Commissioners Court - Regular Meeting

Good morning, everyone.

It is 9 a.m. on this Tuesday, May 26, and this regularly called section of the Kendall County Commissioner's Court is now called to order. We're going to begin with Roel, Commissioner McCall. Present. Commissioner Weijan.

Present.

Commissioner Chapman.

Here.

And Commissioner Carpenter. Here. We have all five members of the court present in a quorum. Next, I'll hand it over to Commissioner McCall and Commissioner Weijan for announcements regarding the prayer and our Pledge of Allegiance.

Good morning, everyone. I wanted to welcome you, and I'd like to welcome Pastor Bernie Berg from Bernie River Church to open us in prayer.

It's an honor to be here, and I want to thank you all for your service to this county, and God bless you all. I just want to read a quick scripture here. The Bible says in Psalm 89, 14, righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Mercy and truth go before your face. Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound. They walk, O Lord, in the light of your countenance. In your name they shall rejoice all day long, and in your righteousness they are exalted. Father, we come to you this morning in the name of Jesus, and we'll always give you thanks for this wonderful community we live in. We thank you for all of our leaders, the judge and the commissioners, Father, that, Lord, you lead and guide and direct them. Thank you for your wisdom, your knowledge, your understanding, Father. Thank you for protecting them and their families and blessing them. and giving them your guidance. We ask you to bless this community. Bless, Lord, everything that takes place here. We thank you for your hand of favor on Kendall County. We give you thanks for the joy and honor it is to live in this wonderful community, this wonderful county. And Father, we just praise you for everything you're doing. We thank you that this nation is blessed because of you. This state is blessed because of you. And this county and the city of Bernie is blessed because of you. We give you thanks, Father. Thank you for your wisdom to us. tough. Lord, just lead and guide our commissioners and our judge in everything they do. We give you thanks for them, and we bless you in the mighty name of Jesus. Everyone said amen. Thank you. Thank you.

At this time, I'd like to welcome Wyatt Gerfers, who is a sophomore at Comfort, and he's going to lead us in the pledge. Wyatt, you could just stand right here. Face the flag. Wyatt, face the flag.

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. On the Texas flag, I pledge allegiance.

All right. Next up, declarations of conflict of interest. Lady, anything from you today? Ladies? Gentlemen? I'll be recusing from item 23. Next up, Comments from the bench. Commissioner McCall, would you mind kicking us off today? Sure.

Good morning. I'd like to welcome everyone again. And don't forget today is election day. Make sure to get out and vote. We have a few runoff elections and many, many places to take care of that today. This morning, I'd like to welcome Hayden Davis, the Transportation Policy Analyst and lead capital staff representing Senator Campbell's office. I've also been in contact with and communication with Representative Troxclair's office, who was invited but could not attend. From Texas, I would like to welcome Charles Benavides, District Engineer, Clayton Ripps, Advanced Transportation Planning Director, Roberto Madrigal, Area Engineer, and Mauro Galvan, Assistant Area Engineer. I would also like to ask that agenda item number 15 be amended and moved from the orders and resolutions section on the agenda to presentations and reports from local entities as it is a presentation. I've also been asked by TxDOT to move that. So as I introduced, our guests are here for that presentation. So I think it would be after item nine. All right.

No problem with that. Okay. Thank you. Just if I get there, just a gentle reminder. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Is that it? Yes. All right. Commissioner Regent.

Thank you, Judge. Good morning, everyone. At this time, I'd like to offer congratulations to Sharon Barter.

Is Sharon here this morning?

Who has earned a certified professional public buyer certification through the Universal Public Procurement Certification Council. This is an independent organization for public procurement professionals. This is a nationally recognized credential that demonstrates education, training, and real-world experience in government purchasing, and we're very much appreciative to you, Sharon, for continuing your education in your field, and thanks for all you do.

Great. Commissioner Chapman.

Thank you, everybody. With the range... It's been a blessed thing that we haven't seen in years, the amount of rain and the grass, and we should all be thankful for the rains that we've received this year.

All right. Thank you, Commissioner Chapman. Thanks, Governor. With the current rain, I just want to let everyone know that our fire marshal has been camped out in comfort. Currently, he's in Fort Worth at training, but... Some of those large sales that we're passing through with all the risks and the heartache from last year, he's been on it. And then he's keeping me briefed on everything going on. Can't wait till today's over with. And with the rain, we had kayakers for the first time in three years below our house at 930 last night. I thought they were stuck. Usually it's someone on the river that thought they were going to get to Sisterdale Bridge in time before dark, and I asked if they were okay, and they're like, we're all good. And so it's nice to see people enjoying the river, and hopefully that's filling up Canyon Lake.

So thank you. All right, thanks. Nothing for me. Accounts payable claims. Consideration of possible action on the approval of accounts payable claims for purchased services and vendors.

Good morning, Judge. Good morning. Claims today are in the amount of $1,193,064.96.

Does anyone have questions on any particular item on accounts payable claims? If not, I'll entertain a motion at this time.

Judge, I move to approve accounts payable claims for purchases, services, and vendors in the amount of $1,193,064.96.

We have a motion made by Commissioner Wieschen. Do I have a second? Second. Seconded by Commissioner Carpenter. Any further discussion? If not, please call the vote.

Commissioner McCall?

Aye.

Commissioner Wieschen?

Aye.

Commissioner Chapman?

Aye.

Commissioner Carpenter?

Aye.

Judge Delisic?

Aye. Motion carries five to zero. Thank you. Can I have a second? Yes, please.

Thanks, Clint. Thank you, Clint.

Okay, next up, we're going to move to our proclamations and presentations. Recognize the accomplishments of the Kendall County 4-H members who competed in the District 10 4-H Fall and Spring Roundup Contest, Kendall County Junior Livestock Show, and Texas Major Stock Shows during the 2025-2026 4-H year. We've got page B. Come on up and bring the kiddos. And if you wouldn't mind letting everyone introduce themselves and talk about what they've participated in.

All right. My name is Paige Villalobich. I'm the 4-H coordinator here in Kendall County. We always love to get to show off our 4-H members. So thank you all for having us. And I'm going to let them introduce themselves and talk about some of the opportunities they've had recently within 4-H.

I'll start. Hi, my name is Mariana McFarland, and this past year, this past January, I competed in the National FCS Fashion Show, and I got second overall. I got third in my interview and second in modeling, and then for horse judging at San Antonio, my team got ninth. At Houston, I got ninth individual for reasons, and then at the San Antonio Rodeo, I got second overall for the equine skill upon contest, and then I also competed in the fall roundup for horse quiz bowl, and my team qualified it mid-state, and so next week for state roundup, I'll be competing for horse quiz bowl, horse judging, and topology. My name is Macy Robertson. I showed goats this year, and I had a first place at the county show, and I was lucky enough to make the sale at the Hill District Grand Stadium show.

I'm Preston Robertson. I saw goats at Grand Champion Goat. First place goat. Preserve. Medium weight goat. My name is Emma Schultze. My parents are Mark Schultze and Clary Schultze. And I participated in Grandstand. And I placed third place with my name. Medium weight dwarf goat. My name is Lila Kate Griffers and my parents are Blaine and Susan Griffers. I showed Ghost this year and showed at Kendall County and got first place there. And then I also showed at San Antonio Stock Show and the Austin Stock Show, which was my first year in the majors.

My name is Reed Schulze. I showed Lens at Austin Stock Show and Rodeo and I placed third in my hair sheet class. I'm Gavin Brown. My parents are Jessica and Matt Brown. And I helped at You're doing good. She showed, this is her first year doing majors.

She showed in O'Cannon. Oh my gosh. She showed at O'Cannon with me. She also did Then she got 21st place. And she also showed at Austin Houston. My name is Daisy Gerfolger. My parents are Randy and Patty Gerfolger. I've showed at Houston County. I got second for my name. I've also showed at San Antonio. I've also showed at Houston. I got first place at my name and was a champion. I also showed at Austin.

My name is Katie Warner. My parents are Jason and Tonya Warner. I showed therapy at the Kelly County, here in Louisville, and at the Grandstand. I also got Grand Champion Therapy Tom at San Antonio.

Hi, my name is Avery Warner. My parents are Jason and Tonya Warner. And I showed at San Antonio Grandstand and at Kendall County, and I got Grand Champion.

