Lake Pflugerville's water levels
remain low after a series of water
line breaks, the most recent of
which was fixed on Wednesday.
Local officials have issued water
conservation calls while the
man-made lake gets back to normal
levels.
We're going to have more about those
water issues coming up on today's
show.
The Austin Signal is a production
of KUT News, hosted by
Jerry Quijano.
Libraries are havens for many
Texans, especially those living in
rural areas further away from
resources like health care.
It's part of the reason one
nonprofit is now providing mental
health resources in some central
Texas libraries.
Come hear about the work they're
doing and it's gonna be a busy
weekend for Austin sports fans,
Texas men's and women's basketball.
Plus Austin FC prepares for
a home clash with the familiar
foe.
We've got all of that coming up next
here on Austin Signal.
Howdy out there, you are tuned in
to Austin Signal.
Thank you for spending part of
your Friday here with us.
It's March 20th.
I'm your host, Jerry Kehannel.
Thank you tuning in to Community
Powered Public Radio.
Water is flowing into Lake
Pflugerville again after another
water line break was addressed this
week. It's the fifth such break
in the water line over the past
seven months, and as a result,
water levels in the lake remain
seriously depleted.
For more about this story, we are
joined by Katie McAfee.
She's KUT's Travis County reporter,
and she's been following this story.
Hiya, Katie.
Hey Jerry, thanks for having me.
So let's talk about this
water line. This most recent one was
the fifth one.
What happened with the four that
came before this one?
Yeah, so the first break
started in September of
2025. So this has kind of been going
on for a while.
Mm-hmm.
Um, that break was,
according to city officials,
relatively simple to
fix.
They fixed that one.
Things are kind of going back to
normal.
Then break two happens a few months
later in November.
Same situation, relatively
easy to fix fast
forward to January.
There's a third break once
again, relatively to fix
Okay, I've seen a pattern.
Yes, until
a fourth break happens in
February, and this is where things
really take a turn.
OK, and what happened with that one?
So, February 6th,
the city realizes that there
is another main break in
their waterline.
And this break is not easy
to find at all.
It takes them more than 10 days
to locate where this break is
because it turns out it's 20 feet
below ground.
They have to get divers involved.
They have to excavate.
And once they find the break,
it's also difficult for them
to repair.
And it took them another couple
weeks before they were able to
install a bypass line.
So water was flowing back into Lake
Pflugerville.
And by that time, hundreds
of millions of gallons of water
were lost in the lake.
So it sounds like the fourth one was
the most severe one until
this fifth one or what was the
status of this fifth?
Yeah, that's right.
So the fifth break happened on
Tuesday.
City officials said that was kind of
like the first three, relatively
simple to find and easily accessible
and they had finished that one by
Wednesday evening.
Okay, for our listener who might not
be familiar with Lake Flugerville,
how do they get water there?
So Lake Pflugerville is a
man-made lake and
the water that's in there, it was
made to be a reservoir.
People do recreational stuff there
now, but it is primarily a reservoir
and the Water that is in that lake
is entirely from
the Colorado River.
So they have this, you know, big
long pipe that pumps water from
the Colorado River all the way to
Lake Pflugerville.
And because it's human made,
it doesn't like water won't flow
into it when there's a lot of
rainfall or anything like that.
Like it's.
Just though it's just the rain
that's gonna fall directly on top of
it. Yeah, exactly.
Mm-hmm that water that is
in Lake, Pflugerville who uses that
water?
Yeah, so most of the city of
Pflugerville is
using water from Lake Pfluggerville.
And most of the city then
is facing some sort of water
restrictions that have been put in
place. What is the status there?
Yeah, that's right.
So since hundreds of millions of
gallons of water were lost,
kind of what happened was after the
fourth break, the city realized
that they had lost a lot of water.
At first, they didn't realize how
bad the situation was.
So on March 1st, they said, hey,
we're just going to move to stage
one water restrictions,
which limits customers to
outdoor watering one day week.
Then they got a report back and
realized how significant the
water loss was and on March 4th,
they were like, hey guys, we need
to move all the way to stage three,
which is way more restrictive.
So under stage three restrictions,
customers are not allowed to water
outside at all.
The only exception is to water the
foundation of someone's home
to prevent cracking.
And they're also beyond that
asking that people conserve water
in other ways.
They're asking people do less
cycles of laundry, less cycles
running the dishwasher a little bit
less, taking shorter showers,
even collecting rainwater or
collecting water used after washing
your hands, things like that.
