate crash with an SUV while responding to the plane crash.

DPS says the plane crash happened around 2:14 p.m. Dec. 17 on US 281 south of Delaware Springs Road. The plane had taken off from the Burnet airport before striking a power line along US 281 and crashing into the southbound lanes.

During the crash, the plane struck a passenger car. The plane was then towed from the highway back to the Burnet airport.

DPS says the FAA has been notified about the crash.

The car's driver was taken to a medical facility and released shortly after. The plane's pilot and passenger were taken to an Austin medical facility for burn injuries.

An eyewitness, who didn’t want to be identified, described how the pilot got his passenger out of the plane.

"He jumped up on that wing that was on fire. On fire. Somehow he got the door open and crawled over his wife," he said. "Picked her up with her clothes on fire, carried her and rolled her in the dirt and grass to put the fire out."

That same eyewitness, a former pilot, said the pilot’s quick thinking likely saved lives.

"He did exactly what you're taught to, and you're drilled and you never, ever turn back if you lose an engine on takeoff," he said. "In that case, there's a nice highway right there. I've got like almost 3,000 hours flying, and I don't think I could have done that."

Around 2:41 p.m. the same day, a DPS trooper was responding to the crash, traveling south on US 281 approaching the Delaware Springs Road intersection. DPS says because of the plane striking the power lines, the intersection's traffic signals were down.

As the trooper entered the intersection with lights and siren activated, an SUV with three occupants pulled into the intersection in the patrol vehicle's direct path, says DPS.

"The trooper just careened, you know, into that [SUV]. And it was really loud. It was explosive," said eyewitness Ginger Westfall.

The three in the SUV were taken to Dell Children's Hospital with minor injuries. The trooper was taken to Seton Highland Lakes Hospital in Burnet with minor injuries.

"That cruiser, I did not see lights. I did not hear sirens. He was just coming down the wrong side of the road, going to the crash scene, which is understandable," said Westfall.

DPS claims the trooper did have their lights and siren on, and that the SUV pulled out into the trooper’s way.

"I'm just thanking God, you were there, because I was praying for that boy. ‘Lord, please heal them now. Don't ruin this Christmas for any of these families, the trooper or anyone," said Westfall.

A third Burnet City Council hearing to determine the fate of the historic and condemned Reagor building, 300 N. Water St., is at 6 p.m. Jan. 9 in council chambers. Building owner Kenneth Reagor agreed to abide by the council’s decision once members have heard a presentation on the structure’s history and the findings of a historical architect.

The home of Reagor Air Conditioning, Heating, Plumbing, and Electric was damaged in a fire on Dec. 5, 2022, and condemned by city inspectors a few days later. The Burnet City Council approved demolition orders on June 27, 2023, and again on Oct. 24 after the property owner took no action to remove the building. A final date for demolition was set for Dec. 4.

Reagor was granted a temporary restraining order by 424th District Court Judge Evan Stubbs on Dec. 1. Stubbs held a hearing on Thursday, Dec. 14, to consider issuing a temporary injunction of the demolition.

During a recess at the hearing, attorneys for the city and Reagor agreed to put the matter back before the City Council. The negotiations came about as Stubbs reviewed last-minute dueling memos in his chambers.

On Wednesday, Burnet City Attorney Scott Tschirhart filed a motion stating the District Court lacked the statutory authority to issue an injunction. The motion also countered claims by Reagor that he had not been properly notified of City Council hearings and meetings that led to the council’s two previous decisions to demolish the building.

“We just want to be heard,” Rhonda Martin, Reagor’s fiancée, told DailyTrib.com. “They won’t let us be heard.”

Reagor’s attorney, James Minerve of Austin, filed a motion the same day as the injunction hearing asking for a 14-day extension of the temporary restraining order to give him time to study the claims asserted in the defendant’s (city of Burnet) motion the previous day.

“If the plaintiff is not allowed time to brief the jurisdictional issue, the defendant will demolish the building that is the subject of this lawsuit,” the motion for extension reads.

