RM 150 is not going to be renamed

US Highway 75 is a comparably long road — 1,239 miles, to be exact — stretching from downtown Dallas northward to the Canadian border at Noyes, Minn. (It used to be longer than that. Before the mis-named Interstate 45 fully came into existence in 1987, US Highway 75 extended all the way southeast to Galveston.) Some 10 miles of those 1,239 — that section running from its southern origin point in downtown Dallas north to the LBJ Freeway — bears the name North Central Expressway, or simply “North Central,” to the locals. There’s a section of that aforementioned should-be-called Intrastate 45 — between downtown Houston and Galveston — that’s called the Gulf Freeway. In fact, it was called the Gulf Freeway when it was still part of US 75.

I mention all of this because of the debate going on about “the renaming of RM 150.” Let’s get one thing straight — the approximately 35-mile-long RM 150 that runs from just south of Dripping Springs to State Highway 21 is not going to be renamed. Just like there’s a small section of US 75 called North Central and a section of I-45 known as the Gulf Freeway, there’s a small (four-mile) section of that 35-mile stretch of RM 150 — between Center Street and Old Stagecoach Road/Jack C. Hays Trail — that used to be called Rebel Drive. When, in the wake of the Black Lives Matter activism earlier this year, Hays High School dropped the last vestiges of its Confederate identification by dropping “The Rebel” as its mascot, the city council decided it should follow suit and come up with a new name for Rebel Drive.

Its first try at renaming the street ended, shall we say, somewhat disastrously. So the council decided to punt. In the guise of “obtaining citizen input” on coming up with a name to replace “Rebel,” it appointed a 15-member committee to make recommendations. I’ll get back to that committee in minute. At the same time the council officially permanently removed the name “Rebel” from that four-mile section of the 35-mile long ranch-to-market road. So, for the time being, it is officially known by its TxDOT-designated name of RM 150 just as many, many miles of US 75 that haven’t been giving an additional local overlay name are officially designated US 75.

And, after the committee makes its recommendations and the council takes final action on a new name, that four-mile stretch will still be RM 150. That’s not going to change. The process the city is currently going through is not a “renaming” but a “designation.”

There also seems to be some confusion concerning a proposed new routing of RM 150, which would depart from its current path just west of Arroyo Road and, six miles later, join I-35 at Yarrington Road. This “bypass,” as some are calling it, is still a long way away — I am doubtful it will become a reality in my lifetime. For one thing, it is still unfunded. For another, although a “corridor” has been designated for the new route, the actual path of the highway has yet to be determined. That’s akin to saying I’m going to store my dinner dishes in the kitchen … somewhere in the kitchen. Of course, no rights-of-way have been acquired, environmental studies need to be completed, utilities will have to relocated. In fact, when I last checked with Hays County, only 15 percent of the road’s schematic design had been completed.

Speaking of Hays County, officials there insist when and if this new routing of FM 150 finally becomes a reality it will “facilitate removing existing FM 150 (Main Street) through the City of Kyle from the State Highway System.” However, those with that State Highway System, namely TxDOT, say something a little different. I’ve talked to a number of planners at the Department of Transportation who have told me on background that the section of what is now FM 150 that will be bypassed will be re-designated as “Business FM 150.” The reason is, they say, there are going to be motorists who will be on RM 150 west of Kyle who ultimately desire to go north on I-35 and the bypass would add an unnecessary 12 to 15 miles to their journey. In fact, these officials predicted, there will be more motorists who will want to go north on I-35 than don’t and thus the total vehicle load going through downtown Kyle will still be greater than those using the bypass. At least, until …

This brings me to the climax of this story. The new routing of RM 150 is designed to be more than what some may refer to as “a road to nowhere.” These same officials who talked to me on background said the ultimate goal is to extend the road east of I-35 at Yarrington as a four-lane controlled-access highway that ultimately intersects with I-10, providing a quicker route between the Texas Hill Country and Houston. This new alignment is not a “Kyle bypass,” but, in reality, is an “Austin bypass.”

One additional point needs to be made. That railroad siding that causes freight trains to stop, thus blocking traffic on Center Street, will be moved long before the FM 150 bypass is constructed. Funds have actually been designed for moving the siding further north and it was those trains blocking the road that was the primary reason officials gave for the bypass (when the real reason, all along, was the Austin bypass). But moving the siding removes some of the pressure from needing to act more quickly on constructing the new FM 150 route.

