Bastrop, Texas Events, News & Stories

Bastrop, Tx–Five candidates have filed for three open seats on the Bastrop City Council in an election set for May 9. The candidate filing period is open until March 9.

So far the sole candidate for the Place 1 council seat is Willie Lewis Peterson, better known as Bill Peterson, 58, He lives on MLK Jr. Blvd. and was in the news last year as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for Pct. 1 County Commissioner. Veteran Bastrop council member Dock Jackson won the nomination but was defeated in an extremely close election in November by GOP nominee Willie Pina.

Two candidates have signed up for the Place 3 city council seat. Camilo R. Chavez III, 38, will be on the ballot. “Cam” Chavez lives on Pecan Street and describes himself as a “regional wine manager” who has been a city resident for just more than a year. The second Place 3 candidate is Kay Garcia McAnally, 61, who runs a bed and breakfast inn at 503 Elm Street in the historic Bat Manlove house. She and her husband have lived in Bastrop more than four years.

The Place 5 council seat has also drawn two candidiates. Retired Episcopal priest Kenneth W. Kesselus, 61, has filed for a place on the city ballot. A Bastrop native, for many years he was rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in Bastrop and now lives on Church Street and works as an employee ombudsman for Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative.

Also seeking the Place 5 seat is Christy Jean Kosser, 56, who lists a Tahitian Village address. Her ballot application says she is retired, but from what position or occupation is unstated.

Current council members Willie DeLaRosa, Dock Jackson and Terry Sanders are ineligible for re-election because of a term-limits provision of the city’s home rule charter approved by voters in 2002.

Cedar Creek, Tx–One man died in an accident at 7:50 p.m. Feb. 10 at the intersection of Texas 21 and FM 812 in southwestern Bastrop County.

Killed was Martin Ortiz, 40, of Cedar Creek, who was west bound on Texas 21.

Two other vehicles were involved in the mishap. One was driven by Sandy Allen Sendgikoski of Kyle, the other by Daniel Richards, 60, of Red Rock, according to a Department of Public Safety report.

The same preliminary report indicated that the four-door Dodge driven by Sendgikoski failed to stop for a stop sign on FM 812 and struck the Mazda pickup driven by Ortiz. The Mazda was then forced into the east bound lane of Texas 21 and the Chevrolet pickup driven by Richards , DPS indicated.

Bastrop, Tx–Responding to downtown business owners Feb. 10, the city council aborted a brief experiment in moving traffic into and through the downtown area. Other approaches to solving daily traffic slowdowns downtown must be quickly explored, however, council members insisted.

The experiment began Feb. 2 when Alley A, a North-South artery between Main Street and the Colorado River became a one way route between Spring and Chestnut Street, also known as Loop 150. During peak driving times, especially in the late afternoons, the result was more backed up traffic from Main Street to the West across the Colorado River bridge on Loop 150, said Police Chief David Board. Given more time to adjust, drivers might adopt new strategies for moving through and around the downtown commercial district, said Board.

The experimental arrangement, which precluded East bound drivers on Chestnut from turning left into the narrow Alley A, was roundly assailed by some downtown business owners, including Dan Hepker of Bastrop Copier at the corner of Chestnut and Main. The scheme was costing him business because customers were frustrated by the new arrangement, he said, and Hepker predicted more accidents and injuries sparked by driver frustrations. “It’s a dangerous situation now,” he said.

Deli Depot owners also said customers were facing more impediments to patronizing the popular establishment.

“We’ve created a worse problem than we had (downtown),” said Council Member Terry Sanders.

The council voted unanimously to abandon the one way experiment beginning at 7 a.m. Feb. 11, but some of them warned that a problem remains to be solved and the solution may have some downsides, including the loss of some downtown parking on Chestnut Street.

“Something’s got to be done,” said Council Member Joe Beal.

Council Member Willie DeLaRosa urged City Manager Mike Talbot immediately to contact the Texas Department of Transportation, which controls Loop 150, about dusting off a proposal from 1995-96 which would eliminate Chestnut Street parking between the river bridge and Main Street in order to created a protected left turn lane from Chestnut onto Main Street. When TxDOT floated the idea more than a dozen years ago, the council baulked a losing the curbside parking spaces, DeLaRosa recalled.

Mayor Terry Orr reminded the council that one impetus for the Alley A experiment was to improve safety for parents and pupils headed to the Calvary Episcopal Church pre-school which fronts on the busy alley.

Talbot echoed a comment by Beal to the effect that fixing one downtown traffic issue could create others at the same time. The situation “needs evaluation and more input,” said Talbot.

Bastrop, Tx–When city voters pick three new council members May 9, they may also be asked to decide other issues, including a potential new source of funding for additions to Bastrop’s water supplies.

The suggestion surfaced Feb. 10 at a city council meeting when Council Member Julie Hart suggested tapping the city’s economic development funds to help pay for development of new water wells on the West bank of the Colorado River, a project already underway. State law allows some municipal economic development corporations funded by a half-cent sales tax to spend funds for water system improvements, said city attorney J.C. Brown. To make that possible in Bastrop’s case, city voters would have to approve a change in the rules which govern the Bastrop Economic Development Corp., said Brown.

Hart said using some BEDC money for expanding the city’s water supply could ease the burden on city water customers. In approving the present plan for developing new water supplies and making related improvements, the council previously adopted an approach calling for raising water rates by 10 percent a year for five years, beginning in 2008. If carried out as projected, that would mean a boost of 61 percent in water rates over five years, said Hart.
BEDC President Joe Newman said the city agency currently operates with a budget of some $1.2 million a year and holds a reserve fund of some $1.7 million.

Brown said the issue could go to local voters on the May 9 city ballot.

Previously the council has also suggested some changes in the city’s home rule charter could also be on the May ballot. The content of possible charter changes has not been discussed in public so far.

Three veteran city council members will leave their seats after May 9. Willie DeLaRosa, Dock Jackson and Terry Sanders are not eligible for re-election this year because of a term-limits provision in the Bastrop home rule charter adopted in 2002.

Bastrop, Tx–Bastrop County commissioners today approved a 10-year tax break for a new $65 million data center proposed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) on a 40-acre site near McKinney Roughs off Texas 71 West of Bastrop presenty owned by the tax-exempt Lower Colorado River Authority.

ERCOT is a non-profit corporation governed by the Public Utility Commission of Texas and is charged with regulating the flow of electric power from generators to consumers across roughly 75 percent of the state. The operating center of the distribution system is in Taylor. The Bastrop facility is planned as a back-up data center for the system. It will be staffed by a work force of 15 who will be paid on average $85,000 a year, said ERCOT officials.

The county tax break will save the agency a few million dollars over the coming decade but will not affect property taxes due to the Bastrop Independent School District and the Bastrop County Emergency Services District No. 1, which provides fire protection to the area.

Commissioners approved the proposed tax break agreement without discussion.

ERCOT officials said they plan to spend about $30 million for building construction and utilities at the site, plus another $35 million for equipment.