Friday, July 12, 2019

Weather, County, Taxes, Commissions and More!

The weather just gets more interesting all the time!  Supposed to be a calm week until we got about 1.25 inch of rain Monday evening.  GREAT start to the week - never complain about rain in July!  Then another surprise on Wednesday.  There was a line of storms that formed an "outflow boundary" that brought us some high winds that evening.  My weather station showed .13 inch of rain, but I think that was just caused from the wind shaking the gauge, I didn't have any rain in my backup gauge.  We have had some North? winds since.  That's brought a little dryer air.  We'll see what the next surprise weather nature brings us!

Interesting article this week about county business.  As you probably know, the State passed a cap on property tax increases for cities, counties and schools in the last session.  In light of this, county commissioners are proposing a pay increase for themselves of $32,309 - a 27% pay increase!  The county judge will get $31,371.  The only dissenting vote was Commissioner Gerald Daugherty, the lone conservative on the commission.  Thanks for looking out for the voters Gerald!  Unfortunately, I've heard he's not running for re-election.

It's not a done deal yet, although I don't hold out much hope.  Judge Eckhardt is also recommending raising property taxes the MAXIMUM amount of 7.99% (just under the 8% rollback rate that would require a vote).  That maximum rate goes to 3.5% next year.

The city has worked to keep property taxes low for it's residents - currently $0.1645 per $100 assessed value.  This is down from about $0.23 per $100.  The process to this point has been to lower the rate to maintain approximately the same bill for homeowners as their assessed values go up.  We'll have to see if that continues with the new regime.  I noticed one of our council members negotiated us into a little over a 3% increase on our Solid Waste bill already.

The city is contemplating hiring a firm to do an internal road study to help with the internal traffic in Lakeway.  This study would cost about $163K.  That's a lot of money for a plan to spend a lot more money.

ZAPCO met for a Work Session on Wednesday about the Comprehensive Plan.  Here's the agenda and here's a link to the video.  The consultant did a presentation on where they are and kind of came up with three possible scenarios.  They are also working towards tying the scenarios to tax rates and incomes, I'm not sure that has a place in the Comprehensive Plan.  What do you think?  

City Building Commission (CBC) met in regular session Thursday - here is their agenda.

4)  View Blocking was ruled not an issue
5)  Height pole was down so this item was tabled until the next meeting.
6)  Synthetic grass was approved in lieu of sod with the provision that significant vegetation would be planted to block view from street.
7)  Work Session on procedures - it was determined that agendas will now state a time for on site visits and public meetings and will be recorded.

The rest of the items had no issues.

The Lake Travis View coverage of the July 4th Parade was somewhat disappointing.  No pictures of the Grand Marshall, Captain Ken Cockrell (Fantastic Grand Marshall), no picture of the Grand Prize winner (Lake Travis Sister Wives - GREAT), nothing on the Veterans which was my pick, no picture of any of the elected officials.  Here's a link to the complete list of winners - CONGRATULATIONS!

Here's a link to the "Lakeway Legends" chair routine.  It was great too.

Did you know there was a FBI raid in Lakeway (maybe 2)?  One was an arrest of a man on child pornography.  It is a shame we can't get the police report any more - at least we knew what to expect in our community.  

The Lakeway Church had a Ground Breaking Celebration for a new Sanctuary a couple of weeks ago - Here's a short film clip of the event.  They expect the new building to be dedicated in the Fall of 2020.

The Wildlife Committee met in regular session Thursday evening.  They approved a couple of banners to warn folks of the deer when driving and voted 4-2 to maintain the current population.  Now they need a method to do that that doesn't cost a fortune.  Expect this to go to council by the end of the year.

In case you want to water your yard, the Lakeway MUD watering hours are 7 p.m. until 10 a.m. - no watering 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.  Addresses ending in odd numbers water Wednesday and Saturday and even numbers water Thursday and Sunday.  Commercial waters Tuesday and Friday.

The Lakeway Community Blood Drive is Saturday, July 20 from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Activity Center.  To make a reservation, visit weareblood.org and search group code A197.  You can also send an email to LakewayCommunityBloodDrive@gmail.com 

If your interested in the 620 project, here is a link to the project page for information and updates.

Now is a great time to think about pictures of your house or property.  The rain has made the landscaping turn greener than ever.  Send me a note if you want some aerial shots - still $75 for 4-6 great pictures.  joe@skypict.com  Check out my website at www.skypict.com , be sure to look at recent pictures too www.skypict.com/recent

That's all for right now,  If the weather starts to look crazy, I'll do a special report.  Feel free to email me - I answer nearly all of them.  If you would like to be added (or removed) from my email list, send a note to lakeway@bain.us and I'll get you added.

Thanks again for all the support over the years!

Joe Bain
lakeway@bain.us











No comments:

Post a Comment