Here is a recap of what was featured in the Wednesday, Aug. 30 e-edition of the Taylor Press. The e-edition is emailed to subscribers and available at www. taylorpress.net.
SHERIFF, COMMISSIONERS BICKER OVER BUDGET
GEORGETOWN – A perceived staffing shortage has led Williamson County Sheriff’s Office to speak out against County Commissioners. Citing an internal salary study that suggests the county would need over 400 additional deputies to meet the national average for staffing, the Sheriff’s Office and the Williamson County Deputies Association asked commissioners for a budget allotment that would fund just over 20 additional hires.
During their Aug.
29 meeting, commissioners voted 3-2 to approve an addition to the budget that funds adding four sheriff deputies. County Judge Bill Gravell, who was one of the two dissenting votes, said the Court has added a combined $14.6 million to the budget of the Sheriff’s Office for law enforcement and corrections in the last three years.
Additionally, Gravell said the calls for service have dropped 25% since 2019. He mentioned the number of incident reports by deputies, arrest reports, citations, traffic tickets and warnings have also dropped. The Deputies Association released a statement the evening before the meeting, which said the association would seek assistance from the state if needs were not met.
CITY OKS PARTNERS FOR NEW MUNICIPAL COMPLEX
As the new fiscal year looms, the city is putting most of the pieces together to build a municipal complex over the next year and a half.
At the regularly scheduled Taylor City Council meeting Aug.
24, city leaders unanimously approved a series of firms and individuals to oversee a $53 million project funded through certificates of obligation to construct a new Justice Center and City Hall complex, which will house city staff, the police department and the municipal court.
First up, the council approved a $3.2 million agreement with Randall Scott Architects, Inc., a Dallas-based firm with decades of experience designing 35 municipal buildings across the state, to oversee the programming, planning, design and construction of the complex, which will primarily be located on land the city is acquiring just south of the Taylor Fire Department headquarters at 304 E.
Third Street.
Assistant City Manager Tom Yantis said employing Watkins will help the city keep important aspects of the city’s Envision Taylor Comprehensive Plan in mind during the design process.
ELEMENTARY STUDENTS SEND ASTRONAUT MESSAGE Main Street Elementary students are making sure an American astronaut returns to Earth in proper fashion.
Students filmed a “Welcome Home” message to Captain Stephen Bowen Aug.
28. The school, which now consists of first through fifth grade, gathered into the building’s auditorium to record a message to Bowen.
The message will be both seen and heard by the astronauts in space. Bowen is returning from the International Space Station, where he spent about six months. Besides working with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Bowen is a submariner for the United States Navy.
He is receiving messages from MSE since he served as the SpaceX Crew-6 commander in the ISS.
Other members of Crew-6 include United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, NASA astronaut Woody Hoburg and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.
