Council votes against motion to amend smoking ordinance

After more than an hour of comments from members of the public Thursday night, Round Rock City Council held the first of two votes on whether to remove bars from the city’s list of public places exempt from smoking and vaping prohibitions during its regular meeting.

The motion failed with a vote of 1-6 with Mayor Craig Morgan casting the only vote in favor of amending the ordinance. A second and final vote will take place at the City’s Council’s next regular meeting.

Planning Director Brad Wiseman told Council that eight bars in Round Rock currently allow smoking indoors.

Residents, business owners and representatives from various organizations attended the meeting to speak both for and against amending the ordinance.

Council Member Tammy Young proposed a motion to direct the city attorney and city manager to redraft the ordinance to allow the current smoking bars to continue allowing indoor smoking but prevent more bars from becoming smoking bars. The motion did not pass.

The final vote will take place at the July 26 City Council meeting.

Revision of alcohol sale law to appear on November ballot

The council voted unanimously to call a Nov. 6 special option election for the legal sale of all alcoholic beverages, including mixed beverages.

The Round Rock Chamber started a petition in May to gather signatures to place the revision on the November ballot. The change would make all of Round Rock “fully wet” within city limits, allowing all restaurants and bars to serve liquor along with beer and wine. Currently, a portion of east Round Rock south of Hwy. 79 is only “partially wet,” meaning restaurants are only permitted to serve beer and wine.

Results of city’s biennial survey presented

Round Rock hired ETC Institute to conduct a survey of Round Rock residents in the spring. The survey has been administered in Round Rock every two years since 2008. Results were received from 401 households. Some of the responses include:
-84 percent of residents were satisfied with the overall quality of life in Round Rock.
-The top three priorities that residents said they feel are most important for the city are:
1. Police services
2. Fire services
3. Emergency medical services
-76 percent of residents felt traffic flow in the city has gotten worse compared to two years ago.
-90 percent of residents said they felt ‘very safe’ or ‘safe’ in Round Rock.
-48 percent of residents felt there should be more restaurants, coffee shops, bakeries, etc., in Round Rock.
-68 percent of residents said they get information about the city from Community Impact Newspaper.

You can read more of the survey results here.