Subject: Newsletter #1 from the Liberty Hill River Organization [29 July 2008]

Welcome to the Liberty Hill River Organization's first newsletter.

This loosely organized group is concerned about the effects that the proposed expansion of Highway 29 through Liberty Hill would have on the city's river, the South Fork of the San Gabriel.

If you don't want to receive email from us, just reply to this message and say so. There is no mailing list software; this message is hand written by the web site editor.

In this issue:

1) Welcome
2) Expanded meeting time for August 4th open house
3) Wear Red for Solidarity
4) 5 reasons not to build near the river

1) Welcome to the Liberty Hill River Organization. Our mission to to help preserve the history and beauty of the South San Gabriel River valley. You can read a lot more on our home page: LibertyHillRiver.ORG

This group started when a bunch of neighbors on County Road 279 said, "if we don't want this road through our farms, we need a web site".

Ask and ye shall receive.

Oddly enough, though, one of our main goals is to be a voice for the "technologically challenged". It turns out that the hard-working families in our group spend a lot of time working to feed their families, manage their herds of cattle, and raise their kids and grandkids. They don't spend hours a day online -- they needed help.

By contrast, my job was the Internet, so I've built web-sites in the past (okay, the far past, long before Java and PHP and Ruby and FrontPage). The task fell to me, and I've spent the last week visiting farms and ranches, taking pictures of their land and trying to document the beauty of the Texas Hill Country that is still a part of Liberty Hill.

2) Expanded hours for the August 4th open house.

SH 29 Open House Update Extended Hours and Additional Opportunity for Input Monday, August 4 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. (New Time) Liberty Hill High School Cafeteria 13125 West State Highway 29 Liberty Hill, TX 78642

WILLIAMSON COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COVEY AND LONG ANNOUNCE LONGER MEETING TIME FOR SH 29 OPEN HOUSE AND OPPORTUNITY TO HAVE QUESTIONS ANSWERED

Commissioners Covey and Long have extended the hours for next Monday's open house in the Liberty Hill High School Cafeteria, located at 13125 West State Highway 29. It will now run from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.

"This project is really important to the future of Williamson County. Commissioner Covey, and I want to ensure it is done the right way," said Commissioner Long.

The format has also been modified from the initial meeting announcement. In addition to an open house with visuals, including maps of the alignments and the issues matrix, a presentation will be made to provide attendees with the latest update and progress report. If you would like to submit a question to be answered during the presentation phase of the meeting next Monday, please do so in writing to roads@wilco.org or fax to 512-943-1662 by Thursday, July 31, at 5:00 p.m.

"We hope Monday night's open house will serve to provide a thorough update of where we are in the process, clear up any misinformation and respond to questions that are important to the citizens," said Commissioner Covey.

Much of the format will remain in place with multiple ways to provide input. Citizens still will have the opportunity to visit individually with the engineering firm leading the study, as well as representatives of the County. The primary objective for the evening is to provide a venue in which members of the community can provide feedback about the various alternative alignments under review and the plan to eliminate 13 alternatives.

We hope to see you Monday. And, be sure to submit your questions to roads@wilco.org or fax to 512-943-1662 by 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, July 31.

3) We applaud the recent change of focus from the keep29local.COM group (website: keep29local.com) who have recently removed the "Send it South" line from their signs on highway 29:

Since July 24th they've decided to focus on keeping this road away from all of Liberty Hill. We can certainly respect and support that position.

They have asked that all property owners attending the August 4th meeting wear something red. Here is an excerpt from Pat McKinney's last post on their site:

"If you can, please attend the 8/4 meeting and please wear something red. Red shirt, red hat, red sweats, red top, red boots, red bandana in your pocket, red whatever. Wearing red means you support one solution that is acceptable to all with a stake in this. Please pass the 'wear red' message on and encourage everyone's attendance. Everyone will not be able to speak at this meeting, but wearing red will allow all of us to pass on our united message in a non-verbal manner to our Commissioners. The more red these people see at this meeting, the more it will motivate them to quickly rally their peers into a responsible solution for us and a graceful exit for them. Above all, if you elect to wear red, don't shame this color by bringing anything less than your best behavior."

