December 31, 2009

Top 10 of 2009

Drought, violence, expanded health care, jail woes, improved recycling and more made headlines here

By Anita Miller

Those who study climate can continue to banter about whether it was 22 or 23 months, but for everyone who lives in Central Texas it’s a bit of a moot point.

Drought

The drought that began in the fall of 2007 gripped the region for the first eight months of 2009 in a dry squeeze that threatened plants and animals alike.

For months, Hays and surrounding counties were ranked as experiencing “exceptional” drought, which is the most severe category recognized by climatologists.

Crops and vegetable gardens dried up, lawns turned brown and then to bare dirt, and trees including native species dropped their leaves and died.

The San Marcos River flowed at only 83 cubic feet per second (cfs) for a time during May. In comparison, the flow was 187 cfs on Thursday, Dec. 29.

Biologists say a flow as low as 100 cfs can put endangered species at risk.

A little farther north, the Highland Lakes dropped precipitously, to the point where the water level was so low public boat ramps weren’t usable.

Cities and regional water entities all imposed strict conservation measures and residents who disobeyed were given stern warnings to comply in an effort to reduce stress on the Edwards Aquifer.

The Trinity Aquifer was stressed as well, to the point the Jacob’s Well in Wimberley stopped flowing for a time.

As livestock struggled to survive, hay became a precious commodity, prompting authorities in nearby Caldwell County to post armed guards near some hayfields.

Even as the searing days went on, the old adage of it taking a flood to end a drought was worrisome to longtime residents fearful of a deluge’s runoff.

Yet, no flood came. Instead, the area was treated to slow, drenching rains that turned brown pastures lush green.

Plants grew and bloomed out of season and “volunteer” flowers and vegetables began to sprout in long-neglected gardens. Forbs that had been in the ground for a decade or more came to life, according to local master gardeners.

By Saturday, Dec. 29, San Marcos had received 21.1 inches of rainfall; still 8 inches short of what the National Weather Service considers average; however, the existence of a La Niña phenomenon in the south Pacific brings the possibility of a wetter-than-usual winter and early spring.

Though the 1950s period is still considered the “drought of record,” many were questioning whether, because of the increase in population, 2008-2009 might become record instead.

Violent encounters

There was only one murder in San Marcos in 2009 and three “home invasion” style robberies where shots were fired.

That would be enough violence for the city if it had been spread out over the course of 12 months but that’s not how it happened. Instead, the four encounters all occurred within a time span of eight weeks.

On Aug. 26, 30-year-old Byron Burse was shot to death by two men who kicked in the door to his home at Kelsea’s Place Apartments on Linda Drive.

Authorities said he had been involved in altercation hours before the slaying. Zackhary Allen James, 20, of Luling and Quenten Rashad Taylor, 21, of San Marcos were arrested and charged with murder.

That homicide had been the first in San Marcos since January 2008.

Nine days later, on Sept. 4, four teenagers from Luling burst into a home on Chestnut Street, police said, intending to rob a marijuana dealer that went by the nickname “Harry Potter.”

They argued with a resident in the living room which caught the attention of another in a bedroom. That resident armed himself and subsequently shot two of the teens to death and seriously wounded a third.

The surviving suspect, Frank Castro, who was 17 at the time, was later charged with capital murder under Texas “law of parties.” Castro was also charged with two counts of non-capital murder.

The district attorney’s office said it would not seek the death penalty; and in December, two people who lived in the Chestnut Street home at the time were charged with misdemeanor marijuana possession.

On Oct. 20, two men burst into an apartment at University Heights Apartments, argued with residents and shot one of them. They fled, but were arrested by police who also recovered their handguns.

Justin Pickaree, 19, and Michael Wilson, 23, have since been indicted for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon causing serious bodily injury, which is a second degree felony.

Two residents of that apartment have also been charged with misdemeanor marijuana possession.

Less than 24 hours after that occurred, 21-year-old Denis Andrew Nefedov of San Marcos burst into a home in the 700 block of Oscar Smith Lane and was shot three times by a resident.

