Regular session of the City Council was held Monday evening. Here was that agenda. Item 4 was approved after a presentation by the CAPCOG Regional Air Quality representative. This group monitors air quality in the hopes of keeping Travis County out of the "non-attainment" list. If the air quality goes down there are many new regulations that would significantly affect us. Gov. Abbott struck funding for the plan and Council voted to pay our share to keep the program afloat until the end of 2018. We are hoping an alternate source of funding will be found by then. Our portion by population was $1673.00. The vote was unanimous.
Item 5 rescinded the Memorandum of Understanding with the Lake Travis Youth Association. The County will have another contract with the LTYA as part of the package to develop the site as a Sports Complex. They will manage the complex and LTYA will pay them a fee for use of the fields. The LTYA will also have to rescind the agreement and we expect that to happen.
Item 6 amended the Ethics ordinance and added provisions of misrepresentations and also added process amendments including notification and committee processes. Unanimous vote.
Item 7 was a request to annex part of Bee Creek Road and was passed unanimously.
The Short Term Rental ordinance (8) was amended to remove the portion pertaining to deed restrictions - there was an addition to require a letter from active POA/HOA's approving STR's or an affidavit from applicant that no "active" HOA/POA exists. The original wording was too onerous and the city is not in the business of enforcing deed restrictions - that is a civil matter between property owners if no HOA/POA is active.
There has been significant citizen interest in possible future fireworks as part of the July 4th celebration. These were discontinued first because of the drought and Fire Marshall orders and later because of safety, traffic and parking issues. A committee will be formed to look at options and see if we can work throuth the issues. Council Member Trecker will head up the committee and will have each Council Member appoint one committee member. I'm looking forward to fresh ideas from the community!
Item 10 awarded a contract to Weigelt Enterprises to replace the irrigation system on Lakeway Blvd. from Lohmans to 620.
The only speaker in citizens participation was a woman that spoke about passing an ordinance to prohibit the use of plastic bags in Lakeway. She said she will be working on getting support from the community for this issue.
The Consent Agenda was passed with one correction to the minutes on item 12.
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Wednesday brought a meeting with the LTISD and we talked about options for access to some of the Bee Creek property along Bee Creek. They agreed to check into options and get back to us.
The Legislature went back into session and are continuing their attack on cities and their regulations. Here is a link to SB 12 filed by Dawn Buckingham. It would pretty much completely change life as we know it in Lakeway. Any property owner would only be subject to rules in place at the time of property purchase - think about that. If you had a lot that was purchased before city zoning or ordinances, you could put anything (really anything) on that lot
including sexually oriented business or even a pig farm. As you can imagine, there has been significant push-back on that. I was ready to testify this morning at 9 a.m at the capitol on that bill and last night I received a "possible" substitute bill - here is a link to that. I cancelled my trip because I really am having a hard time understanding the substitute.
There are also bills including a "tree" bill, another city tax / funding bill and some others that will have significant affects on cities in the state. There is a compressed schedule and things are moving quickly. More as I figure it out.
We will have our first Budget Work Session on Monday, July 24th at 2:00 p.m. Steve Jones will present the preliminary budget to council and it will be discussed. Here is the agenda.
CBC will meet in regular session next week on July 27. Here is that agenda.
Here is a report from Director BDS Ray Miller on their weeks activities.
The Police Station building had a good meeting with the architect and contractor on the project. We are working toward the start of construction in January.
I saw an email from Dallas Gorman that the Indoor Garage Sale was cancelled because sales of booths were down - probably because of the HOT weather - the next sale will be September 23rd.
Some better news, the Hurst Creek Rd. overlay project has been completed and striping will start as soon as the asphalt cures - looks really good!
Flint Rock Road was striped Friday and is nearing completion - it's much safer and looks outstanding.
The landscaping update on the entrance to Hamilton Greenbelt has been moving forward and should be complete soon - it's starting to look good too!
The Municipal Court reports that we had three dockets with 99 defendants contesting tickets on 120 violations this week. This month we had 199 new violations filed: 131 traffic, 39 City ordinance, 29 State Law and 1 parking violation.