Hi, everybody. My name is Melissa. My parents are Don and Charlie Vogt. And my favorite part of this year is being able to show my beef, heifers, and sears. And my favorite show I went to was Cattlemen's Congress in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Good morning, everybody. My name is William Burfers. My parents are Blaine and Susan Burfers. I got second in county and did two majors, San Antonio and Austin. I did not place in San Antonio or Austin, unfortunately. So...

My name is Wyatt Gerbers. Our parents are Blake and Susan Gerbers. I placed third in both of my classes at Kendall County. It was an amazing experience. I went on to compete in San Antonio. I showed goats this year. I was lucky enough to place in top five in Austin and make a fail, garnering over $4,000. It'll go towards my next big project.

We want to thank all of you. I know you and your families put a lot of hard work into your projects, and it takes a lot of courage to stand up here in front of all these people and do this. So thank you for letting us share in your wins and your losses. We all are proud of you for what you're doing and look forward to hearing what your projects are for next year. So thank you all for coming. Let's give them one more round of applause. Thanks, Paige.

We have a couple awards for people today. First up, Katie Cardenas.

Five years with the Sheriff's Office.

I know you like to speak.

No I don't.

Our veteran service officer, Ron Cortez. 10 years? Always appreciate Ron and what he does. Never, always team player, always puts forth his best efforts to help not only our Kenilk County team, but our veterans. So thank you for all you do. Would you like to say anything?

Okay. We'll see what happens. I'll send it to you.

Thank you. Justin Hedthorn with our IT office with 15 years. I don't think he's here today. Okay, next up, we're going to, bear with me here, this is a long one. Discussion and possible direction regarding your proposed public education initiative focused on practical community-level water stewardship efforts, including conservation, reuse, rainwater harvesting, zero-scaping, and reduction of water loss through aging or leaking infrastructure. Discussion shall include coordination with Cow Creek Groundwater Conservation District and other regional partners, including Water Utilities and the Texas Water Development Board Region L, regarding educational outreach, existing conservation efforts, and development of a future water conservation and stewardship resolution for consideration by Commissioner's Court. Commissioner Weege and I have been working on this, so I'll let her pick us up.

Okay, great. Thank you, Judge. You know, kind of a bleak picture this morning. We're in a drought. We know that water levels are dropping in both Burning Lake and Canyon Lake. GBRA has two new projects in their mid-basin, the aquifer storage recovery project as well as off-channel storage. Neither one of those projects are going to be supplying water to Kendall County as far as we can tell right now. People talk about desalinization. Corpus Christi can't even get that project off the ground. They've been working on that for a couple of years, spent about $750 million of the state's money. So I don't see that being a solution for the whole country as well. So we're going to have to look at practical community level approaches to water stewardship. So this is really not about fear-based messaging this morning. It's really about education stewardship and helping residents understand practical things that we all can do to truly make a difference. And so the idea here is to begin developing a broader public education initiative focused on conservation and reuse, rainwater harvesting, zero scaping, and reducing water loss through aging or leaky infrastructure. So I do want to mention that as we move forward in budget discussions, I'll be discussing potential funding for a county education initiative so that we can help expand outreach and public awareness efforts in partnership with organizations already doing such things. So I've been working on some draft concepts for a future water stewardship resolution that I want to talk about a little bit today and give all of the commissioners court an opportunity to have some ideas for that. And we can bring that back at a future court. But today we're going to talk also about the education initiative. And with us are Michael Vulgaris, who's the general manager of the Cow Creek Groundwater Conservation District. and Kurt Campbell, who's the elected president of the board. As you may know, Cal Creek already plays a major role in groundwater education and public outreach, and I appreciate their willingness to be part of this discussion today. And so welcome, Micah and Kurt, and maybe you could kick us off and tell us a little bit about the education efforts that you already do and how we can work together, you and the county.

Yeah, so it's... Do I need to turn this on? No, you're on. You're good. So me and Kurt were talking about before the meeting, that's one of our charges as a groundwater district when we were created is to The education component of that, and we could do better at that. In the past, we've put out some pretty good literature on it. Our website's chock full of information, but actually getting that in front of people is kind of our challenge there. So we budget every year for it, and we need to spend. To me, that's something that we should run over on every line item, and we're not. So pairing with the counties, that's our plan. Yeah.

Yeah, I think typically we rely on our board members to go out in the public and attend conferences and do speaking engagements. And that's typically what our education initiative does is each year. Like I said, Micah knows because I harp on it all the time. Like we have that line item when we get to the end of our budget. It's like if we didn't spend that education, then I don't think we're doing our job because that state does say that. One of our primary charges is education. All the districts were originally created. That was one of the focuses from the state in our charge, not just to regulate groundwater or issue permits or anything like that. Education was just as important as any of that. And as you know, we have so many people moving into our county. And with the water scarcity that we have in this area, It's almost important that people are educated on how to be good stewards of the water and tend to the land and just take care of that resource that we all rely on.

Yes, thank you. And thank you for stepping up to partner with us. The Commissioner's Court gets a lot of feedback from citizens and like, why aren't you stopping development? Why are you letting this commercial development come in? And we're a private property state in Texas. And I tell people, if you like that piece of property, if you like that view, then you can buy that. And so we don't have zoning. We don't have incompatible land use authority. But let's focus on what we can do. And so I'm glad that the education part of it is key to you all. And I think that it'll be important to team up. And Mr. Campbell and I also serve on Region L, the Texas Water Development Board's region. And we're going into our next five-year plan. And so we can get realistic in talking about a plan of no new water source. So how are we going to do with what we have? I've also had one private utility reach out and say that they'd be willing to help fund this as well. So maybe the county taxpayer doesn't have to put any money toward this if we have enough money. But I'm excited about this education initiative. And with that, I'll let everybody weigh in.

Yeah. And I think it's vital with all the people moving here, as you noted, a lot of people are moving from places that don't appreciate that we're in a pigma. And I think that's real important to understand because some people also are moving to an area where they're living on a well for the first time. and that you can't do the same type of watering activities you will if you're on city water, because if you're willing to pay it, you can water as much as you want. But with a well, there are limitations. So I think this is a great idea because water conservation is a community-wide effort. It's just not something the city of Bernie, Kendall County can control. If we want to preserve Kendall County and our water reserves, we all got to start contributing and making some better decisions with how we use our water. So I think it's a great idea. I think it'll be a successful one. Our community cares about conservation, and they know water is our next key critical area that we've got to address. So I think it's great to fully support this initiative.

Can you tell us a little bit about your rainwater harvesting you have at your actual location there, your office?

Yes. Our office is entirely ran on rainwater. We pulled the pump on our well and plan on using it as a monitor well, but we have a potable system. We have about a 6,000 gallon storage tank. And then we have some smaller tanks that we catch the portions of the roof that aren't really conducive for treatment, the flatter parts. But yeah, it's a really good model for anyone to come by and take a look at. I mean, it's a, two or three filters, a UV light, and it's completely potable.

So that would be a great thing for people who are looking at doing something like that to kind of see in action.

Yes, ma'am.

It's there. Okay, great.

Yeah, we invite people. That actually was put together as part of our education initiative. I mean, as part of the intent of our own system is to let people come in. So if anybody wants to come in any time, just come find Micah or Heath and come in. They'll give you a tour. They'll help you out. look at things you can do for your own business or your own home.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

Commissioner Chapman and Commissioner Carpenter, anything from you all?

I think if people want to look at the website, at your website, they can go to the different parts of the county and look at the wells and see... What's happening, the only time you'll see the water level actually rises during a rain event, and then it continues to go down. We're in a continuous decline in our water table. Not everywhere, but most parts of the county, and I think it's definitely, we need to be sounding off the alarm before the changes need to be made or legislative, so.

direction wise do you y'all i know we have a kind of a road map of where you want to go is there any other direction you'd like to see this project go other than what they've discussed i think that i think that covers it okay that definitely covers and then you know commissioner region i meet quarterly with uh cow creek and so we can help kind of be the liaisons to the court on we're at with this project so but thank you all for all you're doing and look forward to working with you further thank you sir thank you thanks for coming in uh next we're going to move up agenda item 15 uh so tech number 15 is tech stop planning presentation regarding state highway 46 west within kendall county texas and beyond per resolution r dash two zero two six oh four two eight dash three uh with our Folks from TechStock come up and Ms. McCarthy, I know you have a comment. Would you like to make your TechStock comment now?

