Deer Park Community Development Corporation - Regular Meeting

615.

Okay. Okay.

I'd like to call to order our quarterly meeting for the Deer Park City Community Development Committee. Do we have anyone signed up? No ma'am. Okay. We'll have our first item is consideration of an action on approval of minutes for the meeting for the Deer Park CDC meeting on 10/27/2025.

I'll make a motion.

I'll second that.

Okay. All in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? Okay. The motion is passed. Our second item is discussion of issues relating to the economic development corporation report to the state comptroller for the fiscal year of 2025.

Yes. So, type Bs and other economic development corporations have to file this report with a controller annually. So, this is something that we have brought to you all before. I think the filing deadline is April 1 and our finance director is just so efficient that she always gets to file it early and we get to bring it to you all in the January meeting. So, I'm just going to cover real quick, highlight the activity for the year when we filed this report. The total revenue for CDC in fiscal year twenty twenty five was just over 5,300,000.0 and we very much try to keep a balanced budget. The majority of the expenditures that went out that year were for repayment of debt. If you all

will

remember the CDC issued debt in 2015 and then we had certificates of obligation in '21 and '22 for the DAC next door that CDC is repaying. And then we had some capital expenditures for other previously approved parks and rec projects and then grounds maintenance and some other operating expenditures. All in all, fund balance remained very steady. Started the fiscal year at just under 8,500,000.0 and it ended the fiscal year at just under 8,500,000.0.

That's pretty good.

With that, if you'll have any other specific questions, we're happy to answer them. But that's all

we have.

Was thinking today as I was hitting golf balls

and

I had looked at this. When these officers come in to audit the city, they also audit our corporation. Is that correct?

They audit all of our financial

Everything.

Records. Yes.

Because there's a lot of numbers there. Yes. And it's so we can rest assured that they're it'll be looked at

Mhmm.

Somebody other than us are looking at those numbers.

Yes. Our annual financial report that's formally titled our annual comprehensive financial report that our auditors issue, they audit both the city, the CDC, fire, and crime. Yeah. Thank you. Okay.

Any other questions? Okay. We'll move to item number three, consideration of and possible action on the quarterly report for the period of October 1 through December 31 for 2025.

Okay. I'll take this item as well. So, is a very simple standard normal quarterly report that you all are used to seeing. The very beginning of it just shows all of the parks and rec department activity that relates to CDC for the quarter. Beyond that, there's a little section about debt and we haven't issued any debt related to CDC since those certificates of obligation for the DAC. So, there's no new information there. And then at the back of the report, there's a very brief narrative about revenues expenditures for that first quarter. Sales tax did remain strong. We're starting to see it dip a little bit unfortunately, but we do still have very positive collections there. And then there's a brief description of expenditures that have gone out as well.

Did anyone have any questions about the first quarter?

Do we know a reason for the dip?

Sales tax? Consumer, I mean that's what the Fed has been working towards for years trying to lower that rate and it's unfortunate. You would think that there would be an inverse effect and people would be going out and spending more but they're trying to make it they're trying to incentivize people to purchase homes and things like that and we've just seen a slight decrease discretionary spending. It's for the most part though it has remained really strong. The biggest dip that we've seen actually it's not a fair comparison.

It's not a true dip in consumer spending I would say. We utilize a company that does sales tax audits for us which sometimes is very lucrative because they will find collections on our behalf that have been remitted to wrong jurisdictions and then that's redirected to us. But sometimes that's the other way around where we've received collections that aren't ours and they find it for someone else. And we've had some of that as well. Unfortunately, we've had to repay some money to the comptroller to be redistributed to someone else. And so that's affected our collections as well.

But there is there any concern about our flow of sales tax?

And when we budget every year, our methodology for sales tax is a lot more conservative because there is an element of volatility to it. So we're pretty intentional about not budgeting that too fragrantly. That's not the right word. I'm sorry, fragrantly. Of the projects

that were voted under each of those, I guess, sales B in 2015, 2021, or whatever it was, all those individual projects have been started.

