Neighborhood Commission - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon, everybody. Good evening. Thank you. I am now calling to order the city of San Marco Neighborhood Commission meeting for Wednesday, 03/18/2026 at 06:03PM. Yvonne, are you gonna call the roll, please?

Samantha Benavides? Here. Robert Eby?

Here.

Rick Kennedy?

Here.

Bobby Garza Hernandez?

Is someone in the lobby? Right?

My brother is back in the lobby. Bobby Garcia Hernandez?

Here.

Michael Adams? Hi. Roland Salcedo? Here. Michael Vernon?

Here. Here. Here.

Drew at Gleason? Heidi Holiday McKittrick? Jason Valdez? Here. Tyler Barstow?

Here.

Alexis Montanoris? Here.

Thank you.

Absentees, Michael Adams, Ruah Gleason, and Heidi Holiday McKittrick.

Thank you. Yeah. Next agenda item is our citizen comment period, and we get three minutes per citizen. Persons wishing to participate or speak during the citizen comment portion of the meeting must email ypalazos@sanmarcusgx.gov prior to 12PM on March, the day of the meeting. A link to join in by a mobile device, laptop, or desktop computer will be provided for participation as well as a caller number to join in by phone. I'll open up citizen comment period. Do I have anyone send it?

No, we don't.

I'll close citizen comment period. Moving on to our next agenda item. It will be our minutes. Consider approval by motion for the February 18 minute. I'll give everybody a few minutes to review, and then I'll be seeking a motion.

Mike, we can see you on there twice. Can you hear us?

Can't believe mama's hearing. That muted.

Can you hear us?

I can hear you. I hear you. Hear you. There you are. Okay.

Oh, there's that next.

I'm out of the way.

When I

Yeah. He said it.

When I talk, there's this huge echo. It's ridiculous. Okay.

Go ahead and wait. Try and mute yourself again. And then I'm gonna since he's on his voice. And I'm guessing, Mike, you joined from the app and the browser that will let you into the same meeting twice. I'm gonna I'm gonna use this chocolate. Well, I just needed him, and now he's I've got two. So going to exit.

Yeah. Did you hear Tyler? He said he's he's on both.

But he needs to I got I'll have to exit out out of one of them.

Hey, Mike. Can you exit out of one of them? Because we've got you on twice. It looks like you're on both the app and the link.

I can't hear him.

I can't hear you. Can you can you unmute yourself? Well, there you go. Okay.

Okay. Let's let's go and move on with minutes and Might be. We're good. Okay.

Can I get a motion for the minutes? Motion. Thank you. They didn't fire for it.

He's still here

in the house. And and the second?

Send the second.

Okay. Thank you, Sam. For the interview, call the roll, please.

Samantha Benavides? Yes. Robert Eby?

Abstain.

Rick Kennedy?

Aye.

Bobby Gasa Hernandez? Yes. Michael Adams? Roland Salcedo? Yes. Michael Vernon? Ruah Gleason? Heidi Holiday McKittrick? Jason Baldes? Yeah. Tyler Barstow? Yes. Alexis Monzanoras?

Yes. Thank you. Moving on to our next agenda item, that's going to be our guest speaker. Our first guest speaker is Marcus Nigel, Assistant Director of CIP Capital Improvements Engineering. We will be receiving a presentation of the fiscal year 2027 capital improvements program. He'll go ahead and present the presentation first. And as always, hold your questions until after he's done with his presentation. And mister Neidermarkic, are you with us?

Yes.

He's here. Oh.

Hello, everybody. Good afternoon.

I mean, good evening. No. You're gonna excuse my brain. It's not

functioning. It's okay.

Can everybody see the shared presentation on the screen?

You're muted. Yes. Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you very much. You can go to the next slide.

No. Because I've got so much on my mind right now.

Alrighty. Marcus Nyser, assistant director of capital improvements, like y'all heard. My boss, Sean Condor, the director, usually gives these presentations. He will be taking it to Planning and Zoning and Council later this year, but, I got to join y'all last year. So I'm coming back to join you. Back. So thank you for having me. Today, we're gonna do do an overview of the fiscal year 2027 CIP. The CIP is a that's first of all, that stands for capital improvements program, and it's a ten year planning document. You can go to the next one.

It's a ten year planning document that we use to schedule projects. It identifies workload for departments. It identifies funding needs for the city. It helps us come up with financing options, funding streams. And most of all, it gives us approval and adoption of only year one.

That's why we're calling this the fiscal year 2027. Even though you're gonna see ten years worth of planning, the only one that we're taking to counsel ultimately for approval in the budget in September is gonna be fiscal year twenty seven. So we update this every year, and that's what we're gonna be I'm gonna be explaining in this presentation what goes into it, how we do it, and hopefully answering some questions from you all. So we'll go to the next slide. What is a CIP project?

They are basically projects which we had a little side discussion. He was pointing at the light bulbs. The light bulb would not be a CIP project. Anything that goes above and beyond operation and maintenance cost, each department, and group has their own operating and maintenance budget. These are bigger projects that usually the city cannot undertake because they're too complex.

We don't have the expertise. And for the most part, they start at about a $100,000 and higher, and they and they are typically very complex projects that we get help from the outside consultants to design and plan. Those are the projects that go into the capital improvement plan. Also, a lot of these are financed. So think of anything that you would finance.

It would have to make sense for you to go and finance it over twenty years to go into this capital improvements plan. It's something smaller. You would just probably pay cash or figure out how to cash flow it with your current needs. But the bigger projects go into the capital improvement program, the CIP. The sources for the information, and I will say that I'm talking about this book that you all get to see either on the website or you can go get it to the library.

I'll go over those sources later in the presentation. But we build a book with all the projects for planning ten years out. And how we put that together, we start meeting with the departments usually about fall of each year. We get their needs. We identify their how they want to spend their money, what projects they have. We plug them into the CIP. We plug the dollar amounts into the years. We prioritize the projects and then we wrap it all up each year and take it through the cycle. So next slide. Some examples of CIP projects and non CIP projects.

You see there on the presentation potholes. You see the city forces out there and maintaining roads. That is O and M operations and maintenance budget. But replacing a whole section of road that would be a CIP project. You see our water crews out there fixing main breaks in the summertime, that's operations and maintenance.

However, replacing or upsizing a whole section of line, transmission main, that's capital improvement project. And then at the facilities, the pump stations, which Jason knows all about, replacing a pump, that's probably an operation and maintenance, replacing all the pumps and all the electrical that probably would bump it up into a $100,000 or more, and that'd be a capital improvement project. And then facilities, you know, fixing a leak or something on a building, that's O and M. That's facilities fixing it with their budget. But a brand new building, we would plug into CIP.

For example, there's probably some fire stations in the CIP if you review it. So next slide. The other thing is more than a 100,000, but complex projects. Complex projects are expensive projects and take a lot of time. Those are typically capital improvement projects.

The scope items, you know, the projects that you all encounter most often are city streets with utilities in them and sidewalks. So they would encompass probably a majority of those little bullets on the screen, the water mains, wastewater, storm water. And if you dig all that up, you're replacing the street. If you're doing that, you're replacing or upgrading the sidewalks. And then there's a big push to take the electrical from overhead and underground.

So that would be a typical city street project with all the utilities. We like to go in there and take care of it all at one time. So we're not coming back and tearing up perfectly good pavement later. And that's the best case scenario. So increased go, increased project factors equals more complex projects, which takes more time and money.

That's a typical CIP project. And I'll talk about that probably on the next slide. Those complex projects, the more complex they are, the longer they take. So you're probably asking me, how come y'all haven't started construction or finished construction on the street in front of our house or in our neighborhood? And it's really because these projects, you know, from February to 1,000,000, they take three to four years from scoping, planning, designing, bidding, constructing.

So y'all see the last piece of that, which is the constructing. 1,000,000 to $10,000,000 projects, five to seven years. And then the big projects, what we're which we're getting more and more of these over $10,000,000 Takes sometimes ten plus years to scope it. And here lately, the big challenge is the funding. We're a little tight on funding with the city, and then there was this little thing called Doge that kinda mixed up the funding earlier this year from the federal government.

We had to go find other funding streams. All that equals a lot of time and effort and changing and being flexible and finally getting it to bid and construction. So it gives you a little feel for how long it takes, and that's why we keep updating you all on the same project for about ten years until they're done. So next slide. How do we pay for everything in the capital improvements program?

There's about five buckets of money that we pull from for funding. The first one is the general fund, which is from sales tax, property tax, licenses, permits. Second bucket, our funding stream is drainage stormwater fund. That's the drainage utility fee. The third one is the electrical rates. The fourth is water and wastewater. That's a huge one. There's a lot of, revenue and cash flow on that one that funds a lot of projects. That's the impact fees when developers come to town and pay, and that's water and wastewater rates that we all know about and pay. And then the last one there, number five, is external funding.

So we usually have a shortfall to fund a project. So we go out and find money from either the state, Texas Water Development Board is a great one, federal government, and we have several different grant sources on our projects to help them come to fruition. Next slide. Okay. So every year, this is an annual cycle.

