The City of Bastrop has started a multi-million dollar street rehabilitation project in order to better serve both residents and visitors.
City Manager Sylvia Carrillo said this project will be completed without putting any financial burden on residents. The project is funded through a combination of an impact fee for new commercial development, a reduction of the city’s economic development sales tax and putting that $3.3 million to existing streets.
City staff will repair all of Bastrop’s existing streets, construct new streets and through a partnership with Bastrop County, repair streets in the outer periphery of the city.
“This first pass is almost a 1.2 million dollar project,” Carrillo said. “This is the first time we’re putting this kind of energy and effort into existing streets. This portion will be paid out of the economic development sales tax that was reallocated.”
In the past, city staff set aside money for street repairs, but Bastrop’s streets needed more than minor repairs.
“Historically, the city was only putting about $25,000 toward street repair and maintenance,” Carrillo said. “[Streets in Bastrop are] a multi-million dollar problem and 25,000 was just a drop in the bucket. A city can never borrow it's way through street repairs. That would be too heavy of a burden to the tax rate. The reallocation of sales tax dollars helps get serious about existing streets.”
The funds for the project are coming from new developers and visitors to the city of Bastrop. The city council approved a traffic impact analysis, which means new commercial developers pay the city a fee for use of roadways. This money is being put toward the construction of new roadways.
“We’re not using existing general fund dollars to pay for new streets,” Carrillo said. “That’s a burden for development as it comes in.”
To fund the repair of existing streets, the city put an issue on the ballot that would reduce the economic development sales tax from half a cent to one eighth of a cent. This allowed 3.3 million to be put toward street repair and maintenance on existing streets.
“Now we have a two-pronged approach for new streets and existing streets that are not on the burden of the residents,” Carrillo said.
Additionally, County Commissioner Beckett and County Commissioner Hamner will also be helping to repair city streets through a partnership agreement with the city.
“The residents’ tax dollars are being stretched even further when it’s not just one entity [repairing streets],” Carrillo said.
Bastrop residents should already be seeing improvements to streets in the Hunter’s Crossing and Riverside Grove neighborhoods.
City staff members are currently doing prep work, such as repairing cracked sealings, fixing edges along gutters and fixing major potholes. Once that is done, staff will be able to overlay the streets with HA5, a high density mineral bond designed to preserve asphalt. Carrillo said this will give the streets another 10 years of life. This phase of the project is expected to be complete by the end of summer.
Each year Carrillo said city staff will choose 15 to 20 streets to focus on until all of the existing streets have been repaired.
“I think this will help us put a better foot forward for our residents and visitors,” Carrillo said. “Folks who come to our downtown have to travel on Pine, Water and Farm and those are some of our worst streets. Those are some of the streets that will be getting attention in the very near future.”
To learn more about Bastrop’s street rehabilitation project, visit the city’s website.
The above story was produced by Multi-platform Journalist Mary Katherine Shapiro with Community Impact's Storytelling team with information solely provided by the local business as part of their "sponsored content" purchase through our advertising team.
