Carting Off History

H-E-B building massive new store and barbecue restaurant in Hill Country hometown

The new store will open in late 2020.

Rendering courtesy of H-E-B

H-E-B is replacing its store in Kerrville — the Texas Hill Country town where the San Antonio-based grocery chain was born in 1905. Construction is already underway on the new 106,000-square-foot Main Street store and is scheduled to open in late 2020.

One of the new amenities at the new Kerrville store, which will be in the 300 block of Main Street, will be a True Texas BBQ restaurant, hailed as the best barbecue chain in Texas by Texas Monthly. The store will also add gas pumps and a car wash.

Other highlights include:

22 self-checkout registers
Sushi made each day at the store
Selection of global beers and wines
Cheese shop
Pharmacy with drive-thru service

In a nod to the company's roots, part of the design will incorporate a decorative façade that resembles the grocer’s first store, originally located in the 800 block of Main Street. It opened in 1905 as C.C. Butt Grocery Store. The H-E-B Curbside logo on the new store will feature a Model T, which pays homage to the early days of H-E-B grocery delivery.

“With an enhanced in-store experience and commitment to top-quality service and selection, this new store allows us to continue to serve the growing needs of our customers and provide the community with the best we have to offer,” Julie Bedingfield, public affairs manager at H-E-B, says in a release.

Kerrville's new H-E-B will take the place of the current 79,000-square-foot store located nearby at 300 W. Main St. That shop opened in 1984 and is scheduled to close once the replacement opens.

Although it’s not the site of the original store, a historical marker stands at the current Main Street property to commemorate H-E-B’s origins in Kerrville. The marker was dedicated in 2016.

hill-country

Who Has the Energy?

Austin City Council approves energy plan to go coal-free by 2035

Photo by Jeremy Doddridge on Unsplash

Austin Energy drafted a plan that the Austin City Council accepted unanimously.

Many are uncertain about the world's collective energy strategy, but the City of Austin has a game plan for the next 10 years. The City Council has unanimously adopted Austin Energy’s Resource, Generation and Climate Protection Plan to 2035.

According to a release from the city, this plan offers "a flexible path to a clean energy future that incorporates the community’s core values of reliability, affordability, environmental sustainability and energy equity."

Members of the public can review extensive documentation, including the 72-page report, at publicinput.com.

The plan authored by Austin Energy includes a number of strategies carried over from 2020. It includes a goal of going completely carbon-free by 2035 in favor of renewable sources like wind and solar; prioritizing solutions that directly impact the customer like better demand response, efficiency programs, solar options, and customer-installed battery storage; and reaching further into exploring more advanced systems like nuclear and geothermal tech or virtual power plants.

It also addresses the need for more responsive solutions during "extreme weather events," both in the heat and cold, which it proposes implementing locally. The lead meteorologist for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has predicted an overall warmer winter for 2025, but with greater chances of experiencing extreme cold — so this may be an increasingly pressing topic on Austinites' minds.

Despite a sweeping desire to enable more renewable resources, one of the local solutions would be allowing Austin Energy to add more, higher-efficiency natural gas peakers, which would have an emissions cap and only run as an emergency measure. A graph in the report shows that 50 percent of Austin Energy's 2023 generation was renewable, compared to 41 percent of ERCOT's.

"As renewable resources continue to increase in the ERCOT system, we’re seeing new operational challenges," the report explains. "One example is curtailment for these resources when too much power is produced and the system can’t handle it. This makes that resource less valuable to our customers. Local renewable energy, energy storage, energy efficiency and demand response investments avoid these challenges and will be especially important going forward."

“A big part of this plan is readying ourselves to get out of Fayette Power Project,” said Mayor Kirk Watson in the city release. “There must be replacement power to protect customers from energy shortfalls and additional energy market risks. For those who share the goal of getting out of coal, this plan is a step forward.”

Austin Energy created the plan with input from 7,512 customers, including 6,355 residential consumers. Their greatest concern was reliability, ranked as a No. 1 value by 38 percent of participants. There were also stakeholder workshops involving groups like the University of Texas at Austin, Austin ISD, H-E-B, Sierra Club, and Habitat for Humanity.

“We are extremely grateful to Austin City Council and our many community partners and industry experts who played a vital role in shaping Austin Energy’s future,” said Austin Energy general manager Bob Kahn. “We are confident that this plan provides the flexibility Austin Energy needs to meet the challenges ahead while reflecting the priorities of our community.”

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