By LIZ BARNARD, Four Points News
Cooper, a Jack Russell Terrier, was bitten by a rattlesnake earlier this month, and the Barnard family of Steiner Ranch is thankful he has made a full recovery through quick and expert medical attention.
“Immediate veterinary care is first and foremost,” said Dr. Dawn James of Four Paws at Four Points.
Cooper
By LYNETTE HAALAND, Four Points News
Suburban Austin Energy customers will have a surcharge added to their electric bills starting next month to pay off the $1.5 million legal costs that were incurred to challenge rate fairness for out-of-city customers.
Last year Homeowners United For Rate Fairness — a group spearheaded two years ago by Executive Director Mark Farrar, a Steiner Ranch resident — challenged AE’s rate increases. The City initially refused to give outside customers a discount but HURF alleged it was discriminatory. HURF challenged the rates with the Texas Public Utility Commission.
The settlement was approved in March and will provide about $5.75 million in discounts to the approximately 50,000 suburban customers who live outside the city but must purchase electricity through Austin Energy.
As of last week, however, it seems as though HURF and suburban AE customers are being penalized for this win.
By RICH KEITH, Four Points News
The Four Points Traffic Committee sought the Balcones Canyonlands Conservation Plan Citizen Advisory Committee’s approval last week for the “Road to Vandegrift” but did not get it.
On September 10, the FPTC was seeking a recommendation from the panel to build a secondary access road from Vandegrift HS to the intersection of River Place Boulevard and Four Points Drive.
Michelle Beck testified last week at the Balcones Canyonlands Conservation Plan Citizen Advisory Committee meeting. Beck, on behalf of the Four Points Traffic Committee, gave multiple reasons why to build a secondary road from the intersection of River Place Boulevard and Four Points Drive to Vandegrift HS.
Composed of citizens who advise the BCCP Coordinating Committee, the Citizen Advisory Committee decided against recommending the road project.
The panel does not vote, it only recommends, and that gives FPTC some hope.
Alicia Harrison, FPTC member, urges people to come out and support the “Road to Vandegrift” this week at another BCCP meeting with the Coordinating Committee.
“Unless we have a strong showing at the BCCP Committee meeting on Wednesday morning at 10 and we let our elected officials know how important this is, we have little chance of getting this project approved,” Harrison said.
By SARAH DOOLITTLE, Four Points News Contributor
The ICU at Dell Children’s Hospital of Central Texas is not where any parent of a teenage girl wants to be on a Saturday night. For the parents of Danielle Salcedo–a vibrant, happy, passionate, wise fifteen-year-old with a huge smile and bigger heart–this is not a place they ever imagined spending not just their Saturday night but nearly a week as they watched their daughter slowly fade from the ravaging effects of a ruptured brain aneurysm.
But that is not how Danielle should or would want to be remembered. Anyone lucky enough to meet Danielle–and the crowds at Dell Children’s indicated there were many–was graced by the light that shone from inside her.
