Of the 78 lodging operations within the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the city of Wimberley, four are a part of the Texas Hotel & Lodging Association’s group listing partnership that offers promotion and industry specific assistance to rental facilities. Now, all of the lodging operators will be a part of the program after the city of Wimberley used around $10,000 of Hotel Occupancy Tax funds to join.
“We get them listed on (the state’s lodging website,) we get them listed on our website, we list them on Tour Texas and their booking widget and we also provide them all the services that the state hotel association provides.” Scott Joslove, president and CEO of Texas Hotel & Lodging Association, told the Wimberley City Council. “I have the staff of two other attorneys and myself, and we take 600 to 900 inquiries a month for legal advice… We keep them apprised of all the laws that have changed.”
There are more than 150 communities in Texas on the listing service from cities as large as Dallas all the way down those like Fredericksburg.
The city’s new Hotel Occupancy Tax is now being collected, and the first two months have reported. In the month of May, which represents funds collected in the month prior, the city collected $56,147.65 in HOT funds and $60,752.87 in June.
“This is from the nine lodging establishments that are monthly filers with (Hotel and Lodging,)” Boese said. “The predominant amount of our lodging owners are going to be quarterly filers, so we will start receiving that money in July for all those people in the first quarter… We should see a pretty significant increase when July’s numbers come back in.”
Sewer System Update
The city also reported updates on the wastewater collection system. Of 103 potential taps for the city’s sewer system, 81 have been connected. There are seven properties that have a water tap, but no service. Those seven properties are not required to connect to the sewer at this time, most of which are vacant lots. There are seven that are in the process of connection, “meaning they’ve obtained their permit, got a contract with a plumber. They are either waiting on supplies or something else to come in,” Boese said.
There are eight more properties that have received an extension because there is a pump or material on back order or engineering was recently done to confirm the type of material required to connect. Boese said that all of them have a “good plan going forward to hook up.”
The city has collected $158,031.73 in revenue from the sewer system averaging a little less than $20,000 a month.
Boese said that he believes the city will collect around $25,000 per month in revenue once the system is fully operational. He suggested letting the process settle before determining if that is enough money to pay the bills on the loan and operations of the system.
“I would suggest we should probably have all these properties connected by October first or the start of our Fiscal ’23 year,” Boese said. “And I think it would take a good solid year of having almost all of our properties connected to really understand the impact of all the fees throughout the year before we look at rates. There were so many people connecting at different times, battling supply chain issues and different things and getting plumbers to come out to do the work. A full year of collecting will give us a much better picture of where we are on revenue collection.”
City Hall Temporarily Closed
The Wimberley City Hall will be closed due to water damage caused by flooding from a broken toilet over the weekend. Boese stated that the city staff will work remotely for at least a week though he expected repairs to take much longer. Those looking for assistance can still call or email the city as work will still be taking place.
In the meantime, city council meetings will be held at the Wimberley ISD Central Administration Office located at 951 FM 2325.
