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According to reports, 63-year-old Mrs. Maria Concepcion Michel lost her life in the tragic crash this past Thursday, November 29 on FM 1343 between Devine and Castroville. Two other adults were injured and transported to University Hospital (see crash report below).
A woman who lives nearby says she pulled a toddler out of the burning SUV right after the terrible collision when she began hearing his screams and seeing it catch fire. While she comforted the child, she stated that about six other people stopped to help. Two men were able to pull the child’s mother out of the burning vehicle as well, while emergency responders rushed to the scene near Cattleman’s Crossing and Alsatian Heights area, she said.
“I was outside when it happened,” said Tammy Hill, who saw the accident happen. “I reacted when I heard screaming and the baby crying. The car was on fire, and I reached in and grabbed the baby and got him away from the vehicle. His mom was thrown to the passenger side seat and stuck inside the vehicle. I was stopping vehicles asking if anyone had a fire extinguisher, but no one did. About six other people got out and started helping. Two men pulled the child’s mother out away from the vehicle.”
ESD 1 fire crews arrived within 10 minutes of the multiple 911 calls, they reported.
“Two patients were entrapped in one of the vehicles (the truck), while the other vehicle was catching fire. Crews worked to free both adult passengers while additional crews were extinguishing the fire.”
Community EMS and Aircare transported the two adult patients with injuries.
The official DPS report states: “A 2002 Ford Explorer, driven by Christen Roxann Vann, 31, was traveling south on SH 1343. A 2004 Toyota Tacoma, driven by Francisco Esparza-Martinez, 50, and occupied by Maria Concepcion Michel, 63, was traveling north on FM 1343. For reasons not yet known, the Explorer veered into the northbound lane and struck the Toyota. Ms. Vann and Mr. Esparza-Martinez were transported to University Hospital for treatment. Ms. Michel was transported to BAMC where she was pronounced dead. The crash is currently under investigation and all contributing factors are not yet known. DPS reminds drivers to obey traffic control devices, don’t exceed the speed limit, minimize distractions and don’t drive fatigued. The crash report will be available at Texas.gov once the investigation is completed.”

By Anton Riecher
A quickly resolved engineering “snafu” threatened to delay completion of Lytle’s latest water well project, City Administrator Matthew Dear reported to the Lytle City Council Monday.
Upon inspection, the new water well number four was found to be missing a vital air release check valve, he said.
“It was a snafu by the engineers who just forgot to design it in there,” Dear said.
The correction is only required a “zero dollar” change order at the insistence of TRC Engineering with no cost to the city.
“The city is not paying for it,” Dear said. “It’s their mistake.”
He said the change order does extend the project’s completion date to Jan. 8, 2023. However, the contractors hope to have the project completed this week.
“We’re waiting on shipping,” Dear said. “Fortunately, (the valve) is not on some weird 48-week back order.”
On a motion by District 3 Alderman David Emery, seconded by District 1 Alderman Joseph Morrow, the change order was approved by a vote of 4-0. District 5 Alderman Charles Cate, a reservist currently on deployment, was unavailable to monitor the meeting by Internet as usual.
In other business, the council voted 4-0 to adopt a new employee handbook with an effective date of Dec. 1. Emery said the new handbook, in development since mid-2021, replaces a handbook that is more than 15 years old.
Dear said the final handbook had been through an extensive human resources and legal review prior to reaching the council.
“A lot that used to come to the council goes to the city administrator,” he said. “A lot that used to go to the city secretary comes to the city administrator.”
The “meat and bones” of the handbook does not change, particularly vacations and holiday, Dear said. However, the new handbook does streamline the pay process for greater efficiency.
Council members also voted 4-0 to approve a new franchise agreement with the utility Texas AEP that delivers electricity to more than one million users in south and west Texas. The franchise fee is paid for use of the city’s right of way to place electric lines.
Jessie Lopez, Lytle’s city attorney, said he was working on the final agreement with AEP until the last minute. One item in contention was dealing with any potential conflict between state law and city ordinances.
“We made a couple of compromises in language,” Lopez said.
Dear told the council that although the city has continued to collect franchise fees from AEP no formal franchise agreement has been in place “for quite some time.”
Dear reported to the council that he is working to arrange dates with previous long time city attorney Tom P. Cate where the city can retrieve legal files needed for its records. Lopez replaced Cate last May.
Among reports given by city department heads police Chief Richard L. Priest reported that the city had no robbery or aggravated crime reported in September. He also said there had been no juvenile arrests.
Alarm calls totaled 18 with 15 related to businesses or commercial property. Only three involved local residences.
Vehicle collisions totaled 12 with only five occurring on public property, Priest said.
On the positive side, Priest reported that a local company, A1 Sealcoating LLC, had seal coated the police department parking lot free of charge.