So pretty restrictive, and
these are going to stay in place for
probably a while because they have
so much water to recover.
Right now the
lake is at 17 feet
deep And city officials say
they have to keep these stage three
restrictions until the lake gets to
19 feet deep
I know that's only that's, only two
feet. So it doesn't sound
Seemed like a lie, yeah?
It might not seem like a lot, but it
accounts for, you know, hundreds of
millions of gallons of water and
city officials estimate that it
could take two months ish,
but really just depends on
how well the city conserves that
water.
This is the fifth water line break
in about seven months.
Is there a reason these keep
happening?
Right now, I don't know.
When I was reporting this story, the
city didn't open up
interviews for any reporters because
they said all hands are on deck.
Everyone's completely focused on
handling the water situation right
now.
But there is a lot of questions that
we haven't answered that I want to
keep pursuing.
I haven't talked with an engineer
who can walk me through why breaks
one through five happened, if the
system is still vulnerable to more
breaks.
But those are things that I
definitely am looking forward to
talking to some experts about and
doing another story on
All right, that is KUT's Katie
McAfee. She is our Travis County
reporter.
We're gonna have a link to her story
in today's show notes and at kut.org
slash signal.
Katie, thanks for coming back.
As you drive beyond Austin into the
rural areas of central Texas,
access to health care can be sparse,
and that includes mental health
support.
That's why a local nonprofit had the
idea to place mental health
resources in a trusted community
center that many rural folks can
already access for free.
That's the library.
KUT's Olivia Aldridge reports
from Smithville.
Okay, take an inhale and exhale
here.
It's just a regular Wednesday at
the Smithville Public Library,
and that means there's a lot going
on.
In the back room, around a dozen
women, some fairly young, some
well into their golden years,
are gathered on folding chairs,
stretching their arms and legs into
careful poses.
Hold it here with your hands
or you can just choose to just
let it hang right there
Cheryl McNeil says it was a
game-changer when the library
started offering these free chair
yoga classes.
She would have had to drive to
Bastrop for something like this
before.
It's really good.
I just needed to get moving and
stretching and I hadn't
been doing all that, so.
There's a second group of women
sitting behind the yogis,
knitting hats for local veterans who
are going through chemo.
A yogi waves goodbye to them after
class.
Bye, Nate Witts.
See y'all later.
That's nitwits with a K.
Library director, Judy Bergeron,
says there's a good reason why the
groups meet in the same room.
We have noticed that when we're
doing the leg stretches and stuff
like that with the chair yoga,
their legs are moving under the
table, so.
It's kind of fun.
The class is part of programming
she's introduced for what's called
the Libraries for Health Initiative.
Smithville is one of eight Central
Texas libraries receiving funding
from the St. David's Foundation,
aimed at boosting mental health
support in their communities.
Abinah Asante, a senior program
officer at the foundation, says the
idea came after a community health
needs assessment showed there was
insufficient mental health support
across the five Central Texas
counties the organization covers.
Thinking about how do we respond
to this persistent gap
here in central Texas,
we started looking at the assets
within our region and
libraries was one of the
assets that came up again and
again.
Most communities already have
libraries and rely on them,
not just for books, but for all
kinds of resources.
That's certainly true in Smithville.
Bergeron says for some people, it's
the only place they have access to
computers and the internet.
It's not just coming in to use
the computer, but it's
coming in because I have to fill out
a critical social security benefits
form, and I don't know
how to do it, and how can I
get help?
Also veterans unsure how to access
their benefits, people looking for
help recovering from addiction, and
unhoused people looking a space to
cool off.
Library staff just aren't always
equipped with the time or training
to help.
That's where Libraries for Health
comes in.
The St. David's Foundation gave
grants to libraries from Smithville
to Martindale to San Marcos,
allowing them flexibility to fund
what they think will be most
helpful.
But they also provided funding for a
peer support specialist.
Someone with lived experience who
can talk patrons through mental
health challenges and help them
find resources.
In Smithville, that's Brittany Khan
Flores.
She says she has experience with
addiction and mental health
challenge that helps her to identify
with library patrons and build
trust.
Tell a story or hey
just share you know what when I was
in that situation this is what I did
I'm not I can't say it'll work for
you but you know it's
a possibility if you like to try it
you know we can maybe strategize on
how to get you there.
Up north at the library in Gerald,
there are currently two peer support
specialists who work with different
groups that make up key portions of
the growing Gerald community.
Susan Gregorick is the library's
chief academic advisor.
