Lone Star Rail
Support Georgetown Bus
On Tuesday, June 25th, Georgetown City Council voted on a resolution to withdraw our membership from the Lone Star Rail District LSTAR. Every seat in City Council Chambers was filled with citizens interested in this issue. And many more were standing in the back and in the lobby. Fifty citizens addressed City Council. Only 4 were opposed to the bringing the train to Georgetown.
Just before the City Council called their meeting to order, 920+ of you had signed a petition asking Council to stay in the Lone Star Rail District. All City Council members received large numbers of emails and calls about the issue. Yet Council voted 6 to 1 to let the train pass us by.
Rachael Jonrowe was the lone vote for staying in LSTAR. Patty Eason is also clearly in support of LSTAR, but voted in a contrary manor for strategic reasons. Her vote with the majority may allow her to bring the issue back before City Council.
Tommy Gonzalez, Jerry Hammerlun, Troy Hellman, Steve Fought, and Jon Hesser all voted against bringing Georgetown a much needed commuter service to Austin and other points south. Their main reasoning is the cost. They feel that we will always need to subsidize the train. This is true, but it’s also true of building and maintaining roads. We would need 14 lanes on I-35 to handle future commute needs. The cost of subsidizing that road expansion would be greater than the train. This is truly a short sighted decision by Council.
LSTAR in Georgetown is not dead. We can still work to get Georgetown back in before the track and station planning passes us by. I will keep this list updated with information about those efforts. In the meantime you might consider contacting your City Council member and letting them know how you feel about their vote.
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Lalena Parkhurst
Support the bus in Georgetown
george...@gmail.com
512-508-1485