Before you start, I wanted to ask quickly, I wanted to ask if we could let the public comments come on this agenda item at the end to be held. The presentation was updated on Friday and wasn't made available to the public. So I wanted to give the presentation time to just in case maybe some of the questions were answered during the presentation. And then we have comments after that.

I'm done with that. All right.

So. So as Charles comes up. Morning. Many of you remember Resolution R-202604283. I'm sure you remember that. It was unanimously passed here in Kendall County Commissioner's Court on April 28th, requesting TxDOT to address roadway safety on State Highway 46 West between IH 10 and State Highway 16 by coordinating with Kendall County Commissioner's Court. Charles Benavidez, the District Engineer for TxDOT, communicated with me immediately to start the coordination efforts. I appreciate the quick response as we begin to work together to address this critical corridor of Kendall County. I also heard from both Senator Campbell and Representative Troxler's office requesting to be involved and updated during this process. I have been contacted through email and phone by many constituents who raised both questions and concerns in anticipation of today's presentation. In communicating with TXOT over the last few weeks, I raised the concerns of the citizens during our discussions. If you have further concerns that may not have been addressed today, please see the county's website for my contact information and reach out to me directly. The website is kendallcountytx.gov. The last item before we begin, as I stated earlier, I received a second version of TxDOT's presentation Friday afternoon after the backup. behind the agenda was posted on the website. I've asked the court coordinator if it would be possible for the benefit of the public to amend the agenda backup on the county's website and add this new presentation. I have also placed the presentation on my commissioner page on the county's website. If you'll just scroll down on the main page on kendallcountytx.gov, find my picture and click, you will find the updated presentation there. So with that, I'll let you get started.

Good morning. Good morning, Commissioners. Good morning, Judge. First off, hopefully everybody had a good Memorial Day weekend and holiday. I know the weather participated somewhat, and sometimes it didn't, but I hope everybody had a good time with family and friends. So, again, my name is Charles Benavides. I'm the District Engineer here for the San Antonio region. One of 25 district engineers. Obviously, we cover Kendall County. And, you know, we put together this presentation to go over not only our short-term plans, our immediate short-term plans for the corridor on State Highway 46, but also the conversation moving forward on the corridor and how we can work together to decide how we want to move forward with developing the corridor. So I don't know if... We have it up here. Okay. Perfect. So I guess if you see me. Yeah. So, again, just want to highlight that obviously our goal at Texot is to end the streak of fatalities on our roadways. Obviously, you know, there's a lot to do when it comes to safety and congestion. You know, I know this region has seen a rapid amount of growth as well as a lot of regions around San Antonio. So we want to make sure we're doing what we can to make sure our facilities are as safe as possible for the traveling public. So what I want to do, again, the slides I have in front of me are the updated slides. And there's not much that's changed other than some of the order, just so we can kind of clearly convey our plan. We don't want to create confusion. But also we updated a little bit of information on kind of what we were able to do here since we last discussed with Commissioner McCall. So just a quick snapshot of where we're at with State Highway 46 in its current conditions. It was road built in the 1950s, about 18 foot wide on the asphalt roadway typically. Obviously, it's wider in some areas, which consists of two 12-foot lanes and roughly a six-foot shoulder on each side. The current roadway has... Vertical grades up to 11% in certain areas. So it is a pretty challenging terrain on the design. So it's an older design. Again, it's over 70 years old. And right now we do know that vehicle travel speeds are exceeding the typical original design speed that we had for the corridor. So it is functioning differently than it was originally designed because we're seeing different types of traffic.

And what do you mean by the grades? Is it the incline of Kendall County? Vertical grades.

Typically, our roadways have what we call a normal crown, 2% on each side for drainage. Vertically, you see a lot of 11% drops up to 11%, which creates some sight distance issues when it comes to vertical hills, things like that. And so the more access you start getting on the roadway, the tougher it gets to maintain safer sight distance when you have that type of vertical elevation. That's all we're pointing out.

So that's just Kendall County. It's just our unique topography. Correct.

Yeah. So just being in the hill country, you know, obviously south side of San Antonio, you don't see this type of grades. West side of San Antonio, you don't. But just kind of identifying what's unique about this roadway versus other typical roadways we see. Thank you. So I just wanted to go through, when we pulled the data, looking at some of the crashes, and you'll see on the picture on the right that we've kind of geophased the area that's in Kendall County. So from 2021 to 2025, we had five fatal crashes, I do want to make the distinction, we talk about fatal crashes, we're talking about the crash itself, not fatalities. You know, so that the fatal crashes could involve more fatalities than five. You know, so we had five fatal crashes, 14 suspected serious injury crashes. And when we look at the factors that contributed to those crashes, 21% of those were speed-related crashes. 25% were DUI or distracted driving, and 47% were wet weather. And some of those can be concurrent as well. So, for instance, wet weather and DUI could be overlapping. But typically, we're seeing that's kind of the breakdown of those factors when the information is getting reported to us from local law enforcement. Other types, we've seen 47% of those are head on, and 42% of those are run off the road, and 10% of those are rear end. One thing I want to note here, here in the immediate, what we've done pretty much in the last year in certain locations where we had those wet weather crashes, we have resurfaced certain areas, I think, along some of the curves to make sure we address some of those wet weather issues. So as we get that information, we try to find things we can do A really quick fix is to try to make sure we prevent some of those wet weather issues. So let's, you know, we obviously know that those are some areas that we can try to address with tools we have in the toolbox, which is resurfacing, maybe some type of high friction course. So we try to do this where we can, where possible. And some of that has already been done on some of those locations. If you go to the next slide, what I wanted to do was talk about what I would call our immediate items we want to put in place by the end of the summer here of 2026. One of those that we're going to do right now because we're basically working off of the existing road without touching anything else, we want to what we call add these preformed rumble strips in the center line. So there's typically two treatments we do on center lines is what we call Milden rumble strips. But since we don't have the pavement thickness, we'll have to do what's called these preformed rumble strips, which kind of go on top. So we're working with our existing contract right now, what we call our pavement striping contract, to add that in so we can go ahead and put these preformed rumble along the whole corridor by the end of the summer. So we're working that out right now. That should be in place pretty quick. We also are looking at additional warning signs. We want to make sure the signs we have in place, if there's anything we can add to that, we want to add as well. AND REALLY HIGHLIGHT THE NO PASSING ZONE AREAS AND MAKE SURE FOLKS UNDERSTAND WHERE THAT WE BASICALLY IT'S REALLY NOT SAFE TO PASS ANYWHERE ALONG THE QUARTER WITH THE AMOUNT OF TRAFFIC AND THE AMOUNT OF SPEEDS WE HAVE. SO WE WANT TO REINFORCE THAT. WE'RE LOOKING AT OTHER SIGNS WE CAN PUT UP TO REALLY REINFORCE THAT AS WELL AS REFRESH AND MAKE SURE OUR PAVEMENT MARKINGS ARE AS CLEAN AND CLEAR AS POSSIBLE. And those are things that will be done immediately. You know, I say immediately as soon as we can get our contractor and things in place, those will be done by the summer.

Well, that includes some site distance warnings like you're talking about because of the grades, because that may help.

Yeah, we could look at signage to indicate where there's where there's hazards due to site distance to make sure. And again, you know, we want to put as much signs. Those are things that we can do fairly quickly. But we want to we do want to engineer them, obviously, because we don't want to. saturate things with signs that aren't indicating a true hazard because then people just get desensitized to that signage. So we want to make sure they're applicable and that they apply. So those are things that will be done immediately, like I said, by the summer. When you turn to what we call our short-term project, this is going to happen within the next two years. We are working on a project to add turn lanes at seven intersections. We want to go ahead and include as we go in an overlay and repave the whole corridor, we're going to add a four foot centerline buffer. So if you look at the image on the right, and that's not the exact width of this roadway, but this is an example of what you would see. We're basically trying to create four feet of space in the center. Now, currently right now, we're going to have to take some space off the edges to do that. So that six foot shoulder might be four foot now, but we're going to create that centerline space because 47% of the crashes are head-on. So we're trying to address the immediate issue, which is head-on collision. So we're going to create that four foot centerline buffer And what we want to do is also add a center barrier at Webster's Corner along that short stretch where we're seeing a majority of some of the head-on collisions. So this is a funded project. So it's already been funded. Right now it's in the design phase. So we're designing the actual details of the construction project, doing our environmental clearances, our utility clearances. So we're in that process right now. And right now it's scheduled to bid in September of 2027. So I know that's one question we've gotten before is can it move up? And right now our timeline is really predicated on our environmental clearance, which is scheduled to be done by April of 2027. And then we'll move forward with trying to move the project up as quickly as we can.

