Ep.237 The State Of Dripping Springs (Mayor Bill Foulds)

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Where'll you be going?

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Next. Damn, son, where'd you find this? Go on, make it happen. And now here's Steve and Michelle.

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Welcome to Mallet and Michelle. I'm Michelle and this is Steve. And here in Dripping Springs, where the tea is sweet, and the tacos are every day here in our office. Every day. Every single day.

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My waistline is testimony to that.

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You're hideous, Steve.

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Hey, in a couple minutes, we're very honored. We're going to have Mayor Bill Folds in here to talk all things dripping. But first, before we get started with that, we have to thank the wonderful sponsors who help us put on the show.

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The roof. The roof. How about also Mallet Integrity Team?

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Today's guest is the is the man with one of the toughest jobs in Texas, keeping dripping springs going without losing what makes it special. Mayor Bill Folds has served our community for more than two decades, helping guide the city through explosive growth, big decisions, and no shortage of challenges. Today we're talking growth, traffic, water, development, and what's next for dripping springs. Mayor Bill Folds, welcome to the podcast. Thank y'all for having me. Yeah, we're honored to have you here, Bill. This is your third time. You came in episode 92 and episode 151.

SPEAKER_02 2:18

Yeah, you're a third timer. Look at J.

SPEAKER_04 2:20

I think you're the only third timer, right? Nobody else has been here three times.

SPEAKER_02 2:24

Well, we were supposed to have Marshall Kirkendahl on three times, and Marshall passed away. So yeah. That was a good one.

SPEAKER_04 2:32

Bill, what's what are the biggest issues right now facing the city? I'll just open it up with that. What are the things you're struggling with the most?

SPEAKER_03 2:40

We're still struggling with roads. We're still struggling with wastewater. Wastewater is still number one. Okay. We're starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel, but we're still a ways away.

SPEAKER_04 2:52

Okay. The the lawsuit was settled. That's all behind us. So the challenge is now they're not legal anymore. They're more infrastructure for the wastewater.

SPEAKER_03 3:02

We're going out for bids for the wastewater expansion plant here in the next couple of months, but that's a two-year project is what they're telling us two years to construct. We've asked for a shorter timeline. We got them down to about 18 months, we're hoping. Okay. And so that should all be starting very soon. There's been a lot working in the background. The reuse line to go from our wastewater plant all the way out to the driftwood golf course. It's almost complete. So we can stop, they will stop using well water or Lake Travis water to water that golf course. They're going to be able to use our water very quickly. So those things are starting to wrap up.

SPEAKER_04 3:45

Okay. So you guys have been committing more LUEs. That's in in anticipation of the expansion? So you haven't you haven't created any new service yet?

SPEAKER_03 3:56

No, there's no new service yet. We have development agreements where people can if they have an alternative method of wastewater disposal, then yes, you can do that. Most of the time that is them putting in a temporary package plant.

SPEAKER_04 4:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 4:15

And so some of those have gone in, they'll come offline whenever we get our infrastructure in place. That's how Village Grove across the road is operated. That's what they're doing. They put in a temporary plant.

SPEAKER_04 4:27

Where's that plant at?

SPEAKER_03 4:29

Right now there's a little bitty package collection area right by those model homes. Okay. If you look when you're driving down Village Grove Parkway, you can see it right past the Okay. I did notice that there. I didn't know what it was.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

I want to talk about one of the biggest hot button topics that have been on has been on Facebook with lots of discussion, Target. And I know that you um issued a public statement in regards to that, and there's some real confusion about was Target in uh the dripping springs um jurisdiction? Is it in the ETJ? Why did they take all the trees? Why are we building a Target? What about the traffic? Blah, blah, blah. So what? Just recap everything about good old Target.

SPEAKER_03 5:13

And Target's not the real bad guy here. It this is the laws of Texas. That property is not in our ETJ. It's under county's control. There was approximately one acre at the back corner of that track back closer to the polo club that was in our ETJ. They asked us to release that. We can go back in records and find where somewhere around 1980s the property owner said, no, we want our property in the ETJ of Dripping Springs. If we have that documentation for voluntary annexation, we can say yes or no. We're one of the, if not the only, county in Texas that has that ability.

SPEAKER_05 6:00

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_03 6:01

And Target said, Well, we'd really like out. And I was, no, we really don't want to let you out. And that's where it landed. And right now, if you drive by the property, you see a clear-cut piece of property. If you look in the very back corner, you'll see some big, beautiful oaks. That's our ETJ. Oh. So they had to work around that corner so that they could comply with our regulations. But it only applies to that one little section. And I offered Target if y'all will come in. We're not gonna monetarily incentivize you, but we'll work with you on the development and try to lessen the impact. If you'll do that, we can come to an agreement. But they would not agree to. They wanted to clear cut.

SPEAKER_04 6:53

Yeah. So when you say lessen the impact, you mean work with the on the trees and the maybe the lighting and some of those other things? Yeah. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 7:00

Are they gonna follow the um the dripping springs dark sky? Did they at least agree to that? So we're are we gonna have a lot of light pollution?

SPEAKER_03 7:10

They have not agreed to anything.

unknown 7:12

Really?

SPEAKER_03 7:12

They don't have to. They don't have to. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:15

So I would hope that they would be good stewards of uh you know, and good neighbors to dripping springs, the area that they're coming in. I mean, I feel for some of the people that are in dripping or in Polo Club, but you know, I've heard time and time again people have said, okay, look, that property's been available a long time. You knew it happened, you guys could have you guys could have bought it. But my biggest concern is, yes, that light pollution.

SPEAKER_04 7:37

I mean, I I lived on Sawyer Ranch, and you know, we all have low lighting, and I would hope I would hope that they would I think a lot, Bill, you can tell us that I think a lot of the new developments, even if they're not governed by the dark sky, they are it's more of a common architectural thing to put in lighting that doesn't pollute as much as it used to. Is that right?

SPEAKER_03 7:57

Aaron Ross Powell Typically in the ETJ, properties do comply. Trevor Burrus, Jr. Yeah. Yes. They really do. They're good about it. And they may not get 100 percent, but they make an effort. And right now I can't say that about Target. I know Michelle, our city administrator, she and I have had discussions about sending a letter requesting that, you know, at least the parking lot lights. But let's do some of that. That's the biggest culprit right there. Aaron Ross Powell That That's usually the big one. And then of course their signage will be very, very large, and there'll be other stores there besides Target. They are going to have a couple of pad sites, from what I understand. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 8:37

I heard it's McDonald's and Starbucks, is my understanding.

SPEAKER_04 8:40

Trevor Burrus, And then there's a couple there's a strip center with probably we'll have like a nail salon and maybe a sandwich shop or something.

SPEAKER_03 8:47

I would I would think we haven't seen it. You don't even see the plans. They don't have to submit.

SPEAKER_02 8:54

So can you request uh like open records? Like who who do they submit their plans to?

SPEAKER_03 8:59

County. County.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

The county. So the county won't share they don't have to.

SPEAKER_03 9:04

At this point, you can probably get it from the county.

