ATX-BAS: Impact 10/27/2025

Darling Ingredients Inc. withdrew an application to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to modify its air permit at its facility in Bastrop County, according to a company representative.

Some background: The facility at 264 FM 2336 in Bastrop collects and recycles food industry waste to produce animal feed ingredients, biofuels and other byproducts, according to Darling Ingredients.

The amended air permit would have allowed Darling Ingredients to increase emissions.

Quote of note: “Darling Ingredients works collaboratively with TCEQ and other regulators to ensure full compliance,” Jillian Fleming, the director of global communications for Darling Ingredients, told Community Impact in an email. “We recently withdrew a permit change request after our engineering team identified a way to improve the process that fits within the current permit. This decision follows TCEQ protocols."

The city of Bastrop is sharpening its focus on tourism and community storytelling through a new department called Discover Bastrop. 

The department is tasked with promoting the city’s natural beauty, historic downtown, and growing arts scene to visitors across Texas and beyond.

The details: The city launched Discover Bastrop after choosing not to renew its contract with Visit Bastrop in September—a destination marketing organization that had promoted economic growth in Bastrop by attracting visitors for leisure, conventions and other events since 2018.

“Visit Bastrop was essentially a contracted organization that the city had funded through [hotel occupancy taxes] to do all of the marketing efforts for the city,”  Michaela Joyce, Discover Bastrop director and Main Street Manager, said during an Oct. 21 meeting. “There were just some things that the council wanted to see differently, and that some of the community wanted to see differently. So we made some adjustments to be transparent and be more smart with our funding.”

Therapy Pet Pals of Texas was founded in Austin in 1984 by Kathryn Lashmit, and has been offering pet visitations to the elderly and infirm in Texas ever since.

The overview: Therapy Pet Pals of Texas is a private nonprofit created with the goal of assisting the elderly, terminally ill and mentally or physically challenged through pet visitations at nursing homes, medical hospitals, rehabilitation centers and other special needs facilities.

The benefits: Pet visitations offered by volunteers and their therapy dogs can provide a positive bonding experience for those confined to institutional living facilities, according to the nonprofit’s website.

“The residents just know when you're coming. They remember the dog's name, not always yours. It's all about the dogs for us,” Executive Director Nancy Gray said. “And [the residents] just smile. Sometimes they've told us that they were in pain, but once the dog comes, they feel they don't think about their pain for that few minutes they can hug on the dog, or sometimes they just want to talk to you.”

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