Future for old Don’s Grass property in Austin, Texas remains unknown.

The future for Don’s Grass property remains unknown currently as of November 2017. Many citizens, activists, council members, and preservationists from both Austin and Oak Hill wonder about the future of the old site.

However Don Farmer plans to demolish the old Oak Hill School so he can build a new modernized storefront for his business Don's Grass & Landscape Inc. But nothing has materialized yet. All buildings have remained in tact. He has not made comment to the public regarding the future outcome for his business or those 2 buildings. Don Farmer and his landscape business Don’s Grass occupied the former site from 2005 to 2012.

The building Don’s Grass occupied was none other than the old Oak Hill School located at 6240 West US 290, Austin, Texas, US 78735. The Oak Hill School was the old Oak Hill Elementary School that taught grades 1 through 7 operated by Austin ISD from 1923 to 1985.

The former Oak Hill School and its school buildings remain in tact leaving many Austin and Oak Hill citizens to wonder about the future of the Don’s Grass site. Future for the former Don’s Grass property or its buildings is unknown.


It’s last tenants was Don Farmer and Austin 1825 Fortview Inc. Don Farmer has not occupied the property since 2012. Don’s Grass has not been in business since 2012.

The future January 12, 2012 Austin City Council meeting regarding Don Farmer violations were reported in the December 30, 2011 edition of Austin Chronicle and again in another issue of the Austin Chronicle. A foreclosure notice was filed to the Travis County Courthouse on January 14, 2012.

Back in January 12, 2012, the City of Austin shut down Don’s Grass by giving Don Farmer a citation for alleged violations of failure to install a water meter and failing to accurately record & submit monthly reports of groundwater withdrawals from a permitted Middle Trinity water well.

On January 12, 2012, City of Austin council members held a public hearing related in reference towards alleged violations that Don Farmer failed to install a water meter and for failing to accurately record & submit monthly reports of groundwater withdrawals from a permitted Middle Trinity water well. District Rules required the permittee to appear before the District’s Board of Directors and show cause why it should not be subject to an enforcement action by the Board.


Bulldozers occupy the site of the old Don’s Grass. Piles of dirt can be seen from road-view off of US 290 visible to the public eye. As of now, BGSIX Holdings LLC and City of Austin own the property. Both BGSIX Holdings LLC and City of Austin are keeping an eye on the property for any potential buyers willing to purchase the property.

For now the former Don’s Grass sits vacant and unoccupied at 6420 West US 290, Austin, Texas, US 78735.

Mopac toll road halfway completed.

The northern portion of the Mopac toll road, located north of Colorado River, is already completed as of November 2017. Construction crews have already begun cleaning up. However construction equipment and vehicles are still present from public view on Mopac. Construction on Mopac toll road going southbound has been rather moving slow at a sluggish pace. Construction for the Mopac toll road always begins at nighttime.

The Mopac toll road is expected be completed by the year 2019. By 2019, construction will have been completed and the toll road will be totally functional by then going both directions northbound and southbound. Mopac toll road will merge in those regular lanes on Mopac Highway (Loop 1) north of the Colorado River.

Why we need to remember Willowbrook State School.

We need to remember Willowbrook State School. Because Willowbrook State School was a breeding ground for all sorts of human rights violations. Many clients were mentally, emotionally, and physically abused during their stay there. Many were neglected and mistreated by direct care staff and head doctors. Clients were left to fend for themselves.

Willowbrook State School opened in 1947 as a state school operating as a state-supported institution for mentally disabled children in New York City, New York on Staten Island. In its first years of operation, the quality care began to slowly decline. Disease spread rampantly. Hepatitis was common amongst state school residents. In 1955, Willowbrook had a resident population of 4,000.

By 1963, the institution was overpopulated at 6,000 clients over its original capacity of 4,000. By 1965, Senator Robert F. Kennedy left touring the facility and called it a "snakepit". Residents were injected with Hepatitis A for science experiments. Luckily then news reporter Geraldo Rivera exposed Willowbrook State School in 1972 on a news broadcast called “Willowbrook : The Last Great Discgrace”. Geraldo Rivera’s expose prompted the State of New York to launch several investigations of their state schools, state hospitals, and other institutions. Carey vs. NYARC lawsuit is what led to many state institution such as Willowbrook State School to close down and receive the community based services we have today. But luckily the institution was shut down for good and put out of its misery for good by September 1987.

Mixerr Reviews rediscovers Maple Run Cave in Austin, Texas.

