San Angelo City Council 6-20-23

[0:00:00] 20th 2023 city council meeting we're not going to call it to order till Larry has placed himself up here and in his chair thank you ma'am to order at 8 33 a.m today we have Gary Jenkins who will lead us in prayer and pledges so if you'll please stand here and city council members and everyone please join with me in a word of prayer dear father in Heaven in Jesus name we bow before you to say thank you for this day and everything that you have done are doing and about to do we pray that you endow the members of the council with wisdom understanding and knowledge to conduct this business of the city in a way that will glorify you and be edifying to all of us who dwell and work in this city and father we put in a special petition can you please send some rain and cool down these triple digit temperatures and Lord so that the people will be able to get some relief from the heat we thank you also for just this day and I ask you to bless each and every one in Jesus name amen repeat after me I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all honor the Texas flag I pledge allegiance to thee Texas one State under God one and indivisible me with that we will move into item three

[0:02:03] on the agenda which is proclamations and recognitions we have no proclamations but I do want to make sure we make an announcement about the incredible um Victory our baseball team came home with as national champions for Angelo State University so I think not that we weren't already on the map but certainly we're on the map in the Baseball World now so we want to thank them for all of that energy effort and chicken Heroes out of us we will move it we will open up the agenda now for public comment issues or concerns not on the regular agenda may be raised by the public at this time citizens should speak from the podium address all comments to the Diaz Begin by stating their name and address or single member district number and limit their remarks to less than three minutes do we have individuals in the audience today who would like to come forward and make public comment seeing none hearing none we will move on to our consent agenda I will ask each council member if they'd like to pull something from the consent agenda I'm going to start with Lucy no ma'am Karen no ma'am Larry Harry Tom nothing nipple Tommy no ma'am then may I have a motion for approval of the consent agenda emotions to approve motion made by Karen seconded by Harry any public comment considering any agenda item at this point on the consent agenda see none will take a vote all those in favor say aye Larry Karen Lucy hi Tom Gary Donna hi hi okay consent agenda is past 7-0 we will now move into the regular agenda comments regarding items on the regular agenda may be made by the public when each each item is discussed

[0:04:06] as outlined above applicants proponents and appellants are exempt from the time limit above and instead must limit their remarks to less than five minutes we will start with item a which is the overview and update on the i-27 corridor and today we have our Porsche Plains president and CEO CEO Lauren Garduno Lauren welcome thank you thank you I'm talking to that episode okay uh thank you very much and good morning everyone thank you for having me today and give you an update on what's been going on with forced to planes Corridor and how it relates to San Angelo and and I look forward to making this presentation to you this morning and and offer up my time for any questions that you may have throughout the presentation but my name is Lauren Garduno and I have a pushing the up button I push the green button there we go down hey okay uh I have been with the Porsche Plains Alliance since September of this last year so about nine ten months is what I came on board uh prior to that I spent 35 years with the Department of Transportation Texas and uh various leadership positions throughout West Texas Odessa Abilene finally finishing up in Austin in their Administration uh overseeing planning project development for the state so uh but I live in Abilene and uh Farm and Ranch in uh in South Taylor County runnels area and so so and I do business in San Angelo so I'm back and forth between San Angelo and Abilene a lot as I you know as I could take care of some farm and ranching operations but here today I'm here to talk to you about ports to Plains some of the things that happened they'll give you and I know we have some members that probably need some probably a briefing on what the history what the Porsche Plains is and what it's about and uh and then we're going to kind of narrow in on what's been going on about the last four or five years with the Porsches Plains Alliance and uh it's and and I'll particularly finish it off by kind of narrowing in Hawaii what is going on as it relates to the city of San Angelo and in your respective area so

[0:06:08] that is a kind of the agenda but Porsche to planes uh is a is a Highway Transportation Corridor that goes all the way from Laredo all the way to uh the Porsche Plains portion goes uh goes up to Denver but we actually have as far as the trade Alliance goes we have two partnering trade organizations called the heartland Expressway and the Theodore Roosevelt Expressway and that takes the corridor the trade Corridor all the way from Laredo all the way to Canada uh to the state of Alberta and so uh it is a it has been designated as a national highway system high priority Corridor the Porsche Plainsman has and uh and it is uh was created yeah really you know if you think about it when you think about uh the uh the NAFTA agreement after it was signed and you start talking about you know Freight trade booming of goods from Mexico and Canada with the United States uh this uh this Corridor was kind of uh kind of started to come into play uh after the creation of NAFTA and the movement of those goods up and down that corridor but uh we you have seen a a dramatic increase in the movement of goods out of Mexico and as uh as we see the you know kind of world world events are happening even in the last three or four years I think we're going to continue to see uh the possibility of a of a greater emphasis Upon Our trading partnership with Mexico particularly especially as it relates to Texas and even Canada in the future as it goes into the north but um you're going to hear things that you know in the future about near Shoring uh you know and and bringing a lot of that a lot of that stuff that currently is going over in China that's going to China you're going to see a lot of that all of a sudden be moving into Mexico and Central America and and all of a sudden it drives the emphasis upon why this Transportation Corridor is so important and will continue to be so important for us this is a visual kind of gives you a picture of kind of where the quarter goes to the midwestern United States uh the if you think about it uh and we're gonna get talked about this in a minute as the last some of the latest things we've been doing in Texas particularly is the is a future

[0:08:09] Interstate discussion and we're going to talk about that in a minute but uh if you think about it a lot of the nation's Interstate systems are East-West systems and have been and that's the reason why I was when the Act was signed in the 50s by President Eisenhower uh it was about going west it's about going west about going west it's about getting from the east coast to the West Coast and really there wasn't a lot of movement North and South unless you were driving a cattle from you know South Texas to The Rail Yards in Kansas or something so so you know our our route uh parallels the old cattle drives you know of the of the late 1800s and early 1900s and uh and so you kind of can see that there going right through the Bread Basket of the United States but what has happened to us is after um uh after NAFTA was signed and the ports of plains Corridor was it was created uh in the early 2000s uh it there were five D.O.T State dots that got together said let's look at maybe looking at a management plan of how we would build this Corridor out and at the time the conversation was about a four-lane divided highway we're not talking about Interstate we're not talking about future Interstate we're just talking about improving uh Transportation Network to four lane divided standards so that uh you know so we can move Frank Goods up and down the corridor they actually those States got together and put a plan together and started to work the plan and I gave an example uh New Mexico they they sold Bonds in that time frame under Governor Richardson and Governor Johnson they sold bonds and they built their portion of their uh porcel Plains corridor from Clayton to Raton they up they upgraded four-lane standards and got that bill uh Texas uh started to work on their plan and the problem in Texas is is you have about 11 000 Lane miles of trunk system that forced to planes part of the trunk systems and so you're having to compete with 11 000 Lane miles of corridor free that funding right Colorado started working theirs and uh and this was the way the plan looked as you can see it just it was basically our Porsche Plains Corridor identified into short-term and Midterm and long-term uh completion programs if the money would

[0:10:12] have been there we would not you know today you know we'd be talking about something else but uh but what happened was as you can see their plan at the time and o4 was about trying to have this thing built out maybe by 2010 2011 2012 and uh and we'd be having different conversation but this is what happened to us in Texas from 04 to 08 we were averaging about 140 million dollars per year on our Statewide corridors but that now keep in mind that's going over eleven thousand Lane miles of Highway that you're trying to put that money to just doesn't go very far and it wasn't going very far but then what happened is in an 08 to basically 2015 Texas and Texas the funding just dried up dried up completely in fact if you were if you were in San Angelos even sitting in your mpo working with your mpo uh looking for category two funding in europeo during that time frame San Angelo wasn't getting a lot of money from TxDOT in the state government to do work within even the city of San Angelo there just was no money um you know Statewide in fact what happened in Texas was they started bonding they started toe laning in Dallas Fort Worth in Austin and Houston and uh and that's the way that some of those districts were able to continue to build programs out from 08 to 15 for the rest of the state a lot of us in the rural area you know I'm talking about the the San Angelos the Abilene the odesses and some and amarillos you know we just basically didn't have a lot of money to build with and so the corridor this the quarter built out definitely went away you hear you you heard the creation of a new term that that came up during that time frame and it was a credit of District engineer up in children's Texas for coming up with this about building the super twos we don't have room to build four lane divided we don't have the money to build four lane divided but maybe with our reduced budget we can build these those passing Lane corridors and you'll see some exhibits you'll see some examples of that like even on 277 going down to Christoval you'll see the build out of what we call Super Two highways they're basically three lane highways for truck passing right it's a cheaper footprint and that's kind of what Texas started

