Engineer: Burleson repairs to be “painful for our citizens”

City Engineer Leon Barba last night warned motorists that for about a year and a half, beginning shortly after Labor Day, driving on North Burleson Street will likely be "painful for our citizens" due the reconstruction activities taking place along that thoroughfare.

Two projects — the widening of Burleson and extending Marketplace Avenue from Burleson to the southbound I-35 frontage road — will begin almost simultaneously, Barba said, with the Marketplace project finishing much sooner than the Burleson repairs. In addition, once the project is complete, Burleson will end at a cul-de-sac just south of the low water crossing, thus eliminating the direct access to Burleson from the frontage road, the site of numerous traffic accidents including at least one fatality.

Barba told the City Council last night that the original estimate for the Burleson Street project, one of a handful of major road repairs Kyle voters signed off on with the approval of a bond package in 2013, was $8.1 million. The winning bid, he said, was $6.6 million and last night the council approved in a 5-0 vote (council members Damon Fogley and Daphne Tenorio missed last night’s meeting) awarding a contact not to exceed $6.9 million to M.A. Smith, an Austin-based contractor. The second lowest bid, Barba said, was $7.6 million, The reason for a contract amount that’s higher than the bid amount is that the contract includes a 5 percent contingency to cover, in Barba’s words, "surprises we didn’t anticipate."

"We did check on the credentials for the (winning) contractor," Barba said. "The contractor actually did a project for the city of Kyle — the wastewater line that led to ACC and, according to inspectors, they did a great job."

Barba said he expects work on the project to begin "right after Labor Day" at the southwest corner of the City Square and be completed sometime "in the spring of 2020." He also said the fork in the southbound frontage road that currently allows for a direct access to Burleson will remain "open" until the cul-de-sac is completed even though the Marketplace Avenue access will also be an available alternative as soon as right around the first of the year.

"Out contractor that’s going to be working on Burleson Street is going to have some big issues to work with," Barba said. "He’s got some small businesses that need all the business that they can get and we’re going to be closing sections of the road along that area. As we move on down the road toward the roundabout there’s sections of road that we’ll be closing also. It’s going to be painful for our citizens because of this construction. We’re estimating 15 to 18 months on that project so it’s going to be a painful process as we go through building that road."

He also said the railroad crossing at Burleson will be rebuilt by a contractor hired by the railroad and it is planned that its work will be completed right about the time the city’s contractor work on Burleson reaches the crossing. "There’s a big coordination project involved with that," Barba said.

The city’s engineer said the original estimate to extend Marketplace to I-35 was $800,000 and the bids came in considerably below that with a $613,244.73 contract approved, again by a 5-0 vote, last night.

"We plan to start this one in September also so we can get it knocked out before the end of the year," Barba told the council. "If weather permits, that could happen, but with the weather and the holidays we’re thinking that by January or February at the most we’ll see that road opened up."

Barba said the city is in discussions with the Texas Department of Transportation concerning installing a deceleration lane along the southbound I-35 frontage road leading to the Marketplace intersection. "That takes time to get that done," Barba said, which means that for the foreseeable future a 90-degree more or less turn off a road with a posted speed limit of 50 miles an hour, arguably not that much safer than the current configuration.

Council to debate time vs. money

Which is the more valuable commodity: time or money? Is it a higher moral imperative for a municipal government to keep a promise it made to its citizen even if it means keeping that promise may not be the most judicious use of taxpayers’ dollars?

These are some of the questions the City Council must grapple with Tuesday night when it considers whether to apply for federal funds to help with various capital improvement projects because, like most, if not all, such requests, strings are definitely attached.

The item in question is one to consider and possibly take action "to approve a request for the CAMPO 2019-2022 Project Call." Specifically, the council will debate whether it wants to seek federal funding for the following projects:

• Center Street rail siding relocation ($14.9 million)
• Burleson ($8.79 million)
• Lehman ($8.01 million)
• Kyle Crossing ($1.28 million)
• Post Road ($2.5 million)

If the CAMPO requests are granted, the feds would pay 80 percent of the aforementioned price tag for each project and the city would be required to pay the other 20 percent.

Three of the above-mentioned items appear to be simple and easy decisions. If the city can receive $11.92 million toward the relocation of the railroad siding that removes the stalled trains that block traffic on center street, when combined with other pledges from the county and elsewhere, the city’s cost for that project would only be $710,000. That sounds like a bargain. As far as the money for Kyle Crossing and Post Road, I’ve been told that federal funds to defray the costs on those projects are probably a long shot.

That leaves Burleson and Lehman and that’s where the moral debate comes in because, Mayor Travis Mitchell said today, if those moneys are approved by CAMPO, it would mean delaying work on those projects for at least a year beyond what voters were promised when they approved the sale of bonds to finance those road projects, and others, more than four years ago. On the other hand, the federal moneys mean the city could apply the bond revenue to other projects directly related to those roads, such as additional sidewalks for Lehman, additional lighting for Burleson, xeriscaping medians and Mitchell said he is a major advocate of xeriscaping. The leftover funds could even be used to help pay down the debt incurred by sale of the bonds, thus increasing the capacity for future capital improvement projects that could be funded by General Obligation bonds without triggering a property tax increase.

Mitchell even said one more option is available: the city could take a proposal back to the voters seeking permission to use those suddenly available funds on other projects unrelated to the ones approved for in the original bond sale — perhaps the Post Road or the Kyle Crossing projects, which are already part of the city’s five-year Capital Improvement Plan. The political gamble of that however is whether voters would be agreeable to renegotiating the use of that bond money after the city decided not to keep its promise on when to complete the Lehman and Burleson projects. It all comes down to trust.

The reasons why the Burleson and Lehman projects would need to be delayed if the city seeks CAMPO money to complete the projects is twofold: First and foremost, the money won’t be available until sometime in 2019 — most likely around the middle of that year — and, second, because federal dollars are involved, more extensive environmental impact studies will have to be conducted on both projects. Mitchell estimated the delay on starting the Lehman Road project could be between five and six months and the additional EPA studies could delay it for another18 months. Construction on Burleson probably would not begin until May 2019, he said.

CAMPO will announce next May which projects are being funded, according to Mitchell.

Citizens may weigh in on the matter — whether the city should get the feds to defray the costs of these two road projects or simply forget outside funds and get these two road projects completed when originally promised — during the Citizen Comments period at the beginning of Tuesday’s council session.

Incidentally, the item that follows the CAMPO request is directly related. That item would be considering whether to update the city’s Transportation Master Plan to include relocating the Center Street Railroad siding. Mitchell said this is strictly a formality because all projects approved for CAMPO funding must be a part of a Transportation Master Plan. The mayor also said that even though the map that accompanies this item suggests the relocated siding could cause stopped trains to block Kohlers Crossing, the siding is sufficient to accommodate the longest possible freight train to ever use that line without blocking traffic on Kohlers. In fact, he suggested, that map may not be 100 percent accurate.

