During its September 2 meeting, the Hays County Commissioner Court issued a burn ban effective immediately until November 18.
The ban includes: “All outdoor burning is prohibited, including rush piles, burn barrels, and campfires, unless specifically exempted or permitted by the Hays County Fire Marshal.”
Hays County Office of Emergency Services Director Mike Jones said the county as a whole is still in concerning drought conditions and would need the burn ban to help mitigate wildfires.
The court also received a presentation from County Judge Ruben Becerra’s Transportation Task Force on the community’s need for the road improvement projects.
The task force was charged with putting the 30 road improvement projects that are in the Certificates of Obligation [CO] into three tiers: “Tier 1 – priority projects, Tier 2 – projects needing further development, and Tier 3 – projects requiring additional community engagement,” according to the meeting agenda. Hays County resident and task force member David Patterson called these categories, “Do it, Defer it and Delay it,” in his presentation.
Of the 30 projects, the task force approved 23 with a focus on the projects in precincts 1 and 2 or the eastern side of Hays County. The public comment section also included several concerned Dripping Springs residents who said the road improvements should stay on the east side of Hays County, and delay the ones that are in the Dripping Springs area.
“Please focus all of your road improvement efforts to the east side of highway 12 and to the east side of Ranch Road 12 and [RM] 150,” William Cunningham, Dripping Springs resident, wrote in an email for the public comment. “You must remember that we are short on water, short on land and long on developers who want to exploit the Hill Country.”
Commissioner Debbie Gonzales Ingalsbe said she didn’t believe the task force was a representation of the county and questioned the purpose of the task force because the court had unanimously voted for the 2024 Road Bond Package.
“The feedback that I got from two members of this task force was that this group was very anti-development, anti-road,” Ingalsbe said.
Ingalsbe was also concerned that some members of the task force were currently in litigation with the commissioners court.
“That doesn’t seem very responsible to allow people that we are in litigation with on this task force that will definitely make this task force lean a certain way,” she said.
The public comment section also included residents discussing the Flock automated license plate reading cameras [ALPR], citing their concerns about increased surveillance. Hays County resident Eric Martinez said the county should cancel their contract with Flock and end the use of ALPR cameras in the community.
“Flock has been caught breaking the law by installing cameras without permits in other states, the company is under investigation by Congress, and perhaps most alarming, it has admitted to buying stolen data to fuel its surveillance empire,” Martinez said. “Commissioners, our community deserves real safety rooted in trust and fairness, not surveillance built on stolen data.”
Resident Sam Young supported the use of Flock surveillance equipment as “one tool in the law enforcement toolbox,” Young wrote in an email for the public comment despite there being no official decisions.
The court adopted a proclamation recognizing September 2025 as Emergency Preparedness Month. The court also adopted a proclamation recognizing September 2025 as Suicide Awareness and Action month, and heard a report from the Hill County Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Centers.
