City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, I'm going to call this regular city council meeting and public hearing to order on April 8th, uh, 2026 at 6 p.m. You, if you will rise, if you are willing and able, we'll have a moment of silence to start. Yeah.

All right. If you'll proceed to the pledges. We'll start with the pledge of allegiance to the United States. Pledge to the United flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Honor the Texas flag to the Texas one and indivisible. Sorry. All right. We'll do our roll call and establish our quum. Council member Chris Richardson. Yes.

Council member here. Council member Lana Bailey here. Council member Linda Sber, Council, and Mayor Deborah Heind.

All right, we'll enter our public hearing at 6:01 p.m. The first item is the planning and zoning report for March 18th concerning equit development for Via Meadow lot 5, lot 6, lot 8, lot 9, lot 11, and lot 12. The planning and zoning commission reports are in. I did not make copies from everyone. I'll read it and pass it down. They approve the planned unit development for BMOs lots 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, and 12. And they recommend it be accepted by council. Here's that report. We have signed copies on record already.

I'd entertain a motion to accept their report. I move we accept the report. Second motion made by council member Greg, second made by council member Rasco. Do you all have any discussion or questions on the report itself? We're not discussing the item yet, just the report. All right. All in favor of accepting the report, please raise your hand and say I. I.

Unanimous approved. Lot nine or item number two. It's a discussion and possible action to accept the planning and zoning report from April 8th public hearing concerning a plan unit development for VAT. Apologies, that's actually the the report I just read you. The first report was the preliminary and they also recommended we hold the public hearing and accepted and they made uh minor changes to the ordinance which you'll see later this evening. Apologies. So, I'll entertain a motion to accept their final report which is what you have. we just passed down.

Move we accept the final report of planning and zoning commission on the PUB for billas. Okay. So that we have the public hearing. Yes. Could we get that report done please? No. I need that one. So yeah only one. I didn't make paper copies for everyone. It's one sentence. It says approve and accept. Okay. Yeah. So, you made the motion. Do we have a second? I did. Thank you. Council member Bailey is a second. All in favor of accepting the planning and zoning final report on the pled, raise your hands and say I.

I. All in favor say I. We will now enter the public hearing portion of the meeting where we will hear resident comments on this item. Does anyone wish to speak to the PUD for Via Meadows lots 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, and 12 specifically? Sir, in the back there, did you want to have your public comment? Well, I'm not sure I have seen what the report says or anything.

The report told council to accept the PUD and approve it. The ordinance for the PUD is attached into the meeting and I can review it with you real fast. Essentially, it restores the um building requirements to what they were when the neighborhood was originally designed. Specific changes or the front setback is moved back to 10 ft. The minimum side setbacks are moved to three feet. They were originally zero lot lines. So, planning and zoning wanted to give some buffer and um the impervious coverage was extended beyond the current minimums to allow for the footprint of houses similar to what are there still smaller and the size of the driveway was reduced to accommodate with that minimum front setback. I live in lot 17 and uh I if there's going to if they're going to build houses in those those very acvable lots which I don't mind but I think they should be the same type of house that's there that's built there right now maybe three bedroomedroom and that's it I do not believe it should be two stories it should all be single exchange stories and then the locker are big enough because I'm satisfied with mine. I've been living there for 20 years now and uh I Katherine the developer that uh running that show. I do not like Katherine at all. I don't like what he stands for. But anyway, your people have to decide. I guess

thank you sir for the public comment. Any other comment public comments regarding the VM PUB?

All right, we'll conclude that portion of the public hearing about the VM PUB. Now to be clear, that item will be taken up for action during the regular agenda. So all this was was to hear public comment in the public hearing period and to accept the reports from planning and zoning, which is a formality to do to be able to proceed with any kind of action in the future. That doesn't mean we agree with the reports. It just means that we accepted that they gave us a report. All right, we'll move to the next item. In this portion of the meeting, we're going to accept uh planning and voting report from April 8th public hearing concerning parking space minimum requirements for new construction. Planning and voting recommended that we accept the new recommendations for two finished off street spaces in lie of the three off streetet finished spaces and send to council for review. They recommend that council approves the zoning change as presented. pressing. I think I move that we accept the planning report for April 8th regarding reducing the three part finished off streetet spaces to two.

A second. All right. Council member Gmer made a motion to accept the report. Council member Bailey seconded. Do you all have any questions or comments about the report? All in favor of accepting the report, raise your hand and say I. I.

All eyes. will enter the form of public comment period for this portion of the public hearing concerning the parking space minimum requirements for new construction in the city of Woodreed to reduce requirements from three finished off street parking spaces to two finished off streetet parking spaces. Do we have any public comments towards the parking minimum requirement today? Hearing none, we will exit the formal public hearing period of this meeting at 609. We'll proceed proceed into proclamations and presentations and then we will um hold any other public comments that are present. So today I have the honor of presenting a proclamation commemorating the 250th anniversary of the United States of America and recognizing the Jacobs Wall chapter of the Daughters of American Revolution installation of the Patriots Marker at the Emily and Veterans Memorial Plaza to honor Revolutionary War Patriots on April 25th of this year. And what time is that occur ladies?

10 a.m. 10:00 a.m. So this is a formal invitation to everyone, especially our council members. We hope you can attend. I myself will try to attend as well. And we have a very beautiful framed, sealed, stamped, signed and delivered proclamation for y'all. Thank you for being present today. We already took our photo and I believe you have a short comment you'd like to take. Yes. Thank you very much.

Noah and I are Wood Creek residents and four other members of our chapter also Wood Creek residents. Our chapter is 34 years old or a couple weeks. We are members of a national society daughters of American Revolution which is a lineage society. We are direct descendants of a man or woman who fought or aided in the freedom of the United States in the revolutionary war. Uh we are very honored and proud to be able to have this monument in honor of America 250th birthday which will be Saturday the 25th of April at 10:00 a.m. at the Emily Anne up at the top at the Veterans Plaza. Everybody's welcome. There's a reception after uh this will be the only America 250 marker in Pace County. The state of Texas has two others so far. And our our president general gave us the

challenge to have one in every state of the United States. And so far, I believe that is happening. We have one in Austin at the Texas State Cemetery and there's one down in San Antonio at the governor's man. Yeah. So anyway, come celebrate. It's a beautiful birthday celebration for our country. So come and honor our patriots who fought for our freedom. And we have transportation up the hill.

All right. The next proclamation we have is recognizing April 13th through April 20th of 2026 as Dark Skies Awareness Week in the city of Wood Creek. And we have another beautiful proclamation to present. former council member Brett Pulley as he is part of this group who helps protect our beautiful dark skies in Wimberly which we are known for.

Don't say I want to thank the community for supporting this effort. In 2023, this community was selected as the top dark side community in the world by the international dark conclment in the world. So that's something to you know pat yourself on the back. Uh, so April 13th through the 20th is when we celebrate here in Wimberly. A key event is going to be April 18 at Blue Hole. April 18th at Blue Hole at 7:30 is what we call a star party. And so when the sun sets, there will be Texas State astronomy department will be there with telescopes and you can look at Saturn, you can look at the moon, uh, and then they also will have like a laser pointer pointing out different constellations so you can start learning more about your your sky. So, we also have a handout here. Um, these are for the council. These are just some kind of tips and y'all can pass these out. Hopefully, there's enough. Here's an extra one is the case. These are kind of tips about outdoor lighting and not being smart about it. So, if anybody wants these, I'll pass you as well. So, that's it. Thank you so much for this honor. And u again, pat yourself on the back. You're the best in the world. And it's uh good. All right, our next proclamation and near and dear to my heart. It's uh April 24th is Arbor Day in the city of Wood Creek. So, hug a tree, plant a tree, water a tree with your AC condensation, not fresh water or

Yeah, maybe talk a tree. I don't know. But it's our next proclamation is commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Wimberly View publication. A celebration for this occurred on March 20th at the Wimberly Village Library and former mayor Rasco was in attendance um thankfully on my behalf but also on his own and presented the proclamation to them at that time. So we'll entertain public comments at this point in the meeting. I do have one written comment that I will reserve until after our those in attendance have spoken. All right. Number one on our list beginning.

Okay. So, Margarite Tormmo, you uh wish to speak on drainage you not at the beginning of the meeting and you're going to share seed your time to Mr. Tormo. So, collectively you have six minutes. Mr. Toro.

Correct. Good evening everybody. I'm here to address the city council's intention to raise money for drainage and address some of our urgent problems. Drainage is a problem in many areas, most particularly on Deerfield, Tmont, Westwood, and Wildwood. Your agenda today involves approving work at Champion Circle, two intersections on Spalding Circle, plus Tmont, and Westwood at a cost of over a million dollars. If we use a tax note at current interest rates, this could cost about $300 per per year per household. Addressing all the drainage challenges this way could keep the sir tax going for 20 years or longer. I see addressing Tmont and Westwood as valuable investments, but I have concerns about your plans for Champion and Spalding circles. I walk past the Champion Circle intersection often and I've seen firsthand the level of flooding that we see from the 1 to two inch rainstorms that we've had over the last four years. Water pools up to 10 ft across and up to 2 to 3 in deep at that intersection, especially in the southwest corner at two Champion Circle. There are two existing pipes there, but they're quite full of sediment trying to carry the water across from one side of Champion Circle to the other side. The city lot across the street is a 1-ft elevation rise before sloping down to a natural retention pond about 20 ft from the box cover that crosses Ranch Road 12. Veterans Park often floods as well, but I haven't seen what effect the new storm drains will have on the usability of that park during a heavy rain or right after heavy rain. The residents at Two Champion Circle also want to retain their trees and your further proposal to add paved sidewalks would force removal of those trees and increase the drainage problems unless you change the design of

Wood Creek Drive. Rather than a major capital project, I advise maintenance be increased with more frequent flushing of those existing pipes, plus appropriate grading of the natural water path through the city's lot before we ask all of Wood Creek's residents to pay for a solution to a nonpro that no one is complaining about today. If the drainage problems persist, you can revisit this substantial investment upgrade later, but I think Brook Hollow and the west end of Wood Creek Drive need your attention far more urgently. I appreciate that I'm making reference to flooding that I've seen in the four years I've lived here and using insights from residents about the 2015 flood as a surrogate for the 150year events. At no time was Wood Creek Circle impassible and all surface water drained within a couple of days. The west end of Wood Creek Drive, Brook Meadow, and Brook Hollow would be far more important areas to address for emergency access during a major flood. So, I'll reiterate that I would advise you to look at those areas first and not less. With respect to the two intersections at Spalding circled, we came to the city council in 2022 and 2023 complaining about flooding and destruction of our driveway apron that we only experienced after the roadway was raised by 3 to 4 in. And we were denied any help from. So, we used about $20,000 of our own funds to fix the problem as best we could. We put in a curb and a swale to keep the water in the street. And we graded our front yard to encourage water to flow through a corner of the yard and pass through river rocks to the concrete intersection. We also put in a water collection tank to be able to minimize runoff coming off of our roof. We worked with our neighbor as she used her private resources to dig a trench through her property to the golf course. And it seems that our efforts are doing a good job for the rain events that we've seen since 2023. Your models

account well for water running off the golf course down Wilson Circle, but the engineer's solutions do not address two major problems. One is that for Wilson Circle, where every rain leaves runoff sediment in the driveway, and that's completely unressed. And second is the even numbers 2 to 14 Spalding Circle where water flowing from Wood Creek Thrive runs through all of our front and backyards before going to Wilson Circle and then to the golf course turning them all into marshes with every rain. Those with dogs complain about not being able to let their dogs out in the backyard because they everything's muddy. The proposed solution for McGregor Circle with a 4-ft concrete channel in the middle of the road really should fix their erosion problems, but that water in the sediment with it need not just get dumped into the intersection like the plan calls for now. That will make the Spalding Circle intersection edges even more of a long-term problem. Regarding the Wilson Spalding intersection, I suggest that putting a 4x4 ft box on our property would kill the tall trees on our property and that you should look for solutions that guide water the way it wants to flow toward the golf course instead of repaving the existing concrete swale to an unnaturally high asphalt road, leaving us with a giant hole in our front yard. We'd rather see no plan at all than one that makes the problem worse. Your plan, if it worked at all, would have a short life. Rushing water deteriorates asphalt very quickly. And although our concrete is cracked on this swale, it's been there for a decade, and it works. If you really want to solve the drainage problem here, you either need to install storm drains and curves, which will make our neighborhood look like a typical suburban development, or you need to use some of the unused land for retention ponds the way most cities do today. Most of the unused land in our city belongs to the golf course. There are some other

areas that it can use, but the golf course owns the property, but improved water management could be of some help to them by preventing erosion for their course. So, I urge you to reject the milliondoll plan and come up with something more uh tailor. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Torman. All right. All right. Miss Bernett, did you want to speak at the beginning of the meeting? It says either. Now before totally up to you I can speak on each of the issues that you have that have to do with the straight including take them up. Okay.

All right. I have a single public comment to read onto record. This is from Maldonado. This letter is to be read during the public comments portion of the meeting if I cannot attend in person following medical treatment earlier in the day. I am speaking in reference items four, five, and six in the regular agenda concerning the drainage plans for the area around Wood Creek Drive and Champion Circle. On pages 3, and 11 of the drainage master plan report, there are plans for correcting the reported drainage issues related to standing water following raintorms. To date, there has not been an accurate description of major deep water problems at this location other than keeping the current culvert under champions always cleaned out. The report does indicate that the main issue revolves around insufficient water flow through the culverts under Wood Creek Drive and RM12 just south of the intersection. Both culverts are outside the city limits per the city limit map shown on the Hayes County GIS city of Wood Creek map. Not only has there been insufficient documentation of major problems following drainage corrections on Deerfield, but this work is not within the city limits and falls under textile regulations. The funding portion of this report only addresses a bond issuance for funding, but the city is now suggesting a tax note as a possible means of funding. The difference is that a bond requires a citizen vote of approval and is usually repaid over a 20 to 30year period. A tax note only requires council approval and must be repaid within a 5 to sevenyear period at a much higher tax rate for the citizens. The report shows that the bonds would be divided into three three separate project areas and issued in two-year intervals until the work is completed. The report also indicates that the first sale of 1.5 million would bring an increase of three.27 cents for an average of 140 annual $140 annual increase of taxes per $425,000 evaluation. This would be duplicated with the two additional sales in 2028 and 2030. A tax note for the full amount would be at a substantially higher tax rate and could also overlever the city's tax burden and result in the same effect of borrowing

money with a lower credit rating. The additional taxes will further encumber the residents of long-term debt and could lower home values, making it harder for home buyers to choose our city over other areas in the valley. There is no doubt that the city does have some major areas of concern and unfortunately those are the areas slated for the end of the project. Projects of this scope with substantial tax increases should be voted on by the citizens. Uh Kathy Maldonado. All right. Um, so we'll proceed into the consent agenda from here. We have a motion on the consent agenda.

