Bastrop, Texas Events, News & Stories

Bastrop, Tx–Court documents obtained by Bastrop-News.com shed new light on the alleged fatal beating of a Paige cook last year at the hands of two friends and what happened to the dead man’s body, which criminal investigators now say may never be recovered.

Michael Vandyke, 23, had been employed as a cook at a Paige restaurant before his disappearance about Dec. 15 last year. On Dec. 30 relatives reported him missing to Bastrop County law enforcement. His body has never been found, but a roommate and another friend are both being held in the Bastrop County Jail on murder charges.

Dustin Dickman, 24, and Dennis Leetch, 25, are behind bars under $500,000 bail each. Dickman and his girlfriend shared a residence with Vandyke near Paige. According to a court document, Dickman told investigators that he and Leetch assaulted Vandyke early on Dec. 16 “to teach him a lesson on how to treat family and friends.”

The documents do not suggest what might have prompted this instructional session.

Investigators believe Vandyke died after Leetch knocked him to the ground with a beer bottle and was kicked both by Dickman and Leetch before being struck repeatedly in the head with a block of wood by each man. Dickman was arrested Jan. 25 after being interrogated by investigators. Leetch was arrested Jan. 29 in San Marcos and talked with investigators as well, according to court records.

According to court documents Leetch also told investigators that Vandyke was initially buried in a shallow grave near the Paige residence Vandyke shared with Dickman and his girlfriend, was exhumed early in January and taken to a rural site near San Marcos in Hays County. The body was placed in an metal tool box designed for the bed of a pickup truck, doused with gasoline and burned for “approximately 1 1/2 days” or roughly 36 hours, one document says.

Afterward the “ashes” went into “an old BBQ pit” and were discarded in a trash dumpster at a San Marcos apartment complex, the documents suggest.

Investigators told a judge they found a site near San Marcos where they believe Vandyke’s body had been burned . They later recovered from a separate rural location the tool box which may have been used to incenerate the corpse.

Sheriff’s Department investigator Mike Daniel said Vandyke’s remains are likely long buried in a solid waste landfill but that the tool box and other items recovered during the investigation are being examined for trace evidence by the Texas Department of Public Safety crime laboratory in Austin.

Bastrop, Tx–A Cedar Creek woman was sentenced to nine years in prison and another 10 years on probation for driving drunk and causing the death of one Irish tourist and severe injuries to another in a traffic accident on Texas 71 just west of Bastrop in September 2007.

Susan Moore, convicted of intoxication manslaughter and intoxication assault last week by a jury in Bastrop, will serve up to nine years in prison and then begin a 10-year term on probation, ruled 423rd District Judge Chris Duggan.

Prosecutors said Moore had a blood alcohol level more than twice the legal limit for drivers following the accident.

Bastrop, Tx–The city council awarded bids Jan. 19 for the best construction offers for a new city hall and Bastrop’s first ever convention center on Chestnut Street. The total cost is almost $1 million less than the most recent estimates last year.

Gaeke Construction Co. of Giddings will undertake the new city hall construction for a base bid of $1,587, 617. Furniture, fixtures, technology equipment and additional off-site utility and drainage requirements will push the final price tag to just over $2.8 million or $500,000 less than planning estimates.

The final cost for a 26,000-square-foot convention center across the street from the new city hall will reach $5.1 million. The bid will go to Collier Construction Co. of Brenham. The total expense, including some $320,000 in street, drainage and utility improvements to Farm Street, will be just over $496,000 below planning estimates.

Cedar Creek, Tx–Bastrop County officials and other dignitaries will gather at 10 a.m. Dec. 5 for ceremonies dedicating the first county-owned and operated park. It adjoins Cedar Creek Elementary School on FM 535, cost roughly $1 million and came to reality only after a decade of planning, controversy and compromise.

Among others to be honored in connection with opening of the project will be the late businessman and philanthropist James Voss, a Cedar Creek native and oil company executive, who contributed to the park’s development. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department put a $500,000 grant into the effort and the Bastrop school district made available the 44-acre park site bordered by Cedar Creek.

Perhaps appropriately, weather for the event is expected to be chilly. Weather forecasters are predicting the first hard freeze of the season on Friday night, with a chance of light snow before morning. From the time the park was first proposed by former Pct. 1 County Commissioner Johnny Sanders, it had enthusiastic supporters but also faced deep skepticism and doubt in some quarters, hence the much-delayed development process.

In later phases of development the park was championed by Bastrop County Judge Ronnie McDonald.

Bastrop, Tx–A 15-year-old suspect in the August shooting death of her mother in McDade was back in Bastrop on Nov. 18 for a hearing on whether she should continue to be held in a juvenile detention center in Seguin pending trial. After an appearance before 423rd District Judge Chris Duggan, the juvenile was remanded to custody.

The girl and her 18-year-old boyfriend were detained Aug. 17 in connection with the disappearance of Tracy Bellard, 42. Investigators believe Bellard was shot to death in her McDade home Aug. 14 and her body subsequently burned in a brush pile near Smithville.