“Plaintiff knew about the hearing and chose not to attend,” reads the defendant’s motion filed Dec. 13. “Plaintiff did not demolish the building and did not appeal the June 27, 2023, demolition order.”

According to the city’s motion, the property was re-inspected on Sept. 27 and again condemned as a “threat to public health, safety, or welfare.” Reagor was informed in a letter dated the same day that he “must demolish the structure and haul off any debris.”

After no response from Reagor, the Burnet City Council held another hearing on Oct. 24 and issued another order to bring down the building.

Demolition was set for Dec. 4 but stopped by the temporary restraining order granted by Stubbs on Dec. 1.

“We want to restore the historical part of the building,” Rhonda Martin said. “We’re trying to preserve as much as we can and arrange for a safe cleanup.”

According to Martin, the Reagor building was constructed sometime in the mid-1930s of scrap granite from Granite Mountain in Marble Falls. Its architectural design was sought after at the time, and she believes other buildings exist in Texas that were built on that model.

“This is the original,” she said. “There are tons of things that are unique about it. We want to shore up the stone facade and do the renovation properly so we don’t do any further damage.”

Burnet City Council Chambers are located at 2402 S. Water St. (U.S. 281 South). The Jan. 9 hearing is open to the public.

The Burnet County Sheriff’s Office is set to give final approval on Thursday, Feb. 29, of a mass gathering permit for the Texas Eclipse festival. More than 30,000 people are expected at Reveille Peak Ranch from April 5-9 to celebrate the upcoming total solar eclipse.

The Highland Lakes is in the direct path of the April 8 celestial event.

A public hearing on the permit application was Tuesday, Feb. 27, during the regular meeting of the Burnet County Commissioners Court. Some residents were concerned about the festival’s potential impacts, some understood it was inevitable, and others questioned if county resources were being used to facilitate the private event.

“We’ve been working on this, with this group, for eight, 10 months,” said Burnet County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Alan Trevino during the hearing. “We feel that we have worked out any of the issues that we have seen in the (mass permit application) to our satisfaction. County expenses are not going to be incurred. (The festival) will be self-contained.”

According to Trevino, the Sheriff’s Office has spent months working with Texas Eclipse promoters to ensure planning is adequate for the estimated 30,000-40,000 attendees expected at Reveille Peak Ranch, a large recreational/working ranch off of RR 2341 near the eastern shore of Lake Buchanan.

The public hearing was mandatory under the county’s mass gathering permit policy, which requires the issuance of a permit from the Sheriff’s Office for events with more than 2,500 attendees.

Trevino told the Commissioners Court the permit would likely be issued by Thursday after the Texas Department of Transportation approved the festival’s traffic plan.

A 140-page site plan was delivered to the county with the mass gathering permit application. It included emergency medical protocols, traffic management plans, security protocols, and a slew of other documented procedures to handle the tide of festival-goers.

The plan had already been approved by Burnet County Emergency Management Coordinator Derek Marchio and Burnet Fire Chief Mark Ingram.

Trevino explained that the event would have about 370 private security personnel on staff and 14 certified off-duty peace officers directing traffic.

Four residents spoke up during the public hearing. Mike Kammlah said the festival would put enormous strain on the roads near Reveille Peak Ranch.

“When you block the roads, 5,000 people can’t leave or come back,” he said, referring to his estimation of the number of residents that use the nearby roads. “They’re making money off the backs of those 5,000 people that live off of (RR) 2341.”

DailyTrib.com spoke with festival founder Mitch Morales after the hearing to learn more about plans in place to mitigate the negative impact on nearby residents.

“It’s been super important to me to create a positive experience for everybody, not just the people coming from all over the world but also those that are dealing with all of the attention that the area is getting because of the total solar eclipse,” he said.

