City Council ponders road bond project delays, alarms, innovative gateway signage, stop signs and, yes, another roundabout idea for FM 1626

(Updated Friday 9:30 a.m.)

While thankfully lacking in the melodramatics that have unfortunately plagued some Kyle City Council meetings of late, Tuesday’s final July agenda meeting was not wanting for substance with discussions on whether to and how to allow unnecessary stop signs, a fascinating design concept for "Welcome to Kyle" signs at either end of I-35, a possible two-month delay in the remaining road bond projects, the creation of a community garden, requiring every homeowner and business with an alarm system to register those alarms and be subject to a fine for excessive false alarms, and the possibility of finally installing a much-debated roundabout on FM 1626, this one to be located at a point about midway between Marketplace and Kohler’s Crossing, where Dorman Road intersects the parkway.

Whew! Where to begin.

I think I’ll start toward the end of the meeting and work my way to the beginning.

The council voted 5-1 (council member Becky Selberra missed last night’s meeting due to illness and council member Daphne Tenorio voted against) to let TxDOT know the city supports a TxDOT plan to install a roundabout at the main entry point to the Plum Creek neighborhood from FM 1626 (Kyle Parkway). As many might remember, a huge debate ensued a little more than a year ago over the idea of building a roundabout at FM 1626 and Kohler’s Crossing. That debate, however, involved the use of city funds for the construction of the amenity and finally TxDOT simply stepped in and said, in effect, "Stop your endless arguing. We’re just going to put a traffic light there." And, of course, that’s exactly what TxDOT did.

This time, however, it appears (although it’s not absolutely guaranteed) that TxDOT will foot the entire bill for the cost of installing a roundabout at this three-way interchange. And let me be clear about one thing: Although there are plenty of traffic circles in Kyle, including one recently installed where Marketplace dead ends into Burleson Road, as far as I know there is nothing in the city that could actually be properly classified as a roundabout. This will give you some idea of the difference, although Kyle’s traffic circles are much smaller than your average traffic circles.

Council member Tenorio felt more citizen input was needed before the council went on record as telling TxDOT the city was fine with the idea of roundabout there, but the other council members decided it was OK just to tell TxDOT to proceed. No one mentioned a timetable on when construction might begin on this project and, frankly I didn’t think to ask City Manager Scott Sellers about a construction time line after last night’s meeting. I have, however, sent an email to the city’s spokesperson requesting that information. (Update: The city's spokesperson forwarded an e-mail to me Friday morning in which Sellers told her "I didn't discuss this [with TxDOT], but will try to verify the next time I speak with them.")

The entire council wrapped their collective arms around the notion of the city requiring the registration with the city of all alarms installed in homes and businesses after Police Chief Jeff Barnett revealed that out of 1,500 alarms police responded to last year, 1,495 or an astounding 99.67 percent, were false alarms. The national average for false alarms is much higher than I would have imagined, somewhere between 94 and 98 percent, but 99.67 percent is simply outrageous.

The amendment to the city’s current alarm ordinance approved by the council last night, would, in the words of Chief Barnett, require anyone with an alarm system in their home or business to "come to the police department to obtain a permit and pay a permit fee and then your permit would be good for 12 months." (The amount of the fee will most likely be established when the council reviews the entire fee schedule during its upcoming budget deliberations.)

Barnett said it takes a police officer between 15 and 20 minutes per alarm call "to make their way to that call, to check the facility out, make contact with the owner if they’re not on the site and then clear that call." Translated, that means close to 500 police man hours were wasted last year responding to false alarms.

"The goal of this amendment is to get false alarms down to zero and keep our officers out on the street," Barnett told the council.

Zero false alarms is, of course, an impossible goal. From experiences I’ve had on this issue working with the police in Dallas, most false alarms are caused by things like a household cat triggering a motion detector that sets off an alarm in a residence. How, other than cruelly keeping pets caged when their owners are not at home, is a homeowner going to prevent those kinds of incidences?

Those exempt from having to obtain an alarm permit from the police, Barnett said, included "financial institutions as identified in the Bank Protection Act of 1968," governmental users such as schools and local, state and federal agencies and those over the age of 65 would still need to register their alarms but would be exempt from the fee requirement.

Barnett said the ordinance allows for three false alarms per permit, but the fourth and fifth one in any calendar year would result in a $50 fine, numbers six and seven cost $75 and anything above that costs $100 per false alarm. Anyone with more than 15 false alarms in a calendar year could have their permits revoked.

"Our goal as a police department is not to discourage alarms," Barnett said. "We encourage people to put in burglar alarms, panic alarms, medical alarms and fire alarms. But we want them to own and operate them in a very responsible manner so we don;’t have as many false alarms."

There was some concern among council members, mainly expressed by council member Travis Mitchell, about getting the word out to those Kyle residents and business owners that they will soon be required to have their alarms registered, but, as I said earlier, in the end the council voted unanimously to endorse the chief’s plan,.

