Government
BY HALEY MCLEOD & KAROLINE PFEIL
Bee Cave pushes for future Hwy. 71 widening The city of Bee Cave has passed a resolution urging the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Orga- nization, or CAMPO, to prioritize widening Hwy. 71 in its Draft 2050 Regional Transportation Plan. The overview The Draft Regional Transportation Plan identi- fies a list of local projects that CAMPO may like to accomplish by 2050, including widening Hwy. 71 from a four-lane undivided highway to a six-lane divided highway with a center median, according to city documents. The city is asking CAMPO officials to move the project spanning from RM 620 to Vail Divide to a higher priority level, City Manager Julie Oakley said. The details Bee Cave officials have attended recent CAMPO meetings urging the project’s prioritization and
Google Fiber coming soon to Rollingwood Rollingwood officials announced Google Fiber will install a fiber network in the city, providing a new high-speed internet service option for local businesses and homes. The overview An agreement was signed last year between the city and Google Fiber to allow the business to construct the network in the city, City Secretary Makayla Rodriguez said. “It shows that the City Council has the city’s best interest in mind by bringing new providers in to expand options and ensure competitive pricing for our residents,” Rollingwood Mayor Gavin Massingill stated in a news release. Network construction began mid-April and will likely last until the end of August, a news release from Google Fiber states.
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also held conversations with Travis County Com- missioner Ann Howard and the Texas Department of Transportation to support Hwy. 71’s widening, Oakley said. Currently, the widening project is proposed to be one of CAMPO’s “illustrative” projects, meaning that it will not receive as high a level of priority. The city has also volunteered to cover engineer- ing costs for improvements to the Hamilton Pool Road intersection in order to help facilitate the widening, city documents show.
Fentanyl-related deaths decline across Travis County Travis County officials highlighted a 36% drop in deaths involving fentanyl and a 22% decrease in total opioid-related deaths during a preview of the annual Medical Examiner’s report for 2024. How we got here Since 2021, opioid overdose deaths have to county officials. Opioid overdoses caused 380 deaths in 2024.
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The county has allocated nearly $5 million in federal and local funding to address the opioid overdose crisis, County Judge Andy Brown said. “While we still have a long way to go, this drop in overdose deaths shows us that the strategies we’ve implemented are not only working, they’re saving lives,” Brown said.
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28.6% decrease from March 2024-2025
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surpassed vehicle collisions as the leading cause of accidental deaths in Travis County, according
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SOURCE: AUSTIN PUBLIC HEALTH/COMMUNITY IMPACT
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