By LYNETTE HAALAND
Four Points News

The Vandegrift wrestling team places 9th at the state competition this past weekend, following their success as the regional and district champions.

“I’m proud of our accomplishments this year, the first year in 6A the boys represented well as district champions, regional champions, and placing in the top 10 in the state,” said Paul Muck, head wrestling coach.

The state meet is Feb. 24 – 25 in the Houston area at the Richard E. Berry Educational Support Center.

“This is a big step for our program to show that we can compete with the best in the state 5a or 6a,” Muck said.

State individual results:
Adam Wachnin 160 lbs    2nd place
Riley Jacops 152 lbs      4th place
Luke Sloan 113 lbs     2-2 Top 8
Aaron Peterson 182 lbs   2-2 Top 8
James Clarkson 106 lbs 1-2 Top 12

Vandegrift senior Adam Wachnin placed 2nd at the state competition at the state meet this past weekend at the Richard E. Berry Educational Support Center

Educational dollars defined,
Looking at school culture

By KIM ESTES
Four Points News

Leander ISD is spending more than $8,000 for each of it 38,226 students, said Superintendent Dan Troxell to a crowd of more than 200 gathered for the annual LISD “State of the District”.

Sponsored by Leander ISD Educational Excellence Foundation, the annual event was held on Feb. 17 at Hill Country Bible Church, Lakeline.

This is the second of two reports on the meeting in which Troxell presented a summary of facts and figures available on the district. This report covers details provided on the LISD budget as well as information related to student culture.

Making sense of educational dollars

LISD has an operating budget of $321.3 million from which it spends $8,258 per student, said Troxell.

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Certificates of Obligation to be used for $2.7m project

By KIM ESTES
Four Points News

Travis County commissioners have decided to use Certificates of Obligation as a new funding mechanism for priority safety projects, with one of those being construction of a Steiner Ranch evacuation route, said Brigid Shea, Precinct 2 commissioner.

“The first wave of safety projects using this new CO funding approach will be voted on February 28 by Commissioners Court,” said Shea.

At Four Points News press time, it was not known if the matter was approved.

“Travis County has historically relied on voter-approved bonds to fund projects every five to seven years,” Shea said.

The next bond election is tentatively scheduled for this coming November.

“Since this project (the Steiner evacuation route) is one of the Travis County’s highest priorities, we are not waiting on the 2017 bond referendum. Commissioner’s Court will make a decision on whether or not to approve the CO’s for this project along with four other projects,” said David Greear, Transportation and Natural Resources engineering division manager.

Four Points News detailed the Travis County evacuation road plans in the Feb. 15 edition.
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The two sites combined equal 82 acres which are owned by Berta Bradley.

By LYNETTE HAALAND
Four Points News

In two zoning cases, Austin’s Zoning and Platting Commission last week voted in favor of the rezoning request for the Autism Trust’s 40-acre site in River Place, and against the MileStone Community Builders request for zoning that would allow them to build a higher density of homes on the adjacent 42-acre site.

“We are disappointed with the vote. This definitely puts the future of the Autism Center Austin in jeopardy,” MileStone Community Builders said in a statement. “We are going to work hard to find a solution so we can build homes families can afford and a desperately needed center for adults with autism.”

MileStone requested a SF-2 zoning to build 82 homes, each worth between $700,000 to $900,000, on 42 acres, to be sold by longtime land owner Berta Bradley.

But on Feb. 21, the Zoning and Platting Commission voted 6-4 to approve the city staff recommendation for SF-1 conditional overlay zoning  on the 42-acre site with a minimum lot size of 30,000-square-feet.

For perspective, the lot size of 30,000-square-feet (or the equivalent of nearly 2/3 the size of a football field for each home) exceeds the standard minimum lot size for SF-1 zoning, which is 10,000-square-feet.

Ted Gaunt, who lives on Milky Way Drive which is adjacent to the proposed MileStone housing site, said that the zoning commission sent a “clear signal” to accept the staff recommendation and neighborhood position.

“These conditions grant SF-1 conditional overlay which effectively limits the site to about 45 homes,” Gaunt said. “This is about 20 more than we want, but as a concession, it is a reasonable middle ground.”

“We are not telling MileStone what size homes to build, or how to price them – just simply looking to be smart and balanced about the number of homes in this last-build location in River Place,” Gaunt added.

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