Category: Top News Stories

By Anton Riecher
The Lytle City Council voted 4-0 on Oct. 11 to formally adopt a proposed 2022-2023 budget of $16.7 million. The vote made official a preliminary vote on the budget taken Sept. 26.
As with the Sept. 26 meeting, the vote followed a brief public hearing at which no local residents took the opportunity to speak. Mayor Ruben Gonzalez asked audience members waiting to discuss other items if they wished to comment on the budget.
“I’d like to open it up,” Gonzalez said. “No one has signed up for that one but I still want to see if anyone has any comments.”
After a one-minute wait, the council closed the public hearing and, on a motion by District 3 Alderman David Emery, seconded by District 4 Alderman Michael Rodriguez, voted to approve the new budget. District 5 Alderman Charles Cate, a reservist deployed on active duty, was unable to monitor the council meeting by Internet as ususal.
Drawing more debate was action on a new ordinance to limit the idling of heavy-duty vehicles within the city limits. The council has previously directed city attorney Jessie Lopez prepare such an ordinance by reviewing examples such as a similar ordinance in San Antonio.
The ordinance proposed for Lytle regulates the period of time that truckers can idle without the risk of police issuing a citation. Such vehicles would not be allowed to idle more than five minutes unless some special exception is met.
Lopez said the proposed city ordinance would be a little less strict than the state’s own Locally Enforced Motor Vehicle Idling Limitation rule. It lists special exceptions involving operating in a school zone, near a hospital or in a residential neighborhood.
“I recommend we stick to our own ordinance rather than accept the state ordinance,” Mayor Gonzalez said.
However, Lytle Police Chief Richard Priest said the new ordinance would be difficult for officers to enforce.
“How do you spot vehicles that are just idling?” he said.
The issue came to the forefront in Lytle with the new truck stop opening soon that will be offering nearly 70 parking spaces for truckers who would not be permitted to idle their trucks while sleeping inside.
On a motion by Emery seconded by District 2 Alderman Sam Cortez the council approved the new ordinance.
In other action, the council voted to annex a four-acre tract of land that will serve as parking space for the new truck stop near the southeast corner of the Interstate 35 frontage road and FM 3175.
City Administrator Matthew Dear explained that the owners discovered when attempting to file their final plat with the county that the city’s proposed annexation of the property about a year ago had never been properly completed.
As with the city budget public hearing, the hearing scheduled to complete the annexation process drew no comment from local residents.
Annexation also proved to be a thorny issue with regard to granting an easement for the installation of a water line on the east side of McCoy Lane. Dear explained that city staff thought McCoy Lane was in the county. However, county officials claim the opposite is true.
Under state law, when the city originally took the easement in 2006 it also acquired the road and the easement on the opposite side as well, Dear said.
Now for the property owner to install the needed water line, it will require a permit from the city, Dear said. On a motion by Emery, seconded by Cortez, the council voted to grant the permit.
Despite the lack of comment during the public hearings the council did hear from one local resident during the session – Maria Gonzalez. Her concern involved parking near her home at 19329 S. Somerset Street.
Priest explained that the parking issues involve two local businesses operating near her home without parking space of their own. Instead, customers often park on the public easement near Gonzalez’ home, causing congestion problems.
Dear said he had conferred with police and code enforcement but that as long as the parking is done on the public easement the city has no recourse. He recommended that Gonzalez obtain the official survey for her property to determine if her property rights are being violated.
In other action, Dear updated the council on the status of obtaining city files from previous city attorney Tom P. Cate who was replaced by Lopez last May.
“We are still trying to see where we are on obtaining whatever city files our previous city attorney has that our current city attorney needs,” Dear said.
A hectic tax season has made it difficult to coordinate obtaining the files, Dear said. Also, the amount of files involved could range from everything for the last 10 years to just those files regarding pending cases still open.
Emery asked if the city did not have copies of any material that the previous attorney may have. Lopez said that since nearly 30 years of documents may be involved it is difficult to say if duplicates of everything exist.
“Anything that is a matter of record needs to be with the city,” Mayor Gonzalez said. No action was taken on the matter.
Another issue open to a wide range of opinion was interest in Atascosa County to use hotel occupancy tax money collected by the cities to support either a convention center or a Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association arena near the county seat.
Dear reported to the council that Lytle has been mentioned as a location for the proposed facilities “but I can tell you it was not the number one place that three of the entities wanted.”
The city administrator said he could not view investing local hotel occupancy tax revenue in such a project favorably.
“It’s a hard sell for me to come to the city and say ‘Hey, I think we should send our hard earned tax money to the other side of the county and help support this project when it will not support any of our local tourism,’” Dear said.
Without Lytle’s participation, the other entities will not be able to support the sale of bonds to fund the project, he said.

The 61st Annual Devine Cactus Fall Festival will be hosted in downtown Devine as usual and will start off with a 10 am parade followed by a carnival and festival, shopping, food, games and live music all day and night.
Volunteers are needed to help in the ticket booth, beer and soda booth, helping set up on Friday and Saturday, and various other duties. If you would like to volunteer to help contact President Bonnie Manning of Devine Chamber at Bon Cafe in Devine or by phone at 210-718-6301.
The Fall Festival will have free live music all day on two different stages. Jeremy Richards Band will headline the event in the 10-12 midnight slot. Before him will be David Adam Byrnes from 8-10 pm featuring country music as well. Also playing on the main stage will be The Watters, Bad Funky Bones, David Tribble, Love Killed The Hero, The Fleeks, DJ Rockin’ Reece.
On the second stage on College Street will be Claude Morgan and The Bandaholics, Michael Wade, John Whipple, and Bill Caisse.
The Carnival will be here from Thursday thru Saturday.
The Youth Art Exhibit will be on display in the community center featuring the theme “Our Community in Cactus and Color”.
There will be a full food court with 12 food booths (6 still available), 7 food trucks and over 60 retail vendor booths will line the parking lot and streets for shopping fun and offer many different types of good food.
There are six food booths available, call Heather Shultz 210-710-1176 for inquires and to sign up. Prices vary from $150 to $175 for the booth space.
No outside food or drinks are allowed.
Be sure to mark Saturday, November 5 on the calendar and come out and enjoy the festival in downtown Devine.

