Murder trial, annexation issues dominate second half of year
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A sampling of the major happenings for the second half of the year follows.
JULY
Jeremiah John Ellison, 25, of Copperas Cove was indicted by the Lampasas County grand jury for capital murder, making him the fourth person to be charged with the crime that resulted in the death of 31-year-old Hidi Gower of Copperas Cove.
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Dr. Trampus Isom, his wife Dr. Kelli Isom and Dr. Kim Langford opened Isom Veterinary Clinic on U.S. Highway 190 for the care of big and small animals.
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Lampasas County lost three prominent citizens with the deaths of former Commissioner Edd Barefoot, former Lometa Independent School District Board member Tommy Kendrick and former Lampasas City Councilman John Kyle Oliver.
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Clementine Walker rode at the head of the Spring Ho Grand Parade after her selection as grand marshal for the annual festival.
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Dentist Dr. Jay Elder opened his newly built Sulphur Springs Dental office on Central Texas Expressway.
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The Lampasas City Council unanimously selected Evan Stubbs, a local attorney, to fill the council seat left vacant by the resignation of Debbie Fuller.
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Seton Highland Lakes opened Seton Lampasas Healthcare Center, which offers family practice and weekly care from a variety of specialists.
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Taylor Creek Elementary School became more of a reality after the Board of Trustees of the Lampasas Independent School District accepted a guaranteed maximum price from Blair Williams, president of Baird/Williams Construction of Temple, the builder hired for the Kempner elementary and the new Lampasas High School. His firm offered trustees a bid of $9,204,173.
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The Lometa Independent School District looked at two options after a fire gutted its alternative campus. The options considered were not reopening the campus and melding the remaining students and staff into the main campus population, or continuing with operations. After deliberations, the board decided to close the alternative campus and move the remaining students and staff to the main campus.
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Officials with First Texas Bank of Lampasas have referred a matter to police having to do with the possible misappropriation of funds. Lampasas Police Department officials confirmed that local authorities were asked to review the matter.
The matter was then referred to the FBI for review.
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The Lampasas City Council set a proposed tax rate of 39 cents per $100 valuation for the 2008-09 fiscal year. The proposed rate was lower than the rollback figure of 39.0773 cents, but it exceeds the current city tax rate of 37.72 cents per $100.
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Kempner City Council approved the city's proposed 2008-09 fiscalyear budget which represents a 27 percent increase over the current budget. Funding will be included for a new parks department, with about $47,000 designated for initial parkland development.
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Lampasas Police Department officials have warned consumers that mail scams are on the increase. Several residents received notices in the mail that they had won large sums of money. "If you think it's too good to be true, then it probably is," said a local official.
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Lometa Mayor David Ivey resigned his post to accept a job that he said would conflict with his city responsibilities. Ivey served as mayor for about nine months.
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The capital murder trial of Donald Gower ended with a guilty verdict in 27th District Court. Gower was charged in the death of his wife, Hidi, stemming from a murder-for-hire plot on July 4, 2007. He received a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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A fire of undetermined origin, accompanied by what were described as explosions, sent an area man to Rollins Brook Community Hospital. Firemen were dispatched to U.S. Highway 190 East, where they battled a blaze that destroyed two mobile homes.
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Enrollment numbers for the beginning of the school year for the Lampasas Independent School District and a number of other rural school districts across the state were down from the previous year. Much of that was attributed to high gasoline prices driving folks back to bigger cities.
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Bill Haisler, 67, a board member for the Lampasas ISD, died. He was elected to his first term in 2002.
SEPTEMBER
After more than four decades in the pharmacy business, Max Berry retired. Most recently, Berry worked at the Wal-Mart Pharmacy where he had been since he closed his own business, The Pill Box, in 1993.
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Lampasas resident, community volunteer and a former Jarrell ISD board member Linda Floerke was was named to fill the seat of Bill Haisler on the Lampasas Independent School District Board of Trustees after Haisler's death in August.
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In an effort to reduce utility costs at the courthouse and the Lampasas County Office Building, the county considered -- and eventually nixed -- a four-day-a-week work schedule after appointing a committee to look into the matter.
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Texas Department of Transportation officials met with members of the Spring Ho Committee to discuss the possible modification of the route the grand parade takes each year due to planned street renovations.
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Kempner City Council took the first step to annex additional land into the city after approving a resolution accepting a request for annexation of 14.45 acres and adopting an annexation schedule. Owners of Kempner Iron and Metal submitted a request to be annexed voluntarily.
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With 73 percent of the student body voting not to change the nearly 70-year-old alma mater, Lampasas High School students vetoed the substitution of one word for another, and the school song will remain as it was written.
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The Lampasas City Council approved a resolution to initiate the annexation of 411 acres of land, including property on County Roads 1025, 1024 and part of 1020, and the new city sports park to be built along Farm-to-Market Road 580 West. The resolution directed city staff to prepare a municipal service plan and scheduled several public hearings on the matter.
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The Board of Trustees of the Lampasas Independent School District approved a tax rate and budget for the 2008-09 school year at the same $1.50 per $100 valuation as the previous year.