Other items on Tuesday’s agenda include:

• The appointments from the new council members for the city’s Ethics Commission.
• The appointment of engineer Paul Scheibmeir to fill the Planning & Zoning Commission vacancy created when P&Z Chair Dex Ellison was elected to the City Council.
• A resolution to suspend for 90 days a proposed 11.9% rate increase sought by Centerpoint Gas, which, according to city officials, provides natural gas to approximately 8,000 residential customers in Kyle, 318 "small volume" commercial customers, and one "large commercial customer."
• A proposal to spend $216,188.68 to buy one of these for the Stormwater Utility.
• A recommendation on zoning for a multi-family/retail services development on Windy Hill Road that was delayed during the last council meeting in order to obtain a legal opinion on whether the project was already allowed because of a previous agreement the property’s owner signed with Hays County prior to its annexation into the city. Several council members expressed concern at that last meeting about the impact the development would have on Windy Hill Road traffic.

　

Phinally Phinding Phantom Philomena

Philomena Drive looking towards Goforth or Bunton or whatever

As roads go, Goforth is a rather odd duck.

You can drive on Goforth from the northbound feeder road on I-35 until it dead ends at Bunton Road. But it doesn’t really end there. If you take a right on Bunton, you’re actually still on Goforth until you drive a little east of Lehman High School where it appears Goforth dead ends into itself once again. At that point, you can take a 90-degree left at the intersection of Goforth and Goforth and begin heading northeast there. At that juncture, Bunton re-emerges, as if it was hiding under Goforth during that one stretch. Goforth, meanwhile will dead end once again at Bebee Road,. But wait! If you turn right on Bebee, you’re still on Goforth heading southeast again, this time until Goforth becomes High Road. What happens to Goforth? Well, if you turn left to go north on Highway 157, you will discover you’re still on Goforth. Got all that?

But wait yet again! It’s about to get even more confusing! Go all the way back to that part of the beginning of the previous paragraph where I said Goforth "dead ends at Bunton Road." In a matter of just days, I’m guessing, it will no longer dead end there. When the barriers are ultimately removed, it will keep on going, all the way over to Kyle Parkway. But if Goforth is now the road that Bunton becomes at that juncture, what is the name of that road that keeps on going?

At present, dear friends, that’s the phantom Philomena Road I wrote about yesterday, that road I couldn’t locate on Google maps, that road I always called the "Goforth Extension," that road that city officials managed to shrewdly include as a freebie part of the 2013 road bond deal, that road the City Council might officially name something else, according to its agenda for Tuesday night’s meeting.

I have absolutely no statistical evidence to support this theory, but I’m willing to wager more crimes are solved, not by exhaustive detective work, but because the police received a tip from some citizen. And that, dear friends, is how I discovered where Philomena Road is located. A well-informed citizen, after reading what I wrote yesterday about Tuesday’s City Council meeting, called me last night and slipped me the information on Philomena Road’s location. This discovery did not come about because of relentless sleuthing on my part.

Now the question becomes what is going to be Philomena’s new name (as well as the supplementary question of where did the temporary name "Philomena" come from in the first place)? Keeping it Goforth Extension works for me. Or how about this: Renaming it Multiply so that corner where Goforth doglegs to the right can now be known as Goforth and … oh, never mind.

Current status of the road bond projects

As promised, after getting that "much needed sleep" I referred to this morning (or at least enough sleep for a three-quarters-of-a-century-old homo sapien), I will now return to last night’s city council meeting during which City Engineer Leon Barba presented the following update on the five road bond projects:

Marketplace: Compete as of last week.

Goforth from I-35 to Bunton Creek Road, 1.18 miles: "Work began on that project March 21 of this year. This is a 13-month contract so theoretically we should wrap this contract up in April 2017. As of Sept. 1 the project was at 36 percent complete and 34 percent of time used. Currently the contractor is working from Bunton Creek to Steeplechase and we expect that to be open by Oct. 7, weather permitting. We’re still working through some utility problems we have out there." Barba added the city will be erecting additional signage to help motorists navigate around the construction and to make it easier to access the businesses located along Goforth.

Goforth Road Extension, Bunton Creek Road to Kyle Parkway, .2 of a mile: "The contractor still plans to start in late October on that project so there’s no delay in starting that project."

Bunton Creek Road: "Council awarded that $4.6 million contract on Aug. 2. We’re going to start it on Nov. 4. The contractor is out there working on some non-critical items just to get started. We’re having utility issues out there and we’re trying to get those resolved."

Burleson Street, from North Street to the I-35 frontage road, 1.32 miles: "Plans been completed since May. We’re working on five parcels we’re trying to acquire. One of those is very difficult. The lending institution is requiring a lot of things, including a survey of the whole property rather than just the little piece that we need. One owner has been non-responsive, but we continue to reach out. We weren’t able to agree on a price with another owner, so we’re going to have to find another alternative solution, some of which may include not completing portions of the project. We’re still trying to finish our negotiations to get the railroad to build that section of track we need at Burleson Street. Based on that, we’re thinking our date to start that project is going to slip. Initially, we were looking at November of this year. We’re thinking at best we’re going to have to start that project in March 2017."

Mayor seeks joint meeting to complete Comp Plan mid-term update

In a meeting during which City Engineer Leon Barba presented another update on the road bond projects and which featured a moving Memorial Day resolution and a equally stirring recognition of life saving acts performed by members of the Kyle Police Department, Mayor Todd Webster announced this evening he will seek to hold a one-day City Council-Planning & Zoning Commission joint meeting to complete the mid-term update of the City’s Comprehensive Plan.

Perhaps the most noteworthy thing to report about tonight’s Council session was its relative brevity, clocking in at just under two hours — and that included an Executive Session (which mercifully lasted only 21 minutes).

The City decided at the beginning of the mid-term Comp Plan update process it didn’t want to spend the money on consultants to make changes in the Plan the City felt could be made by self-professed planning experts. However, when the assignment came to the Planning & Zoning Commission, it decided right away consultants were required, whether or not the City want to bear the costs for those consultants, and instead of performing the update the Council requested, it drafted a letter to the Council recommending what actions the commissioners felt the consultants should take.

That letter became part of the City Manager’s Report on tonight’s agenda.

"The (P&Z) Commission ultimately determined that certain updates were needed, primarily to the maps section," City Manager Scott Sellers told the Council. "And the letter sent to Council addresses those individual revisions.

"The letter recommended we look at an outside consultant to do the work." Sellers continued. "We may be able to do most of that work in-house, maybe with a little bit of facilitation from outside sources."

Sellers said the letter referenced other plans being worked on, such as the wastewater plan, the Parks Master Plan, etc., and said those plans, when finished, would ultimately be incorporated into the Comprehensive Plan and the maps would be adjusted accordingly. He also said "There are some zoning issues we’ll need to look at with a growing city, especially in light of the recent annexations." He then asked for further direction from the council.

That’s when Mayor Webster announced his joint workshop plan "not just to go over the letter but also to be prepared to tackle some of the issues." He did not propose a date for the meeting but said he would set one with Sellers at a time when P&Z members would be available.

"My only issue with consultants is just cost," Webster said.