I move that we accept the consent agenda with the exception of item number three. I second. All right. So, we have approval of items one, two, and four with the motion to move item three into the regular agenda. We'll hold a vote. All in favor of approving one, two, and four. Moving three, raise your hand and say I. I. I.

So all that was five. I believe all five of y'all. I all I. So number three, we'll move into the regular agenda. I will be slating it later on if you don't mind please. Or we have um people here to speak on items. So it will move down. after. Sorry after item five. Oh, sorry. After item six, number three. All right. And we have a public. Thank you all for that patience. We will uh move into reports from officers share packet sheriff reports in the packet on that but uh code enforcement it's going pretty smooth right now. We sent out three letters for trailers in May in March and all of them are resolved. We had uh personal contact about some debris on the street and that happens all without leveraging reforming process. And also just want to point out that we're doing a we're focusing a little bit to educate people about road parking. you know, we received the strain of the road and our code enforcement guy came up with a little card stock to just poly inform them on the um the ordinance and seems to be working pretty pretty good. Um engineers report um we Champions Court turnaround up there is 99.9% done. They're coming out tomorrow morning for

two punch items and then that'll be done and close. Um I'm not going to touch on the master drainage plan. Plenty of discussion on that tonight. Um I did know last month that I did receive um a feasibility study on the pedestrian bridge at the playground. I've gone through it a little bit and um with some of the other projects we got going on, it's probably best to um I'll present that at a later later meeting and have uh have engineers present that. So I think we got more pressing business relates to funds um on those other things. And then um regarding Western Wood Creek, they've um started working they started working this week uh on the surveying. Um there there'll be no work on Saturdays being done at the request of our partner across the creek. So trying to help accommodate that. um they expect to have plans and I won't get too deep into it because uh Tom will be doing a presentation here but uh by the end of May hopefully he'll have final plans all that kind of good stuff present. So but Tom can he'll be he's on here and he'll he'll make a presentation during the regular and all that. That's it kind of short and brief. Yes. Could you just um you're going fast? Uh the negotiations you said someone was is that pretty well cleared up.

Yes, absolutely. We have our our representative from across the creek around here. Okay.

So, we're working together and we you know, we we vow to work together and make sure we don't they have events and whatnot on the weekends. We don't want to have any issues on the weekend. So, that's one of the things we gladly agree to. Um city hall updates. We're wrapping up a bunch of projects. We're we're bunding up a bunch of them. Um the city hall ADA, I don't know if you've noticed the parking in changing the parking lot. Hopefully, uh striping striping will be proceeding in the next couple of days along with the parks the striping at uh playground and Augusta Park. And um along with the safety enhancement uh program, there's the cushions, the speed cushions that came in were were not correct. So they've been reordered. So they'll be another two weeks before they're back in be be installed and that will be put to rest. Um during our last meeting we got notified I got notified during our last meeting that the Brook Meadow planter monument whatever you want to call it at Dester Drive got back then too got smashed by a delivery truck. Um and that's repairs for that are going to be happening pretty pretty fast. I got some bid when our land management uh company is cheapest by far. So, they're going to start working on that in the next couple days and get that put back together. And then uh just to touch on the audit. Um we have um sent in our letter of engage engagement, whatever. Anyways, we're signed up and we're we're working with the auditor uh as we speak speak and things are getting fired off. Our bookkeeper Charles has gone over and beyond and got us dialed in. We're we're our fun view is correct now.

It's been it's taken two years, but it's resolved. Um he he got us all last Friday with the with the fun view. They made a hard edit and we're done. We've sent everything off to the auditors and we're hit the ground running and hopefully they're being I think being optimistic to present it in May, but most likely be June before the auditors will present that to me. What's that? Mayor sir committ um my question on the other item was just when are we going to order the audit? Then are we going to change out of I don't need that question answered anymore.

Well, we still have to approve the financials though now. So that's okay though. We can talk about it then. Okay. Um any other question or I got done? Okay. So, we'll move into the regular agenda. I'd ask for a motion for item one to appoint a new mayor pro 10. I've asked uh former mayor Jeff Rasco to step into the role for us and I would entertain a motion. Mayor, yes. I wish council to nominate and appoint Jeff Rasco as Mayor Pen.

A second. If I would like I if I may, I would like to thank Jeff for stepping in and I'd also want you to thank Monica. I think she's the watch. Thank you.

Well, I just want to thank you. I mean, we we um we're kindered spirits of the back a bit. So, um, you know, when I heard that that you were, you know, going through the recovery process and felt like you hadn't resigned, I was I was sad, um, because you do great work in every position you've been in, um, and we'll continue to do great work. So, yeah, I'm I'm honored to to step up. So, thank you all.

Thank you. You stole my words. I was going to thank Council Member Gver, for your service over the past almost two years now. So, you put in your time and um I think we can all relate to physical challenges and health issues and understanding of that and so um I'm just really grateful that you were okay with all the changes and that you know you took it upon yourself to make them. So, thank you and thank you for being willing to serve. All right, y'all. All in favor of appointing uh Jeff Rasco as our mayor pro 10 for the remainder of his term, raise your hand, say I.

All eyes. You are now the mayor pro 10. And the next item is a little bit of a formality as we have to update this resolution every time we change who the mayor prom is. So, uh, this just designates myself and Jeff as, uh, the designated signators for our bank accounts. Um, he serves in the event that I'm out of town or incapacitated. Mayor, mayor, sir,

I move that we accept resolution 2026-4802 authorization of the city of Pounc investment be. Motion made by Council Member Gmer, seconded by Council Member Richardson. Any questions? All in favor of accepting this resolution or raise your hand and say I. I. All eyes. That carries. All right. So, now we're going to enter into the item regarding Freeland Turk uh preliminary plans for road improvements on Western Wood.

Yep. Yeah. we're utilizing bond funds. Um we don't need a motion at this time. He's going to do his presentation.

Um but really this item was a little vague. We understand and partially that's because they're mobilizing so quickly on this item that we were not clear what they would have ready to present today. But we knew that we needed to update council since the last meeting. We knew that we needed to if they did have anything ready for y'all have an action item. So, what tonight is mostly about is sort of hearing their preliminary vision for this area. The goal being really to just replace what is. They're going to share some concerns about road closure. They're also going to share some ideas about materials um present in the area and most importantly, they're going to give us our first look at expected expenditures out of our bond funds. And that's mostly what council would be approving is essentially, you know, yes, keep working on these plans. It's not really a final approval of any. We're not approving spending money tonight beyond the engineering costs, if that makes sense to continue developing the plans.

Question, are the engineering costs in this? He's about to give a presentation, but do we have my own? No, because engineering costs because they're contracted with us aren't something that we individually one off approve. But basically tonight is about saying yes, keep going or no, but hopefully not that. Sorry, I'm trying to understand. I can see Tom the presentation. Well, hello everybody. How are you doing? Good. How are you, Tom?

Good. Good. Can you uh can you guys hear me? All right. And can you see my uh screen? We have your screen now. We can't see you, but that's probably okay. If not, a little sad. Good. We can't hear you yet all that well. So, we're trying to turn up our volume. if you have any way to increase it on your end. I do not. 33. That's good. Okay. Is that better? Yes.

Okay. All right. Well, thank you very much for uh having me today. Uh I'm just going to spend uh a few minutes uh discussing uh the project that we uh we've started to uh engineer. Um, so first of all, uh, I want to go over, uh, the existing conditions. Uh, since you live in Wood Creek, I'm I'm sure you're quite familiar with this area. Uh, but the, uh, the project area is Wood Creek Drive, uh, just below the dam and the, uh, pond that serves the golf course. and it's uh just to the east of the intersection of Cypress Point and uh Wood Creek Drive. Uh what I'm showing you is uh an an aerial photograph of that area. And I'm going to move to the slide uh with three or four uh ground level photographs of the uh project area. So the photograph uh on the on the far left there is right at the low water crossing. Uh you can see the concrete pavement and the uh uh the significant cracking that uh it's experiencing. Uh the the photo to its right is of the same area. Uh but it also includes some of the asphalt pavement that's on either side of that low water crossing. Uh the next photo to the right is taken uh from the creek uh and and it shows the three small coverts that exist underneath that low water crossing.

Those coverts are I think they're 18 or 24 inch covers. And then uh the photograph on the right is uh of the dam itself kind of looking down on on Wood Creek Drive. And so uh what we are attempting to do and the problem that we're attempting to solve uh is a replacement of the pavement that's located downstream of that dam. Um so the the uh scope of the project is to replace the coverts uh because they are rusting uh and this is a good opportunity to to to replace them, you know, while we're working on the road. Uh so we'll replace the coverts and uh we'll build new head walls and new rip wrap at that low water crossing. It'll look much the same as it does today when we're done. And then of course we're going to replace the pavement uh that's downstream of the dam with concrete pavement because frankly it's going to uh perform uh a lot better over time than than asphalt pavement will under the under the flow conditions. Uh, and we're looking at about 350 feet of concrete paving at about 24 feet wide. And then when we're finished with all that, we'll put in advanced warning signs for the low water crossing uh and a gauge because it it is a functioning low water crossing and uh uh those advanced warning signs are are very important. Um

if you you mean that that covert crossing, correct? Not the bridge, not the larger bridge. You mean the covert crossing?

Uh that's correct. We are not doing anything uh to the bridge. Um, and just so everybody knows, um, all these improvements that we're making lie within the FEMA flood plane and flood way. Uh, which means to us engineers, there's a whole lot of water we got to deal with. Uh on the on the left here, uh this is a little snip from the FEMA maps that shows the 100red-year flood plan and the floodway. And then on the right, uh it's kind of a cross-section that that goes through the middle of the channel and the the dam and the uh and the pond. Um and what you have the condition you have is is uh water comes through the pond, it fills up, it flows over the dam is weir flow uh and then it it flows over Wood Creek Drive. Um obviously there's there's three small culverts at that location, but uh the road is simply overwhelmed with uh the flow coming down the creek and the uh the water that comes over the dam and over the road uh is quite turbulent and it is of a high velocity. Uh so we got to make sure uh that the concrete pavement is properly armored uh and will survive these events over a long period of time. And so you just kind of see some uh engineering notes as to what we might do. One is a towown, which is a kind of a one to two foot wall on either

end of the concrete pavement uh to protect it from erosion. Uh and then in in some limited areas, we'll have some concrete rip wrap. Uh and we may even have some stone rip wrap. We just haven't got that far into design to determine that. But uh but that's basically what we're attempting to do. Um, so, uh, what we have to work with in terms of budget is is a is approximately $400,000 all in. About $50,000 of that is engineering. The remaining dollars we have for construction is about $350,000. Uh what we like to do in terms of budget management is create a bid alternate for the eastern portion of the road construction. Uh the remaining portion will be the base bid. That way when we take bids, we'll have a number for the base bid, which would be the covert and probably a couple hundred feet of road. And then we'll have a bid alternate for the remaining 150 foot of road. That way when the bids come in, we bring it to council, you'll have somewhat of a menu. You'll have a base bid and a bid alternate that you can select or not select uh depending on how the bids come in and your uh actual uh budget and funding available. uh to to to build all these improvements, we're looking at primarily three phases of construction. Uh the first phase would be the covert itself.

Um because it is so deep and difficult to uh build and keep traffic going at the same time. We're proposing uh a road closure like you see in this sketch for a short period of time and and that the current thinking is a couple of weeks. uh and obviously this phase will cause the greatest amount of inconvenience but hopefully for a short period of time. So we would be asking for people's patience uh as we try to reconstruct that covert crossing uh and move on to the other phases. Uh we need two more phases uh to complete the road. Uh and it's uh what we call it is half street construction. So we'll close down one half of the street. The other half of the street will remain open to traffic but it will be one way. Uh and when we complete that we'll uh flip and do the opposite. Uh in the third phase, people will be driving on the new concrete pavement uh and we'll um uh replace the existing road with new concrete pavement on the other side. Both those phases are expected to take about 30 to 45 days each. And so um the total construction time is somewhere around 3 months. And uh this last slide here is is the overall project schedule. Uh we have already uh initiated the uh engineering. Uh our surveyors are under contract to get this work done and I don't know exactly when they're going to be out there, but it takes about 30 days. So we're about

halfway through that. And then over the next couple of months, we'll be preparing the bidded construction documents and submitting them to the city of Wood Creek for uh their review and comment. Um because it's in a FEMA flood plane, uh we have to permit that. The city has to permit that. And um I want I wanted to explain or expand on that a little bit. Um because we are in a FEMA flood plane and flood way, we don't uh want to make any significant changes to the horizontal and vertical position of the road. We basically want to put it back where it is. uh if we have to make significant changes that requires some pretty expensive um engineering and hydraulic uh studies. Uh we think we can get that road back in pretty much where it is and avoid those engineering costs. Uh we'll we'll do a little bit of hydraulics to verify that, but u again we're designing it to go pretty much back where it is today. So back on the schedule u we expect to enter into the bidding phase sometime in June. That usually takes at least a couple of months and then uh we're scheduled to start construction in August and uh within a couple of months that project should be uh substantially complete with u cleanup and punch lists being done uh in October.

Uh so that's what I have to share at this point. Love to uh answer any questions that anybody uh might have.

