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Bastrop economic development chief quits

Friday, March 4th, 2011

Bastrop, Tx–Joe Newman, who led the Bastrop Economic Development Corp. as president and chief executive for more than 10 years, unexpectedly resigned this week following a private meeting with board president Steve Mills. The resignation was effective immediately.

Newman did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

The action came after Newman faced public criticism from some board members earlier in the week. During a board meeting Monday evening, Mayor Terry Orr called for rethinking how the board’s industrial park is being developed. “The industrial park needs a kick start,” said Orr. “I for one don’t know what our plans are (for the project).

Board member Pat Crawford called for a workshop to review the agency’s strategic plan. “Our strategic plan sucks,” she said.

In a different part of the meeting Monday, board members retreated behind closed doors in part to review and evaluate Newman’s recent job performance. Subsequently Mills scheduled a private meeting with Newman.

A board member, who was not authorized to speak for the agency and asked not to be named, said Newman was not asked to resign and no single issue apparently led to his sudden departure, adding “maybe it was just time to make a change.”

Mayor Orr praised Newman’s years of service to the agency and said Mills and other board members will cover Newman’s executive responsibilities until a new leader is selected.

The economic development agency is funded by a dedicated half-cent sales tax which was approved for the purpose by voters in the mid 1990s. In addition to the board’s industrial park and its popular matching grant program for improving the appearance of central business district buildings, other recent activities include building new sidewalks, crosswalks, lighting and landscaping along Chestnut Street from Water Street to Texas 95.

The board is also pledged to pay for new water, sewer and underground electric lines in Alley B on the west side of the 900 block of Main Street. The board is also planning to install new street lighting on Main Street between Pine and Spring Street.

 

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Bastrop again invites airport talks, rejects developer complaints

Friday, February 18th, 2011

Bastrop, Tx–The city manager is challenging charges that the council has been “non-responsive and/or obstructive” to proposals for a private general aviation airport on a 1,500-acre tract west of Bastrop.

The project has drawn sharp opposition from county residents in the area, but the city is involved because the tract is part of Bastrop’s extra-territorial jurisdiction, an area where it exercises some development controls.

In a letter dated Feb. 1, City Manager Mike Talbot invited Austin developer James Carpenter and his group to suggest dates for a public workshop with the city council as a step toward “meaningful” talks on issues related to the $150 million project which Carpenter has claimed will create thousands of jobs in the next 10 years.

Talbot also charged that the city has heard nothing from the Carpenter group since a Nov. 9 meeting at which the council outlined its conditions for moving discussions forward.

“The council and I have been disturbed to have heard complaints voiced, over the past several weeks, in various forums (and directly by local citizens), to the effect that the City of Bastrop has been ‘non-responsive and/or obstructive’ to you and your team in your development of the project. In the city’s view, nothing could be further from the truth,” Talbot wrote to Carpenter.

Talbot’s letter was released Feb. 18 among materials distributed to the city council ahead of its scheduled Feb. 22 meeting, set for 6 p.m. at City Hall.

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Private airport proponents fall silent

Thursday, December 16th, 2010

Bastrop, Tx–When the Bastrop City Council met Nov. 9 it heard a presentation from developers of the proposed Central Texas Airport, planned for some 1,500 acres west of the city between the Colorado River and the intersection of FM 969 and FM 1704 south of Elgin. City officials have heard nothing from the developers since, however.

Developers, led by Austin-based Carpenter and Associates, asked for Bastrop’s consent to annex the tract to an existing water control district and for support to change state law to give the water district additional powers when Texas lawmakers meet in Austin next year. Proponents said the airport will create thousands of jobs and boost tax revenues of the Bastrop and Elgin school districts.

After hearing from the Carpenter group and a number of opponents who live in the proposed airport area, the council decided it would consider the project only on certain conditions, including a requirement that proponents pay the city’s cost to engage expert consultants to evaluate the proposals.