And we're in the little star there is where we are in the cycle. So like I said, last fall, all of 2025, we met internally, updated our CIP projects, prioritization, schedule, budgets. We met with all the departments and got their needs plugged in. Now we have the draft CIP in front of you and we start out the circuit here with neighborhood commission in March. And then after y'all, we take it to the planning and zoning.

We got to take it three times. That's a overview, a draft, and then the actual action item. And then they recommend it to council. Workshops. There's one in May and there's one in August. And then after everything is said and done, we have an adopted budget that includes the CIP. And again, that's it's only one year. It's the first year of CIP. We always have a ten year CIP, but year one is going to be fiscal year '27, which starts in October '26. So that's the cycle.

We do that every year. That's why I get to come visit y'all every every March. This year's fiscal year '27, CIP is almost 61,000,000. And the four buckets we're not showing the grants on this one, but the four buckets of funding, the general fund's 10,100,000.0, storm is 5,200,000.0, water wastewater's 36,500,000.0, and electrical is 9,100,000 for a grand total of 60,900,000.0 for fiscal year twenty seven. And we will supplement that with grant funds on certain projects as they come available.

And when we do that, we can take that savings or our own money that is offset by a grant, and we can go bring up another project in that needs to be prioritized and happen sooner. So that's always a huge help. Some of the big projects on the list are Sunset Acres area, which is the subdivision improvements and a detention pond, and I'll go into each of these with a map. Wallace addition, which is off-site drainage, going toward Cape Pond and the subdivision work. And then we have the I 35 shared use path, which is a great project to get connection from the east to the West Side Of 35 with the shared use path along the river.

And then we had a new one pop up last year, Cape Road. We have a bridge repair. We found out that about a quarter of that existing bridge was cracking. Had to close off half of it. As you all know, it's down to one lane. Sometimes it's closed fully. So that's not officially an emergency project, but it got pushed up to the top of the list really quickly. So had to find some funds for that one. And then we have a new water reclamation facility, which is a wastewater treatment plant. It's gonna be the second one for the city. Next slide. Please. Okay. Sunset Acres. Project one is completed.

It was the I-thirty 5 improvements. Project two completed in 2024 was a Broadway wastewater main. And then the projects that are coming on the horizon is project three, which is neighborhood improvements. It should start construction in '27. And then project four is a detention pond that's needed, should start in 2028 ish time frame.

We have a TBD there because there's there's some land acquisition required, and there's always a question mark on a schedule when you have to acquire land. There's negotiations. And so and that's also integral, of course, to all the other drainage improvements because it's where the water's gonna go to be detained. So those are those improvements. Any questions on those?

Yeah. So so I know the last the last time that we had talked, the regarding the detention's bond. Yes. I know that they got kind of because the school district decided to build a new school where we were supposed to get some attention on it. And, I mean, what we were supposed to get from them and so from what last I heard is that we were trying to acquire the land from the church. That's correct. And

That's right.

Are are we

still in it, or we are going to be

We're still pursuing that acquisition from the church property. Mhmm. So it's I'd have to get back to you with more details on that, but that you've you know the extent of what I know until I could go dig into it some more.

When we talk when you know, you have it labeled as neighborhood improvements. What all does that entail neighborhood improvements?

The neighborhood improvements. Project three? Yeah. Project three. Can I answer that one after my presentation? I'm gonna have to flip through this book. But I

don't I was I was not gonna ask you, but you

have It's typically it's typically drainage and some of the water and wastewater utilities, but That's right.

You already said the magic word. That's all I wanted to hear was drainage.

Before I I wanna confirm which of those utilities are included, but I can I can dig that up and get with you?

We'll deal with that after that. Go ahead and finish your question.

Okay. That'll work. All right. So the next area, Wallace edition area improvements.

Excuse me. I have a question. Okay. Can you hear me okay? All right. Yes. Just real real quickly, what what's the outlook for the bridge on Cape Road?

Actually, we're showing it here. The outlook is we pushed that one up the list and are trying to get that one going a lot quicker, and we need to start construction later this year.

So are you basically Are you gonna replace I'm sorry. Excuse me. Are you gonna replace the whole bridge or are they just fixing the crack? I mean

They're gonna replace the whole bridge.

Sure. They should.

So They're a very preliminary design right now, but from what I understand, the scope is to replace the whole bridge.

So completion of that's at least a couple years away. Is that what you're thinking?

Well, if we start it as stated here in later twenty twenty six, yeah, I think it would probably be late twenty seven at the earliest before it's complete.

Sure. Okay. Thank you.

The challenges there are, of course, endangered species because it's on that mill race, and I think there's still bugs and bunnies, aquatic endangered species that we have to contend with there. So we're looking at the best design to minimize that and mitigate that.

I see.

So we're working on it.

Thank you.

Okay. So that was a good segue into this area. Project one is Wallace Addition, which is the neighborhood improvements, 20,000,000 to $25,000,000 construction looking like we're going to start in '29. Project two is the shared use path. It's up there on the north side of or Northwest side of I-thirty 5 North on this, the way this map is laid out.

It's connecting that existing trail or shared use path that now goes underneath the bridge that TxDOT did over to the trails back there behind the discovery center behind the fields. So they're upgrading that. And then there's already a trail. That light green trail goes all the way back to where the bridge is. And then you can see an area that's kind of shaded. We have that greenish call out Cape Pond Park. That's a Hays County project where they're going to develop, I think, some features around that pond that's there.

Can The fish and

that thing.

Yeah. I think it's going to be fishing is going to be one of the main elements, but also trails. And then I know I'm jumping around, but since we're pointing the darker green lines are Wallace addition off-site drainage, which gets drainage from Staples Road to that area and has some retention, detention before it gets to on. That helps get the water around the subdivision and not through it, which will help with some flooding and ponding. But going back to the sequence of projects, project number three is the Cape Street reconstruction shared use path.

That's further towards 123 On Cape Street. And you see a connection basically from 123 all the way down to the pond, which is the Hayes facility, and then connecting to the existing trail, which is behind the part apartments, which would be able to connect you all the way back to the river and all the amenities up and down the river to the west and north. So that's a huge project. It'll have great benefits. Project four, I already talked about that one. I think I covered all of them.

Yep.

Okay. Next one. Historic district. Improvements. This wasn't on my previous slide, but this is an important area and I think we just we're showing progress on this one. Project one was completed, which was Hunter Road improvements back in 2015. Project two was Travis Street outfall. That's where the drainage water outfalls to a receiving area. That was completed in 2019. Project three was Hopkins Street Improvement was completed in 2021.

And then Project four, which was Belvin Street outfall, which was the drainage outfall to the creek completed in '25. And then the one that's remaining is Bishop Belvin Street outfall, which is stormwater improvements, the green lines. So that connects to the outfall that you have there, and that is scheduled to start construction next year at 17,500,000.0. A lot of these projects, they take a long time because of the design, the land acquisition, and then locking in the funding. So as you know, everything has been escalating pricing wise for a while.

It's been hard to get on top of that, but it seems like it's kinda leveling out and getting a better feel. So economy is not exactly there to help us with the funding, but we're we're making it work. So thank you for your patience. We're getting these projects moving. And then the last one is the new wastewater treatment plant.

We're calling it a water reclamation facility because it's going to have a reuse feature. In other words, treated wastewater is going to be utilized as reclaimed water or we also call it reuse. It's used on developments to offset the potable water use. In other words, some of these industrial or commercial developments that can use more of a gray water, Instead of using potable water, we can use this reclaimed water, and offset our potable water treatment and sources. So this

is

an important project. It's a big project. It's my number one project. I'm the project project manager on this. It's got a project budget of right now, it's at $110,000,000 It's constructing a brand new wastewater treatment plant down in the south part of town that is seeing a lot of residential growth.

So it's another big complex project. Next slide, please. Okay. The book I talked about, which I was showing everybody in the room, this is kind of a just so you all know what you're looking at, I have the table of contents here. The first section is an overview and then you have the project list, which is spreadsheet upon spreadsheet of projects, and we'll go over that.

And then you have a map of the projects, the more succinct tabular list. And then you'll have the detailed project sheets in the back. And then at the very end, you're going to have the comprehensive plan goals, which all these projects should align with some comprehensive plan goal. And then the last sheet, which is a placeholder right now, after we take this planning and zoning, there's gonna be a letter from planning and zoning recommending recommending that council approve it. So and that QR is active.

You can scan it and you can get to the virtual well, I mean, the the website, which has the whole CIP there electronically. We also have an interactive map. Can you go to the next slide? I think that QR takes you to the interactive map. This interactive map has everything that's in the hard copy, but it has a lot more searchable functions.

You can toggle projects by year. You can toggle projects by department, or you can just go find your project in a list and it shows you a map of where they are and a description of each project. So super handy. Scan that QR code and and check it out, check for your projects. And then next, there we go. So in the book, the main part of this book is the spreadsheets that are color coded. You're looking at one section of it. Now on the screen, things are provided to you. The first column is the category or the funding source. The project name, the project description are evident.