Bastrop County Court at Law Judge Benton Eskew, who normally handles juvenile criminal cases in the county, has recused himself–on his own motion–from this case. Eskew did not explain his move.

The case was subsequently assigned to Judge Duggan whose court also has jurisdiction over juvenile matters.

Duggan has yet to take up a motion by prosecutors to consider the juvenile’s murder case under adult–rather than juvenile–criminal laws. A hearing on that issue is unlikely before January 2010, said District Attorney Bryan Goertz this week.

Also charged in Tracy Bellard’s death is Joseph Douglas who is being held in the Bastrop County Jail under $500,000 bail.

Bastrop, Tx–Drivers on Texas 71 west of Bastrop and residents who live in the vicinity of the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort and Spa should not be surprised by unusual police presence and security measures in the area this week. Beginning Nov. 17 local authorities are braced for the arrival of Republican state governors from across the US for their annual national conference at the Lost Pines luxury retreat.

The GOP conference of governors is scheduled Nov. 18-20, according to the organization’s Web site. Local officials, including the county judge and sheriff, were briefed Monday on preparations for the assembly of political leaders with an eye on the 2010 election season.

Each of the 20 Republican governors is expected to bring a special security detail to the sessions, and the Texas Department of Public Safety plans to assign extra officers to each delegation, according to sources familiar with the preparations.

The governors also plan to spend some time relaxing from the rigors of public responsibility and political ambition. They have reportedly reserved Cindi’s Gone Hog Wild, a biker-themed bar on Texas 71 near Garfield, for a gathering during their Bastrop County confab.

Bastrop, Tx–A Smithville area resident was sentenced to 10 years probation and a $5,00 fine Oct. 16 for improper sexual contact with a girl younger than 17 in 2003.

Moise Cruz Borja will also be required to spend 180 days in the Bastrop County Jail in a work release program.

A jury in Bastrop found Borja guilty of indecency with a child on Oct. 15 after hearing more than two days of testimony before 335th District Judge Reva Towslee Corbett. The same jury heard additional evidence relevant to his punishment Friday before returning a verdict on sentencing.

Bastrop, Tx–In a report to the city council Oct. 13, City Manager Mike Talbot said a date for soliciting bids for building a new city hall and Bastrop’s first convention center has been delayed until Nov. 16, roughly 30 days behind previous plans.

The two new structures on Chestnut Street immediately east of the Union Pacific rail line in the city will be bid as a single package in hopes of ginning up competitive interest from contractors.

Talbot said the city should receive bids for the work by Dec. 1, and he hopes to award a construction contract before Christmas, even if it means a late December council meeting to seal a deal.

The city manager also alerted the council to two different issues which may be headed their way before too long:

*Discussion among parks board members aimed at restricting the sale of spray paint and related products as a possible way to reduce graffitti in city parks.

*Discussion among the Historic Landmark Commission about a ban on hanging banners and related signs on the 1923 Old Iron Bridge. Such signs have been frequently used in recent years by local civic and community groups to advertise upcoming events and fundraisers. The bridge is a city historic landmark and part of Bastrop’s park system.

Bastrop, Tx–As early as Oct. 27 the Bastrop City Council could sign off on a deal allowing the creation of a 10,000-acre residential and commercial development between Bastrop and Elgin on the west side of Texas 95, potentially more than doubling the size and population of the city.

If given final approval and built as presently conceived, XS Ranch would include almost 7,500 homes, apartments and other living units plus some 300,000 square feet of commercial space and thousands of acres of parks and open space, some of it open to the public, as well as up to three schools over the next 30 years.

Currently the City of Bastrop includes roughly 6,600 acres and about 4,000 living units, including single family homes and apartments. The agreements under discussion would allow the entire XS Ranch area to be annexed into the city limits in coming decades, perhaps beginning in about 25 years, city officials said.
Crucial to developers is the city’s permission to create as many as 10 municipal utility districts with taxing powers to pay for providing roads, drainage, water and sewage service as well as parks and other amenities. In return the city wants to assure some development standards and annexation rights in the future, if that becomes financially attractive.

The city’s consent is required because almost all the XS Ranch land, including the former 6,700-acre Steiner Ranch, is part of Bastrop’s extended extra-territorial jurisdiction acquired in 1985 by voluntary landowner requests. At the time the City of Austin was threatening to extend its development controls deep into Bastrop County, an effort frustrated by landowner petitions for Bastrop to extend its protections to their properties.

The pending XS Ranch deal, reviewed by the council at some length during a workshop meeting Monday at City Hall, has been under negotiation for more than a year now. Council members and development officials said they like the terms so far.

“It looks pretty good to me,” said Council Member Julie Hart. Council Member Bill Peterson agreed. Council Member Joe Beal was not present. No one voiced doubts, reservations or objections.

“It’s been a good process” of negotiation, said Bastrop City Manager Mike Talbot. He said the Oct. 27 council meeting agenda will permit a binding vote on the pact.