Ethan Santos runs the ball up the middle and down the right side.
The Devine Warhorses will host their first football game at home this Friday, August 26, kickoff is 7:00 pm against SA Memorial in a non-district game. JV does not have a game on the schedule for this week. Natalia Mustangs will travel to Jourdanton to take on the Indians; kickoff is 7:00 p.m. in a non-district game. The JV will host Jourdanton on Thursday at 5:30 at home in Natalia. The Lytle Pirates will travel to Jefferson; kickoff is 7:30 p.m. in a non-district game. The JV will play at Jefferson on Thursday at 5:0 0 p.m.
A pursuit between this vehicle and Medina County SO ended in a rollover on the I-35 access road near Lytle this past Wednesday, August 17. Five undocumented migrants and the driver were all transported to University Hospital. Courtesy Photo.
Several recent incidents at the local Walmart in Devine have residents on edge. Reports of men following and approaching female shoppers have come in one after another on social media. Two of the men actually followed a woman out of the store. Devine PD is asking victims to please call them instead of just posting online, so they can identify subjects and address the situation. “In one case, the two men actually followed a woman out of the store and all the way to the frontage road, and were on both sides of her vehicle, on bicycles, from what I understand,” Chief Kandi Benavides stated. “She took a different route home, but still, no one called us. After seeing social media posts, I followed up with a few of the women in these cases because I want to get to the bottom of it.” So far, police made contact with one juvenile male and one adult male from Guatemala who were identified. “The two men who were identified were spoken to. We let them know we are aware of what has been occurring and unless they are shopping at Walmart, they don’t need to be there,” Chief Benavides said. “They did not really have an explanation as to why they were there.” Benavides notes that Devine PD has officers patrolling in Devine 24/7. “There is no excuse for this kind of behavior and we won’t tolerate it,” Benavides said. “Please call us and we will send someone immediately. We will make contact with you, and then address the suspects, so that it is properly documented. So if it happens again, and it is the same subjects, then we can take further action.” “A third subject (seen in footage) will be contacted when we are notified of his return to Walmart in Devine,” Devine Lieutenant Chris Andrews said. “Unfortunately, we were not notified until after the fact in these cases. We made contact with each victim for every post that was brought to our attention,” Andrews added. “If something occurs, please notify the police department immediately, and/or store management.” Earlier this August, one local family shared their story of one of these incidents. “First, my daughter was approached by a man who started speaking Spanish to her. She acted like she didn’t understand him, so he moved closer to her and repeated it until she got out of line and moved to another register. She asked for someone to walk her to her car. It scared her to death,” the family stated. “The next night, while I was at Walmart, I could tell I was being followed by two men with an empty basket. I called my husband to come to the front and pick me u. In the meantime, my husband noticed there was a white van in parking lot with Mexico plates and a man standing out by it talking on the phone. Then another man came out of the stores and got in the van. I will not be going back there. They need to hire security officers!” Devine PD is urging citizens who encounter situations like this to please call 830-663-4403. After 5 pm, this same number will transfer to county dispatch who will notify an officer in Devine immediately. “We have to be aware of our surroundings everywhere we go,” Chief Benavides adds. “Some of these women have said they felt something was not right but didn’t want to bother us. So instead they asked an unarmed employee to walk them out to their car. So I asked, without a weapon, what could that person have done to stop someone from harming you? Follow you gut–if something doesn’t feel right–please call us. We are here to help. We want our community to feel safe.”
There will an important meeting at the Moore Community Center this Thursday, August 25 at 7pm regarding a solar farm project that has been proposed. Frio County Commissioner Graf and County Attorney James Sindon will be there to talk about some details on the potential Black Creek Solar project. This is a very important meeting for all of the citizens who live in our small community because risk of devaluing our land, and environmental and health concerns.
New water pipes sit ready to replace asbestos lines in the City of Devine.