SPEAKER_02 9:06

Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:08

Well that that's a good segue because I did an open records request for uh the Hayden Place subdivision back behind the Hayes Historic District, and the county was very responsive on that. But you and I have had conversations about the roads. You mentioned it right in the beginning. Let's talk roads. What's going on with there's a lot. Well, you you had an announcement, so get to that, and then let's talk about roads in general. The announcement regarding the roads? Well with over by H E B. Weren't you going to talk about that? Rob Shelton.

SPEAKER_03 9:43

Oh, Rob Shelton. That's roads, absolutely. You had got off a card, a call this morning, so I apologize. No, no, we are. As everyone lived through the reconstruction of Rob Shelton last year and saw how terrible that was, that process was just to cover up from where we put in the reuse wastewater line. It was really just to get us through. We're now going back and going to be reconstructing Rob Shelton from the HEB gas station driveway back to Sports Pec Splex Sportsplex Road. Okay. Both lanes will be completely reconstructed. We're going to leave the islands in place. That process, the end we let the bid awarded it last night at council, and they're telling us they can do it in about two weeks.

SPEAKER_04 10:42

Oh, wow. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 10:43

My only caveat was I don't care when it's done, but it will not be done once school starts. So you if you start it, you're finishing it before school starts. That's got to happen. That was where the big problem was. There's going to be either the northbound or southbound lane will be completely closed for about a week. And then it'll switch over to the other side. We're trying to put signage up. I think there's four message boards, maybe six even, that we're going to have to try to direct traffic around it. We've notified HEB, Home Depot, Marriott. They're all aware of what's going on. So we're going to have to work with it and get it done. But that that's going to be a big project happening real soon. It could happen right when this program airs. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 11:33

So well, two to three weeks. I know that's that that's a hassle for most for a lot of people, but that that's not as bad as it could be. It could take months, and that would be a big inconvenience. Yeah. Well, let's talk about roads in general. You the city council came up with a plan uh that was announced, what, two weeks ago uh where you that you're going to phase through some of the improving some of the roads and dripping. And uh we noticed that some of the worst roads that we thought were not included in that. But tell us just in general, the plan for the roads and what's the obstacles you've had and things that are going on.

SPEAKER_03 12:08

When you're resurfacing roads, that's not a problem. We stay within the right-of-way, we have that area to work in, we can go in and resurface a road. The issue when we start looking at the historic districts, Hay Street, all of these others, those are in the historic district. It's unfortunately some of the flattest area of dripping springs, and we have major water drainage. It never has been done right. If we go back in and fix the corner of Hay Street and Wallace or whatever, it's going to fail again. So we're now starting a comprehensive plan, evaluating the whole historic district to go in and do curb gutter and rebuild the roads so that we have parking on the sides wherever possible. The TURS group that is going to finance a lot of this in the historic district, we're hoping. And they're actually voting in the next two weeks on what to do. Um we have a phase one plan that is primarily um Wallace Street and then the two streets, what is that? Hayes and Bluff. Hayes and Bluff. Okay. But it'll stay on the north side of 290. Okay. If we can expand it and do all of them at once and at least get a good drawing, we'll we're gonna do that. We'll be looking for grants. Start construction on these projects, it could be another couple of years. But there is a plan to improve that. You've got um Short Mama's house.

SPEAKER_04 13:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:49

That's being redone right now. That's over here. Yeah. Yeah. And that Wallace Street area behind Short Mama's, behind the flower shop and the print shop, that's another area that just holds water. It's wet today, and we know when we last had rain. It's been a while. So that's really a focus area. But then if you jump across 290 to the other side to Hayes and Bluff Street and San Marcus, that needs to be worked on and addressed. Those are some hard areas to work in. So we're looking at all of that and really trying to do it. We have approved to go ahead and we needed a little bit of money to go ahead and finish up where the Stevenson building is being redone. We're contractually obligated to repave the parking lot in front of the Masonic Lodge. So we've authorized that. That is that project will be finished in October. Stevenson building should be open, the new Stevenson building to have things and events for kids, for adults, music type of things.

SPEAKER_04 14:58

Yeah, that's been a long time coming.

SPEAKER_03 15:00

A ninety, I think there's ninety parking places in the new parking lots. So that's gonna improve that downtown area tremendously. Talking about roads, last night we approved the contract for the Old Fitz U Road project, which we've all been talking about for years. And we're gonna rebuild Old Fitz U Road from Mercer all the way back to Ranch Road 12.

SPEAKER_04 15:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:24

And make that a walk road. It'll have trails on the side or sidewalks. Hopefully, those businesses will see a big bump of tourists and visitors. It'll take some time to get it done. That's another 18-month to two-year project, but it is going to be starting in the next month or two. That's great. So the contracts released on that. Those are the big, big ticket items on the roads. You kind of asked about we were talking about the subdivision going in. Hayden Place. Hayden Place is the name. Right. It's at the end of Bluff Street, actually.

SPEAKER_04 16:01

Well, there the the plan shows that their access is on Hayden Lane. Uh uh there's a uh what's his name? Jack Lyle's old place is right here. So that's between Hayden.

SPEAKER_03 16:13

I think and I may be wrong, I think they are coming in at Bluff Street. Really? I think Bluff is the primary, and college will be their secondary access point. More like but there will not be a road. That'll be a fire entrance only. That'll be a gated road. Yeah, that's what I think. Bluff is the plan that the last, I believe, that I saw was they were gonna have about eight lots. That whole project, only eight lots are in the city limits. I saw that, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:46

The rest of it's in the county, right?

SPEAKER_03 16:48

It's out of the ETJ. They asked to be released. It's not large enough. It's I think it's about 200 homes. I could be off somewhere in that area.

SPEAKER_04 16:59

So the plan you're looking at may be different than what I got from the county, because what I got from the county showed Hayden Lane as the main entrance, and it was 38 lots. Three of them I think were in floodplain, and one of them was for some kind of infrastructure. So there was about 34 homes. But uh maybe they've revised the plan as they've gone along, and I don't have the must most up-to-date information. I I could be totally wrong.

SPEAKER_03 17:24

I and I apologize on that.

SPEAKER_04 17:26

Well, I know that the city's not as involved in it as the county is, because three-quarters of it or more is in the county. It it is.

SPEAKER_03 17:34

There's eight lots that are in the city limits, I believe, is what I was told. And we went over a lot of the yesterday with staff, and I sorry, I apologize. No, no, that's okay. I'm off.

SPEAKER_02 17:46

Um So are you saying that there's a whole nother development that could be coming, the 200 with 200 homes, maybe, or I now I'm confused, so I don't I don't want to mislead.

SPEAKER_03 17:59

It is enough homes to where it's going to impact Bluff Street tremendously, but it's not enough to require a TIA, a traffic analysis.