Mayor Pro Tem David Wilson endorsed Webster’s proposal, saying the ideas contained in the Comprehensive Plan all came from Kyle citizens and all the consultants did was format them. He suggested inexpensive computer software is available today that would allow the City to even handle that formatting internally.

"I would feel comfortable doing it that way and not spending hundreds of thousands on consultants again," Wilson said.

Sellers reminded the Council that this all revolved around a mid-term update, not the mandatory 10-year reformation of the Comprehensive Plan. "The five year update is more basic (than the 10-year review), updating the zoning, updating the maps" Sellers said. "This format (the proposed joint meeting), I think, is appropriate."

Council member Diane Hervol wanted to know about the extent of community involvement in the proposed workshop, which she could be forgiven for asking about because she did not attend the numerous Planning & Zoning Commission workshops on this subject that solicited and included input from Kyle residents. Sellers added additional citizen input could be superfluous because a lot of the items to be discussed during the update "are a little more technical in nature rather than long-term planning in nature."

Barba began his presentation talking about yesterday’s opening of Marketplace Extension, from City Lights to Burleson Road. Barba said there’s still work to be done on the project including "street lights we need to get working," which I was awfully glad to hear because I drove the new road on my way home from this evening’s meeting and it’s dark on that boulevard at night. Real, real dark. It also appeared to me that at the point where the extension merges into the original road, the road striping offers an optical illusion that gave me the impression the road was about to curve to the left when, in fact, it wasn’t.

He also said "improvements" were planned at the roundabout where the extension meets Burleson. He wasn’t specific about what those improvements were, but later, during the public comments section, Dan Ekakiadis, who served on the Kyle City Council from 2005 to 2007, when Wilson took over that seat, complained the roundabout was not safe. He was particularly critical about its height.

Barba said the 13-month construction on the Goforth Road project began March 21. He said the closure on the road will be in place "for another two weeks. The weather and the utilities have delayed us but we are trying to get out of there as fast as we can."

He listed late October as the beginning of construction on the Goforth Road extension. "We think it will take about four months to build that." He said he wants to start construction on Bunton Creek in September and the estimated start date for Burleson is November. "We expect that (Burleson) project to last 18 months," he told the Council. Barba said the estimated start on construction of Lehman is next March "and we’re hoping to try to move that up. We expect that project to last about 15 months, but it could be less than that based on our final plans" that removed the need for a bridge as part of the project.

In other action this evening:

• Library Director Paul Phelan and Lehman High School Principal Michelle Chae announced a joint all-ages Summer Reading Program that will take place from noon to 4 p.m., Wednesdays through Saturdays during June and July.
• The council passed a resolution approving the canvass of the May 7 City Council and charter referendum elections and set June 11 as the date for the Council runoff between Hervol and business owner Travis Mitchell, whose first matchup ended in a tie vote. The council amended the original ordinance for the runoff to add an extra day of early voting on Saturday, June 4, between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
• Unanimously passed on first reading a pair of zoning requests, one which will pave the way for an inspection station to be located on Beebee Road at the far eastern edge of the city and another to allow for a "community commercial" development on the southwest corner of Porter and Cockerham streets. The unanimous votes removed the need for a second reading of the two proposed changes. Incidentally, the community commercial development is only a few blocks from the site of a proposed townhome development that raised such consternation from those living in a nearby subdivision that the Council killed it. Not a soul spoke at the public hearing attached to this plan, however.
• The Council voted 5-2 to amend the City’s "let’s screw potential homeowners" PID policy. According to Sellers, the changes to the ordinances would mean "The City Council would not be incentivizing residential development strictly through PIDs," which makes sense because PIDs are supposed to be financial mechanisms, not incentivizing tools. "A PID is for a larger commercialized development that may have a residential component but is not to be used to incentivize residential," Sellers said. "That was clear originally a year ago but through additional conversations we just needed to add that clarifying language." The second change, Sellers said, allows the City "to use up to 10 percent of any PID bond for PID related expenses that were outside the PID boundary"such as "wastewater improvements to the collection and the treatment system, water system improvements to get additional water capacity, drainage improvements, road improvements and other potential offsite PID impacts." Sellers said those amounts would be determined before the bonds are sold. Hervol and council member Daphne Tenorio voted against the amendments, not because they had anything against the amendments, per se, Tenorio told me, but because they were generally opposed to the "let’s screw potential homeowners" PID policy.

Hervol-Mitchell runoff tentatively set for June 11

If it’s necessary, the City Council Place 1 runoff election between incumbent Diane Hervol and business owner Travis Mitchell will take place Saturday, June 11. The runoff could be necessary because the first election last Saturday ended in a tie with each candidate receiving 510 votes.

I say "if it’s necessary," because I have learned a recount of the original votes cast will be conducted Monday. Although I have never personally seen a vote remain exactly the same after a recount, Hays County Elections Administrator Joyce Cowan has supposedly told others involved in the election that she has never seen a vote changed by a recount. And I am definitely going to defer to her knowledge of elections in Hays County.

So, if she’s right and the vote remains tied after Monday’s recount, the City Council has on its agenda Tuesday an item calling for a runoff election for the second Saturday in June, a date that virtually guarantees (because of vacation plans, school closings, etc.) a far smaller turnout than the paltry 6.04 percent of registered voters who bothered to take the trouble to vote in the first election.

Other than that, there’s nothing much on the council’s agenda, which you can read for yourself by clicking here, to get all in a huff about or even half in a huff about, although it will be interesting to get the latest update from City Engineer Leon Barba on the five road bond projects. I’m expecting him to announce the imminent opening of the Marketplace extension between City Lights and Burleson Road, but the supplementary materials made available to the public prior to the meeting offer no hint as to what Barba will say.

There’s also a resolution to amend the City’s PID policy I’m still trying to wrap my head around, but I think it means more weight is going to be given to providing financial incentives to commercial developments and less to residential ones, which is a good thing. But why that is wrapped around a PID policy escapes me since a PID is a financing tool, not an incentivizing one. Hopefully, we’ll get some clarification on these changes at Tuesday’s meeting.

Mitchell says he plans to run against Hervol

(Updated Monday to include reaction statements from Mayor Todd Webster, the city staff and Travis Mitchell)
City council candidate Travis Mitchell confirmed today what many observers expected would transpire from the moment he announced his candidacy: He hopes to unseat Place 1 council member Diane Hervol in May’s municipal elections.

Although he admitted he sided more with Hervol on major issues, most notably property tax relief, than his other potential opponent, council member Shane Arabie, Mitchell apparently believes Hervol is more vulnerable because she might not have a campaign infrastructure in place or one ready in time for the primaries.

"She didn’t have an opponent the last time she ran," Mitchell told, by my unofficial count, 19 persons, excluding the candidate and yours truly, who attended a meet-and-greet session with the candidate at a local coffee house. "She hasn’t had to run in a contested race in six years."

He also said the decision to go up against Hervol was "almost a personal one," although he declined to elaborate.