[0:12:15] doing with their limited money from basically 08 to 15 uh you know trying to at least built some capacity in their system that was continuing to grow something happened though in 14 and 15. the state of Texas voters passed two propositions proposition one proposition seven oil and gas Severance on one sales tax on seven and what that did for the TX dots budget for building and construction it basically doubled it overnight so in 2016 TxDOT put 60 million dollars per year program for Statewide Corridor I'm talking about you know these building building out our planes corridors and stuff UH 60 million dollars that's not a lot of money that's not a lot of money at all for the whole state but then overnight that unified Transportation program there was about 35 billion in your 10-year budget went from 35 billion to about 75 billion from prop 1 and prop 7 oil and gas and sales tax revenue uh it just it changed the game and lo and behold Tech start and went back and started looking at their at their Corridor again and uh and they said you know we can afford to spend money in what they call category four which is rural and urban corridors and they started putting money in those uh those corridors some of the state was taking advantage of that I'll give an example the I-69 Corridor over in East Texas uh the Lufkin District the district engineer in Lufkin she had uh she was a planner at the time she had actually started the relief route studies off around some of those communities that on the 69 Corridor so when the money turned on in 16 and 17 she was at the front of the trough you know to go get some of that money because she had done the planning work early and prepared herself for um prepared herself for this uh this influx of money so you you see some projects that got picked up pretty quick because of uh because that money became available and I say that for a key reason one of our strategies is that we are actually focusing on is to make sure that we are doing the planning work now to be in a position to compete for that unified Transportation program construction

[0:14:17] money later uh and that's that's an important uh that's going to be an important effort for us but what that looked like in uh this unified Transportation program and this is this is a picture of a slide that TxDOT presented to the highway commission about two months three months ago updating their program and I told you in 1617 it was it went to 75 billion today going into August the commission is going to vote on a unified Transportation program that's at a hundred billion dollars 100 billion dollars and it has gone up that much in the last six years even and you can see here that I've highlighted certain categories of funding that's construction funding particularly the Statewide connectivity rural area they're put 10 billion dollars that's that's a that's a hundred million you know that's 100 million a year and then they got the 4u urban connectivity that allows us to do work inside these mpo boundaries inside San Angelo's NPO boundary on corridors you know and they they're they've stuck 7.8 billion per year to be distributed throughout the state but not only that uh the commission has actually given us uh about you know 3.5 billion dollars of energy sector money and San Angelo is in the energy sector so we have the Good Fortune of actually having a pretty healthy uh a budget of energy sector money that we can spend to improve our corridors and our highways in the in the in the San Angelo region a lot of that money is distributed by formula the Permian Basin gets a big chunk of it 50 of that by fact because that's where it's being generated from right uh and so you see that you know you see that play out there but the commission also sets aside about 14 billion of that 100 billion to uh cat 12 and that's where the commission passes out money as strategic priority projects a lot of it goes to the clear Lanes initiative in the Dallas Fort Worth Houston you know San Antonio on these big Mega projects it's letting that money is going there but they have been known to pass out money to some of the rural areas on our on our corridors and some of our districts on the ports to planes have benefited from category 12 commission strategic priority money that's important because you have a

[0:16:19] commissioner in your backyard that uh that sits on that commission and so understanding that right there is important because you know know that he has an opportunity to help us with uh you know with some of that cat 12 program also but I point out one other thing here a lot of times people forget about everybody likes to preach and talk about the 100 billion dollars construction program everybody's excited about the 100 billion dollar construction program but uh there is a below the UTP distribution line down there that bottom yellow box that number is 34.2 billion dollars that's in the 10-year window where that money is is that every two years when Tech stock goes in front of the legislature and asks for their operating budget they had legislate appropriation request operating budget they budget not only do they budget some of this construction money in their budget but they also have to budget planning engineering right away administrative all that is in that budget that 34.2 billion dollars is basically five lar Cycles legislative program Cycles you know every two years and that represents all the engineering all the right-of-way all the preliminary studies all that stuff that they're going to have to spend to uh to deliver this 100 billion dollar program and and I tell you that because that really that's that's the money I'm going after that's the money I'm interested in I'm interested in Tech stock putting money out of that 34.2 billion on planning and developing our Corridor and so that's kind of one of our strategies that we're using when we we think about it in that way what's happened the last five years is actually a lot um uh TxDOT completed a freight Mobility plan in 18 at the time TxDOT was really you know just getting into spending their cat 4 program again you know like I said 18 is about the time that the UTP doubled and we started to see some money but uh they um they really hadn't had a focus on they really didn't have a focus on any of the interstates I'll just tell you and and I'll tell you because I was there you know the focus

[0:18:21] wasn't on any of the interstates it was really about just trying to distribute this cap for money across all these corridors Statewide so they we did a study on Freight mobility plan but then later um uh there was a there was a possible recommendation out of that Freight mobility plan to do an i-27 extension now that was that was Tech stock driven at the time that particular recommendation was Tech stock driven uh and it started to kind of generate some interest about the idea of possible future Interstate but really it wasn't uh it was just an interest by TxDOT it really got pushed over the goal line by by Senator Perry uh you know Senator Perry up in Lubbock is the one that uh actually wrote A bill uh and it was uh and it was signed by Perry and it was in represented four price up in the Amarillo region they put the bill in place a house bill 1079 that actually told TxDOT no don't just think about this study TxDOT do the study let's see what the economic benefits would be if we actually did do a future Interstate in Texas on the western side of Texas and they did they put a study in place came up with uh the results and uh and this was kind of an idea of the of the study area that we were looking at it basically followed the porch to planes corridor from the radar out of Laredo up through you know Northern Panhandle you can see we have two splits on our Corridor today we have the the split at Sterling City then it goes to Midland Odessa comes back together in Lamesa and then the other other segment goes up to Big Spring we also have the split at Dumas and one segment goes over to New Mexico uh and then the other segment goes north up to uh up into Oklahoma ideally uh that segment it goes into the Eastern range of Colorado our goal is to take it to Lyman Colorado because that's where the porch Plains Corridor is and uh and it will end in um you know it would end on I-76 there at Lyman however TxDOT can't study future Interstate in Colorado they can't study future Interstate New Mexico they can only study future state in Texas so that's kind of why that study limit was there but these are the numbers and these these numbers showed uh you know it kind of woke everybody up they said you know what if we can get an

