Denton residents will be able to track their water usage more accurately after Denton City Council approved $26 million to install advanced metering infrastructure, a city-wide automated water metering system, at an April 21 council meeting.

The new meters will hone in on earlier leak detection and save the city money on labor for manual meter reading, said Kyle Pedigo, the city's water utility planning manager.

In a nutshell: The new system will replace the roughly 46,000 commercial and residential water meters in Denton, and savings from manual meter readings, plus vehicle expenses, will fully recoup the cost in 11-13 years, city documents state.

Contractors will replace about 2,000 meters a month over the next two years, Pedigo said. The installation will interrupt water services for less than one hour, and citizens will be notified four weeks in advance, he added. 

Looking ahead: Installation is scheduled to take about two years and complete in spring 2028.

Medical City Denton celebrated the opening of its new cardiovascular intensive care unit April 23 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Two-minute impact: The eight-bed unit cost $8 million to construct and was built to enhance access to advanced cardiovascular and vascular critical care services for nearby and local Denton residents, according to a hospital news release.

The unit will help patients recovering from open-heart surgery, complex vascular procedures, advanced heart failure and other critical cardiac conditions.

“The opening of our new CICU reflects our commitment to advancing high-quality, specialized care in Denton,” said Steven Edgar, CEO of Medical City Denton. “This investment expands our cardiovascular system of care, helping ensure our community has access to the specialized services they need, close to home.”

The background: Medical City Denton is a 228-bed Level II trauma center, the only hospital in Denton with that accreditation, according to its website.

A new storage facility in Prosper and retail space in Celina are slated for construction, according to new state permits. Check out five of the most expensive permits recently filed in Dallas-Fort Worth.

National Powersport Auctions Headquarters
A nearly 170,000-square-foot office space and warehouse will start development in mid-June, according to documents filed with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. National Powersports Auctions, a company that auctions RVs, boats and other recreational vehicles to dealerships, will make the Denton location its new headquarters, according to a company news release.

• Location: 1300 N. Masch Branch Road, Denton
• Estimated cost: $16.9 million

• Location: Collin County East Outer Loop and Chaparral Road, Celina
• Estimated cost: $3.7 million

In the early hours of July 4, 2025, an intense rainstorm pummeled communities in the Texas Hill Country, submerging low-water crossings as segments of the Guadalupe River rose more than 30 feet in 90 minutes. Twenty-seven young campers and counselors died at Camp Mystic, a private Christian girls summer camp located along the river in Hunt.

Those deaths could have been prevented if camp leadership took action sooner or had a written evacuation plan in place, investigators told a panel of state lawmakers tasked with studying the flood response during an April 27 hearing.

Quote of note: “Questions about what should happen next are many, but for me, one thing is clear: This tragedy could have been prevented,” Sen. Pete Flores, R-Pleasanton, said.

Zooming in: Camp Mystic staff had more than two hours to evacuate 386 campers from their cabins, investigator Casey Garrett said.

In violation of state law, the camp did not have a written evacuation plan and counselors were not trained on what to do in an emergency, she said.