He fled the scene, but turned up later at Central Texas Medical Center for treatment of his wounds. He was initially arrested for aggravated robbery; but grand jurors in December indicted him for burglary instead.

Two residents of that home also were charged with drug offenses up to second degree felonies.

Police Chief Howard Williams called the series of episodes “a rough stretch of bad luck” and noted that violent encounters had also been on the rise in Seguin and Comal County.

Healthcare industry

Two expansions and a big announcement helped grow the healthcare industry in Hays County during 2009.

The 112-bed Seton Medical Center Hays in Kyle opened its doors in October, making it the second full service hospital in the county.

The five-story facility cost $143.7 million and contains 331,671 square feet, making it the largest as well.

Built for future expansion, the facility offers a full-service emergency department, critical care, inpatient medical services including oncology, surgical care including orthopedics, cardiac care services including an open heart program, diagnostic an interventional services, outpatient therapies and women’s services including labor and delivery, obstetrics/gynecology and a nursery.

Seton Hays serves a 28-mile radius, about 185,000 people, hospital officials said. It has the ability to expand to 144 beds in the future.

In November, Central Texas Medical Center in San Marcos held a grand opening for its new Women’s Center expansion. The $35 million, 64,000 square foot addition expands the hospital to 150 beds, all of which are private rooms.

Additionally, the expansion brought between 50 and 75 new full-time jobs for health care professionals with an anticipated median income of $55,167.

Among the new programs the expansion affords is the Cradle of Care, which helps new mothers and offers programs in English and Spanish.

The Women’s Center features a high risk delivery suite, seven labor and delivery rooms, a laboring tub, a triage room, an antepartum room, two operating rooms for cesarean sections, 18 post partum rooms and a nine-bed neonatal intensive care (NICU) facility.

Before either of those facilities were open to the public, city leaders announced in July that Grifols Inc., a global healthcare company that produces medicines derived from blood plasma, will build a 72,000 square foot facility next year at River Ridge Business Park.

The company says it will invest $76 million in the facility and that it will employ about 190 people, with the average annual income around $38,000.

The city of San Marcos and Hays County gave a generous incentive package to the company, which is based in Spain. The project also got $500,000 Texas Enterprise Fund grant.

Confirmation

In November, BusinessWeek magazine confirmed what many in San Marcos already knew — that this community is among the best places in the nation for families to live.

The magazine placed San Marcos fourth in its annual survey if the “Best Places to Raise Your Kids.” Factors that figured into that decision included affordability, job growth, air quality and safety. The magazine also noted the presence of Texas State University and the city’s proximity to the Austin and San Antonio metroplexes.

San Marcos was ranked higher than any other Texas city, ahead of San Antonio and Houston. BusinessWeek also said the San Marcos River factored in its decision, as did recent economic growth.

Jail Problems

Problems at the Hays County Jail didn’t originate in 2009 but worsened, leaving Sheriff Tommy Ratliff in a tug of war with both the Commissioner’s Court and the Texas Commission on Jail Standards.

After failing two inspections in a row, the state commission put the county on notice for sanctions if problems largely attributed to mold and moisture weren’t remedied. Commissioners have approved fixing the roof of the 20-year-old facility and hired a consultant to look at more long-range improvements.

Specifically, the jail standards commission ordered the county to shut the kitchen, citing health concerns including mold in freezers.

Ratliff was appointed sheriff by commissioners after the December 2008 sudden death of former Sheriff Allen Bridges.

Child abuse trial

A Hays County man who molested his stepdaughter over a period of years was sentenced to 14 20-year terms by jurors in January.

Timothy Syfer, then 41, was convicted, in part, on the basis of testimony from the victim, now 18. She told jurors the molestation began when she was 11 years old, when the family lived in Hawaii, and continued after their move to Hays County until she made outcry to her mother in August 2007.

She told jurors that he would constantly “remind” her that she “owed” him for money spent on school or other necessary support.

