Round Rock City Council Meeting - July 24, 2025
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Round Rock City Council Meeting - July 24, 2025
The Round Rock City Council met on July 24, 2025, at 6:00 PM. The meeting included citizen communication, recognition of student water conservation video contest winners, a comprehensive presentation from the Sports Management & Tourism department, and approval of numerous resolutions covering infrastructure projects, transit funding, and equipment purchases. The meeting adjourned at 7:14 PM.
Consent Calendar
- Approved the minutes from the July 10, 2025, city council meeting.
- Approved an ordinance authorizing a temporary construction speed zone on a portion of South May Street from Nash Street to Baghdad Avenue (second reading).
Public Comments & Testimony
- Carol Buchart, a taxpaying homeowner at 4002 Harvey Penick Drive for nine years, presented flooding and erosion problems on the third hole of the Forest Creek golf course drainage ditch. She stated that the ditch is on city property, receives heavy runoff, and has caused erosion, undermining of stone columns, fencing damage, and a flooded pool with contaminated runoff. She requested the city resolve the issue and noted a public utility easement on her property. Staff directed her to speak with the utility department representative present.
Discussion Items
- Mayor's Special Recognition: Jessica Woods, water conservation coordinator, recognized three fifth-grade students from Round Rock ISD for winning a video contest as part of the water education program. The program involved 419 students from seven schools. Winners: Baylin Lewis (3rd place), Kaylee Dunaway (2nd place), and Timothy Feiko (1st place). Videos will be shared with council.
- Sports Management & Tourism Department Update (Chad, department head): Presented highlights including:
- Local programming: 276 hours of practice time at the Sports Center (increasing to 320 with expansion), 112.5 hours at the MPC; 360 hours requested vs. 320 available at the Sports Center.
- Tournaments: 57 weekend events at Sports Center (e.g., National Deaf Basketball Championships, USA Fencing, ADCC Jiu-Jitsu) and 53 at MPC (e.g., NIRSA National Soccer Championships, US Youth Soccer National League, USA Ultimate).
- Economic impact: Direct travel spending of $558.9 million, state/local tax revenue of $54 million, 5,200 tourism jobs, and $252 million in wages; new economic activity of $21.3 million.
- Construction updates: Dell Diamond visitor clubhouse completed; Forest Creek golf course Crossley property demolished; Visitor Center/CVB offices moving to remodeled Griffith Library (planned opening October 2025); Sports Center expansion (8 basketball/16 volleyball courts) opening November 2025; MPC expansion (four additional fields, new clubhouse) planned groundbreaking November 2025.
- Transit Program Update (Ryan): Provided an overview of Round Rock's transit services, including fixed-route (Cap Metro 980/152) and on-demand Round Rock Rides. Ridership stats: fixed route ~50,000 riders annually (~140 per day); on-time performance affected by construction. Round Rock Rides (MOD service) has citywide coverage, shared rides, and higher satisfaction. Discussed FTA funding (5307 and 5339) and future plans including combined fixed-route/MOD service, bus stop best practices, and enhanced hours.
Key Outcomes
- H1 (Town Green Watertower Park improvements): Approved $4.8 million contract with Mills Construction for renovation including great lawn, social lawn, Johnson building restoration, retro gas pumps, restrooms, and trail access. Construction starts September 2025, 270-day timeline. Vote: 7-0.
- H4 (Encore Electric rate increase): Voted to deny the rate increase and suspend the effective date to October 29, 2025, to allow the city and Alliance of Encore Cities time to review and intervene. Vote: 7-0.
- H5 (Type B five-year funds allocation plan): Approved the FY2026-2030 plan for transportation, economic development, and other allowed uses. Vote: 7-0.
- H2 (Amazon just walk out services at Sports Center): Approved a five-year agreement through Omnia Co-op: $49,387 setup fee and $2,113.50/month technology fee (total $126,795 over five years). Vote: 7-0.
- H3 (Grounds maintenance equipment purchase): Approved cash purchase of John Deere equipment from United Ag and Turf (with ~$27,000 trade-in); golf fund to reimburse city with interest over 48 months. Vote: 7-0.