Mitchell also raised some concerns about a proposed policy governing unnecessary stop signs. Under the proposed ordinance, which eventually was tabled, any group of residents who wished to have a stop sign or other traffic controlling device installed in their neighborhood where a preliminary city study indicated such a device was unnecessary would have to pay a deposit ($500 was the amount bandied about although nothing was set in stone) to fund a full-fledged traffic warrant study. Mitchell’s concern was that neighborhoods without homeowners’ associations would be at a disadvantage when it came to coming up with that $500.

However, others, including City Manager Scott Sellers and Mayor Todd Webster came right out and said the city should simply prohibit unwarranted traffic control devices.

"It is staff’s recommendation that we look at internally all requests for signs, and any sign that doesn’t meet warrant is not erected," Sellers said flatly. And to add some emphasis, he said "That is our position. It will always be our position."

And after the meeting was over Mayor Webster confirmed he would not oppose an ordinance that prohibited the installation of unwarranted, unnecessary traffic control devices, but he doubts the rest of council would go along with him. At the very least, he said, he would like to see any ordinance that might permit unwarranted devices also explain the possible hazards such devices might cause.

The gateway signage concept has to be seen to really be appreciated. Having said that, however, I, along with everyone else attending last night’s meeting, saw a representation of the sign and I’m still not sure I completely "got" it. I’m not going to even try to put it in words so I will just relate how Sellers described it to the council:

"It’s two sheets of aluminum or some sheet metal, the first sheet being cut out so what you see there is (a map of the state of Texas), the word ‘Kyle’ and the water tower — those are cut out of the first sheet. Behind is a solid sheet and in between those two sheets is a row of LED lights that shine up on that back sheet to provide an illumination that, especially in the evening, provides a very sharp 3-D effect back through the cutout."

See!! I told you that you really had to see it for yourself, that words can’t do it justice.

"It really embraces modernism," Sellers said. "It embraces the demographic that represents the majority of Kyle citizens (whatever that means -- my words, not his). It embraces the brick on the pedestal. So it really tries to encompass what we currently today stand for.

"Now the great thing about this sign is, it’s inexpensive, compared to the other large, monument signs," Sellers continued. "Sometimes, not to be too critical, I see gateway signs along the interstate and they look like large tombstones. We definitely did not want to commemorate our death to people driving by the city. We wanted to show we’re vibrant, we’re alive."

Personally, as much as I loved Seller’s tombstone line, I did think the comparatively low cost was not actually "the great thing about this sign." What I thought was the great thing was what Sellers said next:

"As we continue to grow and redefine who we are, that front sheet can easily be replaced. So maybe the water tower isn’t the image that we want in a few years. We can pull down the front sheet and replace it with one that has a different cut-out."

Now that’s cool. That’s different. That’s unique. A gateway sign with an interchangeable message.

Moments before Sellers talked about the signs, another one of the city’s interns from Texas State, Zohaib Qadri, outlined plans for an adopt-a-street program that would go along way to enhancing beautification efforts as well as a concept for a Community Garden on what is currently vacant land behind Seton Medical Center.

In the evening’s very first presentation, City Engineer Leon Barba told council members something they didn’t really relish hearing:

"The fact is Goforth from I-35 to Bunton Creek Road is 23.3 percent complete. As you know we had a significant bout with bad weather. Utilities, as I’ve mentioned before, have always been a problem and we’re still having problems with utilities. We were promised those utilities would be cleared and guess what? We’re still finding utilities in the road. Right now the focus is getting the section of road between Brent and just south of Steeplechase open before school starts. School starts Aug. 22. But the teachers come in a week earlier so we really have to figure out a way they can get into the school while we’re doing that construction. So the focus right now is at least getting that section done."

Mayor Webster asked Barba how this delay would delay the start of work on the Bunton project.

"We’re thinking two to three months," Barba replied.

"And the Goforth extension as well?" the mayor asked.

"Yes," Barba said. "Same contractor."

"That’s not good," the mayor replied.

For what it’s worth, Barba said what had been referred to as the Goforth Extension (or the free road project because it was inserted without effecting the bond package) from Bunton Creek Road to Kyle Parkway is now officially designated as Philomena Drive.

In other action last night, the council:

• Tearing a page from the late Spiro T, Agnew’s Catalog of Jingoism passed a resolution declaring everyone wearing a police uniform is a paragon of virtue and expressing its sorrow over the deaths of officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, It also ordered copies of the resolution be sent to those aforementioned cities but, thankfully, not to the family of Rodney King.
• Postponed a presentation on the Kyle Vista Park Public Private Partnership Proposal, which is somewhat of a shame because I, like probably so many others, have absolutely no idea what that partnership proposal is all about.
• Certified the appointments of Aaron Townsend and Cindy Lawson to the Civil Service Commission.
• Adopted a whole host of national and international codes.
• Approved a Memorandum of Understanding between Hayes Caldwell Public Utility Agency and the cities of Kyle, Buda and San Marcos for the exchange of water.
• Adopted the rules that will govern council meetings until the next council election.
• Learned the city manager will unveil a draft of his proposed FY 2016-17 budget on Friday. Sellers assured me after the meeting a copy of that proposed budget will be available to the public on the city’s website by the end of the day Friday as well.
• For the first time in memory, did not conduct an executive session.