The Hill Country Education Foundation’s 6th Annual Giddy Up Gala united the Four Points community in raising more than $125,000 for the eight schools in the Vandegrift High School feeder pattern on Feb. 27.
Nearly 400 people attended the event at the Westin Austin at the Domain and learned about HCEF’s new tagline, “Your Viper Nation Academic Booster,” while enjoying an evening of auction, dining and dancing.
By LYNETTE HAALAND, Four Points News
Two unrelated crashes on RM 2222 on Feb. 26 left a 28-year-old motorcycle driver dead near McNeil Drive and sent six people to hospitals after a gravel truck plowed through the Jester Boulevard intersection. Traffic was backed up all day after the two morning accidents. A local resident suffered a concussion after his Honda was pushed through the Jester/2222 intersection by a dump truck’s brakes failed.
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By CASSIE MCKEE, FOUR POINTS NEWS
A city of Austin ordinance created to preserve the city’s scenic roadways is not winning any popularity points with local businesses along RM 620.
The Hill Country Roadway Ordinance was passed in 1985 with the intention of preserving the rural landscape and feel along the designated Hill Country roadways of RM 620, RM 2222, Loop 360, RM 2244 and Southwest Parkway. Supporters say the ordinance is important because it regulates development along Austin’s most scenic stretches.
“One of the primary purposes of the Hill Country Roadway Ordinances is to make sure (the area) is pretty much kept in its rural setting and has a rustic environment to it, so you don’t feel like you’re driving down Burnet Road,” said 2222 Coalition of Neighborhoods Association Peter Torgrimson.
But as the Four Points area has continued to boom with new residential and retail development, others feel the ordinance is too restrictive and hurts small business.
The Hill Country Roadway Ordinance requires that businesses along RM 620 keep a 100-foot vegetative buffer in between the business and the roadway. The Walmart at 8201 RM 620, where this sign is, was an example of a business with a good vegetative buffer but it closed its doors Jan. 28 citing low sales as one of the factors.
Photo by Lynette Haaland
School in the Hills students sing a song during their tour of the new River Place campus, which is a few weeks away from opening.
By LYNETTE HAALAND, Four Points News
The new School in the Hills Montessori at River Place will open in several weeks and future students of the new campus recently toured the construction site.
This is the second campus for the locally-based school which was launched in 2008 in Steiner Ranch by Alicia and Daniel Marker of Steiner.
The River Place campus is a 16,000-square-foot facility that features a 2,000-square-foot activity room and sits on 3.7 acres at 10911 RM 2222. Plans are for the school to be open by the end of the month.
School in the Hills students tour the new school in River Place, which will have students up to 3rd grade.
By CASSIE MCKEE, FOUR POINTS NEWS
House District 47 is affluent, highly-educated and politically conservative. It is the only Republican-held seat in Travis County.
The seat has been held by Rep. Paul Workman since 2010, when he narrowly defeated Democratic incumbent Valinda Bolton.
HD 47 became an even more Republican-leaning district in 2012 after district boundary lines were redrawn by the Texas Legislature, according to James Dickey, chairman of the Travis County Republican Party. Dickey said the redistricting resulted in two unfortunate but foreseeable outcomes.
“One, it pretty much guaranteed that each term the incumbent in that district would be challenged, especially to the extent they could in any way be painted as being less conservative than the Republican party voter base, and two, it unfortunately changed (HD)48 from a previously possibly winnable race for a Republican to a district that has almost no chance of being a winnable district for Republicans.” Continue reading