The below report is from one of my friends and best area realtors, Lori Wakefield.  Look like good things to come for the area in terms of medical service and economic growth.

Bob Dorsett, Jr. ; Bee Cave City Council.

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On Monday, I had the pleasure of hearing a presentation by one of the developers of the new Hospital being built in Lakeway.  It is very exciting to hear about positive economic news.  This medical complex will change everything about Lakeway- size, demographics, etc.  Here is what I learned:

Lakeway Regional Medical Center – Opening March 2012

54 acre site with:

(1)  Hospital

(2)  Medical Offices

(3)  Selected Retail Space

(4) Hotel and Restaurant Space

(5) Day Care Center

Hospital:

• The only General Acute Care Level 1 hospital in the area
• Doctor managed facility
• Second largest hospital in Austin
• 8 stories
• Phase 1 (Opening March 2012) = 175 beds
• Phase 2 (lender approved, est March 2013 opening) = 250 total beds
• Phase 3 (as needed, expected within 3 years of original opening) = just under 400 beds total
• There are 5-7 jobs associated with one room (= 875 to 1,200 employees with the opening of Phase I)
• EMS will have their West Austin Central facility relocated to this hospital

Medical Offices

• 200,000 sqft of office space
• One building is already 100% leased
• Second building is 60% leased

Other Items of Interest:

• Based upon needs study for the area, even with the 200,000 sqft of medical space with the hospital, the area is still short 200,000 sqft of medical space
• Light Industrial Office space in Lakeway is 98% leased
• The hospital is expected to bring $2 million in tax revenue to Lakeway
• About 180 doctors are already planning moves to the area with plans to start setting up their office space around the first of the year.  They will be here looking to buy homes and relocate in the June – Dec 2011 timeframe.

This new medical center is going to create a tidal wave of economic activity to the Lakeway area.

Cheers!

Lori

lori wakefield | realtor | keller williams realty lake travis |  p 512.657.4455 |  f 512.697.8275 | www.loriwakefield.com

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Spillman Ranch HOA eMail Bulletin

Falconhead Community Bulletin Propane Issue- Please Read There are approximately 73 communities in Texas that have central propane systems. 48 of these systems are in Travis County. These systems supply propane for home heating and other uses where natural gas would typically be used, but for a variety of reasons natural gas isn’t available. While natural gas is regulated by the Texas Railroad Commission for price, delivery and safety, propane is not regulated for price or delivery. The affected communities are now organizing as Central Texans for Propane Regulation, to lobby for propane regulation, because the owners of these community propane systems have frequently used predatory pricing and provided poor service. More than one community supplied by one of these community propane systems suffered both from a 37% weighted average price increase and at the same time suffered service outages last winter and some outages lasted for several days. In 2009 Dawnna Dukes introduced HB 1194 to regulate propane but the bill appear s to have died in committee, perhaps because it was written too broadly, covering all propane uses, including such things as propane tanks for backyard grills. The bill should be re-introduced with a reduced scope to community propane systems, to regulate price, service and safety by the Texas Railroad Commission. Communities concerned about their propane provider and want to lobby for propane regulation can join the Central Texans for Propane Regulation by joining the Yahoo group Centexpropaneregulation and notify their legislators that this is a issue that should be addressed in this election. We need to make propane regulation an issue for the upcoming elections.  Please contact the candidates  on their websites and let them know that propane regulation is important to you: Valinda Bolton at http://www.valindabolton.com/ Paul Workman at http://www.workmanfortexas.com/ Kirk Watson http://www.kirkwatson.com/ The only hope we have of changing the current situation is to get the propane industry regulated.   Please help by joining the group and contacting the candidates. Thanks, Joe Cook Falconhead Board Member . This is a Publication of Spillman Ranch

While we can, we should all make propane regulation an issue for the upcoming local elections.  Contact the candidates at their websites.  Use their “Contact Us”

Valinda Bolton at www.valindabolton.com

Paul Workman at www.workmanfortexas.com

and Kirk Watson www.kirkwatson.com

and any others I may have missed.

Let them know that propane regulation is important to you and that HB 1194 that was introduced in 2009 by Dawna Dukes, but didn’t get passed, should be re-submitted with a more limited scope to apply just to central community propane systems. There are 48 communities in Travis County with central propane systems. If all of the people in these communities lobby for it, I’m sure we can have an impact on getting this legislation passed. If propane is regulated like natural gas, we won’t have huge price increases and service will be much better. You may be sorry if you wait until you get your first cold-weather propane bill before taking action. Although the total bills have been low, Allied Gas unit prices ($/cu ft) for the first several bills since they took over are higher than Sonterra’s were a year ago. July’s unit price was 12% over the previous year ($0.0646 vs 0.0577), August’s was 14% higher ($0.0702 vs 0.0615) and September was 13% higher ($0.0704 vs 0.0622) than the year before.

Get as many people to do it as you can.  Send something out to your neighbors about this.   Let them know that they need to let the candidates/legislators know they want propane regulation for community propane systems NOW.  After the election is over it will be harder to get their attention.

Hi, Friends,

Often people tell me they don’t know who they should vote for when it comes to judges and justices.  This time I can help with that, at least for the current opening on the important Third Court of Appeals.

