Lavaca County Commissioners Name New EMS Director

The Weimar Mercury

• The Lavaca County Commissioners’ Court has named Michael Furrh as the new director of the Lavaca County Emergency Medical Service program. Furrh is a native of Moulton and resides in Shiner. He is on the Shiner City Council and the Assistant Chief of the Shiner Volunteer Fire Department. He became the EMS director in Colorado County in 2016. He will remain the Colorado County’s EMS director until a new one is appointed.

The Bastrop Advertiser

• Attorney Colin Walsh filed a complaint last week accusing the Bastrop County’s Precinct 2 office of nepotism, fraud and corruption in its contract bidding process. Walsh, working on behalf of Cedar Creek-based company 304 Construction, accuses the Precinct 2 office of giving illegal advantages to a competing company, WJC Constructors, and having familial ties to office personnel. The nepotism accusations are from two relationships that tie the Precinct 2 office and the owner of Smithville-based WJC Constructors. The owner of the company is the son-in-law of Bastrop County Auditor Lisa Smith, who is “very close friends with” Beckett. The second tie involves the precinct’s special projects coordinator, who is the sister-in-law of the construction company’s owner. According to Walsh’s complaint, the special projects coordinator position was created especially for the owner’s sister-in-law, who works with and submits invoices to contractors like WJC Constructors. According to records, the Precinct 2 office has awarded construction contracts 18 times since 2017 for grant-funded projects. Nearly half of those contracts have gone to WJC, “despite rarely being the low bidder,” Walsh says. It’s unclear how the state or federal agencies will proceed.

The Seguin Gazette

• A Seguin woman remained in jail as of August 21 as investigators looked into the discovery of a decomposing body buried in the backyard of an Austin residence. On August 19 authorities arrested 36-year-old Kristie Michelle Cardenas in Seguin and took her to the Guadalupe County Jail. Online jail records showed she remained there under a $100,000 bond for a single count of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence with intent to impair. Reportedly, authorities in another jurisdiction arrested Walker Kaatz for the same charge in connection with the same body. “I don’t know the relationship of the two that were arrested. I do know they were residents at that location,” Austin Police Department Cpl. Destiny Silva said. “As far as the person that is deceased, we aren’t identifying that individual at this time because we do not have confirmation on the identity and next of kin has not been notified.” Cardenas provided information to the person who called 911, which led to officers responding to the residence and the ensuing investigation. About 8:40 a.m. on August 18 someone called 911 in Austin and said they thought a body was buried in the backyard of a home in the 5800 block of Mojave Dr. Officers received permission to search the home and found in the backyard what appeared to be an area where a body could have been buried. They excavated an area where the body was under concrete. “By afternoon, a deceased person was recovered from the backyard,” the police statement read. “The death is being treated as suspicious.” The discovery transferred the case into a homicide investigation, Silva said. Police were unsure of the cause or manner of death or exactly how the deceased person is connected to the suspects, she said. “That is still part of our investigation. We have preliminary information just based on talking to the suspects involved that there may have been some kind of relationship between the suspects and the individual,” Silva said. “This appears to be an isolated incident.” The investigation is in its beginning stages.

Giddings Times & News

• Sgt. Billy Stephens with the Giddings Police Department has been appointed as Constable of Precinct 3, in a special meeting of the Lee County Commissioners Court on August 25. Stephens will fill out the unexpired term of former Constable Farah Ramsey, who resigned from both her positions as constable and as captain of the Giddings Police Department. Stephens will also continue in his position with the Giddings Police Department.

The Banner-Press

• On August 27 there was a large house fire between Brenham and Burton that required the assistance of all Washington County fire departments. The Berlin Volunteer Fire Department, with mutual aid from the Burton Volunteer Fire Department, responded shortly before 10:45 a.m. to a structure fire in the 600 block of Harrisburg Road off Highway 290. Firefighters found a two-story structure on fire. Due to the amount of fire and need for additional personnel, an all call for all county fire departments was sent. Units cleared the scene at approximately 7:30 p.m., after working the fire for approximately nine hours. The home was a total loss. No one was home at the time of the fire. One firefighter was treated and released on scene. According to Berlin Volunteer Fire Chief Mike McAnally, the cause of the fire is “suspicious” and is currently being investigated by the Washington County Sheriff’s Office and State Fire Marshal’s Office.