If you haven't heard about it yet, we had 34 World War II veterans from Lakeway and the surrounding area make the trip to visit the National World War II Memorial and other national monuments in Washington D.C. as part of an Honor Flight organized by the Lake Travis Standing Military Committee. A bunch of folks are planning to welcome them home at Austin Bergstrom Airport this evening - come on out and show your support and patriotism!!!! Be at the Southwest Ticket Counter at 7:00PM for their arrival - bring a flag and wear patriotic clothing if you have it! Free parking at "The Parking Spot" with a free shuttle, just mention the Honor Flight! See you there! Here's a link to a little more info.Flint Rock road near Kayden Way was closed for a short time due to flooding this week - we got a total of about 2 inches at the Airpark. Unfortunately most of the rain was East of the Lake Travis feeder zone so most of it went downstream. Looks like another rain event the first of next week - we can still use it!
ZAPCO will meet on November 6th in regular session - here is a link to the agenda. Some general business annexation and zoning issues, all the items pertaining to the Niemann Tract are being put off until the December ZAPCO meeting.
Remember the two houses that were falling down and the City was working on demolishing? The first on Medalist is nearing completion! Slab is gone and final cleanup is in progress. The second on Mettle Dr. is a work in progress. Should be complete in another week or so.From Steve Jones:
We were informed Travis County will request a release of grant funds to improve roads in Lake Oak Estates, a subdivision in our ETJ east of RR 620. (See attached map for location.) The roads include sections of Holly Lane, Bowling Lane, and Cavalier Canyon Drive within the county. While the portions of these roads to be improved are not in Lakeway’s city limits, they are adjacent to it and currently exist as dirt roads.
We have been advised that none of the larger jurisdictions in Travis County (City of Austin, ACC, Travis County, Austin ISD, etc.) will hold elections next May. That means that the smaller jurisdictions, including Lakeway, will see a much higher fee from Travis County for conducting the May elections. The fee could be as much as ten times the cost of past elections, which, in our case, could be as high as $25,000. The options are to continue to contract with Travis County to conduct our elections at a higher cost in certain years, conduct our own elections, or conduct our own elections in conjunction with other local jurisdictions such as LTISD and Bee Cave. Staff will evaluate the cost of each option and report back to you soon.
Concerns were raised at the city council meeting that truck traffic would increase on Flint Rock Road when we adopted the ordinance barring thru trucks on Lakeway Boulevard and Lohmans Crossing. That has prompted us to take new traffic counts on Flint Rock Road in the coming weeks to compare with a baseline of counts that were taken last year. This will give us an indication of whether a shift in traffic to Flint Rock Road has actually occurred.
We have reached the first major milestone with the Flint Rock Road improvement project. The engineering plans have reached the 30% completion stage, a common milestone for engineering plans. Staff will review the plans with our engineers on November 15, and the project continues to move forward on schedule.
From Chief Radford:
Sgt. Trent Martin and Officer Robert Gauvin successfully completed the Austin Police Department Leadership Academy. Their graduation ceremony was this morning.
The LPD and LRMC collaborated to deliver a Halloween event over the past weekend. The “Fright Fest” was a huge success. The main attraction, a haunted maze designed and overseen by Officer Eric Barto, was amazing. Many people came out to help construct and participate as actors in the maze. We had several LPD officers, LRMC staff, ESD 6 fire fighters, LTISD high school students, and volunteers from our LPD Citizens Police Academy Alumni. On Friday, an estimated 300 people went through the haunted maze. On Saturday, about 800 people went through the maze. On Sunday, we estimate 3,500 people attended the Fright Fest, and approximately 1,500 went through the Haunted Maze. This is the largest event that LPD has developed in our arsenal of community outreach programs. Special thanks go out to LRMC and CEO Dave Kreye for their involvement and partnership with the event.
During the rainstorm on Wednesday evening, we only had to close one road, Flint Rock Road at Kaden Way, for a few hours due to high water.
A large juvenile party was interrupted Thursday night by LPD. One person was arrested for possession of a controlled substance, one for consumption of alcohol by a minor, and the party organizer was cited for providing alcohol to minors. Multiple partygoers fled on foot as officers arrived.
We extended a conditional offer of employment for our last open dispatcher position. We are still interviewing for the open dispatch supervisor.
Ruth Sandoval reported, “Lakeway contracts with DPS to provide information to deny renewal of a person’s driver’s license for most fine-only offenses when a defendant fails to appear in court. DPS contracts with a third party (Omnibase) to administer the program. When a case is cleared, we report to Omnibase and it used to take three to five business days for that defendant to renew his or her license. Now, Omnibase has a web-based application that replaces the outdated Remote Entry System. The new application gives the court greater control by allowing direct access to their database to execute in real-time. Therefore, when an offense is entered, it appears in the database immediately. And, when a case is cleared, it reflects right away allowing the defendant to renew their license the day after instead of three to five business days as it used to be.”
From Chessie Zimmerman:
Members of the city’s emergency management committee met this week to continue work toward updating the city’s emergency management plan. Most staff members are in need of National Incident Management System training, and will be taking those courses online over the next few months.
Mayor DeOme, Steve, and I met with Brian Thompto, who is involved with the Steiner Ranch Neighborhood Association and the Four Points Chamber of Commerce, to discuss concerns about traffic along the RR 620 corridor. Efforts are underway to identify representatives from all affected communities and begin the work of developing a transportation plan for western Travis County.
Staff began reviewing several applications from Lexus of Austin and Larry Niemann related to their proposed automotive sales and service project at the northwest corner of RR 620 and Clara Van. The applications were originally scheduled for public hearings and action during the November ZAPCO and City Council meetings, but all items have been postponed to the December ZAPCO and City Council meetings in order to allow additional time for review and revision.
Speaking of emergency management, Don Stevenson retired from the volunteer position as emergency management coordinator, and Capt. David Crowder has assumed the role. Don did an admirable job of resurrecting the languishing program and getting it off to a fresh start. We owe him a debt of gratitude for many hours of volunteer service to the city.
During the meeting with Brian Thompto, we also discussed the possibility of joining in an effort to persuade TxDOT to identify and implement interim improvements (such as synchronized traffic lights and grade separations) at strategic locations to facilitate traffic flow on the highway.
In closing, the Lakeway Honor Flight will return tomorrow evening. The attached press release has all of the details for those who want to greet the returning veterans at the airport.
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Devin Monk asked me to mention that the City has a new Facebook page for those of you on Facebook - here's a link! https://www.facebook.com/cityoflakeway
The Lakeway Wildflowers had their first REAL show last night at the Activity Center - it was a GREAT show and a packed room! Here's a link to one of the songs!
Have a GREAT weekend and enjoy the beautiful weather - rain again Monday!
If you would like to be added to my email list, send an email to lakeway@bain.us
Thanks again for all the support!
Joe Bain
lakeway@bain.us
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