- H6 (MOU with Capital Metro for FTA funds): Approved the memorandum of understanding for FTA Section 5307 and 5339 program funds for FY2025-26. Vote: 7-0.
- H7 (FTA Section 5307 grant application): Authorized submittal of the annual grant application for public transit services. Vote: 7-0.
- H8 (Type B TCIP amendment for Old Settlers Park Harrell Parkway): Approved $6.8 million from Type B funds for a low water crossing bridge (550 feet, 100-year flood clearance) over Chandler Creek. Vote: 7-0.
- H9 (Chisholm Trail Road North change order): Approved $136,000 change order with Smith Contracting for water line relocation and stormwater adjustments. Project expected complete by February 2026. Vote: 7-0.
- H10 (Green Lawn Boulevard materials testing): Approved agreement with Robert Kissner Inc. for construction materials testing services. Project to finish summer 2027. Vote: 7-0.
- H11 (Brushy Creek East WWTP expansion supplemental #2): Approved $567,000 supplemental with Plummer Associates (Round Rock's share $440,000) for design of additional 10 MGD treatment train. Vote: 7-0.
- H12 (Brushy Creek East WWTP construction supplemental #3): Approved $1.4 million supplemental with Plummer for resident inspection services (Round Rock's share 12%). Project delayed; funding covers through December 31, 2025. Vote: 7-0.
Meeting Transcript
Good evening. We have uh no pastor here uh tonight, so let's just take a moment of uh silence if that's all right. All right, thank you. I'll call a six o'clock city council may in order. And please call the row. Mayor Morgan here, Mayor Pro Chim Stevens? Here, Councilmember Lee here, Councilmember Flores here, Councilmember Fleming, Councilmember Ortega, Councilmember Montgomery. Here. All right, if y'all will stand with me for the pledges. Honor the Texas flag. Texas. All right, citizen communication. Any citizen wishes to speak during citizen communication regarding an item on or off the agenda may do so. After completing the required registration card, all comments must be no more than three minutes and linked per section 2-26P5 of the Round Rock Code of Ordinances 2018 edition. Any comments regarding it's not on the post agenda may not be discussed or responded responded to by the city council per state law. Uh one card. Um Carol M Buch. Buchar, come on up to the front right here, please, ma'am. Does something light up when I can start? You can start whenever you're ready, and then it'll light up when your three minutes is up. All right. Okay, hi. Uh greetings to the mayor and to the city council members. Thank you for being here today, and thank you for all that you do to keep us afloat here in Round Rock. My name is Carol Buchart. I live at 4002 Harvey Penick Drive, Round Rock, Texas. I'm a taxpaying homeowner for over nine years now. Um I'm here to tell you about some flooding and erosion problems that we're having. Me and my two neighbors, one's out of town and one's at an HOA meeting to discuss what I'm going to be mentioning here to you. Uh, they are a 4,000 and 4,004 Harvey Penny Drive as well. The back of our properties face the third hold at the Forest Creek golf course on the divide between our properties and the cities of the city's property is a large drainage ditch. The ditch uh falls on the city's property side, so it's their responsibility. There is also a huge underground pipe that feeds the ditch. It must be 36 inches or so in diameter. I was too afraid to get down there to measure it, but I think that's pretty close. We get a tremendous amount of rut off runoff from Forest Creek residents that divert to the ditch. Fortunately, I was able to videotape the flooding and overflow ditch banks on July 5th. And most residents have standing water during heavy rains. We have rushing, fast moving water with water overflowing the ditch banks. Is he playing it? Okay. But it has just gotten crazy. It's been getting progressively worse over the last since I've been there. I've been there nine years, and we've complained about it, but nothing has gotten resolved. But this is the first time there was not lightning, so I went out and I videotaped it up close and personal so you can see what kind of uh problem we're having, and then it scopes down, and you'll see it as it goes down. It's this is descending down this way, and you'll see it come to where it floods down at the bottom. We're having a problem with erosion problems, and we've already had a problem of getting one of the columns that we put along the golf course, those columns uh we had to have it re-jacked up. Um we've had problems with the flat the fast moving water. We've had problems with erosion undermining one of the stone columns. We've had fencing problems.
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