But then the new the new comp plan goals, that's the comprehensive plan goals like I talked about. Strategic initiative from council, which ones get checked off there. Then we have the total ranking because we have to prioritize these things to be able to put them in in the CIP and then the funding sources. So then you're gonna see the reason we have 11 by 17 sheets, you got ten years worth of columns. But again, 27 is what gets adopted.

Everything after that could be pushed around and moved every subsequent year. So that's all I'll say about that. The next sheet, the color coding, the brown is TERS funding, the blue is a future bond project. We'll talk about that a little bit more. The pink are impact fees.

That's what the developers pay us whenever they come in and ask for service, and they're out there on the fringes. And the white and gray mean nothing. They're just there to differentiate the lines. And the next one so the blue, we anticipate asking the public to approve a bond and selling a bond because we have a huge amount of projects and dollars coming at us in future years. And it looks like now there might be a $165,000,000 bond.

Would not happen any sooner than 2031. We'd have to take that, put that on the ballot, and get approval, before we move forward with it. But just know if you see blue, that's future potential bond project. And we're wrapping up. So the next steps after tonight, it's three times it goes to planning and zoning.

And then May and August, goes to council for the workshops, big budget workshops, and then this whole thing gets adopted in September. And then we start the process again next October for the next year. So next slide. There's that QR code where you can check out the digital copies and the interactive maps. And then also if you want a hard copy, you can go check them out at the public library or or the capital improvements office, our office on 630 East Hopkins over there by City Hall Complex. And that is my presentation. Any questions?

Oh, yeah. Okay. I'm gonna let everybody go first. Jason,

who estimates the lifespan on these improvements, and how does that factor into you guys Yeah. Win these caps?

So we typically most departments have a master plan for their area. In our department, we have multiple master plans. But, for example, parks recently did a master plan. We have done a water, and we finished up a wastewater master plan last year. And every time they do one of those, we ask them to look at the life cycle, and they basically generate projects that we can use to plug into these master plans.

So whenever we ask for estimates on these more complex projects, especially if there's facilities involved like you were used to with working on. We look at the life cycle cost to be able to program that. Yeah. And we make decisions not based on what is it gonna cost capital improvement wise, but also what is it gonna cost to operate and maintain like these treatment plants. Yeah.

We don't wanna put something in that's gonna be a huge burden. We wanna maybe pay a little bit something higher on the front end to reduce operation maintenance on the back end. So we do look at those and it starts out at the conceptual level on the master plans. And then it gets refined when we hire design engineer to take each project further further down. Developers or manufacturer supplement some of the improvements, or

does the city require them to, like,

some of these?

Yeah. They do. Well, I mean, the impact fee that we talked about? Fee.

Just over there.

Okay. If they ask for water or wastewater, they're paying an impact fee based on OUVs in their service. So we didn't take those OUE funds, and we fund projects.

So that that's in here. Right? The impact fees that you didn't said?

Yes. It's all the projects on the CIP that are pink Okay. Which there's a

lot.

And just one more. Is the city requiring reclaim for certain industrial uses or certain projects for certain

companies, and are they also allocating the rights

to the amount of reclaim? So they they have, I think, about 13 large volume user customers on the reclaim water, and they have to negotiate agreements with each one of them that talks about how much water they need, the terms on how they pay for it

Okay.

And, I guess, the length of the term of the agreement. So they would have to negotiate new customers, but it's right now, it's more industrial. It's like Martin Marietta, which They

don't require them, though. Right? But they they're gonna take it

because it's a lot cheaper.

It's cheaper? Yeah. It's just it's it's cheaper water if they could use that quality of water, but it's like the material companies. And I don't know. San Marcos I mean, Texas State is one of them.

More than New Park maybe too. Right. Right?

They could be. Yeah. Irrigation. Probably. They use irrigation. Yeah. Yep. Anybody? Any other questions?

Anybody else have any questions before I start in? No. Okay. So going to the Wallace edition area improvements.

We pretty much covered a lot of that. Mhmm.

But I do have one that has that we've kind of been discussing last year. Mhmm. And so what role did your department play as far as Takesdam, figuring out what's gonna happen with Takesdam? Because one of the big when we were doing the open houses and workshops for the county, because I was with the county on for the Cape's Pond, one of the biggest concerns that a lot and I mean, a huge amount of citizens were concerned about is connectivity to Cape Stamp or Cape Span. Because, you know, of course, after the death of that 17 year old, you know, the citizens are like, okay.

You know what? There's gonna be a lot of people there, and Kixnab is, like, right there. You know? Kids are kids. They're gonna wanna go. And, you know, of course, as we all know, it's been supposed to be closed, but people are still gonna go. And is that on anybody's rate on any of y'all's radar? I'm like

I believe that is on the parks department's radar. I would have to follow-up with them and get back to you there. It's not we don't have any improvements shown here with respect to accessing that, but I guess that green piece is already there behind the apartments, and we're working on things downstream and upstream of just trail connectivity, shared use path

as well. The only reason I was asking is because you mentioned and maybe I maybe that's interesting or I'm a little confused. But where you talked about, like, like, you or replacing something entirely Yeah. Which has always been the debate. What takes Right. Repair it or tear it down. You know? And so I figured that would fall along the scope of the c I of a CIP project.

There hasn't been a project identified to plug into the CIP that I'm aware of. So I think there's still studies happening, and I'm not sure what route they will go. That's why we meet with the departments, including parks, in in October.

I was just curious, you know, like you said, you know, you you've you've meet with other departments. Yes. I didn't know if that was something that Nope. That that you

Not right now. Not on this

one. That's that's been brought up. But that's good to know that they have when it kind of doesn't seem like it's something. Okay. So the historic district, I have a question. So when you're talking about the Bishop Belvin Street upfall Mhmm. Can you kinda define that

to me? Like, I'm a fifth grader.

That's all.

I know that I wanna say maybe five years ago. Or They redid velvet, that whole area. That's where they had it closed off where nobody could go through there. I mean, other citizens.

Yeah.

What exactly is entailed in that project?

Stormwater improvements to move the water you know, the actual outfall is down there in the yellow at the very bottom. Mhmm. Bottom left. Outfall meaning that's where all the water is collected and brought out and dropped into Purgatory. Purgatory Creek. So there is a Purgatory Creek project, which is another big project, but I think that's even further out

It is.

Where they're going to do kind of a double it's gonna have a shared use path and kind of what I would call park elements, but it's also a increasing the capacity of Creek all in one big project. And we have a project engineer working with consultants on that, and there's a lot of land acquisition and funding needed to get us there. It's it's on future years. Mhmm. But this green line is the upstream drainage improvements to better collect the water from that area and get it out to the outfall.

So that's a little bit above my expertise on the drainage side. I could visit with mister Ray and get you some more information on it. Like Garcia?

And Wilson Oh, yeah.

Over that.

The Purgatory Creek one? Mhmm. But I think the Bishop Bellman one Oh,

is that

is Ray. Yeah.

Yeah. If you could actually get with both of them and

Okay.

Get back to me. But if I know I'm gonna be hearing it from the Belvigian people

Okay.

The strong district. Will do.

Yeah. There's a Dunlap project also that Ray's working on adjacent to this, but I will get with Ray and Tim and follow-up with you. Some more detail.

Tim, do you want the details between

the Purgatory? And Wilson is the project manager on the Purgatory Creek project.

I I guess, why do you guys know how to connect with them? It would be the waters.

It's like it's through step one. So so what if the top have one?

The have

Gotta have them.

Okay. Any other questions?

I'm good. Anybody else? No? Alrighty.

Okay. Well, thank

thank you, Milton, Market

Yeah.

Very much. And we'll be keeping track. We'll see what goes on with PNC and wait for the final outcome, the final draft. And Yeah.

And I'll get

you very much. And then if we could just

I'll follow-up with you on Sunset Acres and the Purgatory and Belvin Bishop area.

I would truly appreciate it.

Okay. Thank you all very much. Y'all have a great evening.

Thank you. Okay. Moving on to our next agenda item. Maria Campos is here to give us a presentation on the ICU simulation activity program with communities and schools of Central Texas. If you all recall, she spoke at our at our February sentencing comment and requested to present to us. And so she'll do her presentation. And then after her presentation, we'll open it up to question and answer session.

Thank you.

Welcome, Maria. Thank you

so much. And I also wanna say thank you, miss Palacios, and thank you, missus Harris, for your help and coordinating my time here. As the chairman said, my name is Maria Campos, and I I work at Communities and Schools of Central Texas. I serve as the senior policy director over policy and advocacy. And before I I show you the video on the concept for ICU, I would like to give a little background on communities and schools of Central Texas for those of you who may not be aware of all of all of the services we provide to San Marcos.

So at Communities and Schools, we fully saturate the entire San Marcos consolidated school district, and we've been there for quite a long time, over twenty years, although communities and schools have been around for we're about to celebrate our fortieth anniversary this year. And in all of the schools in San Marcos, we provide integrated student supports, intensive mental health, trauma informed counseling, tutoring support, intensive case management, and we have Tier one, Tier two, and Tier three activities. Tier one serves the entire campus. Tier two is small groups. And then Tier three is the more one on one mental health counseling.

