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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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Posted in Bastrop City Council, business plans | No Comments »

Convention center art sought

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

Bastrop, Tx–Following a suggestion by Council Member Kay Garcia McAnally on Tuesday, the city council agreed to form a citizen study group to look for significant local art works to embellish the convention center and new city hall now under construction on Chestnut Street.

The new city buildings should become a showcase for the wealth of local artistic talent already living and working in Bastrop, said McAnally. So far there is no budget or plan for placing art work in the new structures.

Works for public display might be purchased, borrowed for a time or acquired by gift or long term loans, said McAnally. An acquisition strategy should be one of the arts panel’s tasks, she suggested.

Mayor Terry Orr said he will appoint such a panel, with the council’s consent, if council members will first suggest a list of suitable candidates.Orr suggested a panel of possibly four to seven members as an initial working group.

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Posted in Bastrop City | No Comments »

Bastrop area rail plans to be discussed Friday

Monday, September 21st, 2009

Bastrop, Tx–A local transportation study group is set to hear Friday from state officials looking into the feasibility of moving heavy rail freight traffic away from cities in the area, including Bastrop and possibly Elgin.

For more than a year planners from the Texas Department of Transportation, local officials and area residents have mostly focused on needed highway improvements. Now their attention has turned to the future of rail traffic through the area.

The Friday rail session is slated for 10 a.m. in the Commissioners Courtroom on the second floor of the Courthouse Annex at 804 Pecan St. in Bastrop. The public is invited and a quorum of county commissioners may attend the session, said Gayle Wilhelm, an assistant to Bastrop County Judge Ronnie McDonald.

The possibility of moving heavy rail traffic off the 1886 route through Bastrop’s old town core has raised questions about what property might be affected by a new rail alignment, possibly between the present route of FM 20 and Texas 304, areas now slated for significant commercial and residential development.

Elgin officials are also interested in regional rail plans because of the potential to convert a freight rail line from Austin to Elgin and Giddings for use by commuter trains at some time in the future.

The present rail line through Bastrop sends trains laden with coal, gravel, industrial chemicals and other agricultural and manufactured goods between the main high school campus and the West Campus or 9th Grade Center on Hill Street on a daily basis. The Union Pacific line through Bastrop is part of a main line between the Midwest and Mountain West and the port at Houston on the Gulf Coast.

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Posted in Bastrop City, Bastrop County, Local Politics, Traffic Fatalities | 4 Comments »

Time Warner wins contract for data network services

Monday, September 14th, 2009

Bastrop, Tx–Bastrop County commissioners agreed Monday to pay Time Warner Cable just over $75,000 a year for internet access connections between the Courthouse in Bastrop and six other county offices across the county.

Information technology consultant Ken Cruise of Bastrop told commissioners Monday that current arrangements which rely on telephone T1 lines are not adequate to support the county’s data transfer and communications needs. He recommended the Time Warner offer.

The internet proposal includes the Courthouse in Bastrop, as well as Justice of the Peace courts in Bastrop, Elgin, Smithville and Cedar Creek, plus the sheriff’s department and jail at 200 Jackson St. in Bastrop and the animal control office and shelter on Cool Water Dr. in Lake Bastrop Acres. The monthly fee for service is $6,312 under the agreement.

Also Monday commissioners agreed to pay Bastrop attorney James Kershaw $4,000 a month for use of an office building in the 800 block of Water Street for the next two years beginning Oct. 1. The building presently houses offices for a variety of county functions, including development and permitting services, environmental enforcement, flood plain control as well as health and sanitation operations.

In addition commissioners agreed to extend a contract with Bastrop-based Upstart, Inc. to video tape and broadcast regular commissioner meetings on
Bastrop Community Access Television (Time Warner Cable channel 10 in Bastrop) for the year beginning Oct. 1. The cost of $5,200 for the year is unchanged from the current year.

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Posted in Bastrop County | No Comments »

Pine Forest road work approved

Monday, September 14th, 2009

Bastrop, Tx–Briar Forest, Timber Lane and East Tangle Briar roads in the Pine Forest subdivision near Bastrop are due for improvement under an agreement endorsed Monday by Bastrop County commissioners.

The pact call for the Pine Forest Property Owners Association to pay for road base and paving materials, along with half the fuel expenses for the work. Pct. 1 Commissioner Willie Pina said he will provide equipment, cover labor costs and assume future maintenance on the roads. The work will be completed over the next 12 months.

The subdivision was formally platted and approved in the 1970s, but in most cases the roads were neither dedicated to county or city authorities nor accepted for public maintenance at the time.

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Posted in Bastrop County | No Comments »

Bastrop County suspends outdoor burning ban

Monday, September 14th, 2009

Bastrop, Tx–Following a long weekend of welcome rainfall across Bastrop County and the wider Central Texas area, Bastrop County commissioners suspended a months-long ban on outdoor burning Monday.

“It was a nice rain all over,” commissioners were told by Mike Fisher, Bastrop County Emergency Management Coordinator, who recommended lifting the ban.

Weekend rainfall ranged from one to three or more inches over much of the county with the largest amounts across the north and northeast parts of the area, according to weather reports. Some minor flooding was also recorded, said Fisher.