SPEAKER_02 18:10

Aaron Powell So where people are are who don't necessarily know where Bluff Street is, we're gonna kind of give you a little a little bit of landmark. There's the Baptist Church and Time and Doe and Time and Doe and Pig Pen. It's all kind of right around there. I want to just kind of transition just real quick to a viewer or a listener question, and it kind of goes back to what you were talking about, the uh the Tours project. Why has Mercer and Old Fits You taken an incredible number of years and still looks the way it does instead of families, visitors enjoying it, and businesses thriving there? I think just to kind of piggyback, I think what they're talking about is we've seen a lot of businesses kind of come and go. And the business is, you know, one business is open on a Saturday and then they're closed on a Sunday, and one's closed on a Saturday and open on a Sunday, and just like the consistency throughout downtown we're not seeing. And, you know, you drive through whether it's Blanco or Johnson City or uh Wimberley, and they have passed through little towns and they have thriving downtowns, and our downtown does not look like that. And they also, to piggyback off of that, it also talked about the triangle at 290 and 12. Why can't it look more welcoming? Maybe a wonderful example of how native and no or low water landscape can be gorgeous, and as an example to help our homes having landscaping and low water use. So both of those questions basically are about the underutilization of our downtown center and why has that taken so long? I have lived here for 20 years. I have thought the same thing, and um what's what's your answer to that?

SPEAKER_03 19:48

There's not a great answer to that, other than it's time and money, and we're a small city and trying to come up with the way to improve that area and not take away from another area where people are living. We would love to have a much prettier entrance to the town. We've got the banners up there, which a lot of people like for communication, but yet it doesn't add to aesthetics.

SPEAKER_02 20:13

The beautification of it, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:15

The beautification. I've asked this year some of our landscape funds we devote to the triangle to at least have s some more trees and coverage there. One of the other things that comes into play is Textot, Andy. If we've just like every time before, this Text Dot project that will be happening, we don't know a date. So we hate to spend a whole lot of money in that area when we know it's going to be changed, and it could be a massive change. That's a floodplain that's going to be completely redone. So we're looking at it, we're going to improve it. It's just how much can we do at this time?

SPEAKER_02 20:56

Aaron Powell Why couldn't we think of some maybe creative ideas to bring outside businesses like, I don't know, for instance, one with the big red bullseye starting with tar, get. And maybe they could sponsor something like that or to beautify downtown. Because it is one of the first things you see, or you're sitting at the light for 45 minutes.

SPEAKER_03 21:18

Absolutely. We could have a corporate type sponsor without it being a true big corporate sign or anything like that. Yeah. We want to have something that fits in aesthetically to the rest of the time town. I know right now the triangle doesn't look nice, and some people will say anything's an improvement, but commercialization of a big box isn't where we want to go. You if they want to sponsor with their name and come in and do something that we could help design, I think that would be a fantastic idea. Maybe we even talk to 'em about supporting us with our ice skating rink that we have this year. We're going to be looking for large fundraiser on that and Having people help.

SPEAKER_04 22:01

Come on Target, sponsor the ice skating rink. That's a great thing. Brings a lot of people to town. We've had friends come from Austin and North Austin to come out here to do the ice skating around Christmas. That'd be a really if Target did that, it'd bring a lot of goodwill into dripping.

SPEAKER_02 22:17

I think so. I think so as well. And what about what we were saying about the Mercer and Old Fitz Yo area? Like why is that taken? What was the question he asked? An incredible, an incredible number of years and still looks the way it does. That all has to do, again, with the roads. Is that right?

SPEAKER_03 22:32

It was the roads, the wastewater. A lot of things had to happen. We didn't want to put the roads in and then put come back and dig it up and put wastewater in. We then found out the water supply corp had water lines that were very, very shallow, so that they're going to have to be dug up and replaced, the bill for that, most of that. After we got the water supply corp situation done with the water lines, we know where they are, we're ready to go there. Now we've got the utilities with P PEC, we've got that worked out, so we are ready to go. We've let the contract and we'll start work and have it finished. It'll take two years. Very quickly on the two years. I'm sure this will come up in here in a minute. That means we will have that road closed for Founders Day for two years. So we're going to be exploring options for the parade. And hopefully we're going to come up with the plan for a parade. It may not happen until we get that fixed, but our Founders Day Commission, they've got some great ideas and different things to do at Founders' Day.

SPEAKER_02 23:42

Because y'all got a lot of a lot of uh um torches and people angry people because there was not a parade. And and I I happen to agree. Why would you have a festival? Why would you have a parade without without a parade? And so uh so you're saying that there is a plan in place, because that was one of the questions that I kept getting over and over again was about the parade.

SPEAKER_03 24:05

Yep. We're definitely we're trying to work that problem out. And we'll have a good solution. The Founders Day Commission will have a good recommendation here before too long.

SPEAKER_04 24:14

Okay. Do you feel like some of the things you the city council and you are working on and problems that are being fixed, sometimes the public doesn't know about it, so they continue to complain. How could you fix that? It that's almost like a messaging thing. Because I th that's what happens a lot. I hear somebody complain about something, and then you and I talk and you go, Yeah, we've been working on that for six months. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_02 24:37

But I like the public I like the public notice that you did, like even just on the neighbor's page.

SPEAKER_03 24:41

Aaron Powell Yep. And that's that's the only way we can get the word out. There's not a newspaper that reaches everybody anymore. And it's putting good money after bad to advertise in newspapers, unfortunately. Now podcasts are doing well, word of mouth. Unfortunately, we can't be on every social media page, so it's real difficult for us to pick and choose. Yeah. So I'm available to answer questions always. Come to a council meeting. It's amazing. I see all these posts, and we need to go down there. We're gonna show up. Nobody shows up.

SPEAKER_04 25:14

Nobody shows up, I know.

SPEAKER_03 25:15

So come to the meetings and express yourself. We we give you time at the first of ever meeting. You can be there for five minutes, you can come in and speak.

SPEAKER_02 25:23

I know, but it's intimidating. If you think about it, like I I can I can speak for myself because I went to one when we were putting on swampy tank, and I I it's it is intimidating, you know.

SPEAKER_04 25:34

But I mean, that's your your right to be able to get up and 300 people or 300 episodes. You have people that get up there sometimes and they're just idiots and they just like I I've heard uh another public official was telling us that every time he was in his capacity, I'm not gonna tell who it is, somebody would get up and curse him and call him names. The same person did it over. Do you guys ever have that at your council? Aaron Ross Powell Every so often.

SPEAKER_03 26:03

It's been a while since we've had that. But yes, we've had items on the agenda where we voted on it and people march out of the room and call to one of our council members, Judas. Trevor Burrus, Jr. Oh gosh. And things such as people take their clothes off. Remember during COVID?

SPEAKER_05 26:19

Oh yeah. That's one of my favorite ones.

SPEAKER_04 26:21

Aaron Powell I I feel like your job, Bill, is is a thankless job because you make decisions, you're getting stuff done, and sometimes no matter what decision you make, somebody's gonna be mad at you. Because you know, a lot of these there's no black and white a lot of times in these decisions. There's the best decision, but it isn't the best for everybody involved.