Now I’m going to keep the promise I made earlier and get back to that committee that is supposed to recommend a new name for the “four-mile stretch.” In an ideal world, I wouldn’t want the committee to report with a single recommended new name (but, if it had to settle on one, I would be pushing for Samantha Dean Blvd.). In an ideal world, I would like see the committee settle on a list of possible new names. Then I would like the city to send a postage-paid postcard to all registered voters in Kyle asking them to check the box next to the name they preferred. If the city deems this exercise in citizen democracy as too expensive, it could accomplish something akin to this by conducting one of those on-line surveys it posts annually to measure city services.

If the council really wants to gain citizen input, then it should really go to the limit to gain citizen input.

City tightens water restrictions

 In order to rehabilitate the Kohlers Crossing elevated storage tank, the city announced today it is instituting stage 2 drought restrictions which, among other things, limits lawn irrigation to two specified days a week.

Under these rules, unless using a hand-held hose, residents with odd-numbered addresses may only water their lawns between midnight and 10 a.m. Wednesdays and Saturdays. Those with even-numbered addresses are limited to those same hours on Thursdays and Sundays. Tuesdays and Fridays are to be used only by multi-family and commercial establishments. There are no restrictions for those using a hand-held hose or a hand-held bucket.

The rules take effect immediately. The city did not say how long it would take to complete the work on the storage tank or how long the stage 2 limitations would remain in effect.

In addition, residents may only wash their cars, trucks, trailers and/or boats between midnight and 10 a.m. or between 7 p.m. and midnight on those same address-designated days.

Among those activities that are prohibited by the restrictions are “using (an) automatic fill valve to add water to an outdoor swimming or wading pool or pond; charity car washes; and washing sidewalks, driveways, parking areas, streets, patios or other paved areas except to alleviate an immediate health or safety hazard,” according to the city’s announcement.

Violators of the restrictions are subject to fines up to $2,000 and “not less than $50 per violation,” the city said.

Providing Kyle with water: “It costs a lot of money to do it”

 The Kyle City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to authorize increasing its debt by $34.5 million to pay the costs of supplying residents with water, a debt that will be repaid by a 10 percent increase in water rates.

The $34.5 million is the third and final installment in Kyle’s $67.725 million share of the costs for the Alliance Regional Water Authority to ship groundwater from Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer to the city and is about $7 million more than was originally anticipated when ARWA was created in 2007.

The project involves digging the wells into the aquifer, the construction of an approximately 85-mile pipeline to ship the water as well as acquiring the easements from more than 300 landowners along the designated route of the pipeline, the construction of a water treatment plant capable of handling 20 million gallons of water a day, a booster pump station and two elevated storage tanks, one with a capacity of 1.5 million gallons and the other with a one-million-gallon capacity. If all goes according to plan, the city should begin receiving water from the aquifer in the summer of 2023.

Council member Dex Ellison described the project as “a much-needed approach to our long-term water resources and infrastructure, but, unfortunately, it costs a lot of money to do it.”

The water rate increase, Finance Director Perwez Moheet told the council, is the first passed on to residents since 2014.

ARWA Executive Director Graham Moore told the council “material and labor costs have been very volatile over the last couple of months” which has resulted in higher than anticipated project costs. However, he added, these additional costs have been offset somewhat by lower-than-anticipated interest rates on the bonds that will be issued to finance the project.

The ARWA project will also supply water from the aquifer to San Marcos, Buda and the Canyon Regional Water Authority (which represents County Line Special Utility District, Crystal Clear Special Utility District, Green Valley Special Utility District and Martindale Water Supply Corporation).

Kyle’s population growth? You ain’t seen nothing yet

It’s quite possible Kyle’s population could explode by 142,743 persons within, say, five years. That’s not the total population by 2025. That’s how many persons could be added to the city’s current population by that time.

How did I arrive at that conclusion? It’s quite simple really.

During last night’s city council meeting, Communications Director Samantha Armbruster announced that the city has installed a new tab on its website’s homepage as well as its mobile app that allows citizens to see the current status of its construction projects.

The tab, labeled “Projects,” is located in the lower right corner of the city’s homepage. Clicking on the tab takes the viewer to this page that lists about a dozen constructions projects currently underway or about to commence as well as such items as this fascinating page detailing all the “known developments” planned for the city as of August. So I added up all those “number of units” listed on that page and the total came to 46,801. Then I checked U.S. Census Bureau statistics which revealed that the average household population in Kyle is 3.01 persons. See, it’s easy.

