Friends and associates held a gathering in his memory in Webberville earlier this month not far from the rude cabin where he lived for decades near FM 969. He is survived by a son, Paul, and a daughter , Heidi who became his legal guardian at the end of his life.

Prager was a veteran of World War II in the Pacific Theater and retired from enlisted service in the U.S. Air Force after 23 years. Subsequently the West Virginia native was a graduate student in rhetoric and literature, with a keen interest in contemporary poetry, at The University of Texas at Austin.

He was among the first handful of volunteers to begin organizing opposition to plans by the Lower Colorado River Authority to open a lignite strip mine at Camp Swift north of Bastrop in 1979. He became an organizing member of the Sayersville Historical Society and the Central Texas Lignite Watch, which also battled strip mine plans in Fayette and other parts of Bastrop County.

In later years Prager became a mentor to leaders of organizations including the Bastrop County Environmental Network, Neighbors for Neighbors and the Pines and Prairies Land Trust. He was among the first to realize the potential and call for the creation of a local groundwater conservation district.

In addition to his interests in history, natural science and the arts, Prager also devoted some years to the cultivation on grape vines with an eye to wine making with various partners. A sociable man, he valued both the friendships and the products those ventures led to.

“That’s a no-brainer” for the local economic development board, said Board Member Willie DeLaRosa. “We don’t need to be exporting water to New Braunfels.”

If approved the GBRA water deal “could have a negative impact on Bastrop County,” said Bastrop City Manager Mike Talbot. The fear is that current water export plan, if implemented, could leave too little groundwater available to support continued growth in Bastrop and Lee County over the next two or three decades.

Additional concerns by local economic development and water planners is that the export scheme has now been included in an official water plan by a neighboring regional water planning group which expects the $330 million project to be financed, at least in part, by the Texas Water Development Board, the state agency which must also approve regional water plans for the Lower Colorado River Basin as well as the Guadaloupe River Basin.

Talbot said he and other local officials will meet this week with State Rep. Tim Kleinschmidt to review concerns about the GBRA proposal and its likely impact on local cities and other water utilities including Aqua Water Supply Corp. In a press announcement last week Aqua officials voiced fears that the proposed export plan could impair its ability to fulfill a constract to supply water to the planned 7,400-home XS Ranch project north of Bastrop.

Judy Ing died in a collision at Texas 95 and Hoffman Road Saturday morning. The vehicle she was driving was struck broadside by a pickup headed north on Texas 95 as she entered the intersection from Hoffman Road, said Police Chief David Board. Earlier in the morning she had gone to an area home to feed the cats of a couple who were out of town for the weekend, according to close friends.

The other driver involved in the mishap, whose named was not immediately available, was taken to Lakeside Hospital with injuries which were not considered life threatening, said Board.

Ing, a photographer, writer and graphic designer, was retired from the M.D. Anderson Cancer Research Center near Smithville. For many years she was a stalwart and leader in both the Bastrop County Audubon Society chapter and the Bastrop County Environmental Network. At various times she worked with or directed periodical publications for both organizations.

He was also owner of the DD exotic game and hunting preserve south of Smithville in the Rosanky area and a publicity-shy figure in the Smithville community.

The company he founded in 1968, Enterprise Products Partners LP , and took public in 1998 owned some 48,000 miles of oil, gas and petrochemical product pipelines in the U.S. as well as 25 natural gas processing plants, according to the AP report. The cause of death was not immediately announced by the company.

His wealth, estimated at $9 billion, put Duncan among the 100 richest U.S. residents, by some accounts.

The Rosanky exotic game ranch was apparently an outgrowth of one of his personal passions, big game hunting. The “Double D” spread included herds of large game animals from North America, Africa and Asia which were carefully managed for hunting by Duncan customers and guests. The lavish grounds include a luxurious hunting lodge, fishing lake, and meat processing facilities.

