Pete's Place

A running commentary on whatever strikes my fancy at the moment

Friday, May 28, 2021

The Kyle Report: KPD accepting applications for victim services tra...

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The Kyle Report: KPD accepting applications for victim services tra... : The Kyle Police Department is currently accepting applications from...
Wednesday, May 26, 2021

The Kyle Report: City to sponsor bulky trash, hazardous waste drop-off

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The Kyle Report: City to sponsor bulky trash, hazardous waste drop-off : Got any old batteries, cell phone, fluorescent lights, you want to ...
Wednesday, May 19, 2021

The Kyle Report: City manager outlines Heroes Park groundbreaking, ...

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The Kyle Report: City manager outlines Heroes Park groundbreaking, ... :  City Manager Scott Sellers told the city council Tuesday night the...

The Kyle Report: How the city council voted Tuesday night

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The Kyle Report: How the city council voted Tuesday night :  CONSENT AGENDA Item 7: Approve a development agreement between City of Kyle and...
Wednesday, May 5, 2021

The Kyle Report: Council passes sex offender residency ordinance

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The Kyle Report: Council passes sex offender residency ordinance : The city council unanimously approved on second and final reading last ni...
Thursday, April 29, 2021

The Kyle Report: A challenge to Kyle City Council members: Persuade...

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The Kyle Report: A challenge to Kyle City Council members: Persuade... :  I’ve received considerable feedback from readers concerning the ar...
Tuesday, April 27, 2021

The Kyle Report: Going out on The Wire to condemn Kyle’s “Hamsterdams”

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The Kyle Report: Going out on The Wire to condemn Kyle’s “Hamsterdams” : To me, HBO’s The Wire is the best television series ever. And when ...
Monday, April 26, 2021

The Kyle Report: City says it has upgraded its utility billing system

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The Kyle Report: City says it has upgraded its utility billing system :  City officials announced today it has “upgraded” its online billing...
Friday, April 23, 2021

The Kyle Report: City to host business development webinar

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The Kyle Report: City to host business development webinar : The city’s Economic Development Department is partnering with the Kyle Chamber ...
Wednesday, April 21, 2021

The Kyle Report: Mass COVID vaccine distribution set for next month...

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The Kyle Report: Mass COVID vaccine distribution set for next month... : City Manager Scott Sellers announced last night a mass COVID 19 vac...

The Kyle Report: How the City Council Voted Tuesday Night

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The Kyle Report: How the City Council Voted Tuesday Night :  CONSENT AGENDA Declaring additional parks maintenance equipment as surplus and ...
Friday, April 16, 2021

The Kyle Report: City to co-host food distribution event next weekend

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The Kyle Report: City to co-host food distribution event next weekend : The Central Texas Food Bank in partnership with the City of Kyle and...
Wednesday, April 14, 2021

The Kyle Report: Property valuations: today's actual numbers don’t ...

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The Kyle Report: Property valuations: today's actual numbers don’t ... :  Up. There’s no doubt that’s the direction Kyle is heading when...

The Kyle Report: Kyle’s commercial property valuations soar to reco...

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The Kyle Report: Kyle’s commercial property valuations soar to reco... : The Kyle Report has learned that the commercial property valuation...
Friday, April 9, 2021

The Kyle Report: Proposed recycling plan helps but it doesn’t go ne...

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The Kyle Report: Proposed recycling plan helps but it doesn’t go ne... : Council member Dex Ellison tag-teamed with Chief of Staff Jerry Hen...
Wednesday, April 7, 2021

The Kyle Report: How the City Council Voted Tuesday

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The Kyle Report: How the City Council Voted Tuesday :  APPOINTMENTS Item 6: Consider approval of a resolution confirming the reappointments ...

The Kyle Report: The Kyle City Council is a mess

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The Kyle Report: The Kyle City Council is a mess : There’s a semi-joke enjoyed by sports afficionados about attending a boxing match when su...
Saturday, April 3, 2021

The Kyle Report: Just when it would seem the City would want public...

