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Leander's future looks bright

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There is nothing like listening to the city's economic development director speak to the chamber of commerce to get your mind off $4 a gallon gasoline and back on realizing what a great market we have. Kirk Clennan gave an economic update to the Leander Chamber of Commerce last Tuesday and even though we have heard it before, you just can't help but get excited about what will likely occur.

Clennan started off with what new businesses are opening very soon, including a new A+ Federal Credit Union and a Starbucks, both located near the intersection of Highway 183 and Crystal Falls Parkway. Taco Bell just set a sales record for an opening in front of Lowe's. It is easy to see this intersection is turning out to be a bonanza for Leander, as most residents have traditionally had to travel into Cedar Park or Austin to shop and Leander government has been forced to operate on property taxes only.

With the recent hike in gas prices, more people are using the public transit where Leander has remained invested and soon light rail will be taking passengers from Leander to downtown Austin on a daily basis. In case you haven't noticed, the Cap Metro Park and Ride lot in Leander has been close to capacity during the past few months as well. ACC will soon buy a site for a future campus. Lakeline Boulevard will soon be extended all the way to Broade Street (FM 2243).

You get the picture: things are happening in Leander and, yes, the city will eventually have a population over 200,000.

But there is more, such as how Leander is building a solid foundation for all of this activity. Clennan talked about education, informing the crowd that a June 2008 Texas Education Agency report shows 100 percent of LISD teachers are rated as “Highly Qualified” under the federal “No Child Left Behind” mandates. Teacher salaries in LISD are also better than most in the state. If you want to hire the best, you'd better pay with the best; this helps us develop better educated students to keep this area on top of the economic growth charts.

If gas prices keep going up and I get depressed again, I am just going to call Clennan and ask him what is going on in Leander.

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