Thursday News Rundown (10-16-14)

By Emily Parma
Assistant Web Content Manager

Sunday will begin the final phase of construction at the LBJ/University Drive intersection. The intersection will be completely closed for a few hours that morning and, once reopened, traffic will be reduced to one lane of northbound traffic on LBJ. That intersection will be closed to University Drive traffic through December while water control projects are completed. Streetlights will be installed elsewhere along LBJ. Construction is expected to finish at the end of this year.

Three Belton Independent School District schools are closed today after federal officials re-evaluated the risk of two students who traveled on the same flight with the Dallas nurse who was diagnosed with Ebola. Classes at North Belton Middle School, Sparta Elementary and Belton Early Childhood School are cancelled in order to clean and disinfect schools and buses. The two students are being monitored by the Bell County Health Department and the Texas Department of State Health Services while being home with their parents for 21 days. They currently do not show symptoms of contracting the virus.

The City of San Marcos is set to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony in celebration of the newly re-designed Conway park on 504 Bliss St. The park, originally built in 2007, first saw improvements in 2012 when Conway neighborhood residents requested changes be made to the outdated park. The city responded to these requests by implementing shaded areas, sidewalks, playgrounds, a pavilion and a skate park. The event will take place at 4 p.m. on Monday.

Texas State is observing Disability Awareness Month on campus through various activities and events on campus. The university’s Office of Disability Services and Career Services hosted the “Working with Awareness: Expect. Employ. Empower” workshop to provide tools and interviewing skills for landing a job. The events will continue through Tuesday with two more interactive sessions.

More than 30 people, including two Austin lawyers, are arrested in Central and South Texas this week for alleged roles in a drug distribution ring. Austin lawyers Patrick Fagerberg and David Ramos, among 34 others, have allegedly participated in distributing cocaine and methamphetamine since May 2013. Authorities seized 87 kilograms of cocaine and two kilograms of methamphetamine, four firearms and close to $1.5 million in criminally derived assets after a yearlong investigation. Ramos has pleaded not guilty to charges and has been released from jail on $10,000 bail.