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The San Marcos Daily Record takes a look back at the year that was — 2022. Above, Shaquille O’Neal, the Basketball Hall of Fame player — performed a DJ set at the Marc under his stage name DJ Diesel on Jan. 8. Below, organizers pass out a voting forms and a ballot initiative to decriminalize marijuana at Texas State University on Feb. 1. Daily Record photos by Lance Winter & Gerald Castillo

LOOKING BACK AT 2022: Daily Record revisits top stories from January-March

Tuesday, December 27, 2022

Editor’s note: This story is the first installment of a four-part series looking back at the year that was — 2022.

As a new year draws near, the San Marcos Daily Record takes a look back at top stories from 2022 — From Basketball Hall of Famer, Shaquille O’Neal making an appearance in San Marcos to the Texas State University  System Board of Regents naming a finalist for university president position, the beginning of 2022 saw headline moments.

January

•The year began with a COVID-19 wave still lingering as Texas State University chose to begin its spring semester virtually. The online/remote learning period took place between Jan. 18-30 as the Omicron variant continued to spread.

•NBA royalty made an appearance in San Marcos on Jan. 9 when Shaquille O’ Neal performed a DJ set under his stage name “DJ Diesel” at The Marc.

•The Rotary Club of San Marcos celebrated its 100th anniversary with a ceremony at the Embassy Suites ballroom. The night marked “a Celebration of Service.”

•Former San Marcos Police Department Sgt. Ryan Hartman was suspended indefinitely as the result of sustained misconduct related to dereliction of duty and insubordination on Jan. 18.

Hartman’s employment with SMPD has remained controversial after a fatal traffic collision he caused in June 2020.

Jennifer Miller was killed on June 10, 2020 in Lockhart when Hartman, who was off duty, struck Pamela Watts’ Honda Accord after running a stop sign going 16 mph over the speed limit with an open container of Dos Equis beer in his Ford F-250, according to Lockhart Police Department records.

LPD recommended a charge of criminally negligent homicide after a months-long investigation into the incident. But a grand jury handed him a no-bill. Hartman was terminated in June after he appealed the indefinite suspension.

•Hays County’s Emergency Rental Assistance program lost $772,791 of federal grant funding when the U.S. Treasury reallocated the funds because the Hays County program didn’t meet the targeted milestone for distribution.

•An overnight fire in Kyle damaged two businesses on Jan. 26. The Kyle Fire Department responded to a commercial structure fire at Papa Jack’s at 108 W. Center St. in Kyle

•Texas State University students returned to campus on Jan. 31 after it began the spring semester virtually.

February

•An effort to decriminalize marijuana in San Marcos began as Mano Amiga,  a grassroots immigration and legal reform organization, began gathering signatures to place an initiative on the ballot that would establish an ordinance eliminating low-level marijuana enforcement in San Marcos.

Mano Amiga, along with several organizations, hosted a press conference at Texas State University on Feb. 1 to announce the kickoff of the ballot initiative campaign.

“Eighty-seven percent of Texans support some form of decriminalization,” said Mike Siegel, Political Director of Ground Game Texas. “This is something that’s popular among Democrats and Republicans. And for some reason there’s a political bloc that prevents us from keeping people out of jail,letting people move on with their lives even if they decide to smoke some marijuana. So this is us taking common sense action at the local level.”

•A fire broke out at a local Mexican restaurant on Feb. 7. The San Marcos Fire Department was dispatched to El Golfo de Mexico — 900 North Interstate 35 — for a reported structure fire at approximately 10:22 a.m. A City of San Marcos spokesperson said fire crews quickly arrived on scene and saw heavy smoke coming from the gable vents and eaves of the restaurant’s roof.

•A Caldwell County grand jury indicted Terry Turner for the murder of Adil Dghoughi, who was killed when Turner shot him in his driveway in Martindale. Turner, a 65-year-old Martindale man, admitted to shooting and killing Dghoughi on Oct. 11, 2021. The Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office arrested him 11 days later.

•Hays County lost an additional $1.7 million in funding for its Emergency Rental Assistance Program after the U.S. Treasury recaptured the money due to the county not meeting a milestone for distribution. According to a news release, “Prior to that date, county officials sent a request that the Treasury either not recapture the funds or, if they must be recaptured, to re-allocate them back to the county based on our current and projected level of efficiency. In that letter, Hays County outlined how during the first six months of the program, under a program manager who resigned in early January, the county distributed about $757,000 and helped 384 applicants (commonly referred to with the ERA office as tickets).”

