Pflugerville Police Chief Willie Richards stepped into his role in December 2025, bringing years of experience to the city. Community Impact sat down with Richards to discuss his first six months in the role and what the future holds.

Here is what we asked:

• Tell me a little about yourself, your background and your experience.

• You've been here for a little over six months now; can you tell me about your time so far and what you've accomplished?

• Some of our previous reporting said that you guys are shifting toward technology-assisted policing. Could you talk about that?

• Another one of the priorities that had been highlighted was continuing recruitment and retention efforts. Is that something you're focused on?

• There are some changes in the works about how policing is done in Pflugerville. Could you explain that?

• What are your priorities for the police department in the next six months?

Hutto ISD will hold a back-to-school rally July 30, ahead of the start of the 2026-27 school year.

What you need to know: Representatives of several district departments will be in attendance at the rally, which is set for July 30 6-8 p.m. at Hutto Memorial Stadium, 573 Chris Kelley Blvd., Hutto.

The details: The districtwide event will include a distribution of school supplies on a first-come, first-served basis.

Check out the latest transportation project updates across the Austin metro. 

Upcoming projects

Austin Light Rail vehicle design to advance under $39M contract with Stadler: Switzerland-based Stadler has been selected to deliver the train cars for Austin Light Rail, the third and final major vendor brought on for the project's first stages this year. Officials with the Austin Transit Partnership advanced a $39 million contract with Stadler to design the fully electric vehicles July 15.

Ongoing projects

North-south route coming to Round Rock’s west side: Residents on Round Rock’s west side will soon have a true alternative to I-35 once the city and county complete the full extension of Wyoming Springs Drive, officials said in June. Ongoing and future road projects are set to help drivers and pedestrians reach their destinations faster and with less traffic.

Completed projects

New bridge over Onion Creek opens in Buda, increasing city access: The bridge will provide community members and first responders a faster route to travel in the city, connecting Cole Springs Road with FM 2770.

Texas’ power grid operator and regulator have laid out their plans to regulate data centers that connect to the state grid and ensure data center companies, not residents, pay for the industry’s growth.

What's happening: To shield Texans from the negative impacts of data center growth, the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas are:

• Prohibiting data centers from taking existing power resources off the grid
• Launching a new process to evaluate large projects looking to connect to the grid
• Creating standards that large consumers must meet before joining the grid
• Developing incentives for large consumers to reduce their energy use ahead of a grid emergency
• Requiring large companies to pay for the grid infrastructure needed to serve them
• Improving ERCOT’s process for projecting future demand