Director.
One works with young families
and parenting and
parents who have children with
disabilities and
the other works with more
of the senior citizens.
That second specialist also works
with an American Sign Language
group, a veterans group, and
groups on grief, anxiety, and
depression.
Gregorick says they've dramatically
expanded what the library is
able to do.
And she doesn't want to let them go
after funding from the foundation
wraps up at the end.
Of the year.
I hate to use the word desperately,
but we are desperately seeking
funding to keep both
of our peer support specialists
after 2026.
They both are very
good at the jobs they're doing right
now.
Some libraries, like Gerald's, are
looking for additional grant
funding.
Others are trying to get funding
from their cities or counties to
establish a permanent, sustainable
mental health support program.
Meanwhile, the St. David's
Foundation is trying to spread the
word about Libraries for Health
beyond Central Texas.
They say a public toolkit for the
program posted online has
already been downloaded over 1,000
times.
I'm Olivia Aldridge in Austin.
And this is Austin Signal,
thank you for tuning in, we'll be
back after a break.
This is Austin Signal, welcome
back.
A new episode of Vamos Verde just
dropped and this week the crew tries
to figure out how they're gonna get
to this year's World Cup.
Host Jimmy Moss and Juan Diego
Garcia interviewed the co-creator
of the World Cup Guide,
Jason Daly, who's been to every
World Cup since 2006.
What made you create the World Cup
guide?
It's a great question.
It's one I get asked all the time.
I've been obsessed with the World
Cup since I first saw it in 1994
as a kid.
It blew my mind
that soccer
had such a vast global
appeal and seeing people in
airports, etc.
It left a massive mark.
And then in 98,
I was older and spent
the summer just going from house to
house with friends watching.
Every match and playing in between.
It was one of the best summers ever.
I thought I have to get there at
some point.
2002 just seemed like
an impossible task and
then I went in 2006 with
a friend and mentor who
kind of gave me some guidance of
like it seems impossible but
what does it take?
Probably just saving.
So put together all my money.
That I could and saved over a few
years went.
And from that moment on, I
thought I have to do this every
year.
I loved it.
And then come 2014, I started
answering questions from
friends, friends of
friends. Hey, how does this work?
How do we do it?
And I kept repeating myself
over and over.
So after 2014,
I thought to myself, I'm
writing all this research down
anyways, and I'm just sending the
people.
Let's make a website and try to
consolidate all this information so
anybody can
reference it.
So that's how it started.
It's not a fair comparison because
it was 32 years ago.
But the last time that, you know,
the U S hosted the world cup prices
were.
10% of what
prices are now.
Is that fair?
Uh, I mean,
well, this is not, this straight
dollars, not adjusted as far as I
know.
Well, yeah, no, it's
interesting you asked.
So I took it upon myself
a couple of years ago.
So some of the frustration and
reason why I have
the site and what it evolved into
is like all the information
disappears. So you can't go
easily and just look up, hey, how
much were tickets in 2014?
Right.
And so I've just been kind
of a nerd, just
been documenting this
information. And then I thought, I
wonder how far I can go back.
And I was mostly curious all
the way to 94.
So a couple of years ago, I was
doing some digging and pulled up a
bunch of references and articles.
So there's an article on the site
that has tickets since 94
with all the references I
found online.
And I have two images.
One, just straight dollars.
And then two, if you account for
an inflation, I think it was based
on the consumer price index
of December, 2025.
That's fair Connell, a lot of the
more recent inflation,
and that would be correct, yeah.
Correct. Because it was very
frustrating for people to be like,
oh, supply-demand.
It's just like, well, it's kind of a
lottery and then phases and
then people will say, oh inflation
is like, it won't stop that much.
No. Yeah. Inflation was actually
quite flat for many, many, many
years until recently.
So, yeah.
So I'll just list the
price of 94 for like a standard
group stage game.
Uh, your categories, cause there's
three categories of tickets.
If you want to dive further into
knowing those details, but the
cheapest category, uh,
was $25.
Then it was 45 and then 65
and 94.
Um, and from the consumer price
index, I ran at the end of the year,
those would equate to $55,
$99 and $142.
What I did is since it's
dynamic for the 2026
prices, what I
did here to give like an idea
is I took the latest price.
So your phase three that just
finished a couple of weeks ago,
and then I took the
average of all the group stage
prices to come up with this price,
just to have a one price comparison.
Yeah, you need a ballpark especially
these days with resale and all that.
