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The Festival Park project and a possible
new high school were the primary topics of discussion at the most
recent City Council meeting, Thursday, February 22. Councilman Avery
Carlisle was absent, and John Holdrige’s recent resignation (due to a
move) left the council with only four voting members.
Mayor Danny Owen did announce, towards
the end of the meeting, that he’d asked former council member Gayle
Stroud to fill in for Holdridge, place 5, until the election.
Dr. Randy Mohundro, DISD Superintendent,
said he wanted to visit with the council about some upcoming DISD
plans because it would involve the city somewhat.
“The (DISD) board is in preparation of
calling a bond election for the May 12 election date,” Mohundro said.
“We will be doing that prior to March 12. In calling the election, we
are looking at possibly the construction of a new high school. In
constructing a new high school we have considered various elements.
One of the things we’ve considered is location. We’ve come to a point
in time where we’ve decided it would be better to work on our existing
site and build where we are. In doing so, we would like to better
utilize our space. Right now the front is on Johnson Street. We’re
going to attempt to turn the building and let it face Manchaca, and
let Johnson, coming in off Hwy 6, really be our main entrance. In
doing that, we’re coming to you, asking that we close Johnson, between
West Carnes and Manchaca, and I ask also, that we draw up an
interlocal agreement where that land would be deeded to the school
district and become school property.”
Mohundro then presented council members
with an outline of the building plan being considered.
“You will notice that it does go into Johnson Street,” Mohundro said.
“The lower portion, you will see, juts out, and you’ll see porch area
in the middle of the street. In discussing this with the city and the
mayor, we have sumised that there is a water line in that street. The
school district is willing to help pay the cost to relocate that
line.”
Mohundro went on to say that he was
appearing before the council, in part, so that voters would know
“we’re doing our homework” -- especially since everything was subject
to voter approval.
What I’m asking from the council,”
Mohundro said, “is a letter of intent saying the council is aware of
this...and have no objections at this time.”
Mohundro explained that the proposed
structure was larger than the current one, and would hopefully include
cafetorium space that would allow “table and chair” seating for 250
people and assembly style seating in excess of 500.
“This is not just the school district’s
facility,” Mohundro said, “this is the community’s facility. We want
to make sure we’re doing things that enable this facility to be
accessible not for school activities only, but when there’s a
community-wide function.”
When Norma Locke indicated she would like
to see a full council present before a vote was taken, Mohundro
reminded the council that there was limited time to get everything
done in time for the May 12 elections.
“We had to make sure you support this,”
Mohundro told the council at one point, “or we will literally have to
go back to the drawing board and work on it a little bit more.”
After a brief discussion, which included
questions about fire hydrants and the need for fire lanes, Mayor Owen
said, “We have a quorum so we can vote tonight...to enter into an
agreement with the school district to pursue closing this street,
deeding it over to them and working with the infrastructure as needed
to fulfill the school’s needs.”
“Pending the passing of a bond, and final
approval of a building plan, I so move,” said Mayor pro tem Howard
Gifford. The vote to approve was unanimous.
“Mr. Mohundro, we will work with you as
best we can,” Mayor Owen added.
“Excellent,” Mohundro said, “we
appreciate it, and look forward to keeping a good positive working
relationship between the city and the school.”
Progress on the Festival Park project was
also discussed.
“Gaylon Atkins has volunteered to work
with the city,” Mayor Owen said, “to help frame out the ticket booth
and some other work out there. He’s going to be our leader there in
that part of the construction -- finishing up our office and stuff.”
Howard Gifford noted that he’d visited with Atkins and there were
still decisions that had to be made. “There’s some things on the
framework in there,” Gifford said, “but the block fill is in at Pate’s
and I think he’s going to go ahead and pick that up and get the block
fill done on all the CMUs so that we can go ahead and get the painting
done in time for Frank’s to get the tile work done on the floor by the
end of March. “I talked to Scott Hively (park project contractor) and
he’s finished with the CMUs (concrete masonary units) at the ticket
booth area,” said Karen Wilkerson, city secretary, and he’s starting
on the CMUs at the amphitheater and he’s installed the roll-up for the
breaker box part.”
“We thought we had the Boy Scouts lined up to put up the playground
equipment,” Owen noted, “but they’ve been advised to decline that,
because of some liability issues.”
Mayor Owen also discussed the lighting
situation at the tractor pull area. “We found out, after the fact,” he
said, “that lighting had been removed from the original plans, trying
to cut some corners. So we’re still looking to try to accomplish
having electricity out there. Another one of life’s little surprises
that we’re going to have to overcome. But we’re visiting with TXU and
seeing what our options are.”
“I would like to clarify that lighting
issue,” said Scott Hay, project manager with Hibbs and Todd, “I was
the one to take responsibility in doing that because when we had to
back off the original set of plans, I had to look for all kinds of
areas where we could get the costs back within the funds available. I
chose that area because typically I’ve seen local power companies be
willing to work with local cities to provide area lighting for public
facilities like that and do it in a much less expensive way than you
could ever have it bid and built by a contractor. I apologize for not
communicating with you about my decision in doing that.”
In other business, council members:
• Voted to award Prater Construction
Company the bid for the concrete work for the tractor pull/rodeo
arena. Prater’s bid, one of three, was the lowest at $165,300. Scott
Hay was on hand to make sure council members “were comparing apples to
apples” when the bids were reviewed, and he noted that even though
this bid was the lowest, it was still much more expensive than what
was originally planned, perhaps, he indicated, because construction
costs have quadrupled since this project was planned.
• Approved a request by Jose Velasquez to
use the City Hall auditorium for a Quincenera, providing Velasquez can
show proof of security for the event.
• Decided to make no changes to the
current arrangement with Timmons Exterminating for pest control at
city buildings. Another company had submitted information to the city
regarding their prices, but everyone agreed they’re satisfied with the
current arrangement.
• Tabled a request by Carolyn Otwell
regarding her water usage, due to Otwell’s abscence. |