The majority of students that we serve are from low income families, although we don't turn anyone away. This past year, for twenty four-twenty five in the San Marcos District, ninety nine percent of the students that we serve were promoted to the next grade or graduated, and ninety nine percent of them also improved behavioral health outcomes. This past year, we provided over $600,000 in basic needs assistance to the school districts, and we work with 87 partners. The 87 partners are throughout our entire region, not just San Marcos, but the majority of our partners are in the San Marcos area. We recently there was recently a study released from the Harvard School of Education.

Harvard did a study on CIS and surveyed over 16,000,000 students for the past twenty years and showed that CIS not only provides short term positive outcomes, but also long term outcomes. The students served over the past twenty years have little to no involvement in the criminal justice system and have higher salary earnings over their lifetime and higher tax contributions per year. And I can send you more information after the meeting with more detailed data on that study. So now, miss Balazios, are you able to show the video?

So before I share and start the video, as soon as I start the video, we can't speak because it'll go into a loop. So just an FYI. Just a second, everybody, because it's disappeared. So

I

I can try that.

Well, it's just because I have to get it

off of my the

other part of those computers. That's the other. I

need to get it off of the email.

Oh, god.

I recently decided on teams. Mhmm.

I know.

One thing I forgot to share with the group is in addition to the in our core model, we also have the MELD Student Achievement Program, which works with young boys of color in the high school, teaching them about postsecondary, creating postsecondary goals for college and beyond high school. I'm gonna show them to have a really good success rate in creating a pathway to college in the workforce.

Well, just real quick while she's getting that set up. So what exactly do you see what role do you would do you see the neighborhood commission in the in your program?

Yeah. So it's great

question, Trini. You know, like you said, you know, of course, you are planning the schools because, you know, I mean, just off the bat, seeing, you know, communities and schools, you would think that that would be but just if you'll let

John So the goal for the ICU simulation activity is to get with various community groups, various neighborhood associations, faith based community groups, employee groups, even peer groups like the Elks Group and the Lions Club and and go and do this action.

Yeah. I saw that I saw that in your Mhmm. In the in the in the packet that you had sent last month.

So it's truly yeah. It's truly telling more people in the community about communities and schools. And the special thing about the ICU activity is that you're actually walking, like, a day in the life of a student that we serve. So these are not made up stories. They're actually real real life data from the students that we serve at CIS. And it's a group activity, and so it's to to tell the community more about CIS and what the students are experiencing, what barriers they're facing, and how communities and schools comes and provides wraparound services to help support students who's successful. But it it's not just CIS, takes the entire community. So we're hoping to build more thought partners and more allies and and more and a larger network for CIS.

So, basically, you're looking for the Neighborhood Commission to promote and advocate in outreach and encouraging the citizenry to participate in the ICU simulation.

Yes. That's correct. I would come out to the San Marcos community either whatever. If there's already an existing meeting, be part of that agenda. It takes about forty five minutes to do the actual simulation. Or if an evening meeting works better or on the weekend, I can also come and do that. Really working and tailoring according to the group schedule. I've been asked in past presentations what is an ideal group size, and there really isn't. I can do small groups or large groups. If it's a larger group, can bring my staff along with me to help facilitate.

But I practice even by myself doing, like, just with five people, and it's effective in in any number or any capacity of of the number of group. But the goal is really to help tell more about CIS because we're often told we're the best kept secret in the community, and this is really to help paint the picture of the actual students that we're serving and to help strengthen our network. Unless I'm not Okay.

So, like, when you say the simulation takes approximately forty five minutes? Yes, So in other words, you know, like because normally, we do have other entities that will think about. And when I say entities, mean, other departments within the city that will piggyback on other staff meetings for other neighborhood meetings. And so you know, in hearing that it's at least forty five minutes, I would think that it would have to be, like, set separate, like, you know, like, its own individual

Thing. Yeah. Like like,

a event, let's say. Because of the forty five minutes, because normally, most neighborhood meetings generally run about an hour or or a lot in an hour to an hour fifteen minutes, and that's with two or more other city departments.

Okay.

And that allows them to present, and then question and answer session, and then the meeting's open. So I I I see that one of the things that we can do is because we're discussing restarting our neighborhood conversations, and that's something that we could we could all talk about with the commissioners and see how they feel as maybe that could be an integrated part of reintroducing the neighborhood conversations back to the community. And with, you know, with y'all being partnered with the school district, you know, and then promoting help helping promote for y'all, helping promote the meeting, we can arrange, you know, each commissioner that they feel comfortable with with us, you know, doing this.

Mhmm.

Do I know? No. No.

Each commissioner can set their meeting date in place. And, of course, we would help facilitate that. And then, you know, they can get the word out by their by their avenue, whether it be social media, whether it be a block walk, or whether it just have signs posted in their in their sectors in the different neighborhoods

Okay.

With contact information.

Yeah. We it's also on our social media. All of our social media platforms have the video along with more information about you know, it was actually created through a shark tank competition from the CIS in Nevada and Las Vegas. And so and then it has my contact information in but I'm hoping to do maybe one to two of these a month. And and not just San Marcos, but, like, all over our region. But I wanted to start with San Marcos because this community has always been really supportive of CIS. And because we are fully saturated, I feel like they would be a good place to start because they are such an important and strong champion of CIS. Doctor. Perdona and his team. Miguel Arnezano?

I and I may like I said, I've been having some arterial problems above the neck today. But did you mention what grade that that y'all that y'all primarily are focused on? Because I know you mentioned a lot about continuing education. And are you so are you targeting, like, the junior high, high school

We actually start

the group, or are you like, are y'all doing it from, you know, primary all the way to

Yeah. So our our here in San Marcos, we serve pre k all the way to, you know, senior year of high school, but we actually just expanded into three community colleges. And Hayes Community College is one of the colleges that we expanded to. So we're following students to college now with the goal of helping ensure that they finish either two year or four year university or enter a job in the workforce after the two year Mhmm. Certification.

So I can't get the video to attach. So I can send it out though to everybody after the meeting is done so they can watch the video.

Do you want do you want me to give it a try? Or

I can't get it to attach at all. I won't I I can't get it to attach more. Yeah. That's not on yet.

Yeah. That's fine if you wanna send the link. And I'll also follow-up with an email, a thank you email to all the commissioners and yourself with more information on the Harvard study, with more of our our outcomes from our this year's impact report, and then a link to the video. But again, this you know, this is not made these are not made up stories. It's real real lives that are of course, we we changed the names, but all of the barriers are real barriers that the students are facing during the simulation or before the simulation.

We do ask that people, like, honor the stories and, you know, kind of walk the walk that the students are walking. Because I know when we've done it with our board, they're like, why didn't the student just do this or just do this? And it's like, it's not, you know, that easy when you're dealing with trauma or being transitioning from being homeless or how the parent is incarcerated. Yeah. So

So let me ask you. Since we're not gonna be able to see the video, can you kinda elaborate a little bit to the commissioners what we might have seen on the video Yeah. That, you know, could help help us to better understand this project?

Sure. So in the video, our CEO, Sharon Viehl, does does a little introduction about we actually did this recently with our leadership circle, which is former board members and donors, current donors of CIS. We did this in February, the February. And so we had people come in who are partners of ours and record the actual simulation. So you're actually seeing it in real time what it looks like.

And it's our leadership circle then gives testimonials about what the activity felt like to them. They talk about how you're looking for a a positive option for a student with what the barrier that they're facing, and there's no option. And then part of the activity, there's a a table that I set up with different feelings. And so there's, like, what feelings came up for you as you're doing this? How how were you triggered by this information?

And then you're so you're essentially carrying all of these feelings in little boxes. But then some people get bags that are labeled CIS, and they're able to put all of these boxes in the bag without carrying them and, like, dropping them. So it's it's meant to show or articulate the fact that CIS comes in and provides all of these extra supports. And without these supports, maybe a student from San Marcos may have dropped out and not finished their education, which is the goal of CIS. And as the Harvard study shows, CIS even has long term outcomes long after a student has finished school, such as, again, higher income earnings, higher tax contribution, little to no involvement in the criminal justice system, less reliance on public assistance.

And and it's not just for the students that are in CIS. The CIS impacts the entire school community. When a student is hungry, when they come to our food pantry, we don't turn anyone away. We don't say you have to be in CIS. Or if they need clothing for school or their rent or their electricity is about, you know, they're about to be evicted or their electricity is about to be cut off, we provide basic needs assistance.

And that's to all students in the community. And you don't have to show anything to prove, you know, to us that you need this assistance. We give that without question. So it's meant to highlight all of the different factors that students are carrying as they're navigating going to and from home that they don't talk about, or maybe a teacher is not aware of it. And so when they're acting out in school for a behavior issue, it is they can go to the CIS Room and have this safe space to tell somebody, ask somebody, and tell somebody what they're going through, and then we divide that sentence.

A majority of the students we are serving through mental health, lower level mental health issues, through anxiety or depression. And we have a mental health unit that goes and provides one on one counseling for up to 16 sessions. Most students see success at eight sessions, but we provide it up to three months. And then if they need longer sorry, four months if they need longer term supports, then we partner with people in the San Marcos community, or we bring people from our other region into the San Marcos area. Think services are more intense, like the tragedy that happened a couple of years ago at Tom Green. We we we deployed a whole team of people to go out and provide supports, not just to the students, but siblings, family members, and teachers, and staff. Okay.