Mitchell said had he been on the council he would have fought to keep the tax rate below 50 cents per $100 valuation. The current rate is $.5848. Hervol was one of only two council members (the other bing Daphne Tenorio) who fought in vain to keep the rate below 50 cents.

He also said had he been on the council he would have opposed the extra money given at the last moment to the Kyle Police Department. He criticized the city for purchasing new vehicles for police officers and then retrofitting them with the necessary equipment, saying the city could save a lot of money buying police cars being discarded by other municipalities.

Mitchell went on to say he would have also opposed issuing the general obligations to pay for all the road projects at the same time. He predicted only four of the five road bond projects will be completed, although he didn’t say which one would not be finished nor did he elaborate on the legal ramifications of only completing four of the five projects.

(Updated material begins here)
Stressing that he was only speaking for himself and not necessarily on behalf of the City Council, Mayor Todd Webster, a major proponent on the road bond construction and issuing all the bonds simultaneously, said:

"The thought of this happening has crossed my mind and I think it is not unreasonable for Mr. Mitchell to have such a concern.  Time is the major factor impacting the budget of all five of the road projects.  The longer it takes for each of the roads to be built, the greater the likelihood that we would be forced to make additional decisions to reduce the scopes of the bond-funded projects.  That is why the City Council made the decision to expedite all five road projects, proceeding simultaneously on them to the extent possible.  We also down-scoped all five of the roads to bring costs down and to more closely align with available bond proceeds because a significant amount of time had elapsed prior to the initiation of engineering and right of way acquisition.  Those decisions were made more than a year ago. 

"Please know that the city staff and our contracted engineers are moving as quickly as they can because they understand the impact that delays may have on the overall costs of each of the roads," the mayor said. "With that said, three of the five roads -- Market Place, Goforth and Bunton -- are progressing more quickly.  I am more confident that these three roads will proceed as planned than I am of the other two - Burleson and Lehman.  Of the two, I believe Burleson is more likely to stay on track and within budget.  As of right now, Lehman is proceeding as planned, but any additional delays related to right-of-way acquisition and increased construction costs on any of the five roads may possibly require additional steps to reduce costs and my opinion is that it is more likely that
Lehman Road would take the brunt of any additional reductions.  If additional reductions become necessary, the City Council will have to decide whether to spend additional funds on these projects, reduce the scope of all or some of them or to significantly reduce the scope of one of the roads, leaving the other four to proceed as currently planned.

"As for selling all of the bonds at once," Webster added, "I think our decision to sell the bonds this summer was as good of decision as we could make based on the information that we had available at the time.  Accessing the bond market involves good timing as weeks, months and years can have a significant impact, positively or negatively, on interest rates.  We did get an excellent rate that was better than what was originally anticipated when the bond election was held.  However,
it is not inconceivable that economic conditions could exist in the future that may have allowed us to have acquired an even better rate.  The opposite could happen too and we would have missed out on the excellent interest rate that we did obtain.  Regardless, I think that it is reasonable to question a decision like this because of the possibility that waiting to sell bonds could result in savings even if there is some risk in doing so.

"While it seems a little early to be responding to campaign discussion topics," the mayor concluded, "I am encouraged by the comments as they are exactly the kind of things that I would expect serious candidates to be thinking about.  It bodes well for having an issue oriented campaign this time around."
A spokesperson for the city said "We have no plans to remove any of the roads from the bond project
and are proceeding as quickly as possible to get them all under construction and completed. Selling all the bonds when we did allowed us to take advantage of low interest rates, which combined with our excellent credit rating, will actually save our tax payers money over the term of the bonds."
(Resuming original post)
Mitchell was somewhat vague on an actual platform, talking about Hedgehog concepts (although when he gave examples from other cities he cited their identities, reputations and branding rather than their focus areas) and what he claims was Kyle’s lack of a Mission Statement. He did say he was a major advocate of downtown revitalization, although again he was short on specifics as well as how such a program would affect downtown homeowners.

Of the two recognized forms of growth, Mitchell favors the orderly but dumb approach over the chaotic but smart one, i.e., the former being the growth model Kyle as well as most other municipalities follow.

Mitchell began his informal session asking attendees what they felt were the major issues facing the city. The top concern, voiced immediately by those in attendance, were the property tax rates, followed in order by utility rates and road conditions.

(Update)
Mitchell issued a statement Monday in connection with statements he made at Sunday's meeting:

"When I said my decision to run for District 1 was "personal," that had nothing to do with Councilmember Hervol, which I tried to make clear." Mitchell said. "I meant personal to me, because I am very committed to presenting the community with a vision for Kyle, and not about with whom I agree or disagree. That's a fine line, I understand, but I had no intention to even discuss my opponent. I was pressed by a few members at the meeting. Next time I will stand more resolute in my commitment to keep it about the issues.

"My comments about the police department were meant to be general, and not specific," he added. "I used them as an example of a discussion I would have engaged in had I been on the dais deciding last year's budget. It would have been a broad discussion and certainly would not have been about singling out any one department. We have to keep our tax rate down, as I'm sure most of our police force would agree. Our M&O spending has risen significantly this year and, if it was in tandem with a reduced tax rate, that would probably be fine. But as it is our taxes are at a 20-year high, so my point was that, as I run for council, I will look at everything through the lens of getting the rate reduced."

Here’s where we are on the road bond projects

City Engineer Leon Barba, at the request of council member Daphne Tenorio, provided a status report on the various road bond projects at Tuesday’s City Council meeting. Here is Barba’s report:

"Let me start off with the Marketplace project. That’s from City Lights to Burleson Road, about three-quarters of a mile. Construction is underway. Capital Excavation is our contractor on that project. They are working on earthwork utilities and they’ve even started on the bridge piers for the two bridges we have on that project. As of Oct. 8 when they submitted their first request for payment, 13 percent of the project has been complete. They’ve only used 6.5 percent of their construction time, so we’re ahead of schedule. There’s a couple of items that we’re still working with, issues we have on the project. We’re working on some slope easements. We’re negotiating with the developer, but we still need quite a bit more right-of-way. And there’s some utilities we’re still trying to get moved, so we’re trying to get those moved as quickly as we can.

"Goforth from I-35 frontage to Bunton Creek Road: That’s 1.2 miles. Plans are approximately 99 percent complete. When you get a set of plans from the engineers, what you do is get not only the plans that you build the structure off of, the roads off of, but you also get a project manual that goes along with that. That project manual has your contract documents and your specifications to build the project. As of right now we have the plans but we don’t have the project manual so right now we are considering that project about 99 percent complete as far as the design goes. There’s two parcels pending. We need one for drainage and we’re expecting to close that one Nov. 6. We have another property we’re looking at putting a water line on and we’re still trying to determine how much we’re going to need on that property. So those are the only two properties we need work on.

"Let me give you an update on the utility providers that are working on the relocations. PEC has done their plans. Time Warner has completed their relocation plans. Verizon has their relocation plans complete, they’ve got their material ordered and they’re already drawing up their contract. Texas Gas has completed their relocation plans and they plan to be complete by December of this year. Center Point plans to be complete by mid-November. We hope to begin construction in March, 2016. Right now we’re working with consultants to pin an exact date down. Expected construction time is 10 months.