[0:20:23] interstate built in Texas over here there's a lot of value benefit ratio cost ratio was plus uh there's a seven talk about the cost to ratio because that's an important element that really is what we're going to build aggressively on yeah sure mayor so uh you anytime you're over 1.0 it's telling you that whatever dollar you invest in you you intend to you'll get that plus back right and uh and you all understand that and so so so now we're talking about and the cost to build our Interstate in Texas is going to be about 26 million dollars 26 billion it's a lot of money but if you can get it built it's going to bring back a 2.4 Plus on 26 billion dollars to your to the state of Texas right that's huge it's a big number uh and then the GDP 17.8 billion increase on your GDP so we're talking you know so our Economic Development core or our cities our counties our businesses you know uh it just will continue to have that kind of an impact their job creation with this as we build out uh you have actually uh you have a local contractor that's a member of our alliance Reese Albert they've been one of the founding members of this of this and they stand to benefit by building out this Corridor with us uh and so we just have a we just have a wonderful opportunity and what if this really didn't want anything though folks is what this did was is it turned txdot's eye towards we're no longer going to put it off on the you know as just a kind of a as a passive thing we're going to actively look at possibly seeing what we can do to build this quarter out it changed it changed the game yeah explain that because what it did creating 1079 forced a Consultant Group to be employed and to ins and to study the entire Corridor and prove up the numbers that you've just said it did so they no longer could say we don't know if it benefits us the Consultant Group proved that it would benefit the state of Texas it did and that has been a key element in terms of being able to push this forward yeah

[0:22:27] and I had and I'll add to that mayor what it has also done for us with TxDOT is TxDOT has several um um several designated you know legislative designated committees that oversee certain programs that they're responsible for overseeing including the ones we're going to talk about at the end of this presentation which is the i-27 advisory committee that was created under a different bill which actually it's it's our it's our committee for our Corridor but we have a border trade advisory committee we have a freight multimodal committee we have uh we have uh um the the i-27 advisor committee all those committees what's interesting is is now uh the Porsche Plains Corridor is being integrated into every one of those committees the the you know the Border trade and that's important for us because because you know if you get the Board of Trade advisor committee that's dealing with the districts along the border if you get them talking about ports and planes you know in their in their meetings and in their Investments and in their their management plan then uh that's just one other that's just one other program that TxDOT is managing that uh that we uh we take advantage of and have the benefit from the freight advisory committee they got Texas Texas DOT like every all 49 50 dots have to put together a freight plan for the federal government and that Freight plan has to say this is these are the corridors this is what we're working on and and uh and it's important that we are integrated into that that national freight plan too which we are and TxDOT has picked that up on us too so so that's a key that's a key thing for us it has been a key thing for us and with that being said uh Senate Bill 1474 they did it they did create an interstate 27 advisory committee and I will say this that uh Porsche Plains was very influential in how that committee how that that language looked in the creation of that committee so there's your there's your alliance working for you uh trying to make sure that we get the representation that we need out of our cities and County governments that are all up and down this Corridor and you can see there that uh It's Des it's made up of County judges that I've been identified on the poor Supreme's

[0:24:28] Corridor but it also includes some of our big cities and our major cities uh San Angelo of course I've highlighted there is one of them uh your mayor sits on that i-27 advisory committee that you know as your representation for uh and it meets twice a year meets twice a year and it is interacting with TxDOT on Project recommendations for uh projects on this Corridor as they as they develop their plan this is kind of a visual and Tom Green County the county is actually has a seat on it so it's important for the for our County Judge to understand that too that that uh that you have a voice that's been written into this bill on this advisory committee that gives you access to TxDOT and to the direction that they're going when they try to look at Future uh the future Interstate uh up and down our corridor but it also not only that it includes three members who are Economic Development professionals uh and um and you have a you know and I appreciate the uh the involvement of your Local Economic Development uh you've uh he's engaged with that and that's that's a good thing uh and another thing is is uh there's another there's another group a committee called multimodal textile runs a multimodal program and so we're talking about not only the highway that is uh that is up and down the 27 Highway future 27 but we're also talking about how do other Transportation linkages come into it and you're you send in a in a very strategic location because you've got the the the you know a txdot-owned railroad that runs through your community uh going down into the Presidio region and why is that important because one of our big economic generators on our Corridor is the cattle industry uh it's a big player will continue to be a big player and as we continue to develop our trade relationships with Mexico I've been having conversations with some of the large cattle feeders up in the Panhandle and my question to them where's your cattle coming from from Mexico I know where it's coming from in the United States interesting enough it comes from the south southern United States and they're bringing it across a lot of it's coming up 287 skipping us and going over the Panhandle you know through the Dallas Fort Worth region you know that

[0:26:30] way uh but as we build this Corridor and improve even i-14 across South Texas who knows we may change that model on how that cattle travels through Texas into the Texas Panhandle but Mexican cattle right now today currently is traveling through the port of Santa Teresa in New Mexico south of Las Cruces a lot of it's coming up that way and uh and so I'm telling you all this is we develop our future interstate down to Laredo Del Rio and Eagle Pass maybe we can change that model now I realize politics and Mexico may drive a little bit where that Crossing happens but at least maybe we can change that model enough to get um to uh to get them to start thinking about taking our Corridor and cattle's a big player it's a big player in this discussion so they have a seat at the table when it comes to how we build this thing out but that railroad coming now Presidio is hugely important because in fact many of the Agricultural businesses in Mexico lose 30 percent of their crop while they're in a truck waiting to cross the border so it's very congested it's expensive and opening met that bridge would dynamically change the cost of operation for the agricultural industry I agree completely I agree completely and just a side note I've had a wild hair idea about how we can develop that railroad from Alpine South we need to form a dinner train and have like a Orient murder on the Orient Express kind of you know that's floating my head anyway so you know provide provide some tourism down there and another use of the railroad right if you can get another use for it generate building it out right so you could do that from Fort Stockton we could yeah so anyway I've got this murder on the Orient dinner party I heard a Knives Out Story coming out yeah yeah that was one of my wild hand ideas I have about that railroad a few years ago east north and east okay anyway and see you can you can uh you can recruit the Angelo State the students the liberal arts program they can be your you know they can put your program together you know you got there's all kinds of potential there y'all can do well you know Texas

[0:28:32] Pacifico was headed here in San Angelo correct that's correct so who says you have to go down to Alpine that's right to have a tourism spot you can do it in San Angelo can't you so hey there's my idea you can have it it's free there you go um I bring this slide up because this was the recommendation from the 27 committees you can't read that very well I'm sorry but you'll have a copy of this presentation you can look at it later and you can actually look at this report where you make this report available to you but I highlight on that committee implementation plan the key you see there is short-term midterm and long-term recommendations on those projects I say that because I showed you some slides earlier in this deck they talked about in o4 how these five dots had a short-term midterm long-term plan it's always interesting when we start talking about short-term midterm long-term plan what gets lost in the short term midterm long term right it gets lost in it so we're we will we will take the recommendations and this is public this is a public involvement recommendations and you know basically you guys you know the the submitted you know that's what we think should be built out and uh and we've brought and they've broken it into three types of projects they're dropping it into Interstate upgrades between cities uh relief routes or or you know through routes even because in some of these cities you don't have to go around it you might be able to develop through it in a way um and then and then safety operational improvements and some of those and I'm telling you that three areas it's important because remember that slide that showed the UTP and had all those categories of funding there was a safety category you know there's a bridge category it doesn't mean that we have to just go into court or money or into commission strategic priority money to build your portion of place Corridor we're going to look at all that but also we need to explain the following and that is is that you won't go from Tulane with the passing Lane to four-lane Interstate you go from one to the next step up to the next step up so there would be work being done to upgrade to get to Interstate quality in terms of the entire quarter but it would happen in

[0:30:35] steps yeah so I'll give you a visual how that might look um you know San Angelo district is doing a lot of super two upgrades and some corridors safety reasons 137 for example we went down to a big lake they've got that cold Corridor nearly identified for super 2 upgrade I drove 277 in you know yesterday and uh we've got some super tube being built just south of just north of town right Cristobal uh Merchant Highway that was that's a super two you know some of that 67 is a super two so what I what you will see is is that tech stocks going to have to make operational improvements and Rehabilitation improvements to their highways and they're going to have to continue to do that and they got funding to do that they got maintenance rehab type funding do that and they can do some super 2 work even in that but in the meantime we're going to work with tech stock to go after the planting dollars at 34 billion below the line to actually start looking at feasibility and right-of-way needs and controlled access on these corridors to get them where we can actually buy right away for a future Interstate standard and uh and then TxDOT as then as they they continue to develop out that Corridor then they can start looking at doing a project that gets it to the interstate standard so that's the process of the step that that we will uh that will continue to to look at um what is it what does that look like uh in in you know how would that look like in a San Angelo so our game plan really for us to be able to put an inner future an interstate placard on our Highway it has to be Integra it has to be upgraded to Interstate standard connected to an existing interstate does that make sense so where are you the closest interstate you have and I always I always fascinated by San Angelo with this because my whole career with TxDOT West Texas if you drive I-20 and you drive I-10 we got we got all this we got a lot of good signage that says San Angelo right San Angelo San Angelo exit signs