It's hard to really pinpoint
So you went from considering
inflation in 94 from
55 to $201
for the cheapest,
$99 to 433
and then $142
to 563
for your average
phase three FIFA supply
ticket price, considering
inflation from 94 to 2026.
That is, um,
that's massive.
And that's not going to be cheap
for, I mean, you're not
just going by yourself.
You're going to go with other
people.
And, you know, so you got to,
someone's got to front that money.
Like I would brace myself for $140
ticket at, you know,
maybe something above what, like an
MLS going to see an MMS team
in most like, like if they would,
were to bring, I don't know, the U S
men's national team to
the, the Toyota center
out in Houston or no, not that the
energy stadium out in Houston for
like a showcase or maybe like
a qualifying match or something.
$142 seems
like...
Something I could see myself paying
for something like that.
Yes, it, but
there's also now there's
the added that's.
This is your face value.
That's not right master.
Yeah
Yeah, like adding fees and for a
seat geek or any of that stuff that
yeah
There's concerts that I would go to
that I'd pay 142 bucks for a ticket.
Yes. Would you go see two
random countries that you have no
connection to? That's a good
question.
I always have fun because
people never realize how
relatively affordable
a World Cup typically is
for a fan trying to go
to get tickets.
And I love asking Americans
like, Hey, why don't you guess how
much this ticket is?
And I'm looking at
the prices and history and I
even have my
tickets here from 2022 to
reference but you
know I I was
given a first row seat
to Brazil versus Switzerland
in 2022.
In today's dollars, I
paid $75 for that
ticket. Yeah, yeah now
you can't get that ticket for
you know, if we're using this
$563, yeah
And that's, is
that, are we isolating that
too, just because of where it's
being held or is that because
of, where the sport
is moving in general?
I think it's both,
sadly.
Yeah, this hobby that
I've had for my life could
be ending after this one if
FIFA continues to price tickets
at this level.
It just starts to get to a point
where if you're going to bring
someone with you or your family,
you're just like, I don't know if
this is worth it anymore.
Plus you were saying how you you
save up over four years if
we're talking
Multiple thousands of dollars to go
to on this kind of trip now.
You have to save up even longer or
put more more.
Yeah
And it's like, you know, in the U S
it's not like you get much time off.
So, uh, is this when
you know you and your spouse decide,
Hey, we're both going to take off
time for work.
We're going to pick the kids.
Is this like, are we getting the
value for the money with the kids?
Um, if you're going have to be
paying like 500 plus, uh
a ticket for everyone to go to
a match.
And that is just the cost of
tickets.
And just a taste of what's in the
latest episode, Jason also talks
about hotels and travel,
all other kinds of considerations.
And we even hear how Stephanie
Federico, editor of KUT's
Art Beat, found herself at a
World Cup game in Boston.
We're gonna have a link to the full
episode in today's show notes and at
kut.org slash
signal.
The Texas men's basketball team are
in their second win of this year's
NCAA tournament last night, beating
the BYU Cougars.
The Longhorns advance to the round
of 32, setting up a Saturday
night matchup against the
three-seeded Gonzaga.
Texas has defeated the Wolf Pack,
the Cougers, and now they go up
against the Bulldogs.
Tip-off tomorrow night is scheduled
for a few minutes past 6
o'clock local time.
And action in the women's tournament
tipped off today and it's happening
right down the street from us here
at the Moody Center.
Oregon has an early lead on Virginia
Tech and that game will be followed
up by the one seeded Texas
Longhorns taking on Missouri State.
The Longhors have lots of postseason
experience on this year's roster
thanks to players like fifth year
senior Rory Harmon.
Let's hear from her.
In the back of my head, I do
think about how it is my last run.
But I try not to put too much
emotions about that part, it
being the last.
You just wanna be in the moment,
don't get tied up in too much
emotion.
Just play like it is, understand
I don't have another opportunity
to do it.
But I just wanna stay in the moments
where my feet are at and enjoy my
time with my teammates.
The Longhorns and the Lady Bears are
scheduled to tip off this afternoon
at 3 o'clock.
The winners of today's game will be
back at the Moody Center on Sunday
to play for a spot in
the Sweet 16.
That about does it for us today and
this week here on Austin Signal,
thank you so much for making us part
of your every day here
in Austin. We appreciate you tuning
in.
Thank you to our crew, Rayna Sevilla
is our technical director and
Kristen Cabrera is our managing
producer.
I'm your host Jerry Quijano, have a
lovely weekend, we will talk to
you on Monday.