City to oppose wastewater plant
HUTTO – City council is opposing the permit for a wastewater treatment plant to be located near Veterans’ Hill Elementary School, 555 Limmer Loop, at the site of a future housing development. The application to build the privately-owned plant is being reviewed by the Texas Pollutant Discharge Elimination System of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
The issue was brought before council at the May 18 meeting, where members unanimously approved sending a letter protesting the application.
According to City Engineer Matt Rector, the developers (705 Limmer Loop JV LLC) had previously asked the city to share the cost for including their proposed housing subdivision on municipal wastewater lines and were turned down. They then asked to connect to Round Rock’s wastewater capacity and were also turned down. They then applied to TCEQ to create their own wastewater plant within the subdivision.
“My understanding is we didn’t tell them we wouldn’t serve them. We just told them that we were not going to participate in the cost to serve them,” Rector said.
According to the TCEQ website, a preliminary approval has been issued but final approval is still pending and public comment will be reviewed. As of May 22, the agency had received 275 comments and 158 requests for a public hearing on their website. Hutto Independent School District sent a resolution opposing the plant March 30.
Public comments can be made at www. tceq.texas.gov/goto/ comment, referencing Permit No.
WQ0016260001.
Fast food options break ground
The earth is moving on Chris Kelley Boulevard. The land across from Hutto High School has four pad sites under construction. The next year should see the opening of at least a few of the new options: Burger King at 94 Chris Kelley Blvd., McAllister’s Deli at 110 Chris Kelley Blvd., Jersey Mike’s at 120 Chris Kelley Blvd., Freebird’s World Burrito at 126 Chris Kelley Blvd. and Salad N Go at 130 Chris Kelley Blvd.
Although the location seems ideal for students, Hutto High School has only been allowing seniors off-campus for lunch, so younger students may have to find creative ways to access these fast food options next school year.
Construction kick-off event
The city will hold a groundbreaking celebration to commemorate the start of construction on the first of several long-awaited transportation projects. The event will be downtown at FM 1660 North at State Highway US 79 Wednesday, May 31 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
The project will add a dedicated right turn lane from FM 1660 onto US 79. The budget for this project increased from $541,610 to $646,610, according to a city presentation.
The city will provide free ice cream for attendees as well as live music, a farmer’s market, raffle and bounce houses. Information about other upcoming road construction projects will be available.
New police officers in the community Hutto Police Department welcomed three newly graduated police cadets into the force, and immediately put them into service learning about the community. According to HPD, officers Connor Bloore, Eranee Gonzalez and Alexia Casanova finished over 800 hours of training at the Police Academy in Round Rock and will begin their advanced training in Hutto for the next six weeks before graduating to field training.
The new officers spent their first week on the job learning about the city and identifying areas of community service. The cadets repainted the concrete hippo statue in front of the police department as their commitment to maintaining pride in the facility.
