Cedar Park joins CAPCOG's Clean Air Coalition

The Cedar Park City Council unanimously approved a resolution to join the Capital Area Council of Governments Central Texas Clean Air Coalition and appointed Councilman Scott Mitchell as the city's representative on the coalition. Membership in the coalition requires the city to take several measures, including participation in the eight-hour Ozone Flex Program.

The program prohibits city vehicles weighing more than 14,000 pounds from idling—excluding public safety vehicles or vehicles being used during a utility emergency—and requires the city to offer direct deposit to its employees and participation in efforts to promote efficient traffic signal operations through signal synchronization and other Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) technologies. According to city staff, Cedar Park already follows most of those guidelines.

City mulls juvenile curfew

The Cedar Park City Council held a first reading and public hearing for an ordinance that would repeal the city's daytime juvenile curfew at its Feb. 2 meeting. Several residents with home-schooled children said they were concerned the law would cause their children to be stopped by police. The council could vote to repeal the ordinance at the Feb. 23 meeting.

Under the daytime part of the juvenile curfew ordinance, a juvenile is in violation if they are in a public place unsupervised between 9 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. when Leander Independent School District or Round Rock Independent School District are in session. Cedar Park Police Chief Henry Fluck said the police department needs the ordinance and that the state statute established for truancy does not provide the same resource.