Oh, yes. Yes. And most of them have been finished.

And most of them are completed.

Yes. And several years ago, we reached a point where we CDC was starting to fund new parks and rec projects with whatever fund balance that they had. Right.

Got one. We got a new project. Your project. Yeah.

And then a couple years ago, we kind of stalled on any new stuff just because we were waiting to see if there was any construction overage for the that would that we would need to use that fund balance for. But we're back in the mode of now letting CDC fund some additional parks and rec things here and there.

The big issue of, of course, is not part of this meeting, so I don't know if I am, you should bring it up. It's just the bike lanes, motorbikes, stuff like that. I know that's a big issue facing the city council. I wonder if the Parks Department are we again, that's not this committee. Okay. Got it. Thank you. That's not on the agenda. I understand.

Well, at one time, we talked about a bike lane down Lulea on our hike and bike. But that's a pay as we go projects.

So I don't

know what phase that would be. But it was pretty far.

Yeah. The big issue for me is the electric motorcycles.

Yeah. Well, that's actually So there are several initiatives that are currently on the horizon that we're looking at potential grant funding for. Of those will probably have matching grant requirements and if it fits in the auspice of CDC then we'll certainly look at them to potentially fund. Just earlier this week the Parks and Rec staff was looking at an opportunity, an additional opportunity to partner with Harris County precinct too for even for more sidewalks and hiking bikes and with that matching opportunity or most likely matching requirement that may be an option for CDC. In regards to the e scooters, that's a discussion item on next week's council workshop.

So I definitely encourage you to come for that because that will most likely be a lively discussion.

I won't be here for the next Tuesday night. I got

I apologize.

My granddaughter's soccer game to go to.

Well, that's definitely more important. But we are we will be discussing all of

at city council meetings, Especially look at the agendas that are on the website because that is a very big issue in the city right now. And if you want to know about it, come to the city council workshop and you can hear discussion about

it Mhmm.

By all the council members as well Some as the

of the things, once we get done with the CDC meetings, some of the things that we've been talking about with staff, I'm happy to update you on once this is over if you'd like to

do that. I just have a quick question. Maybe you've done a question, I don't know. How who and how is it determined what projects CDC is going to have control of?

Sure. That it had that's that's a very good question. Whenever see whenever the voters approved the creation of CDC and the type b additional sales tax to fund that, there was specific verbiage and things that the city was agreeing to do if voters approved it and that included projects for parks and rec. And so there are quite a few things that if it's parks and rec related, if it's recreation related in terms of whether it's a trail or for the ball fields or parking lots or lighting or things like that usually most of those things are within the realm of CDC. If it's programming, theater classes and classes at the DAC and anything like that, that typically is outside of CDC.

But a lot of that is determined by the actual language in the ballot whenever the type b sales tax was approved.

Was the ballot language general enough that new projects can be identified for this? Yes. So we

And it also included some stuff for the DAC too. We were able to do that. So the CDC is funding some of the recurring maintenance, ongoing maintenance costs and cost to operate DAC annually.

Those two economic or sales B, do they have a beginning and an end date? And then it has to go back to the public again to be renewed?

I don't wanna misspeak. I would have to check for CDC. I'm not sure. I don't believe that there is an end date, like with fire and crime. That does those do have to be renewed. Okay. But I think CDC is indefinite.

Okay. Good. Yep. That's good. Good question. Good to go. Okay.

When it when it passed this the last time. The first time it passed, it had direct verbiage on projects that had to be completed. The second time, it was more open ended.

Thank you. Okay.

Any other questions? Okay. Do we need a motion for this item? Okay. Can I have a motion to accept the report?

I'll make a motion. I'll second.

Okay. All in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? Okay. That motion has passed. We're on to item number four, discussion of issues relating to the status of our Deer Park CDC projects for October 1 through December 31.

