Monday, October 22, 2012

Early Voting Starts, Weeks Update

Today, October 22, marks the start of early voting at the Lakeway Randalls Store!  Please remember to scroll down to the "Lakeway" section and vote FOR Proposition 1!  Not to be confused with Travis County Prop 1!  This proposition will enable the City of Lakeway to pay it's part of the construction costs of rebuilding Flint Rock Road and will cost the tax payers $.007 per $100 of evaluation.  If this Proposition does not pass, the $4.5 million that was allocated for the County portion will be spent elsewhere in Travis County and we will still have to pay for it!  Please email me if you have questions!  Here is a link to more info on the ballot.

Get ready for the 7th Annual Great Goblin Glow - 2012 at City Prk on October 27th!  Here is a link to more information

CBC (City Building Commission) will meet Thursday October 25 at 9:00AM in the Council Chambers.  Here is a link to that agenda.

From Steve Jones:

The Lake Travis Youth Association is working toward purchasing a large tract of land in our ETJ on the west side of Bee Creek Road, adjacent to the new middle school site.  If successful, LTYA plans to build a new, expanded facility there.

Starbucks is moving forward and has received a certificate of acceptance for their site work and should soon apply for their certificate of occupancy.

A report forwarded by Council Member Alan Tye indicates that, “LCRA Staff said they are not recommending filing for another Emergency Order with TCEQ.”  That portends that when the current emergency order expires at the end of this year, LCRA can resume releasing significant amounts of water from Lake Travis for downstream agricultural use.  LCRA Meteorologist Bob Rose predicts a weakening of the projected El Nino and a return to dryer conditions.  This could result in record low lake levels at the beginning of next summer.  One plausible scenario suggests that we could be under stringent water use restrictions next summer while farmers enjoy the use of large amounts of very inexpensive water. 

Troy Anderson, Director of Building and Development reports, “This week, we began to prepare a presentation for next week’s City Building Commission meeting to address a request surrounding rainwater collection and distribution systems (a.k.a. rainwater harvesting).  We will discuss rainwater harvesting for irrigation purposes and the implications of potential connections to public water supplies for potable use.  We will discuss screening of such systems and the potential impact that effluent discharge might have as these systems exceed capacity.  Also, this week we received a petition for annexation of two tracts of land containing approximately eight acres located along Highlands Boulevard adjacent to Lakeway Highlands Village/Rough Hollow development.  The applicant, Haythem Dawlett, submitted an application to zone the two tracts R-5.  He also submitted an application to rezone an adjacent twenty acre tract from GUI to R-5 as well.”

Mayor DeOme and I met with Representative Paul Workman this week to discuss issues in the upcoming legislative session.  Rep. Workman plans to file a bill that would establish a groundwater conservation district for our area.  You may recall that this issue arose about two years ago when the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality attempted to annex southwest Travis County into an existing groundwater district in Hays County.  Our concern with that proposal was that the Hays County district is funded by property tax, and southwest Travis County would bear the majority of the expense even though we use a small fraction of the groundwater.  In order to thwart that proposal, Rep. Workman committed to TCEQ that he would file a bill to create a more suitable district.  His plan will either exempt the cities in our area or fund the district with user fees in lieu of property taxes. 

The Board of Ethics met with the city attorney this week to begin the process of reviewing and revising the city’s code of ethics.  The board and city staff agree that the current code, while quite adequate in its results, is cumbersome to work with.  The board’s goal is to draft a simpler code that is easier to administer while retaining the standards in the current code.

That's all for right now - sorry for the late post, it's been busy around my house!  Don't forget to vote for Lakeway Prop 1!

Joe Bain
lakeway@bain.us

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