After congratulating the city on a successful July Fourth celebration, Kilgore said city staff has set out a goal of having a short list of police chief candidates by Labor Day with finalists identified in September and a new chief hired by Oct. 1.
Kilgore said he is asking Lakeway citizens to be involved by filling out an upcoming survey asking residents for their concerns and priorities when it comes to policing. A search advisory committee, which includes Kilgore and two City Council members, will use the results to help make decisions about the candidates.
“You have a critical part to play in this process. We want to hear your input,” he said. “If you will participate in that survey ... you will be able to help guide our selection.”
Notably, Kilgore, in answering the set of citizen questions posed by participants in the video post, said the Main Street extension from Medical Drive to Lohmans Crossing continues to be a top priority of the city and that the two developers, Stratus Properties Inc. and Legend Communities, are working with a single engineering firm to design the roadway.
“Both developers, I can tell you, are now working with the same engineering firm, so we don't have to be worried about the road being built in two parts," Kilgore said. "There will be one unifying engineering design.”
Kilgore said when the city discusses developing the two parcels of land involved with the extension of Main Street, “the first words we say are ‘when are you starting the road?’”
Stratus Properties has had initial conversations with City Council about building a 275-unit apartment complex while donating 26 acres of land for use by the city, presumably for parkland, according to an April 5 meeting between the two parties.
As far as the other parcel of land needed to extend Main Street, Legend Communities is expected to seek those permits and begin construction later this year, according to Bill Hayes, Legend Communities chief operating officer.
Responding to other issues on the video post, Kilgore said the city’s continued work on wildfire mitigation in the Hamilton Greenbelt and, in 2022, a future project adjacent to North Lakeway Village off Clara Van Drive are the result of criteria set by the city. Hamilton Greenbelt and North Lakeway Village are two areas that top the list of priorities setup by the criteria.
“The city several years ago hired consultants to address our fire hazard areas,” Kilgore said. “Each of those areas was rated over a series of criteria from the cost of mitigation, to the topography, to the amount of vegetation–all of those are factors.”
Kilgore said other areas of the city, such as prospective city parkland in the Rough Hollow community, would be evaluated for wildfire mitigation once that land formally becomes owned by the city.
Finally, Kilgore said the unusual, frequent rains in the area this summer have produced issues with sediment, littler, and at times construction debris reaching Little Rough Hollow Cove. He said city staff visits the construction sites in the Rough Hollow area that may be the source of the debris and issues stop-work orders when needed so remediation and repairs take place before construction work resumes.
“We go out there everyday,” he said. “We fix it or get it stopped every day, and at some point we hope Mother Nature will give us a little bit of a break.”
