Here is a recap of what was featured in the Wednesday, June 26, e-edition of the Taylor Press. Read the e-edition for the full stories and more. The e-edition is emailed to subscribers and available at www. taylorpress.net.
Stiles Farm Field Day overcomes storm for memorable moment month The 2024 Stiles Farm Field Day, held Tuesday, June 11, showcased top-tier barbecue techniques, profitable fertilizer decision-making strategies and youth agriculture safety initiatives.
The event featured a diverse array of topics, including 'Fat up or fat down? What every Texan needs to know about barbecue,' soil and planter equipment interactions and profitable fertilizer decisionmaking. Attendees also experienced a demonstration of John Deere's cutting-edge see-and-spray technology and gained insights into effective insect and weed control management.
Mark Welch, an AgriLife Extension economist from Bryan College Station, delivered insights on effectively managing the rising costs of grain in today's dynamic market environment.
Farm Bureau presented recognized Scott Zeischang as Agriculturist of the Year. Rodney Schmidt and Mike Whitaker were honored as Agricultural Business Professionals of the Year.
This year, two $4,500 scholarships were awarded to Emily Shaw of Travis County and Joshua Green of Burleson County.
Additionally, the event hosted two interns from Thrall Independent School District, Dawson Mieske and TJ Kircher.
During the event, a heartfelt memorial was held to honor Jimmy Vega, a longtime worker of the Stiles Farm team who passed away April 22. Vega dedicated over five decades to the farm, earning admiration for his unwavering work ethic and commitment to his profession.
Neighborhood sewage plant flushed HUTTO — One developer’s plans for a neighborhood sewage treatment plant on Limmer Loop have gone down the drain thanks to intercity cooperation. Hutto City Council worked with the city of Round Rock to achieve a solution for wastewater needs, negating the need for a package plant that would have pushed treated sewage through an open ditch by an elementary school.
The new neighborhood, which will sit in front of Veterans Hill Elementary School on Limmer Loop, was previously in Hutto’s extraterritorial jurisdiction but petitioned for deannexation. Although the city denied the request, per Senate Bill 2038 it was effectively released from the ETJ after a 45-day waiting period.
The developer, 705 Limmerloop JV LLC, approached Hutto in 2023 to discuss tying the residences into the city’s wastewater lines, but the cost to bring the lines to their area was too high according to city sources. They also approached Round Rock but were denied services since they were in the Hutto ETJ at the time. The developers then applied with Texas Commission for Environmental Quality to receive a permit for an on-site sewage plant, known as a package plant.
The city has been actively fighting an onslaught of ETJ package plant permits caused in part by development moving faster than the speed of infrastructure, and also by the cost of bringing wastewater lines to remote areas.
Electric demand could nearly double by 2030 The chief of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas told state lawmakers recently that the state’s power demand could nearly double in just six years.
The reasons: population growth, new requests for grid connections and a rise in requests from data centers and other heavy users.
ERCOT chief executive officer Pablo Vegas told lawmakers the grid operator has sharply increased its prediction of power demand in coming years, The Texas Tribune reported.
