JUNE 3, 2020 RADIOACTIVE
COVID TESTING
Radioactive camera box swept away, retrieved during weekend flood.
Health Department pursuing aggressive outreach for COVID-19 testing.
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Hays Free Press © Barton Publications, Inc.
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Vol. 126 • No. 10
HaysFreePress.com
Serving Buda, Kyle and Northeast Hays County, TX
Woman fatally shot in San Marcos
COMMENTARY ON AMERICA’S CRISIS
Still think it’s not right?
Black Lives Matter. Why is it that so many people cannot understand those three simple words?. Black Lives Matter. More puzzling is how such a simple, innocuous phrase stirs up so much vitriolic, internal hatred in people. Black Lives Matter. Maybe even worse is how some attempt to rationalize their opposition to the phrase by countering “All lives matter” or something of the like. Black Lives Matter. Heck, Black lives should always matter. However, in today’s America, that’s just not the case. Not when Ahmad Arbury was tracked down and murdered by a pair of white men in broad daylight while he was jogging in his neighborhood. Or when a white police officer mercilessly murdered George Floyd late last month while detaining him for a non-violent offense, ignoring Floyd’s pleas that he couldn’t breathe. Not when Breonna Taylor, an EMS worker in Louisville, Kentucky, was shot eight times in her home and killed when police executed a no-knock warrant in a search for suspects who weren’t even in her residence. And somehow, someway, people still have the audacity, nay, the gall, to question aloud why so many people of color are angry right now? Why people of all creeds and races are peacefully walking along streets and highways in numerous cities this week, clamoring for
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The San Marcos Police Department (SMPD) is investigating the fatal shooting of a woman that occurred early Saturday evening. It was the second shooting at a San Marcos Apartment complex to have occurred in recent days. On Wednesday, May 27, a suspect was wounded during an attempted burglary at a complex across town. On Saturday, May 30 at approximately 6:51 p.m., officers responded to reports of a shooting at the Redpoint Apartments (formerly The Woods), 650 River Road. Upon arrival, officers located a deceased female inside the apartment with apparent gunshot wounds.
Senior Sunset Show at Tiger Stadium
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PHOTOS BY ALBERT SANCHEZ
Fireworks exploded over Tiger Stadium in Dripping Springs May 29 to celebrate the Class of 2020 as part of the Senior Sunset show. Like elsewhere, graduation ceremonies for Dripping Springs High School were delays by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Survey asks ‘do you or don’t you mask up in public?’ BY SAHAR CHMAIS
Six months ago, pre COVID-19, no one thought of wearing a face mask. Even as awareness of the coronavirus began to spread, wearing one was a subject of debate. But now, covering one’s face as a way of preventing the spread is simply a matter of course. The small piece of cloth has come a new, albeit divisive, issue. As the Texas economy has begun to “open,” residents must make the decision for themselves, as Gov. Greg Abbott declined to make mask wearing mandatory. Some routinely don a mask, others only for certain outings. And like individuals, businesses have the decision to make – choosing a
The first question in the survey asks, “do you wear a face mask or PPE when you go out in public?” To which about 74 percent said yes, 15 percent said sometimes, and 10 percent said no. snappoint on a continuum between “no mask, no service” and discouraging the use of masks altogether. But just who is choosing what? To give a sense of direction, and in one of its many steps toward getting a better consensus, the Buda Area Chamber of Commerce made a quick six-question survey gauging residents’ thoughts on masks in public. “The survey is a
TEXAS HISTORY
Texas takes historic walk into space.
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shot of time,” said J.R. Gonzales, executive director of the Buda Area Chamber of Commerce and creator of the survey. “It’s kind of an attitudinal shot of how people look at it in that point in time. If this survey is conducted again in four weeks, we might see different responses.” The overall sense, Gonzales said, is that Buda residents have reservations about leaving the house
without a face cover or personal protective equipment (PPE). As a fair warning, this conclusion is very simplified and the results may continuously change. Survey questions were open for less than 72 hours and gathered 450 responses. It was posted on a Facebook page called Buda Takeout and Delivery Services and a few other online sources, but responses came mainly through the Facebook page. Gonzales said he realized where some of the response biases may lie – for example, 80 percent of the page followers are women and his guess is about 75 percent of the survey takers were women. In hindsight,
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County to join state program for contact tracing BY ANITA MILLER Since the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Hays County in midMarch, epidemiologist Eric Schneider has been conducting contact tracing — tracking where the individual had been and whom he or she might have had contact with during the prior 14 days. Now as the number of cases has risen along with the availability of testing, the county is poised to join a program of the Department of State Health Services. As explained by Ian Harris, also an epidemiologist for the county, it will be a web-based program at no cost to the county that allows health department to communicate with each other. “We will probably gain more cases in the long run but it is all about getting out in front of the virus,” Harris said. “People who are aware they have been exposed need to take precautions not to expose anyone else.” Schneider said that, as of 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, six new cases had been reported and the county had seen its fifth fatality — the second in a week’s time. A total of 32 people
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