An interlocal agreement with Montgomery County was approved at Montgomery City Council’s May 10 meeting for emergency repairs to be made to the bridge on Lone Star Parkway immediately east of Plez Morgan Drive. Council members approved the agreement with three changes requested.

The approval is not final and will be sent back to the county before final approval due to three caveats, including the city only contributing up to $100,000 for repairs; changing incorrect verbiage by removing “Harris County” from the agreement; and the city taking no ownership of the bridge, road or repairs, according to city information.

According to the meeting presentation, erosion under the slope of the bridge, which has been washed out by water, has caused emergency repairs. The project was estimated to cost between $150,000 and $200,000, with the city covering half the cost due to the emergency situation, but council pushed back after the interlocal agreement asked for $211,270. Council ended up approving the agreement with the amendment that the city only pay for half the project cost up to $100,000.

Although City Administrator Richard Tramm initially agreed on sharing the emergency repair costs with the caveat that the city would not have any ownership of the road, the agreement sent by the county for approval said the city would be responsible for future maintenance and repairs of the road. As such, council members approved the agreement with the amendment that the city has no kind of ownership of the road, bridge or repairs because it is a county-owned road, council members said.

“It is not our road. The county owns this road. It's their road to maintain,” Council Member Julie Davis said at the meeting. “And now here we are having to shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars when, Lord knows, we've got plenty of other capital improvement plans that we can't even make the dollar amount for.”