"I broke out the Goforth Road extension project. That’s the one that goes from Bunton Creek to Kyle Parkway — that’s about .2 of a mile. Plans are again about 99 percent complete, and we’re waiting on the project manual for that project. There’s two landowners involved, but we have not made an offer yet or asked them to donate or let us know what they want for the property. We’re still holding off on that. We’re estimating construction time on this project at five months, but if we include it with the Goforth project it might add a month to that.

"On the Bunton Creek Road project — from I-35 to Lehman Road — the plans again are 99 percent complete. We expect to get the project manual and all plan sheets submitted on Oct. 30 of this year. There are two parcels pending on Bunton Creek Road. One is in the process of being replatted and the second one is in the closing process, so we’re real close, literally. Utility providers are working on that plan also. The earliest estimated date for road construction is August of 2016. We want to give the Goforth project time to get some drainage in so it can tie into it. And that time line is 12 months.

"Burleson Street, from Miller Street back to the I-35 frontage road, is about 1.3 miles. The plans are about 90 percent complete. They were submitted today (Tuesday). We had a little bit of a delay in getting those plans because we’re still negotiating with St. Anthony on trying to get some approvals from them to do some work on a retention pond. So we’ve already met with them and talked to them about it. We’ve already begun the right-of-way process. Unfortunately we thought we were going to have to get six parcels; it’s now up to 12. So that’s another change of our plans. We estimate we are going to start that project in November of 2016 and we’re expecting that project to take about 18 months but that’s going to be because of the railroad work that needs to be done there.

"On the Lehman Road project — this is 150 to Bunton Creek Road, 1.6 miles — the plans are 90 percent complete. They’re supposed to be submitted in mid-November. There are a couple of properties we’re having some issues with. One we’re trying to identify who the property owner is and another one we’re having some problems because it is so low that when we build the road up we’re going to have a problem with access to that property. We’re still trying to figure that out — how we’re going to provide access to that property. As far as the right-of-way acquisition process, we’re about 20 percent complete and we’re going to have to buy 13 parcels. We estimate that construction to start in March of 2017 and the construction time frame is 15 months."

Bunton Creek Road temporary fix work begins Monday

Kyle’s Street Department crews are set to begin temporary repairs to Bunton Creek Road Monday. This is not the total makeover that’s part of the 2013 bond program. This project consists of the repair of several areas in the road that present what the city believes are the biggest problems for motorists — west of Dacy Lane and prior to Fire Station #2.

The repairs are scheduled to take approximately three weeks to complete. Motorists are also advised to expect traffic delays during this time and to be alert to the presence of construction workers while the repairs are being completed.

The complete reconstruction of Bunton Creek Road as approved by voters as part of the $36 million road bond is scheduled to begin as early as October, city officials maintain, and will include the addition of a two way left turn lane, the placement of a three-way stop at Goforth and Dacy Lane, and improved drainage.

More information on all the 2013 Road Bond Projects is available at CityofKyle.com.

Suppose Kyle decided to go $40 million into debt and no one cared

I was shocked. Astonished. Flabbergasted. Flummoxed. Startled. Aghast. Appalled. Whatever transitive verb you would like to suggest. Here was the City of Kyle holding a public hearing on whether it should increase its debt by more than $40 million and no one — zero, zilch, nary a soul, not one single individual — came forward to speak on the subject.

In fact, at the time Item 11 was being considered, the council gallery was practically empty. At least 95 percent of those individuals sitting on the east side of the dias were either City staff or media.

This is even more peculiar because a week or so ago I attended a City Council candidate debate that featured questions posed by the public. One question asked the candidates was "What would you do to reduce the city’s debt?" and another one was "Would you try to lower taxes?".

Now, here we are, less than two weeks later, and the council is considering going deeper into debt, a move that will significantly increase property taxes, and no one shows up to render an opinion on it one way or another.

Kyle Finance Director Perwez A. Moheet

I am not saying there should have been a massive outpouring of Kyle citizens storming the barricades to oppose the item. In fact, quite the opposite. For reasons I will explain later, using the words of Kyle Finance Director Perwez A. Moheet, this was a brilliant, well thought-out and expertly executed move by the city that, combined with the refunding of other outstanding bonds, will save the city a considerable amount of money over what this issuance (already approved of by voters) would otherwise cost. But there are going to be repercussions. Now full impact of those repercussions probably won’t be felt for about 20 months, but at that time I expect to hear voices rising in complaint. And when that chorus begins to wail, my reaction is going to be "Sorry. You had your chance. That train has left the station."

City Councils conduct public hearings for a specific reason — to solicit and consider public opinion on topics on the minds of the citizens they represent. All City Councils that I know of, and Kyle’s is no exception, has a public comment period at the beginning of each meeting during which citizens came speak on just about any subject they wish, although it’s preferable to speak on items that fall under the purview of the council and not on such items as world peace, universal health care, same-sex marriage, etc. Many councils, especially those that meet all day, often have an another, identical public comment at the end of their meetings. And then often the council will have a public hearing attached to particular agenda items such as proposed ordinances or possibly contentious zoning issues during which citizens came give council members their input on that particular item. And if you’re not going to take the opportunity to make your voice heard, you’ve surrendered the legitimacy to bitch and moan when that policy change returns to seemingly take a chunk out of your financial hide.

Because of the vote taken last night to issue more than $40 in interest-bearing bonds, a property owner with a home valued at, say, $175,000, is going to see their taxes increase at least $175 next year. And I must admit I was shocked, astonished, flabbergasted, flummoxed, startled, aghast and appalled that not one single citizen of Kyle cared enough about that to make the short trip to City Hall to tell council how they felt about it.

Before I go into the specifics of Kyle’s bond issuance, a little background strictly in the most basic of layman’s terms: You’re probably familiar with all those television commercials that claim they provide individuals with ways to determine their credit scores. The higher a person’s credit score, the more that person is able to borrow at a premium interest rate. The same is true for institutions that issue bonds, which are interest bearing notes sold to raise money. When I was a kid, the big deal was U.S. Savings bonds and they were popular birthday presents because you kept them for five years and cashed them in for more money than it cost to buy them. The federal government sold (and still sells) these bonds to help pay for the country’s borrowing needs. They are considered a safe investment because they are backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.

The three largest credit agencies are Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch. Collectively, these three agencies account for 96 percent of all credit ratings. Standard & Poor’s issues around 20 different letter ratings that range from AAA (the very best) to D, meaning this organization has defaulted on one or more of its financial obligations. AAA is considered a "prime grade." The next three levels — AA+, AA and AA- — are all considered a "high grade." Kyle’s credit rating is AA-. According to S&P’s definitions, that means Kyle has a very strong capacity to meet its financial commitments. It differs from the AAA rating only in a small degree.