I know this page is primarily designed to allow citizens to check the daily status of road construction projects in their neighborhoods, but, as you can see, it really contains a lot of other worthwhile information as well. There’s this page that shows where new roads are planned and where current roads are planned to be upgraded. I was particularly fascinated with what, at first glance, appears to be the north end of some kind of loop at the bottom center of that page. I am attempting to learn more about that road. (Updated information: It appears this road is what San Marcos has designated as "Loop 80" that's highlighted on Page 78 of that city's Transportation Master Plan.)

City council members were effusive in their praise of the new tab.

“To have a one-stop shop for construction projects from the city is invaluable,” Mayor Travis Mitchell said. “I can imagine that not only will staff be sharing it with residents, but council will be sharing it with residents and, most importantly, residents will be sharing it with residents.”

“Great job,” council member Tracy Scheel said. “It’s beautiful. Thank you. I know a lot of the citizens really wanted it and needed it. Beautiful job. Beautiful job.”

“With an increasing number of city projects planned in Kyle, we wanted to make information as clear and accessible to residents as possible,” City Manager Scott Sellers said today in a prepared statement. “The Projects module was designed to be an active, accessible and hyper-local resource to help the community stay informed about road construction, parks projects and more.” 

 

Council campaign financial filings are, with limited exceptions, a mess

 I’m going to chalk it up to inexperience. Not stupidity. Not deliberate subterfuge (I’ll leave that to all the conspiracy theorists who flock to the Nextdoor websites). Just plain inexperience. But, gee, you would hope that persons asking for the voters to trust them enough to place them on the city council would at least learn how to file their campaign finance reports on time and correctly.

Two council candidates — District 2 incumbent Tracy Scheel and District 4 candidate Ashlee Bradshaw — apparently failed to even file their first campaign finance report that was due yesterday, although Scheel is exempt because, when she filed to run, she opted for “Modified Reporting,” meaning that she planned on accepting no more than $900 total contributions and spending no more than $900 in seeking the council seat.  Bradshaw filed papers naming a campaign treasurer, the act that requires her to file the proper financial reports on time and she did not complete the Modified Reporting documents with her filing papers.

Two mayoral candidates — incumbent Travis Mitchell and Peter Parcher — turned in a report that doesn’t appear to contain at least one glaring error. However, this is Mitchell’s third campaign and so, by now, he should know how to get this done correctly; and Parcher claimed he only received $20 in contributions and contributions under $90 are not required to be itemized so he has every right not to divulge the source of that $20. (Besides, who cares? It’s a paltry $20. On multiple occasions, I saw drivers hand a $20 bill to panhandlers in the Lakewood neighborhood of Dallas.)

Let’s see, where to start on the rest.

Mayoral candidate Linda Tenorio claimed she spent $1,040.67 out of the $1,300 she received in contributions, but the public is not going to have a clue as to what she spent that $1,040.67 on, because she failed to file the required campaign expense form.

Mayoral candidate David Abdel under-reported his total political contributions by $320 on Page 2 of the report’s Cover Sheet.

In his Cover Sheet, District 4 Tim McHutchion claimed no political expenses but later in his report detailed $740.82 in campaign expenses.

Flores-Cale did not list her individual contributions, but that could be because they were all under $90. I have reached out to her to get the “official reason” and will update this report if and when I receive a reply. (Updated at 11:37 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 14) She subsequently contacted me and said as much: "The largest donation I received at one time was $50.00."

For those keeping score on such things, Mitchell reported the most in contributions, $1,790 (not really that high an amount for a mayoral campaign), followed by Abdel ($1,509), Tenorio ($1,300), Flores-Cale ($150), Parcher ($20) and McHutchion ($0). Mitchell’s largest contribution, $750, came from Elite Realty Advisors, a licensed real estate service provider in Kyle. Abdel’s biggest contributor is Anthony Delmonico of Austin who gave the campaign $200. Tenorio’s largest contribution of $500 came from Estella Anderson of Kyle.

Incidentally, these financial reports used to be posted routinely on the City of Kyle’s website, but when I could not find them there earlier today and inquired as to why, I was told I had to file an Open Records Request for them. 

The Kyle Report’s City Council Candidate Forum

 Early voting for next month’s elections begins Tuesday and this post is designed to give you a glimpse of those running for spots on the Kyle City Council.

On Aug. 27, I sent a five-item questionnaire to seven of the eight candidates running for a spot on the Kyle City Council. I wanted to reach all eight, but I could not contact mayoral candidate Linda Tenorio, the only candidate of the eight who redacted all of her contact information on her filing papers. I contacted more than a dozen individuals I knew who were associates of the candidate to see if they could or would contact her so that she could participate in this exercise, but for some reason I never received a reply.