Lindsay, did you have Can I let the owner member go first, please? Lindsay, do you have any questions? Um, so I'm I'm just I I just picked the notes and what I'm hearing which is most important to me is that it maintains um the same kind of physical look and aesthetic as it does today as we are a historic property. And you know, we are, you know, not trying to um change the aesthetics, especially since the background is in our wedding photos, which is our bread and butter in the offseason and how we're able to um employ people year round. Um so, um I do see that your construction phase is August, September, October. That actually I had that you guys were trying to get it done dur while school was out. Um honestly that phase work seems better for our peak business as we don't have as many weddings in September um August. Uh kids go back to school kind of later and that means you know we still have peak um swimming hole uh season in the first part of August. So that traffic is going to be a lot more u from you guys. I know that you guys have school traffic, but the steady flood of traffic will be uh I think reduced a little bit with this time frame. And then October, you know, we'll talk about you know, not working on the weekends a little bit and just making sure that we have um you know, uh some sort of I guess aesthetic clean up in the background so it's not um showing in the back of wedding photos. I know that we're a construction company and we're trying to get it done as soon as possible. But Wood Creek has been gracious and understanding that we have a business to run uh as well and so I'm optim optimistic about that uh as we

move forward. So I don't have any other further questions at this time.

Okay. Ju just a couple of comments. Um, with regards to aesthetics, uh, as I said earlier, we intend to basically put it back the way it is. The road's going to be a little wider, going to be 2 or 3 feet wider. Um and uh one one visual change that uh we might have probably have is uh with the the concrete wall or parapits that are currently out there. We plan to take those out and replace them with guard rail. Uh that's u the most economical uh way to reestablish uh the attenuators that we're going to need. Uh we can put parapit walls back in uh but they cost more money and I'm I'm not sure that we can afford it. Uh, so that uh I'm just telling you what our current thinking is and if that's something that um you it's that if that's a road you don't want to go down, uh the council and and Jim will have to let me know.

Yeah, that uh I think I would just kind of want a rendering of that aesthetic. Um so I would, you know, consider that, but I'm not against that consideration. And then as far as the footprint being two to three feet uh wider than the original is doesn't the bond verbage not say that or say that it can't go outside the original footprint.

Yes and no. The problem I mean I can answer that a little bit. The problem is is the edges of the road have eroded so much. So, I don't know what the width of the road is here, but originally Wood Creek Drive was about 22 feet wide. So, in theory, you're going at least to that 22 foot. And then I think what I'm hearing he's talking about is they're having to kind of put some edging on it now u related to the flooding and and the use of concrete. That's a little different because they're potentially changing the material. Now, if it goes if they if council selects the bid alternate, which goes back to asphalt, which is less expensive, you in my understanding, Tom, please correct me if I'm wrong, you probably wouldn't see that edging edge out any further. But part of the problem there is even establishing where the road ends because there's things that have been installed along the roadside like there's like that concrete kind of like water dip thing that what is that? Is that part of the road or not? So I think they're being conservative in estimating what is the road to what it would be and all of those actual design plans we will be meeting with you

as well and like privately if that makes sense but

um this is just like the preliminary vision so it's a good time to express you know why is it wider what does that look like I need more information there and so Tom can hear you and kind of prepare and tweak on that front. Yeah, I just would want um to consider more the width, but again, I'm not completely against it. I just want to know what that looks like. Is it going towards the golf course property? Is it approaching more on our side, you know? So, I'm just those are things I'd like outlined in a diagram or, you know, a rendering um so that I know which way they're going. Is it equal on both sides? You know, things things like that.

Yeah. So, everything that Deborah said was true. Um, but I do want to add a couple of things. Um, the width of the road has to be a little bit wider because of the half street construction that I talked about earlier.

Um, uh, when we close down half the road, we have to have a couple of feet of space to put our our what we call our channelization devices in. It's traffic control so that people can pass through there sa safely uh and the work zone that we have set up for the contractor uh uh is is safe for them as well. And we've got to you know we we've got to have a couple of feet for that. So each lane uh of construction is about 10 feet. uh 2 ft of channelization is 12 and you multiply that by two half street half street construction you need about 24 ft to safely uh construct the road the minimum width of a lane during construction is about 10 ft 2 ft for channelization so we need a total of 12 12 * 2 is 24 that so that's um that's a a very important consideration because we have to make sure that uh the traveling public is is safe and the contractor has a safe uh area to to to work as well.

Okay. And one more question. Uh I saw I saw your 10 and 10 on that diagram. Um right now uh what is the current width of the bridge uh over or what you guys are calling the dam that we call the little bridge? No. So that's we think it's about 20 feet. I'm sorry. I I haven't measured it exactly, but I think it's around 20 ft.

20 feet currently because people kind of use it uh I mean some people use it as two-way, a lot of people do one in one, you know, pass and go. So uh just, you know, that that's just a curiosity of mine too, just in your notes um later when we meet. But um and and we're uh looking at that that structure would be also 24 foot wide on the driving path. Yes. So the dam to clarify is that large concrete wall just Yeah. This is this is what they're calling Yeah. Okay. So this is the bridge your bridge.

It's the it's it's a cold technically. Yeah. Okay. We'll call that Culver. Yeah. Okay. Um, okay. Um, yeah, those are just things that I want to, you know, look into further with you guys, but again, it's not, um, it's just my cur curiosity at this point. Are there any other questions for me? Uh, council member Bailey.

Yes. um like I'm like as your concrete work sensitive to temperature um and the reason I'm asking is what I heard you say is that we would do 200 ft out of the 400,000 but if you needed more the last 150 ft would be done separately. So if this is done in October, that's a good temperate time, but it would be pushing the balance of construction into the winter months. So is it sensitive to temperature? Um during that time of year um the the the temperature the normal temperatures are um they accommodate asphalt and construction and and concrete construction just fine. It's a great time of year to work. Um

but it's still good in December and January. You you can you can do that this type of construction uh year round. uh it gets a little more difficult when you get into December and January

uh because you need temperatures that are basically 40° and rising to do asphalt and concrete. Um uh and so during those tough months um the contractor has to be a bit selective about when he can work but in August through October it typically is is not a problem. Let me uh talk a little bit about asphalt versus concrete. Um u given the hydraulic conditions downstream of the dam, I do not recommend asphalt. Uh it's not going to hold up over time. The velocities are are just too high. uh and you'll get uh you'll get erosion uh and it it will it will damage the pavement and it will not last um uh very very long. Uh concrete will last much much much longer than asphalt uh in this condition. So in our preliminary conceptual cost estimating, we've estimated this project uh as concrete. Uh and we think we can do the whole 350 ft. Um the bid alternate is simply a contingency uh and a way to manage the budget if we have to. Uh so if if the costs come in higher than expected, you can simply not select the bid alternate and you should be able to construct the the critical parts of the road that really need to be rec reconstructed with the with the budget that you have.

And kind of the continuation of my question, um you said 400,000. On today's report, it says the go bond is 575,000. So, do we have a little more room? Might be a mayor question. A little bit more room uh if it goes a bit over the 400. Yes, we do. We have buffer. That's also why we were talking about we don't want to we want to get this settled before we bring up the pedestrian bridge as this is a higher priority item that impacts the greater community more significantly.

Um again we don't have final design plans and I think there is some confusion about what the bid alternate means. It doesn't mean there's a second phase of construction. It just meant that if we needed to mitigate cost or we, you know, need to bring it down, we have that option to to select downward, you know, kind of like you said in menu, but it wouldn't mean that there's a second phase of asphalt construction happening in December. Yeah, they would it would proceed as one no matter what. That answers my question. Um, no, ma'am. Sorry.

Any other questions from the council? Um, if you were to use your time now, it would be retracted from the items you actually signed up for. So, um, all right, Tom. Um, we would like to have a meeting with Miss Hasty prior, you know, in the next couple months when you have some more things to offer to especially for the that are more related to the actual design and some of the once you have some of these graphics rendered. Um, we definitely want to make sure we're in close in regular communication with her tonight. What you had prepared was amazing. It was just uh we were mobilizing so quickly, you know, we weren't really ready to take on bigger decisions. So, what do you need from council tonight as far as a motion goes? Do we really need any motion on the table or do we say looks good so far, you know, no adjustments or um do we need to direct you to to change anything? You know,

from our perspective, uh we have a scope of work. We've been authorized. Uh, nothing I've heard in this meeting tells me we should be taking any uh radically different approach or directions. Uh, so I don't I don't need any further direction from the council. If if there's something in my presentation or something in our approach that uh needs to change, then uh I just I just need to know that. But I we're good. We're we're we're underway and we're moving down the road with design and um um I we have what we need at this point.

And if the Hasty family at the Owners of Cypress Falls needed to make any kind of significant changes from what you presented tonight, we could just bring it back to council. Correct. Sure. Yeah. Okay. All right. Anything else, y'all? All right. Tom will release you to your evening. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. It was it was it was good to see everybody and I'm sorry to hear that Councilman Gmer is no longer going to going to serve. Um he was very helpful to me and our firm when we were uh addressing the parks and the ADA situation. Uh and we're going to miss him. He's not getting off that easy. He's not left in the morning to step down from all the extra meetings. All right. Well, everybody, uh, please have a good evening and we'll we'll see you all later. Thank you, Tom. All right. You're welcome.

All right, y'all. So, I'm kind of looking at no action taken on this item. I don't see anything needed unless there's objections. Okay. No action taken. Thank you, Miss Stacy, for being here. Yes. Thank you for the invitation. All right. And there's no more items that I need to not about your road unless you just want to get me deep business. Welcome. Yeah. But let's coordinate our meeting. Okay. Thank you again for having me and letting me have direct communication. Yes, ma'am. My pleasure.

All right, y'all. We're going to um enter into the workshop in just a minute, but we do have a public com comment for items four and five at this time. Miss Bernett, you have three minutes. Um can I just clarification on process? Is it three minutes per item or if I wanted to speak on every item on the agenda? I would only have three minutes. Three minutes. Okay. Thank you. Um I would like to pass these out to the council. Maybe you could just take one and pass them down. I'm going to go really quickly. Um, I just want to share with you my questions that I had for for the gentleman really quick. I was wondering what the impact of different the levels of flooding would be to the new road, what the life of the road would be and whether there would be in the environmental permitting that would be required and what it might cost. So, I'll share those with the counselor if we can ask them in the future that would be great. Um just to go over my letter um my purpose here I live it to Champion Circle is to say I do not believe that the project that was slated and is being studied is necessary at that location. Number one, there is not documentation of citizen complaints regarding flooding on that property that warrants a funding decision. Um I have a public records request in I hope that the city will be able to provide as they have claimed that there is. So I hope I can see that that is in fact the case. Point number two, um there isn't an actual project yet. In fact, all there is is a feasibility uh idea that Freeland the folks are working on. So until there's an actual project, I don't know that we know what money needs to be spent and I don't know that we want to preapprove funding for something that we have not yet decided to do. Of course, that's uh for your consideration. Item number three, uh, the site the city owns a cost on my property, it has a use. It has a use that was put there by the developer

and that is to be a natural retention basin, which is what it is and what it does. Appears it does it quite effectively. number four. Um, if you take a look at the attachments I've given you, I'll ask you to go to item number two, which is the second page in um, you can see up in the right hand corner there's a circle and an arrow. That is the corner of 12 in Wood Creek Drive. This is the FEMA map that tells you where there is flood concern in this area. It is from 2024. There is nothing on this FEMA map. If you look at the little uh, huge colored square. It covers areas of 1% annual chance of flooding with average depth less than 1 ft um of drainage area. There's no peach on this map. The only flooding concerning your entire community is around what you just talked about. So, I wanted to point that out to you. This is a government issue being on map. Um, I'd be happy to talk to the engineers, but city staff has said that's not possible. Um, the next item I wanted to talk to you about is in the engineering's report and it is identifying my site location across from the city as being something brought up from uh the owner concern. It does not say that it had there's no red dot, there's no green dot, there's no yellow FEMA dot. It just simply arose from the previous owner as my understanding.

I would like to finish my comments at the pleasure of the council. I only have one more thing to say real quick. Thank you. I say that my last point is in the 2016 there was a comprehensive city plan that is sighting number four. There was only one comment out of literally hundreds of community comments regarding this site. By 2022, I went completely through that comprehensive plan. Also, hundreds of community comments, no comments about flooding at either the city property, the the intersection at the college or at the property at two Champion Circle. So, I just don't think $400,000 is really worth it. That's my only concern. Thank you. I appreciate you.

All right, we're going to enter our workshop at 7:08. Um, I'm going to take a moment with you all to kind of explain the goal of this evening because I think there is some confusion about what we're doing today versus what we're not. So, the goal of this workshop is to identify a long-term plan of action for storm water and drainage management in the city of Wood Creek that addresses funding and staging a project. City administration and I met a stifle to discuss our options. We are suggesting that the city propose a no new revenue tax rate for fiscal year 2026 through 2027 and consider funding one or possibly two projects from existing drainage funds formerly art funds before the end of this fiscal year. From there we can create a longer runway for debt issuance and public engagement in that process. And so we are not rushing into prepare for a bond election or tax rate increase this year. So the first phase of the discussion would be to decide if we want to hold on to funds and let them generate interest or go ahead and selecting a project or two for work to begin the fiscal year 202526. This may change engineering costs for this fiscal year possibly reducing them by changing focus to one or two projects which would mean we would need to plan and allocate for future engineering costs next fiscal year to support finalizing plans on the remainder of the first five sites we've selected. The second phase for the council tonight is to choose whether or not you all want to pursue a tax note or take the projects and take the projects in phases or do we wish to wrap everything into a single bond election and put it to a follow vote. Obviously, there are other options. It's a menu. The last route to consider is doing no actual work beginning now and using the remaining drainage funds to finalize all engineering plans with the goal of a single bond election to fund all work. Ciphel is here to answer your questions on the tax process and what we need to do to prepare for a bond election in 2027 if we select that route. I've also prepared a single sheet here for you all. So, it kind of goes into the summary of this as well. So, it talks

about we're proposing a no new revenue rate this year to council in a few months. That's the goal. Why? This gives us a longer runway for debt issuance and could prepare for a bond if that's what the council decides. This gives time for that comprehensive plan survey and update to weigh in before debt issuance as there are questions about storm water management in it. It also allows a stable tax rate during a difficult economic time that we're in right now. Why are we discussing this now? Right? I know I'm aware we have preliminary plans but what we are doing in the next month or two is entering budget season. So we have to have vision and we have to understand what we're budgeting for next year and what we can accomplish this year with our existing funds or what we wish to accomplish. Right? So staff and our financial advisors need direction from us right now. We have a series of pathways in front of us to choose from. So decision one is use of it. So why yeah why are we wrapping this up now? We need to give Freeland Tering full direction and same with our staff because they need to see what they're planning for, what they're looking at for our budget for next year. We're already starting that now. We just got the preliminaries from the county. So decision one is the use of existing draining funds, drainage funds allocated for this purpose. You have essentially three options. One, to allocate to one or two projects this year to be spent this year and accomplish some drainage improvement. Two, we keep it in reserves and allow it to continue to draw interests. There's nothing wrong with that, but we do need to plan for taxpayers because we've committed those funds to this purpose. So, if we're going to do that and not spend them on drainage or engineering, we need to be very clear about that. Next, we could spend them on engineering plans for all of the remaining sites. That would be helpful if we intend to do like a large bond bundle, right? We would need those plans in place and stuff. We can talk about that more. Decision number two, how to fund all of these drainage

projects. Do we use some existing drainage funds combined with reserves and tackle one or two projects this fiscal year? Do we plan a series of smaller tax notes to chunk projects and reissue debt every two years? Or do we bundle into one large bond election and put it to the citizen vote? The last decision, if we issue debt at all, what will this look like? A bond for all. This reduces the fees for bonding because we have to pay each time we pay our financial advisors when that bond is issued. We also can lock in better interest rates that way or worse if the economy does better and there's better interest rates later. There's an argument to be made for smaller bite-sized bonds, right? So, this is up to y'all to decide. So, we could do several bond series, which is what they've presented to us in the past that really um keeps that tax rate impact stable at that like 22 cents that we've talked about. And that's kind of why they were presenting that plan to us because we said we don't think we can take on huge tax impact. And then the last thing are tax notes. These would be better recommended if we want to chunk the process because you don't have as many fees as you would with the bond. Okay. So with all of that presentation in mind for your consideration cipher I've asked them to talk about tax notes and bonds with you all and specifically what would be needed if we do decide to do a bond counc um I'm actually a little perplexed that we're at this point now considering councel's discussion every time we've had discussions about a very project was it was going to go out for grants And that was what what we were doing with the designing work was to create the design so that we can apply for grants. And our comprehensive plan actually literally says go out for grants before you consider that.