A couple of questions. The barrier Webster curve, are those Jersey barriers? Those big concrete?

Yes, they would be similar to Jersey barriers. So we're doing the design right now. So we're trying to figure out exactly how that would look in terms of if they're going to be mobile barriers that we just bring in, or is it going to be a barrier that we actually pour and pour with the foundation? So we're in the design process of that, trying to minimize the impact to traffic as we try to install those.

And is this funding all just from the state, or are you leveraging any federal?

So a portion of the project that's been funded is through the Highway Safety Improvement Program, which is federally funded. So a portion of that is through that. But the portions for the resurfacing and, you know, some of the restriping and the buffer space in the middle, that's going to be done through some of our funds that we have in our funding dollars. But it does have a mix of federal funding as well, so.

Are you going to be asking for funding from this next legislative session?

For this project in particular, no.

But in general? We can talk about that more later.

For this specific project that's going to happen here in the next two years, it's funded. We're not asking for any funding. It's just a matter of getting it designed, getting it bid, and constructing it. Thank you. So just a little bit more details on that short-term project. These are the seven locations, including eight, if you include Webster's Corner, where we're doing the intersection improvements. So we want to highlight kind of where that's at. But also, like I mentioned before, we're going to go ahead and add in a resurfacing project, which is going to include basically an inch and a half to two inches of hot mix overlay on top, which will help us create that four-foot buffer and a restripe with the milled-in strips in the middle, the milled-in rumble strips to

Did you say the entire length of this roadway, or what is resurfaced?

The 11 miles.

You did say, okay.

Correct.

All right.

So I want to move into, now that we've talked about the immediate things we're doing here by the summer, the short term, which is within the next two years with the project that we're developing and design right now, now I want to jump into what I would call the long-term uh study the feasibility study that's in conversation right now so we are looking at the whole corridor from state highway 16 to i-10 uh if you go to the next slide uh just to give you an idea of where that long-term feasibility study it was his at we started this back in 2022 to look at this corridor And if you kind of jump over, we did have to pause the study in 2025. It was about 60% complete. So it was paused due to some budget constraints that we worked with concerning some other funding challenges we had at the state. But we got that worked out too. So we're now unpausing the study. to look at some more of the interim and long-term options. So right now, that long-term feasibility, I say long-term feasibility, this is a study that really looks at, okay, what's this quarter going to look like in the next 10 to 15 years, and start working towards that project. So what would that look like? As we finish the feasibility study, we would identify what we would call intermediate-term projects that would happen in the next four to six years. This could be looking at different types of options at our intersections, looking at really where we want to go with either a high-speed option or low-speed option. And I think long-term is where we really want to have the discussion is really deciding what that ultimate schematic would look like. And this is where we really want to engage local elected officials on this because it really, when we look at the crashes, the biggest issue is speed. But as the corridor develops and you have more access adjoined to the corridor, speed and loss of access points do not mix well. So it's really comes down to a question of how does this quarter need to operate? Does it need to operate as a high speed option, which typically lends itself to what you would call a four lane divided highway? And you can kind of see an example of that on the bottom image where you would basically be creating a westbound direction and eastbound direction. The challenges with this option are going to be right-of-way acquisition. Obviously, we can't build a four-lane divided highway in 80 feet of right-of-way that we currently have, so we would definitely need to look at acquiring right-of-way to do that option. The other option we're throwing around, again, this is why we're calling it feasibility because we're trying to decide is it feasible to do this, is a four-lane kind of a low-speed option, which is really a four-lane undivided highway with a barrier down the middle. But with a barrier down the middle, you do have to provide access points for people to not only access the adjacent roads, but also to turn around. So that's where you see that image on the top right with the barrier in the middle, but also basically with almost like a roundabout type of configuration at the intersections, not only to allow – and roundabouts – really only work well when you're at a low speed option. So that's really where the conversation has to happen is where do you see this corridor functioning as? Is it a matter of slowing people down? Or is it a matter of facilitating that high speed type of travel through the corridor and maintaining access?

Would the slow speed option fit within the existing right-of-way?

A majority of it would. Typically, we kind of did a very cursory review. I say cursory. That's why we're doing it. Not holding you to anything, just a curiosity. Typically, we could make a four-lane divided probably fit a lot easier. We would just need to get right-of-way at the intersections, the corner clips, to basically create that roundabout type of option. And again, these are on the table. We're not saying that we've committed to anything here, but these are the discussions we're trying to have to really decide how we develop out this border for the long term. So that's where we're at on the feasibility study in terms of what we're looking at. If you go to the next sheet, right now our consultant engineer is finalizing, or they're going to be analyzing these options that I just mentioned. So they're going to be doing that this summer. We're looking at scheduling meetings with stakeholder officials, elected officials, and emergency services by the winter of this year to really kind of go through the pros and cons of each of those options and how those would work out and really get that feedback And then we would like to try to take this to the public when we have some of those options really analyzed and really have those pros and cons identified to the public by the winter or spring of 2027. So I say winter of this year going into spring of next year.

Who's the engineering firm that you're using? Off the top of my head, JMT.

JMT Engineering. Sorry. And before I forget, I will introduce my team. I forgot to mention earlier, we just kind of jumped right into it. So this is kind of where we're at in terms of next steps is, again, one thing we want to do is we want to continue to work with Kendall County and Bandera County, as well as the city of Bernie, to really ensure that any future plan developments, we try to ensure that we have proper mitigations available to basically ensure a safe access point into our current highway there on State Highway 46. We are going to look and move towards implementing the short-term improvements that I mentioned with the project that's going to happen within the next two years. I mean, that's funded. It's going to happen. It's just being designed, and we're trying to get it to construction. So there's no issues with that in terms of that moving forward. And then really start identifying potential funding opportunities. AS WE START WORKING THROUGH THIS FEASIBILITY STUDY AND START REALLY SEEING WHAT'S THAT ASK GOING TO BE LIKE? COMMISSIONER, YOU HAD ASKED EARLIER ABOUT FUNDING AT THE LEGISLATURE LEVEL. WE TYPICALLY WILL START DOING THAT ONCE WE'VE IDENTIFIED THE TYPE OF PROJECT AND FORDER WE'RE GOING TO BUILD OUT AND THEN REALLY SEE WHAT THOSE COSTS ARE. TYPICALLY THE BIGGEST COST UP FRONT, LET'S JUST ASSUME WE WERE LOOKING MORE AT A HIGH-SPEED OPTION WITH THE FOUR LANE DIVIDED, WELL, OBVIOUSLY RIGHT AWAY ACQUISITION IS GOING TO BE THE BIGGEST ISSUE. moving towards that project. But if you're looking at something a little bit different that's working within the existing right-of-way, then that ask could be different. But once we get to that point and start really identifying what funding is needed, then we can start looking at putting together, working with local elected officials on what that funding ask is. And then continue to refine the option for the long-term expansion of the corridor, Really, it needs to be four lanes, but the question is four lane divided, four lane undivided with a barrier. That's really what we need to start looking at and seeing how that would work out in the long term, not only for the highway itself in terms of its connection point to 16 and I-10, but also for access for folks living along that here moving forward. That's the basic update on the projects that we have currently. I'm happy to take any questions or comments or feedback. And before I do, I do want to introduce the team. So that way, if you don't know some of the faces in the back, you have Clayton Rips is my deputy district engineer. I know folks have probably worked with Clayton in the past. Here in the front, in the middle row is we have Roberto Madrigal here in the black. Roberto's our air engineer who took over for Andres Gonzalez, who got promoted up to director of construction here a couple of months ago. So, That's why you're seeing a new face, but Roberto was the assistant air engineer, so he's familiar with the area and familiar with what Kendall County is working through. And then Mauro Galvan is the new assistant air engineer who took over for Roberto, and he just started here two weeks ago. Okay. He starts next week, but he wanted to get a jump on putting faces to the names because he's going to be definitely helping Roberto and ensuring that we are working together with the information that you provide with us on moving forward. Great. Thank you. Anything else from you, Commissioner McCall?

