{"id":395887,"date":"2026-08-02T22:07:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T22:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/395887\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T22:07:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T22:07:09","slug":"lake-austin-business-owner-welcomes-first-full-weekend-after-waterway-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/395887\/","title":{"rendered":"Lake Austin business owner welcomes first full weekend after waterway ban"},"content":{"rendered":"

Austin\u2019s waterways are open again. For businesses that rely on summer visitors, it\u2019s a chance to recover revenue lost during one of the busiest times of the year.<\/p>\n

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Paddleboards are back on the water, sightseeing boats are running again and nearby businesses are welcoming customers for the first full weekend since Austin’s waterways reopened.<\/p>\n

It comes after the city of Austin lifted its waterways ban<\/a> on Monday, July 27, as floodgate operations ended at Tom Miller and Longhorn dams.<\/p>\n


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Paul Mahler, Austin Duck Adventures and Lake Austin Riverboats owner, said many businesses depend on summer tourism.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis time of year is really the busiest time,\u201d Mahler said. \u201cWe focus on mainly tourism, and during the summer months, that’s when tourism is up.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said with tours canceled during the waterway ban, it hit his business hard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe probably lost about $50,000 in sales,\u201d Mahler said. \u201cWe pretty much had to refund. The problem with that is they would put a ban out for two days, and then two days later they would extend the ban.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he understands safety concerns but hopes next time city officials can give businesses a better idea of how long a ban like this could last.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would help us in the future,\u201d Mahler said. \u201cKnowing approximately how long and when we’re going to reopen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Officials first issued the ban on July 17 after floodgate operations began in response to historic flooding in the Texas Hill Country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was extended several times as hazardous conditions continued.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Austin\u2019s waterways are open again. For businesses that rely on summer visitors, it\u2019s a chance to recover revenue…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-395887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}