[0:32:38] everywhere Colorado City Abilene you know even back into the East the Eastland area they're saying you know you can signs that get you in San Angelo and I thought man San Angelo's done a pretty good job of getting their name you know on a sign on Interstate sign on 10 and 20 for a city that has no interstate you know that runs that runs through it it's pretty impressive actually but what we'll do is is we'll work at we are you know I've already having conversations with districts is we'll work at getting Big Spring for example Interstate standard on 87 South up to Interstate standard and it may not take as much because of where they're at already we're going to work at Sonora trying to work North on 277 to bring that that quarter up to Interstate standard so that we can actually start signing the interstate as we get those segments those logical terminized segments you know completed we can start signing Interstate 27 you know um to uh to San Angelo so I can't start in San Angelo even though we might get the relief route built first here and that's okay because you can get it built and you can do what with it you can economically develop it you know you can get your relief route built and you build it to Interstate standard and you can start economically developing it it's kind of like where the Houston heart was finished what did that do for your your your your city you know when you got it built you can do the same thing here just we can't put a 27 sign on it until I connect you to 10 or 20 you know from either San Angelo or from are you from Big Spring or from from Sonora and we'll do that we'll start working that and that'll be our game plan to try to bring the interstate to you so we can get those signs in place that makes sense questions or thoughts on that yes nope none okay go ahead Lucy what years are we talking about the ASAP good question Lucy it's a good question because I'm will be 60 years old next March so I'm thinking okay I don't want to do this uh um 26 million dollars I think it's going to take me 20 years to get the whole Interstate bill

[0:34:41] 20 years is my number I'd like to have built out to Interstate that does not mean improvements that's correct along the way to get us there so that is going to see an improved Corridor along the way that should open up the trade from Mexico coming north because you will have an improved Corridor that is correct uh and I've got a I've got a 10-year window in my head too commissioner the councilwoman that is a is a you know I like to see some things get you know and particularly I like to see some some relief routes get built so that the cities can actually be developing them today instead of tomorrow right and then I will tell you it looks like uh Tech Stock's going to throw a lot of money at our corridor from Laredo to Eagle Pass to Del Rio all the way up to Sonora they're gonna throw a lot of money at it and that's key and they've picked it up as a and I've and I've kind of I don't know if I'm highlighted this presentation I'm going to Del Rio in a couple weeks I have highlighted in that one they're they're going to put a lot of money on that portion of the corridor because because I think we can actually sell it also as uh as a dual purpose not only Interstate but it also is going to help them with their border security issues it's going to help them I mean it's going to help a lot and when you have a full controlled access Interstate that runs parallel to the border for 115 miles you can do a lot of things with that your fencing your uh your controlled access your fiber your your technology improvements and upgrades you're going to be able to do a whole lot of stuff in that in that so we think we'll get that built I think in the next five six years I'll get a lot of that bill and that's key because that's the worst part of this entire quarter it is the worst roads it's the biggest problem it's the conditions are terrible the geography is terrible for for doing this so if we don't get it done first the rest will be challenged well I mean it's the key it's the key and if you look at this picture this is the how we in the last two years there's been a lot of activity with our poor supplies group we've actually been able to get congressionally designated future Interstate that's at the federal level this year uh big win is we're actually

[0:36:45] putting numbers on it now we had little hiccups on what that numbering system need to look like but uh that we've gotten through that I think because we have splits right it's kind of like the Dallas Fort Worth you know those two those two cities they want to be alone they want to be in the events that we're Dallas you're Fort Worth Fort Worth if you're a member of Ayman Carter he didn't really care for Dallas and never did and uh and so you have that history there but so just like the 35 Corridor we have a 35 East and 35 West uh we'll have a 27 Corridor they'll have a 27 East and a 27 West for you it doesn't matter because it's 27 it's 27 through San Angelo you know when it gets to you here and it'll be 27 North up to Dumas where we split it again we'll take the 27 designation over to Raton the reason why is because we just do not know for sure if Colorado DOT is going to play with us on a future Interstate I've got to spend some time in Colorado convincing that the D.O.T officials of the value of having this interstate on the Eastern range right now that particular mindset is is they don't want to build any additional Lanes in Colorado we want to go public transportation on Colorado Springs to Denver it's just a whole mindset that we're going to have to have some conversations with I would point out there's an article just in two weeks or the last two weeks about the value of having multiple interstates running through your system especially like on I-95 in Pennsylvania when the when the deck went down and it got burned up and I just read an article this last week about the value of having said really from Freight movement we're not going to see that much of a hindrance on our 95 Corridor because they mentioned two other interstates that run pretty much parallel to uh to uh to the 95. so if I could get Denver to see that article and understand that then there's value of US putting this interstate on the Eastern range you know going up to at least going up to Denver and a lot of this traffic uh quite frankly I'm selling TxDOT is and then chairman bug is you know he's a congestion he's a congestion man rightly so the governor has told him to you know fix the congestion in these big cities but um you know we can show him where we can take your truck traffic from Laredo out of San Antonio that

[0:38:49] wants to go West on 10 either to Denver or to California there's a lot of it that does we can uh we can take it this way commissioner news very focused on safety because he heads up the safety because he does on the Transportation Commission or committee it really does yeah race at work poor supplies to be able to do for you is uh the what we call the old earmark program that was dead in 2009 2010 got his turn back on there's new rules associated with it there's a lot more restrictions associated with it which is fine it got it so that way it's not pork barrel it's it's you know it's pretty good it's called Community Project funding uh your Congressman Pfluger did submit we submitted for a project that uh actually is it was a it was a funded project it was already funded but here's the value of that it's on one of your it's on your Highway out here north of town uh on uh 67 on 277 uh construction project and it's about it's about a 15 16 17 million dollar project that was already funded by TxDOT and I think you're in po but we were able to get an additional three million dollars out of Congressman fluger to put on that project and why that's three that frees up three million dollars in your NPO with a tech stock that they can actually redistribute uh in your in your in your area so we are going to continue to ask our federal Congressional delegations for the that kind of money because that's in out of the Federal Highway bill that's not coming back to TxDOT as a formula you know they get their formula money that hundred billion dollars that I told you UTP about 35 percent of that is Formula distributed by federal gas tax money back in so they that's about 35 35 billion of it is that Federal gas tax money but but federal government is still holding billions and billions of dollars in that in their Highway bill that's discretionary that if that if we don't ask for it we don't get it on our Corridor then it goes to the east coast it goes to California it goes wherever the current Administration wants to put it you know in their programs so we're going to continue to ask for that money to get it back to our communities in Texas where it needs to be we and this is just one request we

