Challenges include exodus from City Hall jobs
HUTTO — The city continues to focus on its core infrastructure needs while addressing qualityof- life issues and business development, Mayor Mike Snyder said at the recent “State of the City” address.
The event March 3 at the Hutto YMCA, 200 Alliance Blvd., featured highlights from the city’s latest achievements as well as challenges brought about by fast residential and industrial growth, including several departures from City Hall jobs.
“What’s the impact? I think you all know the impact: road congestion and an increase in demand on services,” Snyder said. “We’ll continue to focus on street improvement. And you can’t just build a city and then forget about the social aspect.”
City leaders at the address pointed to the community’s ongoing struggle with U.S. 79 traffic congestion and discolored tap water.
Another top priority is wastewater, the officials said. Balancing these infrastructure needs with the city’s ability to pay for the necessary infrastructure is a challenge.
“We need to have the capacity to grow, but if we have too much capacity then everybody here is paying for it,” said Mayor Pro Tem Dan Thornton.
The event was organized by the nonprofit The Hippo Foundation and hosted by the Hutto Area Chamber of Commerce. Proceeds from ticket sales are donated to the Downtown Hutto Business Association.
'We'll continue to focus on street improvement.'
- Mayor Mike Snyder One of the recurring themes for what Snyder and other City Council members have referred to as “The Year of the Road” is the number of delays in recent transportation projects.
The city recently decided to limit the number of new capital improvement projects because of a staffing issue.
The question was brought up during a panel discussion featuring Snyder, City Manager James Earp and Thornton.
Earp told the audience in the last 60 days the Development Services Department lost its director, the city engineer, capitalimprovement projects engineer, planning manager and chief building officer due to the employees resigning to take other jobs.
They’ve also lost some inspectors and other staff.
“It’s unfortunate for us to lose people like that. We need to be mindful of keeping track of where the market is,” Earp said.
Snyder said the exodus was a natural result of a low unemployment rate causing higher competition in top jobs, as well as private companies paying more than public entities.