In 2002 Duncan attracted wide attention after being suspected of illegally shooting sheep and moose from a helicopter while on a hunting expedition in Russia. He was never formally charged with a crime in connection with the incident. He insisted that he and others on the trip did not know the activity was illegal.

The current statewide water planning process calls for determining a number of basic factors including what is called managed available groundwater (MAG) and desired future conditions for aquifers (DFC). The Lost Pines board, which oversees groundwater resources in Bastrop and Lee County, cannot by itself determine those numbers, and when that work will be complete is not clear to officials.

Lost Pines officials imposed a moratorium on new drilling into the Simsboro aquifer last month amid growing pressure from private water interests to boost allowable pumping sharply and soon. District officials fear they may have already issued drilling permits for more water than is likely to be available over the next 50 years without depleting the aquifer.

Extending the ban was denounced by officials of a water marketing group, End-Op, which hopes to complete a deal to sell up to 56,000 acre feet of water a year to the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority for use in the San Marcos area or further south. As much or more Simsboro water is also being sought in Lee and Bastrop County by other interests, including the Brazos River Authority.

The undertaking is especially important at this juncture, perhaps, because our most senior council members have not yet been in office two years, the others less than a year. So, yes, they might profitably spend some time together thinking through what they most need to focus on and why.

Yet keeping the council’s collective eye on a unifying and distant dream of the future is proving problematic, for two reasons at least. One is temperament. Council members Ken Kesselus and Kay McAnally seem most comfortable with forming overarching visions to help shape near-term goals, activities and plans. Perhaps the sharpest contrast is with Mayor Terry Orr and Council member Joe Beal, both engineers by training. Just looking around town, they see lots of issues which need addressing sooner rather than later. Council member Julie Hart seems temperamentally more aligned with Orr and Beal.

Sharpening this divide, perhaps, is that Orr, Beal and Hart are all facing re-election in less than three months, and at least in some cases they’ve clearly been hearing from likely voters who have causes to plead. The last day to file for a place on the May city ballot to challenge any one of them is March 8.

And to be fair, every Bastrop council since at least 1985 has been pushed and pulled by the competing demands of thinking and planning for the long term vitality of the community versus handling the press of more mundane tasks like fixing the potholes, draining the swamp, cleaning up the trash, deciding on construction plans and permits, etc., etc. For proof, just look at any regular council business meeting agenda.

The city manager and all his department directors face the same problem because each day has only 24 hours and all of them must stop to eat and sleep at least occasionally. So it’s small wonder that a few vital planning and visioning issues so far seem to have slipped under the council’s long range radar horizon.

I’ll touch on only two such topics briefly here with a promise to return to both later. A controversial tree protection law for the city and its extra-territorial jurisdiction was recently scuttled by the council without so much as a public hearing. As the council in recent weeks has discussed planning issues of import, I think I have yet to hear the phrase “tree protection.” This from a city which proclaims itself “Heart of the Lost Pines” and whose character, appearance and attractiveness are significantly defined by the natural landscape? Hello! Anybody home?

And I can’t see how to divorce the tree issue from the broader topic of how the city needs to manage its giant and crucial ETJ for future generations. Now that Bastrop has been named a destination of distinction by the National Truse for Historic Preservation, can any council reasonably ignore the opportunity afforded by its (limited) control over areas between the city and Austin to enhance Bastrop’s allure?

Anyone not concerned about future unpleasant possibilities should take a fresh look at the four corners of the Texas 95 intersection with Texas 71 in Bastrop. How many more acres of trees should the city allow to be cleared away to be decorated by additional billboards and flashing advertising signs along Texas 71 between Bastrop and Garfield? That landscape and prime development corridor is already heavily degraded, in case anyone didn’t notice.

How the city handles such issues will help define Bastrop for decades. Hello! Anyone home?