PLEASE CONSIDER VOTING FOR KURT KUHN. I know Kurt well from working with him on a professional basis for years. I am supporting him not because of political affiliation, but because I know he will be an outstanding appellate justice.  Please read an interesting story about Kurt’s candidacy and the unprecedented endorsements he’s received from several well respected, former Texas Supreme Court Justices and the Austin American Statesmen:

http://www.statesman.com/opinion/kurt-kuhn-for-3rd-court-of-appeals-964687.html?sms_ss=email&at_xt=4cb61c845ca84fd2,0

The Statesman wrote:

“[Chief Justice] Jones and the other court members need help, and Kuhn is the best equipped to provide it.”

“Legal and political eyebrows shot up when Kuhn announced endorsements from former Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Phillips and former Supreme Court justices Craig Enoch and Scott Brister, all Republicans…That ability to reach across judicial partisan lines is impressive, especially when you consider that retired Supreme Court justices rarely get publicly involved in a judicial race.”

Kurt is board certified in appellate law.  I am confident he will bring to the bench integrity, an outstanding legal mind and a commitment to sound legal analysis. Early voting starts today, Oct. 18. I hope you’ll vote for Kurt, and tell your friends.

For more info, visit www.VoteKuhn.com
Bob Dorsett

Bee Cave City Council and Dorsett Swift, LLP

The October, 2010 Sales Tax Allocation has posted:

Total Collections:              $471,979                              Up 9% over 2009 ($432,860)

Net Payment:                    $462,668                              Up 9% over 2009 ($424,505)

Bob Dorsett

Bee Cave City Council

Falconhead and Falconhead West Neighbors,

The below announcement and information is forwarded from Bee Cave City Councilman, Mike Murphy.  I fully agree and support his position and believe it is important for us to get out and vote in favor of the sales tax restructure.  THIS IS NOT A TAX INCREASE.  Please feel free to give me a call or shoot me an email if you would like to discuss further.

Bob Dorsett; 600-4365 or bdorsett@dorsettswift.com

Profession and City Council blog:    Robertdorsett.com

Neighbors,

I am asking your support in Voting “YES” on restructuring the city’s dedicated sales taxes.  Currently, 1/4 cent is dedicated to Road Maintenance and 1/4 cent to Economic Development.

The ballot item will change the ratio to 1/8 cent Road Maintenance and 3/8 cent Economic Development.  THERE IS NO INCREASE OR DECREASE TO THE OVERALL SALES TAX, but it will allow the city needed flexibility when it passes.  Road Maintenance sales tax can ONLY be used to maintain current public roads… nothing else.  The maintenance fund is currently very, very well funded for our future needs.  Cutting the road maintenance rate in half and reapportioning it to the economic development tax will increase the funds we can use to build, operate and maintain PARKS (Falconhead West open space park, property next to Galleria) , ROADS, and potentially other public projects (Libraries, etc.) allowed under the economic development laws. The 1/8 cent remaining Road Maintenance tax would be more than sufficient to insure first class public roads forever. Please Vote YES on the Bee Cave Sales Tax Restructuring issue.

The following is a brief (and potentially confusing) synopsis of the Bee Cave tax structure:

Our 2 cent city sales tax consists of 1 cent general sales tax (all cities get this by law), 1/2 cent for property tax relief (maximum authorized by law), 1/4 cent for road maintenance, 1/4 cent economic development. The property tax relief portion limits the maximum property tax rate the city can set (not including bond debt payment requirements) though we are well below that limit. The road maintenance and economic development tax can only be spent on items specifically allowed by the state laws that authorize them.  The total of 2 cents is the maximum a city can levy.  Bee Cave is dependent on sales tax as we reduced our property tax rate over the past decade from $0.26 per $100 of valuation to $0.02 per $100 (saving $1200 per year on a $500K home).  Each 1/8 cent of sales tax produces around $335,000 in annual revenue whereas our total annual property tax take is about $160,000.

Early voting begins today, October 18th.  The Randalls in Lakeway is the nearest location.  Bee Cave City Hall will host early voting from Saturday, October 23, through Friday, October 29, when early voting ends. Bee Cave early voting hours will be Saturday (10/23) 9-6; Sunday (10/24) 12-6; Monday-Friday (10/25-10/29) 8-5. Election Day is Tuesday, November 2.

Questions???  Mike Murphy, captmurf@aol.com

The following report with statistics was prepared by Bee Cave Police Chief Pancoast for the month of September, 2010.

September was an eventful month.  First, the Police Department reached its five-year anniversary and two of the original officers also reached that same milestone.

Staff remained busy during the month by responding to  working thirty-four cases, and arresting seventeen subjects.  Additionally, they worked ten accidents and wrote 345 citations.  The breakdown of all activity is as follows:

The number of offenses by type as well as traffic crashes, arrests and citations, for the month of September, are shown in the table below.

Total calls for service	757
Crimes against persons	0
Burglary	1
Burglary of vehicle	0
Criminal mischief	0
Drug Offenses	2
Forgery Id theft	1
Robbery	0
Theft	9
Intoxication Offenses	2
UUMV	0
Public Order and Decency	19
Traffic Crashes	10
Arrests	17
Citations	345

In addition to this regular work, we assisted with a Safety Day at Lowes, and worked numerous lane closures on Highway 71 at the East City Limits.  For these lane closures, officers are paid at their overtime rate and use a City Police Car.  We then bill the contractor for the officer time and vehicle time.  In most instances, this results in a slight positive cash flow to the City.

Bob Dorsett, Jr.

Bee Cave City Council