Drought, Weekly Update ++

Its been hot and dry hasn't it! I was thinking about hitching a ride around the area in a friends plane for some pictures of the lake and just received this Youtube video made by the LCRA. Here is a link - it's really sad!

Here is a link to Don Gardner's tips for keeping your trees alive during this drought!

Triton Trial - Bee Cave and Uplands resident Kurt Barton's fraud trial started this week with testimony about the profligate spending of the company now known to have been a giant Ponzi scheme - Triton Financial. Leveraging relationships with several local Football stars, Barton is alleged to have embezzled over $50 million and is charged with fraud and numerous other offenses in this Federal case.

From Steve Jones:

The Village of The Hills wants to install a sidewalk along The Hills Drive from Trophy Drive To Lakeway Blvd. Part of it will be in our jurisdiction so they have submitted plans for review. It looks good and will be a nice improvement for our children who walk or bike to Serene Hills Elementary.

A drainage problem at 303 Duck Lake caused by a driveway installed 13 years ago should be corrected in a week or so. It appears the City failed to require a culvert under the driveway.

Paul Duncan (City Engineer) held a pre-construction meeting this week for the HEB wastewater extension in Serene Hills. Hopefully this indicates that HEB is getting serious about building at this location.

Residential building permits increased by 54.7% from this time last year. Our sales tax receipts are also up 28.7% over this month last year. Our local economy continues to show signs of good health!

Annexation Update:

Last week, staff sent copies of the proposed amendments to the R-6 Zoning district and floodplain ordinance to representatives of North Brooks Hollow and Travis Oaks Trails. This week we received communications from attorneys representing both groups. The process will move along as directed by Council in the June meeting. In September, the agenda will include action items for adopting the proposed amendments and annexing the North Brooks Hollow area.
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Here is the Agenda for Monday's Council meeting - there are many action items and I expect the meeting will run long.

The tenth annual Lakeway Photo Festival is coming up in November. Here is a link to more information!

And finally, although the Transitional Medical Center (behind the Post Office) seems to be nearly complete, the latest information I have is that it will open sometime in 2012.

Thanks for all the letters of support! More as I find out!

Joe Bain
lakeway@bain.us