The heaviest rainfall was recorded in the Pin Oak Creek area in eastern Bastrop County.

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Posted in Bastrop County | No Comments »

Budget policy rift opens on Bastrop City Council

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009

Bastrop, Tx–The city council will meet again Sept. 15 to continue budget talks after a deep policy difference emerged during discussion on the coming year’s budget for the Bastrop Economic Development Corp. on Sept. 8.

The BEDC board has proposed spending as much as $2.2 million to extend roads in its industrial park and open up as many as 13 new lots for prospective industrial and business tenants. Currently only two or possibly three lots remain available for development, said BEDC President/CEO Joe Newman.

Newman added that the city is eligible for grant money which could cover half the cost of the proposed road extensions.

But Council Member Julie Hart argued that the BEDC money, from a special economic development sales tax, might be better spent developing a new deep well in Bob Bryant Park to boost the city’s water supplies which have under pressure during the past two extremely hot, dry years.

Spending BEDC money on the water system would require prior approval by voters, probably no sooner than May 2010, said city attorney J.C. Brown. Election cost would likely be no more than about $5,000 if the referendum were held in conjunction with the May council elections next year, said Brown.

Mayor Terry Orr questioned the wisdom of “mixing” BEDC sales tax funds with customary water and sewer system revenues which are designed to cover the utility’s operating, maintenance and development costs.

Hart said putting BEDC cash into the water system could soften the impact of higher rates charged to customers for system improvements and added water production capacity.

In 2008 the city council approved a five-year capital improvements plan for the water and sewer system, including new water wells. The planned $2.5 million improvements would be paid for by annual rate hikes of 10.5 percent a year over the same period.

That amounts to a 61 percent rate hike for water and sewer customers over five years, said Hart. She urged delaying approval of the BEDC road project while studying alternative uses of the money.
Council Member Joe Beal suggested that the council should consider carefully before abandoning a long held policy which calls for the city’s so-called enterprise funds–water, sewer and electric utility operations–to be self-supporting, that is, without relying on other sources of city revenue including sales and property taxes.

The council is slated to take a final vote Sept. 22 on operating budgets for the 2009-10 fiscal year for all city funds and functions, including BEDC and utility systems.

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Posted in Bastrop City Council | No Comments »

Bastrop housing starts still at a standstill, lag likely to continue into next year

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009

Bastrop, Tx–Tuesday the Bastrop City Council approved without opposition from a major housing developer a denial of permission to continue building in a new residential section of The Colony Municipal Utility District west of town in the city’s extra-territorial jurisdiction.

The lack of interest by developers to continue building perhaps reflects the current downturn in the residential market. Two weeks ago, the council also turned down a final plat for a new residential section in Hunter’s Crossing on Bastrop’s southwest border. Again developers did not object.

City planners urged denial of the final plats. Without city council action on the issue, the plats as submitted would be approved as a matter of law, officials said, and developers had indicated no immediate plans to pursue further construction activities in the near future.

In the current fiscal year the city has issued only one permit for new home construction, the same number as in the previous year, according to planning department reports.

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Posted in Bastrop City | 2 Comments »

2nd murder in 30 days recorded in Bastrop County

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

Bastrop, Tx–A shooting death Saturday near Red Rock landed a 29-year-old man in the Bastrop County Jail under $150,000 bail.

Troy Alden Whiteside is charged with murder. Sheriff’s department dispatch records suggest that it was Whiteside who called 911 at 6:45 p.m. Sept. 5 reporting an incident at 1200 Sand Hills Rd.

Investigators said Chance Ray Smith, 23, “had been shot multiple times” and was pronounced dead at Lakeside Hospital in Bastrop. A Sept. 8 announcement from the sheriff’s department said “details surrounding the shooting death are still under investigation.”

A jail photograph of Whiteside distributed with today’s press announcement showed the suspect with bruising around his left eye.

Smith’s death is the second homicide recorded in Bastrop County since mid August, when an 18-year-old and his 14-year-old girlfriend were charged with murder in the Aug. 14 shooting death of the girl’s mother, Tracy Bellard, 42, in McDade. Both suspects in that case, Joseph Dwayne Douglas and the juvenile, remain in custody.

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Posted in Bastrop County, Crime | No Comments »

Grass fire scorches 7.5 acres, arson suspected

Thursday, September 3rd, 2009

Bastrop, Tx–A grass fire Tuesday which burned about 7.5 acres on Bastrop’s western border may have been deliberately set, city police suspect.

The blaze near the intersection of Outfitter and Grutsch Dr. was reported at 5:30 p.m. and drew response from the Bastrop, Bluebonnet Acres, 3N1 and 5 Points volunteer fire departments, according to emergency dispatch records. Firefighters remained at the scene until almost 10 p.m.

The fire “may have been arson and investigation continues by detectives,” said Bastrop Police officer Andres Rosales in an incident report.

On July 23 a 10-year-old was charged with arson in connection with a wildfire which burned 40 acres in the same area, threatening a number of homes and rural outbuildings. At the time, investigators said three children had been playing with matches when the fire broke out.

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Posted in Bastrop City, Crime | No Comments »

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