Good news for Parmer Lane travelers

Mayor Steve Adler announced Thursday morning that he had some good news for District 6 City Council Member Don Zimmerman and people who have to travel on Parmer Lane. He said City Manager Marc Ott and Assistant City Manager Robert Goode found an unallocated $500,000 from the 2010 bond election. They recommended that the city use the money in cooperation with Cedar Park to work on the Parmer Lane project. “I had been contacted by the mayor of Cedar Park asking if I would be willing to join with them” to work on the project, Adler said. Goode told Council that the Transportation Department would be able to move forward with such a project immediately. Zimmerman had protested on Wednesday that District 6 was underfunded in transportation dollars, and he tried to get Council to reallocate money by district. As the Austin Monitor reported on Thursday, Zimmerman requested detailed project descriptions for transportation and public works spending for Fiscal Year 2015-16 by district. The resulting chart showed that District 6 would receive only $84,262 in transportation money, while most districts would receive between $1 million and $3 million. Zimmerman said he was very pleased to get the funds for Parmer Lane, and he added that in addition to Cedar Park, Williamson County and the Texas Department of Transportation might also be able to come up with some funding for the project. Cedar Park Mayor Matt Powell said, “As a neighboring community, we have spoken to the city of Austin and are pleased that they too see the importance of investing in the Parmer Lane corridor. The city of Cedar Park has already made several recent improvements to our section of Parmer Lane and look forward to working with the city of Austin as they study what potential improvements they can make to their section. Together, we can continue to improve quality of life for all Central Texans traveling along and living near this major highway.” He also expressed his appreciation to the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization for recognizing the importance of improving Parmer Lane.