On the date of October 15, 2017, Michael Mixerr of Mixerr Reviews discovered Maple Run Cave at Goat Cave Karst Preserve in Austin, Texas while during a caving outing. Maple Run Cave is one of the most known caves of Austin/Travis County connecting to the lesser known Wade Cave.

Maple Run Cave is difficult to enter group to due to the steep drop inside the cave and not just the steps. Bringing groups will be difficult to due to a steep drop inside the cave. Going in small groups is recommended when touring Maple Run Cave.

Maple Run Cave  is a cave with a subtle moist environment with a high level of moisture perfect for mosquitoes and bats. Mosquitoes and bats are the natural wildlife that inhabit Maple Run Cave. The moist environment is a subtle breeding ground ideal for mosquitos among other insects, spiders, flies, and other insects of course. Many insects inhabit Maple Run Cave as insects inhabit and compromise a huge portion of natural wildlife in the caves of Texas. The caves of Goat Cave Karst Preserve Park are no exception.

“Upon entering Maple Run Cave , I felt a sense of moisture the first 20 seconds I was down there. You can feel a sense of moisture down in that particular cave. The moist environment is a subtle breeding ground for mosquitos. I had noticed mosquitos had been swarming over me while I was 20 feet-30 feet into Maple Run Cave.” said Michael Mixerr.

At the entrance of Maple Run Cave, mosquitos among other insects can be found swarming around that area. The moist environment suites well as a breeding ground for mosquitos and other insects as well.

A hydrogeological study of Goat Cave, Maple Run Cave, and Wade Cave is anticipated to be completed in 2017.

Georgia teacher on administrative leave after threatening student.

A Georgia teacher is on paid administrative leave after threatening a student. On November 8, 2017, April Carr sent a video to FOX 5 in Atlanta, Georgia which shows that a teacher threatening her 11th grade son. April Carr has admitted her son’s behavior in the classroom at Rockdale Career Academy sparked the incident which had ultimately led to the threat.

The teacher was later identified as Paul Hagen by the Rockdale County Sheriff’s Office identified the teacher as Paul Hagen. FOX 5 News reported the incident live on the 5 o’clock news the following night.  A school spokesperson has reported that incident remains under investigation. A criminal investigation has been launched.

Teacher Paul Hagen stated in his threat:

“I’m serious, dude.” “If you screw with me, you’re going to get in big [expletive] trouble.” “Don’t smile at me, man. That’s how people like you get shot. I got a bet. I bet by the time you’re 21 somebody is going to put a bullet in your head. OK? And it might be me, the one who does it.”

April Carr believes that is enough punishment for the teacher. She wants the teacher to be fired from his job. April Carr has since posted the video on Facebook.

Future for Hippo’s Hill Country Hideaway in Spicewood, Texas unknown.

In 2016, Hippo’s Hill Country Hideaway in Spicewood, Texas closed down due to wage labor violations cited by the Department of Labor, low quality service, and a set of other problems. Customers have complained about the lack of service and staff having an unprofessional attitude when doing customer service with customers. Not only have customers complained. Hippo’s Hill Country Hideaway employees have complained too. Hippo’s Hill Country Hideaway failed to pay their workers federal minimum wage.

Hippo’s Hill Country Hideaway was a small successful known restaurant to many Lake Travis residents and Austin citizens along with the rest of Travis County. The rest of Travis County knew about Hippo’s Hill Country Hideaway very well.

Future of the former Hippo’s Hill Country Hideaway building remains unknown presently speaking. However parts from the building have been moved and relocated offsite to an unknown location. The green square single story unit structure at the front entrance is no longer present from street view. Party due to wage labor violations cited by the Department of Labor and a set of other problems.

Friendship of Manda School works to historically preserve Manda Community Center.

From 2016 to 2017, the Friends of Manda School have begun maintenance and upkeep of the former Manda School building as an attempt of historic preservation. The Manda community along with several volunteers have been restoring the Manda School building to its original condition as found decades earlier.

Every single year the Friends of Manda School clean the school building and land property by mowing the grass and terminating insects from hidden corners. Ceiling tiles from top roof have been restored.

Several window panels have been replaced and window screens have been added to all windows of this school. All wooden floors have been flattened and resurfaced to be up to code for building standards and code standards by volunteers from Friends of Manda School. Central AC heating is now connected to this building.

Every single year the Friends of Manda School hold meetings at the Manda Community Center. Mainly these meetings are about future regards of Manda Community Center and funding for historic preservation toward this building which are held by the Board of Directors for Friends of Manda School. Friends of Manda School is responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of this school building.

As a community center, community functions, social gatherings, programs, and various meetings are still held inside this building.