So the city’s excellent credit rating is the first piece of good news. Here, in Moheet’s own words addressed last night to the mayor and the council, is the rest of the good news (I, not Moheet, emphasized the phrases in italics because I consider them especially important):

"You will recall from the March 17 briefing I shared with you a set of objectives or goals/targets that we had set for ourselves for this transaction. Very briefly, there were six of them. We wanted to reaffirm our credit rating that S&P had issued before, which was AA-. We knew all along going in that we would not get an uptick this time around — that the best we could do was reaffirm. Second, we wanted to combine the bond refunding and the new money bond transactions in order to save cost of issuances. Third, we wanted to achieve at least $800,000 in refunding savings for the city and its taxpayers. Fourth, we wanted to structure the new money and the refunding bonds in such a manner that we could achieve a premium on these bonds. You will recall that I shared with you one of the objectives was to be able to sell these bonds at a premium so that we could cover the cost of the issuance from those premium proceeds. And then finally to structure those new money bonds for the road construction in such a manner that we would stay within the 10 cents to the 14 cents we had estimated initially on the property tax rate impact.

"So, with that, let me explain to you what the $42,525,000 bond size — which is the actual bond size we’re going to issue — is made up of. The roads bonds, the new construction money, will be $29,150,000. The refunding bonds will total $13,375,000, which is a sum total of $42,525,000. So the item before you is not to exceed $45 million but the actual transaction will be $42,525,000.

"So what’s the good news? Of those six objectives we had set for ourselves, we hit every single one of them. The city’s bond rating was reaffirmed, as you well know, at AA- by S&P. We were able to combine the two bond transactions, This resulted in an estimated cost savings to the city and its taxpayers of at least $150,000. We were able to achieve a little over $1 million — $1,040,790 in interest cost — on the refunding . And because of the city’s excellent credit rating and its strong financial position we are able to obtain premium on the bonds we priced this morning. In other words, the city will receive more money than the actual par value of the bonds we will issue ($30 million on the $29,150,000 issue). We were able to cover all the transactions and issuance costs by the premium received on the bonds. We were able to put the entire remaining $30,480,00 into the construction account for the road projects. None of that money had to be dipped into for the bond transaction costs.

"The debt service on the new money bonds will begin next fiscal year, 2016. The principle and interest payment on the new bonds for next year will be $2.1 million. This is still within the 10 to 14 cents estimated property tax increase that we had shared with council. That all depends on how the assessed valuation — the certified tax roll — comes in late July. Bond proceeds are expected to be in the city’s bank account on May 14."

At it’s next meeting, Tuesday, May 5, right after the pledge of allegiance and the roll call and the approval of the minutes from last night’s gathering, the City Council will offer a Citizen Comment Period. That would be a good time for Kyle citizens to come forward and acknowledge the above outlined transaction. Of course, given the history of these things, I’m not expecting anyone to do that. As a matter of fact, if someone did I would be completely shocked. To be honest, I would be astonished. I would be flabbergasted. Flummoxed. Startled. Aghast. Appalled.

City council accelerates bond package, triggering a property tax hike

The city council last night accelerated work on the 2013 road bond package, most likely necessitating a property tax hike of between $200 and $280 a year on the average Kyle home, learned about a temporary and amazingly inexpensive quick fix to some of the worst problems on Bunton Road and told an individual wishing to start to "non-emergency ambulance service" in Kyle that (1) his service was not about ambulances and (2) at least one council member desired more information on who will be driving his vehicles.

As indicated by Mayor Todd Webster last week, the council voted not to issue the bonds approved in 2013 for each of the five road projects sequentially, but all $30.48 million of them at one time, thus permitting work on all five to proceed more quickly.

The City’s Finance Director Perez A. Moheet made the following presentation to the council:

"Staff is seeking your authorization again to begin the process to work with the city’s financial advisor and bond counsel to work on the bond issue for the remaining bond authority on the road bonds. In May of 2013 the voters of Kyle authorized $36 million for the road projects. That included the cost of bond issuance. This is the remaining bond authorization from the original $36 million bond authority given to the city for the five road projects. So far the city has issued $5.52 million in general obligation bonds for the road projects which was primarily for engineering design and right-of-way-acquisition services. The proceeds from the new bond issue will be use primarily to pay for construction and related services for the five roads A small amount will be used to pay for the cost of the bond issuance. We will do our best, both at the staff level and your financial advisor level, that given the city’s strong financial position and our excellent credit rating we anticipate and hope that we sell these bonds at a premium whereby the cost of the issuance of the transaction will be offset by the premium we are able to sell the bonds for.

"Timing of the bond sale is critical as well for three reasons. First, we want to make sure the bond proceeds are available by the time the city council awards construction contracts for the five roads. Second, we want to firm up the debt service requirement on the new bonds before the budget process begins so we can set the I&S (the debt rate) of the property tax rate which the council will adopt the first week of September as part of the budget process. Third, the Federal Reserve Board …has been hinting around since last fall (editors note: and issued an even strong "hint" today) of increasing interest rates as early as this June. So given all those reasons the timing is now if we’re going to do it."

Moheet said he asked the city’s financial advisor to run three scenarios to forecast what the impact of the sale would be on the property tax rate. Combining all three analyses — one forecasting moderate growth, one using a more aggressive forecast and a third using "full throttle, all aggressive assumptions" — the advisors said, according to Moheet, "the tax impact is between 10 and 14 cents per $100, which is close to what we have been talking about since the beginning. If you recall, the very first projections we shared with citizens was between 9.6 cents and 21 cents given the growth assumptions we were using in those scenarios."

That means the tax impact would have the following effect, according to my rough calculations (which were subsequently confirmed by Mr. Moheet):

• A home valued at $150,000 would see an annual tax hike of between $150 and $210
• A home valued at $175,000 would see an annual tax hike of between $175 and $245
• A home valued at $225,000 would see an annual tax hike of between $225 and $315
• A home valued at $250,000 would see an annual tax hike of between $250 and $350

There was no discussion on the proposal and it passed the council on a 6-0 vote. (Council member Samantha Bellows-LeMense did not attend Tuesday’s meeting.)

On a related subject, Public Works Director Harper Wilder told the council that he and City Manager Scott Sellers drove the length of Bunton Road and identified five locations where the road was buckled to an extent that it "presented a life, health and safety issue," but which could be fixed temporarily before the entire road is reconstructed as part of the bond proposal mentioned above. He said the materials needed to fix those five spots are 207 tons of base and 77 tons of asphalt, costing only $7,195.50. He rounded it off to $7,500, he said, just to be on the safe side.

"These would be basically from the fire station to Dacy Lane and there are five areas in there that we have identified," Wilder said.

Mayor Webster appeared quite surprised over the low cost of the fix.

"You’re saying to make temporary repairs to Bunton Lane, it would cost $7,500," the mayor said. "I don’t know what to say. I have absolutely no problem with that. Earlier estimates I was given were 10 times this amount. This level of expense to me seems well worth it."

Council member Tammy Swaton asked Wilder how long it would take to make the repairs.

"It depends," he said. "We haven’t set up an actual scheduling. Are we going to shut down the road from Breadbasket? But I would assume going from Breadbasket to Dacy in one and maybe from Breadbasket up to the fire station in another, it’s possible in three weeks time. Don’t hold me to that because I have to check on the availability of supplies but I think we could get it done at a fairly quick rate."

