Little bits of big news
Mayor Pro Tem to be named
HUTTO — City Council members will vote on who will be the mayor pro tem for the coming year at the June 6 meeting. Peter Gordon currently holds the position.
Per the Hutto City Charter, the mayor pro tem is elected by the City Council at the first regular meeting following each regular city election. Since the final newly-elected council member was sworn in at the last meeting, the mayor pro tem selection will be this week.
The mayor pro tem serves as mayor during the disability, absence or failure of the mayor to carry out the duties of the office, and in this capacity shall have the rights conferred upon the mayor.
Thursday’s City Council meeting will be at City Hall, 500 W. Live Oak St., starting at 7 p.m.
City to discuss taking on more debt
Council will vote on authorizing the sale of $303,731,500 in bonds to fund road, water and wastewater projects at its regular meeting this Thursday. The infrastructure projects that will be funded by this bond issuance were approved at the March 21 City Council meeting, along with the approval to issue the debt.
Projects to be funded include almost $25,966,700 for four street and drainage projects: Legends of Hutto drainage ditches, Live Oak Street reconstruction, County Road 199 reconstruction and work on County Road 137.
Some of the funding for those projects will come from Series 2018 General Obligation bonds that were approved but not yet issued. The remainder will come from the Series 2024 Certificate of Obligation issuance.
The bonds will also fund $277,764,800 in water and wastewater infrastructure. Of that amount, more than $180 million is earmarked for construction of the city’s South Wastewater Treatment Plant expansion.
Despite burgeoning debt, Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s bond rating agencies both recently gave the city high ratings. S&P scored Hutto as AA-/ Stable and Moody’s rated the city A1/ Stable. The organizations cited rapid growth of the economy or tax base as reasons for their ratings.
New police vehicles requested Hutto Police Department says they are being strategic by requesting new vehicles in the middle of the year as opposed to at the beginning of the new fiscal year when budgets are set.
“Most law enforcement agencies place their orders at the beginning of the budget year, resulting in high competition and longer delivery periods. The Hutto Police Department is submitting a request to lease three 2024 Ford Police Interceptors and one Chevrolet Tahoe Police vehicle before the start of the fiscal year 2024-2025 budget year due to the low supply and high demand for police vehicles nationwide,” according to a statement by city staff.
“Typically, agencies order vehicles around Oct. 1, leading to limited availability and challenges in maintaining an efficient fleet. In previous years, the HPD has faced delays in vehicle delivery when ordering at the beginning of the budget year, often not receiving vehicles by the end of the budget cycle,” Chief Jeffrey Yarbrough said in the document to council members.
City staff notes that due to lead time on the vehicles, even though they would be ordered now they would arrive after the start of fiscal year 2025, so they will not be on the current fiscal year budget.
Lease cost for the four vehicles is almost $71,000 per year. A down payment of $89,420.02 will be required to upgrade the vehicles for HPD use.
Hutto Police Department is currently recruiting officers to fill its ranks. From May 27 to June 2, the police blotter lists 28 new cases opened. This is the same number of cases as the same week the previous year.
Officers made two warrant arrests, opened five burglary or theft cases, responded to five assault situations, three drug paraphernalia incidents and five traffic-related calls. They also worked on a missing person, an illegal dumping and a deadly conduct charge among others.
