Construction to widen a section of Gattis School Road between Via Sonoma Trail and Red Bud Lane will begin soon in Round Rock, after officials awarded a contract to Smith Contracting Co. in November. 

What you need to know: The road project—part of the city’s Transportation Master Plan—will include widening the existing four-lane roadway to a six-lane arterial thoroughfare with a raised median. The project also includes pedestrian and bicycle improvements, according to city documents.

Project funding: Funding for the $20.4 million road project comes from the Round Rock Transportation and Economic Development Corporation, through local sales tax revenue.

Wholesale and retail water customers will soon receive updated water and wastewater rates, as the city of Round Rock moves forward with a rate study.

What you need to know: City officials approved a $121,437 contract with Raftelis Financial Consultants to conduct an analysis of its water rates for wholesale and retail customers Nov. 6. 

The city reviews its rates on a three-year schedule, city documents show, to recover the cost of providing water and wastewater services.

The Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter’s Finder to Foster program, which allows those who find lost pets to care for them, served a record-breaking 163 pets this fiscal year.

The number is 45% higher than the program's previous fiscal year, and more than double the pets helped two years ago, according to a WCRAS news release.

About the program: The F2F program places lost pets with the community member who finds them by allowing them to be a temporary foster. Rather than the pet staying in the WCRAS shelter, these pets can stay in the comfort of a nearby home.

Participants in the F2F program receive a free T-shirt from WCRAS.

The impact: Keeping lost pets near where they are found increases the likelihood of reuniting the pet with their family, according to the release. Most lost animals are located just miles from their home, and staying in the neighborhood increases their visibility, the release states.

Texas is the nation’s largest energy producer, leading other U.S. states in both natural gas production and renewable energy generation, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration shows. Yet as people, businesses and data centers continue to move to the state, experts say Texas leaders need to harness new strategies to make energy more affordable and ensure the state power grid remains reliable.

The details: Amid high inflation nationwide, energy prices are on the rise in Texas, and residents are feeling the strain, experts said at the Texas Energy Summit, which ran from Nov. 4-6 in Austin.

In a June 2025 report, the Texas Energy Poverty Research Institute, a nonprofit research organization, found that 65% of low-income Texans recently engaged in “energy-limiting behaviors,” such as turning off their air conditioning to reduce electric bills or underheating their homes in the winter. 

What they're saying: Experts said state lawmakers and officials could invest in energy efficiency and residential demand response programs to tackle affordability and grid reliability issues.