Jess Odom is working to bridge the gap between educating new cyclists and keeping them safe on the road through her bike shop—The Path on Mill St.

Odom said she came up with the bike shop after learning that there was an underserved community looking for specialized bikes. She said they pride themselves on educating people on what the appropriate bike is and what their budget should be.

“Our No. 1 goal is to service this community and beyond,” she said.

What they offer: The Path on Mill St., which opened in January 2025, offers a curated selection of products that cyclists and enthusiasts benefit from. The bike shop sells kids' bikes, road bikes, gravel bikes, city hybrid bikes and mountain bikes. The Path sells a wide variety of brands such as Specialized, Factor, Garmin and Basso. The bicycle shop also sells bike helmets, seats and grips along with bike tools.

Little Caesars Pizza is opening a new location in New Braunfels this fall.

The details: The new location is owned by franchisee and local veteran Rene Jackson. Jackson said they are aiming to open in October. Little Caesars Pizza sells pizza with various toppings along with wings and breadsticks.

• 2286 Alyssa Way, Ste. 105, New Braunfels

On July 20, the Data Center Action Coalition and local residents filed a lawsuit against the Guadalupe County Commissioners Court to stop the development of the data center Cloudburst, along with the development of Palomino Alpha, another data center in the county. 

Commissioners approved a $500 million property tax abatement and development agreement with CloudBurst Texas in April for the construction of an over 700-acre data center, according to previous Community Impact reporting.

Two-minute impact: The Data Center Action Coalition is alleging that the approvals of the developments were advanced through “inadequate public notice, private negotiations and unlawful conflicts of interest,” according to a news release.

The lawsuit claims the commissioners approved tax abatements and development agreements for the projects while violating the Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Tax Code, and state conflicts-of-interest laws.

Looking forward: The Crystal Clear Special Utility District met July 23 to discuss a request from Palomino Alpha for a contract providing the data center 500,000 gallons of water a day. They will vote on the request at their August meeting.

As more data centers are being built in Texas, the state’s water planning agency warns that limited information is available about the booming industry and its impact on water supplies.

The overview: The Texas Water Development Board adopted its initial 2027 State Water Plan on July 23, with a “more robust” version of the plan expected later this year. The plan consists of 3,000 water management projects and 6,700 strategies that experts say are needed to prepare for future severe droughts.

It will cost about $174 billion to complete the projects, according to the TWDB. However, if they are not implemented, a severe drought could cost the state $91 billion in economic damages as soon as 2030 and lead to $177 billion in annual losses by 2080.

The context: These projections do not account for the amount of water that data centers—which largely purchase their water from public systems—may use or how the large facilities could contribute to overall water availability. Right now, the board said it did not have enough information to do so.