SPEAKER_03 26:42

How do you deal with that? We just deal with it. We we know we're never gonna please everyone. We hope we have a vision of what everybody wants to see for dripping springs. How that gets carried out is a difficult problem and still respect property owners' rights. Yeah. If you own two or three hundred acres of land, like we were saying earlier, and you don't want to have something built right next to you, you'd better buy another hundred to have it protected. And that's not realistic. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:14

I want to circle back to Hayden Place. We pulled up the plat. Uh and uh you can comment on this, but I also want to ask you when you get done with that, the vision for the historic districts. Is it still to have a mix of residential and commercial, or is it eventually you think all those historic districts will be mostly, and I'm saying commercial because there's different levels of commercial, but the vision for that. But let's talk about Hayden Place real quick.

SPEAKER_03 27:41

Hayden Place is 40 40 lots approximately that are being built. It'll have an entrance off of Hayden Street, which goes straight into 290. There's only eight lots, I believe, that are in the city limits. The rest of the property is actually out of the ETJ and the city limits. So there's very little oversight. We are working with them on the areas that are in the city limits. They're going to be larger lots and served with septic. They're not going to be on the wastewater. They may be on the wastewater now, yeah. Or asking to be.

SPEAKER_04 28:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:21

It it will be a nice subdivision. It's just going to be something that is difficult to work through Hayden Street, which is a very small street, and going to be going over to 290, or you could take it.

SPEAKER_04 28:33

It actually will, you'll the access would be uh Bluff Street to Hayes over to Hayden South, because the if you go north directly on Hayden, that runs into the bridge there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:48

But is it a nice subdivision in a in a not a not well-designed area? Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_04 28:54

I mean, I I am along with Bill. I respect private property rights. And if you own a piece of property, you should be able to develop it the way you want within the limits that are imposed. But I my thing is that that Hayden Street right now gets probably six cars a day, and that is not an exaggeration. It is a very low traveled road, and they're estimating 320 cars a day. That road can't handle that. So hopefully they've got some kind of plan. Would the city work with them to improve Hayden at their expense?

SPEAKER_03 29:26

I believe we will be able to get some improvements on Hayden Street. And that kind of goes back to what we were talking about with the roadway plan. If nothing else, maybe that section gets included so that we can get something in that area improved. We've got to do something to help with the roads.

SPEAKER_04 29:51

Is it a mixed use? Is it that eventually those will all have some kind of an overlay of commercial, or what what's the vision from the city?

SPEAKER_03 29:59

I see the Hayden Street area and everything south of 290. Probably staying a more mixed use, walkable, and hopefully the homes, most of the homes stay with some small, very small shops. I see Old Fitz You Road. I don't want to see it just 100% commercial. We've got the condos down there that are nice and they fit the community. And so if we could integrate something like that in, and then this gives us the opportunity to really redevelop that area and have an area that everyone can be proud of and hopefully have trails connecting to the subdivisions in the area, but yet maintain that charm of that downtown area.

SPEAKER_02 30:47

Mayor Bill, what kind of um new businesses would you like to see in Dripping Springs? Obviously, not the some of the big box stores, but I mean April Fool's, I put a post on uh neighbors page. Did you get any calls about that where I said that Bucky's was coming? Yes. Did you really?

SPEAKER_03 31:05

Oh yes. Yep. Tell you. They probably could have sold Dreamland three times based on that. But there are not any plans for a Bucky's or a Walmart, I'll tell you that right now that I'm aware of. But I'm the last one to know.

SPEAKER_06 31:21

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 31:22

Y'all find out. I I would love to see focusing on Mercer primarily. We we need a good restaurant. Yes. We have some great restaurants, but restaurants feed off of other restaurants. And we have some of the bars and things like that, but we don't have a real larger central gathering place where you might have a dinner and then start walking.

SPEAKER_02 31:48

Maybe short mamas will fill in that gap there. I'm really excited because yeah, you want to be able to sit down like we, you know, we have these Airbnbs. We send our guests over to Pig Pen and Time Time and Doe. It would be nice to be able to, hey, go over there, have a nice little little early dinner and go walk around. There's some great little shops. I'm hoping that maybe one will encourage the other to stay open longer. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_03 32:13

And that's what it takes.

SPEAKER_02 32:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 32:15

It it's difficult now. We don't have the traffic late in the evenings or even early evenings. So there's a big lull between anybody coming down there, especially in the summer when it's so hot, people don't show up till 7 30 or 8. Yeah. And by then the businesses have closed.

SPEAKER_02 32:29

Trevor Burrus, Jr. Well, then also we had a sudden closure of Oakwood Market, and I think that kind of just shocked everybody. Um, you know, Steve and I have gone there for lunch and and we've had them on the podcast, and it was such a kind of it was a confusing concept at first. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:44

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 32:45

And then so they abruptly they were they were adjusting their hours, they were closing the pizza shop, they were opening the pizza pizza shop, and now they just closed the entire thing. Do you have any feedback or maybe information that we don't have?

SPEAKER_03 32:59

I was very surprised. My wife and I we'd go up there every couple of weeks and have dinner. And you know, we we enjoyed it. They all had a few problems. They were working through it. It was still a very new restaurant, and for it just to close like that just shocked me. And I'm sorry to see it happen. I really am. And we we need more small businesses. We need the wastewater to get those.

SPEAKER_04 33:22

Yeah, it's gonna be interesting to see what they redevelop that into because it's such a specific use building. I don't unless somebody else comes in and buys it and takes it over as a restaurant type situation. I don't know what that becomes. Uh I want to talk to you about uh this only affects people that are served by the wastewater. Uh you had a big rate increase recently. Uh what would you want the public to know about that rate increase and and the process for putting that in place?

SPEAKER_03 33:51

We kept our rates too low too long. Any good business typically you start raising rates every year just to keep up with inflation. And granted, inflation hadn't been real high, but we just got behind. And we need to catch up. We didn't want to put it all on the property owners or on everyone. So the city has committed to adding another million dollars a year or another hundred thousand dollars. We're we're committed over one point five million to the wastewater so that it's not being all funded by the few people that get it. Okay. Um and the thought process there is the commercial businesses we have, HEB, Home Depot, and all of those, they all pay for wastewater, and all of the residents use those facilities. So you are still getting a benefit out of it. So we took money out of the general fund to start covering some of this wastewater. And for a couple of years, it's gonna be a tight budget for the city. That's what we're going through right now. But we're doing well. We're gonna be able to absorb it without cutting back services. Oh my god, that's good. Okay. We don't want to see any big cutbacks.

SPEAKER_02 35:07

Speaking of tight budget, rumor has it that there was a push, and I asked you this before on the last two podcasts. Rumor has it that there has been an uh a renewed push to get a police department here in Dripping Springs. And uh I was talking to Steve about this prior. Look, I'm in the ETJ, and is there a way um through the jurisdiction that the ETJ could be included in order to get a police department? And so my I I talked to Anthony Hippolito about this. And Sheriff Hippolito said, We don't have dripping would not have a crime lab. There's all these other factors instead of just having a police department. It's not just as simple as putting men and women in cars and controlling the areas. You've got to have a place, a holding cell, you've got to have a crime lab, you've got to have all this other stuff.