I gave the candidates until 6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 2, to reply so that I would have the time to compile the responses and publish them before early voting began.

Here are the items in the questionnaire:

1. Why are you running?

2.  What is the single greatest challenge facing Kyle and, if elected, what specific proposal or proposals would you recommend/endorse to the council to overcome this challenge?

3. Here are five areas (listed alphabetically) municipal governments can focus on:

• Clean, Healthy Environment
• Culture, Arts, Recreation and Education
• Economic Vibrancy
• Efficient, Effective and Economic Government
• Public Safety

Please list them one through five with one being your top priority should you be elected, through five, being the area you would prioritize the least.

4.  What four individuals born on or after Jan.1, 1900, would you place on a political Mount Rushmore?

5.  What’s the last book you read?

Here are the responses I received, listed by council seat and then alphabetically by the candidate’s last name.

MAYOR

David Abdel 

1. I'm running because I am not particularly fond of the direction that Kyle seems to be heading. While I believe this council, and those preceding it have done a lot of hard work in developing this town, I would like us to refocus on building a small-town culture. There should be more for the families here to do, it should be more affordable, and we need equity across the entirety of the town. It seems as though Plum Creek is getting all of the focus.

2. Affordability. It is simply getting too expensive to live here for too many people. My plan on lowering taxes will help. Other initiatives can ease the overall cost of living as well.

3.

1. Efficient, Effective and Economic Government
2. Culture, Arts, Recreation and Education
3. Economic Vibrancy
4. Public Safety 
5. Clean, Healthy Environment

4. President Lyndon Baines Johnson, President Barack Obama, Senator John McCain, Madeline Albright

5. How to be an Anti-racist by Ibram X Kendi 

Travis Mitchell 

1. Kyle is home. And Kyle is changing. Every day more people move to our city for a variety of reasons. This creates challenges. The city council is working very hard to keep up with growth while balancing the tax rate. Our new budget is $134 million, and of that, $91 million is to be spent on infrastructure, including a new wastewater treatment plant, a major new water source, more road improvements, and two new cash-funded public parks. We have accomplished this because we are requiring more from the development community than ever before if they wish to come to our city. We have also successfully recruited over $100 million of new commercial development which has helped us diversify the tax base. Since I was elected, we have lowered the property tax rate in Kyle by more than 11 percent which leads all of Hays County and nearly all of the Austin region.

2. For decades now, the single greatest challenge before the city council has been to properly manage the growth we are experiencing in Kyle.

The reason is straightforward. In order to properly plan for growth, the city must often install regional infrastructure — with ample capacity — years ahead of when those services come online and generate revenue. What’s more, as growth happens, our existing road infrastructure deteriorates at a faster rate while streets and schools become more congested. If the city does not prepare for and properly manage the growth, it will cause increased taxation without a corresponding increase in city services.

But there’s another side to the story. Healthy, properly managed growth can lead to new community amenities like restaurant/retail districts, office districts, quality parks and open spaces, small business opportunities, employment opportunities, recreational facilities, better-funded schools, expansion in the arts, new community programs, upgraded roads, increased pedestrian mobility, a diversified tax base, and much more. The key for Kyle is to understand what we specifically need, and then we must strategically create opportunities to meet those needs through partnerships and targeted investments of city resources. We must also be willing to say “no” when a project or proposal is not in our best long-term interest.

In 2016, when I was first elected to office in Kyle, there were many factors that I felt kept the city from realizing its potential. These problems represented systemic, perennial threats to affordability and our overall quality of life. Looking back, I would summarize the challenges we faced in 2016 as follows:

1. Reliance on entry-level single-family residential development to fund city operations
2. Inadequate sales tax generation per capita. For example, last year Kyle collected $202 per resident in sales tax. Buda collected $318 and San Marcos collected $600.
3. Disjointed and spread out developments which requires even more investment of city resources to upgrade roads and wet utilities rather than infilling our already constructed infrastructure. 
4. Over reliance on IH-35 and Austin. 80 percent of our population commutes out of town for work. This is not ideal because local quality jobs give residents more time with family, more time to volunteer, more discretionary income spent locally, and less expenses related to travel.
5. Lack of public amenities such as parks, trails, and activity centers.
6. Lack of private amenities such as restaurants, hotels, and areas to shop.
7. No significant industrial/office projects
8. Downtown district underperforms compared to the region
9. Languishing road reconstruction projects
10. High city debt relative to taxable value of the city
11. Highest tax rate in Hays County

