Denton City Council approved a roughly $68 million contract with Integrated Power Company for 25 of Denton Municipal Electric’s improvement projects to the city’s electrical transmission lines at a Jan. 13 council meeting.

Zooming in: The improvements are part of a five-year improvement plan, DME engineer Mark Zimmerer said. The improvement projects require new steel towers, transmission pole foundation construction and repairs to electrical infrastructure from storms and extreme weather.

By the numbers: Four of the 25 projects will be reimbursed by the Texas Municipal Power Agency, and the Texas Department of Transportation will reimburse the city for six of the 25 projects.

Also of note: City officials also approved roughly $22 million to purchase 50 high voltage circuit breakers as part of the DME’s five-year improvement plan.

Several city of Denton services and facilities will be impacted by the upcoming Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, according to the city’s website.

The details: City offices and facilities will be closed Jan. 19 and open again for normal business hours Jan. 20. 

There will be no curbside trash, recycling, home chemical collection, or yard waste collection Jan. 19. Trash pickup will be pushed back a day throughout the week. 

The city’s landfill and home chemical collection operation will be open from 7 a.m.-noon Jan. 19. 

There will be some major overnight disruptions to traffic at the I-35 merger in Denton, with Texas Department of Transportation officials cautioning drivers to prepare for extra travel time.

What’s happening? Starting Jan. 16, two northbound lanes on I-35E between North Texas Boulevard and Bonnie Brae Street will be closed from 9 p.m.-5 a.m. overnight from Jan. 16-23, according to a social media post from TxDOT.

The backstory: The construction at the I-35 split is part of a larger project on the I-35 corridor that will reconstruct and widen the four-lane highway to an eight-lane highway and widen the frontage road at this interchange, according to TxDOT.

Some Texas film industry leaders say the state is on its way to becoming the third “media coast,” joining Los Angeles and New York as film production hubs. A recent increase in state funding is helping buoy that growth, said Chase Musslewhite, co-founder of Media for Texas, an Austin-based nonprofit that advocates for the advancement of the state’s film industry.

The details: Through 2035, $1.5 billion in state incentives will be available for movies, television shows, documentaries and related projects created in Texas.

To be eligible for the program funding under Senate Bill 22, at least 35% of a production’s cast and crew must live in Texas and at least 60% of the work must be done in-state, according to the Texas Film Commission. Grant reimbursements start at 5% and go up to 31%, depending on how much a production spends and other aspects of the project.

The local impact: After SB 22 became law Sept. 1, some local governments across Texas—including Austin, San Antonio and Houston—expanded or launched their own film incentive programs.