[0:40:51] actually received quite we got quite a bit of it up and down the corridor which is good we're also asking for planting dollars and this is something that um to educate you all on when you're when pfluger's office you know when and filter was pretty open to an Arrington and Lubbock is pretty open to it when you get down south Texas some of those congrats you know those senators and delegates they they like to put the money on the construction because they see it you can see it but we're trying to educate them say Hey listen if you turn me loose on the planning uh then when you guys call for your uh your future Federal dollar and you want and you got that short window you shovel ready you may have heard the term shovel ready if you hear that term it's because you know the project has to be ready to be built we can even give you some shovel ready projects because we've done all the planning we've secured all the right away we've said you know we've set aside the program you know we've cleared the environmental I said you know it's a two or three year process just clearing environmental some of this so so that that's a big deal and uh and we'll continue to uh like I said work on upgrading the interstate from Sonora North and from Big Spring South to San Angelo as I mentioned earlier these are some text Dot uh slides that uh Chris Cowan gave to the i-27 advisor committee show some of the existing construction as the mayor mentioned you know we're not going to just not do anything on the corridor there's future construction projects there's safety and operational anything that's got an orange on that orange tab you know they got that's under construction but anything that's got a purple there on that slide that's future plan that's uh that's that's planning work and you can see number six and number seven we need to solve our relief router in San Angelo what does that look like and number seven is a relief Route Around Sonora what does that look like uh you know we've got to do some planning work there so anything that you see in the purple that represents that's planting dollars that we're going after uh to uh try to build this program out station I have questions for Lauren yes yes Tom so if you've traveled I-35 you know it's just brutal I mean I would

[0:42:55] do anything to avoid driving on I-35 even if I'm going to Corsicana from here I mean it's case Fields 5 14 it's pretty drive so how much of this when you talk about the cost benefit ratio is 2.4 how much of that are we robbing Peter to pay Paul it's already there are we taking it off I-35 and I-35 we'll see that or is this organic growth we're going to see over here on the West side of it that's a good question and and to answer that uh it it's it's additional growth and here's the reason why because the textile commission will preach this at you too they'll say Texas is Texas is growing by a thousand people a day 30 000 people a month are coming into this state so so you know we want that border to go all the way around the way around there we do yeah yeah we do yeah we do uh and so there's anticipated you know first of all if they if they don't fix the 35 situation because because we all know they're people want to live you know so many miles off of 35 right like 80 70 let's see what's the number it's like it's like about 90 of our population is like Easter 35 right 10 is west but that model's changed a little bit and it's going to change particularly for our Southern segment uh and then and then our Permian Basin segment and uh and it even shows the 2050 model that cities like San Angelo and Amarillo and Lubbock so what I call our Oasis in the west they're gonna they're gonna grow they're gonna be significant growth and so I think so the number itself was not robbing off an existing program per se it's anticipated that our growth in our state's gonna be that much that it uh that we we need to accommodate it with this Coral we talk about it in the falling sense and one is called National Security and so that's been an important part of comfort the conversation as we've worked on this Corridor because we do provide the food Fuel and fiber not only for the nation but internationally

[0:44:58] and as more product is moved from China to Mexico there's going to be more coming up from the south to the north and it makes it even more important we always talk about the following you can invest 8 billion on I-35 and you still don't res correct the congestion because it just continues to get congested the only way you can relieve congestion is to get a lot of the freight moving off of I-35 over to this new Corridor at 600 miles between Interstate 35 and this new corridor 600 miles there's no Transportation North and South that's 600 miles and so that becomes a really important part of it and we also know that in fact the one of the you as Drew Darby says it's pretty hard um the accident rate the death rate on I-35 is smaller because you're standing still if you're on you're around Midland Odessa and San Angelo which are in the high priority quarters because of the energy industry in your two-lane highways you got 18 wheelers coming at each other on two-lane highways to the death is a huge issue tremendous amount of accidents because of two-lane highways and Alvin is really focusing on that because that is his new responsibility on the commission so for all those reasons that is our strategy in terms of how we talk about it safety how do we prioritize the funding I mean we're here for we're all elected here to go San Angelo right you know I've been in tml meetings and listened to Midland Odessa and them on the sports complain and they were certainly not favorable about it coming through Angelo they wanted to spark it off and go west right and

[0:47:00] avoidance but so if you look at that priority of like you said that 32 34 billion you had that was flexible what prioritizes your opinion on where that money gets spent because I noticed on your segments you had them colored you know north to south one two three and four is that high priority no it's not it's just it's just the nomenclature of numbers it just started up there and they just numbered them that way the entire committee determined Priority One Two Three yeah and so the i-27 advisor committee has a voice in that how that priority happens and there and currently TxDOT is going through listing sessions with the public on how to what would be some of the criteria to prioritize these projects uh and we all were able to give some feedback into it my recommendation for example will be you know you look at short-term midterm long-term and I think it is is let's go look at anything that needs a long lead time like relief routes or whatever let's get some of that planning in the short term you know let's start that planning there for now um I I I would probably I would look at relief routes for economic development but then I would also start taking a look at those segments of the interstate upgrade that go from you know existing interstates to and and I think that will drive the priority a little well for example you have a Big Spring which is already working on their reliever route on the east side of Big Spring so they're using mpo monies from multiple because they have Abilene Big Spring and some all right so they're combining those monies and they're working on their reliever route on the east side Lubbock has got the money to do their loop on the west side which will connect north of Lubbock down to south of Lubbock's we are working on our reliever route so each of us in various areas are doing our part to start the process not waiting for the main Corridor but doing the parts that will connect It ultimately so there's work when we say 10 years there's work being done this year next year and the

[0:49:03] next year on these projects so there are certain projects that are going to drive driver Behavior too I'll give you an example Amarillo up there on their Loop you know we're working with Blair the district engineer to try to get direct connects off of existing 27 South between Canyon Amarillo get those direct connects on the loop so that that truck driver all of a sudden makes a decision I'm not going to run my truck right through Downtown Amarillo which is some Nightmare on 27 going in you know terminates there at their new ball field or whatever you know but I'm gonna but once we get the direct connects Bill to the north and south side of that Loop all of a sudden the truck it's it's feasible for that trucker to to uh make that you know make that decision choose that it's happening Big Spring too as we've improved the signage for that you know on that relief route and now all of a sudden truck traffic is starting to take that route instead of you know instead of going through 87 through downtown you know Greg Street so so that's those those are gonna be some of the priorities I think that will drive you know what gets built when interestingly enough until we started this 1079 um study many people in in major positions in text Dot didn't even realize that i-27 went through Downtown Amarillo when we took him up there and showed them that you i-27 actually goes through the middle of Amarillo they were like how does that happen so we weren't even a focus we weren't even important enough for someone to look at that and say how did that happen so we've opened a tremendous amount of eyes and focus on this Corridor that until 1079 was passed was not really a conversation meaningful conversation and the model for us too just so you understand is what we start looking at Freight Movement by Dollar volume sometimes we don't see the large dollar volume on our Corridor because we're not moving automobile parts or technology you know that's going California way you'll see that or it's going up to Illinois right you see that on those

[0:51:05] corridors however when you start looking at truck volume by by commodities uh all of a sudden we become a serious contender in terms of the way we're going to feed the world do the food fiber and fuel discussion we understand the fuel discussion we understand where that's coming from but the the fiber you know 40 of the nation's cotton is in the Panhandle 40 of the nation's cotton today it goes by truck to Fort Worth Rail Yards it gets on a rail and it comes right back through Lubbock on the way to Long Beach California to get on a ship to get to China so you have to go North to go south so as Mazatlan as Mexico continues to build their Corridor and they are they're improving their corridor from Eagle Pass Laredo on the Mazatlan to Mazatlan as they continue to do that was improvements all of a sudden our cotton growers association says you know what it's it's cheaper for us we're beneficial for us even while we're still dealing with China to run it down our Corridor South and go into mazatlan's port and go out that way and then in the future as I mentioned near shore in the beginning of my presentation who knows maybe the Futures you know jeans and shirts are not being made in China they're being made in Mexico or Central America and they're going down that way anyway right same thing the cattle industry what part is 12 of the nation's top 20 feedlots 12 of the nation's top three feedlots are on our Corridor yeah I mean that gets us into the Heartland Expressway and up that way too but it's on our corridor uh three of the nation in 2022 three of the top six agricultural exports in our nation was cotton Dairy and cattle three of the top six we have most we're getting a bulk of the nation's Dairy and we're good we've got I've already told you the numbers on the cotton and uh and and we've got we've got the bulk of the nation's cattle sitting on our Corridor and you can't I tell people you can't pipeline that cow and pipeline that oil and gas product but you just can't pipeline that cow so the other part of this study which is amazing is that statistically those numbers had not been brought forward and put out there before so by forcing this Consultant Group to be hired they spent amazing how quickly how much