I just was wondering if you could give a little more explanation. You talked about barrier, a lot of different barrier options, one at Webster's Curve and in the low-speed options. Can you give us just a little picture of what that barrier looks like? We're not talking Jersey barriers type.

So that would depend. So typically all the way down. Yeah, typically. So the concrete traffic barrier, the requirements for anything below 36 inches of height, the speed can't be above 45 meters. If you've noticed on our construction sites, you'll see we call it a low-profile barrier, which is kind of a lower kind of box-looking barrier. That only applies to roadways that are under 45-mile-per-hour speed. Anything above that has to go to at least a 36-inch high barrier, or what we call a CTP, concrete traffic barrier. Again, that's where the speed has a lot to do with what options we consider. Because if you're talking about a lower speed where it's less than 45, then you can talk about curb options or things like that. But anything that goes above 45 miles per hour, we have to strongly consider a higher barrier.

Right. Does that answer your question?

Yes. Thank you. Thank you for coming. It's good to see all of you tech stoppages out there. So I really appreciate your campaign in the streak, and that's not just a slogan.

It's not.

That's a real plan. And so due to rapid growth, I believe tech stops behind, and that's no fault of your own. I would like to point out that at one of our last AMPO meetings, the director let us know that transportation is not in the top five priority federally nor statewide. So I would just ask our leadership, whom I appreciate greatly, a Republican, mostly leadership in the state, as well as the Democrats as well, but particularly Senator Campbell and Troxler, to address this. If Texas is open for business, then Texas roads need to keep up with being open for business. So I think that you all are doing the best you can. Citizens are very frustrated. We've got to call on state leadership to make funding available to address these very serious issues so that we can truly end the streak.

Absolutely. And just a comment on that. Obviously, as a textile employee, I remain neutral on legislative matters. But what I will say just from the data, and I've done several presentations on this, if you look at the portfolio for the San Antonio District, 10 years ago, we probably had a portfolio of about $600 million worth of construction work. When the funding became available, right now we're at $5.6 billion for the district in terms of active construction. So That's to say that if the funding comes available, we do have projects ready to move forward with. And that's what we continue to do in the San Antonio District is have projects ready and make sure if the funding is available, we have a project that we're ready to move on.

And your other challenge is to throw one more daunting thing out there is that our dollars don't go as far as they used to because of inflation.

That's correct.

So you almost have to put that contingency in there.

Yeah, we see after the COVID hit and kind of some of the political things going on in the last couple of years, we did see almost a 40% increase in prices. So that dollar did not go as far as it did before.

Thank you. Thank you again for all you do.

Thank you. Commissioner Chapman, anything from you?

Commissioner Carpenter? And before you, Ms. McCarthy, do you still would like to make comment or do you have your questions answered?

All right. Do you want me to stay here?

No, you're good. Okay. If you have nothing else, thank you for your time and thanks. I mean, I'd like to listen to the comments. I'm just saying.

Okay. Wanda McCarthy, Kendall County. Thank you. That was a wonderful presentation, answered most of my questions, and I appreciate your time and your staff's time to be here. You did make a couple of comments on the type of barriers that would be and the level of road safety at the various miles per hour, and I have sat through close to 10 years of traffic studies done in this county, multiple different studies that have been done, and key individuals, this time it's this elected office, but it's been different people, have had a voice at the table. Many times you do have conversations with the public. Sometimes those are after you pretty much understand what you want to do and you're trying to get an approval. But I ask sincerely, before you make major changes to a road that affects lines of barriers and level that you include the public. Absolutely.

That's it. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you.

All right.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you for coming.

All right. Okay. We're back on track with Agenda Item 10. This is our burn ban. discussion morning one morning judge good morning and just a reminder our burn man has been off for the past several weeks and it looks like the conditions remain the same as the last court is that correct yeah correct we've had a lot of storm systems have saturated the county as a whole

Um, in the past several weeks, um, the KD, KBDI sitting at 215, just the lowest I've seen personally. Um, and so our recommendation, uh, with the agreement with county, uh, fire departments is no action be taken in it. Yeah.

And it looks like we got more rain forecasted the rest of the week. I mean, anywhere from a 20 to 40% chance. So, um, Any objection to continuing with the burn ban off?

No objection.

All right. Gentlemen, good. All right. Thanks, Vaughn. All right. Thanks. Thank you.

Okay.

Next, consideration and possible action regarding order number 0-2026-0526-2, an order of the Commissioner's Court of Kendall County regarding the transportation of juvenile offenders. This was an item that we had on the last court, but pulled it, and now we're geared up. get final resolution.

So good morning everyone. Good morning. Um, so I'm Jasmine with juvenile probation and we are essentially requesting a previous order be updated. Um, our board is a new composition of judges from the previous order that was in 2017. There is no change to what we are currently doing procedurally. It's just a matter of updating the order to better reflect what we were doing. Um, the sheriff's office, uh, provides our transportation for our juvenile offenders to and from court. And then all law enforcement agencies that take the juveniles into custody are the ones that transport them directly to the detention center. And so we're just asking for the order to be updated and as requested.

Okay. At this time, I'll entertain a motion as to agenda item 11.

Judge, I'd like to make a motion to approve order number 0-20260526-2. an order of the Commissioner's Court of Kendall County, Texas, regarding the transportation of juvenile offenders.

Thank you, Commissioner Chapman. Do I have a second? Second. Motion made by Commissioner Chapman, second by Commissioner Carpenter. Any further discussion? If not, Teresa, please call the vote.

Commissioner McCall?

Aye.

Commissioner Wiesen?

Aye.

Commissioner Chapman?

Aye.

Commissioner Carpenter?

Aye.

Judge Tomasik?

Aye. Motion carries 5-0. Gentlemen, mind signing this?

Thank you.

Take care.

Thanks for coming in.

All right, next up, consideration of possible action regarding Order No. 0-2026-0526-3, an order of the Commissioner's Court of Kendall County regarding participation in the mutual aid for operation of the Law Enforcement Task Force and authorizing staff to provide notice of termination of previous interlocal agreement for contraband forfeitures with Kerr and Gillespie counties. Morning, Sheriff. Good morning. Would you mind giving us a quick synopsis of...

Why we're doing this? Yes. So we are currently in a MOU with Kerr County as it stands. So what we're asking, there's been some changes in just operational things as far as how we participate and with other groups as well. So what we're doing is we're asking, and this has been through general counsel as well, so they've had a chance to look at it. So we're asking to do away with the previous agreement. And then, uh, agree with, with the, with the new agreement to allow us to continue doing what we've been doing basically.

All right. Um, at this time, I'll entertain a motion as to agenda item 12. Okay. I move, I move to participate in the mutual aid agreement for cooperation, uh, of Law Enforcement Task Force and authorizing staff to provide notice of termination of previous interlocal agreements for contraband forfeitures with current Gillespie counties pursuant to order number 0-2026-0526-3. Do I have a second? Second. Motion made by the judge, seconded by Commissioner Weijan. Any further discussion? If not, Teresa.

Commissioner LaFontaine?

Aye.

Commissioner Weijan?

Aye.

Commissioner Chapman?

Aye.

Commissioner Carpenter? Aye.

Motion carries 5-0. Thank you. Next up, Consideration and possible action regarding resolution R-20260526-1, authorizing county staff to apply for the FY 2025 State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, otherwise known as SCAP, through the Bureau of Justice Assistance. The SCAP program offers reimbursement to units of local government that incur certain types of costs due to the incarceration of undocumented criminal aliens during the reporting period. Good morning, Christina. Good morning, Captain. Good morning. Would you mind sharing?

