An apartment complex on the South Side is facing backlash for allegedly sealing a bat colony inside the building and leaving the animals to die.

Bat World Sanctuary, a nonprofit committed to protecting wild bat colonies, raised concerns about Hillside Manor Apartments in an April 13 Facebook post.

Austin Bat Refuge saw the post and was able to step in to free the bats, according to an update provided Sunday afternoon.

In the original Facebook post, Bat World Sanctuary said it learned this weekend of a large colony of pregnant free-tailed bats trapped in the apartment complex at 501 Koehler Court.

“The bats have been living there peacefully for years, however, a new tenant complained, and the apartment complex took drastic measures,” the post reads.

Instead of humanely evicting the bats, the post alleges that apartment management decided to use spray foam to entomb them in the building. It’s illegal in Texas to hunt or kill bats but there’s an exception if the animals are located inside or on a building occupied by people.

Not only is it unethical, Bat World Sanctuary said, but sealing the bats inside would also backfire. Instead of slowly dying, the nonprofit said the bats would try to escape and end up inside apartment units where they would likely come into contact with children and pets.

Contact with bats and their feces can result in diseases such as histoplasmosis, a lung infection, and rabies, according to Texas Parks and Wildlife.

“Another issue is that thousands of decaying bodies will end up inside the walls and ceiling of the apartments, causing a horrible odor issue that will not dissipate until the walls and ceiling are torn down and replaced,” the Facebook post, which has over 1,500 reactions and scores of comments, continued.

The group called on the public to raise awareness and urge the property owners to perform a humane bat exclusion, which can involve creating a one-way door that the bats can exit through but not come back in.

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Austin Bat Refuge co-founder Lee Mackenzie traveled to the apartment complex on Saturday and started removing the foam from areas the bats could exit, according to a follow up post from Bat World Sanctuary.

The Austin nonprofit said Mackenzie was quickly confronted by a maintenance person and told to stop all work but was able to continue after explaining the consequences of trapped bats. He was reportedly able to open all the exits and was granted permission to return on Monday to install exclusion tubes.

“The bats are now free thanks to Lee at Austin Bat Refuge,” Bat World Sanctuary wrote.

Hillside Manor Apartments did not immediately respond Sunday to a request for comment.

St. Louis City will play host to Austin at CITYPARK in Major League Soccer action on Sunday.

St. Louis vs Austin Preview

St. Louis City are enduring a tepid start to their campaign, with only one victory recorded in seven matches. They sit 11th out of 14 teams in the Western Conference with eight points and are winless in their last five matches. The hosts, however, are yet to lose at home this season and could draw inspiration from that record against the visitors.

Four-year-old St. Louis ran a fairy-tale campaign last season, finishing atop the Western Conference but crashed out in round one of the playoffs. They will relish the prospect of reliving that experience this term but they are struggling for form and need to fix that early in the campaign.

Austin had a difficult start to their season as well, but have been showing signs of improvement. They will head into this meeting on the back of two straight wins, after a streak of three draws and two losses. The visitors sit eighth in the Western Conference standings with nine points.

Los Verdes are in search of their first win over St. Louis City and could exploit the hosts’ weak form to make it happen. However, Austin have not been impressive on the road, as they are winless in their last five trips. It’s a crucial game for both sides, who could swap their places in the event of a win or defeat.

St. Louis vs Austin Head-to-Head and Key Numbers

St. Louis vs Austin Prediction

St. Louis could boost their confidence level with a win in this match, which could spark their revival. Conversely, a defeat would dampen their spirits even more and harm their already shaky campaign.

Austin will seek to maintain their position and avoid being outpaced in the standings. A draw would be acceptable for head coach Josh Wolff.

St. Louis are expected to come out on top as they are determined to put a positive spin on their campaign.