[0:53:11] work they put into this thing proved up and produced these statistics that really no one had talked about ever just and just a side note you know just some things that I'm interested in too is you have a bases at Del Rio San Angelo Abilene Wichita Falls on the 277 corridor I think at some point some down the road I'm going to have some conversation with your Department of Defense about the history of our Western forts one to our existing base is two from you know for today because I think I think there could be some potential for us to be tapping into a funding pot Federal level that's not just Transportation but it could be it could be defend our defense budget in terms of what we do with our this Corridor especially begin the national security issue and that's to that and we remind everybody that Eisenhower when he created the interstate East and West they didn't base the location of that on population they base it off of the most direct easiest route to go east to west and so when we're challenged about the population of for example our Corridor versus the I-35 Corridor we remind everyone that Eisenhower didn't base it off of population but the ease of Transportation the fastest route quickest route there was a and there was a military in that act too yeah yeah so we'll we'll tap into that I have one final question on this one or maybe this is the question I get you know as we sit here and look we just want to know where it's going to be and San Angelo and Tom Green County I mean there's a ton of people that would be prepared to do development and you know at this point they're like we think we know how it's going to go San Angelo but nobody I mean when you can Define that then there's going to be a lot of money played and a lot of investment here so is it hard for the plan to say the route's going to cut off at Grape Creek or where it's going to go right around here there's a lot of people prepared to uh it's the reason we're

[0:55:16] asking for plenty money because we don't we can't designate that until we've been given the planning money to officially figure that out your current study Chris Cowan in the district you know with MPL y'all got a study going on about potential relief right around you know on the west on the east side coming around to the north right and uh and that part some of that study's funded but but but we uh you know I think we will continue to ask Austin to give Chris even more money to look at what it would be like to bring that up to Future Interstate standards bring it and and if that becomes the route that everybody's happy in San Angelo with having then uh then we can identify that now today and get that planning identified and that way then your developers can say okay now it's now we know where it's coming we can do something with it it's a good question pushing at the mpo level and it doesn't need to happen well I mean that's the most common question I don't know about all the governor up here but everybody's like where's that route going to go yeah yeah we don't know and we do know you know our route is going to go uh 277 South so we know we have to figure out this thing around San Angelo get it back to 277 South right because we know it's going that way on our on our Corridor granted uh you know TxDOT hasn't they have these key strategic Highway corridors that got four or five of them across the state and what that is is that's their way of spending some of that cat for money back and you know when I told you back in 0-4 when the trunk system money dried up you know now they've they've identified five or six of these corridors in 1617 to start spending in we've got most of our route on with those key one of those key corridors but their money that they're spending is just to get it to a four-lane divided highway so it's our job the end to work with the districts to say listen do your planning work for future Interstate upgrade which includes controlled access issues includes the right-of-way path a width it'll include you know whatever great separations you know do your planning studies for that even though we know txtot is going to give you maybe some money just to build it to a four-lane divided standard that intermittent build so to speak um and then for us in San Angelo right now that Corridor doesn't go south of

[0:57:21] San Angelo on 277 that little segment's not picked up so we're going to do some extra work there to you know find the money for it but currently that segment goes uh over to Eden and ties in down a junction right that's where that's where their priority is on that and you see some work going on there because of that so well that's the 80 83 thing correct that takes you on down to I-10 to Corpus Christi but fortunately for us North San Angelo North it picks up on our Corridor and we and but and but what does that mean it means that uh Abilene has a little bit of segment of south of Big Spring that uh that needs to be four lane divided they're they're currently planning and doing that now granted the district is working at doing some planning work to see if we can get into a future Interstate standard too which is what we're asking to do uh Lubbock you get up north of Lubbock all your stuff's already poorly divided so Steve doesn't have any you know he's not gonna get any extra money to do that uh the middle Odessa people were upset because that 158 didn't get picked up on that key court or the reason why is if you drive 158 to Midland and you drive 349 North of millendum to Lamesa it's already four lane not divided some of it but it's four lane so it won't qualify for that key strategic funding uh that the TxDOT is currently spending because they're trying to upgrade to four lane divided standard so we're going after other money though planning particularly to get us into that that segment ma'am yes Tom tell me you'll be next thank you ma'am I want to have another conversation we don't have time today okay but um do you have cards you can give us I do yeah actually I actually thought I said man they're not gonna want my car but anyway yeah this is okay thanks be glad if you follow up if you have any questions folks give me a call I'm glad to talk to you about Larry since the route hasn't been identified how it's going to impact San Angelo we have one major project and we're thinking it's going to be just incredible and that's a rail Port I'd like to know thoughts on the integration of The Rail Port to the proposed i-27 I think that's important

[0:59:25] I think I think you need to we need to figure out a way to to create access from a future Interstate into your Rail Port that same conversation is happening in Laredo this week oh excuse me Eagle Pass this week I've got to speak at a summit uh in a couple days and they their support though Puerto Verde uh where they're doing uh they're doing a summit I mean they're doing an actually similar thing they're moving we're using rail to move product across the border uh from the south side to the north side and part of our conversation needs to be how does our future 27 need to tie into that railed yard right ask them that is that's an important question I think you need to you know you all need to spend time planning that and thinking about how you can take advantage of how your Interstate can connect to your your Rail Port we brought up the rail part two weeks ago when I was down there for the Transportation Commission meeting the importance of our because most of many of the people on the commission are not aware certainly Alvin is about the rail and their TxDOT is over or Alvin on Transportation is over rail as well and TxDOT has a division frayed multimodal and Caroline maze oversees one of those that's one of the division she oversees which you know Caroline used to work for me by the way so I do know you know that that's that she has been they've been emphasized that we cannot forget about Aviation and Rail and and Waterway you know we text out owns a Waterway you know they manage a Waterway too people don't realize that but the gulf intercoastal is under Texas responsibility to manage too so Carolyn knows at any time she needs us to come to Austin to speak towards the issues and the needs to call so we've worked really closely with her and she has a passion for San Angelo I think your rail thing's great I'm kind of passionate about that too you know I was a district engineer in Odessa for 10 years and that rail ran through my district at the time and I was trying to figure out how can we spend how can we spend money to get you know improve this rail because it's got potential but I

[1:01:27] guess you can thank Robert Janelle for that I guess any further questions or comments uh Lauren will have business cards and um opened to conversations and questions you don't you don't need Tom yes he's got an expiration date I think he's appreciate it I got him come back and visit us again Lauren thank you very much for being here today we are going to move uh Item B further down the agenda um there's a problem with the PowerPoint so we'll get that corrected meanwhile we'll move into item C consider proving requests for funding from the infill empowerment Zone Program for infrastructure funding up to 50 percent of cost for utilities and other eligible project costs and authorizing the city manager to negotiate and execute all related documents and agreements John you're on thank you uh John James one is a request for infrastructure funding for a sewer line and related cost and an amount not to exceed 13 125 for property located at 619 West Avenue V thank you John James director Planning Development Services and if you're wondering why there's a you know C and then a one under it there were actually two projects that were moving forward under this same program so we had a one and a two uh one of those asked to be delayed um and so we just have one coming today uh but this is as you mentioned a request for infill infrastructure funding this is on Avenue V you can see here it's a little hard to see the colors but the the green lines here are sewer and the the blue lines are water and you can see the property there in red on our current maps here it's sort of in a donut hole and there were no sewer lines to that property and so this property owner came in to extend the sewer line to be able to serve that

