By SARAH DOOLITTLE, Four Points News

Some schools in Four Points have immunization exemption rates far higher than national averages. Rising rates of non-immunization follow national trends, despite overwhelming evidence that immunizing children is safe and effective.

Most notably, Grandview Hills Elementary has 28 students out of 463 — or six percent — whose parents have opted not to immunize, whether for medical reasons or “reasons of conscience.” This is more than three times the national rate of 1.8 percent and the Travis County rate of 1.7 percent. Continue reading →

John Welsh in Boston.

By SARAH DOOLITTLE, Four Points News

Steiner Ranch resident John Welsh, husband and father to two boys, wants to help win the fight against breast cancer.

To that end, every year for eight years Welsh has walked 60 miles over three days in Dallas, Boston and even San Diego, raising tens of thousands of dollars to benefit the walk’s organizer, the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

The annual event is known as the 3-Day, and requires all walkers to fundraise a minimum of $2,300.

But Welsh always sets his sights higher. His goal this year is to raise $5,000 for the event, planned for Nov. 5. Continue reading →

By CASSIE MCKEE, Four Points News

As the mom of three children, Steiner Ranch resident and author Venessa Kimball was deeply saddened by the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012. After seeing repeated acts of school violence in the media, Kimball began to question how a troubled young person could commit such atrocities. In her new book “Dismantling Evan,” released earlier this year on Amazon, Kimball delves into the topic of teen mental illness and many of the other pressures teens face today.

“Dismantling Evan” is a fictional story based in a small Central Texas town. The main character is Evan “Evangeline” Phillips, a teen struggling with mental illness. Kimball said she did a lot of research for the book including reading numerous case studies involving school violence and mental illness. She also talked to local police and drew from her own experiences as a middle school teacher in Del Valle.

“I wanted to make sure to get the characters right and do justice for the mental illnesses I was addressing in the novel,” Kimball said. Continue reading →

By CASSIE MCKEE, Four Points News

While Austin is often referred to as “the blue dot in the sea of red,” that trend may be changing somewhat, especially in certain areas of the city such as Four Points.

“Northwest Austin has always been a more conservative portion of Travis County,” said James Dickey, chairman of the Travis County Republican Party. “It’s part of why the 10-1 panel created District 6 the way that it did — so this area could have a voice that represented the previously unrepresented conservative viewpoint on the city council.”

Voters in District 6, which includes much of the Four Points area, elected conservative Don Zimmerman to the Austin City Council in November. Zimmerman received 51.21 percent of the votes over runner-up Jimmy Flannigan who took 48.79 percent of the votes. Continue reading →

By SARAH DOOLITTLE, Four Points News

The Texas Department of Transportation has begun construction at RM 2222 and McNeil Drive in an effort to ease heavy traffic congestion at the intersection.

“The $1.17-million project will lengthen the right-turn lane from westbound RM 2222 and create a dual left-turn lane from eastbound RM 2222 to help facilitate the flow of traffic through this area,” said Kelli Reyna, TxDOT spokesperson for the Austin District.

Work began recently on the new left-turn lanes at the intersection of RM 2222 and McNeil Drive. The first step has been to tear out a center divider on McNeil in order to construct dual left-turn lanes from McNeil to 2222.
Photo by Sarah Doolittle

Continue reading →