Bastrop EDC helped attract 107 jobs in 2018, director says

The Bastrop Economic Development Corporation helped attract 107 jobs in 2018, the corporation’s executive director told the Advertiser.

The BEDC helped advance six projects that brought or will bring new jobs to Bastrop, BEDC Executive Director Mike Kamerlander said, such as by funding a road extension to serve as an access point to a neighborhood hospital or by helping the businesses navigate through the city’s permitting process.

The BEDC helped attract a Seton neighborhood hospital on the corner of Texas 71 and Texas 304, which will be a 40,000-square-foot facility that includes an emergency room, imaging services, at least eight inpatient beds, 12 treatment rooms and medical offices space that will offer patients primary and specialty care services.

As per the performance agreement with the BEDC, Seton will employ at least 20 people by the end of its first year and 35 by the end of its second. Employees must be paid, on average, $40,000 per year.

The BEDC will invest $1.25 million to build a mile of roadway that would connect Agnes Street and Home Depot Way and would serve as an access point to the hospital, as well as for storm water drainage improvement.

“The Agnes Street extension is really going to help that corner with Seton being a catalyst for so much more that’s going to happen around there and we’re not going to have to do anything to help that happen, unless its special, but the ancillary companies and offices and people that just need or want to be near Seton is just going to take care of itself,” BEDC Executive Director Mike Kamerlander said. “So that $1.1 or $1.25 million investment in Agnes will do tremendous economic wonders down there, not to mention provide much-needed connectivity on the southside of Bastrop.”

Read the full article at Statesman.com.