MUSTANG RIDGE — MUSTANG RIDGE -- The small Central Texas city of Mustang Ridge celebrated a huge milestone on Saturday morning: a ribbon cutting ceremony for it's first brick-and-mortar building.
Mustang Ridge Police Chief, Leonard Cantu, gave tours of his new digs, which houses the entire Mustang Ridge Police Department.
The opening of the facility marked the first time in Cantu's two years as police chief where he has had his own office.
"It's exciting," said Cantu.
Before the new building was made, Chief Cantu said city employees worked out a double wide.
"Basically, pretty much we were in one room. My desk, the sergeant and the patrol and we had the bathroom and that was pretty much it," Chief Cantu said.
Mayor Alisandro Flores echoed Cantu's sentiment of appreciation for a new facility.
"We used to have a double wide and that was our office and that kind of got real small and you know, double wides don't last forever," said Flores.
Mayor Flores said the reason it took so long to build the 3,200 square foot brick-and-mortar structure was because the original cost was around $1.2 million dollars, and that cost was too high.
Later, city leaders found someone to build it for nearly $500,000.
"It's a tremendous deal. We've been working on it for six-and-a-half years and we finally got it done," said Mayor Flores.
One of the co-founders of Mustang Ridge, Charles Laws, said he founded Mustang Ridge because he didn't want Austin to annex the land, which lies 15 miles south of the state capitol. So in September 1985, Laws and his cousin, Alton Brooks Laws, gathered the 20 signatures needed and started Mustang Ridge.
"Bought the land first, then we finally got the building," Charles Laws said.
"What do you think?" KVUE's Jenni Lee asked.
"Oh I think it's fantastic. It's a good start here for the city. I was hoping to do that before I leave," said Laws.
City leaders said the new building shows that their sleepy little town is growing.