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Katy man sentenced to 14 years for arson fire of county building Staff Reports In an agreement with Fort Bend County prosecutors, a Katy man was sentenced on March 26 to 14 years in prison after pleading guilty to arson for setting fire to a county facility in April 2023. Andrew Huwar, 30, was also sentenced to the maximum 10 years on a felony stalking charge, after the court revoked his probation, according to a press release from the Fort Bend County District Attorney’s Office.
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Malone complaint to TEA draws rebuke from FBISD board officers By Ken Fountain KFOUNTAIN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
When the Fort Bend ISD board of trustees voted in December to approve what was framed as a voluntary retirement agreement for then-Superintendent Christie Whitbeck, it set in motion a swift-moving and dramatic series of events that exposed deep rifts among board members. Details on exactly what led to Whitbeck’s sudden departure was scarce. A move by the board’s leadership last week added new details, but perhaps made the situation murkier than ever while adding to the personal drama already heightened by the coming May board elections. On Friday afternoon, the board’s officers - President
Judy Dae, Vice-President Shirley Rose-Gilliam, and Secretary David Hamilton - released a response to a complaint filed with the Texas Education Agency by Position 6 Trustee Kristen Davison-Malone in December. The posting was accompanied by a printout of Malone’s electronically filed complaint as well as a 5-page summary response drafted by Jonathan Brush of the Houston firm Rogers, Morris & Grover, who serves as the board’s legal counsel. The released complaint redacts Malone’s name and phone number, and in his response Brush refers to her only as “the Complainant.” The documents were released on the district’s website, along with a message that the response to the complaint was from
the board officers, and referred people with questions to contact them directly via email, not the district’s communications team. Malone’s complaint In the complaint, filed on December 14 - three days after the board gave Whitbeck a “send-off” celebration even as she, Malone, and other board members traded public accusations and barbs about the situation - Malone alleges that Dae approached her in August 2023 a strategy “to get rid of the superintendent in the Fall semester and secure elections in May of 2024 as the public could not handle that much change. Malone further alleges that she later was invited by other trustees to meet with Marc Smith, then the
The officers of the Fort Bend ISD board have issued a lengthy response to a TEA complaint filed by Trustee Kristen DavisonMalone. Photo by Ken Fountain
superintendent of Duncanville ISD, at a conference of the Texas Association of School Boards in Dallas for an “off the record” inter-
view. Smith was named the “sole candidate” to replace
SEE OFFICERS PAGE 2
“Art in the Bend” See Page 1B - for more photos from the event
Andrew Huwar, 30, has been sentenced to 14 years in prison in the 2023 arson fire of a Fort Bend County facility in Richmond. Courtesy Fort Bend County District Attorney’s Office
Huwar initially pleaded guilty to stalking on October 26, 2020. He was placed on a deferred adjudication probation for three years. He was required to regularly report to the Fort Bend County Community Corrections and Supervision Department among other conditions. In the late-night hours of April 4, 2023, the Community Fire Department responded to a structure fire at a satellite office for the county’s Community Corrections and Supervision Department at 19310 Beechnut Street in Richmond, according to the release. The office is where Huwar visited his probation officer. The fire department was able to extinguish the fire, but not before causing damage at a loss of more than $250,000 to Fort Bend County. The building could not be saved and was later demolished. The Fort Bend County Fire Marshal’s Office investigated and determined the fire was intentionally set. The Fire Marshal conducted an extensive investigation taking samples from the fire scene, obtaining video from the area, finding boot tracks near the building, and obtaining phone records and other evidence. The investigation revealed that Huwar had reported to his probation officer on the day of the fire, during which he tested positive for drugs in violation of his probation. After examining the evidence and speaking to witnesses, the Fire Marshal concluded the fire was set by Huwar.
SEE ARSON PAGE 2
Genevive Knowles, of Houston, has fun making large bubbles during the Art in the Bend event in historic downtown Richmond on Sunday. Photo by Ken Fountain
Fort Bend to receive $25.8 million for Brazos River erosion project By Ken Fountain KFOUNTAIN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
New funding to deal with dangerous erosion along a five-mile stretch of the Brazos River in Simonton is coming after an announcement last week from the Texas General Land Office. Fort Bend Precinct 3 Commissioner Andy Meyers, who formerly served on the board of the Houston-Galveston Area Council, led the initiative to secure the funding. In a press release, Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham, M.D., announced the Texas General Land Office approved $72,560,600 in regional mitigation funds to improve streets, drainage and sewer systems in the cities of Bedias, Bremond, Galveston,
Liberty, Midway and San Augustine, as well as Hardin County and a partial award of $25,825,900 million for the “Simonton Pinch Point” project to be administered by H-GAC. “Brazos River erosion protection is an issue that’s one of my priorities. I initiated efforts to fund solutions for the Simonton Pinch Point of the Brazos River when I chaired the Water Resources Committee at the HoustonGalveston Area Council. So, I deeply appreciate Commissioner Buckingham securing millions of dollars of additional funding for Brazos River erosion protection,” Meyers said in a prepared statement. In a phone interview, Meyers told the Fort Bend Star that the pinch point, a large
oxbow that surrounds a residential neighborhood, has long been in danger of closing. If that were to happen, Meyers said, the velocity of that part of the river would increase tremendously, creating potential flooding hazards and increased erosion that would affect Fort Bend as well as other counties through which the river runs. Meyers said the funding came about as part of flood mitigation funding that came in the wake of Hurricane Harvey in 2007. He said while on the H-GAC board, he helped make sure that the funding would be distributed not just to the 13 county governments in the H-GAC region, but to the cities within them, such as Simonton.
This aerial image depicts the “Simonton Pinch Point” in the Brazos River. New funding has been secured to address erosion at the site. Image courtesy Houston-Galveston Area Council
Meyers thanked Buckingham, the commissioner, for her efforts in securing the funding for Fort Bend. In December 2022, the Democratic-led Fort Bend Commissioners Court voted along party lines to replace Meyers, a Republican, on the
board with County Judge KP George. Meyers had served on the board for 25 years. After winning the March Republican primary for the seat he has held for nearly three decades, Meyers will face Democrat Taral Patel in the November election.