By Anton Riecher The Devine City Council voted 3-0 to approve a $3.47 million bid by a Burnett County construction company for water system improvements during a regular session held Aug. 16. Qro Mex Construction, Inc. of Granite Shoals won the project with the best of six bids submitted. Other bids ranged up to a high of $5.667 million. “I want to say that Qro Mex is a very good company,” City Engineer Raul Garcia Jr. told the council. “We’ve worked with them and they are currently working on a project here in Devine right now. I think this is a very good bid for the council to consider.” A motion to approve the bid was made by Josh Ritchey and seconded by Debbie Randall. Council members Angela Pichardo and David Espinosa were not present. The contract is funded through a loan obtained from the Texas Water Development Board as part of the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund. The fund, authorized by the Safe Drinking Water Act, provides low-cost financial assistance for planning, acquisition, design, and construction of water infrastructure. Included in the project is installation of 20,343 linear feet of 8-inch water main, 3,327 linear feet of 5-inch water main, 6,613 linear feet of service line, plus various valves, hydrants and fittings. Garcia told the council he has met with Qro Mex to review issues with previous improvement projects involving other companies “so that these issues don’t come up again.” “We are confident they are going to follow our guidelines and work with us unlike our prior contractor,” Garcia said. Work on the project is expected to begin in mid-September, Garcia said. See article on tax rate and other council matters inside.
The Devine ISD school board voted unanimously Monday at adopt a 2022 tax rate of $1.0946 per $100 of property value to support a general fund budget of $20.3 million.
August 11, 2022 – The Medina County Sheriff’s Office is asking for your assistance in identifying a person/persons responsible for multiple fires that have been started in the last 48 hours.
“The fires have been started along our rural roadways, in the Castroville, Mico, Dunlay, Quihi, New Fountain, Hondo, and D’Hanis areas,” said Keith Lutz, MC Emergency Management Coordinator in an I-Info press release.
“Please report any tips or suspicious activity to the Medina County Sheriff’s Office dispatch at 830-741-6153, Medina County Crime Stoppers at 1-800-FOR-CUFF, or dial 911.”
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) today released 2022 A–F accountability ratings for districts and campuses, the first to be issued since 2019. All three of our local school districts received a B, with Devine ISD scoring 81, Lytle ISD-86, and Natalia ISD-88.
Customers who purchased allotments for agricultural irrigation with the Bexar-Medina-Atascosa Counties Water Control and Improvement District No. 1 have until Sept. 15 to submit orders water for the remainder of the year, BMA field manager Brian Sullivan said.
The Hassell family lost the roof to their porch, and this dog kennel was thrown across the yard and wrapped around the tree. Officials suspect a tornado did touch down on Monday, though it remains unconfirmed until they can inspect the damages in person later this week.
By Kayleen Holder
After many months of severe drought, the skies opened up and rain came pouring down this Monday, August 15. Unfortunately, it brought winds and rotation with it, causing damage to a couple of homes in Moore. NWS experts will be out to look at some of the worst damages on Wednesday, and said it was “likely” a tornado, though unconfirmed at this point.
Atascosa County Precinct 2 Commissioner Stuart J. Knowlton speaks to Lytle City Council about the appraisal budget increase that has been proposed.
By Anton Riecher Members of the Lytle City Council voted unanimously Monday, August 8, to join with the Atascosa County Commissioners Court in rejecting a proposed 2022-2023 budget for the Atascosa Central Appraisal District that proposed a 12 percent increase from last year. District 3 Alderman David Emery made the motion that was seconded by District 1 Alderman Joseph Morrow. “I trust our county commissioners and the county judge,” Emery said. “I know they have looked at this and the county auditor has discussed it in quite a bit of detail. We have a little time and I think we need to send it back and let them start again.” The 2022-2023 proposed budget submitted presented to the ACAD board in July totaled $2.104 million, a 19.4 percent increase over the previous year. The budget proposal was narrowly defeated five votes to four by the board. After further revision, the ACAD board approved a proposal calling for a 12 percent budget increase. However, when submitted to the various taxing entities involved, the commissioners voted to reject the proposal, chiefly, Precinct 2 Commissioner Stuart J. Knowlton explained to the city council. ACAD is responsible for appraising approximately 72,000 parcels of property, Knowlton said. But nearly half of those parcels involve mineral development and are appraised by an outside firm rather than ACAD. The remaining 42,000 to 46,000 parcels are comparable to the entire workload in either Medina or Wilson counties, Knowlton said. The main