The three story Islamic Center of Lake Travis was under construction when it was destroyed by fire on Jan. 7.

By LYNETTE HAALAND
Four Points News

Fire crews responded to a reported structure fire reported at 3:33 a.m. in the Hudson Bend community at 4700 block of Doss Road on Jan. 7. Crews arrived on the scene to find a three story building fully engulfed with flames.

The building was the Islamic Center of Lake Travis and was nearly complete, said Shakeel Rashed of Steiner Ranch and a board member of the Islamic Center.

The fire was extinguished from the exterior to keep the fire from spreading to neighboring homes and vegetation. The faith-based building was still under construction. No injuries were reported. The Travis County Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the cause of the fire.

The agencies involved were Lake Travis Fire Rescue (primary), Austin Fire Department and the Travis County Fire Marshal’s Office.

Lake Travis Fire Rescue commends the facility owners for maintaining a well established defensible space around the construction site greatly reducing the opportunity for the fire to spread to nearby vegetation and providing improved access for fire crews.

“Oliver!” director Nikki Guckian (left) and choreographer Brenda Hull (second from left) teach newly-recruited elementary and middle school students the opening number of the show.

VHS Performing Arts Center
Jan. 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 21 at 7 p.m.
Jan. 14, 21 at 2 p.m.

By SARAH DOOLITTLE
Four Points News

The Vandegrift High School Theatre Harvey Players open their annual musical “Oliver!” on Thursday and there are eight performances from Jan. 12 – 21.

This is the first time that the VHS theatre department will perform a show for two consecutive weekends, inspired by audiences’ response to last year’s musical, “Cinderella,” which sold out three out of four performances.

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Dr. Sally Grogono

By KIM ESTES
Four Points News

Local obstetrician, Dr. Sally Grogono, announces the launch of Luxe OB, a concierge obstetrics practice providing in-home care from the beginning of pregnancy through delivery and into postpartum recovery.

In addition to home-based clinical care, including ultrasound testing, Luxe OB patients will receive 24-hour access to Grogono, personalized childbirth classes and lactation consultation services.

A fifth generation physician who has been in private practice for 16 years, Grogono said she wants to return to the kind of patient care that originally inspired her to become a doctor.

“The relationship between an expectant mom and her OB is a special one. I want my patients to have the kind of one-on-one care that has become almost extinct in modern medicine. Patient care is why I got into medicine and I want to focus on that,” she said.

However, Grogono stops short of full obstetric care via house calls, declining to offer home births. “Delivery will occur in the hospital,” she said.

“Hospitals have the technology and proximity to potential life-saving equipment that can’t be offered at home deliveries, but I will deliver the baby rather than the hospital’s on-call doctor, whom the patient often has never met,” she said.

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The Dicksons’ 3,200-square-foot home was one of six homes on Garner Court that was a complete loss in the Steiner Ranch Labor Day weekend fires of 2011.

Don Dickson

By CASSIE MCKEE
Four Points News

On Dec. 1, the Austin City Council approved a payment of up to $6.78 million to settle a lawsuit related to the 2011 Labor Day weekend fires in Steiner Ranch, which destroyed 23 homes and caused the death of Travis County Deputy Constable Kevin Aigner.

But the majority of the settlement money – $6.425 million – is not going to the homeowners who lost their homes but to various insurance carriers. Only $150,000 will go directly to a small number of fire victims, though how the money will be distributed is not clear.

“I do not have details about how the amount with be distributed among the plaintiffs,” said Meghan Riley, litigation division chief for the city of Austin.

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This picture shows what it would look like if 42 acres of the Berta Bradley tract — which is adjacent to River Place and off of Milky Way Drive — was allowed to have 110 homes on it as originally proposed by developer Milestone Community Builders.

By LYNETTE HAALAND
Four Points News

Next week, the city of Austin Zoning and Platting Commission is holding a public hearing on the two zoning cases that affect River Place residents and the community.

One zoning request is by landowner Berta Bradley to have Milestone Community Builders build-out 110 homes on 42 acres next to River Place at the end of Milky Way Drive. The other request is to support the plans of the Autism Trust on an adjacent, 40-acre site near Austin Christian Fellowship and River Place Elementary.

The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 17 at 6 p.m. at Austin City Hall, council chamber.

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