Groups ask city for $40Kin funding

By LPR Staff
Post-Register/Editor

Eight local non-profit organizations approached the Lockhart City Council on Tuesday evening to ask for more than $40,000 in funding assistance for the next fiscal year.
The presentations were part of the City of Lockhart”s annual budget process. Each year, the city invites non-profit organizations to apply for a share o

f funds allocated to community service. Last year, the city provided around $20,000 in funding assistance.
Each of the organizations was asked to provide information regarding their mission statements and contributions to the community, along with financial statements and accounting of how any city contributions would be spent.
The organizations, Capital Area Rural Transportation System, CASA of Central Texas, Combined Community Action (Homemaker Program), Combined Community Action (Meals on Wheels), the Hays-Caldwell Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, the Hays Caldwell Women”s Center, the LTX Titans under the Lockhart Community Recreation Center and the Lockhart Area Senior Activity Center each provide important services to a segment of Lockhart”s population, from children to the elderly, male and female, in both social and professional aspects. Two other organizations, the Caldwell County Medical Assist Team and the Caldwell County Christian Ministries, will be invited to make their presentations at the next council meeting.
As the budget process is in its early stages, there is no indication yet how much money will be available for funding assistance. However, it is unlikely that there will be enough to grant each organization all of the assistance they requested.
In other council business, the council considered a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Early Action Compact Task Force to enforce air-quality controls in Lockhart. The task force includes more than 20 county and municipal governments in the Greater Austin Area, including Lockhart and Caldwell County.
The agreement asks for Lockhart to pass an ordinance restricting idling time for vehicles weighing over 14,000 pounds, and was met with resistance from some council members.
“I don”t think right now, at this point, this city is as bad off, but we”re going to bear the burden, because if we start ticketing people, it”s going to go like wildfire,” said District 1 Councilmember Kenny Roland. “The truck drivers are going to sit down here and they”re going to eat, so I think that enforcing this law aggressively is not the thing to do.”
The council also expressed concern for service vehicles that require engines to idle in order to work hydraulic equipment.
Assistant city manager Vance Rodgers assured the council that there are several allowable exemptions to the restriction, including service vehicles, and that agreeing to the MOA is the best thing for the city. He said that a local ordinance will keep the Environmental Protection Agency from including Lockhart in a federal mandate restricting large-engine idling.
“We don”t anticipate a lot of problems with this, this is mostly for cities and counties with truck stops, a lot of trucks idling, that sort of thing,” he said. “The bottom line is that this is something that we”ve got to step forward on, and we can do it voluntarily, or they can do it to us involuntarily.”
In the end, the council agreed to the MOA with a 6-1 vote, with Roland standing alone against the measure.
District 4 Councilmember Michael Sanders, who was elected to office in May, bid farewell to the council as he prepares for a tour of duty in Iraq as a U.S. Navy Seabee. Sanders received deployment orders last month, and will ship out on July 17.