In an interview today Bastrop City Manager Michael Talbot said the city has heard nothing from the Carpenter airport group since the November meeting. He declined to speculate on what that silence might mean.

Under current state law, the city’s consent is required for the creation of new taxing districts in Bastrop’s extra-territorial jurisdiction (ETJ), which includes the proposed airport site. The Legislature, of course, could decide to revise or revoke the city’s ETJ powers in some future session.

Talbot said the city would “respond appropriately” to any such effort in the upcoming legislative session beginning in January.

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Bastrop hospital shuttered Nov. 19

Friday, November 19th, 2010

Bastrop, Tx–Apparently without prior notice, Bastrop’s privately owned Lakeside Hospital on Texas 71 shut its doors Friday and dismissed its local employees. Future plans were not immediately announced.

It was the city’s only hospital facility.

Bastrop County Emergency Management Coordinator Mike Fisher said his office was notified before 8 a.m. that Guardian EMS, the county’s ambulance operator, would no longer take emergency cases to Lakeside, beginning immediately. Patients were redirected to Smithville Regional Hospital or other suitable facilities in the area.

Gayle Wilhelm, the top assistant to Bastrop County Judge Ronnie McDonald, said her office had no additional information late Friday.

Matt Wagner, Bastrop’s acting police chief, said his office was asked to keep a close eye on Lakeside about 11 a.m. because employees were beimg terminated and sent home. Apparently workers had no advance notice of the hospital closing, said Wagner. The hospital employed some 80 workers.

By mid afternoon, the front door at Lakeside had a sheet of paper taped to it saying the hospital is closed and giving a telephone number to contact if anyone needs medical records from the facility.

In a Friday afternoon telephone interview Bastrop Mayor Terry Orr said he was notified of the impending closure Friday morning. He had no additional details about what may have led to the move by Austin-based owner Blackhawk Healthcare LLC which bought the facility in July 2009 for a reported $20 million.

The mayor did say, however, that in recent weeks he has been in contact with officials from the Austin-based St. David’s Hospital System. Orr said he has encouraged St. David’s officials to maintain a hospital facility in or near Bastrop. St. David’s and Lakeside officials have been in contact as recently as last week, said Orr.

Earlier this year St. David’s was in talks with Smithville Regional Hospital officials about assuming responsibility for their operations.

The 15-bed Lakeside Hospital opened in 2006

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Bastrop council slows airport takeoff

Wednesday, November 10th, 2010

Bastrop, Tx–Tuesday the Bastrop City Council signaled a go-slow approach to developer requests aimed at speeding ahead with a proposed industrial-business park centered on a private general aviation airport west of town which has drawn bitter criticism from area residents for more than a year.

After hearing from almost a dozen critics and listening to a brief presentation by representatives of developer Carpenter and Associates of Austin, the council retreated for just over an hour behind closed doors to discuss “economic development negotiations” with the Carpenter group.

At the end of that executive session the council approved without dissent a stance which said the developer proposals “in their present form” cannot be accepted, that the city’s review process will take far longer than the 30 days suggested by Carpenter, that the city’s review will include “full, rigorous” public involvement and that no financial incentives are under consideration.

The council approach, as explained by Council Member Julie Hart, includes a requirement that the development group also agree to pay any consulting and related fees the council deems necessary. The city will select its own legal and other consultants with the developers paying the tab, she suggested.

James Carpenter, the general manager of the development group, did not attend the Tuesday session, but representatives said the project will boost the tax base of the Bastrop school district and create an estimated 10,000 jobs over the next decade. Carpenter holds options to buy some 1,500 acres stretching southwest from the intersection of FM 1704 and FM 969 to near the Hyatt Lost Pines Resort and Spa on Texas 71 west of Bastrop.

The development group wants the city’s consent to annex the area to an existing Water Control and Improvement District and support for additional laws next year when the Texas Legislature meets beginning in January. The city’s support in these areas is critical because the property is part of Bastrop’s legal extra-territorial jurisdiction.