Tiffany has something that she wanted to say.

Yes, Tiffany? Tiffany, you have your hand up?

Can you hear me?

Yeah. I can.

Okay. I don't know. I guess my earbuds weren't working. Sorry about that. So, no, I just so my because there is no longer, the Council of Neighborhood Associations, I've she's been trying to get in touch with neighborhood groups.

And so I thought, you know, this might be opportunity really just to tell you guys what she's trying to do. And if you guys like, if you can, like, share with your various neighborhood groups, if this is something that they might wanna have in their in their neighborhood. I didn't really necessarily see it being part of any city event. More is just kind of to educate you on on on on what she's trying to do. She's trying to do these simulations in the neighborhoods, and if you can share it with, you know, your neighborhood leaders in the various neighborhoods you're a part of.

That's that was my intention. Thank you, Tiffany. Yeah. I got that. That's why, like, I asked her to elaborate a little bit until we actually get to see the video, you know, to kinda give all the commissioners an idea so that way I can, you know, put it on next month's agenda to discuss you know?

Like I said, think that might be something that, like, each commissioner might wanna participate in in helping to have this this event as part of to help integrate or kinda to reintroduce neighborhood conversations. That's that's where I was going with that. But, yeah, I'm on the same page as you. Thank you, Tiffany. So you mentioned so the C I the CIS Room, do y'all have a CIS Room in every school?

Yeah. You're in San Marcos? Yes. Okay. Correct. And then the other thing is

Some in some schools, we have two rooms, one for CIS and one for the MELD student achievement program, like the high school. Los Santos High School has two rooms.

Okay. And then you mentioned a pantry. Where is this pantry located?

So depending on so every year at the beginning of the school year, we sit with the principal and the admin staff and determine what are the top goals for the campus. And if the principal identifies food insecurity as being a top goal, then we'll set up a food pantry in there. But every CIS room has a a food closet within the CIS Room.

Okay. Good to know that. That's good to know. And then and then you said you mentioned that y'all do, like, utility assistance and how does that

This past year, we gave a total of over $608,000 in basic needs assistance, and that's rent, utility, food cards, gas cards, uniforms, diapers, period products, really whatever the student is needing to ensure that they get to school on time and that there is no barrier. And we don't ask the student or family to ever prove anything. If they're asking for help, we we get it.

My other question is you you mentioned multiple times about, you know, a pathway to the college, follow-up. Y'all also, like, I guess, help promote also, like, you know, for certain students and certain demographic groups that really are not, like, college bound.

Yes.

But, like, hey. You know, here's these technical schools and here's these technical programs. So is that something that's also integrated in your program?

Yes. So we start working in the junior mid junior high high level and then ninth and tenth grade about setting post secondary goals regardless if it's a two or four year university. We also set goals with them that includes, like, going and being ready for the workforce. So we partnered with the workforce solutions in all of the different regions that we serve. We also talk to them about the military, although that's not kind of like like a priority, but it's it's one of the things that's it's college career military readiness is the name of the program.

But MSAF is separate from that. And earlier I said the focus is young men of color, but we accept all students. It's just the focus is young men of color because that's the group that has shown to have higher dropout rates in our region. But the post secondary goals are for all students regardless of gender. And so we we have different partnerships with, like, law firms or other employee groups like the city of San Marco so that they they can go and provide an internship there and get the experience of what role real life working experience is.

But we do have the conversation about college so that they know that is is an option and in case no one else conversation with them. And as I mentioned, this year, we're doing a pilot program in three Austin Community Colleges, one being Hays. And we provide the basic needs assistance even through college with books or registration fees. We also help them fill out the financial aid application and go with them to those appointments if the parent's unable to go. So, yeah, it's workforce readiness as well, but we do talk to them about college.

The other question I have is, so, like, you know, you talk about the simulation as, like, we get to kind of walk in the shoes of the student and, like, kinda experience the challenges that they can you elaborate a little bit more on Sure. When you say challenges, like, can you elaborate on that?

Yeah. So each there's a, like, a set of 10 different students. Like, one's Maria, one's Christopher. So they all have their own names, and then each package has set of barriers that a student has faced in CIS, such as being a teen parent or have you know, being raised by a grandparent or somebody other than a parent. And so you're walking through each table has a different barrier, and they're they get to choose option one or option two depending on the barrier that they have.

Like, one, the student ran out of diapers for their baby, and so they're like, do I miss class and go get my my child diapers? This is already gonna be the second time I miss class and that we have a test today. So she's they're having to navigate really serious challenges like that, or I'm not a formula for my baby, or my siblings don't have lunch money for today. Like, how am I gonna get that money? I can't ask my grandmother again because she's also living has to pay our rent.

So there's all of these different barriers that all of our students have faced at one facet or another. And so but but you're also given two different scenarios of which option to take. And some of the cards have scenario where, oh, yeah, I remember my CIS program manager can help me with this, so they go on to but not everybody has the CIS person in their packet. And so at the very end, we all sit together in clothing and talk about the feelings that came up for you as you're navigating those different barriers and as though you were experiencing it as a student yourself. So you kinda have to go back in time. Right? Like, you're not supposed to decide as an adult what you would do. You're supposed to decide as a 14 year old or 15 year old what you would have done in that situation.

When you said some of them are some of them have a CIS, have advocate or whatever. Right. And then some, like, are not even a part of the CIS.

Or some.

I mean, in other words, a simulation of us getting to experience what it's like to be have a c have CIS and not. Right. Yes. Yes. A concept. Okay. Does anybody else have any other questions regarding CIS? I know it was it's kind of a little bit difficult since we didn't get to see the video, but once we see it, then maybe we will discuss it at our next month's meeting.

And I'll also email it to you all after this after this meeting. I'll email you the video along with our impact report and the Harvard study results so that you can see. They're not, like, all of the data, but it's, like, a snapshot of what the results have said.

I'm gonna ask you one last question. And and it may not even No.

Go ahead.

Be in your purview. It may not even be part of this. I'm just just as curiosity. So, like, either you mentioned that you that y'all work for, you know, for the primary level, elementary level, all the way to seniors. At the primary like, you know, I guess, you know, at the primary education level, like, have you have you been able have y'all been able to work with the school district in, you know, seeing what the challenges that those students are facing or barriers or where the deficiency is in why that that demographic group grade level received an f, like we received an f from the state.

Do y'all, like, help try to let let me just put this. Are y'all in any way, like, a partner to help lift up the education, you know Yeah. For these students and help the teachers to kind of say, hey, this is why this student's failing. This is why they're getting low grade. This is like, is CIS a part of that?

Yeah. So the real beautiful thing about CIS is that we include the entire family. So we're not working in isolation just with the student and the teacher where they're struggling. We work with the mother and the father, the caregiver who's raising the child, and we have the family involved at every step of the way, and they're a part of helping to formulate the goals for their family. We also do regular home visits.

If the family's not comfortable with us coming to their home, we meet somewhere in the community, be it at the school or a community center that's not hard for the parent to transport themselves to. And then it's not a cookie cutter approach, so we tailor each grade level according to the need. And so in some grades, you'll see that reading is an issue. In other grades, we'll see math. As as kids enter junior high and high school, that's where we see the highest challenges around attendance.

And that's really because students are helping to support their siblings and getting their siblings ready for school. And so they might be late to class or miss class because they're having to get their siblings to school. We're helping support a sick mother or father, and they're working as well. And so there's a lot of different challenges that the students are facing, but we tailor tailor them before you know what the grade level and what the majority of the grade level have we have seen be the most challenging. And then we have this thing called menu of interventions, which is used by all of our staff, not just our mental health unit, And it's shown which interventions have been most effective with which grade level, so that when we bring somebody new on, we hire somebody new to our team, they're not having to figure these resources out themselves.

They will enter the behavior or academic or attendance issues that the student is experiencing, and then the many of interventions that have shown to be successful for that specific age group will pop up and connect them to the resources in San Marcos that have shown to be most effective, be it, you know, art therapy or more intensive counseling or other supports that the family is facing or struggles that the family is facing if we can intervene soon so we're not having to start from scratch.

Okay. Sorry. The the video didn't work, but Yvonne will be sending it out to all of us, and we'll definitely reach back up to you with any questions and, you know, your participation.

Thank you

so much. Yes.

And And apologies for not getting back to you. My daughter has had two ear infections, and it's it's been kind of a crazy couple of

weeks. No problem.

Yeah.

Thank you, Punka. Thank you for

reaching out to us.

I look forward to And

and you'll be hearing

from us. Okay. Thank

you. Okay. Thank you.

Have a good evening.

Well, thank you all for the work that y'all do.

You so much. Mhmm.

Okay. Moving on to our next agenda item. There's gonna be items up for action and discussion. As we discussed last month, we're gonna review and discuss with possible action, submitting recommendation resolution regarding recommendations for twenty twenty five dash zero three r r dash p r b of of the Park and Recreation Board regarding the Riverfront And Eastside Regional Park preliminary design. So did everybody get a chance to look at that packet that Jamie had forwarded over to us and kinda like that little intel demo.