SPEAKER_03 35:58

So is there Is that a discussion that's happening? Not for a police force. The logistics of it, we just we know we can't afford that. So interim and to build up to it. I have visited with Dave Graham, constable for precinct for constable, and I visited with the sheriff about if we were to start funding maybe one patrol vehicle, one officer or two, what what would that look like? And is there a way we could share the expense, but yet know they would be in our general area full-time and for the most of the day. Right now, if we were to throw $100,000, $200,000 at the county, there still would not be a guarantee we would have an officer available. It's just too big of a county. So we're we're trying to look if we invest in it, what do we get back and things such as that?

SPEAKER_02 36:59

I have a solution. Sure. Give me a badge.

SPEAKER_03 37:04

A badge and a gun of drooping springs.

SPEAKER_04 37:08

Oh my God. That sounds terrible, doesn't it? That's a scary thought. That is a scary, scary thought. Oh my gosh. I don't like the way you're looking at me today. You go right to jail.

SPEAKER_05 37:23

Remember the pointing thing? You were going to jail.

SPEAKER_04 37:27

Bill, uh the uh there was a lot of talk about the improvement, the text dot improvement through the center of dripping springs, uh, because this stretch of road right out here in front of McDonald's and Sonic and Home Depot and HEB is really not a safe section. What's the latest that you know about the expansion of that section of dripping of uh 290?

SPEAKER_03 37:50

We had an informal meeting with TechStot. They there's no funding, but they were able to say 2032 for this area. Trevor Burrus, Jr. When they started. And that may be design even.

SPEAKER_04 38:06

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 38:07

Is that tripping? It like is this section.

SPEAKER_04 38:11

From the water tower to uh down like almost Roger Hanks.

SPEAKER_02 38:15

But what about from Oak Hill to the water tower?

SPEAKER_03 38:18

I think that's a long way off. That's their 20-year plan. Yeah, that's a long way off. Oh, we're still they're doing it in phases.

SPEAKER_05 38:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:25

But they're they have agreed they'll move this section up and not just slowly build their way out.

SPEAKER_05 38:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 38:33

So if if they keep slowly building their way out, 290 and 12 are going to go haywire real fast.

SPEAKER_02 38:39

So potentially five, six years down the road before they even look at it again, because my understanding is we pissed them off so much that they took their money, they took their toys and they moved down to another project. That's what TechSot does. If you have a lot of pushback from the community, they have money earmarked for this project.

SPEAKER_04 38:59

I don't know if they had the money yet.

SPEAKER_03 39:00

But what do you what's your what have you heard? They they didn't have the money, but they had the plan. And the the plan is still there. The avenue that we're approaching is to continue working with TechSot, but also looking for federal funds. If we can get the federal government, because 290 is a federal highway.

SPEAKER_06 39:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:17

If we can get moved up on the Fed's level, then that goes to TechStot and that will help speed the process. So we're looking at that.

SPEAKER_02 39:25

I'm going to go to the White House. I'm going to talk to the President's.

SPEAKER_04 39:39

What's the future for Ranch Park as far as you know, what's it what's what's going to be there? What can we expect in the future?

SPEAKER_03 39:45

Aaron Powell It's going to continue to grow and continue to be a ranch park, continue with animals, but make that a larger. We put in a large arena, outdoor arena this year. Emily Nelson, who's manager of the park, and Andy Benz, our parks director, they've got some great, great plans for it. They'd like to have it that outdoor arena with at least a cover and put in a huge rainwater collection system to start collecting rainwater so that we can quit watering the dirt with other water. So they've got some really neat things. We just let a small bid to add a trail and a bridge to cross over to get down to the pond and create a trail there. We're going to keep improving it. It may be a little slow, but it is there's improvements all the time. We've had conversations with the owners of Double L or the Hill Ranch, which is developing. They own that little piece of track property right in front of Ranch Park. And they've reached out and we may be able to, if they build commercial there, have it kind of incorporate into the ranch park theme. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:58

We just found out that there's a whole uh bird watching station back there.

SPEAKER_04 41:04

Amanda and Hector from Wildbirds Unlimited were in here a couple weeks ago, and yeah, they told us about that. That's really cool. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 41:10

Oh well, the qu final question that I have for you is why are you still doing this? What?

SPEAKER_04 41:17

Why do you 20 years on city council? How long have you been mayor? I've been mayor six years and seven years. And you will soon be the longest serving mayor ever. Oh no, okay. I thought that's what I heard.

SPEAKER_03 41:28

Todd Todd Purcell will be the longest serving mayor. And how long has he been? He he was appointed mayor in 2001. Okay. Okay. And served until 2019. Oh my gosh. Yeah, I didn't know that. Okay. I got on council in the city.

SPEAKER_02 41:44

Oh, so it's total. So you've been with the city total. 26 years, actually. 26 years. Wow. So so why? Why I mean I know you care about dripping springs. You live here, you work here, you love it here. Why do you keep keep public? You're not getting paid for this. For those of people out there that think he's getting paid, he's not getting paid. You're not getting paid. So this is a free, thankless job. Are you just gluttoned for punishment?

SPEAKER_03 42:09

It is, but the relationships and visiting with people, I love it. And I love the town. My kids graduated school here, and you know, it's been where we've called home, and we're gonna continue to call call home. If when I leave the city council, I'll still be here and involved. And I I just want to keep the city growing, but try to preserve what we can. It it's hard to do with the amount of people we've had. Everybody talks about Kyle Buda and all of these, have all of these different things, but we're all a little unique. And you know, we don't have I-35 with the big tax base pulling in all the big retailers like Cabela's, and we don't want big Cabellas in our town.

SPEAKER_02 42:56

So your why is basically you want to preserve the small town dripping springs that you raised your family in that that you continue to live here. And that's you know what? I think that's very admirable.

SPEAKER_04 43:07

Yeah. I've been impressed with how you've led this the city here, Bill. I actually have a few more questions. Um Chuck Lamont asked me to ask you, he's walking over there uh once a week with uh uh Coach Wade um at the soccer park. And uh you know, we had that big huge rain a couple weeks ago and the trail's not in good shape over there. Have you heard anything about plans for that?

SPEAKER_03 43:32

I have not heard about improvements on those trails that may be just under their general maintenance. Trevor Burrus, Jr. Okay. And so I can check with park staff and just see.

SPEAKER_04 43:41

Chuck would give me a hard time if I didn't ask you so last year uh the city council enacted a fireworks ban in the historic district, and we just coming out of Independence Day, 4th of July. How'd the uh how'd that ban on fireworks hold up?

SPEAKER_03 43:58

I didn't receive any calls.

SPEAKER_04 43:59

Oh good.

SPEAKER_03 44:00

As far as a lot of fireworks and people are going to shoot fireworks. We all know that. It it happens. But in that area it does present a little bit of an extra danger. Hopefully everybody behaves and it's all good and we all have fireworks every time we have the opportunity. New Year's is coming soon, so we'll be ready for that.

SPEAKER_04 44:24

All right, Bill, my last question. Any update on the HEB expansion?

