Llano County, TEXAS — Nothing says ‘welcome’ like a toilet sitting at the end of a driveway greeting visitors when they arrive. The white ceramic fixture, layered with dirt, is just one of many items piled up next to a mailbox on Campa Pajama Lane in Kingsland.

If you look down the muddy driveway you can see a new lake house going up in the same spot where the old one was wiped out in the October 2018 flooding.

“It had a two-story boat house with a slide up top, a swing,” said Sally Pickering. “[It was] totally flattened, gone.”

Pickering managed the vacation rental and is in charge of many others along Lake LBJ. She’s happy to see progress on the property, but is says it’s what’s in and near the water keeping her up at night.

“Somebody’s going to get killed or hurt,” said Pickering. “It’s going to destroy boats.”

Andrea Tabb took video and pictures over the weekend of an excavator pulling large chunks of concrete and pieces of metal out of the swimming spot right in front of her family’s lake house.

“There’s metal roofing, poles and rebar,” said Tabb. “It’s about 15 feet from the shoreline.”

A private contractor was paid by property owners to come in and remove the safety hazards. Their main question: What’s being done to address the dangerous water hazards on a large scale?

“As far as I know there’s no one that is actually designated and funded to remove debris,” said Llano County Judge Ron Cunningham.

Cunningham says it’s too pricey for the county to pay a company to come in and do the work.

The Lower Colorado River Authority tells KXAN their job is to mark hazards in the main channel and it’s up to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to remove debris. But the TCEQ only gets involved when the debris threatens bridges, dams and roadways — not when it interferes with recreational use.

Come Feb. 24, the LCRA will start refilling Lake LBJ after lowering it by four feet to allow property owners to repair docks and clear debris. Those along Lake Marble Falls get a three weeks longer to do work. Many tell KXAN Horseshoe Bay is the main reason Lake LBJ will be raised in time for Spring Break.

The bottom line: LCRA says it’s up to boaters and swimmers to use good judgment and know their risks before hitting the water.

The county judge will be flying over Lake LBJ and the Llano River Tuesday to get a better assessment of the debris and progress along the shoreline.

Llano County commissioners also voted Monday to use the $100,000 grant from the LCRA to offset the $1.2 million the county spent on flood recovery and clean up.