4) Five reasons not to build Highway 29 near the South San Gabriel River

For more detail, see our resources page: LibertyHillRiver.ORG/resources.html

================== Reason number 5 : impervious cover ==================

The South fork of the San Gabriel River runs all year, but only just barely. I know that during a drought the river is only 6 inches wide on my property. Any reduction in groundwater spring inflows risks drying the river up all together, severely impacting the riparian rights of many ranchers to water from the river for their cattle.

While interviewing Lisa Harlow of the Flying H Ranch, see told me the flooding on their ranch was much higher after the Liberty Hill High School was built. I walked the whole property with her and she showed me where the flooding goes now, and it was much higher than the officially listed 100 year flood plain. That doesn't bode well for constructing a multilane road in the area.

Four miles of raised road with 10 lanes of pavement plus shoulders and medians would require paving 55-60 acres of land. Of the 400' wide right of way, they'd be paving 30%, or twice the amount of impervious cover that Austin and San Antonio allow.

================== Reason number 4 : Cost ==================

At previous meetings the county officials have said that building bridges costs too much. You can build a lot more road on ground than on air for the same amount of money.

But a second, hidden cost is the cost of maintaining bridges. It seems that there's no money in the budget to pick up trash or or do more than put up orange plastic to control erosion:

Liberty Hill tries to keep the graffiti painted over near Blue Hole:

But it seems the vandals have more free time than the maintenance crews.

The Highway 183 bridge over the South San Gabriel has been there for years, but apparently they didn't include making the road attractive to nature lovers. I took this photo last Sunday, July 27th:

Is this what's in store for the South San Gabriel and Highway 29?

================== Reason number 3 : History ===================

Last week I interviewed CJ an Pat Jones of the Indian Mound Ranch. You can see some of the photos at libertyhillriver.org/resources.html#indianmound

It turns out that there's no way to bypass Highway 29 to the South without going through this 130 year old ranch. That's a shame, because there are active archeological digs every year at this ranch. The Indian Mounds there are hundreds or thousands of years old.

For a lot more information about Liberty Hill history, see forttumbleweed.net/libertyhill.html

The Bryson Stagecoach Stop is already a nationally registered historic site, and that along with the cemetery is why the central expansion routes were dropped.

================== Reason number 2 : Character ==================

Part of what makes Liberty Hill special is the green space and family ties. This week I interviewed the Harlow family who own the Flying H Ranch just south of town. Three brothers and their families own and operate ranches next to each other, just across the street from their cousin Laura, who also owns and operates a ranch near the South San Gabriel.

While these ranches don't yet have the historic "Century" award that the Indian Mound Ranch earned, you can't get to 100 years of ownership without leaving people alone when their ranches have only been in the family for 70 or 50 or 30 years.

Right now, families who want to visit can just cross the street. Once there's a limited-access divided highway, you'll have to drive 2 miles one direction, make a U-Turn and then drive 2 miles in the other direction just to say hello.

So much for small town feel.

================== And the number one reason not to build highway 29 now: Hostages ==================

That's right, this whole project will hold the citizens of Liberty Hill hostage.

See: WilCo Hwy 29 FAQ

The county has no plans to build the new road before 2035, but they want to buy land now to "Save the taxpayer's money". How exactly will they save the taxpayer's money? By forcing property owners (who by definition ARE the tax payers) to sell during an economic downturn. These owners won't have the option of holding their land for 25 years and then perhaps selling at a profit. So we're saving SOME taxpayers money by taking away the investment of OTHER taxpayers.

We're told that we don't have to worry; the county isn't using eminent domain right now. They're only going to buy land from willing sellers.

Right....

But when they decide to put the road next to you because your neighbor is willing to sell his property now, you can bet they'll be back in a few years with the sledgehammer of "eminent domain".

So once they start, thousands of acres of Liberty Hill private property will be held hostage. Sure, someday development will come and you can sell your acres of tree-covered pasture to commercial developers, but only if you can wait 25-30 years for the road to get built and the traffic to increase.

Keeping your pasture productive, free from noxious plants and conserving your topsoil takes a lot of investment of time, energy and money. Why bother if the county has painted a target on your land.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. See you at the August 4th Open House at Liberty Hill High School.

Please tell your neighbors about the meeting, too. And keep sending in your photos and stories.

--Michael Mauldin, editor

web: LibertyHillRiver.ORG
email: info@libertyhillriver.org
post: PO Box 1150, Liberty Hill, TX 78642
phone: 484-7715