Council Results, Steve's Report and More!

City Council Results - here is the Agenda:
Item 6, Called a special election on November 4, 2014 to approve amendments to the Charter of the City of Lakeway - passed unanimously.

Item 7, ordinance calling for a Bond Election - this is to obtain money to fund a purchase of 70 acres off Bee Creek Road for use by citizens and LTYA.  Parkland would be developed to provide ball fields and green area plus trails - money to develop land would come from Travis County and sale of LTYA property on Hwy. 71.  Passed unanimously.

Item 8 basically approved transfer of some land to free up right of way for Flint Rock Road - passed unanimously.
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From Steve Jones:
This week work started on the Brooks Hollow/Acapulco Drainage project.  The box culvert at the Acapulco intersection is in place and the one at Explorer should be in place by the end of the week.
The annual overlay program also started this week.  Patchwork and milling of the butt joints started on Thursday.  Edge Milling and patchwork began on Lohmans Spur today with plans to overlay it Tuesday evening into Tuesday night.  The rest of the streets will be overlaid beginning next Thursday.  This is a larger than usual overlay project and will probably draw some public attention.  A sign warning drivers of a blind corner was installed on Flint Rock Rd near the intersection of Tonkawa Trail West (photo attached). 

The Board of Adjustment met on Wednesday to hear a request for a variance of the golf course setback.  In January, the CBC found that the lot at 132 Crest View Drive is a golf course lot and that golf course setbacks apply.  The applicant requested a variance of the setback regulation to allow construction of a pool and fencing.  Their request was denied by the BOA.


Review of the site development plan for Oaks at Lakeway is nearing completion.  Revisions of note include the addition of a 35,000 square foot family fun center and slight alterations to the intersection of Main Street and RM 620.  Staff expects to issue a permit for site development within the next few weeks.

We are currently 100% staffed.  However, we leave a Police Officer position open to receive applications at all times since the hiring process is long compared to other positions.  

The Court reports that from August 14 – 20, Marshal Overstreet made 29 phone calls, contacted 21 defendants, and left 18 door hangers.  Twenty-eight warrants were cleared, collecting $8133.50.  We had 109 new violations filed for the week.  Twelve defendants requested defensive driving on moving violations and nine cases were dismissed after the completion of their Deferred Disposition agreement.  Judge Madison issued 14 new warrants.  Judge Madison is presiding over this morning’s docket with 40 defendants contesting their tickets.

Chief Radford reports:

• Officers conducted a sting operation and arrested a suspect who was selling counterfeit cell phones in the Lakeway area.  The suspect was charged with trademark counterfeiting.
• Routine traffic stops led to charges for out of jurisdiction warrant arrest and DWI.  
• Officers responded to a report of illegal dumping on Murphin Rd.  The officers were able to locate the suspects and arrange for a cleanup.
• Officers took a report of a burglary of vehicle on Largo Cove.  An unknown suspect entered an unlocked Infiniti and attempted to remove the stereo.  The theft was incomplete—the stereo was left hanging from the dash by wires.
• Officers took a report of a prior assault with injury that occurred on Sailor’s Run.
• Officers attended planning meetings for new middle school opening and will be assisting traffic control during the first week of school.
• Our crime scene technician met with expert witnesses for the defense in the felony case of Watkins v Lakeway.  They wanted to examine the physical evidence collected at the scene of the crime that has been stored in our evidence room.  This case is still pending prosecution after two years. 
• We had shift change recently so the officers are still acclimating to their new surroundings, like ‘darkness and sunlight’! 
• At last report, Officer Banta is still at South Austin Hospital undergoing more testing after experiencing a medical issue in the squad room Thursday.  Officer Love is with his father who is in hospice and probably will not make it through the weekend.  Sgt. Jeff Brinkman and his wife Katie delivered their baby, Caroline Lisa, on 8/19 at LRMC.  Mom and baby (and Dad) are all doing great!

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New Lakeway Activity Center exhibit highlights Native American Culture - here is a link to more information.

Did you notice it was a little smokey last week?  Hays County had a controlled burn that blew right over to us - we had a significant number of calls to the police and fire department thinking there were local fires.  At least now we still have haze - but its dust from the Sahara Desert, go figure!

Steve Jones attended the LCRA meeting that was supposed to vote on new a new water management plan for the Highland Lakes - turns out the folks downstream didn't have enough time to study the plan put forth by TNRCC a couple of months ago and they decided to postpone it 30 days.  That gives the current plan (it's gonna rain) a little longer to work....

If you haven't noticed, the City is starting their street overlay program - I saw pavement folks working on Lohman Spur this morning.  On another paving note, TXDOT and their contractor are also working hard on the RR 620 overlay - looks GREAT doesn't it!

CBC meets in regular session Thursday 8/28 at 9:00AM in Council Chambers.   Here is that agenda.  

Had a chance to look at "Crime Reports" on the City Website lately?  Chief Radford and Mike Olsen have been diligently working to get more information out to the public - here is a link to the page that can also be found under the Police section.  In a meeting this morning I found out about more web information that will be made available soon - GREAT job!

Joe Bain
lakeway@bain.us