From the Chief:
LPD Officers conducted 86 traffic stops and responded to the following calls 14 alarms, 13 animal calls, 13 suspicious circumstances, 7 ordinances violations, 12 collisions and responded to 90 other calls for service, totaling 235 calls for the week.
LPD officers made 2 arrests stemming from traffic related incidents, one for possession of drug paraphernalia, and one for leaving the scene of a collision. LPD officers made 3 warrant arrests last week as well. On two occasions officers traveled to Williamson County and Hays County to pick up and transport the fugitives to the Travis County Jail.
LPD officers were dispatched to a business in the 2300 Block of Lohman's Spur reference a suspicious person. Upon arrival officers were directed to a back-storeroom area where the employees had discovered a person who had entered through the rear of the building. The subject was acting strangely and was not responding to requests being made by officers. The subject was determined to be suffering from a mental issue, possible brought on by a medication change. The subject was transported to BS&W Lakeway by EMS for further evaluation.
LPD officers met with a complainant at the PD wanting to report a fraud. The complainant reported that she received a telephone call advising her grandson was being held for ransom in the Dominican Republic and she was to send money to several locations. After receiving the call and in fear for her grandson's safety, the complainant sent cash via UPS and a MoneyGram, totaling $17,110. This incident was determined to be fictitious and the victim had in fact been deceived. PLEASE do not send anyone any money for any reason, unless you are sure that they are in fact a person you know. In this day and time, it appears our elderly are being targeted in this fashion. If you have any reason to believe you are being targeted in this way, call LPD immediately for assistance.
LPD officers were dispatched to Austin Boats & Motors in reference to suspicious circumstance. Officer were advised by employees that upon their arrival to work they found boat motor props tampered with, and tools lying on the ground. It appeared that unknown suspects had attempted to steal a motor off of a boat. This case is still under further investigation.
LPD officers were dispatched to Lakeway City Park location on a check welfare. Officers discovered a female at the park asking people for something to drink and cigarettes. Officers located the female standing with a bunch of bags of personal effects by the entrance to the park. To resolve the issue offices contacted Lake Travis ministries for assistance and they were able to help the subject.
LPD officers were assigned to investigate a report of a theft of a motor vehicle that occurred near the 100 blk. RR 620 South. It was reported to officers that an unknown suspect stole a vehicle from the business. The vehicle was recovered in Austin a few days later. Investigators followed up on the case and the issuance of an arrest warrant is pending.
LPD officers were dispatched to a residence on Dragon reference to an assist Austin/Travis County EMS call. Upon arrival officers had to force entry to the residence. The officers found the home owner unconscious and unresponsive. It was determined the subject had passed away earlier in the day. CID is following up with the medical examiner’s office awaiting toxicology analysis.
Detectives were assigned to investigate a report of Credit Card Abuse which occurred in the 100 block of Long Wood. According to the victim, she discovered an unauthorized charge on her credit card. It was discovered that the card was used to make a purchase through ebay.com. Detectives were able to track the purchased items to a residence in Troy, TX. Detectives discovered the subject in Troy, TX was unwittingly involved in “work-at-home” scam and was forwarding multiple packages to several addresses across the US. Using the information turned over by the subject in Troy, Detectives were able to track some of the packages to a Ukrainian owned Freight Company in Delaware. Detectives notified the Delaware State Police of the information in this case and learned that the mail fraud operation is being conducted by members of a Russian mob organization in Ukraine. The information was subsequently turned over to the United States Postal Inspectors for follow-up investigation.
Detectives were assigned to investigate a report of an Assault that occurred in the 1100 block of RR620 North. According to the victim, while visiting the establishment, he was attacked by an unknown male, causing serious bodily injury. Detectives were able to obtain the video footage from the incident which corroborated the victim’s account of the incident and later identified the suspect responsible for the assault. Following a thorough investigation, Detectives obtained enough probable cause for the issuance of a warrant (Aggravated Assault w/Serious Bodily Injury, 2nd Degree Felony) for the suspect, who remains at large. Detectives coordinated with the Williamson County Constable’s Office (Pct. 2) to locate and apprehend the suspect in this case.
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That's all for now, expect legislative updates as I get them. If you would like to be added to my email list, send a note to lakeway@bain.us and I'll get you added (or removed).
Joe Bain
lakeway@bain.us
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