Barton Family Leases 176 acres to Tex Mix Affiliate
A Tex Mix Concrete subcontractor, Rambo Materials, has recently acquired a 10-year lease from the Robert Barton family in Utley to mine and process sand and gravel on its 176-acre parcel in Wilbarger Bend. With this latest move, Tex Mix now has nearly 1000 acres of contiguous land spanning the width of the bend, making it one of the largest mining tracts in Central Texas.
"For years Bastrop has been clamoring for growth. Sadly, this is what it has gotten," says Skip Connett, co-founder of Friends of the Land. "Between the acquisitions of Elon Musk's Boring Company and Tex Mix's sand and gravel mining operations, more than 1,500 acres of bucolic river-front property has degraded from ranching and residential to a heavy industrial without a single opportunity for county residents to have their voices heard."
Property owners who have sold to the companies include renowned veterinarian Dr. Charles Graham and filmmaker. Among the few remaining and pushing back are Chap Ambrose and Green Gate Farms. The rapid expansion of mining operations here and elsewhere on FM 969 is creating so much wear and tear on the winding farmer-to-market road that TxDOT and county officials cannot keep up with its maintenance. Traffic accidents also have increased dramatically, including a fatality at Howard Lane and, two overturned 18-wheelers in the past month. Despite TxDOT requirements that new aggregate mining operations must install turning lanes at their entrances, neither of the Tex Mix entrances in Utley or at 535 FM 969 have turning lanes.
Based out of Leander, Tex Mix company began mining in Bastrop three years ago three miles east along FM 969 on what was a cattle ranch called Rainbow's End. Bastrop land speculator and developer, Jason Alley, purchased the ranch in 2016 and leased it to Tex Mix partner, Bastrop Sand Supply, in 2018. Alley signed a lease agreement last month with Wittlesley Landscaping Supply to begin processing and selling the mine's topsoil or "overburden" as it is called in the industry.
The Barton property is the square-shaped tract on the map that will join the two light blue tracts that Tex Mix recently purchased. The company's mining footprint now straddles the entire bend -- from the south side of the Colorado RV Park at the FM 969 bridge to the north end of the bend where the Lost Pines Hyatt resort begins river's opposite side.
Bastrop County officials say their hands are tied when it comes to regulating sand and gravel mining. "It has been passed to me that we the county have little or nothing to do with these pits," Commissioner Mel Hamner wrote to Friends of the Land. "The residents of ColoVista even went to Senator Schwertzner’s office and found little could be done."
Hamner referred to a campaign just below the city of Bastrop to stop the owners of Texas Aggregates from purchasing more than 500 acres along the river that adjoining the Colovista subdivision.
"For years Bastrop has been clamoring for growth. Sadly, this is what it has gotten," says Skip Connett, co-founder of Friends of the Land. "Between the acquisitions of Elon Musk's Boring Company and Tex Mix's sand and gravel mining operations, more than 1,500 acres of bucolic river-front property has degraded from ranching and residential to a heavy industrial without a single opportunity for county residents to have their voices heard."
Property owners who have sold to the companies include renowned veterinarian Dr. Charles Graham and filmmaker. Among the few remaining and pushing back are Chap Ambrose and Green Gate Farms. The rapid expansion of mining operations here and elsewhere on FM 969 is creating so much wear and tear on the winding farmer-to-market road that TxDOT and county officials cannot keep up with its maintenance. Traffic accidents also have increased dramatically, including a fatality at Howard Lane and, two overturned 18-wheelers in the past month. Despite TxDOT requirements that new aggregate mining operations must install turning lanes at their entrances, neither of the Tex Mix entrances in Utley or at 535 FM 969 have turning lanes.
Based out of Leander, Tex Mix company began mining in Bastrop three years ago three miles east along FM 969 on what was a cattle ranch called Rainbow's End. Bastrop land speculator and developer, Jason Alley, purchased the ranch in 2016 and leased it to Tex Mix partner, Bastrop Sand Supply, in 2018. Alley signed a lease agreement last month with Wittlesley Landscaping Supply to begin processing and selling the mine's topsoil or "overburden" as it is called in the industry.
The Barton property is the square-shaped tract on the map that will join the two light blue tracts that Tex Mix recently purchased. The company's mining footprint now straddles the entire bend -- from the south side of the Colorado RV Park at the FM 969 bridge to the north end of the bend where the Lost Pines Hyatt resort begins river's opposite side.
Bastrop County officials say their hands are tied when it comes to regulating sand and gravel mining. "It has been passed to me that we the county have little or nothing to do with these pits," Commissioner Mel Hamner wrote to Friends of the Land. "The residents of ColoVista even went to Senator Schwertzner’s office and found little could be done."
Hamner referred to a campaign just below the city of Bastrop to stop the owners of Texas Aggregates from purchasing more than 500 acres along the river that adjoining the Colovista subdivision.