Can I speak to that? Yes, please.

You and I sat and researched grants. We're not eligible for most of the things coming from the state right now. I also have been researching grants with the watershed as well and we are not eligible for those grants either on several fronts. And one of the main ones being is that we don't own the storm like we don't actually have storm water infrastructure pipes and that's what most of those grants revolve around. We also don't appear to be in a lot of a lot of the state studies and things that would make us eligible for grants and we won't be eligible for grants for a long time. So again, we're not talking about issuing debt this year at all. We're talking about debt in like almost two years essentially if we were to issue any debt. But what we do need to decide is what if any spending is going to occur in this fiscal year on what and then we need to plan what if any spending is going to occur next fiscal year and on what because we're entering budget season and we need to prepare a budget for you all. Also, if we do intend to go for a bond election, we need to prepare for that, which is why they're here because remember when we had to form like the platinum panel, right? So, if we're having to mobilize and do some of those things, we need to be knowing that now so that we're not caught off guard next June, July, and trying to do it then. So, grants aren't off the table. We've just every time we've researched them, we have become we're not eligible for them. So if they come, there's no saying that we can't pivot and that's worth thinking about, but I'm hitting dead ends on that front.

Go ahead. So are we on number five? No, we're in an open workshop and Cy is here to consult about bond and taxes with you all.

Do you all have any questions for them about what we would need to do to prepare for a bond? Um what issuing bundles of smaller tax notes would look like? Um, yeah.

And mayor, if you're ready for us, we can just provide a few comments. They'll frame the discussion, too. Great. Thank you, mayor. Thank you, council. This is Brad Angst with Steve Full Public Finance and my uh colleague, Steven Bell. We serve as the uh city's financial advisors, bond advisors, help um manage your debt portfolio and some of your tax rate items. Um, as the mayor just described, um, we're not here tonight to ask, you know, for approval to issue issue debt. That's not what's what's going on here this evening. It is planning um, as these things take quite some time. Um, we've been asked to explore uh, a variety of funding options for some of your drainage work. Uh, we helped out with the roads uh, in years past. Uh and it is a long process as as was just described. Um there's the um several different factors that need to be um thought through and included when we have this discussion um including um you know the the geo bond. It requires going to uh an election um and having all your voters participate in that. It's a little bit longer process. um and it's going to be uh confined to uh that particular ballot question that's asked at that time. Um usually uh or or what we see here in Texas, geo bonds um can be um used for a variety of items. It can include uh y'all's essential purposes um there at the city. That could mean again some of the road maintenance. That could mean your drainage. That could mean um administrative buildings or um or police, water, other items if you if you

had those u functionalities. The other options that you have for uh debt financing include uh tax notes and certificates of obligation. And both of those uh type of products are uh approved by the legislature. their legal um legally available uh financing options for uh this governing body to uh finance a more limited set of projects where geo bonds can do um any project that your voters approve pretty much with a with a public purpose that could be a swimming pool or a park. Uh more quality of life type options. uh certificates of obligation and tax notes are limited to essential purpose. So again, that's going to be, you know, the the the main items that you all are there, you're required to provide um uh for your citizens of the community. So roads, the drainage, etc. fall into that. So that in itself um if you think the projects that you are uh pursuing um and the portion that you would need to be financed again grant money is great. Um we've presented on some options that are you know grant and bond mix through the water development board. Um but that portion that you ultimately have to finance locally. Um if the decision is um you know that you all want to uh pursue that at the council level and take care of those uh decisions and projects um still with public input through your open meetings process um that can be done through certificates of obligations and tax notes. It's a little more uh streamlined um and it's

certainly uh a quicker process. um if you feel it's very important to have uh the public um provide a vote on it and have the input in that way. Um so outside of you know electing their representatives you all to make those decisions you can also send a project to a vote um at a at a um open election. So um so two two uh options for you there. Um you don't again have to decide this tonight but um I think that's part of the discussion that we we wanted you all to to start thinking about what path that might be. Um the other item is is you know how do you pay for this? Um the the city of Wood Creek um primarily relies on you know property tax for your um uh for your your your operations maintenance. um you know, you don't have your own water system. Um but if drainage and storm water projects are uh the primary focus or or um or the priority at this point um looking to um potentially there are options for a drainage fee. And so, uh, something to consider that wouldn't necessarily even be financing is you all collect a fee from residents for drainage maintenance, and you use that to accumulate dollars to help, uh, provide that maintenance on a day-to-day uh, and budget-to-budget um, uh, process and timetable. Um, and then in the future if you had extra or wanted to use that, you could also use it to pay down uh debt payments for that type of project. So, it could serve a couple different functions. But, as we

were brainstorming and working with staff uh with with with the mayor and the city manager, uh that was one option we certainly wanted to um highlight and point out to you all. Um, and then lastly, there was a new um, legislative item that passed last session. Uh, I believe it was Senate Bill uh, let's see here, 1851. Uh, um, provided that, you know, you all need to complete your financial audits. And I heard, uh, Jim earlier in the meeting say that you'll have that um, underway. So, we're glad to hear that. Um, but really getting that completed and and set up uh in a timely manner is going to also affect kind of the timing of our ability to to do any of this financing. So, um, as the mayor pointed out, this this can take a year. It can take a couple years to get to this spot, but um, you know, getting ahead of the conversation and and starting to plan for it uh is is certainly uh is that time now. So I I'll pause there. I don't know if there's questions. Stephen, I u don't know if you had anything else to add just to the beginning of our our conversation and workshop here.

I think that summarized it well. Why don't Yeah, we open up to questions. I know there's a lot of information. Anyone have any questions on the dynamics of the three different options there or anything of that nature for us? you all were with us when we talked to the Texas Water Development Board Consult and uh and you heard, you know, you were part of that conversation where they were talking about essentially our community is too affluent unfortunately to qualify for a lot of the money. Um and then in addition to that, like I said, we're not in a lot of the state plans. And then some, you know, a lot of the money is tied to very specific types of work. So like land acquisition was one of them, but this really doesn't require land acquisition. So you know, so there's some pretty big constraints around allowing us access to um the grant money at this point in time. In the future, in a couple years, that could change. One of the things that will continue to remain a struggle for Wood Creek is that we don't own our water infrastructure, which a lot of that money is tied to owning your water infrastructure and it's privately owned. And then the other component is is we don't actually have storm water management infrastructure like I talked about earlier. So, we're not repairing pipes, right? So, um unfortunately, it's we're in kind of a weird gray zone there. And um the county is working on improving things for us and I'll talk a little bit about that later on in the meeting, but um yeah, we're kind of up a storm water creek without a paddle.

The question I was going to ask a little bit earlier, you said you talked to know waterhed people about grants there. Was that grants specifically for like green infrastructure in our engineering? Yeah. So that we've really not we like the the things we researched with them we're not eligible for and they are a little bit broader.

The what we were working on with the watershed is this one specific fund and it was for land acquisition at first and now the states even changed that. They removed that as one of the options and they've gone to infrastructure upgrades which we don't own our infrastructure. So it kind of it looks like we might not be eligible for that grant anymore either, which it was already a stretch for us in the first place because they you know we the the audit is part of you know when we have the audit that changes some of these things but it still won't change that we're too affluent as a community. We're not in a lot of the state plans and we don't own our infrastructure. So that's what most of that stuff's turned to.

But you know that that new bill passed and they're going to be putting like what a billion dollars into that fund every year and they might change what's available through that each year. So if that's something that's really important to you as a council member, then those smaller chunks might be really appealing, right? And then the other component, remember that the watershed is working on um additional engineering efforts for us. They're looking at we might qualify for a grant at site 8 in Canyon Creek specifically and they're because of the way it flows down into Cypress Creek more directly. So that might have some options. Um and so Half Engineering is working to support Freeland Turk and provide some more like green infrastructure or more you know kind of like water world options for us on the remaining five sites. They only selected three to work on though, the two Hog Creek and then that Canyon Creek one because it is appealing for a grant. So there are those possibilities down the road, right? But it is kind of up to council to decide specifically for closing out this fiscal year and for planning the next fiscal year because as we know when we're in budget season, we can't actually debate an item, right? So the debate has to happen outside of the budget meeting and then we put it in the budget so that you know when we're talking about the budget we're only talking about the budget right so that's kind of what this meeting is is sort of setting up that runway for how are we closing out this fiscal year how are we entering next year

um so I can I'm just going to state how I perceive this which is um when I look at the comprehensive plan um drainage is ranked number high in pressing issues and there's items above that that we haven't addressed yet. So if we were interested in debt issues, I would prefer it being used for those items. Um specifically that number three is pedestrian mobility and we've all discussed that that's a possibility. So I see this whole project

and using the art funds the what was previously the art funds to fund one and I'll bring it up in a motion when we get to that point but using it for one project and then leaving the remainder of the art funds possibility for engineering costs etc to kind of map out where we go forward I prefer the not taking any debt on drainage until the new comp plan survey comes back and says citizens okay now this is our number one issue right right now out of the stance of our compound it's number five. So I'd like to save a possibility of that for something else higher up and we just kind of plug along take a project get one more project done and just even if it takes 10 years and we slowly improve the city that's how I see it until citizen I

I had my hand up twice I'm sorry Council member Swedberg, I'd like to recognize her because she hasn't spoken on all this meeting if that's okay with you. I just have a question. You're talking about new debt. New debt. Okay. So that doesn't include the like if we decided uh as a council that the priority might be one let's say the um drainage for uh RAW Westwood and Tmont Trace Champion site scored five if we chose a project in that lower section that's coming out of our funds that's funds we already have where it was actually a grant right

so I'm just saying that's where my perception is where I I'm not I'm definitely not the person who would be interested in tax. Not I have to be convinced for that. I would prefer citizens to have a say on their own increased debt and and my understanding just to make sure I do understand that is that that it that was particularly what I've heard is the Trumont Travis. Well, I that's a different that's a different item that we'll discuss. I'm just kind of giving an overview since we're in I understand but it's that idea but we are talking about current projects versus debt

in theory. Yes. That's what this kind of decision worksheet is about. You know um we could draw this out for months and months and months. The crucial point is we're trying to wrap up this fiscal year. Right. So if there's any projects council would wish to determine of high value for action now,

we need to direct staff on that and our engineers for that matter. If there if we're saying not worried about it, then we can close out this fiscal year without certain actions, right? But that means that we need to have things plugged in for next year into the budget. So, we need direction from council on what to do for the budget. Does that answer your question? Uh, sorry. Uh, yeah. Because we are kind we're talking about several different funding mechanisms. Yeah. And they all have to be completed as far as thinking and recommendations before the budget starts. Some somewhat.

Yes. To me. Yeah. Uh, so if I agreed with Chris, which I do about setting aside new debt for the time being, we think we were ready for that. That doesn't include motions for using the bond money. The bond money cannot be used for drainage. Just to catch you up, specifically can only be used for the road improvement. That's right. Yeah, that's right. And so, no, I've got it. Yeah. Okay, I got it. Thank you, Council Member Bailey.

Okay. Um, I researched something for another part, but uh, I researched the cities in Texas with the highest property taxes and the highest is El Paso 2.6, second gallon 2.3, third pair 2.2. So, if we go to a 2.2 to tax return tax rate. We will be tied to the highest property tax in Texas. How does that affect our rate? If we do issue a bond, does that lower our credit rating because we are already at a very high rate of property tax.

I think that's Yeah. Yeah, take that Stephen.

Sure. So, um the if you recall the last issuance you did I think was in 2023 um and that's when the rating agency um released the report. One of the things that they did point out um in fact one I think the only um one of the only challenges the city faced was that higher tax burden um relative to other similarly sized issues. Um that being the case though, there were um a number of strengths that the city has going for them. Medium income um things like that. And so we wouldn't want to say either way specifically what a rating agency would do. Um but the as far as capacity for the city um goes, you all are well within the um at least on the le So there's I guess the two sides. one legal limits. You are well within the legal limits. You have capacity to issue uh far more than you're um you've been considering over the last few uh months with us. Um however, also there's obviously the political limits with the council what the residents actually want to pay in taxes. Um, so like I said, uh, it's hard to say what the rating agencies would specifically do, but you do certainly have capacity for, uh, the projects that you're considering.