By Anton Riecher
In his monthly superintendents report Todd Grandjean told the board that due to increased fentanyl overdoses in Texas the district is now stocking Narcan nasal spray at two campuses. The spray is administered to treat opioid overdose.
“We don’t feel we have a problem but better safe than sorry,” he said.
He also reported that he and assistant superintendent Daryl Wendel continue to conduct campus safety visits each week to monitor compliance with new state mandates and safety protocols.
Grandjean reported on a state mandated intruder detection audit conducted Sept. 19 by the Texas School Safety Center. Those conducting the audit were unable to gain access to the campus in question and, upon being granted access, were repeatedly questioned by faculty as to their reason for being there,
“Upon entering the front office they had to follow our safety protocols, the certain things required when you are a visitor,” Grandjean said.
No doors accessing the building were found unlocked or propped open, he said. However, one door lock to a secondary building failed to keep the auditors out. No students were present in the unnamed building.
Inside the school, auditors found one classroom door unlocked. The classroom was being used by teachers with no students present, Grandjean said.
The TSSC requires that the results of the audit be revealed during a public meeting. However, a portion of the audit is discussed only in closed session. The board went into executive session to meet with TSSC school safety expert Robert Jaklich.
For full video coverage of the board meeting, visit the Devine News YouTube page at youtu.be/8E54GR5xoNI.
In other business, Abigail Beadle, district special programs director, gave a report on the English as a Second Language (ESL) program designed to teach English language skills students whose primary language at home is other than English.
“Devine ISD serves approximately 107 (ESL) students,” Beadle said. “When I started here that number was in the upper eighties so it has gone up quite a bit.”
Of those students identified as needing ESL services only 97 are signed up for the program, she said.
“What that means is we do have a handful of students whose parents deny services, which is their right,” Beadle said.
Ciavarra Elementary Principal Magdelena Strickland reported to the Devine ISD school board Monday. Teachers are busy coaching students at Ciavarra Elementary in preparation for the Dec. 9 University Interscholastic League competition.
“They are staying after school and having meetings to get ready,” Strickland said.
Four teachers have been assigned to help students of all grades prepare for the competition, she said. Specifically, second grade students are being coached on storytelling and creative writing, third grade students on storytelling and fourth and fifth grade students on numbers sense.
In addition, fifth graders are being coached on maps, graphs and charts, Strickland said.
In other developments at Ciavarra, first and second grade students have completed taking the mCLASS assessment, a means of measuring development of reading skills. Kinder students have also completed mCLASS assessment.
“Our reading interventionists are classroom teachers now have more data to identify students in need of small group instructions,” Strickland said.
Pre-kinder teachers have completed their teaching strategies assessment to better support their students through the learning process, she said. Each child gets nine different assessed areas – social, emotional, physical, language, cognitive, literary, math, science and technology, social studies and the arts.
The pre-kinder faculty have also completed a basic skills assessment in which students are tested for letter identification (upper and lower case), letter sound, positional words, colors, shapes, number identification, how high they can count and, finally, if students can write their first and last name.
Strickland joined two other Devine ISD principals – Kandi Darnell of Devine Middle and Michael Gomez of Devine Intermediate – in receiving special recognition from the school board in honor of National Principals Month.
“Principals are a vital part of our children’s education as they set the tone for their school by working collaboratively with teachers to set high academic standards, set performance goals and utilize best practices for achieving those goals,” Superintendent Todd Granjean said.
During the public comments portion of the agenda Nancy Saathoff of the Devine Ex Teachers Association took the opportunity to than the district for its help with this years’ homecoming celebration that included the 50th anniversary reunion for the Class of 1972.
“We had a wonderful event,” she said.
Saathoff also said she is acting as coordinator for the Youth Art Exhibit at the Devine Chamber of Commerce Devine Fall Festival on Nov. 5.
“Devine ISD is going to have over a thousand kids’ art represented on Nov. 5,” she said.
Previous to the Monday night meeting, the board met on Oct. 11 regarding a grievance complaint. The district released the following statement following the meeting:
“Renee Frieda moved and seconded by Chris Davis that the board has determined that the level 2 grievance was appropriately handled by Superintendent Grandjean. However, the Board wants to reaffirm to you our commitment to creating a culture within Devine ISD that supports the growth and development of every student.”
According to the Texas Education Agency, a level one grievance is a formal grievance submitted in writing to the school principal. The resulting action can be appealed to the superintendent as a level two grievance usually resulting in a conference related to the complaint.

The City of Devine is hosting their City-Wide Garage Sale/Yard Sale on one day only, Saturday, October 22, 2022. On this day only, the permit fees will be waived by the city.
So mark your calendars and get ready for the city-wide garage sale on Saturday, October 22 and make sure to get your yard sale in the Devine News Classified Ad Section. You can sign up online at www.devinenewsmembers.com by clicking on the Classified Ad tab or call the office at 830-665-2211. Class ads are $10 per week.