Tuesday, June 9, 2020

Weather, Another "Secret" Council, 620 Project Deferred!

*****Weather*****


It's HOT!  Going to get worse tomorrow.  It got up to 102° Monday and the bad part is the humidity was fairly high, nearly 50% - that makes it feel even warmer.  Forecast 104° Tuesday - good days to stay inside.  No rain in the forecast.

*****Council Meeting ?*****

Here we go again.  Special meeting last Thursday, June 4.  Called meeting to order at 6:30 - teleconference again.  5 out of 7 stood for the Pledge of Allegiance - an improvement.  

If you want to speak you have to give them notice by 3:00 PM and what you are going to speak about - no one spoke.  Go figure - if you aren't told what they are meeting on, it's hard to tell them what you want to speak about.

Council went directly into executive session - came out about 8:30 and adjourned - no action taken.

That means a free $172,000 - I bet they are drooling about spending that.  And by the way, it's not free.  You'll be paying it back in your federal taxes....

Here's the real question.  Why is this secret?  Why not discuss this in an open meeting?  Am I the only one that thinks this is silly?  We now have council meetings that spend more time in Executive Session than in open meetings consistently. 


Shhhh!  It's a secret!  Here's what they're talking about.  Travis County voted to allocate $55 per citizen of the payout to cities in the County.  They will give 20% of that upfront - the cities then need to spend the rest of the money and request reimbursement from the County.  There are rules about what the money can be spent for and they will have to approve it.  The city has to have a plan sent to the county to get the money.

Here's a chart with the allocations.  Some of this goes to the County, the rest to be distributed to the cities.  Austin got theirs directly because of their size.




*****620 Project*****

Have you heard anything from the city?  I didn't think so.  Just to keep you up to date, the funding was put on the "deferred" list in a vote by CAMPO June 8.  What does that mean?  Means the 620 project is put off for at least 3-4 years, the monies spent on surveying, environmental studies and other work will expire and that money will most likely be wasted.

This is a problem for many projects in our local area and also for a lot of Texas.  This has pulled funding for projects all over.  

What does that mean for the other planned projects on 620?  Good question.  Nothing from the city on their plans.

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Stay safe and cool today, it will be a hot one.  Maybe cooler tomorrow.  

If you would like to be added to my email list, please send a note to lakeway@bain.us and I'll get you added.

Joe Bain





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