In my time on council, we have addressed these 11 issues, and more, as follows:

• Reduced city tax rate by more than 11 percent which leads all municipalities in Hays County over that time period. We no longer have the highest tax rate in Hays County. 
• Cut our debt relative to city size in half (2016-2019). 
• Added more than 1 million square feet of private industrial space, totaling more than $55 million of taxable investments, with more private investment on the immediate horizon. 
• Voted against and resisted most residential development proposals outside city limits.
• Increased design standards inside the city to require sidewalks, better street widths, more pocket parks, better fencing, better architecture and neighborhood design, all for new single-family residential developments.
• Opened the first section of our Plum Creek Trail from Lake Kyle to the Waterleaf Subdivision in east Kyle.
• Opened Ash Pavilion, a new roller-hockey court at Gregg-Clarke Park. The project cost around $700,000 with $300,000 coming from private philanthropic contributions.
• Completed eight city road construction projects totaling $39,400,000. These dollars represent the largest investment in road upgrades in our city’s history. 
• For the first time in our history, we have established a dedicated, replenishing fund to perform sidewalk repairs throughout the city.
• Established TIRZ#2, a funding mechanism that will allow for our new mixed-use district, Uptown, to finally develop. The TIRZ collects 50 percent of city and county taxes produced by new development in Uptown to pay for 100 percent of the maintenance of public amenities proposed for that area. The remaining revenue generated by private taxable investments — estimated to be over $1 billion of new construction in the next 10 years — will serve as surplus to fund city operations, new public capital improvement projects, and will help facilitate tax relief for the residents of our community. 
• Allocated $2.5 million in funding towards renovations of the landscaping at our historic square plus a modest three-story building across from the Krug Activity Center. The new building will be home to a restaurant on the first floor, private office space on the second floor, and a quaint small event space on the third floor.
• Opened two new hotels, multiple new sit-down restaurants, and dozens of new small businesses.
• Closed multi-million-dollar deals for Alsco Linens, ENF Technology, Amazon, Lowes, and more, to establish logistics/manufacturing/office hubs in Kyle. Of these companies, only ENF Technology received a small performance-based financial incentive, primarily because the average wage at ENF is considerably above the median wage of other businesses locating in Kyle. ENF Technology’s investment is expected to bring the city of Kyle $598,506 in net tax revenue over five years while also bringing Hays County $401,602. Additionally, Hays CISD is expected to receive $747,602 as a result of the project by the end of the five-year agreement. 
• Lobbied for and received CAMPO/County funding to eliminate the at-grade rail crossing on Kohlers as well as prevent the train from ever blocking a downtown Kyle intersection again.
• Installation of the first of four (all cash funded) quiet crossing zones to eliminate the need for the train to blow its horn coming through Kyle. 
• Established the city’s first parking ordinance which, among other things, reduces fines for things like wrong-way parking from $150-plus to $30.
• Established the First Year on Us small business grant program designed to offer modest financial assistance in the form of a one-time tax credit to small and medium sized businesses who locate or expand in the city. 

These actions and more represent what I believe has been one of the most proactive and productive seasons in Kyle history. For myself, I have been laser-focused on bringing about long-term benefits to the city. I believe, with all of my heart, that it’s unwise to allow for growth without bringing forward the necessary investments to control and manage that growth. I think of Kyle 20 years from now, when my children are grown, and I ask myself, “What kind of town do we want Kyle to be in 20 years? A bedroom community? A city completely reliant on Austin jobs, IH 35, and single-family housing for us to survive?” Some may say these things are inevitable. But I believe we can be more than that. We can be the kind of city that diversifies its tax base, targets spending to receive maximum long-term returns, and systematically and comprehensively improves our overall quality of life in the community. It’s not an easy task, and nothing good happens overnight, but we are moving in the right direction. The next five years will be critical to establishing ourselves as a stronger city in the region.

3. These rankings were not established based on ideology or philosophy. Rather, I ranked them based on what I believe are the areas we should focus on based on the factors currently impacting Kyle, Texas:

1. Economic Vibrancy 
2. Public Safety
3. Efficient, Effective and Economic Government
4. Culture, Arts, Recreation and Education
5. Clean, Healthy Environment

4. Ronald Reagan, John K. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Margaret Thatcher

5. The unfinished autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

Peter Parcher

1. As a resident of Kyle, I have been very frustrated by council not hearing residents. I will initiate changes where residents must be fully informed and sufficient time is given for resident participation.

