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A
LITTLE INFORMATION ABOUT THE RAPIDLY GROWING
BASTROP COUNTY AREA FOR YOU TO  LOOK
OVER.........and some links to other cool Bastrop
sites below.......
Geography:
Click
here for a County
map.
Bastrop
County is situated in the south-central part of
Texas about 30 miles east of the state capitol of
Austin. It has an area of 891 miles and is about
400 to 600 ft. above sea level. The county seat
is the City of Bastrop with an in-town population just over 5000. The bulk of the population of
the county resides outside the city limits of
Bastrop. The City of Bastrop is located at the
cross roads of State Highway 21, State Highway 71
and State Highway 95. Farm to Market roads 20,
304 and 969 also play important parts in feeding
the thriving local economy. The last 10 years
have seen the appearance of a variety of
businesses in the area, especially in the Highway
71 "Bastrop-Austin corridor". The City
of Austin's very visible progress in building a
new airport on the Bastrop side of Austin has
attracted new and continued interest in the
future of the area. Similar sized cities in the
county are Elgin and Smithville. Elgin is located
to the north part of the county at the
intersection of State Highway 95 and State
Highway 290. Rural subdivisions
number in the hundreds and lots tend to be fairly
large due to the prevailing necessity of
installing septic systems along with home and
other improvements.
Business
& Employment:
(There
has been huge growth both in business and residential since
this was written. One of these days, we'll get around to
updating it....)
There
are a variety of small Businesses in Bastrop
County. Most of these business are small to
medium size companies with few large employers
outside the government sector. The private sector
includes ranching, farming, construction,
forestry, small manufacturing & rendering,
technical, high-tech security, and a healthy dose
of service firms such as real estate, cleaning,
insurance, banking, medical, etc. Interesting and
diverse activities such as printing, foundry and
art give the area a distinct and individual
appeal. The government sector includes a Federal
Correctional Facility, other federal agencies,
Lower Colorado River Authority, County
Government, Cities, and some State offices. By
and large, the greatest percentage of employees
commute to Austin for, on the average, higher
paying jobs. This group seems adamant that the
daily drive is worth it to enjoy the Bastrop
escape at the end of each work day. The relatively new
Austin/Bergstrom International Airport ("ABIA") on
the east (Bastrop side) of Austin continues to fuel growth,
making the area between Bastrop and Austin a "growth
corridor". During year 2001-2002,
several new business announcements were made good, including
150, and 250+ acre multi-use developments, one featuring Home Depot
store (now open), Chili's restaurant (now open), other retail,
residential and multifamily. This
development is located next to Covert Chevrolet on the western
boundary of the City of Bastrop. The other development, near the intersection of FM304 and Hwy 71
is said to include plans for retail, commercial and residential
properties. During 2003, we had several more
"bombshells". A 750 acre development is slated
for Hwy 20 at Hwy 71 just east of town. This proposed
development will include retail, office, multi-family and
residential homes in the $100,000 to $200,000 range.
This will utilize the "TND" (traditional
neighborhood design) style to encourage work, play and living
all in one area. Next came a new hospital is under construction on Hwy 71 on the
east side of town (now open).
Walgreen's (now open) broke ground on a Bastrop store at Hwy 71, across
from the new HEB.
Last but certainly not least, 635 acres at McKinny Roughs, a few miles
west of Bastrop is to be the new home for a $125,000,000
hotel/resort with golf course (opening in 2006). That's a lot of zeros! This project,
when completed, is planned to employ between 500 and 600
people, have 500 rooms, golf course, river canoeing, horseback riding and
other amenities. Construction began in 2004 and should
be finished sometime in 2006. Suffice it to say that Bastrop is
on the move....
Weather:
Bastrop
County residents are fortunate to enjoy about
30-35 inches of rainfall per year, measurable
snowfall once in a blue moon (every 20 years or
so) and the most wonderful fall and spring
seasons one can ask for. Yes, the summers are
hot. Daytime summers range up around 95 degrees
with the days cooling down into the mid to upper
80's. Winters are relatively milder.. Freezing
weather is the oddity rather than typical. Many
outdoor activities can be carried on throughout
most of the winter months. Aside from the summer,
the weather is generally mild for the rest of the
year. Click here
for up to date weather
Trees:
Parts
of Bastrop County is covered by a belt of Loblolly Pine trees. This species of Pine tree
is unique as a forest to Bastrop County in Texas,
with Georgia/Alabama said to be the closest areas
having the Loblolly pines otherwise. There are,
of course, a wealth of pines in East Texas but
they are a different species and separated by
about a hundred miles of sand and post oak
country.