Despite a flurry of publicity and investigation over the following weeks, no one has ever been charged, arrested or tried for the crime. Wharton was a leading organizer in efforts to stymie lignite strip mining plans first at Camp Swift, in Fayette County and later at the Steiner Ranch north of Bastrop. She was a founding member of the Central Texas Lignite Watch, the mother or grandmother of subsequent environmental organizations in Bastrop and neighboring counties. She was also a founding member of the Sayersville Historical Association focused on the rural community where she lived between Bastrop and Elgin on the banks of Big Sandy Creek.

The initial investigation into the murder was hampered by inter-agency rivalries during the 1984 primary election race for Bastrop County sheriff. In the late 1980s former sheriff Con Kiersey occasionally talked about reviving the investigation, but nothing occurred as a result. Still later Chief Deputy Sheriff Ronnie Duncan did reopen the case, but the only result was to clear a few possible suspects who had been the subject of early interest.

When Chief Deputy Charlie Littleton replaced Duncan in the sheriff’s department last year, he promised to look into the Wharton murder again. Littleton said recently that the only ongoing effort to solve the case is a regular check of DNA evidence preserved at the time against a growing data base of similar evidence gathered by law enforcement agencies in the years since. A Texas Ranger remains assigned to follow any new information, said Littleton.

After the draft regulations were recommended for council approval last month by the Planning and Zoning Commission, City Hall was flooded with phone calls and emails denouncing the measure, and council members began voicing reservations.

One of the critics who addressed the council, Georgia Parmalee, said the rules as proposed were excessive. “We can take care of our own trees with a little (city) guidance,” she said.

New tree preservation rules were proposed after a public outcry last year when commercial lots at three corners of the Texas 71 intersection with Texas 95 in Bastrop were largely stripped of trees and the formerly rolling terrain was leveled.

Council Members Julie Hart and Kay Garcia McAnally praised critics of the proposal for their civic engagement.

Mayor Terry Orr said he supports “some form of tree ordinance” but argued that the time is not right to pursue the issue, especially with the city planning director’s position vacant. Former planning director Stacy Snell resigned last month to accept a position in New Braunfels.

Trees were also the topic of two other items on Tuesday’s city council agenda. In one case the council approved a proposal by the Riverside Grove Homeowners Association to pay for and plant 72 shade trees in public rights of way in the subdivision over the next three years.

On a separate issue the council endorsed Talbot’s suggestion to ask a tree expert to investigate and make recommendations about a concern by downtown building owner Kay Wesson that a tree in the sidewalk near the intersection of Main and Pine Street is damaging her building at 901 Main St. The arborist is already giving advice about tree preservation measures during a landscaping and utility relocation project now underway on
Chestnut Street east of Water Street, said Talbot.

The news, really, is not that GBRA wants to buy groundwater from somebody, somewhere. They’ve been in the market for some years now without having struck a deal with anyone so far. Essentially there’s no more water GBRA can sell from its only reliable source, Canyon Lake, and there’s no money anywhere to build new impoundments.

However Price’s story makes startlingly clear some basic facts about the potential water future of the Bastrop area and how Texas law and current water policy could allow rural areas with (present) excess groundwater resources to be plundered for profit to support continued urban sprawl between Austin and San Antonio.

Bastrop and Lee County lie atop a segment of the Wilcox-Carrizo Aquifer presently assigned by state law to the supervision of the Lost Pines Groundwater Conservation District. The district presently estimates production from this source at 26,000 acre feet per year. The Texas Water Development Board, a state agency, estimates the district’s production capacity at perhaps 73,000 acre feet per year.

So what’s the problem? Private water marketing hustlers, smelling future profits, are busy trying to arrange commercial deals to soak up all that capacity and more, even as the Bastrop area is poised for potentially explosive growth in the next decade or two.

Price properly identifies some key figures in the race to tie up Central Texas groundwater resources and hints at some implications for the Bastrop area. First, perhaps, is an outfit called End-Op which is headed by former Williamson County commissioner Frankie Limmer, who is also building a new funeral home in Bastrop. Irony? We’ll see.