2. The greatest challenge facing Kyle is the single-mindedness of some members of council to the detriment of all residents of Kyle. As mayor, I will interact with all residents and ensure all areas of Kyle are equally represented. I will ensure all residents have ample information and time to decide what they would like and the direction they want Kyle to take.

3.

1. Efficient, Effective and Economic Government
2. Public Safety
3. Economic Vibrancy
4. Culture, Arts, Recreation and Education
5. Clean, Healthy Environment

4. Rosa Parks, Cesar Chavez. D'Arcy McNickle and JFK

5. Oath of Office

DISTRICT 2

Yvonne Flores-Cale 

1. I am running for city council because I want to be part of changes happening in Kyle. I feel like many of the other residents in Kyle, who feel unheard and are unhappy with many of the current changes.

2. Without a doubt, Kyle’s biggest challenge is its growth. Our rapid growth makes it difficult for the city to plan for our future and focus on our immediate needs. I would recommend slowing down residential development until the city has updated our infrastructure (to include water treatment centers, sidewalks, streetlights and fire hydrants, to name a few) to match our current population.

3.

1. Efficient, Effective and Economic Government
2. Public Safety
3. Clean, Healthy Environment
4. Economic Vibrancy
5. Culture, Arts, Recreation and Education

4. Fred Rogers, Martin Luther King Jr., Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Tupac Shakur 

5. The last book I read all the way through was I’m not your perfect Mexican Daughter. The last book I read (but have yet to finish) is Freakenomics.

Tracy Scheel 

1. Currently I am the District 2 council member for the Kyle City Council and while I feel I have accomplished a lot, I feel I have not yet seen all of my goals to fruition, such as the downtown revitalization, several infrastructure projects and getting the Alliance Regional Water Authority pipeline servicing the citizens of Kyle.

2. The greatest single challenge for the City of Kyle is its growth and making sure that growth can be maintained with our current and prospective infrastructure.  We need to ensure we have the roads and utilities in place to handle all of our new residents without burdening our current residents.

3.

1. Public Safety  
2. Economic Vibrancy  
3. Efficient, Effective and Economic Government  
4. Culture, Arts, Recreation and Education  
5. Clean, Healthy Environment  

4. Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, Irene Stuber (My grandmother who fought for women’s rights)

5. Sue Grafton's Y is for Yesterday

DISTRICT 4

Ashlee Bradshaw 

1. Ever since moving to Kyle I have had a very clear vision of the potential this city holds, and I feel that it is my due diligence to do what I can to help the city reach that potential. I am very passionate about increasing the quality of life for our residents in Kyle by providing more community amenities, strengthening our local economy so we no longer have to drive to Austin or San Marcos, and reduce the tax burden put on our residents.

2. There are a few challenges facing Kyle that all fall under managing growth. As I am sure many can agree, there have been growing pains that have come with our increased number of residents, and I would like to work towards efficiently managing the growth happening now and plan for the future.

I would recommend or endorse projects to help expand our infrastructure (such as roads and utilities) to address our growing needs.

I would also recommend or endorse more opportunities for increased public and private amenities for our residents to use and benefit from such as parks, playgrounds, trails, fitness centers, and more dynamic dining and shopping.

3.  All five of these areas are an intricate part of my platform, and I believe they are all equally important in different ways. In order for this city to operate efficiently all five of these need to be addressed and taken into consideration simultaneously, rather than prioritized from most to least relevant. 

4. John F. Kennedy, Rand Paul, George H.W. Bush, Nelson Mandela

5. Everything is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo is what I am currently reading, but I make it a goal to read personal development books each month.

Tim McHutchion 

1. I am running for office so that the citizens of Kyle can have more transparency, communication, and participation in the administration of their city.

2. The COVID-19 pandemic is beyond a doubt the greatest challenge facing Kyle at this time. If elected, I will make recommendations to council to secure additional funds to provide PPE and testing to our citizens, continue providing utility assistance, rental assistance, and grants or low interest loans to small businesses in our community. It is vital that we maintain our current infrastructure in Kyle.

3.

1. Public safety
2. Clean healthy environment
3. Economic vibrancy
4. Efficient, effective, and economic government.
5. Culture, arts, recreation, and education.

4. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Representative John Lewis, Mother Teresa, Cesar Chavez

5. Community Association Leadership. This was a book given to me by the Plum Creek HOA when I became chair of the Safety Committee.