SPEAKER_03 44:31

They have been talking to staff. They haven't submitted anything formal yet, but we've had conversations with them. And other than that, there's nothing to report. They did add back in having some of the small businesses. Originally it was going to be a standalone HEB. Now they're going to go ahead and heard that, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:52

That's nice.

SPEAKER_03 44:52

That that'll be a good thing if that comes, but we haven't seen it.

SPEAKER_02 44:56

Because Steve Steve won't live without his Thundercrowd.

SPEAKER_04 44:59

Well, if something else goes in there, I'd be happy with that too. But Thundercloud is a staple for sure. Well, Bill, uh sorry about the technical errors. Hopefully the listeners uh don't can't tell, can't quite tell. But I think we covered it up a little bit. But I have always appreciated the time you've come in here and spent with us. And I want you to know if you have anything you want us to announce, you can let us know. And as always, we love having you on the show to keep people up to date. So I I thank you for coming in today.

SPEAKER_02 45:29

And I promise I'll never call you on there. No, maybe not. Maybe I should just for fun, just to see if you'll do it.

SPEAKER_03 45:34

It's fine. I generally listen, so I may be calling you if I hear my name again. There you go.

SPEAKER_02 45:40

There you go. Thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it. And we love having these kind of uh um bi-yearly updates. So we'll have you on again. You'll be on for the fourth time.

SPEAKER_03 45:51

All right. Well, we're always honored to have you. I appreciate y'all doing what you do. You're helping get the word out about dripping springs, and that's the hardest part of this job is communicating. All right. Well, next time you see Michelle, she's gonna be the sheriff.

SPEAKER_05 46:04

And give me a badge. I want you to put that in your budget. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 46:08

I'll get a badge for Michelle. We need a ceremony and everything, Bill.

SPEAKER_05 46:12

Well, can we have a mallet of Michelle day? Why? What the hell?

SPEAKER_04 46:16

Oh my god. Bill, thank you very much for joining us. Thank y'all. We appreciate it.

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SPEAKER_00 48:00

This show is brought to you in part by the Mallet Integrity Team. Serving Dripping Springs, Austin, and the surrounding areas of Central Texas since 2004. When you need the best real estate advice and service, give them a call at 512-829-2062. Or email them at malletintegrity team.com. And now here's Steve and Michelle.

SPEAKER_04 48:21

And we're back. Boy, Bill Folds, he brings it every time he comes on the show, doesn't he? He does. He's a good guy. I really like him a lot. I think he's tried to do some really great things in the city. And there's always some obstacles when you're working with a bureaucracy like that. But he's he's a good guy. He's got a good heart for the city.

SPEAKER_02 48:40

Well, and if you care about what's going on in the heart of Dripping Springs, even though I live in the ETJ, which I, you know, I said that several times, but um, you know, you should still I work here. I work down there.

SPEAKER_04 48:51

I'm I'm probably big part of the community.

SPEAKER_02 48:53

Every day. Yeah, a big part. I mean, my name is on the billboard.

SPEAKER_04 48:58

The billboard. Well, yeah, that was that was a lot of fun. I'm glad uh that he was able to join us every time. This is a third time he's been on, and every time he's come on, he's shared some some great wisdom about what's happening at the city. Well, we're just coming out of the 4th of July, and man, it was it was a good one. 250 years celebrating the United States of America. That was a it was a good weekend. We got to watch the fireworks uh from a secret location high atop Dripping Springs, and uh I'm not gonna tell anybody where it is because it's a secret, but it was really good. We had had a lot of fun and it did a barbecue on Saturday and had my first hot dogs uh in a couple years. Wow on Saturday. Yeah, they were really good.

SPEAKER_02 49:39

I uh I went to um the Guadalupe and we went to the river house and it was gorgeous and it was fun. And I slept with a 17-month-old uh all night on Saturday night, which sleeping is the uh no, there was no sleeping.

SPEAKER_04 49:54

That's a that's a reminder of how much energy we had when we were younger.

SPEAKER_02 49:57

She wouldn't she wouldn't sleep in the bed, she would only sleep on me. Oh god, that's funny.

SPEAKER_04 50:04

You must have been warm and she wanted to cuddle.

SPEAKER_02 50:06

Well then she pumps her butt when she has to go. It's really cute, it's like she pumps to go night night.

SPEAKER_04 50:12

Well, we were talking about the hot dogs. My friend Brandon invited us over for a barbecue on Saturday, had my hot dogs, but then I read this story, Joey Chestnut. Does that ring a bell?

SPEAKER_01 50:21

No.

SPEAKER_04 50:22

He's the guy that wins that Nathan's famous hot dog eating contest every year.

SPEAKER_05 50:27

That's so gross.

SPEAKER_04 50:28

Yeah, I know. So it turns out uh he won again this year, didn't set a world record. He ate 66 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes.

SPEAKER_02 50:38

His stomach must be because I saw some like documentary, I think it was on him and some other like Japanese guy, where they can't even eat real food anymore.

SPEAKER_04 50:47

Oh, I believe it. Yeah. I I I I don't think his stomach can be very good. I I looked at a picture of him and I thought, God, he must be in his late 50s. He's 42 years old. He's actually a pretty young guy. His his body's not holding up well. Well, it turns out before the couple weeks before there was a little bit of controversy.

SPEAKER_05 51:05

Oh, hot dog controversy?

SPEAKER_04 51:06

Hot dog controversy with Joey Chestnut. He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery. Some guy got in his face at a bar and apparently punched him. And uh he pleaded guilty on April 20th and was sentenced to 180 days of probation in Hamilton County. And so then Nathan said, Well, maybe we shouldn't have a guy that's uh that's bit that's assaulting people on the hot dog eating contest, so they almost didn't allow him to come on. But he came on again and won him his 18th annual uh dog hot dog eating contest.

SPEAKER_02 51:35

Instead, he killed the hot dogs.

SPEAKER_04 51:37

And then uh I saw another story that kind of goes along with that. Did you hear about what Pringles is doing? No, but I love Pringles. Do you? Well, you're gonna be able to do it. I do, I love Pringles. Just in time for National Hot Dog Day, Pringles is taking its signature flavors beyond the chip and into an unexpected summer staple, hot dog buns. They're going to put it, they're gonna infuse uh hot dog buns with three of their company's fan favorite flavors. So do you do you know what they are?

SPEAKER_02 52:05

Well, my favorite flavors of Pringles are sour cream and onion, barbecue, and just the plain one.

SPEAKER_04 52:11

I like the plain one too. Plains not included. It is sour cream and onion, barbecue and honey mustard. So they're gonna they they have a picture of them here, and there's like it looks like there's little bits of those kind of sprinkled in the hot dog bun. Sounds absolutely terrible for you, but sounds yummy, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 52:29

So I have a question for you. Yeah. Is uh, do you think a hot dog is a sandwich?

SPEAKER_04 52:34

Hot dog's not a sandwich.

SPEAKER_02 52:35

That's right. I know. Scotty Bennett said a hot dog is a sandwich.

