Interesting week, cold, hot, cold, rain, warm, cool. Texas Spring. Looks like more chances of rain for the rest of the week with a little cooler weather this weekend. Actually back in the 40's for Saturday.
*****Coronavirus*****
I guess this all really came to light when I went by the Lakeway Church Sunday and the parking lot was empty during church hours. This is obviously a significant event that we all will have to live through. If you haven't heard, all restaurants and bars are now closed but many are offering pick up / take out and delivery - looks like at least until May 1 right now. The Activity Center and Swim Center are closed along with many other businesses in Austin, Lakeway and Bee Cave.
Just received word that Austin Telco Federal Credit Union is closing their lobby's today as will many other financial institutions. they are not closing and I can tell you that most transactions and business can be conducted by phone or on line. Many restaurants are offering delivery or pick up. There is no reason to panic buy at the groceries. They will be open and supplies will be available.
Lakeway, you and your neighbors will be fine. Precautions do need to be taken to protect yourself. Stay home, stay away from groups, if you are in a high risk group (ugh), take special care. Listen to what Travis County and the State do, they trump the City and the city really has little say in what happens. Here's a link to Travis Counties web site and here's a link to the state info. Chill and don't panic.
*****Council Meeting*****
Here is a link to the agenda / packet for Monday's meeting. Here is the addendum. Here is a link to the video - since you have more time now.....
16) Meeting started out normally with the pledge. They then went straight to item 16, a briefing from Chief Abbot of LTFR. They spent the next hour and forty minutes deciding what the city was going to do and making decisions that were overridden almost as soon as they passed the ordinance. Everyone gave their opinion, on multiple occasions asked for Abbott's opinion. One has to ask why they didn't just pass an ordinance to follow Federal, Travis County and the State's laws and requests. Could have saved about an hour and a half and a lot of pontificating and pandering.
3) Consent agenda was passed unanimously. You can see all the items passed in the packet.
17) Council heard from Chair Larry Harlan about the Comprehensive Plan. Plan was accepted unanimously.
13) Financial Report - no surprises.
14) Approved agreement with Central Texas Water Coalition for representation on the cities economic and public safety use of water from Lakes Travis and Buchanan.
15) External audit was accepeted - no issues or corrections.
18) Parkland dedication for Lakeway Estates park - passed unanimously.
19) Passed ordinance amending Building and Development Regulations.
***Editorial - The city has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars rewriting all of the ordinances that have served Lakeway well for over 50 years. Why? Well, the State has made some changes to State law that overrode some of the ordinances. That needed to be done. The rest is superfluous - the city is 95% built out, 99% of the land has been platted and approved. Why change these ordinances for less than 1% of the remaining growth. The city cannot annex any more area and is land locked. My guess is the legal fees are nearly $750K or more. Seems like a waste of time and effort and money to me - it's our tax dollars.
20) Discussion of House Bill 3167 - it changed the timing on developer projects. No choice, follow state law. Spent 30 minutes on this. This should be handled by the BDS Director and ordinance changes passed by council.
21) Discussion of Citizen Survey Questions - postponed.
22) Citizen Participation. There was a swim instructor fired by Lost Creek Aquatics, the swim center rents pool space to them and about 20 people are upset about it and want the city to get into the middle of it. From the list, it looked like many were not even residents of Lakeway.
Of more interest, Fred Newton wrote a letter (comment) to council about fees at the Activity Center. One that stood out was LCC requested to use the piano for their Annual Meeting and were told there would be a $300-400 fee for its use. Why is that interesting? Because the LCC donated the money to buy the piano for the Activity Center. The LCC has substantially supported the Activity Center for years - shouldn't the City take that into consideration? I think so!
23-30) Executive Session - It's really getting crazy, I'll give you my take, just assumptions...
23) Some kind of issue with Rebel / Sailfish Park. This has been done over and over again. My guess is this is access from residents abutting the park that was attempted to be sold and failed on the ballot. Just a guess.
24) There is horse trading going on with property that the School and the MUD (under contract with Legend Properties) for some land. My guess is this is for the possible YMCA - just guessing.
25) Cherry Knoll case discussion - must still be going on. I should be notified if it's settled since I am a witness.
26) The Infamous Project Granite. Secret Economic Development that has been met on for nearly a year now. Really? No big deal right now since the city and Travis county are literally shut down for at least 6 weeks.
27) Still talking about Oaks Pud and Stratus Properties. There are several issues and I'm not sure which ones are bubbling to the surface. Road? Development? Impervious Cover issues? Who knows.
28) Lakeway MUD Property request? No clue.
29) YMCA MOU? We did this about 5 years ago. We asked for a survey (YMCA did it) to find out how many residents would use a facility of this nature vs non residents. We shut it down then because we didn't feel it was right for 30% of the users (residents / citizens) to bear the full cost (100%) of the land and building that 70% of the non citizens would take advantage of. I haven't heard of another study. They should still have that info.
30) Discussion of the Highlands / Rough Hollow Development agreement. I suspect there is some dissent on some of the agreement.
***Perspective - they have been meeting on mostly these items for a year, I can see the law suit issues. The rest should have some explanation, especially if they intend spending tax dollars. No action was taken or explained - the session lasted nearly 2 hours. The meeting closed at 11:15 p.m. Pretty much the norm now.
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There was some excitement at the Lakeway Resort yesterday (Tuesday). Fire trucks, Sheriff, EMS and Police. They had some type of serious health issue.
Spring has sprung, if you haven't noticed, the oak leaves are falling and blooms are on all the oak trees. That means yellow / green pollen all over everything and lots of bags out for the trash folks.
It's also a good time for pictures. If you need or know of someone that needs aerial photos, please send them to Sky Pictures and I'll get them taken care of!
If you would like to be added to my email list, send a note to lakeway@bain.us and I'll get you added.
Thanks for all the support! I'm looking forward to a beautiful Spring and the ability to eat out again soon!
Joe Bain
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