Commissioners Court looking for a bond bundle that is just right

By CALEB PRITCHARD
 Austin Monitor

Travis County is taking the Goldilocks approach to planning a potential bond package to put before voters this November.

On May 30, the Commissioners Court voted unanimously to instruct the Citizens Bond Advisory Committee to cobble together three separate bonding scenarios: small, medium and large.

The move comes amid heightened anxiety that a concurrent Austin Independent School District bond referendum expected to reach the upper heights of nine figures could choke out the county’s attempt to ask taxpayers to pay a little extra for road and park projects.

The general obligation bond amount of each package the CBAC will construct starts at $50 million and rises to $100 million and then $150 million.

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Advisory committee recommends bond vote for LISD

By RICHARD LEGGITT
Hill Country News

The Leander ISD has until Aug. 21 to make a decision about whether or not to seek a bond issue for the funding needed for new area schools. At its regular meeting last Thursday, the school board’s bond advisory committee recommended that a bond issue of $453,860,841 million, without the optional items, be placed on the ballot in November’s general election.

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LISD continues uphill battle for road project

Leander ISD is proposing that a second access road to Vandegrift would run across the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve through an existing utility corridor to connect with Four Points Drive. The one-mile road would cost over an estimated $15 million.

Travis County officials weigh in,
Land swap suggested

By CALEB PRITCHARD
Austin Monitor

The Leander Independent School District has taken its quest to build a road across environmentally protected land all the way to the feds.

It’s the latest development in the district’s long-running effort to build a second roadway other than McNeil Drive for its joint Vandegrift High School and Four Points Middle School campus.

The schools are partially surrounded by the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve and the district is proposing that the road run across that land through an existing utility corridor. The road would provide a secondary access route to the campus from Four Points Drive, which ultimately connects to RM 620.

In late May, the district held a community meeting encouraging parents and other supporters to take part in a social media campaign to raise awareness for LISD’s application for a permit from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.

“We see this as our big push to put pressure on lawmakers to talk to the service so we can all just sit down and hopefully come up with a solution that serves everybody,” district spokesperson Jennifer Bailey told the Austin Monitor.

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Father of 3 dies in Steiner car crash

Jon-Erik Williams shown with one of his three daughters.

By LYNETTE HAALAND
Four Points News

A Sunday night car crash near the entrance of Steiner Ranch took the life of Jon-Erik Cameron Williams — a father of three, a son, a brother and a friend.

“I’m glad the last day (you) were here on earth our daughter got to spend it with (you). It was a Father’s Day nobody expected,” posted ViVi Rae on Facebook. She and Williams, a San Marcos native, are parents to a 7-year-old daughter. “R.I.P. to my daughter’s dad.”

Williams, 28, lost control of the vehicle he was driving and smashed into a tree in the median near the entrance to Quinlan Crossing shopping center around 9:54 p.m. on June. 18, said a Department of Public Safety spokesperson.

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