Prediction: St. Louis 2-1 Austin

St. Louis vs Austin Betting Tips

Tip 1: Result – St. Louis to win

Tip 2: Game to have over 2.5 goals – Yes

Tip 3: St. Louis to score first – Yes

Tip 4: Austin to score - Yes

The City Theatre Company will present the 2024 spring production of The Comedy of Errors, a glorious, bawdy, and way-out “shake your groove thing” theatre event you do not want to miss. Guest director Beau Pual leads the production with show dates May 3 - 19 at Genesis Creative Collective.

“We came into the world like brother and brother. And now let's go hand in hand, not one before another.”

Let the mischief and merriment begin! Comedy of Errors is the farcical misadventures of two sets of identical twins and a hilarious romp with a family fractured and reunited. A shipwreck, mistaken identity, mishaps, misunderstandings, music, and mayhem all come together in this reimagining of one of the Bard’s best.

On Shakespeare’s April 1564 birthday, the play remains as fresh and funny as ever.

Written in 1589 – 1594, many theatregoers cite Errors as their favorite Shakespearean comedy. Why is that? It doesn’t have the famous speeches or characters of A Midsummer Night’s Dream or The Taming of the Shrew. But what it does have in spades is plot twists, suspense, surprise, expectation, and exhilaration that reveal Shakespeare’s mastery in writing. If you’ve never seen a Shakespearean production before, this is a great place to start!

Directed by guest director Beau Paul, it will be all glitz, glam - and indeed groovy - dancing the night away in this timeless classic. He is joined by the incredible cast of Benajah Baskin, Coltrane Conklin, Mike Dellens, Ruby Elian, Jennifer Gonzalez, Jennifer Jennings, Mollie Kirby, Evelyn LaLonde, Judy Lee, Laura Mazer, and Cindy Timms. Celebrating its 18th Season, City Theatre is an Austin-based, not-for-profit arts organization and is sponsored in part by the Austin Creative Alliance and the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin. Founded in 2006, the company has been recognized by the Austin Critics Table Awards, the B. Iden Payne Awards, the Central Texas Excellence in Theatre Awards, BroadwayWorld Austin, Central Texas Live Theatre, and has twice been voted “Best Theatre Company” by Austin American-Statesman’s Austin 360. CTC is dedicated to providing a quality, reputable, and diverse public theatre and Stage Entertainment experience that is accessible to all artists and the entire Austin community. CTC continues to offer its student and group discount ticket program for any show. Put a little theatre in your life!

"April showers" are here as we track daily rain chances into the weekend.

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AUSTIN, Texas — It's been a while since our seven-day forecast has offered up daily chances for showers or thunderstorms in Central Texas. But this week, moisture is filtering in from all directions, keeping things very muggy and, hopefully, ushering in beneficial rain for a few of us.

On Tuesday, a cold front will shift across the Central U.S., with the tail end of it moving through Central Texas. This will give way to a few showers and storms, mostly in the morning. There is currently no risk of severe weather.

However, the passage of this front will do little for our humidity levels. Dew points will continue to surge Tuesday all the way through Saturday before a stronger cold front can bring in drier air late Sunday into next week.

Credit: KVUE

RELATED: Strong storms could be possible Monday night into Tuesday in parts of Central Texas

Wednesday and Thursday hold a 10 to 20% chance for more rain, which will keep most of the region dry. However, relative humidity will still be high and temperatures are also trending warmer. This will have the air feeling soupy and thick for the middle and end of the week.

Credit: KVUE

Wednesday through Friday, the Austin area will see highs nearing 90 degrees. We have only surpassed 90 once so far this year, on March 5.

With the mix of heat and humidity, our heat index –or "feels like" temperatures– could rise into the mid-90s at times.

Credit: KVUE

RELATED: Forecast: Daily rain chances; heating up midweek

While we see moisture in the form of humidity for most of the workweek, we can expect moisture in the form of showers and storms this weekend.

On Saturday night, another cold front will push into east and Central Texas. This disturbance will be much stronger and could give way to some severe weather late Saturday night through early Sunday morning.