City manager outlines COVID testing, voting, food handout procedures

 City Manager Scott Sellers outlined procedures during last night’s city council meeting for obtaining a free COVID-19 test, where and when to vote during the early voting period, and where and when the city will conduct future free food handouts.

Free mobile COVID testing began Thursday at the Performing Arts Center at 979 Kohlers Crossing with tests being conducted daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Registration is required and can be completed in advance of testing here. The registration is necessary so that the test results, which won’t be available for at least 48 hours after the test is administered, can be communicated properly. Sellers said “walkups are welcome,” but those walkups will still be required to register. IDs are not required to register.

November election early voting times for those registered voters in Kyle are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, Oct. 16 and Oct. 19-23; 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Oct. 17, Oct. 24 and Oct. 26-30; and 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Oct. 18 and Oct. 25. Early voting locations are Hays CISD administration building, 21003 northbound I-35 frontage road; city hall at 100 West Center St.; and the Live Oak Academy High School, 4820 Jack C. Hays Trail.

Sellers said the city’s fall food distribution events will take place at the Lehman High School parking lot between 8 and 11 a.m. on Oct. 31, Nov. 14 and Dec. 12.

Council appoints 15-member road renaming committee

 After stumbling around a bit by putting the cart before the horse, the city council last night ultimately appointed a committee assigned with the task of recommending a new name for RM 150.

The council’s agenda contained three items directly involving the committee which were Item 4, to name the committee; Item 18, amending an ordinance that would allow the council to appoint more than seven persons to a particular committee; and Item 19, a resolution establishing this particular committee. Astute readers can readily see the items are out of order. But that was just part of the problem. The last two of these items were on the consent agenda.

So what does the council do? First it delays consideration of Item 4 until Items 18 and 19 can be dealt with. Then, it passes the consent agenda but it only pulls Item 18 for individual consideration. That meant the council had to reconsider its vote on Item 19, after it decided to vote for Item 18. Yes, dear readers, it had all the precision of performing Swan Lake on Canyon Lake.

But after ultimately making it safely to shore, the council settled on a committee containing every single person who successfully completed an application to be a member of the committee. For the record, those 15 names are (listed alphabetically): Humberto Aguin, Alysha Buono, Anthony Davis, David Glicker, Elizabeth Godfrey-Weidig, Ronald Guentzel, Fred Guerra, Priscilla Harrell, Wilma Javey, Gilbert Jordan, Nick Landis, Summer Mann, Lino Montonya, Karen Shields and Vanessa Westbrook.

The resolution establishing the committee states, in part, “The Committee shall consider options for the renaming of West RM 150 and make recommendations to the City Council on the naming of West RM 150.” It does not, however, formally establish a deadline for making those recommendations. It also states the committee “shall meet at such times determined appropriate by the committee.” 

City partners with Uber to provide public transportation

 The city council formally unveiled it’s solution to public transportation in Kyle during its meeting last night, announcing a partnership with Uber that allows anyone over the age of 18 with a smartphone to ride from one spot within the city limits to another inside the city for $3.14.

There are a couple of catches, however. One, the city will subsidize the cost of any ride over $3.14, but only up to $10. That means the rider will be responsible not only for the first $3.14 of a ride, but also for any amount in excess of $13.14. Second, it appears riders just can’t reserve one ride and then say “That was nice, but I’m done with that.” To secure a ride, a patron must use the smartphone app that is part of the city’s new app and, according to Chief of Staff Jerry Hendrix, “download a voucher for eight trips.” 

Why $3.14? The answer is almost too cute, but here it is: The ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter is approximately 3.14159 and that mathematical constant has been represented since the mid 18th century by the Greek letter ∏ which is spelled out as “pi.” And since Kyle bills itself as “The pie capital of Texas” … well, you get the picture.

“This gives back to everybody in Kyle,” Mayor Pro Tem Rick Koch, one of the architects of the Uber partnership, said during last night’s council meeting. “This is a program that everyone can use. It’s adopting something the world already uses and it just makes great financial sense for us to embrace technology and find the most value for our dollars.”

“This is such a perfectly tailored program to slide right in where our situation is,” Mayor Travis Mitchell added. “I’m thankful and very happy that we were able to put this in this year’s budget. I’m excited to see where this goes.”

Hendrix said Uber will be able to provide special vehicles for customers needing wheelchairs and that all its drivers will wear masks (riders will be required to wear masks as well).

