City Council reexamined the road and drainage project list at the April 24 meeting. Mayor Linda Anthony said she wants council members to consider removing the drainage elements on Yaupon Valley and Laurel Valley roads, saving about $2.43 million.
This is partly because the bond will probably need to be divided into categories for residents to vote on, City Administrator Robert Wood said. Drainage and pavement can likely stay together since both elements are integral to many of the projects, but funding new municipal facilities will need to be voted on separately, he said.
“I would like to focus on our arterial roadways – the big-ticket items we can’t pay for out of annual maintenance and operations funds,” Anthony said.
The bond construction list council is considering reworking has projects ranked in order of importance. Ranking factors include risk to public safety, potential damage to infrastructure, recurring maintenance, citizen input and complaints, project type, and timing and location.
Harbor View and Wild Cat Hollow should stay on the list because Water District 10 will be tearing it up anyway to replace the waterline, Anthony said.
“This is our chance to fix the roadway,” she said. “And we can do it once and at half the cost by taking advantage of the cost sharing [with Water District 10],” she said.
Council members agreed the Old Bee Cave Road project that costs $123,480 could also be removed from the list of bond items and completed with maintenance funds instead.
There are also fairly torn-up sections of Redbud Trail and Westlake Drive that aren’t included on the project list, Anthony said, suggesting council consider taking another look at and adding to those two items.
“Remember we’re going to have a bond advisory committee,” she said. “I just think these are the sorts of things we should be looking over before giving a final plan to residents to examine.”