Water:
Most
parts of rural Bastrop County are served by a
large water company, "Aqua Water Supply
Corporation". Aqua Water has facilitated
relatively dense rural growth, with 1 to 20 acre
homesteads fairly common. Wells are also fairly
common in the Corizo/Wilcox aquifers. Depths of
residential homestead wells are varied and
typically range from 50' to 800'. The larger
cities have typical city water systems. There are
several Water Control and Improvement Districts
serving selected areas.
Soils:
Bastrop
County has a varied soil makeup ranging from
loamy sands to clay and gravel to blackland
loams. There are soil types suited to a wide
variety of crops and other uses in addition to
residential living. The river bottomlands are
famous for pecan orchards, while the upland sands
are known for watermelon and cantaloupe growing.
The widest historic agricultural use is ranching.
Several larger (1000 acres plus) ranches are
still in existence today including the Steiner ranch.
AREA
AND OTHER LINKS OF INTEREST
FOR
YOU PC ADDICTS...
Keep
scrolling.....
CITY
OF BASTROP
The
official Bastrop City Website.
Unofficial
City of Bastrop
(Definitely worth a surf)
PHOTO
CITY TOUR
The Honorable Neil R.
Gurwitz's photo tour of the City of Bastrop. A former city council member who is proud to show you
around.
Looking for property
or agents in other areas? Here is a link that may help...
Texas Real
Estate Directory
Bastrop
Economic Development Corporation
Thinking
of moving your business to Bastrop? Check out the great
opportunities and assistance from the aggressive folks with
Bastrop EDC. Watch a video.
Or just check out Bastrop area demographics.
REAL
ESTATE NEWS FROM THE TEXAS ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®
City
of Elgin
Smithville,
Texas
The
official city website.
Smithville
is only 12 miles east of Bastrop and has a great airport for
civilian air traffic.
Kathy
Bayes Insurance
A lot more than
insurance....or anyone would expect! Kathy must
be obsessed...an incredible
collection of links to
everything Bastrop....I wish most sites were half
as good! It even has background music while you
cruise through. Takes a while to load but
absolutely worth it.
LAKE
BASTROP
Get the facts, the layout,
the fishing report and more.
BASTROP
STATE PARK
The centerpiece of the
Bastrop world...one of the most visited state
parks in the big world too. Step into another, primeval, world...right here in the middle of
ours!
Bastrop Opera House
A cultural treasure
THE
REAL ESTATE CENTER
A
wealth of educational information, quizes, resources and
sources of information. Very informative. Its all
about real estate at The Real Estate Center, a project of
Texas A & M University funded by money collected from real
estate agents. We paid for this so we hope you will use
it.
A
fun site that has lots of Texana stuff. Learn how to
properly speak in the Lone Star State.
TECH
TIPS.....
We've
spent a lot of time battling the nasty things on the internet
that throw these newfangled computers out of whack. We
don't consider ourselves experts, but we've been around the
block a few times with computer problems. We got advice
from a half a dozen knowledgeable techies and followed the
advice that was light on our pocketbook. One of the good
tools we've used and like is Panda Software's products.
If you buy it, it offers daily updates and less
hassle. If you think your Anti-virus software may be
gold bricking on you, try their free online scan. We
bought it after Norton Internet Security malfunctioned and
dang near became a virus in itself. Norton was great for
as long as it was working, but it made a heck of a mess when
it hickuped. It took a couple of days work just to
completely uninstall it. We fired Norton, hired Panda and we've
been mighty happy with it so far. Panda offers a
"no strings" virus check. Click the
PandaActiveScan icon below if you want to try before you
buy...or just get a free virus scan.
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OTHER GOOD COMPUTER TOOLS we use are the free
downloads of "Ad-aware" by Lavasoft (it's like
cyanide to that malicious adware).
Of course, there are several other very good security
solutions out there. In general, look for the ones
that don't eat your resources, have a good record and
don't conflict with your existing software.
and
"Spybot Search & Destroy" (it kills
spyware deader than a hammer)
You
can get the free download of both and other stuff at http://www.download.com.
Just type in the names in the search window and they
should come up.
If
all that fails, call the fellow that we call. His
name is Ed Adams, he lives just outside town and he has
proven himself honest, extremely knowledgeable and
reliable. Oddly enough, Ed also does upholstry and
other things...click the logo for his website.
(512)
321-7842
429 Porter
Rd.
Bastrop,
Texas 78602-5664
ed.adams@hotmail.com
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Phone (512)321-7117 or (512)303-2112 Metro
(512)303-9902
FAX
 Email
Virgil
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