Council member David Wilson asked if it might be a good idea to prohibit certain commercial vehicles from using Bunton until the reconstruction is completed. Wilder told him he didn’t think that was necessary because this temporary fix will "hold up better" than such fixes have done in the past.

Mayor Webster did voice some concern that residents may view these temporary repairs as the bond work. Wilder thought travelers would know the difference.

"There will still be issues on Bunton Lane," he said. "Even with these fixes, don’t expect a smooth ride from Point A to Point B. But the major issues will be taken care of.

"Because of the low expense of this project will we just go ahead and do that out of our maintenance budget," Wilder added, "so we’re not asking council for approval."

At the suggestion of council member Wilson, I am inserting the following:

ATTENTION: The construction work that’s about to commence on Bunton Road is not — repeat NOT — part of the 2013 bond package but only a temporary repair to five areas of the road identified as potentially harmful to life, health and safety.

Call me a shill for the city if you wish, but I prefer to identify the previous paragraph as a public service announcement.

Item 10 on the agenda sought approval for an ordinance that would grant Frederick Smith’s S&S Transport a franchise to provide non-emergency ambulance services within the city limits.

"The initial request led us to believe that this was actually an ambulance service," the city’s Chief of Staff Jerry Hendrix told the council, "but it’s really more of a shuttle."

Smith said the type of transportation he provides is for individuals with wheelchairs, an ambulatory patient that must have a medical device with him or her, but nothing of an emergency nature. Council member Wilson wanted to know where the customers would be transported from and to.

"It’s from a hospital to a nursing home, a hospital to a rehab, a patient needing transportation to a church — any service they need to be transported," Smith said.

Mayor Pro Tem Diane Hervol had some issues with this application, first wondering what kind of licenses the company possessed. After the meeting was over she told me she was concerned about what kind of background checks, if any, were performed on the company’s drivers. She told me she hopes her concerns will be addressed to her satisfaction between last night and the second reading of the ordinance in two weeks. However, she did make the motion to approve the item, substituting the word "shuttle" for "ambulance." The motion carried 6-0.

(Updated to indicate my projections on the tax increase for the bond package were confirmed by the city's finance director.)

Here's what the mayor would like you to know about the 2013 road bond projects

A lot of the discussion at Monday night’s transportation meeting held at the Kyle public library revolved around the condition of the roads currently being repaired/reconstructed as part of the 2013 bond package. One attendeee said one of these roads was in such bad shape she is forced to drive on it upside-down (slight exaggeration) and, by gum, she wants that fixed right now.

So after the meeting was over, I asked Mayor Todd Webster what is it the public should know about the progress to date on these roads.

"We know the community expects those roads to be built as quickly as possible and we’re doing everything we can do to get those roads built as quickly as possible," the mayor said. "I fully expect construction to start on Goforth when school’s out, but we have to deal with right-of-way issues.

"The second message is that there are things involved in building a road that are not necessarily beyond our control, but they impact it. Property owners alongside those roads have a right to just compensation for giving up their property to build them. So when you widen roads and you move utilities, that takes time. I wish we were further along. I’ve been here (in office) eight months and the truth is we shaved a year off the process and got them back within the plan budget.

"Another thing: the bonds were sold as a sequential series — we’ll build this one first, then this one second, this one third. They prioritized the ones that needed repairs the worst. But we’re working on all of them simultaneously. That’s different than what a lot of people expected of us. That’s going to have a tax impact, but that’s what I believe and that’s what the council believes the community wants. Expediting the building of those roads is a priority. But there is going to be a tax impact because we’re going to have to sell the bonds all at once rather than over a period of time. The good news is by doing that the inflationary costs of building the roads is less. We get more roads for our money by doing them faster. If we had done it the other way we wouldn’t have received as much road for the money we are spending.

"The most frustrating thing is just watching it and it can’t move fast enough for me either. I live there. I’m surrounded by all three of those roads (Goforth, Bunton Creek, Lehman). My car takes the same beating as their’s does every single day. Every single day I drive Bunton. Every single day I drive Goforth. I’m not on Lehman all the time but I travel Lehman quite a bit.

"We’ve looked at everything to fix Bunton. But the problem is what happens if you spend $50-60,000 on a temporary fix and then you’re having to tear all that up as part of the bond repairs. It’s a catch-22. I even talked about what if we closed it. I definitely don’t think the road is safe and I would like to do something. Whether we do something temporary to Bunton hinges on whether things fall into place to get that road done. If it looks like it’s going to take longer to get Bunton done because of things like right-of-way acquisition and utilities — if it looks like there’s going to be some unanticipated delay in getting that road built — I’ll bring forth some proposals to make some temporary fixes to it. But they will be temporary. They could be there for six months and then get torn up."

So there you have it.

The city wants you to believe the Bunton Road bond project is 50 percent complete

Sometimes reality directly contradicts reality.

For example, what if I told you that the Bunton road bond project was 50 percent complete? If you drove along Bunton Road on a daily basis you’d be thinking "OK, perhaps some Bunton Road on some far off planet like Southern California is halfway done, but dearly, beloved Bunton Road in Kyle is not only not 50 percent complete, work on it hasn’t even started yet."

I’ll give you that, but then hit you with this retort: Did you know, did you have any idea, are you aware that work on Goforth road bond project is nearly that far along as well – it’s 48 percent complete? Now, you’re really desperately searching for someone to sign the commitment papers because Goforth Road looks just like it did yesterday, last week, last month, last year, last .... No, wait a minute, it is worse than that. It has actually deteriorated even further during the last year.

But, you see, it’s all about how the numbers are adjusted and those in government are adept at juggling numbers in a way that would put Enrico Rastelli to shame and if you don’t know who Enrico Rastelli is, prepare to be amazed.

But I digress. Jo Ann Garcia, the city’s project manager for the five road bond projects, briefed the Mobility Committee this evening on the status of those projects and without cracking even the smallest smile, she told them work on Bunton is halfway to the finish line and the Project Goforth is 48 percent of the way there. Not only that, nary a one of the four committee members raised an eyebrow. Nor did they question why the three projects on the east side of I-35 are fairly well along (Ms. Garcia told them Lehman is 37 percent done), while the two projects on the west side are languishing: Burleson at 17 percent and Marketplace at 1 percent. That’s right, 99 percent of the work still needs to be done on the Marketplace project.

Look, I don’t know about you, but if I’m driving from Kyle to Dallas, I don’t pat myself on the back when I get to Buda and shout "Hooray, I’m halfway there." But then I’m not a government official. For them the clock starts ticking the moment I begin thinking about driving to Dallas, so, by that standard, by the time I get to Buda, if a bond project manager was calculating, I could actually be 95 percent there.