Yeah. If you had a chance, let me know. Nod your head either way. And so and if y'all got a chance to look at the other plans, I'm gonna open it up right now for anybody to comment on what what's on the feeling when you are paid? Do we wanna send a recommended resolution to the city?

And if so, what would we like the body of that to look like? And then from there, we'll kinda get some direction. And then just so everybody knows, Jamie Lee has joined with us, as y'all can see. So who wants to start first?

My side of the neighborhoods have the trails, so it's gonna be a task for us to get to that side of the the city. So we we we know what we have on sacred night areas, all the trails, so we don't get to benefit a lot from that unless we drive over there. So it's like a

trade off. Okay. So how where where do you stand as far as do we wanna send a recommended resolution or not?

I'm fine not sitting one. I'm fine.

Okay. Anybody else? Rich?

I'm I'm just curious. We I've heard nothing but negative feedback at at this point on on the recommended plan. Has anybody I'm trying to discern, is this a a simply vocal minority, or has anybody heard positive feedback on the proposed plan?

I'll be honest with you. I have not. I have not. I I'm not you. I've just heard nothing, but negative, unsupportive.

And but you gotta keep in mind, Rick, and not only Rick, but everybody, keep in mind that the full public doesn't all have has not seen this proposed because Sure. It hasn't been presented to city council. There's just, like, certain groups, I would say, that are more involved. And the ones that don't really, like, follow the Parks and Rec, you know, what Parks and Rec stands and all that. But somebody, maybe somebody that, you know, is into it with the city, like, you know, like, you know, like myself, that I'd like to know a little bit about everything.

We're privy to some of that in advance by word-of-mouth. And that's what's basically been happening is the people that are speaking up are people that are generally involved, kinda keep their eye on what's going on in the city. And then they reach out to the stakeholders, which is the people some some of the people that we've been hearing from from, you know, East Guadalupe, Rio Vista Terrace, the Blanco Gardens, the the the neighborhood right next to Pearl Creek, the people, yeah, the people have reached out to them to say, hey. Have you seen what's happening? You know, I don't wanna sound negative, but, like, kinda how do you wanna say it?

But kinda starting a spark, like, you know, before there needs to be. You know? So like I said, I I I too have just been very negative and unsupportive. But, you know, keep in mind, it's not the the full community that knows about this. Does that make sense? Who?

Robert has his hand. Robert, go ahead, Robert.

Yeah. I think Roland's comment can you hear me okay?

Yes, sir.

Okay. Good. Yeah. I think Roland's comment is correct. I would also just add to Roland's comment that what we're dealing with here is a lot of compromises.

They initially had no idea what they were gonna do. And through a series of public inputs and engineering, you know, expertise, they threw this thing together trying to make the best of what they could, and then it got tossed up again when it went to the parks board. It was a big mixed salad to begin with, and the Parks Board shook it up and added some more ingredients. So I think what part of what we're dealing with is Roland's right that not everyone has had a chance to comment, but those who have are dealing with conflicting interests. Everyone has their own point of view.

Everyone wants to see their priorities prioritized, and nobody's a 100% happy here. I I think I think 80% are 80% happy, maybe, but you're getting the you're getting a lot of negative feedback because no one's a 100% satisfied with the solutions. And Roland, I I apologize I missed last month's meeting. So I do wanna comment on a couple items, but please stop me if I'm speaking out of line here because I don't know what's already been discussed. Go ahead.

Regarding the, River Park, I generally feel like the plan d that the parks board recommended is acceptable with one caveat. So go to a master plan concept d as in dog. I can't think of the right term, but yeah.

That was it.

Yeah. So that's the one parks recommended, I believe. Most of it looks good. The one exception I take to this is the number of parking spots of the baseball field. It's saying 200.

The consultant actually recommended 75, and one of one of my advisers informed me that they would strongly like to see a reduction in parking by the ball field, by the baseball field. You have currently 200 proposed which is excessive for a single field. Other than the oversized parking lot, I like this concept d. That's my opinion. So and on the other park, Well Creek, so I think so there's only two options we had to look at.

But Well, are the the the two options are those are what Parks and RecBoard have voted on. Okay. They voted on it, and that is what Jamie will be presenting to in a work session in a workshop session to the council. So that that's why those are the two choices because that's what Parson rec is is recommending. But the packet if you'll see the packet, you did get all of the different concepts.

No. I I I not not I'm I'm talking about the Quail Creek now, so I'm switching parts. I'm so I'm sorry if I was not clear. I did review all the Riverside Parks and I agree with the on the Riverside Parks, I agree with the Parks Board on plan d except for the number of parking spaces by the ball field. That's the only I'd like to pull back some of those spaces.

On the Quail Creek, we're only presented two options, and I I disagree with the park board recommendation here. I I like concept a better. The significant difference between a and b is on that western I I don't know how to call it western half. One concept has a base has another series of baseball fields, and this one, Concept A, has multiuse fields in that area. And I just can't get behind Concept B because for a couple reasons.

One, you're you're planning substantial improvements in the floodway in the flood zone, and it's risky. That will flood. So how much of that baseball field is gonna get wiped away in the next flood? The bottom. I'm talking about the southern southernmost field. Thank you. That that one. You're doing a good job, whoever's running the show. Thank you. That's the field that I just can't stand behind.

It's in the flood and it's it's next to that neighborhood and those neighbors have been surveyed. Those neighbors have spoken out. And as neighborhood advocates, I know Jamie Lee did kinda give us a little bit of scope in our purview and that we're not trying to design the park. That's not our job. We're trying to look after the neighborhood.

And if that's my goal as a neighborhood commissioner, I can't just give free rein to the park to ruin is probably the wrong word to use. These people's lives, it's it's that's an overstatement, but they didn't buy into giant floodlights. They didn't buy into giant crowds in in that Yeah.

I I I get I get the gist of it, Yeah. That's I get the

gist of And

and and I'm glad that you brought that up because I I I forgot to mention that at the beginning. I just wanted everyone to be clear on why why we brought this to the Neighborhood Commission is exactly what you just said, Robert, is we our purview is not to pick a concept or to push forward a concept. Our purview is our resolution is not gonna say, oh, we are against concept b and a e. We're that's not our purview. Our purview of kind of the the spirit and the body of the if we were to decide to send a recommended resolution is would just be to point out and remind the council, this is what we have heard from the stakeholders in your decision making process for the recommendations from the parks board, these are things that we that that the community has reached out to us with concerns about.

And, Jamie, you had your hand up? Yes, sir. Can you follow-up can you follow-up with what I just said? Like, is that was that correct?

Yes, sir. No. I was just going to, again, thank you, commissioner, for for your insights, but just remind the commission that, you know, feedback really should be neighborhood focused insights per per your charge. So just really looking for those insights as you kind of referenced chair. However, you want to formulate that if it's based on all of the feedback.

And, I mean, I I don't know how much individual feedback US commissioners have received. It could it could be quite a bit. So I don't know if, you know, providing that in generalizations or however the the commission feels that you wanna capture, those feedback. But just really looking at and providing, you know, your recommendation based on how these plans would affect neighborhoods is, what we're really asking, as far as providing kind of that scope for you guys.

Thank you. Bobby, do you have your hand up?

Yes.

Okay. Go ahead. Is it on? Yes, ma'am.

Okay. So I guess my my response to this would be as a neighborhood commissioner and because Rio Vista and Guadalupe are in my sector. But I also have had a lot of lot of calls from individuals that live adjacent to and near the East Side Regional Park. You know, doctor Anawares came before the commission, and she spoke to us. She lives there right next to where Eastside Regional Park is going to be.

She had some really big concerns about the fact that what she was told in one meeting totally changed once it, you know, came out of Parks Commission. As an individual who has has spent the good part of thirty years doing community engagement, I'm I'm feeling like it wasn't deep enough in grassroots. For me, it's it's not having a meeting or calling people to come to it. It's taking the meeting to that neighborhood and providing opportunities for people to walk to that meeting or make a short drive to that meeting to at least participate for a portion of the time and be able to be heard about their concerns. It's and especially with many neighborhoods who just don't have the capacity to drop everything in their household and jump in a car and drive across town to an activity center to go through stations.

That that's just not for me adequate enough. As neighborhood commissioners, we should have the most regard for how it's going to impact the the residents that have earned their dollars and spent them on a residence that they thought they were gonna live their lives out in, and then all of a sudden for that to be disrupted by something of this magnitude. So I'm I'm speaking about Eastside Regional Park. I love the park. I, you know, I I was a baseball player.

I was a softball player for thirty years as well. So I I really understand the the residents of the neighborhood there's concerns about the lighting, about the noise, about the emphasis to the natural environment. The traffic they knew was coming, but, you know, many of them said as long as we, you know, can work with the with TexDOT and the city to manage that traffic. So there's, you know, less disruption and more safety. You know, we could deal with that.