Yes. Good morning, Judge, Commissioners. So Captain Green and I are here in front of you today to ask for permission to apply for the SCAP grant. This, I don't believe, has been in front of y'all before, but the Kendall County has been receiving these reimbursement funds for quite a few years. This actual grant period is for reimbursement from July 1st of 2020, excuse me, 2023 through June 30th, 2024. So this is actually a fiscal year 25 grant application. Timing is off. It seems weird, but this is truly a reimbursement. And Captain Green, along with Justice Benefits, with this grant. Captain Green gets all of the information from that time period for reimbursement to submit to see if we can get some reimbursements. And just for y'all's information, in 2020, we received $19,478. 2021, it was $14,785. 22 was $38,677. 23 was $39,231. And in 24, it was $9,864. The 24 partially was lower because of the available funding. So this does fluctuate on funding that's available for reimbursement, as well as the number of inmates that are reported. So this is a fluctuating. The expenses have already been incurred by the county, but with the information provided to SCAP, there is that partial reimbursement, if not all reimbursement from that. And Captain Green is here to provide any in-depth information or questions that y'all have on this grant.

All right. Well, I'll move to authorized county staff to apply for the FY 2025 State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, otherwise known as SCAP, through the Bureau of Justice Assistance. to seek reimbursement of local governments that incurred certain types of costs due to incarceration of undocumented aliens during the reporting period pursuant to resolution number R-2026-0526-1. Do I have a second? Second. Motion by the judge, second by Commissioner Chapman. Any further discussion?

Just one question. No, go ahead.

You first, Commissioner.

I was just curious, what kind of costs do they reimburse for? What kind of costs do we incur for these types of the reimbursement?

A majority of it is for anything that's included to that inmate, as well as personnel time. So it's staff hours can be done, and that can be put in for reimbursement for the time period of those inmates. And I don't know, Captain Green, If there's other things to add on, it's food. It's really anything related.

Anything related to cost of housing a prisoner to include the number of days they spend in our jail.

So maybe I missed it in the backup. Do we have a target number? And is there a cap? How much are you applying for?

It applies for. We're not applying for. I'm sorry. Well, you are applying to get the reimbursement. Yes. Is there an amount? In the application, there's no amount. It is just to apply for it. And then once the application goes in, then they request the information for that time period if we are awarded the grant. Then you come forward with all of the information on the cost that it is for that inmate. It's not included in the application. But do we have a number? What is the number? We don't have that. That research is there, but it is not gathered until the application is approved and we need it for the reimbursement.

So you're not going to put any effort into gathering it all until the next day? Until it's requested. Just a ballpark. I have no idea.

And that's why I gave you those few other standards of the years that were on there. Captain Green, we can get that information. It is a process. We have to go to the auditor's office. We go with payroll. We go to Captain Green gets all the dates and the information and stuff. So until we know we're getting that reimbursement, we won't really go and do that digging until we actually get the grant award.

So it's a wide range there.

It's a wide range. And the numbers I gave you, that's just the last few years. So it ranges anywhere from $10,000 to $40,000. And until we actually know and can go back and look and see how many inmates we had at that time, we won't know what the reimbursement is.

Okay. Thank you. All right. With that, Teresa, please call the vote.

Commissioner McCall.

Aye.

Commissioner Arujo.

Aye.

Commissioner Chapman.

Aye.

Commissioner Carpenter. Aye. Judge Salarza.

Aye. Motion carries 5-0. Thank you. Thank you both. Thank you. Thank you.

I'm sorry, sir.

All right, next up, consideration of possible action to replace resolution number R-20251223-4 with resolution R-2026-0526-2 in order to amend the location of the Highway Dedication Probation Officer, Russell Dean Rusty Salazar. And so if you all recall, Ms. Salazar, welcome. Thank you. Good morning. As a court, we approved a resolution to authorize TxDOT to work with the county to find a placement for the memorial sign for several folks, including Rusty Salazar. After meeting with TxDOT, we discovered that the area we were originally targeting was already part of a dedication, and so we had to go back to the drawing board to find a suitable place for Rusty's memorial, and we successfully found one designating portions of U.S. Highway 87 in Kendall County from the Kerr County line to IH-10 for the designation for Rusty. I know this has been a long day coming, and you You've been very patient, and we're happy to say that this will be moving forward today upon the replacement of this resolution. Is there anything you'd like to say before we move to a vote?

I'm just honored that we have gotten to this point, that we're almost there.

Yes. And I can't promise it won't take a little longer to work with TxDOT, but this is the key critical step to replace that resolution, to have the language so TxDOT knows we're accepting their proposal for this location. So with that, I move to replace resolution R-2025-1223-4. with Resolution R-20260526-2, in order to amend the location of the Highway Dedication Preparation Officer, Russell Dean Rusty Salazar. Do I have a second? Second. Motion by the judge, seconded by Commissioner McCall. Any further discussion? If not, Teresa, please call the vote.

Commissioner McCall?

Aye.

Commissioner Wiesel? Aye. Commissioner Chapman?

Aye.

Commissioner Carpenter?

Aye.

Judge DeLarza?

Aye. Motion carries 5-0. We'll get this signed for you, so... We can get this moving.

Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you for coming in.

While we're signing signatures, we'll move to public comments. First up, Judge Cahoon.

Thank you.

I just want you to know that your CDA and your 498th judge were not able to come here today due to prior commitments, but I have your county clerk and your district clerk here as well. And we're just following up. On April 13th, we sent the letter to each of you commissioners and to you, the county judge, bringing to your attention some of the following urgent spacing needs that Your county's justice system was in need of. Specifically, we outlined the inadequacy of the courtroom space for the two district judges and the two associate judges. The inadequate space for our pedant and our grand jurors. The inadequate space to accommodate the additional personnel needs within the offices of the CDA, the district clerk, and the county clerk. to accommodate the increased filings and the expanded caseloads. And we reminded the commissioners of the government code requiring the commissioner's court to provide a courthouse and offices for district court and officers at the county seat, and that the family code requires the host county to provide associate judges adequate courtroom space and quarters. You all graciously called us a May 5th meeting where we all got together and we addressed the issues that were outlined. And in that meeting, we respectfully requested consideration of additional courtroom space, expansion of office space for our core justice partners, and strategic reallocation of non-judicial functions to potentially outside of this courthouse. for safety and spacing issues. We employed the commissioners to engage in thoughtful and long-range planning surrounding the county's infrastructure to ensure that it keeps pace with the growth of your justice system. And we asked to be involved in infrastructure planning discussions in order to develop solutions to best serve the needs of our county. We understood that there would be collaboration with your justice system partners, so we were surprised to see item number 21 on the agenda. We are asking the Commissioner's Court to obtain a space needs assessment of all county infrastructure and facilities before the execution of a professional service agreement. for remodeling the project at 119 Old San Antonio. We have to stop taking a one building at a time approach. Your justice system partners are at maximum capacity. We're in desperate need of additional space. Failure to coordinate with the justice system partners in providing the necessary courtroom and office space will result in trial delays, lack of sufficient space for our county residents to receive and achieve justice, and an increased frustration for our jurors in attempting to protect our constitutional rights. freedoms. Again, we are asking for a full space needs analysis for all county offices with all county buildings in mind. The current one building at a time approach is leaving your justice partners behind. That's all I had to say about number 21. I think I'm out of time. So thank you very much. Thank you. We just wanted to let you all know that.

All right. Thank you, Ms. McCarthy. You're waving it. Okay. And last up, Mark Caruso. Mr. Caruso, are you online, sir? Nothing? Okay. All right, next up, consideration of possible action to approve the cash summary at Frost Bank for March 2026. Mrs. Lane, how are you this morning?

Good morning. Good morning. Not real excited to have to come back to work today, but... I'm here. I enjoyed my three days. I would just like to take a little bit of time to discuss the balances in Fund 93 on the cash summary. For those of you who notice that that balance increases quite a bit over three months, these are fees that are collected by your clerks and your JPs that are submitted to the state on a quarterly basis. They are fines and fees that that is collected in those offices. The treasurer's office then calculates the fees that are due to the state each quarter, and we submit those electronically to the state. In April, we forwarded $153,556, and the county received a service fee and timely filing of $12,162. These reports must be filed and paid quarterly by the treasurer's office so that we can retain that portion each quarter. And in FY25, the county was able to keep $45,895 of the fees that those offices collect. So it's not a great addition to the bottom line, but it is money that we get to keep every year that we so diligently collect. And we take the time to report those fees timely.

Thank you. At this time, I'll consider a motion as to agenda item 17.

Judge, I'd like to move to approve the cash summary at Frostman, March 2026. All right.

Thank you, Commissioner Chapman. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Commissioner Carpenter. We need further discussion. If not, Teresa, you're up.