SPEAKER_04 52:38

Oh no, it's not a sandwich. That's like saying a hamburger's a sandwich. It's not a sandwich. Idiot, Scotty Bennett. Scotty Bennett, what are you thinking? These uh these limited edition hot dog buns with the Pringles infused in them will only be available through July 15th. So uh if you I don't know if H E B has them or not, but sounds kind of yummy. Maybe we should try some here on the show. I'm already thinking about lunch.

SPEAKER_02 53:04

It looks like we're not getting lunch today, also. We're so busy. Hey, do you know uh the Paramount uh theater, Paramount Austin?

SPEAKER_04 53:11

I have heard of it. I've never been there.

SPEAKER_02 53:13

It used to be called the Majestic Theater. It was originally opened in 1915, 1915, 1-5, and it became the Paramount in 1930. But I think people have always kind of called it the Majestic, also, and it has welcomed legendary performers, including Harry Houdini. No way. Yeah, Catherine Hepburn, Maya Angelo, and musicians, comedians, filmmakers all over. Well, they are going through a massive renovation right now, and it's called uh sh the Shine On Restoration Project Seats because they're teeny tiny little teeny tiny little seats that um little teeny tiny little butts used to sit into. But the staff is getting some of the seats, and then all the rest of the seats that aren't being used, they're uh they what did they say? They say we're responsibly recycling them. But the end caps, which are very decorative, are gonna be preserved. But um, it's the full restoration in more than 50 years, and it's designed to preserve the 110-year-old landmark while modernizing it for the next set of performances, which I'm really excited about. The overall campaign is ready for this 65 to 66 million dollars. And it closed um June, closed last month, and it's expected to remain closed for about 11 months. But you know, construction is probably gonna be a year and a half, two years. Um, but yeah, I think I think it's really cool. They're gonna have ADA access, new elevators, better floor layouts, enhanced aisle seating. They're also um carefully preserving original murals, plaster works, chandeliers, decorative paint, architectural details. You really got it. I mean, when it opens, Steve, you really should go. It's it's downtown.

SPEAKER_04 54:56

It's so a Congress area?

SPEAKER_02 54:57

Uh yeah, it's right right smack downtown. I mean, you know what's really cool just to go see like the orchestra play or you know, something real classical where it kind of takes you right back.

SPEAKER_06 55:07

I would love to do that.

SPEAKER_02 55:07

They're also gonna have new sound, lighting, wiring, thank gosh, and technology. And one exciting addition is a third floor ballroom and event space that it appeared in the original 1915 blueprints, but was never built until now. And so even the famous backstage walls covered with signatures from generations of performers are being photographed, documented, and protected before the construction continues. So apparently, if I remember the story correctly, I I mentioned Harry Houdini. There is an area right above the stage. Uh gosh, it's like some very decorative part. And I think Harry Houdini either uh dropped down from that or hung, not hung himself, but hung from it. Um, but yeah, that that'll be really cool. So we're just preserving a little bit of old Austin. You know, we did a story, maybe it was a couple of years ago, how they are now removing the facades off of these old buildings, like back in the 60s, they covered and the beautiful architectural details. Let's bring all that back.

SPEAKER_04 56:09

Buildings were built. There was a lot more uh emphasis put on the aesthetic of those old buildings. Now now everything's real modern and glass and chrome, and it's just not the same.

SPEAKER_02 56:20

And so, yeah, it is on Congress. So see, look at that. Wow, oh so yeah, there's something to do with like one of these little little I can't believe you've never been in there.

SPEAKER_04 56:28

You know, I have run by that. I've seen the sign now that the uh uh I don't know what street it's on, but I have run b run by that I just didn't know that that's where uh how do you spell Houdini?

SPEAKER_02 56:40

Houdini there you I think it's yeah, there's something to do with like there was some little area up there.

SPEAKER_04 56:47

Interesting. Very, very interesting.

SPEAKER_02 56:49

But yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 56:50

Well I will uh I will go take that in when they uh open it back up and we'll have to go and have a good time there. I found a story um that Rolling Stone came out uh to celebrate the 250 years uh celebration of America. They came out with a uh a list, and I think this list proves that they did too many drugs in the 60s, but and they lost the plot. But on July 3rd, Rolling Stone published the 50 songs for 50 states to commemorate commemorate the 250th birthday of our country.

SPEAKER_02 57:23

So wait, each state has a state.

SPEAKER_04 57:25

Each state they picked okay, there's 50 states they said this song most uh identifies with this state. So there's a couple they got right, I think. Uh uh California, uh Tupac and Dr. Dre, California Love, 1995.

SPEAKER_02 57:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 57:41

And I thought that one was spot on. Colorado, Joe Walsh, Rocky Mountain Way. I think so. Rocky Mountain Way, Colorado?

SPEAKER_02 57:51

Like, that's the one John Denver sings?

SPEAKER_04 57:53

No, Joe Walsh sings that. Rocky Mountain Way?

SPEAKER_02 57:56

How does that go? Go uh pull it up. Okay, continue. I'm not gonna sing it because John Walsh.

SPEAKER_04 58:02

Maybe I just I'm not Joe Walsh, Rocky Mountain Way.

SPEAKER_02 58:05

Okay, Rocky Mountain Way.

SPEAKER_04 58:07

Um Okay, let's see. Fast forward a little bit, because otherwise we'll get Oh, oh!

SPEAKER_02 58:16

I yeah, I didn't realize that's yeah. Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 58:19

I didn't realize so that's Colorado. Uh Hawaii, I think this one's spot on. Somewhere over the rainbow by do you know that guy's name? It's Kamakawi Woole. Uh-huh. Can you say that?

SPEAKER_02 58:31

No, but I know who it is, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 58:33

By Kay in 1998. That's a I think that perfectly exemplifies Hawaii. Kentucky Coal Miner's Daughter by Loretta Lee. I could see that. Coal mines, yeah. I think this one's one of the best. Nevada, Elvis Presley. Viva Las Vegas.

SPEAKER_02 58:50

Las Vegas, yeah. Viva Las Vegas. What about Tejas?

SPEAKER_04 58:55

Uh well, I'm gonna get there because I think they jumped the shark on that one. Uh Ohio was the pretenders, my city was gone.

SPEAKER_02 59:02

They jumped, they jumped the shark?

SPEAKER_04 59:04

Jumped the shark, yeah. Okay. Means they lost the plot. They don't they don't they completely freak um forgot about what was happening. So uh there's there's three I found that I can I just it didn't make sense to me. I'll start off with Florida was Tom Petty, she she's an American she was an American girl.

SPEAKER_02 59:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 59:23

I don't know what has that got to do with Florida. I always thought that song was more like a California song.

SPEAKER_02 59:27

Well, California to me, like when you first said California song, I thought it would be the Beach Boys, California Girls.

SPEAKER_04 59:33

Uh that that uh that California Love song, if you play it, it's it's pretty California. And it goes through some of the main cities in California, calls them out. It's a pretty good song. Uh Minnesota, this one will blow your mind. Minnesota. Purple Rain by Prince.