[1:03:29] property uh and is requesting funding under the our infield program which allows up to half of that sewer line cost to be provided with that infill funding through the city the total cost of his project was 26 250 dollars so half of that is thirteen thousand one twenty five which is his request as of today the available funding you all set aside about 200 000 a year for that infill program we've got about ninety three thousand eight hundred uh currently available in that program and so there's plenty available for this project I think that's it for that if you have any questions I'd be happy to answer any questions for John on this project John does it put it in there will it service that whole triangle so anybody that does any development on that that's a good question I know the the applicant is here he may be able to answer where that line was actually concerned as you put it in it'd be great if it would service looks like one line could service all three parts of that triangle we don't need three I don't know you would hope so design that way now you can see the these properties all can be served by this line over here so I don't know that I don't know exactly where the line was run but uh just a line that would serve that property would be sufficient um but again the applicant may be able to answer more detail about where it was where it was extended for the questions or comments sorry I ate my microphone this is in my district so I'll move to approve it is presented by Lucy any public comment let me ask a question yes does this uh benefit anyone else besides that one property owner does it affect anyone else let me just make those comment Larry typically in our infill program for example in the projects in the other districts we were allowing five thousand dollars per piece of property per home

[1:05:33] for infield development so if you did three houses completion you got fifteen thousand so this particular request is for fifty percent of the cost of the sewer line and the question mark is for how many proper how many is it for one house is it two houses what is it because they request for maximum thirteen thousand is certainly more than the five thousand allowed in our other infield districts thank you my name is Ralph from Bruno uh I live at 2130 La Cruz in this same neighborhood I've been here all my life small business owner and uh when the opportunity uh arose to build a home to beautify the south side where I'm from which which I plan on doing uh didn't recognize that there was no sewer line to this property or even the city engineer so we went ahead and Drew it up and and had the pipe put in so uh and it's just for one one home so uh I mean it's just uh on my budget you know it went over thirty thousand actually thirty thousand seven hundred fifty but that's why I'm asking for half you know realize that the city could kind of help me out a little bit on this so try and recuperate some of the cost it's my first home and I'm trying to beautify the South Side that's where my next other project will be also but you know didn't recognize there was no sewer line you own the properties um around there as well but they have sewer line yes ma'am this is the only one property that didn't have sewer super back in the day I guess never ran the conversation is why does the existing sewer line that that

[1:07:36] um is available for the the other part of that triangle but you can't connect from that sewer line to that property uh no ma'am because it actually runs where that blue line is it runs on that block uh and there was there's homes there so I couldn't you know through their properties so we actually had to uh put on the side of the curb on that property I don't know the zoning on this has there ever been a septic tank installed good and back back when back in the day is that an answer to this problem the septic system requires an acre property in order to put in septic within the city I think I'm answering this correctly but correct me if I'm not so you can't do septic if you're on less than an acre within the city limits John is that correct it depends uh if you have public water as this property does you can actually go down to a half acre if you if the soils conditions and things but but you're right in general uh and we actually don't like to see septic or the city's preference especially in a built-out area like this would be to have it served with with the sewer system so I think the city is uh supportive of running sewer to properties like this and if the property owner is willing to um to do that I think we we are supportive of assisting with that with this infill funds which were specifically for areas like this what is the size of the lot I couldn't tell you uh those I don't know if you do know the size it's 100 it's 150 by 170. it's that whole red area and that equates to how much acreage get a calculator out [Laughter]

[1:09:48] keep in mind that that the Project's completed manhole and everything the project's already done yes ma'am do we typically ask for the money before we do the project I mean it that's the biblical approach uh in this case uh the he went ahead and did it um that doesn't necessarily create a problem again it's typical to ask for the money but usually that's because they may you know if they don't get the money maybe they won't do it and case he was going to do it anyway but is is seeking this assistance I'll add a comment about your comment mayor about the five thousand dollars uh the infill program as you saw in your packet we have two different programs one is the five thousand dollars per lot and that's an easy you just come in and ask for it and you build the house and you're done but there's the second program which you can ask for up to fifty percent and we've had a number of projects that have done that partly because they were asking for more than five thousand per lot so we have funded similar projects to this where they did receive more than five thousand dollars per new house but many of those were done because there was more than one residence that it was going to serve us so there's a difference there that's right yeah yeah any other questions at this point any public comment further public comment there's a motion and there is a second we'll take a vote Larry no I you I couldn't hear you sorry Karen Lucy hi Harry hi Tom Tommy hi mayor Gunter I motion passes 7-0 we will move on to item D first reading and public hearing of an ordinance

[1:11:51] approving the abandonment of two unimproved Alleyways and one unimproved street Rio Grande Street in blocks five and eight Rosslyn Place addition between Mill spa and Guthrie Street and Sherwood Way and San Antonio Street John urine thank you again John James director of planning and development services this is McGill elementary school and you can see the entire block there they they basically take up the entire block but it was platted in the past with um Street rights of way and and alleys I think we have a better showing that here so you can see that was actually platted with with lots and blocks for residential development and all of those lots and alleys and streets exist in terms of the platted legal property lines and so that basically they just want to clean that up re-platted all as one lot and get rid of the alleys and the street right of way you either keeping a couple of easements for some of the utilities that run through there but um basically that's what they want to do in order to proceed with some development of new buildings on the site which they can't do right now because they would expose new building expansions would extend either over those Street rights away or the alleys so staff is supportive of this request we did send out notices to the surrounding Property Owners received four in favor and and no one was against it staff does recommend approval with a few conditions these are just our standard conditions of getting approval of the replat paying the fee getting a quick claim deed from the city and then ensuring that the existing utilities are addressed within an easement that would replace those alleys this did go to the Planning Commission they recommended approval unanimously 6-0 be happy to answer any questions this Council have a question on this item from anybody then do I have a motion Karen made a motion seconded by Lucy any

[1:13:57] public comment concerning this item seeing none we'll take a vote all of those in favor say aye motion passes 7-0 Rick are they ready okay so we'll move to consider authorizing the city manager to apply for a grant with the United States Department Of Agricultural forest service for reforestation and Bank stabilization of the north Concho River on City Park property from Oak Street to Bell Street authorizing the city to match funds for the project in the amount of 4668 327 and authorizing the city manager to negotiate and execute all related documents Carl you're on yes I would like to present some strategies we have for addressing the bank stabilization from where we finished the project in 2013 um our strategy includes an application to the USDA forest service for a grant part of this item here is to authorize the city manager should we successful with this grant to execute any related documents um also to approve the city's application we have already submitted the forms but we need that application ratified by city council and then also we need directions from City Council in terms of the matching City funds for this grant I think we kind of hopefully explained that but there was a very short turnaround on this one it was a two-week window of opportunity so typically we would bring those things to council first in this case we didn't have the time for that so if this you choose not to approve this then we will withdraw the application uh quick what's the requirement for matching I'll it's about four and a half million but it's in the presentation yes but this is public yes a quick look at the uh the location

[1:16:01] we're talking from along the Concho River from Johnson Dam down river to the impoundment at Bell Street scope of the project to stabilize the bank a long city property along the river the total anticipated project cost is uh just over 9 million the amount requested of the grant is just over four and a half million City match for this grant is is about 4.6 million we have already hired Frieza Nichols to do the preliminary assessments for this project The Next Step would be to do the design work and coordination of the conditional letter of map revision we're involves the the flood maps I'll hold right there a second just so you know y'all allocated funding a while back to do some River improvements on stabilization and hot spots so the the work that's being done on the design right now is through funding that you did in the past which I would point out is one reason it allows us to take advantage of opportunities like this because you've put some money forward in planning and we were able to say hey we've got plans ready to go basically so go ahead and then the following steps would be Construction Construction Administration and the the letter of map provision for the flood maps a quick look at what we did for the previous Bank stabilization and I show this to illustrate two situations which we're dealing with in this project so we have locations where we have a high angle of the bank along with erosion uh in situations where we don't have the opportunity to scope some of the Lamb to provide a lower slope we come in with higher Bank stabilization and then in situations where we have a little bit more land we go ahead and scope that land at a lower angle and Place Bank stabilization riprap on the lower end closer to the river these are existing conditions back these are images from February of this year uh

