CITY & COUNTY
News from Georgetown & Williamson County
COMPILED BY GRANT CRAWFORD & TEKIMA JOHNSON
Georgetown City Council will meet March 28 and April 11 at 6 p.m. at 510 W. 9th St., Georgetown. 512-930-3652. www.georgetown.org Williamson County Commissioners Court will meet March 21, 28 and April 4, 11 and 18 at 9:30 a.m. at 710 S. Main St., Georgetown. 512-943-1100. www.wilco.org MEETINGS WE COVER HIGHLIGHTS GEORGETOWN Country music duo Jamestown Revival will headline the Georgetown Red Poppy Festival, which will be held downtown April 28-30. In addition to the main concert the evening of April 29, the event also includes a parade, a car show, vendors, food and other live performances. WILLIAMSON COUNTY With more dogs coming into the shelter than leaving, the Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter started its Doggy Day Out program, which allows community members to foster a dog for the day. Under the program, anyone over age 18 can foster for the day, taking dogs to the park, on a car ride or home for a nap to temporarily relieve shelter capacity and better learn the dogs’ temperaments.
County seeks to fully sta 911 dispatch oce WILLIAMSON COUNTY While the No. 1 challenge facing emergency dispatchers across the U.S. is lling empty positions, Chris Connealy, senior director of Williamson County Emergency Services, said the county has made a concerted e ort to ll vacancies. Department heads updated ocials on the recent progress of the hiring initiative during a Feb. 7 Commissioners Court meeting. Connealy said the department has lled all but ve of its vacancies— the lowest number of empty roles since Connealy joined the county nearly ve years ago. “As of 2022, our dispatchers are the highest paid in the state,” Connealy said. “Even with that, that didn’t x all of our challenges.” Connealy said the “organizational culture” within the department
City recaps last year, plans for 2023
County to house state emergency management ocer WILLIAMSON COUNTY An ocer with the Texas Department of Emergency Management will work out of a Williamson County facility after Commissioners Court approved an agreement with the state Feb. 28. This liaison will coordinate state emergency response, recovery, preparedness and mitigation e orts out of the emergency medical services building in Georgetown, free of charge. The agreement will remain in e ect until Sept. 30. On Feb. 7, the court voted to extend a local disaster declaration—stemming from the Jan. 31-Feb. 2 winter storm— an additional 30 days. “The reason why I want a full-time employee in our building is because when we do have to declare a disaster, we don’t have to run down to Austin; we don’t have to try to reach some- body on the phone,” County Judge Bill Gravell said.
Georgetown mayoral race only contested city election in May GEORGETOWN The candidate ling period for the upcoming Georgetown City Council election closed Feb. 17 with four candidates ling for the three races up for election in May. The three positions up for election this May are mayor, City Council District 2 and City Council District 6. Two candidates led to run for mayor, including incumbent Mayor Josh Schroeder. He will face chal- lenger Jonathan Dade in the May 6 election. Meanwhile, Shawn Hood and Jake French, the incumbents for districts 2 and 6, respectively, led for re-election and are running unopposed. Because these two seats are unop- posed, the election for them was canceled, and they will not appear on the May ballot, according to the city. Georgetown City Council took
action during its Feb. 28 meeting to ocially cancel these elections. Members of the Georgetown City Council hold a three-year term and are elected to represent one of seven single-member districts. The mayor—who is elected by all Georgetown residents—also serves a three-year term. The last day to register to vote for the May 6 election is April 6. Early in-person voting will run April 24-May 2.
DISPATCHER STATS Williamson County Emergency Communications is working to ll empty positions. Some key stats for WCEC include:
GEORGETOWN City leaders called 2023 “the year of the plan” as the city works on planning transportation and development projects that will support Georgetown’s continued growth. Mayor Josh Schroeder and City Manager David Morgan outlined many of these plans and recapped progress made in 2022 as part of the city’s annual State of the City address Feb. 15. “We are spending a lot of time making sure that as we grow so fast, that it’s not aimless, that it is
a direction built on good thought as well as good input from the community,” Morgan said. On the transportation side, the city is designing many projects in its 2021 mobility bond. Additionally, it is conducting an Austin Avenue corridor study and looking to add medians along Williams Drive. The city is also rewriting its Unied Development Code, which governs growth in the area, and is updating its Downtown Master Plan.
38 agencies for which WCEC dispatches aid
$57,291 starting salary for WCEC telecom ocer 60 total dispatchers in WCEC
SAVE THE DATES The Georgetown mayoral race will be the only city contest on the May 6 ballot. DEADLINE TO REGISTER TO VOTE April 6
SOURCE: WILLIAMSON COUNTY COMMUNITY IMPACT
was previously “not healthy” and is working toward having no vacancies in his department in early 2023. “We’re a complex operation,” he said. “We dispatch 38 di erent agencies. So we need to have people on top of their game.” Kate Wolf, former professional standards division manager, took over as director of Emergency Communications Feb. 5. She replaced Thomas Piche, who took another job with the county.
PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE Georgetown leaders laid out multiple initiatives underway in 2023, which they called “the year of the plan.” Transportation studies and bond project designs Rewriting the Unied Development Code and updating the Downtown Master Plan Searching for sources of raw water and expanding treatment capacity Determining future of animal shelter
EARLY VOTING April 24-May 2
ELECTION DAY May 6
SOURCE: TEXAS SECRETARY OF STATE COMMUNITY IMPACT
SOURCE: CITY OF GEORGETOWNCOMMUNITY IMPACT
GEORGETOWN 1013 W University Ave (512) 868-6696
ROUND ROCK 201 University Oaks Blvd (512) 341-9066
CEDAR PARK 13530 Ronald Reagan Blvd (512) 986-7681
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