Over the past month, critics of the project have repeatedly called for more public involvement and more environmental impact studies of the proposed project.

“This is a process. It will take some time,” Bastrop Mayor Terry Orr told the crowd at Tuesday’s council meeting. “We can hold public hearings (on the airport issue). Our job is to learn the concerns of the people.”

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Bastrop council eyes new airport proposals

Saturday, November 6th, 2010

Bastrop, Tx–A fresh set of proposed agreements between Bastrop and developers of a private general aviation airport west of the city will be discussed behind closed doors Tuesday when the city council meets beginning at 6 p.m.

The council will convene at the offices of the Tahitian Village water district (Bastrop County WCID #2) at 106 Conference Dr., just off Tahitian Drive.

The council’s meeting agenda also allows council members to act on economic development negotiations which take behind closed doors. State law requires any vote to take place in public.

Late Friday afternoon the meeting agenda was amended to include “economic development negotiations” involving the proposed Central Texas Airport project which has been the subject of sharp criticism from area residents for more than a year now, most recently last month at a meeting of Bastrop County commissioners.

The meeting agenda released after lunch Friday listed five specific topics for discussion which involve the airport development project proposed by Carpenter & Associates. Topping the list is an item which apparently seeks the city’s consent to include parts of its legal extra-territorial jurisdiction in an existing conservation and reclamation “or other special districts.” State law requires the city to consent to the creation of many types of special districts in its E-TJ.

The Cottonwood water district in eastern Travis County may be the existing entity Carpenter & Associates has its eye on, according to city officials.

More than a year ago the city council rejected a previous Carpenter request to allow creation of a special municipal utility district involving the airport and some associated industrial developments which are now being marketed as a green, high technology complex called “Green Corporate Center.”

The development group also apparently wants a promise by the council to support possible laws to be introduced in the upcoming session of the Texas Legislature “related to the creation of the Special Districts,” as well as additional unspecified “cooperation and assistance to the developer concerning the project.”

No additional details or copies of proposals for council consideration were released immediately. City Manager Mike Talbot said the documents received at City Hall for council review and negotiation were marked “confidential.”

Since last year’s contentious public hearing on the airport plan before Bastrop County commissioners in April and the subsequent rejection by the Bastrop City council, the Carpenter-led development promoters have not been idle. In June this year county commissioners signed off on a special agreement with Carpenter which allows the project a 30-year break on county property taxes once developers have sunk $150 million into the effort. Carpenter and the development group have also engaged the services of Bastrop lawyer Geoff Connor as a registered lobbyist in advance of the 2011 state legislative session.

Connor, a former Texas Secretary of State appointed by Gov. Rick Perry, has been in contact with Bastrop city officials and council members in recent weeks to push the project forward.

Carpenter has options to by some 1,000 acres for the project southeast of the intersection of FM 969 and FM 1704 in Bastrop County. According to news reports Carpenter also has a contract to buy more than 400 additional acres adjoining the original airport tract from Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in western Bastrop County near the Haytt Regency Lost Pines Resort and Spa.

In a telephone interview Saturday, Mayor Terry Orr said he believes there will be at least some public discussion of the Carpenter airport proposals at the Tuesday council session.

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Airport fallout: critics blast county leaders

Monday, October 25th, 2010

Bastrop, Tx–A dozen-odd angry Bastrop County residents spent most of an hour Monday berating county commissioners and the judge for encouraging the development of a private general aviation airport and associated industrial projects on more than 1,000 acres west of Bastrop.

One after another they took the podium at a regular meeting of commissioners during a “citizens comment” section of the agenda. Some said they felt betrayed by the county signing a development pact for the project with veteran developer James Carpenter of Carpenter & Associates who has publicly pushed his plans for more than 18 months.