Commissioner LaValle.

Aye.

Commissioner Reason.

Aye.

Commissioner Chapman.

Aye.

Commissioner Carpenter. Aye. Judge Storrs.

Aye. Motion carries five to zero. Do you have anything to sign today?

Yes.

Do you want to start with those?

Yes, please. Because I'm on the next one.

Yeah, we'll work on that while you're... Thank you. All right. Next up, consideration of possible action to approve the investment report for the second quarter, FY26, consisting of January, February, and March. What do you got for us on this one?

Okay. I just wanted to bring it to your attention, the interest that the county receives on a is staying on track at about $500,000 a quarter still, even though interest rates are trending down very slowly. We are currently earning 3.72% at our investments at Logic. And that's just a little over a half a percent decrease from the beginning of the fiscal year. So that's not too drastic at all. I have spoke with our partners at Frost, Securities, State Bank, and Logic, and no one can give me a firm, are they going to decrease? Are they going to stay the same? When they're going to decrease? No one really knows. So I don't know what the market holds for us. So right now I'm assuming that it will continue to stay about the same and we'll continue to earn the same amount of interest that we've been earning over the past several quarters. I do go to conference in June where we'll have economists that will speak to us. So we'll see how different opinions we get at that conference. So I may not even have another answer by the time I get back.

Do you think maybe you can give us a little update after your conference, if there's anything significant that we should be aware of? Certainly.

Last year when I attended, the opinions were the same as Frostbanks, Security State, and Logic. They were all over the place. And honestly, at that time, they were saying that they were going to be trending down a lot faster than they have over the past year. And that did not happen. So, you know, the economy is everyone's guess. Okay.

Well, thank you for that. So I'll consider a motion as to agenda item 18.

I'd like to make a motion to approve the investment report for the second quarter of fiscal year 26.

Motion made by Commissioner Chapman. Commissioner Carpenter seconded. Any further discussion? If not, Teresa. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Motion carries 5-0. While we're waiting for signatures to come through,

Agenda 19 is a public hearing. So if you've not spoken and want to speak, your public comments do not apply to this. So the court will conduct a public hearing regarding the installation of two items. A, a speed limit sign on Valor Lane in Precinct 1, and B, a stop sign on Wyatt Trail in Precinct 2. So at this time, it is 1014 a.m. on this Tuesday, May 26, 2026. And we're going to open the public hearing as to first 19A, a speed limit sign in Valerie Lane in Precinct 1. Commissioner, or sorry.

Good morning. So yes, this is a public hearing for the installation or the commissioner's court to order regulatory traffic control devices to be installed. That's covered under Texas Transportation Code 251, 151 and 152 that following a public hearing. the court has the option of ordering the installation of regulatory traffic control devices. The first sign is located in Precinct 1 and is a 30-mile-per-hour speed limit sign on Valerie Lane. It is on the westbound approach into Corley. I'm sorry. There is an existing 30-mile-per-hour speed limit sign on the westbound approach into Corley Farm subdivision, and this proposed sign would be on the eastbound leaving the subdivision There's been reports of speeding over the last year, and Commissioner McColl had asked that we would put this public hearing together for the 30-mile-per-hour sign. There is not a change in the speed limit. It's just the addition of a sign for folks leaving Corley Farms on Valerie Lane to remind them to slow down.

Okay. Commissioner McCall, anything you'd like to add?

I just wanted to add that I was contacted last spring by a constituent who was concerned about the excessive speed of drivers coming the east side of Valerie Lane. There is, as Mary Ellen mentioned, a speeds limit sign already on the west side. I contacted the sheriff's office in Roden Bridge, and each of them put speed sensors out along the roadway, and interestingly... The average weekly vehicle count for Valerie Lane was 5,178 vehicles. Of those vehicles, the speed violations was an average of 2,562 vehicles. I think that the speed sign will assist reminding drivers to slow down to the 30 mile an hour speed limit. I'm glad to see Mary Ellen bring this item forward.

Are there any public comments on this item? Okay. With that, it is 10.16 a.m. on this Tuesday, May 26. Excuse me, 10.17 a.m. on this Tuesday, May 26, 2026. And that concludes the public hearing as to Agenda Item 19A. We will now open the public hearing at 10.17 a.m. on this Tuesday, May 26, 2026 on Agenda Item 19B, a stop sign on Wyatt Trail in Precinct 2, Arionne.

Thank you. So again, stop sign is a regulatory traffic control device that the Commissioner's Court has the authority to order the installation of following a public hearing in accordance with Transportation Code 251, 151, and 152. There have been complaints that the Commissioner has received regarding delivery truck drivers driving too fast and then failing to slow down appropriately entering the cul-de-sac and corner areas. onto the adjacent roadway. It's essentially continuation through a knuckle called a sack onto the adjacent street. And so this is for the proposal of a stop sign at that location.

Okay. Commissioner Weijan, would you like to add anything?

So residents came to me concerned about delivery truck drivers who won't slow down. And this was one of the things that Donnell came up with. We had discussed putting in the stop sign.

Okay.

At this time, would anyone like to make public comments as agenda item 19B? There being none, that concludes at 10.18 a.m. on this Tuesday, May 26, 2026, the public hearing as agenda item 19B. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. Next up, we have our consent agenda item consisting of six items, A through F. Consideration of possible action to approve the minutes for the May 5th, 2026 special called meeting and the May 12th, 2026 regularly called meeting. B, consideration of possible action to approve the April fee office reports. C, receive the county auditor's monthly financial report for March 2026. D, consideration of possible action to allow the purchasing agent to solicit an annual invitation to bid an order to select a seal coat vendor for FY26. And E, Consideration of possible action regarding the summary of road work for April 26th. And lastly, consideration of possible action regarding the summary of signs for April 2026. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda items A through F?

Judge, I'd like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda items A through F for May the 26th of 2026. Thank you.

Do I have a second from Commissioner Carpenter? So... Any further discussion? There being none, Teresa, please call the vote.

Commissioner McCall?

Aye.

Commissioner Wiesenthal?

Aye.

Commissioner Chapman?

Aye.

Commissioner Carpenter?

Aye.

Judge Storrs?

Aye. Motion carries 5-0. Next up, number 21, consideration of possible action to approve the negotiated proposal submitted by TransWestern Commercial Services and to authorize the execution of a professional service agreement for the owner's agent services associated with the remodeling project of the county facility located at 119 Old San Antonio Road. Sharon, would you mind coming up?

Good morning. Good morning. I don't know that we're supposed to be pulling this item.

I was going to speak with the Commissioner's Court. I have had a chance to review this, but I did have some concerns about a few of the provisions that were part of the negotiation that I hadn't seen previously. and I was going to visit with Sharon this morning and I didn't get a chance to before court, I would ask that you go ahead and pull the item from the agenda to give us an opportunity. Specifically, one of the provisions I'm concerned about is related to compensation. So it's a critically important provision that we must agree on with the contractor before moving forward. I apologize for giving you this late notice of the issue. And we will definitely be ready to move forward. Hopefully, if everyone can agree on making some changes to those terms before the next court.

Based on that, it sounds like it's not in the county's best interest to discuss this at that time, so we'll take no action today and give you more opportunity. Thank you. Next up, consideration of possible action to renew the agreement with the Hill Country Fire Coalition through FY26, with the annual payment remaining the same as the previous year at $88,000.00. payable in four quarterly payments of $22,000 for the organization to implement the county's fire mitigation plan.

And so... Judge, if I may?

Floor is yours.

Yes. Earlier today, Deb and I were looking at items for the agenda and realized that part of the Exhibit A for the contract was not provided to you in your backup information. I did email it to you this morning. Again, very late notice. This has been a long process with us working with HCFC to come up with a contract that incorporates some of the new programs that Christine spoke about the last time that she was here. One of the programs that was new, and if she was in town today, I'm sure she'd be here to talk to you about it, is a program to help mitigation measures with members of the county's community. that may not have your own financial means to take care of the measures needed to safeguard their property and surrounding properties. So the grant program that they're creating would enable HCFC to work with those property owners and homeowners who have a reduced financial resource in order to take care of those things to help them come in and remove dry underbrush, for example, to try to safeguard those properties from the spread of wildfire. I think that the last time she was here, she gave a pretty lengthy presentation to the court. And now I have emailed you that full exhibit. This will be no different than what has happened in the past in that they will continue to be in, I guess, pardon me, contracted to implement the county's fire mitigation plan. And that's something that that entity has been doing for at least the last year. I'm not sure if it predated that. And also HCFC has reached out for other funding sources and has been granted a federal grant That's a three-year grant. So this fund, the funds that they would be asking for now, will go a lot further knowing that we have the federal grant money coming into our community as well through HCFC. So I just want to mention that. And I hope I can answer questions if you have any.

