In 2024, Bastrop County Animal Services found families for 503 dogs. The number has since grown, with a current yearly adoption number of over 900 dogs.

What’s changing? Over the past year, the shelter has seen a 15.25% increase in intake, with 4,323 animals entering so far this year. Director Jill Gunn said the team is finding more dogs, in particular, in the shelter in comparison to cats. 

The impact: Ballard said nearly all of the shelter’s dogs are medium- to large-breed, which tend to be the hardest to adopt.

The shelter’s longest resident has been there three to four months, not including a fostered dog that has been in the system for more than a year.

“Sometimes you get bogged down with the sadness part of it,” Ballard said. "But then to see them turn around and have the best life ever, it just makes all the work worthwhile."  

• 589 Cool Water Drive, Bastrop

From barbecue to an automotive shop and more, here are the latest business updates in the Bastrop-Cedar Creek area.

Now Open: Lost Pines Chiropractic
Dr. Justin Garcia opened the chiropractic clinic inside Community Gardens. As an independent, cash-based health provider, Garcia said he offers personalized services for each client.

• Community Gardens, 1067 Hwy. 71, Bastrop

• Sendero, 900 block Hwy. 71 W., Bastrop

• 711 Spring St., Bastrop

So far in 2025, Community Impact has covered two election cycles, major transportation updates, development news and local businesses throughout the greater Austin area.

Learn more about the top stories this year to date.

1. Billboard on Bee Caves Road receives resident complaints, city violation notice

2. A regional destination: Texas’ second-largest retail store set to bring visitors to Cedar Park

3. City of Austin to take unauthorized billboard to court

4. Check out these 20 new nonstop destinations from Austin’s airport

5. Billboard in Round Rock faces removal amid ordinance violation

Google is targeting Texas for future investments in data and artificial infrastructure, with $40 billion expected to be spent on adding three new data centers.

Federal, state and local leaders announced the new centers to be constructed in Armstrong and Haskell counties at a Nov. 14 event at the first Texas Google Data Center in Midlothian, near the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

The gist: One new data center will be constructed in Armstrong County near Amarillo, and two new data centers will be constructed in Haskell County near Abilene. One center in Haskell County will also use a new solar and battery energy storage plant.

“They say that everything is bigger in Texas—and that certainly applies to the golden opportunity with AI,” Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said.

Also of note: The driverless car company Waymo is expanding to North Texas in 2026, Pichai said.