Yeah. Yeah. Y'all have an a you have an A1 Moody's rating currently. So that's a strong investment grade rating. um it would if you were to go down a couple of notches it goes A2 A3 U before getting into the the tripleB category. But um as Stephen was talking about, there's a lot of different metrics they look at. Uh an increase in your debt burden. It would depend on how much the one and a half million um isn't going to be detrimental to your interest rates or your credit rating. uh you start getting up into to 510 for a city your size, that's going to be that's going to be a tough um there would be some pressure on that rating at that point.

And since this was brought up um I calculated this is just an open discussion um we have 366,000 left in the our drainage funds. there is a a section where it says additional engineering and that's about 15%. So I calculated doing Brook Hollow West um and uh Fremont Trace we can still adding 15% to each of those we can do both of those projects for just under $366,000. I think to for us to show the public that we had these funds and and we're instead of just letting them get almost feels wasted away with engineering because it just goes on inevitably. Um, I think we would be showing the public a service by using up all the drainage funds on the two projects that Brookall Westwood is certainly the most crucial.

I didn't get the same calculations as you looked like we no matter so to talk about that discussion. It looks like if we selected proposed option one, which is Wilson McGregor area, we'd be pulling about 89,000 from reserves. If we selected two sites for caller Westwood and trace together, that would be about 98,000 from reserves. And if we did drive champions, it would be about 200,000 from reserves to supplement. Yes. So my question is kind of off the same exact topic which is the when I read the little bolt said we have 366 of our funds.

Um is the 158700 estimated engineering cost has that been already pulled out or allocated out of that number or is that to meet expected expected? So the the engineering costs um so are ongoing and that's another one of the decisions we have to make right now and that's why we need to give the engineers direction because we said we want final plans for five sites right

they're pivoting and working on western Wood Creek right now by the end of the fiscal year they might have all those final sites ready for us but if we were going to say hey we actually want to mobilize on one site can you do that now then there would be engineering cost next year we have to allocate. Right? So that's that's why we need a little bit of vision right now. That's what these items are designed is to just kind of narrow and I know we're working with estimates like that is not

lost on me because nothing we're deciding tonight are final things. We're not spending any additional money. We're just kind of trying to with our financial advisors look at the runway here. And again, we're not even trying to issue debt this year. We would be issuing debt if at all 2728. So like a full, you know, almost a two-year mark. And um that's with purpose, right? Because we want public input. We want to finish that comp plan. We want to better understand, you know, if we're going to max out our deck capacity, we probably should go to a public vote. Like you have my support there. I don't like that. I'm calling it captained at the 22 thing because I understand that that's the most our citizens have ever been taxed.

We're not going to go over that, right? And so we have we we can't decide to do things like a giant bond election though in this in a right when it's time to do it. We we we barely did that with the road bond. We barely made that and that was because of the urgency of what was going on with the economy at the time and we wanted to capitalize on those amazing interest rates. We're also not in a rush on that front right now. You know what I mean? So, we're not in

So, I I do want to clarify that I I I may have sounded though I'm poo pooing this whole discussion. I am not absolutely not. I appreciate that we're giving the information. I want these kind of updates to kind of help us make decisions, but it hasn't changed my mind on where I feel like we're heading or from from my perspective. But I really appreciate this information.

Can council member Rich also Brad has a comment as well. Brad, will you real fast and then you sorry this time? Yeah, I think you know I failed in my opening kind of remarks to to talk about kind of conceptually what we talked about with you in the fall and that is the idea of maintaining your current tax rate or something uh you know similar to where you were in years past. And as the community grows, if you keep that same tax rate, it's going to produce, you know, some more revenue to help um pay for some of these projects, whether it be it's cash funded um or in a year or two, you're able to um you know, finance a smaller project without a tax rate increase. And so, you know, as you head into this budget season and you think about where you're going to set, you know, the tax rate for next year, um, you know, keeping it steady, um, or where it's been here in the past year or two can be beneficial instead of letting it drop down and you and you maintain, um, you know, the status quo on your on your uh, deferred maintenance projects. So, I think that's part of part of uh what this discussion was meant to uh prepare you all for. Um by by helping to stabilize that tax rate, it's going to open up options for you next year and the year after, whether it be uh cash funded projects or having that um additional revenue to to pay for a um a financing of a project. So, just wanted to add that.

Thank you. And Council Member Richardson, thank you so much for your patience. Fine. Quick question for option two. Uh, you know, keep the art funds in reserves and allow to continue to draw interest. Is there like a very rough number of how many thousands of dollars that interest would be over like the course of a year? Yeah, it's if you look at the financials, you can see kind of the interest to date and you could extrapolate that out. Um, so if you if you click back up into the consent agenda and you clicked on um is it Texas Club? Yeah, right now we're on that form. It's averaging about a little over $700 a month in interest. Okay. So, you know, compound that. Absolutely.

And these numbers that are in the are from the end of February. So, always hit the end of March there's another interest in there. So,

yeah. Okay. Um I mean basically my view on it at this time um I do I'm obviously very interested in the comp plan that holds a lot of weight seeing what people prioritize at this time. Um not really interested in taking on new debt at the moment. Um option one of just allocating you know two projects now and supplementing with reserves. I'm a little nervous about supplementing with reserves just because our economy is so tenuous at this moment and so I'm not very keen on taking on risking lowering our reserves by significant amounts. Um and then you know I would be in favor of a bond election just to leave it up to the citizen bare member just to comment on what you said. Um at the 2.2% rate voters were never that was never an option to vote on that. It was a tax note that was done without voter approval. That's when we did recall. And so that was when you when you repay at seven years, it bumps your tax rate up.

That was uh voted on by your council 5 years ago. That was the tax rate. The tax rate? Yes, ma'am. They they voted your council voted to go above the no new revenue rate and they voted to max out to the What is it called right now? Voter approval rate. And um so that was a council vote from the previous administration under Brentton Lewis, city of admin, Gory Whitehead, Mayor Judy Brisdy. I believe we voted no and so did Brett Pulley. So that was a council vote and the INS rate was way lower then we because we were almost done paying off that tax code. Yeah. So that is the most the council has ever taxing citizens here.

Right. But you're saying it was and I wasn't here that may not pay that much attention, but the 1.4 million to pay Rohalla was approved. I thought it was a tax note and it did not have to be.

The tax note did not go to a public vote. The council acted on that. That that action had taken place five years previously or so. And so that IMS debt rate is not what landed us at the 22 cents. It was by council votes where they said to vote higher and maybe it was just under voter approval, but it was close. It was closer to the max that they could do. Yeah, it was higher than known in recommend.

Yeah. Just under public vote. So, do y'all have any more questions for our financial advisors specifically about the benefits of a tax note versus a bond? If we were to go to a bond election eventually, would we want to like what is the benefits of trying to bundle it all even if it's a higher tax impact? Do you have any questions about that stuff while we have them? Um, while I have you, uh, Brad, could you restate what you were talking about of keeping the tax rate as as we're going into budget season, keeping it now, and explain that one more time of what the benefits of doing that does or Yeah,

absolutely. Yeah. So, um, this past year, I think you had 18.2 cents total tax rate. And so, um, as the, um, home values and property values within the city increase, it takes a lower tax rate to bring in the same dollars. And what many of our our clients in communities across Texas do is instead of lowering that tax rate, they keep it flat. And so they say, you know, we're going to commit to 18 cents. We're going to commit to 20 cents. And as our community grows, the extra revenue that's brought in by the growth of the homes, you keep the tax rate flat, is used for deferred maintenance projects, for capital improvement projects, roads, drainage, parks, whatever it may be in your community. And so as you if you keep a steady tax rate and your community is growing, it's going to produce that extra revenue uh to take on some of these projects, you know, that are listed in that that comprehensive plan uh that you all have identified. So that

you would have to account for that in the budget. You can't just tax. We'd have to specifically say and we're putting into this project or this syncing fund for this very specific reason. that can get another council member. Yes.

Okay. Um growth the projections I've been seeing they give us growth rate of about 1.3. We have very we can't do the ETJ. We have very few loss. So we're not like a young city that's going to grow a a lot. Also, we're now looking at 6.5% mortgage rates where when we were doing some growth and values were increasing is when we had 3.5 interest rates. So, houses are less affordable. So, our we're just not going to get that steep increase in home values. I don't believe.

Yeah. We're we're not projecting growth rates for your community. Um these type of decisions we we see um you know made on fast growth areas but also uh rural um stable communities as well. So that's a you know decision for the council uh to make. But um you know we're not we're not projecting um you know double digit growth or any type of of growth metrics for you at this time. Any other questions for Stifle at this time? Say it wrong every time. Is it Stifel or Stifle? It's Stifle.

Everyone pronounces it wrong. Don't worry. Or whatever you say. Yeah. Whatever you say, boss. Yep. Brad and Steven are a lot easier to pronounce. So, all right. Thank you so much, gentlemen. I appreciate you taking the time this evening and uh I think you did a great job explaining all of that. It's very complex stuff, so appreciate y'all. Thank you. You're welcome. Great. Happy to help. Bye. Good night. Have a good night, guys.

Um so, I'm going to conclude the workshop, which means we're going to go into those more kind of formal roles for the council meeting. Um you know, we're going to proceed into the next couple of items. You all get to decide if you take action or not on these. I I laid out a plan for you to consider. And so the goal, you know, kind of ideally is whether or not council wishes to take any definitive construction infrastructure improvement action this fiscal year or not. That's the next item. Okay. So I'll enter into item five, discussion and possible action to select a site or multiple sites for use of remaining drainage funds allocated in this fiscal year. I'll entertain a motion. Council member Gmer.

Thank you. I move that council approve spending up to $153,000 of the remaining drainage funds allocated in the 2025 2026 fiscal year to address the Brook Hollow Westwood intersection. A second. All right. Motion made by council member Grimmer, seconded by Council Member Richardson. The motion more or less was to spend no more than 153,000 to specifically target Brook and Westwood. Yes. Yes sir.

Um if I may, the reason for the choice of this first addressing this intersection alone is that it benefits the most people but without having to consider taking on debt or dipping into the reserve. This intersection is the only exit point for Westwood and Peckle Brook residents. If the listed, and this is before I ask the question, I don't read it in. If the listed 158,700 estimated injuring costs, engineering costs for the first five sites had not already been allocated out of the 366 art funds. And council intends to allocate these engineering costs to the section of the budget. That would leave 27 $27,300 for council to consider spending now on one of the first five drainage projects without taking on debt or dipping into reserves or other sections of the budget. IO propose we address the Brook Hollow Westwood intersection on its own with a cost of 53,000 which would leave 54,300 which could possibly any matching required for any drainage grants or any the concept of getting some interest rates interest built off of that. Um, as I said earlier, the council should listen to the people of the city and this expressed in the comprehensive plan and that we still seek grants for remaining drainage projects before we entertain any additional debt.

Anyone else would like to speak on the motion of spending up to 153,000 specifically on Ballo for actual construction this year? Council member V.

Yes. Um, what I done in my calculations, I looked at 1158,000 and that was for five sites. That's about 15% of the total mill estimated for the five sites. So I calculated because it's a smaller amount I calculated additional engineering of 20%. 20% of the 153 that' be 30,600 that would be a total for site four of 183 634. So I believe I don't think that you should we should do all five sites because we're talking about maybe increments of um a couple years things can change and we've got engineering and engineering and so I think it would be most wise just to do I think we'll give do two sites but if we just do call westwood that's 153 30,000 for additional engineering that would be 183 we have 366,000 so that would easily cover even some contingent costs

okay

I need to clarify a point because I think there's some confusion again here um we've already voted from council to proceed with final designs in the first five plans so council member Grimmer is absolutely correct in understanding that an estimated 1587 700 is already committed. And this is what I talked about with understanding for the budget that we'll have to transfer some of this over now because it's very possible they won't finish all of those engineering final plans at the end of this fiscal year. So, we need to keep that in mind. But that those funds are technically committed by council vote already. That happened in December. who were all present. I believe majority was there something like three of us.

There was three of you. Okay. So, a majority were present. That's what they voted on the because funds have already been spent on that. We cannot actually recall that vote. So, those final plans will be finalized. Whether it's this fiscal year or next fiscal year is something we're watching and having to monitor which is part of why that mean that means that there's only a certain amount of the uncommitted drainage funds for use right now. That's why the decision is for council whether or not you'd like to go ahead and plan for action and construction this fiscal year on a site or two or retain those remaining funds. We need to have a plan for what our purpose is for the next budget year. Do we plan to use those funds for finalizing all of the plans? Do we plan to use those funds for more drainage work supplemented by reserves? If a grant could come through, you know that we need a match. So, we would need to plan for that in our budget and start telling staff what to put in the budget because again, I can't stress this enough when it comes to the budget meeting. That's not when we debate the value of an item.

So, I have a question based on what you're saying and I hope I didn't leave it out of my head just fine. Um so the first five that we're seeing represented here um we've already told engineering go ahead with this but they have or have not they're in process on all five part of the their status report to me is that they're expecting this month to have final deliverables ready for presentation in May. So all

on the Okay. So we can't suddenly pull back Wood Creek Drive transient circle for instance because we've already decided it. So we're going to get the plans for it. It's just we may not. And most importantly once council once funds have been spent on something council cannot actually recall it. No. Yeah. Yeah.

He had his hand up here. I was just going to say I mean I'm I'm in support of getting a project done and and this one probably is the makes the most sense of the five um because you know we've all driven by there um we don't necessarily see what's going across Westwood where they can't get out but it it it's nasty.

Yeah. Um, and so if we could if we could do something this year to fix that, it would be visible progress that we've made. We've had these funds available to us earmarked for drainage projects now for what, five years, four. Um, and we keep talking about using them and we just don't,

you know. So, so this is taking a step that would show the citizens that yes, we can actually get things done. Um the um as far as the other other areas, I mean, I didn't do the calcul I I didn't do the math. I didn't take the 158 out of 366 and I was like, "No, no, no. Let's totally do proposed motion number two because I I know that the Tmont Trace Champions site is also a big mess." But taking out the the engineering, it doesn't make enough money. I done calculations to say we get those two in for under 366. But of those two, I would say, you know, that that, you know, Roa Westwood is the most important. I think, you know, we've said, you know, we'd be drive champion circle back one, but um but you know, I'm I'm still waiting for a rain to see what happen 500 grand, you know, over repairing drainage, you know, across the We don't know what that's going to do. Um we have some concept, but you know, until until we see it. So, I'm definitely, you know, I'm fine with taking that off the off the table for the time being. We'll have the plans for it when the time comes. Um, you know, Wilson's falling, McGregor's falling. I know that that you know, y'all been talking about it for years. It's been a problem for years. You took some matter of your own hands. Um, as you said, and made some improvements. Um, but, you know, I'd like to see that one still on the list for further work and we'll have the the work done. Then if we decide later on to um find other sources of funding, you know, then I mean we'll have, you know, as they say, we'll be trouble ready and go from there. So, but I I am in support.

