Cibolo City Council approves authorization to negotiate contract for public works expansion project

Cibolo City Council on Oct. 11 approved authorization for the city manager to negotiate a contract with Henock Construction in the amount of $1.31 million to provide construction services for the public works expansion project, which will add a 4,000-square-foot expansion to the Cibolo Public Works Department's facility.

Funding for this project was included in the bond that passed in 2018, which was estimated at $650,000 for the construction.

According to Timothy Fousse, Cibolo's director of public works and capital projects, project costs have significantly increased over the last four years, which has led to the cost of the project being more than double the original estimation.

The city has around $600,000 available for the project and will be in search of additional funding sources as the project moves forward.

District 4 Council Member Katie Cunningham said the city needs to be more active in using available bond funds so situations such as this do not happen again.

“This is yet another bond that sat,” she said. “Every day that a bond sits without being spent, we lose that amount of money. Time is money; cost is going up; [and] inflation has gone up at least 9.1% this year. It is a lot, and I know that citizens are frustrated by that.”

District 1 Council Member T.G. Benson echoed Cunningham’s comments and said work on the old schoolhouse conversion, which was approved in the same bond, is nearly complete, while the public works project is just beginning.

“We have to make sure that these things get done,” Benson said. “We have now just doubled the cost of a building, which is just beyond frustrating.”