On Sept. 4, 2011, fire destroyed 23 homes in Steiner Ranch including the home that used to sit on this site. Last week, the Austin City Council approved a payment of up to $6.78 million to settle a lawsuit related to the fires.

Fires destroyed 23 homes in Steiner Ranch, Resulted in one fatality

By CASSIE MCKEE
Four Points News

At its Dec. 1 meeting, 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.

Over 19 plaintiffs filed more than 500 separate property damage, personal injury or wrongful death claims against the city, according to City of Austin Litigation Division Chief Meghan Riley.

Homeowners and insurance companies sued the city in November 2012, around the same time fire investigators determined the cause of the fire to be power lines maintained by Austin Energy.

Slack in electric lines led them to touch each other in high winds Sept. 4, 2011, fire officials said. Electricity began arcing, creating molten bits of metal that fell to the ground and ignited dry vegetation, the report concluded.

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“The Nutcracker” will be performed at Vandegrift on Saturday with local dancers including Barclay Bull, Abi Lyons, Maggie Erdman, Ella Reeves, Hadley Rebtoy, Tessa Reeves, Carmel Lou, Hannah Liechty and Aspen Dzubinski.

The Vandegrift Legacies and Dancers Workshop will present two performances of the holiday classic “The Nutcracker”.  Ovation, a youth ballet company in residency at Dancers Workshop, will perform the full length ballet at Vandegrift’s Performing Arts Center on Saturday, Dec. 3 at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. The afternoon show is sold out but taking names on the waitlist.

The Legacies will open the show by performing a holiday high kick to Bette Midler’s “Cool Yule” along with another group piece, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”, selected especially for this performance.  Legacies lieutenant, Barclay Bull, a junior at VHS, has performed in Ovation’s “The Nutcracker” for nine consecutive years. This year Bull will dance the role of Parent and Snow Demi Soloist in Act I and the beautiful Dew Drop in Waltz of the Flowers in Act II.

The performance of “The Nutcracker” will include a cast of 70 dancers ranging from 2nd grade through high school.

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By LYNETTE HAALAND
Four Points News

The annual Viper 10K took place on Nov. 22 in Steiner Ranch with 35 swimmers from the Vandegrift swim team completing “100 x 100s” to total 10,000 yards.

All swimmers completed the swim in less than 3.5 hours, said Genevieve Walsh, head swim coach at VHS.

The team does this workout each year to challenge the swimmers and to help raise money for the team to travel to swim meets.

“All swimmers stepped up and they did a great job supporting each other throughout the tough swim,”  Walsh said. “They have put in lots of hard work this fall so that we can be super fast in January and February at District, Region, and State!”

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QualTech Automotive owner Billy Leavings (right) in a photos with Derek Castillo of Castleview Productions at the 2016 Fastest-Growing Companies in Central Texas awards ceremony.

By KIM ESTES
Four Points News

Steiner Ranch resident, Billy Leavings, has earned recognition from the Austin Business Journal and the University of Houston, respectively, for owning QualTech Automotive — one of the fastest growing companies in Austin and one of the fastest growing businesses owned or led statewide by a Cougar alumni.

“Even with the growth we have had, I feel like we have many opportunities to improve. I don’t feel successful; I feel blessed to have the opportunity to create this company with such a great team of employees,” said Leavings, who opened QualTech in 2010 with his wife Cindy at 10815 RM 620 N. In 2014, they opened their second shop in Bee Cave at 13925 W Hwy 71.

Leavings knew when they opened their first shop that it would be profitable. “You have to believe that to take the risk and go out on your own and take on the bigger companies,” he said.

In August, ABJ reported that QualTech ranked 24th among 25 fast growing Austin businesses in the small company category. Another Four Points business, Square Cow, also captured 25th place among small companies (Look for coverage of that in next week’s edition.)

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