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The Kyle Report: Just when it would seem the City would want public... :  As part of its ambitious plan to remake Mary Kyle Hartson City Squ...
Thursday, March 18, 2021

The Kyle Report: City announces Easter-related activities, summer camp

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The Kyle Report: City announces Easter-related activities, summer camp :  City manager Scott Sellers informed the City Council Tuesday about...
Wednesday, March 17, 2021

The Kyle Report: How the Council voted Tuesday night

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The Kyle Report: How the Council voted Tuesday night : (Editor’s note): Mayor pro tem Rick Koch was not present at the beginning of the mee...
Thursday, March 11, 2021

The Kyle Report: Police still investigating hoax call

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The Kyle Report: Police still investigating hoax call : The Kyle Police Department continues to investigate the prank call involving an acti...
Sunday, March 7, 2021

The Kyle Report: Once again, City seeks resident input with annual ...

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The Kyle Report: Once again, City seeks resident input with annual ... :  The City has placed its 2021 survey on-line ( click here to take t...
Wednesday, March 3, 2021

The Kyle Report: Sellers fails to say the words citizens wanted to ...

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The Kyle Report: Sellers fails to say the words citizens wanted to ... :  On Sept. 29, 1982, the first person in the Chicago area died after...

The Kyle Report: Our sex offenders are OK, yours are degenerates

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The Kyle Report: Our sex offenders are OK, yours are degenerates : The City Council once again postponed action last night on a proposed sex...
Tuesday, March 2, 2021

The Kyle Report: How the City Council voted Tuesday night

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The Kyle Report: How the City Council voted Tuesday night :   CONSENT AGENDA Item 12: Consider authorizing the city manager to execute a Mem...
Saturday, February 27, 2021

The Kyle Report: The semi-impossible revitalization task facing P&Z

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The Kyle Report: The semi-impossible revitalization task facing P&Z : The Planning & Zoning Commission held the first of what promis...
Friday, February 26, 2021

The Kyle Report: The nature and challenges of downtown revitalization

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The Kyle Report: The nature and challenges of downtown revitalization :  Following an apples-to-oranges discussion that was, for the most pa...
Wednesday, February 24, 2021

The Kyle Report: Council erects barriers to affordable housing in Kyle

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The Kyle Report: Council erects barriers to affordable housing in Kyle :  Affordable rental housing has three requirements. The first requir...

The Kyle Report: How the City Council voted Tuesday night

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The Kyle Report: How the City Council voted Tuesday night :  APPOINTMENTS Item 4: Appointment of Brandon James to the Planning and Zoning Co...
Friday, February 12, 2021

The Kyle Report: Kyle is missing one sex offender

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The Kyle Report: Kyle is missing one sex offender : Two weeks after unveiling a proposal to (1) effectively prohibit sex offenders from movi...
Thursday, February 11, 2021

The Kyle Report: City seeking volunteers for one-day trash pickup d...

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The Kyle Report: City seeking volunteers for one-day trash pickup d... : The Blanco River comes close, I guess, but really there aren’t any ...
Monday, February 8, 2021

The Kyle Report: Hays County: When they get it right ...

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The Kyle Report: Hays County: When they get it right ... :  Last month, I wrote a story about how Hays County officials totally botched its ...
Wednesday, February 3, 2021

The Kyle Report: Council endorses new name for Rebel Drive

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The Kyle Report: Council endorses new name for Rebel Drive : The City Council last night seconded the recommendation of the committee it app...

The Kyle Report: Kyle police call city “hotbed for sex offenders”

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The Kyle Report: Kyle police call city “hotbed for sex offenders” : You can add yet another distinction to the city of Kyle. In addition to ...

The Kyle Report: How the Council voted Tuesday night

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The Kyle Report: How the Council voted Tuesday night : APPOINTMENTS Item 4: Consider nominations and take possible action for reappointment ...
Sunday, January 31, 2021

The Kyle Report: Chief Barnett to propose zones to keep out sex off...

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The Kyle Report: Chief Barnett to propose zones to keep out sex off... :  Kyle Police Chief Jeff Barnett plans to introduce a proposed ordin...
Saturday, January 30, 2021

The Kyle Report: Hey Hays County! It’s so much easier to be competent!