Take the Bunton Road project for example. Ms. Garcia told the mobility committee the preliminary engineering is done, the environmental documentation and approval are done, and, by gum, they’re just about done with the design of the new road, so, voila, we’re halfway finished with the Bunton Road project. However, she also told the committee such trivial (my word, she didn’t even hint at the fact that these might be unimportant) matters as, say, acquiring the necessary right of way to widen the dang road was at 0 percent. There are 12 parcels the city needs to acquire before construction can even begin and so far the city is batting 0 for 12. Her report did predict that those 12 parcels will be in the city’s back pocket by the end of next month and I have no reason to question her on this. But it seems like acquiring the land needed for the project and the actual construction of it should outweigh some of the other factors in establishing how far along this project is to completion.

Because, I’m betting the hundreds of drivers who use Bunton Road every single day are simply not going to believe work on the project is halfway done when, to them, it hasn’t even started yet.

By the way, the Mobility Committee is looking for some new blood so if you would like to make some direct contributions to the future of the city’s mobility plans, or if you use Bunton Road a lot, here’s a chance to make your voice heard. Here’s where to go if this idea interests you.

Kyle’s wacky way with roads

Normally, when someone buys a house, they will pick the home they want and then try to secure a loan to obtain the money to pay for the home. Sometimes they will get pre-clearance for a loan before they buy a house. But I’ve never heard of a case in which someone borrows $300,000 or so from a loan company and then goes out in search of a house to buy.

The same is true of municipalities when it comes to capital projects, usually defined as the construction or the major repair of one or more things that will last at least 20 years. Municipalities will undertake all the required studies — land costs, engineering, etc — to determine as closely as possible the cost of the project, and then they will ask voters for permission to take out a loan, in the form of bonds they sell and then repay with interest, to cover the cost of the projects. That way, after the bonds are sold, the city can immediately ask for companies to bid on the construction projects and get right to work on them without much delay. The reason voters need to give permission for the sale of bonds is because they are repaid by taxes the city collects and if the taxes being collected at the time the bonds are issued aren’t enough to cover their costs, the city must collect more money, usually by increasing property tax rates.

From what I’m piecing together, that’s not the way it’s been done around here. In May 2013 Kyle voters gave the city their approval to borrow $36 million to pay for road repairs, expansions and/or extensions of five roadways: Bunton Creek Road, North Burleson Street, Goforth Road, Lehman Road and Marketplace Avenue. That last project — extending Marketplace from its current terminus southward to Burleson — wasn’t part of the original proposition and, from what I’ve learned, a number of influential individuals didn’t want it to be part of the original proposition. However, of the four other projects, all but Burleson were located on the east side of Interstate 35 and city officials wanted more voter participation in the bond election from the voter-rich east side. So they added the Marketplace extension, a project extremely popular with those who live in the Burleson Road/Center Street area of town who now, in order to shop at the H-E-B which, for all practical purposes, is the only grocery story in town and is located north of where they live, must drive south before they can eventually head north to get to that store (as well, of course, to the Target right across the street from the H-E-B). I said this project was "extremely popular" and Mayor Todd Webster supports this. He told me last night he receives, by a whopping 4-1 margin, more people demanding the Marketplace extension be completed than the other four projects combined.

I’ll get back on the subject of Marketplace in a second, but it’s important to note that when the city asked voters to approve this bond package, virtually nothing had been done to determine exactly how much these projects would actually cost. Now voters are getting a little peeved because it’s more than a year and a half since they approved these bonds and they still can’t see with their own eyes any actual work starting on any of these road projects. The reason they aren’t seeing any is because all the engineering, to cite just one example, that should have been completed before the bond proposal was sent to the voters, wasn’t even sent out for bids until after the proposal passed.

As far as the Marketplace Project is concerned, there was still that small handful of folks who, for reasons other than NIMBY seem difficult to decipher, don’t want it to happen. But after the bond proposal passed, stopping the project outright would be breaking the law and result in sharing a room with Big Ugly Mike in some minimum security detention unit. So they did the next best thing: they managed to put so many unrealistic obstacles in the path of its construction that it amounted to the same thing.

That was the situation facing Mayor Webster and the current city council, four of whom assumed their seats a year after the passage of the bonds. Obviously, a new sheriff was needed so the council summoned Wyatt … I’m sorry, James … Earp, who, at the time, was the assistant city manager and during the process became the city’s acting city manager. He was assigned to be city’s designated negotiator whose assignment was to somehow, someway find a way around these obstacles. (To give you some idea of how ludicrous some of these barriers were, one required that in order for the road to go forward, the landowners along the route had to surrender their land for the right-of-way without receiving any compensation — not one red cent — for the land the city needed to build the extension. Another one gave the developer the right to build the road and then be repaid by the city; anyone who agreed to a deal like that would also wind up sharing a room with Big Ugly Mike.)

Last night, Earp, in his last appearance as the acting city manager, briefed the city council on the status of the negotiations and, to the astonishment of many and the chagrin of a few, let it be known that he achieved something that possibly his more famous namesake never could — a deal that is close to being finalized with all parties directly involved to complete the extension. Even so, there is still a lot of misinformation about the process. The developer paid (he claims close to $270,000) for a lot of the engineering that is required before construction can begin. The city could initiate its own engineering studies from scratch, but Earp thought it would be wiser simply to purchase the studies that have already been completed and agreed to reimburse the developer for any and all payments he made for those studies up to $270,000. However, some reported that what was happening is that the city is paying $270,000 for buying land which it is supposed to be getting for free.

Item No. 14 on last night’s council agenda read: "Discuss and take possible action to execute an agreement by and between the city and Plum Creek Developers, L.L.C., for the extension of Marketplace Avenue." As noted above, the item was discussed but no action was taken, even though a tentative agreement is in place, because of some technical changes and "typographical errors" that need to be fixed before the agreement is signed. One of those "technical changes" concerns exactly where Marketplace will intersect with Burleson — close to Spring Branch or should Marketplace take a sharp dogleg to the left and intersect with Burlerson further north, a less desirable alternative but one that’s still in the discussion.

But, folks, these are details that are supposed to be all decided upon before a bond package goes to voter approval, so that voters really have a clear idea what their tax money is going to accomplish. It’s as if that person considering buying a house takes out a loan on the idea, not the actuality, of purchasing a new home.

As I mentioned somewhat offhandedly earlier, we have a mayor and four council members who have assumed their current positions a year after this road bond proposal was approved. I get the sense that they want Kyle to quit its wacky road ways and do these things the way they are supposed to be done. Time will tell. Watch this space.

UPDATE: One other thing worth mentioning is that, what Mayor Webster is describing as a "significant development that will create a lot of new jobs and could include the construction of office space," was put in motion to be located in an area in an area west of I-35, north of Kyle Crossing, west of the quarry and touching the southern edge of Buda’s city limits. The matter was discussed by the council as part of an hour-long executive session and when council members reconvened they voted 4-0 (council members Shane Arabie, who is on a cruise; Samantha Bellows-LeMense, who was ill; and Tammy Swaton did not attend last night’s meeting) "to offer a financial or other incentive to a business prospect that the city council seeks to have locate … in or near the territory of the city council." Mayor Webster assured me after the meeting the incentives were not all that much, but could not be elaborated on further until after the developer agreed to the city’s proposal.