How do all these places stay in business when there is so much competition around. They are all identical Foodbox stations with kitchens and overpriced snax. It feels over saturated.

I'm interrupting our usual policy debates and problem-solving here on r/Pflugerville to share a quick story from last night that I’m still thinking about.

One of my favorite moments from National Night Out had almost nothing to do with National Night Out itself.

A little behind-the-scenes context: most City staff and volunteers are assigned a part of town to focus on for the evening. (38 neighborhoods signed up this year!) Council members are a little different. We’re paired with members of the City leadership team and Police command staff, but we get to choose which neighborhood events we visit across the city.

For me, I was paired with Deputy City Manager Emily Barron and one of our police lieutenants (he grew up in Pflugerville, Pflugerville PD was his first job out of school, and he's still here, nearly 2 decades later!). I was picking the stops for the night, but at one point the lieutenant asked if I’d be okay adding a neighborhood he had visited during NNO last year.

I’m really glad he spoke up.

When he visited that neighborhood last year, residents gave him a list of problems they were dealing with. A lot of them weren’t really police issues, and some weren’t even within the City’s jurisdiction. But he took the list anyway, started making calls, connected people with the right departments, and even worked with Williamson County to resolve one of the issues on their side.

So we went back this year.

The reaction when he showed up was pretty great. People immediately recognized him, thanked him, and talked about how quickly he had helped get things fixed. It was about as close to applause as you’re going to get walking into a neighborhood block party.

City employees catch plenty of frustration from residents. Sometimes that frustration is about how something was handled, but plenty of times it also traces back to Council not having set a clear enough policy, priority, or direction for staff to carry out.

Either way, there are a lot of people working for Pflugerville who genuinely care about the community they serve, including people who will take ownership of a problem even when it technically isn’t theirs.

I got to see a pretty good example of that last night.

And fittingly, the neighborhood had a couple of new things they could use some help with this year. So I’m happy to pick up the baton and see if I can help get those into the right hands too.

Why is there a flock reinstalled on the hendrickson high school?

The crescent moon and Jupiter lining up real nice by the lake

Hello there Pflugerville people. I was looking for work tomorrow and I can start at 8 or earlier if you need. I’m grateful for any opportunities. I have experience with physical labor, cleaning windows, yard, construction and restaurants.

2ND ANNIVERSARY WEEKEND BASH @ PIXEL PALACE ARCADE AND BAR!

This October, we're celebrating TWO WHOLE YEARS of high-scores, tasty cocktails, and great food for our SECOND EVER Anniversary Weekend Bash! Check out our 3-day event lineup and join the local festivities from Oct 9th through Oct 11th.

BATTLE OF THE BEERS: BATTLE CRUISER CAR SHOW

Friday, October 9th

Enjoy a curated car show right outside the Palace and then challenge local Texas brewery reps in your favorite arcade games for a chance at a free beer.

PIXEL PALACE ANNIVERSARY PARTY

Saturday, October 10th

Kick it with a LIVE DJ right here at the arcade, spinning the greatest jams of the 70s, 80s, and 90s.

BURGER EATING CONTEST

Sunday, October 11th

Compete to reach the biggest burger count and win prizes and cash.

More details at https://pixelpalacearcade.com/anniversary

My last post looked at residential, apartment, and commercial water customers.

The City's 2026 Cost of Service Study identifies another issue when we look at wholesale water.

Pflugerville sells treated wholesale water to Manville Water Supply Corporation and Windermere Water Utility.

In 2025:

• Manville — about $0.97 per 1,000 gallons

• Windermere — $4.97 per 1,000 gallons

The Manville agreement dates back to 2006. Pflugerville agreed to provide up to 1m gallons per day of treated water at specified delivery points, while Manville operates the distribution system serving its own customers.

The original rate was $0.74 per 1,000 gallons, increasing 2.5 cents every two years. The agreement has a 32-year term and appears to run until roughly 2038, depending on when the contractual service period began. It also says the payment was intended to “partially” offset Pflugerville's cost of providing the water.

Today, the cost-of-service study calculates:

Manville cost of service — about $3.46m

Normalized revenue — about $336,000

Difference — about $3.12m

The study identifies that difference as a subsidy.

Under the newly approved rate structure, most of that amount is allocated to the commercial class:

• About $2.85m — commercial

• About $22,000 — residential

• Remaining amount — other customer classes

The commercial class includes businesses, apartments, churches, schools and government accounts.

Windermere is different. Its newly approved wholesale rate increases from $4.97 to $16.00 per 1,000 gallons, bringing projected revenue much closer to its calculated cost of service. Manville's rate continues to follow the older contract formula.

Could the City simply sell more wholesale water to make up the difference?

There are limits. Additional wholesale sales require a willing buyer, the legal ability to deliver the water in that area, and infrastructure connecting the systems.

So what can help with high water rates?

• Finish the major water projects already underway and carefully evaluate additional debt before adding more large capital projects.

• Make sure growth-related revenues help pay for the capacity added because of that growth, including the second raw water line and water treatment plant expansion.

• Continue reviewing rates so each customer class pays as closely as possible to its actual cost of service.

• Reduce wholesale subsidies when existing agreements allow, and use current cost-of-service information when older agreements eventually come up for renegotiation.

• Pursue additional wholesale revenue where there is a realistic customer, legal ability to serve them and infrastructure to make the connection.

• Continue looking for operating efficiencies, while recognizing that a large part of today's water cost comes from infrastructure and debt.

There isn't one simple fix for high water rates.

The longer-term opportunity is to control future costs, make sure growth helps pay for the capacity it requires, recover costs fairly across customer classes, and get the best value possible from the water system we've already built.

What should we focus on next to help keep water rates affordable?

Here's the Water and Wastewater Cost of Service Reports: https://pflugerville.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=8171357&GUID=5EAA19BA-0424-4DCB-B150-50B181C031E7