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BASTROP — City leaders opened 2026 by reflecting on a year of growth, record tourism and expanding operations during Bastrop’s first council meeting of the year Jan. 13.
Updates from City Manager Sylvia Carrillo and Discover Bastrop Director Michaela Joyce highlighted strong visitor numbers, growing event attendance and an increasingly busy year ahead for city staff. Joyce said Discover Bastrop now uses a data program that pings cell phone signals in defined areas to estimate attendance at downtown events.
“For 2025, we had approximately 1.5 million visits through our downtown — 309,000 people individually went through but multiple people visited multiple times,” she said. “That is really exciting to see because that means a lot of our locals are actually revisiting downtown.”
Joyce noted because the system only counts cell phones, actual attendance is likely higher.
City-sponsored events in 2025 saw attendance increase about 3% from the previous year, with 34% of visitors coming from outside Bastrop County. Joyce said being able to pinpoint which counties had high attendance for specific events would help with tourism marketing.
In addition to city-sponsored events, programs the city supports also showed growth, according to Joyce. Homecoming and the Veterans Day Car Show each attracted more than 11,000 visitors, with about 35% coming from out of town.
“This is what we have needed forever. This really gives us an idea of how we’re growing and what we’re doing in Bastrop,” Mayor Ishmael Harris said. “The more people that visit, that’s more put back into our community.”
Carrillo’s annual report outlined achievements across city departments, including technology upgrades, training initiatives, facility improvements and awards earned in 2025. She said city staff supported 173 published meetings attended by the council over the year.
“It was a busy year … Based on the work plans we saw, our workload for 2026 is at least 30% to 40% more,” Carrillo said.
OTHER BUSINESS
Council members received details on the 2026 Mardi Gras celebration, set for Jan. 31 in downtown Bastrop. The event will feature two parades: the morning Umbrella Parade beginning at 10 a.m. and a traditional evening parade starting at 6 p.m.
The council approved installing six speed limit signs along Agnes Street, setting the newly widened and extended roadway at 30 mph. Carrillo said construction was completed on time and on budget, relieving pressing off Texas 71.
An ordinance for the Crossings at 95 planned development center was also approved, following a public hearing and second reading.
The 7.3-acre residential and mixed-use development at 2002 Texas 95 received initial approval in December after months of staff meetings, a town hall and public feedback. In response to concerns about traffic, parking and drainage, the project will extend Linden Street to the highway, add a dedicated right-turn lane and increase parking.
Apartment buildings were reduced from four stories to three, with retail space planned on the ground floor.
