In their continued effort to bolster local businesses, Rollingwood City Council members listened to a presentation from Capital Area Council of Governments executive director Betty Voights on strengthening existing businesses.

The main suggestions involved a buy-local campaign, a survey of local businesses and a market research study to find out what people in the general area are buying.

“A business survey is an excellent idea but whatever you ask, you need to be prepared to address,” she told the council. “You can’t ask them what they need if you’re not prepared to address it once you’ve got the answer.”

Alderman Brian Nalle worried about this caveat, saying that while they’d like to be able to address the needs, the capital needed to do so may not exist.

“You will have to say ‘we care about you and want to know what you think, and it might take us two or three years but we’re going to address this,” she said.

She also explained the retail study CapCOG could complete for Rollingwood, which would likely cost $1,500-$2,000 and study what people in the area were buying and where they were buying it. Using subscriptions to special services, she said CapCOG could find out if Westbank residents were spending a large portion of their money on a specific type of item not found in Rollingwood.

“The mayor of Bee Cave is also on our board and she asked me to come do a workshop with their city council,” Voights said.

A retail study for that city several years ago revealed that the city was losing out on about $7 million in fine dining revenue. She said this information could be helpful to local businesses looking to expand or real estate holders looking to lease space.

Bill Hamilton and Brian Nalle are already in the process of compiling a recent list of local businesses in hope of implementing some of these programs. They thanked her for her time and agreed to continue the discussion at the next regular council meeting.

Council members also voted unanimously to reinstitute the Neighborhood Watch Program after a presentation from Sgt. Don Bowne, who has been working with Alderwoman Shanthi Jayakumar.

“All the problems that are inherent in the big city will flow over into this small community,” Bowne said of the need to revitalize the program. “One of the reasons we’re looking at neighborhood watch is that there is usually there is just one officer on duty at a time, that’s one set of eyes to look over 1,500 people.”

He stressed that the program was not a vigilante or spying program, simply an initiative to make residents more alert and have them work better with the local police department. Interested residents should contact the Rollingwood Police Department at 327-1900.

In other action:

• Rusty Hutson received favorable comments from the City Council in his request to build a narrow, 12-foot tall chimney swift tower in the city park to prevent the birds from nesting in nearby homes.

• City council members unanimously agreed to allow the vacant space next to Sprouts to hang a “For Lease” banner for six months or until someone fills the space.

• A wildlife biologist from Parks and Wildlife plans to speak at the next regular council meeting in December to explain the pros, cons and details of a prohibition against feeding deer.

• The City Council voted unanimously to vote for Bill Hamilton to serve on the board of directors for the Travis County Central Appraisal District.