Okay, just oops. Oh, that's you.

Yeah, it's me.

I thought I was moving the mouse with my

You are not. I will try to navigate. Some of these are already completed.

Yeah. Yeah. So there's only, I think, three that are currently we have updates for. I think the Spencer View Bridge here we go, this one here. The Spencerview Athletic Complex. So the Spencerview Bridge, you know, took a while to get going, but it's been installed. The only thing we were waiting on is the railing, the exterior railing. And that's been installed. We did a ribbon cutting on December 2. So the bridge is open.

We did a substantial completion walk through last week. And there's a few minor items that we still need to address. Very minor related to some more sod and some grout and just minor stuff like that. And so once those things get complete, then we'll close that project out at the next council meeting.

I drove around that area. I have to say, I had only been over there a long time. Was kind of cool, the way there's picnic tables set up.

Yes, yes. So Glenwood Park. Yeah, so if you remember, because of the pipeline, we had to move the park over further west towards Glenwood Avenue. And then we have a walking trail that extends from the parking lot. So just to make it a little more of a passive park, we've added Is

always open? Can anybody I mean, is it always open? Or is it only open when the ball seasons go through?

Well, now that it's off season, it's not an issue. We do keep it unlocked. We lock it overnight. We keep it locked during the day. Once league play starts, we'll this is our first time doing it. So we may have to try and manage it. Because the intent of that is for league play at Spencer View. So and we don't want everybody know, the complexes and the parking there. Then

we Sure, have there no would be a pathway for people DONALD to cut through 20 fourseven. It's going to be locked during the day and only open when there's ball season. Is that correct? Am I

hearing that correctly? Did I?

Well, right now, it's open during the day. And it's locked overnight.

So somebody comes back and they lock it up, and then they unlock it eight every day. Is that going to continue?

Yeah. So we may change those hours when league play starts to limit the to make it available just for the users, for league play, to make sure that it's not filled up by But right now, do have some benches. And we added a loop there to make it a little more of a passive recreational component to it. There's not a lot of desire for people to park there right now. If we do were to add if we were to add more add a playground and add more reason for people to go out there, then that might become a bigger issue.

Right now, I don't really foresee that as an issue. But we start next month with our first season with the park and the bridge. So we'll monitor and kind of see how it Because

parking has always been an issue.

Yeah. So there's a lot of issues. People parking over in the side of street, blocking people's homes. And this will hopefully free up some of that and move people over to So the parking that's the intent. So that's the update there. I think the next one is the Dow pipeline. So these are some of the projects. These are complete. Yeah, these are all projects that have been completed. Here we go.

The And the other

oh, this is Pickleball, isn't it?

Yeah. This one over yes. So, yes, this one right at the top. This is it here. Okay. The Dow Park Pipeline and P Street. So there's a pipeline in Dow Park that runs north to south. And it's not functioning well. It's collapsed. And there's it's causing some ponding. We currently have a MHS planning engineering firm that is working on the design. They're almost done. They're at about 60%. And we meet with them regularly. Basically, they're redesigning that pipeline and the P Street parking lot because it runs underneath the parking lot.

So it's currently an asphalt and we'll tear that up and make it concrete. That's about a $1,500,000 project. We're almost done with the design. And then once we approve the final design, February or March, we think it'll go out with an RFP for contract services. And to begin hopefully sometime in the spring to start construction. So that's the update. That one and the last one is the pickleball courts, the much anticipated pickleball courts. So we have they're pretty much done. We've kind of had to break it up into different phases. So we're going to the plan is to have our ribbon cutting February 17.

It's tentative, but it's looking pretty promising. They're actually out there today doing the final piece, which is just a sport court surface over the concrete. Everything would be done with the exception of the lighting. There's some issues with center point we're working through. So what we're going to do is once that's done, we're going to have our grand opening, ribbon cutting, open the park. And then down the line, once the lighting is done, we'll have a phase two project and we'll add the lighting later so people can start using the project using the courts. But it looks really, really nice. It's just been moving a little slower than we had anticipated. So that's the update on the pickleball courts.

