TodayKerrville

A woman donates clothes to Brenda Hughes on Tuesday to help a family that lost their home in a Center Point fire on Sunday. When Brenda Hughes heard the news that one of her employees had lost their home in a fire on Sunday, she sprang into action and she may have just found a new cause to carry onto the Kerrville City Council.  The Walters family lost everything in a fast-moving fire that destroyed their Center Point home on Sunday afternoon. Ray Walters, the patriarch of the family of five, works at Buzzie's Bar-B-Q, which Hughes owns with her husband, Buzzie. He only started working at the Schreiner Street barbecue institution earlier this year, but he's garnered plenty of support from the family.  "They don't even have a nail clipper left," said Brenda Hughes about the family's plight in the aftermath of the fire.  So, Hughes turned to Facebook — along with her network of allies at Kerrville Pets Alive! and other organizations — to lead a drive of just abo

Public health experts knew it was coming — a gigantic surge of coronavirus cases due to the Christmas break — but what happened in Texas on Tuesday was stunning.   On the day, the Texas Department of State Health Services reported more than 30,000 new cases, including 4,000 probable cases. On Tuesday, Texas hospitals initially reported that there were 23,000 people admitted for COVID-19, but that changed later in the day with the state walking back that number to 11,775 — still a record. The state had more than 600 intensive care unit beds.  By 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, the DSHS was still updating its website but the truth that COVID-19 was fully raging in Texas was clear.  In Kerr County, DSHS also reported another death —this one from Dec. 23. Coupled with a third death at the Villagio of Kerrville assisted living center on Dec. 15, Kerr County's death toll is estimated to be 62, including 22 deaths in December. 

The surge of coronavirus cases in Kerr County continued unabated as the region heads toward a long New Year's weekend with 40 new COVID-19 cases reported on Tuesday by Peterson Health, and an assisted living center reported its third death this month.  The virus, which has now claimed the lives of an estimated 61 people from Kerr County, has infected more than 700 people in the county in December. Peterson Regional Medical Center saw its COVID-19 patient count fall from a high of 32 on Monday morning to 29 on Tuesday afternoon. The hospital has now had a minimum of 40 people admitted for COVID-19 in December — the number could be far higher.  Since Nov. 30, COVID-19 care at Peterson Regional Medical Center has accounted for 411 days. The last time that the hospital had less than 10 COVID-19 patients was on Nov. 8 — with eight.  In data released by Texas Health and Human Services on Tuesday, the situation at Villagio of Kerrville — an Alpine Drive assisted living center — had intens

The federal Paycheck Protection Program was designed to help small businesses navigate the coronavirus pandemic, and the program poured more than $30 million into Kerr County earlier this year.  In turn, that program helped save more than 3,500 jobs at the 827 small Kerr County businesses that received forgivable loans of $150,000 or less. Most of these businesses employ less than 30 people — many are sole proprietorships.  In Kerrville, 51 businesses received loans of more than $100,000. The smallest amount received was $527. The largest recipients of the loans were those receiving between $21,000 and $99,000 — 49% of all loans.  There was another 322 that received $20,000 or less from the program.  Gil Salinas, the chief operating officer of the Kerr Economic Development Corp., said the PPP was a key tool in helping save lots of jobs and small businesses.  "That program did what it was supposed to do," said Salinas, adding that the program was not without controversy — most

Schreiner University's athletic programs are set to resume in the new year — even as the coronavirus pandemic has wiped out most of the NCAA Division III season.  Schreiner's men's and women's basketball teams will visit Southwestern in the season opener on Jan. 15 for a two-game set that will conclude on Jan. 16. The Mountaineers will return home the following week to play host to Centenary.  As of Dec. 29, Schreiner is set to play only against teams from the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference. The only postseason action will be the conference tournaments scheduled for March 4-6.  Men's and women's soccer and volleyball will all return to action in February. The conference scrapped a plan to have volleyball teams play a round-robin tournament format at one site and has now reverted back to home and away matches. Schreiner's volleyball team will start its season on Feb. 13 by playing host to Colorado College. Like basketball, the only post-season tourna

In the ever confusing numbers game that is COVID-19, Peterson Health's own reporting proved to be a challenge on Monday when it misstated the number of positive cases. One number showed just 17 new cases from Dec. 23 through Monday, while another reported 94 — which is more in line with recent trends.  Regardless, Peterson Health experienced a myriad of issues — as did Texas — on Monday when it comes to containing the virus that has killed more than 23,000 people. By the end of Monday, there were 31 people hospitalized with COVID-19 —down from an earlier count of 32. Across Texas, the number of people hospitalized hit a record with 11,351 people admitted with COVID-19.  In the Texas Department of State Health Services Trauma Region P, which includes San Antonio and Kerrville, more than 1,100 people were hospitalized with the virus. There were less than 100 intensive care unit beds available in the region. During a meeting of the Kerr County Commissioners Court, Judge Rob Kelly said

The Villagio of Kerrville Assisted Living home.  The long-delayed data from the Texas Health and Human Services showed a worsening outbreak of coronavirus in one of Kerrville's assisted living centers — the Villagio. As of Dec. 14, the Alpine Drive-based residential care facility had a second death of one of its residents between Dec. 11 and Dec. 14 and had 12 residents and seven staff members infected with COVID-19. All told, 17 residents and 12 employees have tested positive for the virus.  Health and Human Services delay the release of the data by two weeks but during that weekend of Dec. 12-13, the number of cases doubled among residents, along with the death. It's unknown if the person died at Villagio or at another facility, but the death does not correlate with reporting from the Texas Department of State Health Services or Peterson Health.  With this death, Kerrville Today estimates Kerr County's death toll from COVID-19 at 60 people. In the cases of long-term care