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The Kyle Report: Hey Hays County! It’s so much easier to be competent! : Hays County’s Friday Covid-19 vaccine registration was a blatant — ...
Monday, January 25, 2021

The Kyle Report: “Dialog” seeks to promote understanding

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The Kyle Report: “Dialog” seeks to promote understanding : Part of the brilliance, at least to me, of Lawrence Wright’s Pulitzer Prize winni...
Friday, January 22, 2021

The Kyle Report: Kyle has plans, but are they the right ones

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The Kyle Report: Kyle has plans, but are they the right ones :  Writing in the latest edition of the Hays Free Press , David Abdel, who, one...
Wednesday, January 20, 2021

The Kyle Report: How the City Council voted Tuesday night

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The Kyle Report: How the City Council voted Tuesday night :   Appointments Item 4: Appointment by council member Ashlee Bradshaw of Amanda M...
Monday, January 18, 2021

The Kyle Report: That pesky “fajita” business is back

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The Kyle Report: That pesky “fajita” business is back : Remember when the City Council tried to change the name of Rebel Road to Fajita Driv...
Wednesday, January 13, 2021

The Kyle Report: Kyle’s economy considerably stronger than rest of ...

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The Kyle Report: Kyle’s economy considerably stronger than rest of ... :  Directly contradicting national and statewide economic indicators ...

The Kyle Report: Lack of vision still neuters P&Z

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The Kyle Report: Lack of vision still neuters P&Z :  A Planning and Zoning Commission has two distinct functions. One is planning. The s...
Sunday, January 10, 2021

The Kyle Report: Hays CISD cancels Monday’s in-school, virtual classes

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The Kyle Report: Hays CISD cancels Monday’s in-school, virtual classes :  Hays CISD officials announced this evening that all classes — both...
Thursday, January 7, 2021

The Kyle Report: Council splits over Ethics Commission nominee

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The Kyle Report: Council splits over Ethics Commission nominee :  In the overall scheme of things, 13.36 seconds is not that great a period ...
Wednesday, December 16, 2020

The Kyle Report: How the council voted Tuesday night

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The Kyle Report: How the council voted Tuesday night :  CONSENT AGENDA Item 9: Authorize the City's Director of Finance to dispose throu...

The Kyle Report: Koch gets second term as mayor pro tem

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The Kyle Report: Koch gets second term as mayor pro tem : The City Council voted unanimously last night to award District 5's Rick Koch ...
Saturday, December 12, 2020

The Kyle Report: City to auction street signs, police cars, other v...

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The Kyle Report: City to auction street signs, police cars, other v... :  Want a 1998 Chevy 3500 diesel that was once a Kyle Police vehicle?...
Friday, December 11, 2020

The Kyle Report: New name for (late, not lamented) Rebel Drive is o...

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The Kyle Report: New name for (late, not lamented) Rebel Drive is o... :  Hopefully, everyone by now knows the story of Rebel Drive/Fajita D...
Thursday, December 10, 2020

The Kyle Report: Local mobile COVID testing center now by appointme...

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The Kyle Report: Local mobile COVID testing center now by appointme... : Due to increased volume, the mobile COVID-19 testing site located a...
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About Me

Pete Oppel
I have scratched together a living, in one way or another, as a writer for more than 60 years now. I was a free-lance writer during the early stages of the Vietnam War. I was the Southwest Division Overnight News Editor for United Press International back when UPI was a legitimate news gathering organization. Following that, I went to the Dallas Morning News where I became the first person to write about rock 'n' roll on a daily basis for a Texas metropolitan newspaper. I later became the News' entertainment editor. Following some stints with a couple of prominent PR firms, I had the extraordinary good fortune to team with two communications legends, Ken Fairchild and Lisa LeMaster, as part of one kick-ass media consulting/crisis communications team. That was followed by stints as a department head with the City of Dallas (and its public information officer); the Dallas Northeast Chamber of Commerce where I had the good fortune to meet and work alongside some of this city's business and political titans; and editorial director for QuestCorp Media until that company went out of business. Now officially retired, concentrating on this blog.
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