Do you think the ribbon cutting will take place at like that's not a city council. Is it going to take place like 04:00, 05:00?

Usually, it's a five. That's the plan. Once we confirm that, we'll all send I'll send that out to the group. But that's tentatively what we're shooting for. So if all goes well with the sport court this week and next week, they need good weather. They need warmer temperatures. So that's kind of slowed them down a lot. The cold has delayed a little bit. So if it warms up next week and we don't get a lot of rain, hopefully they'll be able to finish it next week. And then we can get ready to get the fence down and clean the area up and have it ready by mid February. That's our goal. But on that any questions at all about the current projects?

Not about the current projects, but since we did bring up the hike and bike trails, do we know when the next phase may start happening for those?

So, the good news is the we don't always get communication from the county. But the county went out a couple weeks ago and got started on the phase one project. And we weren't aware they got started. And then we found out they were out there working, so we went out there. And that's along the easement from San Agustin down that pipeline easement towards P Street. So they started on that, I'd say about two or three weeks ago. And they're almost done. And it looks absolutely beautiful. It looks really nice. I was out there actually this morning.

And we actually have a meeting with them tomorrow to discuss completion and a ribbon cutting for that project. So that's actually almost done. Phase two is any time after that. We have no updates at this time on when the phase two, which is further, which is down East Boulevard. So we don't have any information yet on that one. But once again, information on hike and bike. And we finalized the completion and the ribbon The cutting will definitely

materials are used for bikes also. Is that correct?

Yes, sir. Yes. Luctor bikes. Bike and bikes. Regular bikes. Yes,

we've had a problem with some of on the golf course.

Where is it? That's all the way down San Augustine and past east?

It runs down the easement from San Augustine, starts at San Augustine and stops at P Street.

I know the hacking back on St. Augustine that runs across St. Augustine, where is it? Is that the one that goes to P Street?

No. Is

this a different one?

Yes, sir. This is a different one. This

is in basically Dow Park.

No. No.

Do you want

to I'm pull up a sorry. Can if you want.

I could pull

up if I can access Google Maps, I can show

how much I walked in there. It's I can get out

and walk. Yeah. Yeah.

There's Alright. I'll show you here.

Kinda like an alleyway, and there was a trail through there. But that's think that's where he started.

No. That's not done. That ditch?

That's He's gonna show us a little map.

Yeah. Here we go.

Happy to.

Yeah. We're all little I can't picture it in my mind. It

here in just a second.

P Street. Hold on a second here.

Oh, here we go.

It's right here. It starts from here and runs down and stops here at P Street.

That's way back. Yeah,

it's down this pipeline here. Down this Eastman.

Yeah, was right. Past East.

Yeah, just past East.

Yeah. Okay.

So the county was doing that?

Yes. The county takes the lead on the project. We just partner with them on funding. And we work with them on the location. But, yeah, they take the lead on the project. It's all, they hire all of, they do all their own testing. They hire the contractors. They pretty much do the entire project. Maybe next time they'll tell us when they start so we're not caught off guard. Yeah. That's a crapshoot.

Yeah.

And that's between St. Augustine and Peachtree.

Yes, sir. Okay.

Okay. Any other questions? Okay, we're going to move to item five. That's the announcement of our date and time for our twenty twenty six regular Deer Park CDC board meeting. And our next meeting, do we have that date and time? Yes. She's pulling those up. Oh, okay. Okay, so our next one will be April 27 at 05:30PM. Any questions about that? Everyone got that down?

Going to. April what?

April 27 at 05:30.

I should make it. I mean, I have board meeting that night at

six Okay. Thirty.

Okay. If that's it, we're going to adjourn our meeting.