The Lampasas City Council voted unanimously Monday to set the city's proposed 2009-10 tax rate at 39 cents per $100 property valuation, the same as the current rate.

Although the action did not enact the tax rate, the proposed rate sets the maximum amount the council can levy when it officially approves a tax rate.

The first public hearing about the proposed tax rate and municipal budget will be Aug. 24 at 7 p.m. as part of a regular City Council meeting. The second hearing is scheduled for Sept. 3 at noon. At its Sept. 14 regular meeting, the council plans to vote on the first reading of an ordinance to adopt the budget and tax rate.

Also at the recent meeting, the City Council voted unanimously to designate $25,000 for a college campus in Lampasas if the city receives a grant from the Texas Department of Agriculture's Rural Economic Development Division. Grant awards can range from $50,000 to $125,000, according to a TDA information packet about a request for proposals.

Lampasas County and the Lampasas Independent School District also have approved expenditures of $25,000 apiece in the upcoming fiscal year if Lampasas receives the TDA grant. Funding from the city, county, the LISD and the Lampasas Economic Development Corp. could total $200,000 during the two upcoming fiscal years.

The grant application is part of an effort to establish a higher education center -- similar to existing campuses in Marble Falls, Fredericksburg and Taylor -- in Lampasas. Lampasas municipal, school district and civic representatives will pursue partnerships with Texas A&M University-Central Texas, Central Texas College and possibly Texas Tech University, Mayor Judy Hetherly said.

The campus would be open to teenage students and adults, the mayor said, and could allow pupils to graduate from high school with as much as two years of college credit toward an associate's or bachelor's degree.

"This is just a step toward this goal," Ms. Hetherly said of the City Council's authorization to apply for the grant. "It's going to take us a lot of steps to get there."

Ms. Hetherly estimates opening a campus will cost about $200,000, and she has said private funds may be solicited.

The mayor has been in contact with a highereducation center official whom she would like to serve as chief executive officer of a Lampasas campus. The official has organized two higher education facilities, both of which were able to operate without outside funds within three years of opening, Ms. Hetherly said.

The LISD Board of Trustees indicated at a called meeting Monday night that the school district would support the college project, possibly by authorizing the use of LISD facilities.

"That's a huge plus," Ms. Hetherly said. "In every other [college] case I know of ... they have had to build a building, and that [would be] an uphill battle for us."

In another matter, the City Council voted unanimously to revise the Lampasas Public Library's "Policy on Children in the Library." The amended policy states that "all children under the age of 6 years must be accompanied by a parent or adult caretaker at all times. Children ages 6-10 years must have a parent or adult caretaker somewhere in the building at all times."

By law enforcement definition, the word "adult" means 17 years or older, Police Chief Tim Angermann noted.

The revision was necessary, Library Director Shanda Subia said, because some teenagers who have brought children to the library have not always watched them carefully.

"It prevents the library from being a free daycare, basically," Councilman Evan Stubbs said of the policy change.

The City Council also approved street closures from 5:30-9:30 p.m. Aug. 27 in conjunction with a Vision Downtown Lampasas! celebration. Second Street will be closed from Key Avenue to Live Oak Street. In addition, Western Street will be closed to vehicular traffic at First and Third streets.