Others accused commissioners of “selling out” to developer interests. Many called for a public hearing on the airport and associated development projects. Some called for the development agreement to be scrapped outright.

Monday’s outpouring of anger was prompted in part by an announcement by Carpenter in Austin on Oct. 19 that four business ventures, including the conglomerate Toshiba,have made agreements to locate new facilities near the prop0sed airport.

In April 2009 Carpenter first laid out the project at a public meeting before commissioners and a hostile crowd which packed the meeting room. At the time County Judge Ronnie McDonald said residents would be able to pose questions about the plans at a future public session.

But no such session took place before commissioners approved a development agreement with Carpenter earlier this year, to the consternation of some critics. A key provision of the pact calls for Carpenter to invest a minimum of $150 million before the project is eligible for a rebate of 75 percent of county property taxes on the site and improvements for 30 years. Property taxes assessed by school districts and other taxing jurisdictions are not affected.

Commissioners did not respond to the critics during Monday’s meeting, nor did they offer any defense of the project or the deal with Carpenter.

Outside the meeting, however, some of them questioned whether Carpenter will be able to meet the $150 million investment threshold. At the Oct. 19 announcement in Austin, Carpenter said he hopes to begin construction later this year.

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Groundwater export plan draws fire

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

Bastrop, Tx–The Bastrop Economic Development Corp. didn’t bat an eye Monday when asked to adopt a measure opposing the annual export of some 30,000 acre feet of groundwater from Bastrop County for use by the Guadaloupe-Blanco River Authority near San Marcos.

“That’s a no-brainer” for the local economic development board, said Board Member Willie DeLaRosa. “We don’t need to be exporting water to New Braunfels.”

If approved the GBRA water deal “could have a negative impact on Bastrop County,” said Bastrop City Manager Mike Talbot. The fear is that current water export plan, if implemented, could leave too little groundwater available to support continued growth in Bastrop and Lee County over the next two or three decades.

Additional concerns by local economic development and water planners is that the export scheme has now been included in an official water plan by a neighboring regional water planning group which expects the $330 million project to be financed, at least in part, by the Texas Water Development Board, the state agency which must also approve regional water plans for the Lower Colorado River Basin as well as the Guadaloupe River Basin.

Talbot said he and other local officials will meet this week with State Rep. Tim Kleinschmidt to review concerns about the GBRA proposal and its likely impact on local cities and other water utilities including Aqua Water Supply Corp. In a press announcement last week Aqua officials voiced fears that the proposed export plan could impair its ability to fulfill a constract to supply water to the planned 7,400-home XS Ranch project north of Bastrop.

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Buc-ee’s seeks Bastrop tax rebate

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

Bastrop, Tx–Buc-ee’s, the convenience and travel center retail chain, wants to build a 45,000-square-foot store in Bastrop, but needs a 10-year sales tax break to do so, the city council heard Tuesday.

Buc-ee’s founder Beaver Aplin offered two arguments to justify the rebate request. First, he said, his bank needs the assurance of sales tax rebates as security for the construction loan, estimated at $6.8 million for the store at Texas 95 and Texas 71. Aplin also argued that some street and utility work required by city rules will provide benefits to adjoining property owners as well as his project.

Aplin asked for the city’s 1.5 percent sales tax on store sales to be reimbursed to Bec-ee’s for 10 years. That represents the share of the state’s 8.25 percent salex tax which currently goes to the city and the Bastrop Economic Development Corp. He is not seeking relief from local property and other taxes.

The rebate, if approved, could amount to some $150,000 a year. Aplin said his proposed store will not really compete with other local convenience stores because it’s a different class of operation.

Council Member Joe Beal asked for a formal written abatement proposal from Aplin before the council considers the request further.

Council Member Julie Hart said she encourages local retail competition as long as “it’s on a level playing fied,” suggesting that a sales tax rebate for Buc-ee’s might tilt the advantage.

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BEDC firms up spending proposals for FY 11 budget year

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

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.

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