SEPTEMBER 7, 2022 BUFF CITY SOAP CELEBRATES OPENING
HAWKS SOAR TO VICTORY 27-7 PAGE 9
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Hays Free Press
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HaysFreePress.com
Vol. 128 • No. 26
Serving Hays County, TX
BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT
Local horse farm is a dream come true BY AMIRA VAN LEEUWEN
He remembers telling his dad that he wanted to race BUDA – Tony Greaves was 22-inch horses. “Oh, you’ll never get them born in West Texas, Lamesa, that little,” his dad replied. where he grew up with “Well, I’m going to Shetland ponies all his life. try, ” Greaves said. And His mother said he learned fortunately for Greaves, his to walk holding on to a halter father lived long enough to of a little filly they called see him get his horses down “dappled filly.” Greaves couldn’t say dappled at such to 28-inches. Now, Greaves is a young age, so they settled on the name “Daffy.” He had continuing his dream. “I had one stallion that I her for many years until she sold two years ago — I didn’t died. really want to sell him, but Greaves raised his first I had somebody who just miniature horse, Big’Un absolutely had to buy him. Greaves, in 1963 when he I popped off and gave her was a senior in high school. In 1978, when the American a price that I thought she Miniature Horse Association would never pay, and she did. But he was only 24.5 (AMHA) was founded, inches tall, full-grown,” Greaves registered Big’Un Greaves said. at 15-years-old. His family Greaves now has one always had Shetlands, but horse named Jackpot, about he always loved the smallest one-year-old and 21.5 ones. inches tall. According to “When we would go to Greaves, several buyers are an auction or something, interested in him, but he has I would search the barn held onto him because the and find the smallest one horse's father is 26-inches and beg my dad to buy it,” tall. Greaves thinks Jackpot Greaves said. will be about 23-inches tall When Greaves was when he is fully grown. younger, he had a comic Little America Miniature book of Bozo the Clown. Bozo had a miniature circus Horse Farm is a familyof animals he carried around owned miniature horse farm in Buda. Tony Greaves in his briefcase that would and his wife, Carol Greaves, perform when placed on a purchased the land in 1995 table. Greaves said that that and have registered over was the size of animals he 1,500 horses. Greaves and wanted.
PHOTO BY AMIRA VAN LEEUWEN
31” Melton’s Fantazon’s Boogie Nights. his wife have two children and have been married for 56 years. The name was inspired by Greaves's time touring with Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians in 1966 and 1967. “We did a lot of patriotic music, and I always loved patriotic music. Carol said, ‘Well, what about calling our farm Little America Miniature Horses?’” Greaves said. Initially, Little America Miniature Horses used the United States map as its logo, and then they came up with the logo of the horse head with a flag pattern. “It’s worked out really well because we use flags when we go to the horse shows; we use flags on the stalls and we
CELEBRATING CULTURE
Kyle to host dialogue for Hispanic Heritage Month
STAFF REPORT
of perspectives and backgrounds have been KYLE – The community is invited to recruited to speak during the discussion. join the city of Kyle for If you are interested in the upcoming Dialogue becoming a panelist, email for Peace and Progress, communicationdept@ celebrating Hispanic cityofkyle.com or fill out Heritage Month, on the online form at https:// Friday, Sept. 16 from 7 www.cityofkyle.com/ p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Kyle communications/dialoguesCity Hall. peace-and-progressStarted in 2021, the registration-form. Dialogues for Peace Kyle City Council members & Progress is an event Daniela Parsley and Yvonne series that works to join Flores-Cale will co-moderate community members and leaders for open and the panel for the Dialogue. While the event will be held honest conversations in-person, streaming options to raise awareness and, are also available through if necessary, facilitate Spectrum 10, the city’s change in the city of Kyle, according to a press YouTube channel and the city’s Facebook page. release. For more information, A group of panelists please visit https://www. from a multitude cityofkyle.com/dialogue.