Credit: KVUE

Rainfall totals for this next week are still variable, but between both of our main global weather models, accumulations look like they will fall between about a half-inch and 3 inches with isolated higher totals.

The isolated totals could be greater than that, depending on which locations the rain favors. As of the earlier part of the week, it's still a bit too far out to say specifics.

Credit: KVUE

The wetter trend is set to continue potentially into next week, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) six-10 day outlook forecasting above-average rainfall.

Credit: KVUE

We'll continue to provide updates on air and online if this weekend's rain could pose a severe weather threat to the region.

In the meantime, here is the most recent seven-day forecast:

Travis County District Court Judge Jessica Mangrum has ruled that the city of Austin and the developers of the Statesman Planned Unit Development may not move forward with funding of the development on Lady Bird Lake with $354 million in property taxes. The Save Our Springs Alliance, former state Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos, former Council Member Ora Houston and homeowner Faye Holland sued City Council for designating the area as blighted in order to create a tax increment reinvestment zone, or TIRZ.

Under state law, in order to create a TIRZ, the city must show that an area is blighted and that the property would not be developed without the use of public money. Under former Mayor Steve Adler, Council did just that, in spite of the fact that several outside attorneys told them it would be illegal.

Those attorneys included Bill Bunch of the Save Our Springs Alliance, Bill Aleshire and Fred Lewis.

Lewis told the Austin Monitor on Monday that the judge ruled that “they created a TIRZ illegally because they did not have evidence to support the statutory grounds to create the TIRZ and use public money on a private development.” He added, “The city was willing to give away $354 million at a minimum without any showing that the developer and the development needed the money. … Hopefully the City Council will learn from this and stop spending the public money on corporate welfare boondoggles.”

Aleshire said the decision is “a huge victory for taxpayers.” He noted that the decision could have statewide implications even though the ruling by a Travis County district judge does not apply in other jurisdictions. He said the TIRZ is being used illegally in other parts of the state, adding, “it’s about time the restrictions in the tax code were enforced.”

He added the law includes a requirement that an area would not develop without the assistance of property tax money. That was not the case with the waterfront property, which would clearly develop either way. “This decision protects property taxpayers from having to make up for” money the developer is not willing to spend, Aleshire said. He also noted that with a TIRZ, the city could issue bonds, which the city would then have to pay for.

When asked for a comment on the ruling, Meghan Riley, the city’s division chief of litigation, said, “We are disappointed in today’s ruling but very much appreciate the court’s careful consideration of this complex issue. We will review the specific implications of the decision in the coming days. That said, we do not believe this decision impacts the city’s ability to move forward with proposed zoning changes for the South Central Waterfront area.”

Two years ago, the Austin Monitor asked attorney Richard Suttle, who represents the property owners, what would happen if the TIRZ were eliminated. He said the developers understood that there was what he called “a gap” in funding for the project, thus the need for the tax money. He said his clients had underestimated the deficit and even though they were willing to absorb some of that cost, they expected the gap to be covered by the TIRZ.

“They underestimated the deficit and we are willing to absorb some of that underestimation,” Suttle said, but he added that if there was no TIF or TIRZ, the project would not work.

Kathie Tovo, who is currently running for mayor and was a City Council member when the TIRZ was approved, said Monday that she “supported the creation but not the funding of the TIRZ.”

“Our Council was assured by legal staff that a TIRZ was allowable, but I believed it was premature to move forward without a regulating plan that would require property owners to provide public benefits,” she said. “As the City moves forward after this decision, it should be a priority that this area of Austin redevelops in a manner that creates welcoming public spaces and housing for Austinites of different economic backgrounds. This is an opportunity for the City to redirect general fund dollars toward critical city services, like parks and income-restricted housing. The South Shore will develop without public subsidy.”

Mayor Kirk Watson and Council Member Zo Qadri were not on Council when the TIRZ was approved. However, they were named in the lawsuit as members of Council. José Velásquez, Ryan Alter were elected after the initial vote to create the TIRZ.

Photo by Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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