End-Op has leased significant pumping rights in Lee and northern Bastrop County and is talking to GBRA about selling it perhaps 40,000 acre feet per year. So far Limmer has not actually sought production permits from the Lost Pines conservation district, perhaps in part because its policy is not to grant water export permits unless there is a known and signed customer. A rival coalition of groundwater interests, calling itself Sustainable Water Resources, has also talked to Lost Pines about permits to produce some 45,000 acre feet a year. So far, however, SWR has not revealed any actual or potential customers, though its officials have dickered some with GBRA in the recent past.

Then there’s Blue Water, another water marketing enterprise, which already holds permits to produce up to 71,000 acre feet a year just across the border from the Lost Pines district in Milam and Burleson County. According to preliminary studies by the Lost Pines district, Blue Water’s proposed production could lower water levels as far away as Bastrop County by 100 feet or more.

These numbers already add up to more than the Bastrop-Lee County district can likely yield over a sustained period, say 50 years.

And Price doesn’t mention some smaller, more advance deals to supply Bastrop and Lee County water to areas closer to Austin. This year, for instance, the City of Manor paid Bastrop County $25,000 to sign a contract allowing the use of county road rights of way for a pipeline to send water (perhaps a million gallons a day from the McDade-Paige area) to Manor’s spreading subdivisions in eastern Travis County. If Manor actually builds this transmission line, Bastrop County gets another $300,000.

And don’t forget the contract signed this month between the XS Ranch development, west of Texas 95 just north of Bastrop, with Aqua Water Supply Corp., a member-owned utility based in Bastrop. Aqua agreed to supply XS Ranch with water for the equivalent of almost 7,500 housing units, apparently from its nearby Camp Swift well field. If built as presently planned, XS Ranch would have more residents than Bastrop does today. Bastrop was sending about 2 million gallons a day to its customers this summer, and the city is adding new water production capacity as fast as it can locate promising well sites.

Meanwhile the Lost Pines Groundwater Conservation District struggles to balance its conservation goals with the growing local demand and the ambitions of commercial water developers with deep pockets and an eye on more profitable markets farther afield. State law limits the power of such districts to restrict or curtail the export of water to other areas, even when they lie outside the impacted river watershed basin.

In that light a Nov. 21 guest column in the Austin daily bragging about the far sighted wisdom of Texas’ water planning process offers little comfort or support for local officials on the front lines of the state’s water wars. State Rep. Bill Callegari, a Houston area Republican who is vice chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, wraps his praise of the current process in various vague verbal phrases designed to disguise the plain truth: the groundwater of rural Texas is for sale to the highest bidders regardless of the needs of the local folks most likely to be left high and dry, in some cases like Bastrop and Lee County, within a generation or two.

Those younger than 17 are generally considered children under Texas law and their cases handled under a separate set of criminal and family laws. In exceptional cases, however, juveniles may be transferred for adjudication under adult criminal rules.

Tuesday’s murder indictment names Joseph Douglas as responsible for the shooting death of Tracy Bellard, 42, “on or about Aug. 17″ this year. The grand jury action puts the defendant on formal notice of the charge he will face in court.
Douglas is being held in the Bastrop County Jail, apparently unable to post bail, pending trial. The victim’s daughter, identified in court records as Haley Bellard, is being held in a juvenile detention facility in Seguin.

Tracy Bellard was reported missing Aug. 14 after she failed to appear for work at her family’s restaurant, Mimi G’s, on FM 1441 that day. Douglas and the daughter were questioned Aug. 17 after Tracy Bellard’s auto was spotted at the residence where Douglas lived near Smithville.

Subsequently both the juvenile and another witness told investigators from the Bastrop County Sheriff’s Department that they had seen Douglas gun down Tracy Bellard at her McDade home with a 22-calibre rifle, according to court records.