•The San Marcos City Council approved to appoint Julia Gannaway from the law firm Ross Gannaway PLLC to represent the City of San Marcos after Hartman filed an appeal of his indefinite suspension.

Above, the good times continued despite rain during the annual Mardi Gras Parade organized by the Mistick Krewe of Okeanos. 

March

•The Texas Department of Transportation — alongside Hays County, City of San Marcos and Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization leaders — gathered to break ground on the final portion of the Farm to Market 110 project on March 1.

The FM 110 project was broken into three segments — State Highway 123 to Farm to Market road 621; Farm to Market Road 621 to State Highway 80; and State Highway 80 to Interstate 35. The first two portions of the project have been completed. The final portion, which will cost approximately $35.65 million, is set for completion in spring 2024

The FM 110 North project will include one lane in each direction, 10-foot shoulders, an overpass at State Highway 21 and room for expansion with an additional lane in each direction.

•San Marcos Consolidated ISD’s mask mandate ended on March 8. The school district announced that it would recommend masks but would no longer require them in a message sent to SMCISD families March 7.

“The mask mandate worked when vaccines were not available for all students and helped students and staff weather the Delta and Omicron surges,” the district said in its message to parents. “Now that guidance from public health experts is changing, we need to update our protocols.”

SMCISD made the decision to recommend masks but to end the mandate after the Board of Trustees gave Superintendent Dr. Michael Cardona the authority to determine the necessity of masks given current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.

•The SMCISD Board of Trustees approved a resolution to donate the old Bonham campus to Centro Cultural Hispano de San Marcos on March 7. The board’s approval authorizes the donation of the former campus located at 211 Lee St. to Centro, which it currently uses. The donation includes the property legally described as “Dan McKie #2 Addition, Block 3, Lot 1 and Lot 8, San Marcos, Hays County, Texas, with improvements consisting of a 12,795 square foot building.”

•A San Marcos teen was indicted on three federal charges by a grand jury in connection with an Austin synagogue fire. Franklin Barrett Sechriest, 19, was indicted on an arson charge, hate crime - damage to religious property charge and a charge of use of fire to commit a federal felony.

Sechriest, who attended Texas State University, was indicted for allegedly setting a fire at Congregation Beth Israel, 3901 Shoal Creek Blvd. in Austin, on Oct. 31, 2021.

•The Hays-Caldwell Women’s Center marked the grand opening of a project more than 20 years in the making with a ceremony on March 25. HCWC staff, board and capital campaign committee members and donors commemorated the grand opening of Marla’s Place — Marla R. Johnson Family Housing Center — with a ribbon cutting, facility tours and a grand opening ceremony.

“We are so very proud of [Marla’s Place],” HCWC Executive Director Melissa Rodriguez said. “We’re excited to think about all of the families who will live here and the difference that Marla’s Place will make in their lives.”

HCWC is a nonprofit that provides services, including counseling, advocacy, 24-hour crisis response and shelter to Hays and Caldwell county residents who are victims of family violence, dating violence, sexual assault and child abuse

•The San Marcos City Council unanimously agreed to move forward with the renaming of San Marcos Rec Hall to the Pauline Espinosa Community Hall on March 22.

“Mrs. Espinosa was a prominent, highly-respected and accomplished person who lived her life always in service to this community therefore it is most appropriate that her name and ‘community hall’ be linked in the name of this building,” said Bobbie Garza-Hernandez, San Marcos resident and member of the Council for the Indigenous and Tejano Community (CITC), said during the March 22 meeting.

•Texas State University System Chancellor Brian McCall selected Kelly R. Damphousse, Ph.D., as the sole finalist in the presidential search, TSUS announced on March 31.

“Dr. Damphousse is a respected university and community leader who possesses the knowledge, experience and passion to lead Texas State to new levels of achievement and success,” McCall said in a statement. “I sincerely thank the advisory search committee, including TSUS Regents Don Flores, Charlie Amato, Garry Crain and Nikki Harle for their time, energy and deliberation during the search process.”

San Marcos Record

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