TEXAS ROLLER DERBY HOSTS FALL TRYOUTS – PAGE 3
use flags in our advertising,” Greaves explained. One of the first horses Greaves sold was to Paolo Gucci for $50,000. While the COVID-19 pandemic was at the forefront of many business owners’ minds, Greaves said he thinks it ended up increasing his foot and online traffic. “It just seemed like last year, I had more interest,” Greaves said. He also attributes his business increase to the internet and consistently updating the website. “A lot of people don't keep their website up. I mean, people will call me and ask me, ‘When was your website last updated?’ and I say ‘An hour ago, you
PHOTO BY AMIRA VAN LEEUWEN
Tony Greaves stands with his favorite horse, El Dorado. know, sometimes literally,’” Greaves said. Greaves' favorite thing about Little America's Miniature Horse Farm is the horses and foaling season. The couple has ten cameras in their foaling area to check on the pregnant mares. Greaves checks on the mares twice daily, in the morning and at night. Once the mares appear close to giving birth, they put the horses in their foaling barn just outside the house. If Greaves thinks the horse will give birth in the next night or so, he will put a beeper on them. The beeper will go off when the horses lay down for 15 seconds and
set off an alarm that will wake Greaves up. Greaves said if they are in labor, he will go out to the barn and be with them while they give birth to ensure everything goes okay. “The problem is, is sometimes the babies are so little that they don’t break out of the amniotic sack, and they can suffocate, so we try to be there with them, especially the tiny ones,” Greaves said. Greaves said he also loves to show his horses and miniatures all over the United States yet they are lucky because most of the
See HORSE FARM, page 10
Hays CISD sets tax rate
BY BRITTANY ANDERSON
HAYS COUNTY – Several key financial decisions were approved by the Hays CISD Board of Trustees for the upcoming fiscal year, which were reflective of the growth of Hays County and the district. The board unanimously approved the adoption of the Fiscal Year 2022-2023 tax rate during its regular meeting on Aug. 29, and also briefly discussed the item during the Aug. 22 agenda review meeting. The tax rate is set at $1.3423 per $100 valuation, broken down between the maintenance and operations (M&O) rate at $0.8546 and the interest and sinking (I&S) rate at $0.4877. This proposed rate is $.0174 less than FY 20212022. The M&O tax rate will be raised by 22.3785%, raising taxes on a $100,000 home by approximately $156.27 annually. The I&S portion of the rate remains the same as last year. Hays CISD Chief Financial Officer Randy Rau said that over the past four years, the district has decreased the total tax rate by 19.5 cents. “I know it doesn’t feel like a decrease sometimes when our home appraisals go up, but we are really trying around here to lower the tax burden,” said Vanessa Petrea, board president. “We can do
COURTESY OF HAYS CISD / FBOC
Previous Hays CISD tax rates.
that with some of the growth we’ve seen.” The board also unanimously approved the certified taxable property values for FY 2022-2023 from the Hays, Caldwell and Travis appraisal districts. The values have increased by $4.1 billion, or 35.21%, from FY 2021-2022. Hays County’s value is set at $15.6 billion, Caldwell County is $82.3 million and Travis County is $86.5 million. Rau said this is largely due to home prices going up this year, but said he doesn't anticipate seeing 35% going forward. Finally, the board unanimously approved the defeasance and redemption of a portion of outstanding
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bonds. A defeasance is a financing tool in which outstanding bonds may be retired without a bond redemption or implementing an open market buy-back. “We’re looking at paying off early about $17.8 million of variable rate bonds which were at the end of their term, which means we would have to basically refinance [them] at a new rate,” Rau said. “But by paying these off early, we’re actually saving $22 million in interest payments over the course of the life of those, so that’s through 2042. … That’s $22 million worth of interest payments that [taxpayers] won’t have to pay. … We’re in a very good position with this, and taking advantage of it to be able to pay off debt early.”