But the lighting and the noise and and it turning into something that's is not natural looking and something that preserves that environment is a little bit difficult for them to take. For those of you that have been on the neighborhood commission for the time that I've been on, I'm on my second term, you know that I've had a lot of problems with short term rentals. And I've been chastised by it about it by by some commissioners and some staff. But even after all the work that we did regarding that agreement, it went to council. We sent it with the caveat that there would be only one short term rental per block, and that was totally taken out of the agreement.

I I was living with five. Now I'm living with six. So what I've been battling for fifteen years, almost twenty years now, is makes me want to just jump in the gut in the guts of this and really speak out to counsel and anybody that will listen on behalf of the residents of East you know, that are near Eastside Regional Park. It's you cannot imagine the impact to your peace and your quality of life when you bought a home forty years ago, forty five years ago, fifty years ago in a in a neighbor beautiful neighborhood that you intended to raise your kids and live your old age out in to all of a sudden, you know, be subjected to all kinds of stuff. You know?

100 plus people and having a wedding across your street all night long with music. And, you know, it's it's and this is every weekend. And so I'm saying to you that we must advocate for the residents. You know, if it's a single member, a sync it's a single family neighborhood, single family zoning, what happened on Riviera Street? Single family zoning.

Five short term rentals. So I think there has to be strong language, request for that the council place their emphasis on the least amount of negative impact to the quality of life of those adjacent neighborhoods. And if you want to delineate in that what those items might be, whether it's lighting, noise, you know, emphasis on the on natural environment, traffic, whatever it may be. You know, too many parking places, too much pervious cover. Let's put it in there.

That's what I gotta say.

Bobby, would you be okay with concept a?

Conference room is on mute.

Oh.

It looks like Roland's talking, but conference room's on mute.

Back to mute. Oh, sorry about that.

There you go. You are not yep. You are unmuted.

Thank you. So let me repeat what I had just said. Yeah. So that was the whole idea of why I had mentioned that at the beginning is I wanted to kind of get a consensus and a feel of the spirit of the Neighborhood Commission of whether, one so let me just make this easier. One, by show of hands, thumbs up something, or thumbs down, let me know. Do we wanna send a recommended resolution first? That that's the first part of this that we need to do.

Samantha, how's it going?

Samantha, go ahead.

Yeah. I guess this isn't in response directly to your question just now, but, yes, I would want to. Yeah. I just wanted to share my perspective a little bit. Just, you know, go on the record since that's what we're doing and everyone's kinda going around sharing the thoughts.

I wanna thank you for all the work that you've done to put all of these recommendations together. I'm sure it a lot of time. I'm sure it took a lot of time to go and get that community feedback and do that outreach. And, yeah, I want to second a lot of what commissioners Hernandez and Abby shared. And, yeah, reminding us of our role in our lane as the neighborhood commission and, you know, advocating for the appearance and maintenance and safety of our neighborhoods.

I grew up in a baseball family, so also starting out with that. My family often jokes about how I grew up in the dugout. Literally, like, had the stroller in the dugout. My dad coached both of my brother's baseball teams. I love baseball.

But I do think that nine baseball fields is, an overkill. I think that that's, not unnecessary. I remember during the meeting before last, I think it was the January meeting where you gave this presentation and shared that San Marcos has a we're, like, below the national average for the amount of baseball fields for our population. So I think that I'm sorry?

No. No, miss. I didn't see. No.

Think she's actually counted, like, 20 different species of birds, on that area. And so I'm definitely pro keeping as much of that natural biodiversity. Just naturally, I'm very anti, like, lawns even, like, in a home and wanna preserve, like, natural biodiversity as much as we can. So I think that, yeah, nine baseball fields is definitely excessive for the Quill Creek recommendations. And I'm also curious about I know that in the presentation, it's mentioned that there was an online survey between May 8 through June 15.

And so I would be curious to see what the outcome of that survey was. Like, did over 50% of those responses say they wanted nine baseball fields, or what were their responses to that survey? I would be curious. But, yeah, just wanted to share my thoughts on this.

Jamie, do you wanna go ahead? I mean, I don't know. You have that in front of you, or if you wanna get back with that, send that to us?

Sure. It's all on our website under the project tab, so it's available online currently. I did you know, obviously, we've been talking about this for a couple of months, and so it was in some of the original information that was sent out. But I'm happy to go ahead and forward that over to Yvonne just for, you know, ease and she can get that sent out to y'all so that you all can see all of their responses. And, you know, previously, I also mentioned, you know, we're looking at, kind of feedback that we received during our master plan process.

So we're operating under our current twenty nineteen parks, recreation, and open space master plan, which guides, you know, future development as well. So it is definitely pulling as far as informing us of what the community has provided just over the last several years, so not specifically to just this instance. And then, of course, you know, you've kind of touched on it, commissioner, as far as looking at our future need as well. So all of those things kind of informed, you know, the recommendation overall to provide baseball fields, not necessarily quantifying, a specific number, to to touch on that. But yeah.

I'll get that over to Yvonne.

Thank you. Thank you, Jamie.

Rick has his hand up. Was Samantha done on the side?

Yeah. Rick, go ahead.

Jamie, I got I got a question for you. A lot of the concern objection is around the fact that there are nine planned ball fields at Quail Creek. And to the point where the number of ball fields that we have is below the recommended number of fields per capita by I can't even remember what the standard is, but there is some national standard around around the number of ball fields you need per capita. And I and I assume that the ball fields that we have are oversubscribed. Right?

And that that is I'm that's just an assumption that, you know, that that that we don't have enough fields as it is empirically, not just by some statistical measure somewhere out in the out in the And, again, circling back, there's the the grave concern appears to be around nine ball fields at Quail Creek. And I remember last month or two months ago, whenever it was, you you mentioned that you looked at other sites and that there were sites where it was possible to have a one or two ball fields, but not a concentration of ball fields. And I'm gonna cite the fact that fifty plus years ago when I grew up, I I might have had a game at Rohanas Park, and then I had a game at Center School, and I had a game at and all these places only had one or two ball fields. But we went because we were playing Little League or or Babe Ruth, and that's and that's that's where the ball fields were were were located. And I know if I was hosting a tournament, I would want nine ball fields all in the same place.

But are we I I can't think of a a different word, pandering. Are we pandering to tournaments versus serving the community?

Sure. I appreciate the question so much. Right now, we have tournaments that are being hosted at Raymond Lucio Field, and they are driving back and forth, to other communities, even though it is part of the same tournament. We do have a deficit just for our own rec league. So looking at our own kids first, is the priority.

The tournament, you know, situation, at least from a parks and recreation standpoint, is kind of secondary. Looking at the needs for our local youth, but also our adults as well because we currently do not have any fields where, we can offer a coed or a rec league play for adults. We're able to provide that for softball currently because we do have adult softball fields, but we don't have adult baseball. So taking those into consideration as well, And I apologize that I forgot maybe the potential first part of your oh, I remember now, about the property. So I did, you know, look at all of our city owned property.

I looked at a site that is very close to Quail Creek. It's actually, by our airport. Once I did some additional due diligence, unfortunately, because of the location to the airport, we actually have to have the FAA actually approve it. Yep. And which I learned.

You know? Additionally, yeah, there's a significant creek and floodway that runs through the property as well. So we could if even if we got approval from the FAA, we would have to pay them a lease, which was interesting to me because, well, they require us to pay a lease, but we're paying it to ourselves. But they require us to have it. So, you know, federal stuff be it what it is. So Apply.

Decided to totally scrap an aircraft is is would be a disaster. Right? Yeah.

100%. Completely agree. Yep. So we are you know, unfortunately, there's not a lot of not a lot of other properties that are within our inventory today. Obviously, that's not a forever thing, but that, of course, takes just, you know, more more dollars. But, again, we'll just keep working towards that effort to meet the needs of our community as we can. So whatever comes out of this, we're gonna continue to do what we can.

And just a curiosity question follow-up. Is there strong demand for an adult rec league baseball?

Not currently. Yeah. Not not currently. But, of course, they're well, you know, obviously, pickleball

they will come. Right?

Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. That's what I was gonna say. You know, kind of build them and they will come. But, yeah, we do if we offered the programs, I'm sure that we would have folks that would take advantage of it. But it is not an immediate thing that we're having a drumbeat for.

Okay. Understood. Thank you.

Yes, sir.

Bobby has her hand up. Did does she have

enough Bobby, do have another question? Bobby, did your hand is up?

I got I got a statement. I feel like I was bashed by saying I don't approve anything. I I do approve anything. I've been here for fifteen years. I don't still consider myself a resident after fifteen years. I've been working for twenty years. But I'm in one of these meetings just about the river park alone. Mhmm. Excited when they purchased the Quail Creek Park. Excited when they inherited the the fields at 5 Mile Dam. Let's build something. If if it's just the fields, I'm looking at all the extra things that are gonna be put in besides the fields where we're gonna lose out. Let's push it up, and let's go. It's too much waiting around procrastinating on trying to build something. The department's gonna sit there empty.

So I wanna go back to Roland's question, which is, hi. I'm Amy Tamales. I'm assistant director of network enhancement.

You go right. I know you ruined my thing by going

But but we do need to just focus on does the neighborhood commission want to do a resolution to counsel? I think that was the first question that Roland had asked.