The petite girl’s testimony — and a statement she made to Syfer after the sentence had been read — had some jurors and courtroom observers weeping openly.

At one point in her time on the stand, she said that the night before she told her mother what had been going on, she asked Syfer if he would make her do the things he did if she was his real daughter. After the sentencing, she read a statement saying that “all I ever wanted was for you to love me as your daughter.”

Jurors deliberated around six hours to decide Syfer’s guilt. It took them less than two to hand down the maximum sentence on each of the 14 counts of sexual assault of a child and indecency with a child.

Armed robber arrested

A one-man crime spree in late 2008 and early 2009 came to an end with the arrest of then 27-year-old Christopher Ryan Smith, formerly of New Braunfels.

Smith was sentenced to 17 years in federal prison for holding up banks and other businesses in Hays and adjacent counties.

Smith will serve the entire sentence, as there is no parole in the federal prison system.

Smith held up the American Bank of Texas in Garden Ridge on Oct. 28, 2008; the American National Bank in Luling on Dec. 12, 2008; the American National Bank in San Marcos on Jan. 12 and the April 16 robbery at the Dollar General Store on Willow Spring Drive, also in San Marcos.

The Dollar General robbery was his last, as he was captured after fleeing that scene. Smith was tried in federal court because he was charged with violating the Hobbs Act, which prohibits “interference with commerce by robbery.”

Smith will also have to pay $28,000 in restitution.

Baby death trial

Jurors found a 22-year-old San Marcos resident guilty of capital murder in June, and District Judge Jack Robison handed down a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

It took jurors less than three hours to convict Richard Perez Jr. of killing his girlfriend’s baby, then staging an auto accident to make it look like that’s how the baby was injured.

Assistant District Attorney Cathy Compton urged jurors to think of six-month-old Aiden Skyler Perez as their baby. “Please take care of him,” she had said in closing arguments.

Perez, who was not the child’s biological father, was the baby’s sole caregiver on Jan. 3, 2008, the night he died. He had called 911 from the IH-35 Access Road after running his car into a guardrail; and was performing CPR on the infant when emergency responders arrived.

However, they immediately doubted his story because the baby was already “limp, pale and cold to the touch.” Prosecutors also introduced evidence of prior injury Perez had inflicted on the baby, including injuries to his head that were covered by his hair.

After the sentence was read, the baby’s mother and grandmother addressed Perez from the witness stand. “Every day it hurts to look in the mirror and see Aiden’s eyes in mine,” said the baby’s mother Leticia Barcenas.

Nelda Barcenas, the grandmother, said that all the time she thought Perez was taking care of the baby, he was instead “killing him slowly.”

The case was a capital crime because it involved a child less than six years old.

Single stream

recycling

The San Marcos City Council made it much easier for residents to recycle items rather than throw them in the garbage by adopting Single Stream Recycling.

The method replaced the old one of sorting recyclables into different bins; however, at the time it was instituted in April, collection went from weekly to once every other week.

The council also expanded the list of items that would be accepted as recyclables.

The measure had been hotly debated because it costs residents a little more each month. Four months into the program, though, the city and Texas Disposal Systems said residential solid waste customers had almost doubled the amount of materials they collected for recycling.

Tube rental burns

The San Marcos River still flows along side the site, but the familiar Lions Club Tube Rental building was lost in April to a fire authorities said was intentionally set.

The early morning fire on April 27 swept through the cinder block City Park Recreation Building that housed the tube rental, destroying its contents which included more than a thousand yellow and blue tubes.

The stand, operated by the Noon Lions Club since the late 1970s, had generated thousands upon thousands of dollars that the club then donated back to the community.

Mike Rhoades, then president of the Noon Lions Club, vowed to move forward, and noted in May that support and donations had been “unbelievable” in the wake of the fire.

The club ordered new tubes, and rented them out of storage containers for the remainder of the summer.

During the height of the season, more than 800 tubes were rented every day.

The arson remains unsolved.