Bastrop, Tx–Monday the Bastrop Economic Development Corp. board set some major spending goals to put before the Bastrop City Council later this year. The projects include more than $2 million to extend roads and add some 20 new lots in the board’s Industrial and Business Park.
Also on the to-do list is some $320,000 to replace existing street lights on Main Street between Farm Street and the 800 block of Main. That suggestion, from City Manager Mike Talbot, was greeted with enthusiasm by the board which has long contemplated such a project but expected the price to be much higher, possibly more than $1 million.
The board agreed to decide later how to finance the projects, either with new borrowing, cash reserves or current operating funds. That decision can be postponed, the board decided.
Any BEDC spending plan for the coming fiscal year must also be approved by the Bastrop City Council sometime in the next two months.
Last year the BEDC board also proposed expanding the industrial park, but the city council finally approved only funds for final engineering for the project.
The Main Street lighting effort would replace current street lights with antique-style lighting along the three-block section of the historic commercial district, said Talbot. As presently envisioned, the work also includes replacing underground electric lines in order to support additional holiday lighting displays which have long been sought by downtown merchants.