Yeah. So by by show of hands Yvonne, I'm gonna lead you up a little by show of hands or thumbs up and holding up just so I can count, let me know, do we want to send a a resolution to city council? Yes?

No? Let's take a vote.

You know I'm just gonna take a vote. They won't call a vote.

Hold on. Excuse me. Why do we have to do it today? Why don't we do it next meeting?

The last day?

No. No. I wanna get a vote on whether we wanna send a a resolution. And that's all we're gonna vote on, and then we're gonna we're gonna shut the meeting down because it's already late. Okay. And mix meeting, we're gonna discuss it. Because Jamie had already decided that she would give us allow us the time if we decided that we wanted to do resolution. We understand. Okay. Let's go. Yvonne, call the roll, please.

Samantha Benavides?

Yes.

Robert Eady?

Yes.

Rick Kennedy?

Yes.

Bobby Gaza Hernandez? Yes. Michael Adams? Roland Salcedo?

Yes.

Michael Vernon?

Yes.

Ruah Gleason? Heidi Holiday McKittrick? Jason Valdez?

Yes.

Tyler Barstow?

Yes.

Alexis Monzanaris?

Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Alrighty. Alright. I wanna thank everybody for the feedback. Like I said, we're running a little late. So till the next meeting, start taking notes or start jotting little bullet points, whatever, what what we want to say in the resolution.

Bear in mind, let me remind you again, the scope of the resolution is not, you know, whether we support the Parks and Board or Rec or whether we whether we'd like another concept, that is not us. That's none of our business. Our business is to say, this is how the neighborhoods feel. This is what they're concerned about. That's it.

Again, like like like, you know, that's what we are, the Neighborhood Convention, advocates of the neighborhood. Things that are gonna affect the neighborhood. Okay? So with that in mind, thank you all. Take down your little bullet points and your notes, and have them ready for next month's meeting. It's great.

Yes, please.

Can you call them? Our next agenda item is Robert Eby is gonna give us an update on how the secretary neighborhood commission with San Marcos Police Department went.

And how it's going?

I mean, how it's going.

Yeah. Okay. So, Yvonne, you're gonna have to help me with names, but I was contacted by the officer in charge of community engagement.

Luray?

Yeah.

Yes. Officer Luray. Yes.

Officer Taylor. Full name, Luray Taylor.

Larray Taylor. That's that's his name. Yes, ma'am. He called me to discuss so the PD had already planned a date, but they wanted to know about possible locations, and I recommended a couple different locations in my neighborhood or my area that could be used for community conversation. And not a lot else I mean, there wasn't a lot else that he needed from me.

The PD is supposed to be involved with engagement community engagement. There's they set up the event. So it's mostly just a matter of coordinating with you as the commissioners to make sure you're gonna be at the event so that you can help so you can help assist host assist host and just meet your neighbors. I don't know who's gonna come out to these things. I do have a concern, and I raised this concern to officer Luray that some people are just afraid of the police, in our current climate, and they're not gonna come out when police are involved, period.

The point of this, I think, is to build goodwill and good faith in the community so that people aren't afraid of the police. And when they see their local officers, they're like, oh, hey. I know you. In fact, one of the school officers, at my elementary school that I go to, wrote a traffic report. I was I was involved in a traffic accident, and the officer who wrote the report is the same officer that goes to my school.

And I'm like, oh, hey. Nice to touch base with you. So it's bad terms. But the point is to, build goodwill in the community, and, hopefully, some of those people who aren't sure about the police are the ones that actually come out to these events because that's the point. The point isn't to say, oh, we're we're focusing traffic citations in your neighborhood or whatever. I mean, I don't think that's the point. It's to build goodwill. And however you can help with that, I will say they haven't beyond that initial conversation about where could we do this, I've had no involvement with the planning of this event. So it is scheduled for the end of this month. It's on a Tuesday.

I had to bring my calendar up to get an exact date.

It's scheduled on the twenty fourth.

Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. So Tuesday, the twenty fourth at Crockett Elementary. Six to 07:30.

I'm sorry.

Six six to 07:30. Six to 07:30. Yes. I I'm I'm gonna be there to support to support them. I don't know. I don't really have a flyer. Actually, Yvonne just emailed me something today, But I wasn't actually included in the email that went out. Yvonne forwarded it to me. And so even as the neighborhood commissioner, I'm not being included in this conversation. So it's a little disjointed.

I I'd say once once the date's been set for your sector, be involved. Like, have officer Larre's number and and kinda I I guess my my lesson would be get get involved, like, figure out when and where this event's gonna be because you're you're that neighborhood commissioner. You're the representative for the neighborhood, and seems like they're doing their own thing in a way.

So I do wanna say because they did it in Dunbar first, the moment I found out, I asked them to because I am my neighborhood rep. I asked them to create a flyer, and I walked it door to door. I was told on a Friday, and they were having a meeting the following Wednesday. So that weekend, I was walking the flyer door to door. There was some really good conversations with Pete and the residents that showed up, but also they had questions for other departments, and there will be other department representatives there. So it'll be something that's a good conversation starter for everybody.

Well done. Well, that's that's interesting to know, Amy, that you said that because when chief Standridge came to present to us, he made it a point to say there will not be no other departments. We we're not gonna because he they kind of felt like there was too many people at our meetings where we have all the different departments, and he said this was only for the police department. But let you know that they

After the questions that were asked, they realized there should've

There there should've been other people.

Safety public safety was also about speeding, so Sabah should've been there. So safety around some parks. So Jamie Lee should've been there. So we're just there's gonna be some department directors there as well and managers.

Okay.

I just got the flyer today. What wasn't the flyer was just an email in reference to the the meeting on the March 24. So I'll send it out to everybody tomorrow.

Okay. Thank you, Robert. Alright. Our next agenda item is Tiffany Harris. You and us are happening. Tiffany, it's all you.

Hey, Tiffany. Good to see you.

Hello. I'm in. Hi.

Hi. Is it my turn?

Yes. It's Kevin.

Alright. Yeah. I just made it back in. So I've been having some trouble getting it on the speakerphone, and I I still don't have it on. So I I really don't have a report. I was gonna mention the the neighborhood meeting at Crockett Elementary, but it seems like you already have that information. So I'm I I don't have anything to report.

Thank you very much, ma'am.

Thank you.

Bernie, is he coming? Bernie?

If you call, period. If he's gonna on track before he leaves.

I I wish we would have time.

Do you want to end meeting and then discuss whatever you're discussing, or do you wanna do that now?

No. Everybody, if y'all remember, last month, Greg gave us the sad bad news that this is this month today is his last neighborhood commission meeting in his last month here in San Marcos. So we wanna just all I want you to all join me in thanking him for the job. Well done. You will be greatly missed.

I can definitely say being the only commissioner that's been on this commission for fourteen year, I've gone through three directors. And by far, Greg, you have excelled, you truly are my favorite and the best. Not just because I've seen, like, you're here, but Really. What you've done with neighborhood enhancement, what you have done with the neighborhood commission, we applaud you. Thank you. Much. We really, really, really want to appreciate the very best in your endeavors. Well,

I appreciate it. Yep. Friday is my last day, so I am in and out. And I'm not really getting much work done, but I'm trying. In the meantime, mister Mighty's is gonna be the interim director, and they will be opening the the probably next week, putting out the job announcement. So that's gonna do that pretty quick. But I got leaving behind a great team, so I don't have to worry. So but thank you very much.

Well, Miguel, thank you, and good luck

with And

then we wanna welcome

It is.

Our beautiful resource director manager that is now gonna serve as our interim director of neighborhood enhancement. And so, Amy, welcome, and and Brad. And we all are very lucky that we have Amy stepping into this role. Hopefully, it'll be permanent. But, you know, as as most of y'all know, No.

She she you know, she's she's like my little idol because she knows everything and anything and everything about the city, and I strive to be that good. So we are blessed to have her stepping in this role, in this transition so we don't just fall off of a cliff. So welcome join me in welcoming Amy, everybody. And we can both Yeah. And anything that we can do, please let us know.

Alrighty. Well, with all that being said, our next agenda items is our question and answer session with the press and public. This is an opportunity for the press and public to ask questions related to items on this agenda. Three minutes per individual. I'll open up the question and answer session with press and public. Do I have anybody?

None.

I'll close the press and public. And moving on to our next agenda item, there's a motion to adjourn.

I motion to adjourn.

Thank you. Can I get a second? Second. Thank you. Yvonne, please take the vote.

Samantha Benavides?

Yes. Robert Evey?

Yes.

Rick Kennedy?

Yes.

Bobby Garcia Hernandez?

Yes.

Michael Adams? Roland Salcedo?

Yes. Yeah.

Michael Vernon?

Yes.

Ruah Gleason? Heidi Holiday McKittrick? Jason Valdez? Yes. Tyler Barstow?

Yes.

Alexis Monzanoras?

Yes. Alright. I closed the neighborhood commission meeting for the city of San Marcos, 03/18/2026 at exactly 08:11PM. Thank you. Y'all all have a wonderful rest of the month.

Circle gates and square.

And we'll see you in April. And that's it. Make your notes for the square. Uh-huh. For next month.