City sets brush pickup for every 3 years

Issue is part of council’s work on finalizing budget for approval this month.

Next year’s proposed West Lake Hills budget was tightened up, and the City Council got an update on Bee Cave Road construction.

The City Council will approve the 2017-18 budget and a new tax rate in late September and made progress working its way through budget numbers during the past several meetings, with one last chance to massage the budget Sept. 13.

The council has determined that brush pickup will likely only take place every three years, and set aside $125,000 for brush pickup in the fall of 2018. The council also decided to include $2,500 in the budget to pay an investment adviser.

The council debated an item put forth by Police Chief Scott Gerdes at an earlier meeting — mandatory psychological evaluations of all officers on a regular basis.

Council members debated holding the money in a contingency fund until a later time.

“It’s an ongoing expense, and there are so many implications for the city,” said Council Member Rhonda McCullough. “We could make it a pilot project or something. We could set money aside but not approve it yet.

“But making it a condition of employment concerns me,” she said.

City Administrator Robert Wood gave the council an update on Bee Cave Road construction, saying the Texas Department of Transportation has let him know the project’s completion date has been pushed back four to six months, into the summer of 2019.

“The main reason for that is they’ve had a lot of problems and challenges with utilities,” Wood said. “Hopefully, that will be done by the end of September . ... That was supposed to be done last fall.”