New county emergency management coordinator pledges to build on past success of the office

By Anton Riecher
Chadwick, who on Nov. 21 replaced County Judge-Elect Keith Lutz as emergency management coordinator, boasts more than 36 years in emergency response. He graduates to the Medina County job after 10 years as an emergency response specialist with the Bexar County Office of Emergency Management.
Ideally, the best way that the new Medina County emergency management coordinator Mark Chadwick could make his introduction to county residents would be lifting the burn ban that office has had in place since late June.
Unfortunately, Chadwick says that despite the recent rain the ban must remain in place.
“Right now what we are doing is every night I call dispatch after reviewing the weather for the next few days,” Chadwick said. “I’m looking at things like wind speed, humidity and the soil moisture to determine whether or not it would be safe for us to burn.”
Most important is the Keetch-Byram Drought Index (KBDI) which balances the drought factor against precipitation and soil moisture.
“We’re not doing away with the burn ban because two days from now the conditions could be horrible again,” Chadwick said. “We have to keep looking at that soil moisture content provided by the Texas A&M Forest Service.”
Among a host of credentials, Chadwick is certified as an emergency manager (CEM) by the International Association of Emergency Managers and as a Texas Emergency Manager (TEM) by the Emergnecy Management Association of Texas. Obtaining those certifications takes a minimum of five years documented training.
He serves on one of Texas’ 17 local incident management teams and one of six regional teams in the state. These teams are activated to lend incident management support in emergencies requiring significant local, regional and state resources.
“Incident management teams can deploy anywhere in the United States and the U.S. territories to assist with managing major disasters,” Chadwick said.”
A published author, Chadwick’s book “Organizing Chaos: A Comprehensive Guide to Emergency Management” has been selected by Lone Star College as a textbook for emergency management courses beginning next semester.
Chadwick, 57, is a native of San Antonio. He earned his bachelor’s degree at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene. Originally, his career goals pointed toward law enforcement with six years active duty in the U.S. Air Force security police.
“I initially started in law enforcement then transitioned to disaster response,” he said. “It was kind of a natural thing because you’re always responding to disasters anyway.
Chadwick followed his Air Force service with more than 24 years in the Texas State Guard, one of three military branches comprising the Texas Military Department.
“When Hurricane Katrina hit I was one of the people who was activated and sent to New Orleans,” Chadwick said. “After coming back from that is when I transitioned fulltime to just doing emergency management.”
Before his years with the Bexar County Office of Emergency Management Chadwick spent several years as the disaster volunteer coordinator for the American Red Cross in San Antonio and three years with the San Antonio Office of Emergency Management.
A widowed father of three adult children, Chadwick has a son who serves as chief risk manager and safety officer for the various campuses of the Texas School of the Deaf. Of his two daughters, one is a school teacher in Bryan, TX, and the other lives with her family in Saginaw, a suburb of Fort Worth.
Living just five miles from the county line, Chadwick has many connections with Medina County, including a long friendship with Lutz. Like Lutz, Chadwick, in his capacity with the Bexar County Office of Emergency Management, responded to the Das Goat fire last March.
“It’s not any stretch of the imagination to say that Keith, over the last ten years, has done some tremendous things for Medina County,” Chadwick said. “So the good thing is I inherit all those good things that have already been done.”
Chadwick has made training his forte in emergency management. He is one of seven main trainers with the Texas Division of Emergency Management, the agency that coordinates the state’s emergency management program.
“In the last 13 years I’ve trained over 27,000 people in various courses,” he said. “I’ve done a lot of stuff throughout this region such as development and facilitating exercises in Medina County.”
Chadwick said that he and Lutz have talked about capitalizing on Chadwick’s training experience.
“We would like to actually develop a training center here, not only for the local responders, but for citizens throughout the region, offering the citizens emergency preparedness training,” he said.
The future for Medina County Emergency Management is building on the successes of the past, Chadwick said.
“Medina County is growing,” he said. “Good things are ahead in Medina County. I think we’ve got some great leadership.”