bone of contention is the hiring of an additional tax appraiser called for in the latest budget. “Those counties operate with fewer staff that we do,” he said. Although Knowlton, who serves on the ACAD board as chairman of the building committee, voted to approve the budget submitted to the commissioners, he told the city council that he voted against the proposal at the commissioner court meeting earlier Monday. As a counter proposal, Atascosa County Judge Robert Hurley and Tracy Barrera are suggesting an eight percent increase over the previous year’s ACAD budget, Knowlton said. “We have no issue with the raises for employees,” he said. “Several of their employees, the clerical staff, were way below what it should have been.” Kimberly Faulk, who represents the city of Lytle and the Lytle ISD on the appraisal board, also appeared before the city council. She said that the most significant raises in the budget represented supervisory personnel. However, Alderman Emery noted that an appraisal district deed clerk would receive a pay hike from $32,000 to $43,000 in the latest version of the budget. “Seems like quite a big jump in one year,” Emery said. “It might be better to break that up over a couple of years. We’d all like to get a 35 percent increase in our salary.” Lytle Salaries Salary increases for the Lytle city positions of finance director, city secretary and city administrator also received attention from the council. On a motion by Emery, seconded by Morrow, the council immediately increased the finance director’s salary to $70,000 a year, the city secretary to $55,000 a year and the city administrator to $90,000 a year, as called for in the 2022-2023 city budget. City Administrator Matt Dear explained that the finance director completed her probationary period on May 3 without receiving the customary nominal salary increase. The city secretary was permanently appointed in June but without a change from hourly employee to salaried. As for Dear himself, moving to his full salary required the council to wave three months of his probationary period. Mayor Ruben Gonzalez explained that the salary increases would have no fiscal impact since a recent retirement left the salary fund with enough to cover the amount and still show a surplus. “One of the reasons we are putting it on here is they have done a great job of getting us to where we are right now,” Gonzalez said. Subdivision Rules A motion by Emery to explore possible revisions to the city’s subdivision and zoning codes to require buffer zone and other requirements for the development of mobile home parks was approved by the city council. At issue are plans for a 170-plus lot mobile home park near Martin Street to be called Harris Park. Tammy McDonald and other residents on Martin Street let the council know their concerns. “Our city is not ready for this many homes,” McDonald said. “The city council should consider the restriction we have put on other developers’ subdivisions.” Specifically, she said she was concerned with the space permitted between homes and other buffer areas. Acknowledging that the council rezoned the property for this type of development nearly 25 year ago, McDonald said she was concerned about how the mobile home park would affect the value of her property. Jolinda Harris of Harris Western, Inc. told the council that only new homes meeting federal standards will be allowed in Harris Park. All will be individually owned with no rented mobile homes allowed, she said. “The only thing that is going to be rented is the lot,” Harris said. All residents will be fully vetted including a credit check and a check for criminal background, she said. “I’m not sure other subdivisions do that but we do,” Harris said. She also objected to calling Harris Park “a trailer park.” “These are really not trailers,” Harris said. “These are homes built in a factory and moved already built.” Harris’ father, George Harris, who developed his first mobile home park in Lytle nearly 50 years ago, took issue with the argument that the new mobile home park will have a negative impact on the local tax base. “They raised the taxes on units that belong to me almost $100,000 last year,” Harris said. “Since last year they raised it $200,000 above that.” Speed limits In other action, the council approved motion to revise proposed speed limits and install speed bumps on Lytle-Somerset Street. The motion by Morrow, seconded by Rodriguez, called for the city to investigation alternatives to speed bumps to better control speeding in that area. Crossing guard On a motion by Rodriguez, seconded by Emery, the council approved to $6,600 to cover last year’s contribution to Lytle ISD from the Bexar County School Crossing Guard fund. Memorial event Also, the council voted to partner with Patriot Automotive for the city’s September 11 memorial event. “It’s going to be a great event for our first responders,” Gonzalez said. 3 nominated for Citizenship Award committee The city council voted to nominate three appointees to the city’s Annual Citizenship Award Committee. Morrow nominated Margaret Wilson while Emery put forward the name of Robin Cantu. District 4 Alderman Michael Rodriguez put Eva DeLeon in nomination. Two additional nominees are pending.