“We wouldn’t be partnering with Uber if they didn’t have the reputation for being safe,” Hendrix said.

Lowe’s to open distribution center in Kyle

 The city made it official today: Lowe’s, one of the world’s largest home retailers, has signed a lease for 120,000 square feet in the Kyle Crossing Business Park where it plans to open and operate a distribution center, joining Amazon, which announced in July it was leasing 308,000 square feet in the same complex, located at 1980 Kohlers Crossing.

I have reached out to Lowe’s corporate offices seeking to learn how many workers the company plans to employ at the facility and when it expects to start operations. I will update this story if and when I receive a reply. Amazon said it plans at least 200 workers at its Kyle facility.

“The City of Kyle has long been well positioned to become a logistics hub, but we needed facilities on the ground to compete,” Mayor Travis Mitchell said. “Kyle Crossing has proven that Kyle is a highly desirable location among marquee companies at an opportune time when more and more of these businesses are expanding their logistics operations.”

The Kyle Crossing Business Park, located a block west of I-35 at the southwest corner of Kyle Crossing and Kohlers Crossing, is considered a part of Plum Creek and the Lowe’s lease continues a trend to attract commercial enterprises to that area of the city.

“Plum Creek has become a major employment center in Kyle because it offers a convenient and highly accessible location in a true live-work-play environment that appeals to companies and their workers,” said Momark Principal Terry Mitchell, who oversees development at Plum Creek.  “This combination is difficult to find anywhere, especially in an environment  that is as business-friendly as the City of Kyle and the State of Texas.”

Make-a-Wish postpones pavilion ribbon cutting

 The Make-a-Wish Foundation, a non-profit that grants wishes of children with critical illnesses, announced today it is postponing tomorrow’s scheduled ribbon cutting for the Ash Pavilion. A new date was not scheduled.

The Ash Pavilion is a public, concrete roller hockey rink located in Gregg-Clarke Park that was the wish of Ash Crane, now 12, who suffers from a congenital heart defect. The pavilion was funded from donations to the Make-a-Wish Foundation and others.

“Due to current medical and public concerns Make-A-Wish Central & South Texas has made the difficult decision to postpone the ribbon cutting celebration for the Ash Pavilion until further notice,” the foundation announced in a prepared statement released through the City of Kyle. “We do not have rescheduling details available at this time.”

The ribbon cutting was supposed to be attended only by those who had received a personal invitation. The city planned to live-stream the event on its Facebook channel. The event was also supposed to include a 30-minute exhibition hockey game.

“We will continue to monitor guidance from national and international public health and government organizations, including the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), World Health Organization (WHO) and U.S. State Department, and are working closely with the national Make-A-Wish Medical Advisory Council, keeping the best interest of the children and families we serve at the center of all policy decisions we make,” the foundation said in its statement announcing the cancellation.

City unveils mobile app

 Now you can pay your Kyle utility bill or renew a library book using a mobile phone app. And, if you have a lot of time to kill and absolutely nothing else in your life to do, you will now be able to watch your city council in action via your mobile phone.

At least that’s what the city is promising today with its unveiling of its own phone application. It's not perfect, yet (see comments below), but it is a start.

“Our community is becoming more and more mobile and dependent on their smart phones for information and connectivity,” Chief of Staff Jerry Hendrix said in a prepared statement. “Our City of Kyle app for smart phones puts all things Kyle in the palm of your hand.” 

You can download the City of Kyle mobile app from the Apple Store here and the from Google Play here.

Here are some of the features the city is promising with the app:

• Pay city utility bills, tickets, court fines “and for city permits and inspections.” (For what it’s worth, when I tried to access the area for permits and inspections all that came up was a blank page.) 
• The latest COVID-19 statistics for Hays County and Kyle as well as updated information regarding state and county orders, city operations and COVID-19 resources. 
• Find the latest city news and updates. 
• Keep track of upcoming elections, important deadlines as well as propositions and seats that will be on the ballot.   
• A city meetings and events calendar (that’s kind of tricky. If you just access the calendar, you will not get a listing for next Tuesday’s city council meeting. You must go to the separate meetings section to find that, which, to me, is not all that user-friendly.) 
• Contact information for city departments and leaders. 
• Access the Kyle Public Library’s catalog, hold and renew books and borrow e-books. 
• Watch the City of Kyle channel 10 live stream. 
• Information on city parks, trails and facilities. 
• Current City job postings.
• The city’s $3.14 Uber rideshare program.