SPEAKER_02 59:48

Well, because Prince is from Minnesota.

SPEAKER_04 59:49

Yeah, but still, Purple Rain, that song has nothing to do with Minnesota.

SPEAKER_02 59:53

Because he's from Minnesota. I would think it would be about Minnesota.

SPEAKER_04 59:58

Okay, now Texas.

SPEAKER_02 59:59

Okay, I would say George Strait. All my exes live in Texas.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:03

I completely agree. That would be one of my top probably five. Okay. How about Beyoncé, Texas Hold'em. That's the number one Texas song. I I've I've I made up a list in my head. Jesus Christ. I know. As the song that best exemplifies Texas, Texas Hold'em by Beyoncé from 2024. Here, here's just a just a partial list of some of the ones off the top of my head. How about how about Gene Autry, deep in the heart of Texas? How about The Yellow Rose of Texas performed by a bunch of artists by Elvis? How about uh Texas Lullaby by David Allan Coe? Yeah. Miles and Miles of Texas by Bob Wills. All My Exes Live in Texas by George Strait. How about Texas Flood by Stevie Ray Vaughn? Okay, okay uh Luke and Bach, Texas by Wayland Jennings.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:54

I mean, that's Cody Johnson, she's Texas. I mean, come on, come on.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:58

El Paso by Marty Robbins, that's a song from the 50s.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:01

You know what?

SPEAKER_05 1:01:02

Rolling Stone suck it out.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:05

If you're gonna play in Texas by Alabama, if you're gonna play in Texas.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:09

You gotta have a fiddle in the bang.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:10

I played that song, that Beyonce song, and I was like, okay, it's not a bad song, but no, that's not Texas. That doesn't capture Texas, and I think that's a diss on all on a bunch of artists, but especially you said George Strait. I think that's a big diss on George Strait.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:26

Well, I'm just gonna say speaking of diarrhea. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:31

Wow, that's a segue. Speaking of diarrhea, Rolling.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:36

Speaking of diarrhea. Um, okay, so there's this new explosive stomach issue that is going on. And I'm gonna just totally butcher the name is cyclosporiasis, I think is how you say it. And it's coming from produce, not not all produce, but it's coming from like fresh cilant fresh cilantro, which I love. Yeah, uh, basil, bag salad mixes, spinach, romaine lettuce, snow peas, raspberries, and blackberries. Here's the thing. So it's it's causing perfume, perfuse tummy issues, explosive tummy issues. Explosive, top or bottom, Michelle. Top or bottom. Actually, you know this person. I'm not gonna name her on air, but she told me yesterday that she has it and she is like she's had it for a week and she's lost of 14 pounds. Her and her husband both have it. She goes, it has been awful.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:30

Cheaper than Wagobi.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:32

Cheaper than Wagobi. And at least 17 or 18 states have been seeing it. But Texas is among the states that is reporting some of the cases. Um, but it's a microscopic parasite. And a parasite. It's a parasite and it clings on to the leaves. So you cannot wash it off. That's where I was like, I I when I was doing this story, I was Googling, like, okay, what about these produce washes that you can buy and you can soak them? You can't the only way you can kill it is cook it.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:00

Cook it.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:01

That's it.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:02

Uh so you're not supposed to is it on any other like strawberries or blueberries?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:06

No, but it's also in like these are the foods that are often linked to it, but it can also be in contaminated water or drinking water. But it takes two to fourteen days after eating it for it to even show up.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:19

So by the time you start oh my gosh, you start getting symptoms, you have to remember everything you ate in the last 10 years. 14 days.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:26

Yeah. It's not really life-threatening except the fact that you know it can cause massive dehydration, especially for people though, that are um immunocompromised or the elderly and little kids. Yeah, right. But uh, but yeah, you cannot, it it can cling tightly to fruits and vegetables. So rinsing alone may not completely remove it. So I'm gonna give you a little produce wash wash uh 101. So when you buy those produce produce washes, why can I not say produce? It'll wash away the dirt and the grit and the wax coating and the some pesticide residue and surface bacteria. But you're gonna wash it under cool water and you're gonna scrub firm produce, only firm produce, with a clean produce brush. Now, do you have a produce brush?

SPEAKER_04 1:04:14

I do not. I don't even know what a produce brush is.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:17

I well, like for potatoes.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:19

You have probably several.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:20

I do not, I do not, but I use my I got my little digits and I can scrub them. But um when you stick, they said a clean produce brush. When you use your dishwasher, do you use your dishwasher often now? Okay, because I think I've shamed you like a couple years ago about using dishwasher. We use it all the time. So every time we run our dishwasher, we throw our sponge in our dishwasher too. We sanitize it. Yeah. And we change our sponge out maybe about like every two weeks, three weeks, because we put it in the dishwasher every single time.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:50

We we replace ours about every week, but we don't put it in the dishwasher.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:53

Yeah, so every time you run your dishwasher, you should throw your sponge in there because it'll kill all the stuff that's that's on there. But um, I'm just gonna say that so if you want to eat a hamburger now, you it's safe to eat a hamburger, but hold the lettuce and tomatoes.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:07

Oh, gosh, geez, man, that opens up. Do you think there's been cases where people have bought stuff from H E B and gotten this?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:13

Yeah, I think there is. But you know, it's this isn't something this isn't new. This is something that happens and it happens during the warmer months.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:21

And is it something that just moves through your system and you get over it? Because typically parasites, you have to be treated for that.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:28

Well, it can last without any kind of treatment. It can last for weeks or even months. And then I don't even know, like, so they are typically treating it with this antibiotic trypthem, tropthem, sulfamus bactrum. That's what they're it's yeah, that's exactly what it is.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:44

Go ask Walgreens for that.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:45

The back well, backtrum. Yeah. Have you ever had backtrum?

SPEAKER_04 1:05:48

I thought you said that whole word all together. I'm like, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:52

I actually was on Bactrum for six months when um I had H. pylori.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:58

Oh, yeah. And that is

SPEAKER_02 1:06:00

How they treat it.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:01

That's a bacteria, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:06:02

No, that's that's bugs in your tummy.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:05

Yeah, I think that's even more reason for me to just eat cookies all the time instead of fruit and produce.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:11

I'm bringing you brownies tomorrow. Oh, by the way, happy birthday to my brother Chris. Happy birthday, happy birthday, Chris.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:17

Yeah. Hope you have a great birthday.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:19

We do.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:19

Well, uh, yeah, on that uh kind of uh diarrhea and terrible news, it's time to wrap up the show. I hope nobody's watching while they're sitting on the toilet right now. Uh except it's the only time this only place we're watching.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:40

What would you just say top or bottom? Is it coming out of the top or the bottom? Oh, Mike. This is the most unhinged monologue we've done in a long time.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:50

It's been it's been a weird day, and uh we're we thank you all for joining us, and uh on that note.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:57

I think you sprained more than your ankle.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:58

I think I did, yeah. Well, maybe all the drugs I'm on, the pain pills. That's true. We'll talk to you all next week. Thanks.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:04

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