And that's your motion, right? Council member Richardson. Um I'm also on board with having um you know, Balo Westwood, we won't be drawing anything from reserves. We're keeping it um with what we have in the art funds. Um I am interested to see, you know, as far as the Tmont Trace Champion Circle. So, the golf course has been doing very recent work on that retention pond that's there that when it overflows drains down into that section of Tmont Trace. So, I'm interested to see what that's going to do. Um so, I'm I'm fine putting that kind of on the back burner until the plans are finalized and maybe see with what happens. question. Yeah.

Um, do you know about that project? I didn't know about that project. Yes. So, maybe we could notify the city engineers because they might have to shift and adjust if if that project's going on and we nobody knows about it. They might adjust their work. So, I just want to make sure that they get noticed that it's happened. Yeah. Um, it's a little difficult because it's private property. It would be like notifying them that I dug a hole in my backyard.

Um I understand that impacts a lot of people. Also, the gentleman that owns the lot just below it is potentially planning to build. The interesting thing about that intersection in particular is yes, it's the water flow over there is highly impacted by that, but the drainage problems are actually across the street.

So, you know, I think there was some confusion tonight. I heard over and over on a lot of fronts. One, we clean the culverts out. We have a regular maintenance plan for the culverts to be cleaned. Second, Freeland Turk accommodated covert cleanout and that was discussed in our December meeting. They said, "No, no, no. This doesn't this not about culverts not being cleaned out. This is because these are too small to deal with the capacity of water flow that occurs here sometimes." So, I just want to clarify that. And so one of the things that's really important is looking at the freelancer plans about where they're actually planning for work versus the overall area of impact, right? And so that work is more localized in some cases than what is being discussed, right? So trace and it's really for the drainage issues going on across the street. And yes, the pond is impacting it. The word on the street is potentially they're decommissioning that pond, which is news. So, I do think we need to kind of watch it and see what what the actual final product is, but um when we can reach out to the golf course for more information. It's just

I thought they were enlarging it. It definitely looks that way and they have at one point intended to reline it for the type 1 float that's coming and can keep it as a retention pond. Um but they can't um they can't fill their ponds with groundwater like they used to. That's why above the dams it's empty. That's why that pond sits empty. Um, they can only do that with one pond right now by regulation and it's the one over by their clubhouse for various reasons. So, they might be wanting to get rid of the eyesore for now. So, I I don't we need more information there. I agree. Um, does anyone else have any more comments on this specific motion?

Um, if I would like to take a moment of privilege as the mayor, I have a comment about it. I think it's a great plan and I support it and I would like to see action. And what's really crucial about this site in particular is this has been cited in drainage plans going back decades. So it's an area that we have known needed action prior to either of our leadership roles. And so I I would like to see some progress on that. Um I I am interested to see what the final plans are. So again, this isn't necessarily a commitment to spend these funds tonight. It's just saying this is our plan. So, we still need to get those final plans back. We need to approve them. We need to approve the bid package. At that point, we might be able to tweak and adjust some of these factors, but now we can give staff direction. We can give family direction, right? That's that's very helpful for everyone involved. Um, the other beautiful thing about this site in particular, which I don't know if you intended this, but we're also looking at that pedestrian and bridge just down the way. So economies of scale bundling work together in an area is very intelligent. So if we're doing work at this intersection right here and this and these bids go out at similar time periods, that's a very good idea. So I appreciate that. Any more comments on this? Are you ready to vote? All in favor of selecting Brook Hollow and Westwood intersection for um sorry for funds to be spent from reserves in fiscal year 2025 2026 not to exceed 153,000. That's a summary of the motion. Please raise your hand and say I. I.

All in favor? Motion passes. Thank you all. We're going to move into item six and we'll take a brief recess here in a little bit. But um item six, discussion of possible action to direct ciphing debt issuance for drainage and storm water for management for fiscal year 2728 to select a tax zone or a bond election. Again, I would entertain a motion. We don't have to make a motion. If somebody has a strong preference and would like to give stful direction, this would be a good time to do it. hearing. No motion. This item will fail. So, no action taken on item six. I just want to say thank y'all because they were looking to me for direction alone and I would No, I will not be telling you what to do. My council needs to tell you what to do. So, big job. Um I probably would have made the wrong decision. Um number three from the consent agenda are the financials. So we'll be taking up

those financials. Okay. We still have to approve this. So if you guys would like to do uh Yes, sir. We approve financials. Okay. So Sber will be the second on this one this time. All in favor raise your hand say I. I. Thank you all. Okay. So, if y'all feel up to it because we have a large agenda, I'd like to take up a few more items before recess. Okay. So, item number seven is the plan unit development application for law 5 6 8 9 10 or sorry, no 10 11 and 12.

Mayor, may I? Sir, I move that we approve the planned unit development application for V meadows lot number five, lot number six, lot number eight, lot number nine, lot 11 and lot number 12 as stated in the ordinance and the ordinance exhibition A and D. Very good. Council member Bailey seconded. And yes, sir.

I would also like to offer an amendment. I amend section three. And just so you know, I've sent this already to city secretary. Okay. I amend section 3 development standards to create a line E pvious coverage that states all purious coverage shall be landscaped with water-wise native plants or left in natural state and shall include not less than 10% of total lot area dedicated to bofiltration soil. I second.

Thank you. The location of this PUD has been being cons being being considered as in the Jacobs well management Jacob's well groundwater management zone and followed within the contributing zone of the Hayes Trinity Groundwater Conservation District. And in our own chapter 50 water quality states for any new development in those areas that adds 5,000 square ft in cover has performance standards that it must be met. and that one of the most important aspects of chapter 50 is that the to have residential built at or below 30% notorious cover. And yet we know that this path of creating a TUD is a reasonable path forward given the history of the location and the ability of these lots to be developed in keeping with their specific location of the offer up this amendment to accommodate the development of the lots to still offer up measures that will be in keeping with goal in maintaining water quality. All right, hit the wrong button. Um, it it addresses a comprehensive plan that speaks to protecting water quality and specifically in this location, a small scale bofiltration whale is a shallow vegetative channel designed to treat, slow and filtrate storm water runoff into from small areas like driveways or roots. These systems use native plants, deep rooted grasses, and amended soils to filter pollutants, nitrogen, and phosphorus, and add infiltration to the aquifer. It's much like a rain garden, but with more specific require requirements such as depth and materials used. Often, it's used over in similar places such as downspouts. The bio bofiltration swells are a solution for a smaller scale application while the a vegetative filter strip as described in the code requires a larger area of land. These sws are two to five 2 to 8 ft deep planted with beetroot grasses and other

materials to keep the water on site and to help mitigate storm water runoff. It should be noted that most of these lots are lower on the slope of the land and the storm water runoff would run towards the apartments. So the impervious surfaces of these new buildings could affect how much water and storm water and where shall water go. These flows could help navigate that.

Any comments or concerns about the amendment? Council member. Um, I think we're imposing a vague and difficult financial burden on this this builder. Um, I know that the intent is to help with our groundwater, but I don't really this is the right application. May I? Um, so you've cost out what a bio filtration soil may cost. No, it's not in the motion. Correct. Where we're asking it's

you understood the description a little bit, right? Like it's like a rain garden. It's a little bit deeper and it has made time to

but if you have if you build this versus you don't build anything, you know, it just seems like it maybe we should estimate what what additional cost we're giving this man. Yeah, I um this particular development um we are taking several steps backward in our history um and reducing lot lines, reducing lot requirements contrary to what um the gentleman earlier was thinking you know they are one story they are three it's like right

they're they're they're the same type of director type of building that is there now. But we're also saying yes, you can take it to 40% impervious cover. Um 40% impervious cover, 10% more than our our maximum um also means more runoff and that these are not big lots. You know, they're running off and they're impacting people downstream which is not hood, you know. So, so asking them to do some mitigation, you know, to hold that water on the property before it goes down to the apartments and and beyond, um, I think is reasonable. Um, and, you know, they're going to have to do significant site development work. And a part of that site development work is take some dirt out of here and put it over here. Um, and then put some plantings in that we probably landscaped anyway. I don't think it's that big of a deal. and I'll raise that much so fast.

We're giving the whole lot. Can Does anyone else have a Yeah, sorry. But um any other comments about the specific amendment? No. Okay.

I just wanted to clarify. So that's what I was trying to accept is that additional 10% that's being discussed. 30% is our code. We're saying oh we'll give you 40%. So even though I said 10% of the law areas dedicated to bios shouldn't swale. I want to kind of give you some examples of what that means. So, it depends on the amount of rain you're getting and the amount of water you're getting, but it's going that 10% will infiltrate and heat and it's a really large number of difference, but it's 15 to 85% of that water means it stays on land. But it depends, you know, it's a heavy fast downpour. less of it's going to stay, but smaller amounts will have a better chance of staying on the property and getting down to the aquifer and not running down running down, you know, down the streets or on other people's property. So, I mean, if you were actually to do the math and try to, you know, com keep that 10% in purpose matched with green infrastructure, it would be a 100%age, but I thought 10% to 10% it's a nice easy number.

Now, I have a little um backstory. Um, so I'm a huge fighter for retaining our appropriate coverage at the lowest possible. I've spoke to council about it before I was ever even on council. I made sure to put it back for swimming pools. So, I don't take this discussion lightly. And we spent a lot of time trying to figure out what was a reasonable number and what's not and the why of it. And part of the reason why the accommodation for imperous coverage was adjusted is with the goal of trying to reduce the chance of twostory homes. There is some confusion again about what the code says and doesn't. So several of these homes are twotory. They're just kind of those happy twotory, not the big box twotory that you might not be able to tell, but basically you might see like a window or a different kind of pitch roof in some areas. So, we're talking about like a room or two, not a giant box, two story. So, part of the reason this PUD was requested and it is, you know, somewhat supported by myself and staff is because of trying to keep with the character of the existing neighborhood. When the zoning changes happened about 15 years ago or so and then the impervious coverage came in, it really changed what was possible to build on these lots in a very dramatic way, in a not appealing way. Very long driveways, really tiny footprint on the bottom and then they were going to have to go up. Two stories was is in the code. We're not touching that. That was already there. Some of the houses are. It used to have zero lot lines. Mhm.

P&Z made the adjustment saying, "No, zero is not good because, you know, you were supposed to put the house caddy corner on one side or the other. So, you'd have 7 foot on one side, but then how do we regulate all of that moving forward?" So, PNZ came up with a compromise of three foot wall lines, right? And then we shrunk the driveway down. Well, then it came still to the footprint of the house, right? So, without the impervious coverage adjustment, you were still with these really tiny footprints in the middle of these tiny lots which was going to shoot people up. Right? So the approved coverage adjustment was to try to keep the buildings spread out which are more appealing homes especially for aging residents. Right? So to try to keep that we can control what people ultimately decide to build there, but what we were trying to do is match what the code used to be whenever that neighborhood was originally constructed and what most of the houses look like in those lots. They also have a green belt behind all of them. So that does help with some of the runoff, right? Um, if I might give any influence at all, this is the exact kind of building guidelines we will be pursuing and I will be asking council to possibly approve in a zoning code update because we want to be aggressive in protecting our aquafer and we only do that through building incentives or you know these kind of like okay no more grass you can do native plants. Um, my only personal concern about what you're recommending is the bio swell specifically, not the native plant requirements or, you know, either leave it alone or do something that's water friendly. I think that's brilliant and necessary because we don't want somebody coming in and putting in carpet grass and then violating our water restrictions which is happening in another area. We're having to try to

fight that person, right? the bias well is a little bit more difficult because there's an educational component that comes with it that not everybody will know about right off the bat. And so if there was for me personally, you know, this is if this was a new PUB coming to us from the ETJ, absolutely. considering that historically none of these other homes have had bio swells, you know, I don't know that that part is a little bit like well I love the native part plant requirements though like that's and just to be clear I made sure all of this was legal when you're looking at a PUD you can put these kind of restrictions in. Okay,

so just to get that out of the way but it's up to you all to decide. I just wanted to kind of weigh it. I don't know that everybody knows what bios are and so there's you know quick question the bio swell kind of like what they did in the middle of the triangle that little and d looking thing something like that

just from staff perspective I would need some super guidance you know hard and fast what what is because I don't know I don't know how to enforce that you know building process. So if I so um our code was referencing um the where's the words? It's the big land application thing which we're talking about. It's uh vegetative filter strips. Um but when I researched vegetative filter strips tend to be much larger areas than would apply to this lot these lots which are really small. And so I did a comp a continued search of well what would happen on a smaller scale and that's what came up was these BOF filter swailes and they have charts they have like this is you know you dig it 2 to 8 ft deep and then you put this kind of sediment here and then you put this kind of you know material here and then you plant it with these kind of plants and so it's it is a clean structure to be easy to see and we're talking about 10% of the total lot that could be in one area like oh all the the roof goes to one gutter and it all comes down in one spot that's the perfect place for it to come be at. And then others other other suggestions in um researching it is often if a driveway is slightly sloped one direction you put it at the edge and it actually also becomes something you can drive on or you know park on a little bit. So I was like, "Oh, wow. These are really cool ideas to deal with water runoff and still be possible." And like right now we have the openings inside our driveways, you know, like rock and stuff. It's just a little bit more scientific about strip. So there's plenty of information. You just punch in and you'll see little

charts and stuff. And I think it's literally like we're these are first steps. So is that what you saw? $2 to $10,000. I also looking at price. So I I don't want council to be confused. It is not our job to make things affordable or expensive for developers. Our job is to consider requirements related to PUD and the type of development and any kind of restrictions we'd like to place to retain water quality. Right. I think they would also he'd be really proud of these properties having these features. Well, the men who own them now, so I don't know any gifts. Okay.