Manda School is now operated and preserved by the Friends of Manda School (Friendship of Manda School) as Manda Community Center. Friends of Manda School plans to keep the Manda School open as the Manda Community Center in Manda, Texas which is near the town of Manor, Texas.

History of Vidor, Texas revisited.

The city of Vidor, Texas was founded as a logging mill town in 1895 by Charles Sheridan Vidor and his group of men. Charles Sheridan Vidor was the founder of the city of Vidor, Texas. The area was surrounded by big thicket forest which had provided a good business incentive for Charles to start up his Miller & Vidor Lumber Company in that area of East Texas in 1905. In 1909, the first post office was established for the small town of Vidor. In 1910 is when business had really gotten started. During the early part of the 20th Century, Vidor was a lumber town and a mill town.

Charles Sheridan Vidor was the founding father of the town of Vidor, Texas. He helped plan the blueprint layout of Vidor to become a city. Charles Sheridan Vidor was a racist city official who was the towns founding father and local KKK member that happened to make it very clear in law and order the nobody black would live there. He carried two .38's on his hips.

EVEN in 1920 when Vidor had a population of 50 people that was roughly male and all white. So despite local historians and citizens stating that black people had lived in Vidor prior to Charles Sheridan Vidor and his men moving there is false. The United States Census books show Vidor had an all-white population back then. Vidor has always been white by default. White flight found a haven in Vidor as well as Rose City and Lumberton in 1920.

In the 1920s, Vidor, Texas was known as the Bloody Vidor. The reason for that is because violence and bar fights were part of the culture in Vidor, Texas. Violence was a recreational sport back then. The local KKK was no exception to that. The violent activities had ranged from shootings, hangings, lynchings, arson, murder, and beatings along with cross burnings. Violence and terrorism was a common factor in Vidor, Texas at that time.

It was prior to 1925 that Vidor was only by ferry across the Neches River. The ferry was accessible to the residents of Beaumont who worked for the Miller & Vidor Lumber Company. Vidor just had one road call Main Street running through the city back then.
There were malaria epidemics that swept people away. The mosquitoes were so thick that they had smothered cattle. Vidor was known as a swamp back then. Many of the roads had huge potholes. There has always seemed to be an atmosphere of poverty and isolation in Vidor that has really continued to thrive.

In 1926 is when the Miller-Vidor Lumber Company had moved to the small town of Lakeview, Texas in search of more virgin timber for their business. Vidor had lost a lot of jobs a result from that particular business decision. The rest of the Miller-Vidor subdivision was planned on a blueprint, built, and laid out by 1929. The final results were finished by then over there.
By 1929, the town of Vidor had faced poverty, violence, fire, and isolation. The reasons for these factors was because of the Great Depression that had struck the United States economy with a fatal blow to the NYSE stock market.


By 1930, it was clear that the local KKK did not want black citizens living in Vidor. The reason for that is because of a local tale that a black men had raped a white woman in the middle of the night at midnight. The women had screamed loudly and had gotten the local KKK's attention. So the local KKK had formed a local search party to find the black rapists. The KKK had hung two black men before they got the right one. The fourth one got away. There were 3 nooses from a tree at a fishing hole nearby and nooses hanging from a sign in the middle of Vidor. The sign said "Nigger, don't let the sun set down on you in Vidor.". It was at that point that the KKK members had decided they did not want black citizens living in the city of Vidor.
By 1930, Vidor was known as a sundown town.

In the 1930s, the Ku Klux Klan groups that had a stranglehold in local politics that had ruled Vidor with an iron fist were known as Knights of the White Camellia (KWC), White Camellia Knights (WCK) and Vidor Original Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. The surrounding thick forests provided some cover for secret meetings of the Ku Klux Klan. It was an idealistic environment for the local Ku Klux Klan groups.
Vidor was national headquarters and state headquarters for the Ku Klux Klan along with Dallas, Texas , Pulanski, Tennessee , Beaumont, Texas , Houston, Texas , Mena, Arkansas , Pine Bluff, Arkansas , Harrison, Arkansas , and Hammond, Indiana along with several other klan klaverns in cities & town across the Untied States.


In the 1950s is when Vidor had became a white flight haven in East Texas. It was known to many citizens in East Texas that Vidor was a white flight haven for racist bigots and the KKK. Vidor was a Democratic city right then. The town of Vidor was still very small. Arsons, cross burnings, and fires were a common sight in Vidor in the 1950s and 1960s. The 50s is when Vidor had built many public schools for the city as well as Rose City.