And if I'm not mistaken, the reason they need funding being released to them sooner from the county is because the grant is reimbursable. So they have to expend the funds in order to get reimbursed. And so that's why it's critical, like our fire department's, to fund them in advance.

That will be for next year. This is the current year's contract. So for next year, we are going to have something ready to you and to you much sooner. And there will be a request that there be some funding expended on the front end, like you said, like we do for the first responder organizations to make sure they have funds in the bank to be able to spend and then request reimbursement. But for this year, that's not a concern. It's already moving forward. I do want to mention that because the contract's coming to you so late, they would be receiving portions of the funding that they have been earning over this time period without having the funding available. So as I spoke with Christy this morning, she wanted me to remind you that their list of activities for this year may be less than it would have been had the funding been made available sooner. And I take responsibility partially for that. This has been, like I said, a long process. I'm happy with the outcome. I'm happy with the contract. And I think moving forward, it will be amending only term compensation and whatever program the court wants them to implement moving forward.

And one last question. I spoke to Christy and she had three questions this weekend.

I took care of them.

And those are incorporated in the document.

There's no changes needed.

Okay, perfect. That's all the questions I have. Ladies, anything from you? No. Gentlemen, anything from you? All right. Well, I move. to renew the agreement with the Hill Country Fire Coalition through FY26, with the annual payment remaining the same as the prior year at $88,000, payable in four quarterly installments of $22,000 for the organization to implement the county's fire mitigation plan. Do I have a second? Second. Motion by the judge, second by Commissioner Chapman. Any further discussion? There being none, Teresa.

Commissioner McCall.

Aye.

Commissioner Legion.

Aye.

Commissioner Chapman.

Aye.

Commissioner Thompson. Aye. Commissioner Lundgren.

Aye. Motion carries 5-0. Thank you, Jen, for that update. OK, I'm going to hand it over to Commissioner Chapman as Judge Pro Tem to address agenda item 23.

All right, item number 23 is consideration possible action on the proposed final establishing Bergkamp Terra Mod located on State Highway 46 East, approximately 0.45 miles east of Farm to Market 3351. James Shupak on behalf of the Berghain Hill Country LLC. And Nick, I'm going to let you kick it off then.

Good morning, Commissioners. Judge Pro Tem.

Good morning.

So this is regarding a commercial subdivision located off of State Highway 46 east of Berghain. It's a private commercial subdivision consisting of three commercial lots with an average of 7.44 acres. The lots will be serviced by a public water system neighboring gas station at the intersection of Voss Parkway and 46. And each lot is slated to be treated by individual on-site septic systems. The subdivision is proposed to have a new road called Chupac Street that will access State Highway 46, and it will have a dead end with a cul-de-sac. Our office has reviewed the construction plans for the new road, drainage, and detention, and we find that they meet Kendall County criteria. TxDOT has also approved a right turn in lane into the property onto Shupak Street. At this time, our office finds that they have provided a complete application just pending an executed financial guarantee. So upon our review and in accordance with 2.4.B.1, Our office recommends this plat be granted a conditional approval by the Commissioner's Court with the condition being the financial guarantee be executed and accepted by Commissioner's Court prior to plat recordation.

So everything now meets the specifications of the county development rules?

Correct. The Shoe Park Street, the pond, the lots, yes.

Okay. So... I'm going to go ahead and make a motion, and then we'll have a discussion, if any. I'd like to make a motion to approve.

Commissioner, conditionally approve?

Yes. I'd like to make a motion to conditionally approve the proposed final plan establishing Burger County Terramotta, located on State Highway 46 East, approximately 0.45 miles east, of Farm to Market 3351, pending acceptance of the final guarantee by commissioner, financial guarantee by commissioner's court. The plant shall not be filed until acceptance of the financial guarantee. Is that covered? Do I have a second? I have a second by Commissioner Carpenter. Is there any discussion? Questions?

I just have a question. Did you all get it worked out with TxDOT on the right-of-way setback, et cetera?

Yes. I think we're at a comfortable position, yes. Okay. Thank you.

I actually spoke with TxDOT regarding 46 and asked about that, and they said that everything was acceptable.

Are there any other questions? If not, then Teresa, would you call the vote?

Commissioner McCall?

Aye.

Commissioner Wheaton? Aye. Commissioner Carpenter? Aye. Judge Pro Tem Chapman?

Aye. So the motion passes four with one abstaining the county judge. And the judge is back, so we will turn it back over to item 24.

Thank you. All right. We're going to address the action items on the public hearing. We're going to do it in two steps. We're going to go 24A first, consideration of possible action for the installation of a speed limit sign on Valerie Lane in Precinct 1. I'll entertain a motion at this time from Commissioner McCall.

Judge, I move that we approve the installation of a speed limit sign on Valerie Lane in Precinct 1.

Motion made by Commissioner McCall. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Commissioner Carpenter. Any further discussion? I do, Judge. Yes, sir.

Is with the short distance of this street, would it be appropriate to even lower it to 25?

We would need to look at the results of the speed study and evaluate whether lowering the speed limit would be an option, and we'd have to come back with a new public hearing for court if we wanted to do 25 miles per hour. I don't recall what the number said in the results from... Road and bridge on the speed.

I just saw the violation. I've pointed out the violations. So if we did that, would we need to do it for the whole subdivision? Not just one road? No, it can be street by street. Oh, it can.

I mean, I just because of the distance of the street. It's such a short street. 30 just seems to be when I think more appropriate. And a lot of the residential subdivisions should be at 25 as opposed to a 30.

Would it prohibit us from going do this in two steps? Are you talking don't no stop sign? I'm sorry. Lower it to this one speed now and then do it again later or we just wait?

I would say that the public was put on notice for the addition of a 30-mile-per-hour speed limit sign with no change to the existing speed. I would recommend going ahead and putting in the 30-mile-per-hour speed limit sign, and then we would go ahead and switch. The cost is the poll. We'll find somewhere else to put a 30-mile-per-hour sign down the road, so we can switch it if we want to come back to court for 25 miles per hour.

What are your thoughts on that?

Can we just do it today?

No, because the public notice has to be on. That would be from 30 to 25. So we have to do this in two steps if we're going to do that.

That would be fine with me. I think we should look at other roads, though, if we're going to lower the... I mean, the whole point is they're coming out of the subdivision, so maybe going in, too. But anyway, it's fine.

I think we can look at additional roads, but we can do them road by road. And if the question is there are additional roads... that are residential that the court would like to look at lowering across the board, that would be the appropriate time to do that. Okay.

Does that answer your question, sir? Any other questions? Was that you, Commissioner Garb? Did you say something? All right. So with that, please call the vote, Teresa.

Commissioner McCall?

Aye.

Commissioner Regents?

Aye.

Commissioner Chapman?

Aye.

Commissioner Carpenter? Aye. Judge Norvig?

Aye. Motion on 24A is approved 5-0. So now we'll begin consideration of possible action for the installation of a 24B, a stop sign on Wyatt Trail and Precinct 2. Commissioner Regent?

Thank you, Judge. Since the time that we have evaluated this neighborhood and got resident input, apparently additional resident input has been received. reflecting different opinions with the neighborhood regarding the stop sign. So I confer with general counsel, and we think it best, given this mixed feedback, to pull or strike this item from the agenda today.

Okay. So we will be taking no action as to agenda item 24B. And so with that, that concludes our open portion of today's session at 1034 a.m. on this Tuesday, May 26th. We will convene after a five-minute recess. We'll convene into closed session to consider Proposition A and several of our pending lawsuits. And so with that, we're in recess until 1040. Thank you.

And at 1137, and we're zooming our open portion at 1138 a.m.

So. Now that we're back in open session, are there any motions that anyone would like to make in the closed session? If not, that concludes today's regularly called session of the Kennel County Commissioners.