Three contracts were approved by Roanoke Council to provide funding for future city road projects, including North Walnut Road, North Oak Street and Howe Road.

The contracts were approved at the Jan. 13 council meeting. Howe Road is the only project in the design phase, Director of Public Works Shawn Wilkinson said. No progress has been made on the other two projects outside of the funding contracts.

The funding: Denton County will fund 50% of the total construction costs for each project using a 2022 bond, according to city documents.

What else? Roanoke officials submitted four street construction projects for funding, which totaled a cost of $12.7 million between Roanoke and Denton County. The four projects included Dorman Road, Howe Road, North Walnut Road and North Oak Street, which were all approved for funding with the bond.

From learning more about Lunar New Year to checking out high-end Ferraris to making tamales, check out six events happening in Keller, Roanoke and northeast Fort Worth in February.

Date Night Tamale Class
Bring a significant other, family member or friend for this two-hour interactive class, where guests will learn the art of making tamales. Each couple will bring home a dozen freshly made tamales, and the class will offer a full dinner of tamales, Mexican rice, chips, salsa and cilantro chimichurri.

• Feb. 13, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
• $125 for two adults
• Salt and Light Collective, 138 Olive St., Keller

There will be some major overnight disruptions to traffic at the I-35 merger in Denton, with Texas Department of Transportation officials cautioning drivers to prepare for extra travel time.

What’s happening? Starting Jan. 16, two northbound lanes on I-35E between North Texas Boulevard and Bonnie Brae Street will be closed from 9 p.m.-5 a.m. overnight from Jan. 16-23, according to a social media post from TxDOT.

The backstory: The construction at the I-35 split is part of a larger project on the I-35 corridor that will reconstruct and widen the four-lane highway to an eight-lane highway and widen the frontage road at this interchange, according to TxDOT.

Some Texas film industry leaders say the state is on its way to becoming the third “media coast,” joining Los Angeles and New York as film production hubs. A recent increase in state funding is helping buoy that growth, said Chase Musslewhite, co-founder of Media for Texas, an Austin-based nonprofit that advocates for the advancement of the state’s film industry.

The details: Through 2035, $1.5 billion in state incentives will be available for movies, television shows, documentaries and related projects created in Texas.

To be eligible for the program funding under Senate Bill 22, at least 35% of a production’s cast and crew must live in Texas and at least 60% of the work must be done in-state, according to the Texas Film Commission. Grant reimbursements start at 5% and go up to 31%, depending on how much a production spends and other aspects of the project.

The local impact: After SB 22 became law Sept. 1, some local governments across Texas—including Austin, San Antonio and Houston—expanded or launched their own film incentive programs.