Issue # 28: Budget Adopted; What is an ASR?; Opinion Section Coming

By Kristen Meriwether, Publisher

Budget Adopted

After a grueling nearly four-month process, the Smithville City Council finally adopted their budget on Wednesday.

Find out what tax rate the council finally settled on, and learn how the council will address the financial challenges of the city manager’s retirement, in our latest video.

On Wednesday the council will hold a special meeting at 5pm to create a job description for an interim city manager. That will be in executive session, but there are a few agenda items in the open meeting.

The agenda can be found here. And the packet here. 

Aquifer Storage & Recovery

If you’ve gone on social media the last few weeks, you have probably seen chatter about a potential project with Austin Water in northeast Bastrop County.

The utility identified the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer as the best option for an aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) project, which would allow them to store excess water in the Bastrop aquifer for use during times of drought.

This has, understandably, caused some concerns for residents. To help answer those concerns, Austin Water is holding two information sessions here in Smithville next week where you can get more information and ask questions:
Monday, Sept. 15: Rec Center, 6-7:30 p.m.
Friday, Sept. 19: Rec Center, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.

To provide clarity on the project and its implications, we spoke with two representatives from Austin Water in our latest article.

Rent for Non-Profits?

The Smithville City Council held their regular monthly meeting for September on Monday and most of the meeting was spent in executive session.

Learn what firm the council decided to use to hire a new city manager and find out what the council decided to charge non-profits for rent and utilities in city-owned buildings, in our meeting recap video.

Gaining Momentum

Thank you to the new paid subscribers who joined this week! We have now passed 50 paid subscribers!

Our newsletter has 238 subscribers, we have 51 paid subscribers, and 9 Members.

Thank you guys for continuing to support the free press in Smithville!

Helping Hand

We’ve all been there…you go to grab your keys and realize, you’ve locked them in your car.

 Local resident Laura Casteel found herself in that familiar predicament in the Brookshire Brother’s parking lot earlier this week.

According to her post on Nextdoor, she called the auto parts store who asked people in the store if anyone could help. Smithville Police Officer Jeremy Schelsteder, who has been with the department for five years, happened to be in the store and offered his assistance.

We would like to join Laura in thanking Officer Jeremy for being an upstanding citizen and offering a helping hand! You can read the nice comments residents had in her post on Nextdoor.

Friday Night Lights!

It’s Friday Smithville and that means it’s GAME DAY! Your Smithville Tigers are traveling to LaGrange tonight to take on the rival Leopards at 7:30 p.m.

Last week our Tigers traveled to Giddings for their second game of the season, hoping to give Coach Layne Neumann his first victory. But penalties and turnovers cost the Tigers, who lost 47-7. You can read our recap with video highlights here.

We will be covering the game tonight. Please follow us on X for score updates at each quarter and a game recap on our website later tonight.

On Tap For Next Week

Monday Sept 15: The SISD School Board will hold their monthly meeting at 6pm in the Admin Building. (agenda)

Monday Sept 15: Austin Water will hold an information session about the proposed ASR project at the Rec Center from 6-7:30pm

Wednesday Sept 17: The Smithville City Council will hold a special meeting at 5pm. (agenda, packet)

Did we miss your event? Email us and let us know what we should add here! Howdy@smithvilletexasnews.com

Opinion Section Coming

“We saw a lot of angry opinions online this budget season. Having a different opinion on politics or governance is very normal and a sign of a healthy democracy.​But a lot of what was said online wasn’t healthy. It wasn’t productive. And in many cases, it was downright nasty.​I can’t change you or your online habits. That’s between you and Jesus. But what I can do is provide a place for residents to be heard, a public square to debate the challenges facing our community.”~Kristen Meriwether, Publisher​

Next week Smithville Texas News is rolling out an opinion section to help foster constructive dialogue on the issues facing Smithville. Read the Letter from the Publisher below for more details.

From the Publisher

At Monday’s council meeting local resident John Schindler issued public comment and used part of his time to tell a story about a recent meeting he had with a council member.

John said he looked at scripture, which teaches us that if we are in conflict with another person, we need to sit down and talk with them.

John never named the member, but said once he sat down and actually had a conversation with this person, he realized his negative thoughts about them were a misunderstanding.

“It’s amazing when I sat down and talked to him, how the conversation went along and how it ended,” John said.

He then quoted Cool Hand Luke, “What we have here, is failure to communicate,” and suggested instead of duking it out over social media, we should get people together to sit across a table and talk it out.

We have had a lot of difficult issues to talk about in this community this year. And at every step, once those conversations got to social media, the dialogue wasn’t productive. I didn’t see people looking to have conversations or even learn about a different perspective. It often got very nasty.

I’ve wanted to provide an alternative where healthy debate and dialogue could take place, and about a month ago I toyed with the idea of creating an opinion section. But the timing just wasn’t there, so I dropped it.

Then Wednesday happened.

The assassination of Charlie Kirk shook me to my core. Not because of what he said or believed in but because he was a champion of civic dialogue. He refused to let hate stop conversation, and he had the courage to speak and debate anyone.

I always admired how, even when someone was saying vile things about him to his face, he always asked the audience to respect the speaker. For him words were the way to avoid violence.

Charlie Kirk was a one-of-one and I cannot do what he did. But I want to use this platform to help keep his legacy of encouraging civil discourse going.

Next week I will launch the Smithville Texas News Opinion Section, which will replace the Letter From the Publisher. There are a lot of rules that need to be written and processes created, but I believe it’s worth the effort. So look for those formal rules next week at SmithvilleTexasNews.com.

I’d love to see this grow into some kind of face-to-face event, where people with differing opinions can sit down at a table and break bread instead of faces. But I’ll be honest, I have no idea how to do that. I also think events like that bring a lot of risk that, at this point, I’m not ready to take on.

So for now, I’m going to start with an opinion section and see where it goes.

This has been a long, tough week for many Americans. I hope you take time this weekend to recharge with your friends, family, and faith.

Stay safe Smithville,

~K
Kristen Meriwether
Publisher, Smithville Texas News

Kristen@smithvilleTexasNews.com

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