[1:18:05] back behind the funeral home where we have a significant Bank erosion well with saying that when you say we have significant bank erosion and we've budgeted for bank erosion and stabilization why hasn't that been a we've budgeted for little spots to prep so the design work on the the front end was to do some work starting downtown and that's the work that we hope to actually do with some of the remaining dollars we hit the hot spots to stabilize those bigger those areas where you had erosion but the other was to go ahead and design that bank stabilization all the way to Bell so yes we do have a little bit of money that you've allocated in the past which could be allocated would be utilized for the stuff starting downtown moving East but not anywhere close to being able to stabilize the banks all the way to Bell Street when would we be notified uh when we if we get this grant what's the timeline that'll be in here but it'll be later this summer early fall so pretty quick is what we're thinking because what I am very nervous about if we do get some heavy rains is there some areas where the the bank stabilization got so bad it fell into the Concho River so the cost of the sidewalk and everything else with it became even more than ever anticipated so I would hope we're not at a point where if we don't get this grant that we have a game plan to make sure that this bank doesn't fall into the river we and that's one reason y'all allocated the funding early on to start the stabilization which is minor but to get the plan the plan is not as simple as just because we have to meet all sorts of requirements with low Mark lowmar and all these things that are required so that plan gets us there so then after that if you start allocating funds for

[1:20:08] that we have the design we have the stuff we can we can bid out to a contractor we're at that point so but it's not a simple fix overnight no I know it's not but I also know if it falls into the Concho River it's a much more expensive problem as the mayor is alluding to this issue has been happening and they've we've made progress on stabilizing the river but I was mentioning Gene Ryan the other day when she was on Council gene harped on this constantly so it's a long time needing to be done yeah we can't go pay attention continue we've broken this project comprehensive project into three phases section one is the one that involves the TCEQ grant that we have and that's from Johnson Dam to Concho Avenue section two is from Concho Avenue down to the crossing near the nursing home and section three is from there to Bell Street that's approximately 8 800 linear feet of Bank stabilization the project also includes going back in and providing full irrigation systems for those those park properties and then doing some adjustments on the trails especially where we've had to slope some of the banks and then going in and planting additional trees one thing I'll point out as we go through the the grant the grant is not for Trails so this grant is for urban reforestation of natural areas where you have Urban forests and so and where those are threatened or endangered because of conditions and things that are happening so that's why we qualify under this is primarily about reestablishing that Urban Forest reducing heat those kind of things and San Angelo is very unique in that we have that that goes through downtown not most cities don't so look at the cost for section one it's just under 2 million section two about 4.5 million and section three just under 3 million this is our recommended approach in terms of time if we do get the grant we

[1:22:11] would have up to five years uh we wouldn't want to push it farther than four years but this is our recommended approach um to do it in three years I just continue to say let's not let those Banks collapse into the river I think as long as I mean once we have the plans which are in the works now um that could move forward quickly what is going to be is that you have to allocate those funds so if the funds can be allocated it can be done as soon as possible if if you need more time to allocate those funds then it gives us a little bit of flexibility as far as the time frame goes Bank stabilization is key we can't lose more the bank and staff does need direction from Council regarding matching funds possibilities are include the arpa funds Lake nazarethy account and half cent sales tax funds yeah and Tina's here from Finance to you have questions about those those are the ones do we have to decide today where that funding comes you do not you do have to agree that you're willing to fund that and the way most of the grants work is those you know we pay the cost and then we're reimbursed follow-up you would just have to say yes we're committed to making those funds happen I think today for me I'm committed to finding those funds but I don't think today we've got a budget session in front of us that we should be making a decision today about where that money comes from but I think councils should decide whether they want to support it I think there's a desire to do it but I don't think today is the day to decide where those additional funds come from we've got a big budget issue coming up and we need to wait for that um I just want to say for the benefit of

[1:24:15] council um there is also a fourth option which is funding the set possibly a little bit lower of a level four and a half million is a big chunk no matter where we take it from so just wanted to make that option available as well the grant request it has to be for 50 percent based on the Grant application it's that four and a half million would be the City match okay so I think what we do today is go ahead and take a vote to proceed with a Grant application down the road we'll figure out the funding strategy that works for Council Okay so um Larry's making the motion to approve the funding I mean the Grant application there's a second by Karen is there public comment on this item we're good how are you today pretty good um Jamal Sanford single member district two would you pull that microphone up just a little bit so you don't have to bend down bend down so much I'm opposed to the sales tax how to say sales tax fund being used for this only because that's handset sales tax funds are supposed to be spent on Florida approved projects and the low to moderate income neighborhoods and we ain't even spending it on that so I think taking money out of those neighbors and putting it onto the River Bank might not be the best option and we do have a general fund in property taxes in which so in the future discussions please please do not include the house of sales tax because there's a lot going on with it right now we'll have some sales tax can be used for Community projects so that does it is in the original language so but we're not making a decision today so we thank you for your your comment and that that is my concern that the affordable housing and other projects that is supposed to be used for is it being used completely so they're taking money from that to find other projects like this

[1:26:19] and other projects for the parks that's why I don't want to take it from the house of sales tax so that we can use all of it and then it's supposed to go to thank you thank you very much further public comment saying none will take a vote all and the vote is to apply for the grant all those in favor say aye aye with none opposed motion passes seven zero thank you very much Carl okay the next item on the agenda is consider selection of Mayor Pro tem from June 2023 through May 2025 election and Heather I don't know that there's anything to discuss on this so um we'll just move forward I will say um as the existing Pro tem we will pick somebody out that needs to finish their term out that is very well deserving I nominate Miss Lucy Gonzalez and I second that and seconded by Harry any public comment seeing none will take a vote all those in favor say aye absolutely um thank you congrats Lucy the next one is consider appointment of city council members to boards and committees and Heather you are on this one if you want to make a presentation okay or their slide no there's no presentation um because there were no um changes in the seats of council you can either leave everybody on their current boards or if you would like to shuffle if somebody would like you know a turn at a different board or commission then this would be the time um you know to make those decisions I would like to recommend that we leave the appointees as they are currently unless there is something anyone would

[1:28:23] like to change up if not may I have a motion for approval approving the existing appointees through the various boards and committees Tommy's signaling it yes and Lucy's saying yes as well any public comment see none hearing none we will take a vote all those in favor say aye aye thank you and all right so with that we are through with the regular agenda we will move into the closed session the closed session executive session on the provision of government code title V open government ethics subtitle a open government chapter 551 open meetings sub chapter D exceptions to a requirement that meetings be open under the following sections a section 551.087 business Prospect negotiations regarding Project New Wave B section 551.072 deliberations about real property regarding one the Sarah R Robertson survey 178 abstract 8474 and two TJ Smith survey for abstract 5145 section c 511.071 consultation with attorney regarding Hotel occupancy tax delinquencies and to section 551.071 consultation with attorney regarding professional agreement with two pro management at this point we are adjourned for the closed session all this meeting back to order there are no announcements that will be made concerning of the executive session so that means that we will go to the follow the additional follow-up and administrative issues Part B are there any announcements in consideration of future agenda items from anyone saying none we will then ask her to German it may I have a motion for a journey and we adjourn thank you

[1:30:30] we're adjourned foreign

Captured 2026-07-26 · source: youtube.com/watch?v=ZuF1ei34ZoI