Bee Cave mayor: City working to help businesses, planning for new ones

The city of Bee Cave is abuzz with activity, as new developments have broken ground, including the new Backyard amphitheater and the Village of Spanish Oaks community, with a hotel, spa, homes, restaurants, wine bars and shops coming to our city. While these developments will take a couple of years before they’re ready for visitors, the city is preparing now for its evolution to a must-see destination in the heart of the Texas Hill Country. This spring, the Economic Development Board and the City Council voted to bring on a branding firm to rethink our logo and promote the Bee Cave of tomorrow. Every effort will actively include our community and business leaders to ensure the right fit for our burgeoning city.

Another crucial priority is to ensure the businesses we have today are thriving and that any future businesses that invest here know we are a city that supports, appreciates and helps our business community succeed.

To this end, the city of Bee Cave just hosted its third business roundtable, with Mayor Kara King and more than 20 business leaders coming together to discuss solutions to the issues our business community is facing. We tackled transportation, staff recruitment efforts and the rising gas prices. Out of these roundtables, the city has immediately been able to implement short- and long-term solutions to some of our most pressing issues.

We recently hosted a very successful job fair at Lake Travis High School with more than 60 participating businesses and 1,000 students. We are planning additional job fairs at nearby high-density communities to bring more workers to Bee Cave, scheduling a fundraising effort to purchase gas cards for employees driving in from more than 10 miles away, and instituting a 78738-employee appreciation card with discounts at local shops. We are also using this gathering of business leaders to introduce a leadership series, bringing in experts to help businesses learn about available resources for them and best practices to thrive as valuable members of our community.

Communication with our residents is a core value for the city of Bee Cave and we are excited to see so many residents involved and passionate about our beautiful town.

On July 7 at 6 p.m., King will host her second quarterly virtual Q&A, along with City Manager Clint Garza and Bee Cave Police Chief Brian Jones. This Q&A allows residents to log on via a Zoom link or through the city’s Facebook page (where it will be broadcasted live) to pose questions to city leaders about any issues they are curious about. The Q&A lasts for an hour and a half and participants can send questions ahead of time to jhoff@beecavetexas.gov or post them in the chat box/comments section of the two livestreams.

For people who want to just get city news with minimal effort, our communications department produces a monthly video, “The Buzz,” with all the news you need to know in about three minutes. Additionally, we are creating bi-monthly “Bee Cave Business Minute” videos, highlighting the great stories behind our local businesses. We know people have little time and a lot of information coming their way, so we hope these efforts can make it easier to keep them informed and engaged. All our videos are published on our Facebook page, YouTube Channel, TikTok channel and Instagram page.

To join in on the roundtable, get the Zoom link information at beecavetexas.gov.

Concerns, questions or want to be a part of our business efforts? Reach King at kking@beecavetexas.gov and Hoff at jhoff@beecavetexas.gov.

Kara King is the mayor of Bee Cave and Jenny Hoff is the city's communications director.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Bee Cave Mayor King: City working to help businesses, planning for new ones