The festival will provide all essentials, including toilet paper and water, so attendees don’t have to leave Reveille Peak Ranch during their stay, Morales said. All check-ins and traffic will be staggered across the five days so vehicles aren’t coming or going all at once. No tickets were sold for Monday, April 8, the actual day of the eclipse, so festival-goers don’t contribute to the expected day traffic from the Austin metro area. Traffic leaving the festival on April 9 will be let out in waves to ensure school buses aren’t bogged down by outgoing vehicles.

Sheriff Calvin Boyd told DailyTrib.com he is confident in the festival’s plans.

“I’m not real worried about Reveille Peak once we get (the festival attendees) in there,” he said. “They have a really good plan. It’s going to be like a little city. I’m more worried about the day traffic and the overnight traffic that’s going to be coming in.”

Burnet County Tourism Director Blair Manning told DailyTrib.com in an October 2023 interview that the county could see 100,000 or more visitors based on similar circumstances during the 2017 total solar eclipse that passed over Wyoming.

Law enforcement agencies and emergency preparedness organizations across the Highland Lakes are in the midst of preparations for potential issues caused by the eclipse, like running out of essential resources, downed communications, and increased response times for emergency services due to heavy traffic.

Morales added that, while the festival has required an enormous amount of planning and preparation, it is also a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

“Part of the beauty of the eclipse is that it brings people together,” he said. “We’ll all be looking up at the same thing. Even if (eclipse totality is) just four-and-a-half minutes, we can all take a moment and just be humans together.”

Burnet County has declared a “local state of disaster” from April 4-10 in anticipation of the April 8 total solar eclipse, which is expected to more than double the county’s population. Several other counties expecting an impact from the eclipse also made disaster declarations, including Travis, Bell, Kendall, Kerr, and San Saba counties.

“The best-case scenario is that this is a July Fourth on steroids,” said Burnet County Emergency Management Coordinator Derek Marchio in an interview with DailyTrib.com following the declaration. “The worst-case scenario is local roads being unusable and cell networks going down.”

Burnet County Judge James Oakley signed the declaration of emergency order on Tuesday, March 12. It goes into effect at midnight on April 4 and ends at 11:59 p.m. on April 10. The Commissioners Court has the power to extend the order if it chooses.

Burnet County and the Highland Lakes region are in the “path of totality” of the eclipse, which will pass from the southwest to the northeast directly through Lake Buchanan and offer the longest exposure to the complete shadowing of the sun by the moon. Another total solar eclipse will not happen in this region again for at least 360 years.

Totality will last for approximately four minutes and 26 seconds starting at around 1:36 p.m., but the moon will take about 2½ hours to pass across the sun. The entire eclipse will be from 12:17 p.m. to 2:57 p.m.

According to Marchio, the primary concern for officials is traffic from the onslaught of eclipse watchers. He estimates that travel times in the region could at least double, if not quadruple, which would make it impossible to promptly respond to emergencies.

The mass of visitors also could negatively impact cell service. The combined population of Burnet and Llano counties is about 77,000. The region’s roads and cell towers are not equipped to handle a doubling of demand overnight.

“We’re hoping that we can get as much of the population as prepared as possible,” Marchio said.

The disaster declaration includes a burn ban from April 4-10 to reduce the likelihood of emergency fire calls while roads are congested.

The declaration also made several strong recommendations to Burnet County residents:

Llano County has not declared a state of emergency, and according to Emergency Management Coordinator Gilbert Bennett, it does not plan to do so until something happens.

“We have (a declaration) on standby,” he told DailyTrib.com. “You can’t declare a disaster until there is one.”

Llano County has some of the best eclipse-watching spots in the state, which could attract a large number of visitors, but Bennett did not want to declare a disaster based on speculation. He said it was the responsibility of residents to adequately prepare for heavy traffic, supply shortages, and spotty cell service.

“The key is to be prepared,” he said. “Every individual in every community needs to prepare and make their own plans. That will take the stress off emergency operations.”

Local leaders in Llano County have held town hall meetings and disseminated eclipse information for months to prepare residents.

Marchio told DailyTrib.com he is not sure exactly what will happen during the eclipse but said it would be better to be over-prepared than under.