Um that's kind of part of the PUB request is because um specifically city staff and to some degree myself would like to not come up against this wall over and over six times when these lots sell. You know what I mean? And so we really whatever this looks like, we hope to get our code to adjusted to to ideally make these lots buildable in a practical way that looks like the rest of that neighborhood. Do we have any more discussion on the amendment about addressing imperous coverage? I'm not going to read all that again. All right. So we'll take the amendment up first. All in favor of the amendment, raise your hand and say I.

I. I. So four I's takes it. The amendment passes. So we'll take up the main motion which is to improve to approve the PUD for VM with the six slots with the amendment for adding the uh section E about impervious coverage. All in favor raise your hand and say I.

I. All I say passes and I apologize. We did have one nay on the amendment but I didn't mean to exclude you council member Bailey. Thank you. Um amending so we'll take up item eight amending section 156.059 of the city of Wood Creek code of ordinances related to residential parking and driveway requirements. Do I have a motion?

Yes. We um amend section 156.059 of the city with three federal ordinances related to residential parking and driveway requirements revising minimum driveway dimensions and clarifying off street parking standards as um as outlined in the ordinance on parking. Mode second. Council member Germart seconded motion made by council member Ras Mayor Rasco. Um

do you all have any comments or questions about this? This item has languished for you five years now. Um all right, cool. All in favor raise your hand say I. I thank y'all.

All right. Do we need a reset? Do we keep going? Going. Okay. Um, we'll take up the bulletin boards. Do we have a motion from anyone? This is coming from our community relations committee. Council member Richardson. I moved to select the design and approve purchase and installation of three community bulletin boards to be installed at Creekide Playground, Podesta Park, and the Triangle Park with costs not to exceed $5,000 from the trees of Earth budget line item. Second.

All right. Council member Richardson made the motion. Mayor Perasco seconded. Um, in your packet, you will see some design options. um community relations committee submitted these for consideration. Um I believe these are like off of Amazon or something. But anyway, the the goal for these bulletin boards is to enhance communication with residents possibly and direct directly at places where they spend time. This would also give an opportunity for the people who have lost an animal, unfortunately, to have a legal place to freely post signs because the city does not currently have options for that. Um, these signs would not be something that staff maintenance. So, we're not going to be locking them. They are not city signs. They're not going to turn into our formal posting for our agendas. These are public use bulletin boards that the public would be in theory responsible for maintenancing. Every once in a while we might clean up trash or something like that, but this is not another staff to do. So we need to be very clear about that if that these are installed. This is going to be up to the public to use within maintenance and would just be a place for community communication. You did have your hand for

I just have a question. Would that would that mean that we couldn't like one of the things I was thinking is that this this would be a good place to put some of the things that we're sticking in the ground for, you know, egg hunts and and music in the park music parks thing to advertise some city events. Yeah. So maybe not behind the glass, but

yeah. So they would be openable. We wouldn't have them locked. So yeah, somebody can go post the fire for the hay path there. There's nothing. We're just We're not going The goal is not to give staff another thing to do and another place to post five agendas, five fly, you know what I mean? The goal is this is a community use bulletin board. So, if you're having a garage, you can post your flyer there. If your cat's missing, you can post your flyer there. If you've got, you know, uh the choir, the the local choir would have these bulletin boards to use. They're the public's not necessarily staffs to maintain and treat like a an official staff communications place. You you had your hand up next. Well, it wasn't it was her.

So, what I saw first was the boom boom and then now for Okay, but everyone gets a chance to speak. It was quick. I just council member Swedbird has been recognized. If you have a comment Yes, I do. I do not like

Okay. I have lived in an area, a rural area, and uh they start looking messy. People won't take their notes down. They start flying off. Uh especially if you have three of them, and you might have, you know, rules, not regulations, but rules. Here's how we treat them. Here's how we keep them up. I've just never had good experience with them as a, you know, member of the of the community. Okay. Council member Bailey, I just want to clarify. It's 5,000 for all three. Yes.

I apologize to not give you the floor first given that this actually came from CRC. Typically, we recognize the person whose item it is, not necessarily just motion maker.

Um, I am on board with the signs. Um, I do feel like there's a lot of applications for them, especially, you know, when we heard from our residents regarding the digital sign and so many did bring up the fact that they would like something similar to this. um just to learn about community events and I like having our residents have the option of posting their own things that they want people to know about. Um I would try and enforce some rules, you know, like if something's been up for x amount of weeks, it's going to get taken down no matter what just so we don't have outdated things. Um based off of the two versions, I'm more inclined to do the message center sign, the brown larger one, just because it gives you twice the amount of room to post things. Um, and I think, you know, the color blends in well with the surroundings of the different parks. So, and then, you know, if you buy three the discounted price, it comes out to $3,000 for the three of them.

Um, I know you and I appreciate the concept that staff won't end up taking care of these, but reality is they will. Yes. Oh, sorry. And

it is also you know unreasonable to have the expectation that the citizens are going to take care of it or a community board is going to take care of this. So we have to consider this is city infrastructure and it is respon this the ones responsible for our city staff and they're already have you know voiced concerns about the amount of time being spent on the sandwich boards. So I don't agree with this as being a good use of our funds for Wood Creek. Now I am willing to compromise and I would say that the one larger message board we place one at the triangle. It's one central location, one place for people to go. That would be my like that would be my compromise.

You guys need an amendment. I amend that we choose one singular message board sign post in cedar at the triangle. I'm sorry. With associated costs. Okay. Second is council member Bailey.

Um I guess I should have clarified staff will not be maintenancing these signs. Period. So if this is installed, it will be the public and a flyer sit up there for 3 months. That's it. So you need to understand that they're not taking on the maintenance. Now if the leg breaks and we got to haul it off, that is something we will do, but staff is not going to be taking on managing the content of these internal message boards. Right. And if I may, even though I made that amendment and I made that compromise, I'm going to be voting against it. Um,

okay. Anyone else have any comments on, you know, that's not a question. I mean, I I don't want to step management either. I don't think it makes any sense at all, but I'm not against asking the the um community relations committee, you know, as volunteers to monitor. The rules are clear that, you know, the go to date night stays up for 3 week and then community relations, you know, just does their round and pick them up. I don't know any problem with that. Are you saying trees and parks or

CRC? But this is part of that fund is what's being proposed because that fund was unused during it was CRC that made the the motion made the motion. Yes. And my my feeling is if if you want it then you need to be willing to maintain.

Sir, my issue with that is five years from now this science still exists. What happens with community those community relations board in the future goes I don't want to do that why I'm not doing that why do you why are you going to hand that off to us we got staff give it to staff to do I mean that's the like that's actually reality of what's going to be happening one of go one of the things that we have not addressed here is all of those lost dog lost cat

um notices that go up on stop signs and and you know and everywhere else and they have to come down and get a permit if they want to use the approved places. Um so I mean it give it gives our public a place to get some of their personal needs met there um that we've told them they can't do. You know, we we ripped lost cat signs off of stop signs, you know, because that's not allowed. We leave them up for a while. This give this this is an outlet for for those very real needs. So

if it's on doing the one it's I think that's a better idea because then we can see is this going to work out or is it going to be bad? At least we're not doing three or maybe. So I think the one that

is a good compromise even though you don't like it anymore. I mean I I'm actually now you know I'm still considering it but my basic instinct because what I consider is like we have all these digital formats. The thing that weirdly like I was literally thinking of ever bringing this to council like a couple years ago and I thought about it and I processed it and my hiccup was it's going to look crappy. staff's going to end up taking care of it, you know, like, but I like the homey neighborhood quality of it and I like the designs they chose. They were better than the ones I was doing this. Um, I saw the lock and that was my instant go, "Oh, that means staff's taking care of it." I mean, in the presentation, it never said it in the presentation. I wish it would have if it might have changed my bias, but

you want me to aggressively tell Saving this. Exactly. No. Uh I mean I still have a I still think eventually staff will end up taking care of it is a structure of you know but if that happens it'll be the same as the sandwich board. It'll be pulled up. Yeah. Can can I ask a question before you

My understanding is that these are some examples of message boards. Not necessarily we have to have this one. um being the guy that's gonna have to order and pay for it. Are we going with this one or are we look at other option? Maybe a two-sided option. Um this one comes in three different colors. Um you know, do we want to do a one-sided if there's a two-sided available? Uh you know, clarification on what's going to get ordered.

These were the designs presented by them. So if you guys would like to offer adjustments to it or you know any adjustments I think that's fair you could say this exact one we can figure out where exactly it came from and deleted and discussed placement. But you said the triangle. That's the amendment you said. Specifically give the triangle. If you wish to give further direction, it is up to you all to be very specific and I would encourage that for staff because it's hard. May I? Yeah.

I make amendment to um I like the design as is. um place it up against near the gazebo. So it could actually be used for multiple purposes such as if there's an event at the gazebo, we can kind of know take that side. Um but also, you know, captains side of the of the gazebo visible from there's a willow tree. Yeah. No, I'm I'm thinking more it needs to be visibility is concern. Well, I'm thinking

ADA access so somebody could drive, walk up, wheel up, see the sign, but gets up at the the entrance of the gazebo like off to the side. So between the rainwater collection and the gazebo along the sidewalk. Yeah. Right next Well, like kind of we're in the electrical equipment. We got some limitation. Do we have piping and electrical? It could be on the other side of that entrance of the gazebo visibility from the streets. I'm just trying to think of ADA access to it because it is something you want to get up to because it's going to be small little print. So I'm just

our most frequented location is the playground just to be honest. And I guess that's not for everyone, but you know, that's where most people spend their time on first, but All right. Um, so, uh, was that an amendment? I'm not sure. I honestly I don't know. And just we consider that direction. Yeah. Yeah. Nobody's seconded. Well, you're talking the questions that SA has. Do you want it single-sided or double-sided? Is he want single? Single. Single. Single sided. All right, we got that green cedar or brown cedar. Cedar. I like it as in in the picture myself.

Any objection to the picture specifically? Would you like to give more clear direction on the installation location? Because I don't think anyone is actually clear on that right now. you have nothing. My would be there's the entrance to the gazebo to the lot facing what direction towards you as your So Wood Creek Drive-ish or like you could say it for Wood Creek Drive and Brook Hollow and Brook. So it's an octagon, correct? Place it against the

There's a garden there. We could put it in front of that like so there's that cuz the garden's like this big, right? Not big, but put it in front of it. It's about two foot all the way around. So in it probably in it because it would be kind of nice to have vegetation where we are on the roof. Okay. So inside planting. Okay. Do y'all feel confident in this direction or would you like this to come back cleaned up at a future meeting or no? Does this You're good with the direction given? There's the big shirt.

I have I have a little if I'm I have a little bit of an issue with it like the one-sided sign.

Um where the the back end of it is like facing the inside of a gazebo, you know, with nothing on. I mean, if you have a two-sided sign and it's and it is perpendicular to the to the flat space of a the gazebo, then it can be seen people coming up to the gazebo and can also be seen at some level from Wood Creek Drive. My my biggest concern with this placement is we're literally having music in the park there and seeing the band members would be greatly impeded by that. Seeing the band like

so move it away to the to the south to the south side. So back to the drawing board on location. Who said it? Go ahead. I heard it. What about just right there? Yep. Near the stop sign and then two side and two side

2008 sign in place. Well, the wood one is still there, but they put up that new one. It's on top of J. Yeah, I drove by today and CJ

People keep targeting CYJ and it's really Oh, they're taking down that little one. No, the graffiti sign. They're taking down one of the wood side. Now they're taking down another one. Okay. Anyway, all right. So, two-sided cedar. Can I just make a request? Yeah. Let me do some more work and come up with some other options. Bring it back in and research location options and bring it up. You're okay with that? I move to postpone until city manager brings it back. City brings it back. Before you do that, can you vote on the amendment?

Okay. Because we have to clean is a whole other thing. to so we vote on the amendment. Uh okay. So first amendment is about sides and cedar. So you just vote no on everything and we can make a new motion. Okay. So uh second amendment is about how many sides and the color. All in favor say I and raise your hand. All nay. Nay. Okay. Mo amendment fails. Next amendment is choosing the me message center and putting it at the triangle. All in favor you're going to say I. I. I. But that's just putting it at the triangle.

There's only two of us. Okay. So, two I nays. Three nays. That amendment fails. Okay. So, the main motion is to discuss and select a design and approve a purchase. This is where you could make an amendment to postpone with staff input. Sir, I make an amendment that we postpone this item until staffs have presented us with more options. Second. Second.

Uh, Council Member Bailey, I'm trying to write down what? Okay. So, are you tiny?

So, amendment to postpone until staff presents with more options. All in favor are going to say I I four I five eyes. Amendment carries. So, main motion as amended to bring this map to a later date with more options. All in favor raise your hand and say I. All five eyes. So, thank y'all. Good discussion. Probably should have just workshop that. All right. Um, discussion and possible action to approve purchase and installation of security cameras on city- owned park properties not to exceed 6,000. Mayor,

yes. I move that we approve purchase and installation of security cameras on city and park properties not to exceed $6,000 and then refer to the quote. Seconded by council member Richardson. Um,

but it's um it's funny you should mention, you know, signage at the corn vandalized and and so we've got just little things going on all the time. And I I just think that the the um the ability to watch our our public spaces um and protect them is important, but if nothing else, just the just that, you know, smile you're on camera thing goes a long way.

And we can't be everywhere once we police department. Um so this helps us to just identify problems and maybe come to a solution.

Yeah. And uh you're next, but just a little history here. This is actually an item that council sent to staff to bring back to us. So we at one point all a majority anyway supported this in the past. And so this is staff having followed through with that and bringing it back to us at this point. Council member, okay, we're often talking about not using too much staff time. Who is going to monitor these? How will that work? We're going to have three cameras. Will people have to review the tapes or do we wait until there's a vandal? How would that work? I think we wait until there's an incident and then staff would be responsible for reviewing the footage.

That's right. I mean, it's the same company that does our insurance. You said we've got cameras all over this building. Yeah. Inside and out. And it's No, it's recorded and if there's something wrong, you go back and check. I mean, just like just like convenience store isn't watching that video camera. There's not somebody watching the video camera. If something goes wrong, they go back and they have it on there.

