By SCOTT W. COLEMAN

The University Interscholastic League approved the staff’s recommendation to move the boys and girls state basketball tournaments out of Austin among other rule and administrative changes, at its summer legislative meeting last week in Round Rock.

Officials said overcrowded conditions, due to the annual SXSW festival, and the high cost of hotels in Austin during the SXSW period which coincides with the state basketball tournaments, have resulted in a substantial decrease in attendance and complaints from schools around the state.

UIL executive director Charles Breithaupt said that crowds at the University of Texas’ Frank Erwin Center — home to both the boys and girls state tournaments since 1978 — have been decreasing steadily over the past several years, coinciding with the growth of SXSW.

Breithaupt said the boys state basketball tournament drew as many as 100,000 people over the three-day period just a few years ago, but fewer than 80,000 attended this year’s tournament.

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By LYNETTE HAALAND, Four Points News

Longhorn Canyon Condos is a new condo development in Steiner Ranch located at 2601 N Quinlan Park Rd, between the University of Texas Golf Club entrance and Country Trails.

“Our target market are those looking to downsize and stay in Steiner Ranch and those looking for a 2nd home in Austin that they can ‘Lock and Leave”.  The condos all have golf course views of the 5th Fairway of UT Golf Course,” said Rhonda Durrill, Realtor with Avalar Austin Realty.

There are 36 new condos being built as part of phase II of Longhorn Canyon. The projected finish date for the first building, which will include 12 units, is mid-August.

Eight condos were completed in Phase I in 2007 by the same builder, Kemp Properties.

“Phase I was completed in 2007 when the market went soft.  Since that time, Kemp properties held on to the property waiting for the right time to begin construction again,” said Durrill, who is representing Avalar and Kemp Properties.

Phase II of the condos will be very different from the Phase I units, Durrill said.

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By CASSIE MCKEE, Four Points News

When Antoinette Griffin and her family went out of town over the Christmas holiday, some of their family and friends mailed packages to their River Place address while they were gone. When the family returned home, the packages were gone.

Antoinette Griffin, of River Place, says that too many times her mail has been stolen, and she wants to raise awareness.

“We thought it was something with the post office, that they didn’t deliver them,” Griffin said. “But when we called them, they said they didn’t have them.”

The same thing happened in April when the family went out of town for a few days and then again over Memorial weekend. When the family returned, they had catalogs in their mailbox but no regular mail. Upon further inspection, they realized that the catalogs weren’t even for them… they were for neighbors down the street.

“We were like, ‘Ok this is really strange,’” she said.

Griffin started asking her neighbors if any of them had experienced anything similar. She discovered that one of her neighbors had the same thing happen when he went out of town for a week. He had put a hold on his mail through the post office while he was gone, but the first day the mail was delivered, it was all taken.

“He got back and he had no mail, a week’s worth of mail,” Griffin said. “That’s how we knew it was being stolen.”

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By LYNETTE HAALAND, SCOTT W. COLEMAN

A Steiner Ranch woman who failed to deposit several thousand dollars of funds following the River Ridge Elementary PTA book fair last fall was arrested on theft, a state jail felony, on June 9.

Trisha Greenway is out on bond after being arrested on June 9 for theft. The affidavit states she failed to deposit thousands of dollars of River Ridge Elementary PTA book fair funds after the fall fundraiser.

Patricia “Trisha” Greenway, 47, is out on bond. The Travis County affidavit states that bond was set at $5,000.

Greenway said that she was arrested, is out on bond and that she cannot comment.

Attorney Aaron Mueller, of Austin law firm Granger, Mueller & Wood, is representing Greenway.

The Travis County affidavit states that Vince Mancuso, RRE PTA treasurer, provided information that led to Greenway’s arrest.

The affidavit states that Gretchen Raftalis, PTA board member, delivered money with an itemized receipt to Greenway’s Steiner Ranch home each day after the RRE book fair, which ran from November 11 – 15.

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