During the Sept. 17 meeting, the Marble Falls City Council voted 6-0 to approve an interlocal agreement between the Marble Falls and Burnet police departments, a partnership to let both departments share advanced computer software designed to close digital forensic investigations.
Before the council voted, Marble Falls Police Chief Glenn Hanson addressed the council.
“These days, most cybercriminals have switched from desktop computers to handheld smart phones to formulate and perpetrate their nefarious deeds,” Hanson said.
“The new software equipment will give us the ability to unlock phones that are locked and analyze and interpret all the information on them.”
The new software will give local police the ability to “crack and track” several phones simultaneously, Hanson added.
“There is a price for it,” Hanson admitted.
Marble Falls Police are obligated to shell out an initial fee of $10,000, followed by an annual fee equal to 50% of a yearly maintenance fee, as well as an additional fee of $1,000 to maintain, repair or replace computer hardware required to operate the software.
“Every year, there will be an update,” Hanson said.
None of the council members questioned the price.
“You got to have the tools,” Mayor Dave Rhodes said.
As the meeting con- tinued, the council heard an update from City Manager Mike Hodge and Plummer Project Manager Robert Adams related to the progress of plans to build a new wastewater treatment plant west of the Walmart Supercenter for more than estimated $82 million.
Adams indicated the city is obligated to pay more than $40 million for the new plant over the next 30 years. The rest of the estimated $82 million will come from various federal and state sources.
Hopefully, funding plans for the plant will be settled by the end of next month, Hodge said.
Texas Commission on Environmental Qual- ity officials have indi cated they plan to issue their permit for the new treatment plant within the next two to four weeks, Adams said.
“That is a major victory,” he added.
Once complete, the plant will be able to treat and process at least 3 million gallons of “sludge” each day, Adams told the council.
Most of the existing plant near the Lake Marble Falls Bridge will be demolished, except for an area needed to build a new lift station, to convey sludge to the new station through two pipelines looped together, Adams said.
Rhodes indicated the city share is attached already to current utility
rates.
Hopefully, the new plant will go online by 2029, Adams mentioned.
Before the meeting ended, the council appointed Jennifer Rudzik to the Parks and Recreation Commission Place 1, to replace Celia Merrill, who recently resigned.
Also, Burnet Central Appraisal District Chief Appraiser Stan Hemphill delivered his annual update.
Since 2014, the number of property tax accounts in the city has grown from more than 4,000 accounts to more than 5,000 accounts currently.
“That number will probably keep growing,” Hemphill predicted.
Council member Karlee Cauble was absent.