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Lampasas emergency officials encourged residents to prepare for Hurricane Ike in the event that it passed over Central Texas.
OCTOBER
John Robert Martinez, one of four men charged with capital murder in the July 2007 death of 31- year-old Hidi Ann Gower of Copperas Cove, had his indictment for capital murder amended, and he pleaded guilty to criminal conspiracy to commit capital murder. He was sentenced to 30 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Institutional Division.
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Without additional funding, officials of the Boys & Girls Club of Lampasas said the future looks bleak for the center that serves up to 100 youths each day during the summer and near that number throughout the school year.
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Lampasas Mission volunteers worked to ready their new facility on East Fourth Street for occupancy to house the organization that assists needy residents.
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Lampasas Independent School District Trustee Linda Floerke volunteered to sit on the Lampasas Economic Development Foundation board. She is in favor of a multi-instructional college campus in Lampasas.
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During a recent Lometa City Council, a letter of resignation was accepted from Chief of Police Gary Farley, and his position was declared vacant.
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Several residents of County Roads 1020 and 1025 shared with the Lampasas City Council their opposition to the proposed annexation of about 410 acres west of the city limits.
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For the second time in about two months, the city of Lometa found itself without a mayor, as acting mayor Doug Brister vacated the position. As mayor pro tem, Brister was appointed to the mayor's post during a called meet- ing to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of David Ivey.
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Through 10 months of the year, all government entities in Lampasas County and the surrounding area show sales tax growth over their 2007 statistics to date, and for most cities the growth falls between 3 percent and 15 percent of the revenues taken in for the comparable months last year.
NOVEMBER
The Lometa City Council selected Cynthia Kirby to fill its mayoral vacancy after a called meeting. Lometa had been operating without a mayor or mayor pro tem since the resignation of Doug Brister last month.
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Democrat Barack Obama claimed the presidency with 349 electoral votes to John McCain's 163, but McCain and other Republicans won by large margins in Lampasas County. The county recorded a 61 percent voter turnout, as 7,759 of the 12,636 registered voters cast a ballot.
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A drop in gasoline prices was welcomed across Texas and in Lampasas, as costs fell below the $2 mark for the first time in months. Gasoline previously had closed in on the $4 mark for a gallon of regular unleaded.
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Former Lometa mayor David Ivey was approached about filling an open seat on the City Council, while another resident, Kyle Walton, was sworn into office along with the newly appointed mayor Cynthia Kirby.
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The Lampasas City Council accepted an agreement with Rex and Linda Johnson that will transfer 16.23 acres of Cooper Springs land to the city for a park. The land is across Hackberry Street from Campbell Park, which includes Hanna Springs and about a halfmile walking trail.
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Kempner Water Supply Corp. planned to begin construction on the Cliff and Eldine Poe Water Treatment Plant at Stillhouse Hollow Lake. The plant, tentatively scheduled for completion early in 2010, initially will treat 7.5 million gallons of surface water per day and can be expanded to a treatment capacity of 23 million gallons per day.
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TxDOT released plans for a construction zone on U.S. Highway 281 South for a project that includes two traffic signals and an improved intersection at the new Lampasas High School campus.
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Revised plans for the athletic complex at the new Lampasas High School facility south of town helped slice more than $171,000 from proposed expenses while keeping the integrity of the project and seeing it to completion. A bid of just over $327,000 was approved to get the complex up to standards LISD trustees felt were needed for the school to be a complete facility.
DECEMBER
Lampasas Police Department officials announced that its newest motorcycle officer, Dean Werlinger, will be joined as needed on the streets by Sgt. Tony Barrio, who had been using his personal cycle to patrol the city, until the recent purchase of two Harley Davidsons.
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Lampasas Independent School District administrators reassigned head football coach Ryan Bailey, leaving the door open for the LISD to hire from within or explore outside options for his replacement. And in a later move, LISD Athletic Director Joey McQueen was selected to fill the role as both coach and athletic director.
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The resignation of Lometa reserve police officer John Harris followed on the heels of two other vacancies in the city's police department. Harris' departure left Lometa without any law enforcement until he agreed to take the police chief's position.
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The Lampasas City Council's effort to annex 409 acres of land west of the city limits officially died as the second reading of the ordinance, which passed 3-2, fell one vote short of the total required by the city's home rule charter for annexation matters.
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Lometa Volunteer Fire Department was earmarked to receive a $130,343 grant to support firefighters and their work as first responders. The announcement came from the office of U.S. Sen. John Cornyn.
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Kempner Police Chief Joe Lorette resigned his post effective Dec. 31 to accept a position with the Hamilton County Sheriff's Department. Lorette served as the police department chief for less than nine months.
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Sonic Drive-In's Key Avenue facility was demolished to make way for a larger, more modern eatery.
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Kempner City Council selected David Sheedy as its new chief of police. Sheedy brings numerous years of law enforcement experience to the community.
* * * Precinct 4 County Commissioner Jack B. Box announced his switch from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party, effective when he files for re-election in December 2009.
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A Lampasas businessman began circulating a petition for a local option election in a first step toward legalizing the sale of beer and wine for off-premises consumption in Justice of the Peace Precinct 1.