In 1960s and 1970s, Vidor had continued to attract large numbers of residents as white citizens left Beaumont. Vidor was a haven for white flight. There have been local stories that had persisted of black people stopping for gas and just being chased out of town. Hippies being refused serviced because of their long hair along  with many other horrible treatments. Vidor was the national headquarters for the KKK along with Dallas and Pulaski along with several other klaverns. A Klan bookstore welcomed shoppers on Main Street and the Klan catered local functions. The KKK was headquartered in Vidor.

The local VOKKKK had made the local newspaper headlines in the Vidorian newspaper during the 1980s era. Local klansman A.W. Harvey, Grand Dragon of Vidor's Original Knights of the Ku Klux Klan had ran for mayor of Vidor in an unsuccessful attempt in the 1980s. No citizens took his political viewpoints very seriously at all of course. Most of the KKK left Vidor by 1987.
By the 1980s, things were quiet in the small town of Vidor for a while.


In the 1990s is when Vidor started getting riled up wild again!

In 1993, the US government had to bring blacks into Vidor's public housing after a court order from the Black vs. Young court case that caused a court order that public housing complexes be desegregated back in 1981. Most public official did not comply. So the White Camellia Knights and KKK had held a march in the community. The KKK had forced black families to move out of Vidor by 1994.
The main perpetrators of these controversial events were local citizens Charles Wayne Lee (then Grand Dragon and now Imperial Wizard of the White Camellia Knights), Michael Daniel Lowe (Grand Dragon of the Texas Knights of the Ku Klux Klan), James Hall Jr., Edith Marie Johnson of the Nationalist Movement and White Camellia Knights, and Thom Robb. Organizations such as the White Camellia Knights, Nationalist Movement, Texas Senate, Texas Legislator, The Creationists, and Aryan Nation were responsible

By 1995, the racial tension had calmed down and black citizens had moved in again with no hassle. The city of Vidor was surely but slowly loosing it's racist stigma on again for the second time since the 1980s. The reputation of Vidor had changed drastically around the middle of the 1990s.

By 2000, Vidor had became a mill town and a business town again. The city official of Vidor started encouraging people to move to Vidor in the mid 2000s. The KKK had left the city of Vidor thus moving away from the city limits into other towns in the United States.

The town of Vidor had suffered considerable hurricane damage from Hurricane Rita in the mid 2000s which led city officials and local politicians to change the image of Vidor around as a city. 2008 is when the city of Vidor decided to change their image problem. The City of Vidor offered asylum for evacuees of Hurricane Rita. By 2012, everything got quieted down.

Mopac toll road expected to be completed by 2019.

The Mopac toll road is expected be completed by the year 2019. By 2019, construction will have been completed and the toll road will be totally functional by then. Going directions northbound and southbound, Mopac toll road will merge in those regular lanes on Mopac Highway (Loop 1) north of the Colorado River. However due to budget cuts enacted by the Texas State Legislature, construction for the Mopac toll road has been delayed slightly. Thus moving Mopac toll road completion date to 2019.

Construction on Mopac Highway alongside Mopac toll road has been rather moving at a sluggish pace. Progress remains slow as usual. Rain weather from previous months in 2017 have delayed construction for the Mopac toll road as well other factors. May rain weather delayed construction the most. Construction for the Mopac toll road begins at nighttime. News reports that construction on Texas highways and roads move at a rather slow sluggish pace. That is nothing new. The latest Mopac toll road is expected be completed by the year 2020 or at least by 2019 at most.

Plans for former EZ's Brick Oven & Grill restaurant building remain unknown.

EZ's Brick Oven & Grill restaurant burger had closed down in January 2016 after a gas line broke resulting in uncontrollable fire. The fire did $400,000 dollars worth of damage to the restaurant building. It was a total loss. Especially for EZ's Brick Oven & Grill business owners.

It is unknown what the plans are for this building. However Austin CultureMaps has confirmed that the EZ Burger restaurant will be demolished in the near future. However that has not happened as of yet. No plans have been announced publicly as to what will happen to this building. The former EZ Burger restaurant building currently sits abandoned. Only time will tell us what happens next.

Over the course in the timespan of a year, the restaurant building has been graffitied on. Several graffiti taggers have made their mark on this building here. “No Trespassing” signs have been put up all over the restaurant. However the “No Trespassing” signs have not kept away vandals, criminals, vagrants, and taggers. Signs of homelessness and vagrancy have taken place. Trash has been scattered all over. Mail, posters, and paper lay near the door of the front entrance.

Longtime Austinites feel that they have lost an Austin icon. Still many former patrons and unsuspecting customers use their parking lot for patronage as EZ's Brick Oven & Grill is on the same commercial property along with 2 to 3 other businesses in the same commercial complex.