Well, they just know if there's worries. I guess that could be done individually. People are concerned if kids are hanging out at the bathroom at the um creek side. So, I guess at your opportunity, you could go ahead and and check certain times of the night if you We're not going to be looking in the bathroom at Creekite. That's not going to be no camera there. But and I believe they'll close that bathroom, don't you? No. Not yet. We've talked about getting some time block on it. But um but yes, if somebody did what they did to the portaotti and left us a nice little bird nest, we would have video to reference now. Council member G,

thank you. My first reaction upon seeing this item was a visceral one. Oh, heck no. Am I going to vote for it? Yes, for governmentalists of anyone saying would create but then I put these decided to come to approach it from a more logical point of view. So the question to start off with this course is what is the problem this solution is trying to address. The answer provided in the resolution is that it would pay is that that would pay for this and we need to protect our city parks assets. We have some new and old elements in the parks that we need to take care of and the thinking is cameras in the parks might deter vandalism. Though studies have shown that the v video surveillance does not def definitively reduce crime, they often more effectively identify criminals after an event rather than preventing crime from ever happening. Another question might be, does wood creek have a crime problem in our parks? If so, would spending the 6,000 save the city money on repairs from vandalism? If the video happened to catch the vandal, would it result in the city getting restitution or money for repairs? And would it ever be enough money to offset the cost of in installing, maintaining, and reviewing footage that would require city stuff? Constant surveillance makes people feel uncomfortable, creating a nannyate atmosphere and violating the expectation of privacy in public spaces. My first reaction or against I do not support government surveillance in our city parks is perhaps a good solution for city much larger than that but is not right for vote.

Any other comments on this item? Was was it a legitimate question about how much vandalism we have here or was that just like a It was fairly rhetorical, but if you understand, right? Yeah. Well, a portion of the Wood Creek sign was stolen. CJ signs have been vandalized and stolen. Uh people used to steal the road signs around here pretty often. I don't think they live here anymore, though. Um somebody vandalized the porta potty. Somebody bled all over the gazebo. Somebody uh oh somebody flipped the port

flipped the porta potty one time. So there have been a significant amount of incidences um and we would guarantee that the camera would be pointed at all those instances. No, we can't. And like I said, this was a council idea that staff brought back for us because we asked them to. So it's okay to no longer support it or to support it, but um this was at our direction. I can make a motion. Miss B. Are we ready? Mhm. Yes. I make a motion to approve resolution 2026. Oh, we're not on that. Oh, wait. No, I can't see. I don't have my glasses.

Sorry. We're just So, we already have a motion which was to approve the installation of the security camera um not to exceed $6,000 per the quote. So, if you have an amendment to that, that would be relevant. No. Um, if that motion is good enough for you, yes. Uh, I'd make a motion to approve purchase and installation. It's already done. Chris Christa. Oh, that was before. That's how we got discussing. So, if there's no further comment, I guess it's late. I'm sorry.

Okay. It is getting late. We're not going to make it. Um maybe you got nine minutes. So, uh are you ready to vote? Okay. Yes. All in favor of the purchase and installation of security cameras on city owned park properties not to exceed $6,000 per the quote provided. Raise your hands and say I. I. Three I raise your hand and say nay. If you do not support motion carries. Cameras will be installed. All right. So, if I'm from the back side of the camera, I can shoot them out of sky. That is on public record. Yes, we'll be coming after this.

For a little bit of humor, I didn't think you were saying shoot at first. And given some of the things that have happened to our portaotties, I was like, "Oh my god, do not do that." Okay, so uh item number 11. This is um Do you need a break now? Yeah. Okay. We'll take a minute recess. 8 minute recess. Come back at 900 p.m. I think I need some coffee.

We'll bring this meeting back into session at 900 p.m. after a brief recess and take up item 11. This is uh about approving the purchase and installation of now press play audio and visual enhancement equip equipment for city hall. Rosco, whoever you are, this guy. I move that council approve the purchase and installation by the contract vendor now. Press play of audio equipment upgrades at city hall not to exceed $6,000.

I second. Um, so to kind of introduce this amendment, it's yours. Do you want to do it? Yeah, go for it.

Well, no, no, I was just going to say we've been actually working on this now for a couple of years. Um, we had the microphones all set up, had everything, you know, looking good but not working well. Um, we went also and upgraded our our Civic Plus software um to something called Civic Media, which allows for things like this Zoom to be immediately accessible over the over YouTube rather than having to get Tabby to send a link if you can't make it. So, all you have to do is go to the website, click the link, and and you can join the meeting. Um, so we made all those decisions, but we didn't have the gear here to do it. So, we needed a an encoder, which is a a a system that enabled the the um signal here to go to go out there and to work within the civic media platform we purchased. Um, so we had all these pieces together, but you know, without the final deal here, we just couldn't make it happen. Um, now press play um or the the audio engineers or the AD group that um has helped with Wimberly with the same Wimberly city with the same system basically. So they've got experience in doing it. So sort of cut through the red tape and got to the the main things that were needed. So, in order to complete the great things that we've done with, you know, camera placements and Zoom and you notice that, you know, all this stuff is going to be back in here. So, we'll just have our microphones and we'll be good to go. We'll finally have it fixed, have it finished. So, that's u that's in a nutshell what we're going

through. The part I like the most is that there'll be two televisions. One for council to be viewing and one for the citizens to be viewing because if you noticed earlier today we had even the citizen having to turn there talking to us and we can look at it and look at his presentation and the public can see it. We can also track the agenda in place. So all of these attachments could be visually thrown up on a screen. the Texas pledge of allegation and stuff. Today I needed the one for the flag.

We can also have this on there instead of that. You can visualize or do there's just a lot though. If you if you go if you go to Wimberly or you know just about other cities even our size um they are able to do a little bit more. So we're just going to bring it up to to that that speed. The the main component being that encoder which will allow us to safely live post our links again to avoid what happened before. Okay. I can't you can't don't think about it. You're currently

I was just Can you just explain then what the encoder is because that's the most expensive so hard you go for it.

Well, okay. So So right now, you know, for for us to, you know, just sort of put things up on Zoom, right? It's it's not that hard, but then staff um staff has to go and do additional work to get it and then be able to put it up on our website and onto YouTube. So, the encoder um is a is a direct connection basically to the civic um media um software platform that we'll be using. Um I mean we have it, we just haven't used it. So, so it's basically our gives us the ability to plug directly into that and feed the civic media um platform so that we can make this available easier to their citizens and also it makes it a lot easier for staff so they're not going to have to go through all the it goes directly I mean basically you you you kind of just if I understand it right you just kind of put just how does this help the person at home what do they because they don't have to request the link in advance. It can be a live because the encoder helps protect against hacking like what happened to us.

Okay. And it also allows staff to just say okay and we want to post it to the website you know as you know evidence of the view. It'll it'll upload while we're doing it. It's there and so the resident can go watch in live, you know, live streaming or they can come back and watch it later, pick up where they left off. So, it's just it's the equipment needed just to make all the pieces that we've tried to put together work with Civics Plus. And then there's also the smaller video. Um,

you can do some video editing. You can you can go in and say okay well oh you want to jump to item number four key and it I mean you can do that I think we take baby steps um but that is that is something that allowed us to do where we have the time stamp on it

the most important component is preventing people from being able to hack into our feed and upload videos into our meetings during our meetings We just it's a more professional presentation overall with the microphones and the videos. We've got the cameras down and then the like council member Grimmer was saying we have multiple screens of which to present and we don't have the audience turned around looking at the presentation that we're we're making do with what we have. This will put the finish and touching on it

and it's for audio visual equipment. The visual equipment for the most part is kind of like like our add-on. So if it hopefully you approve it all, but if not, we'll still be buying the TV and things like that just because we do have the money in the budget and it's under those requirements. But we'd like to for council to approve the entire package for the 6,000 and that covers audio and visual upgrades. Makes sense. Also, I don't know if you noticed, but we have two cameras now. We can videotape everything in the room and they're installed in the walls. So, no more cables in the floor. There's no more crazy things to run over.

No speed bumps between us and the kitchen. So, we're upgrading slowly. I tell you, we've been working on this for a long time. And it'll provide for a mic at the podium, too. because one of the problems we struggle with is whenever residents are speaking, the recordings don't always catch that very well. So, this will be better at catching like everything going on. And can I can I just real quick I'd like to just personally thank Jim um because he's been crawling around his hands and knees and in the attic and and everything else, you know, trying to make this room

Yeah. more professional, you know, more suitable for the August body that that sits here. But anyway, Jim, you've been been a great you do a great job of everything, but but I know how hard you work on this and and you really got your your fingernails dirty. So, thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. Wow. Should have seen us pulling cable through this wall over here. I know. I tripped over one. So, All right. Do we have any more discussion on this item tonight this evening? Wow. And we have the motion. I'm trying to We already have the motion. I made the I know

it's late. Don't worry. I I don't know. I should have stayed at home. All in favor of the motion to approve the purchase and installation of the contract vendor down press play proposal of audiovisisual equipment upgrades at city hall not to exceed $6,000. All in favor of your hands say I. I. I. All eyes takes it. Now this next item is a bit of cleanup business because we have to say where we're going to pay for these things.

Yeah. The proposal on hand for item 12 is that we use funds in the capital improvement budget line item that we previously designated for a digital sign which we know we won't be using for that and we move and we designate them for these digital upgrades. The reason a budget amendment is needed is because when we published the budget for the public, we said we were going to spend $50,000 on a digital sign possibly. So now to kind of clean that up formally, we have this a budget amendment that also notifies the public that we move the funds to this other. So, this item is necessary at this point in time to accomplish 10 and 11 or I'll have to bring back another item designating where we're going to pay for them from. And we'll still we'll need a new budget amendment. This is something that staff and I worked on to accomplish this goal and the least impact possible for the city. So, do y'all have a motion on this? That's me. I move to approve resolution 2026-04-08-01 budget amendment moving $12,000 from capital improvement budget line item 70-24-726 digital sign to line item 70-24-730 digital

second member Richardson motion Christian may be a Second uh motion was as read at the packet. Do you have any questions? I kind of gave the back story on this resolution but essentially just formally backs item 101 now with a funding disposal in location. So just for Oops, I almost for just for giggles. I amend that we remove $6,000 and all references to public cameras from this resolution. Second,

you're being surveiled in to remove cameras and $6,000 in expenditure. Pretty twisty. Any more discussion on the amendment? All in favor of the amendment, raise your hand and say I. I. Two eyes. All not in favor of the amendment. Nay. Three nays. Amendment fails. Spice successful.

Uh any discussion on the resolution for the budget amendment backing these expenditures. All right. All in favor raise your hand say I. I. I. I.

Five eyes have it. One left. All right. Item number 13. Uh this was uh from a mistake on my part from the last meeting. I had a typo and so we couldn't take the item up in the last meeting. So essentially hopefully I don't have to represent all this but if I could get a motion for this I would appreciate it. Item 13 about the BFW expenditures for 4th of July. Council member Richardson. I move to increase expenditures for fireworks for the 4th of July 2026 event at the BFW not to exceed $5,000 in total from budget line item 10-10-5313 other operating expenses in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States.

I second motion made by council member Richardson, seconded by council member Gerbert. Any questions on this item? Yes, ma'am. This is an increase, right? Up to 5,000 from 4,000. Okay. So, it was 4,000. We're just increasing it by 25. Not to exceed five, not by five. 25. Yeah. And it is a since it is specifically for the 250, it's not a it's always going to come back to us.

Yes. And the backstory because you were after that meeting is essentially uh the cost of fireworks has gone up astronomically. So all right, all in favor of approving the increase in expenditure up to $5,000, please raise your hand and say I. I. All eyes takes it. Item number 14. This is about the neighborto neighbor program. I will entertain a motion. Take this.

Okay. Yeah. Uh I move that we approve a neighbor to neighborhood phase one uh in an effort to solicit support of potential neighborhood ambassadors for three 33 district neighborhood blocks. three information three information training gatherings of ambassadors in April to May of this year with an allocation of $300 from account 105304 meeting expenses uh to purchase leading fresh refreshments supplies and printing of packet materials for ambassadors.

A second motion made by Council Member Bailey, seconded by Mayor Cton Rasco. Um I'll add an introduction, either of you.

We can speak to it. Um I um I've been working on this for five years. Um, I brought the I brought a suggestion to Mayor Whitehead after Snow McGinnon that having a way for us to more formally reach out to our neighbors and see who needs help, you know, in times of need would be smart. It was um, it was turned over to another council member. Um, it actually got off to a a you know, pretty good start. There were a lot of people that signed up to to help out to be ambassadors. um COVID hit among other things and um and it just sort of languish um what it two years ago.

It was June of last year when we were five.

June of last year. Yeah. Council member Richardson and Council Member Bailey um worked on subcommittee and did a ton of work on um when I came back on the council um council member Richardson graciously um stepped off the subcommittee so that I could join and and you know try to get this thing done. So um what we did was we changed the we changed the thought from just reaching out to everybody in town and saying hey be a neighbor right to okay let's let's go in phases let's let's get the ambassadors

um recruited to find and and trained first and then instead of having and the other thing was you know it would be sort of a staff issue to keep all the data and everything And that was one of the sticking points um the first go around is that you know people didn't want to give all that data to the city but they would probably give that information to a neighbor. So the ambassadors become the focal point of their neighbors information.

Um but then the city you know works with the ambassadors. you know if they if we need to get something out to everybody um then we would go to the ambassadors and say share this with your share this with your blog. So having good ambassadors is the most important thing. If we don't get good ambassadors we can't go poorly with program. So but if we do if this works and we get we get you know a good group of people and and council member Bailey and Councilman Richardson did a lot of research and put some names down. She's got she's got 33

I allocated 33 different little neighborhoods mostly based on geographical location. What I am finding out and it's kind of a good thing there are some already established communities. Now what I tried to keep okay was um you know between 25 and 35. So, some of these established are going to be bigger, but um this has been really important to me uh in that I hope this is we won't be interfering with neighborhoods, but I hope we can avoid some of the tragedies we've had. And you know, being one of the the senior people, a lot of people you see kids, you see those families out, a lot of seniors are quietly stating themselves, they're proud, they don't really want to ask for help. And so I think this will be kind of a wedge where they can communicate with their ambassador. And we're here to kind of help get people started and have a system. And like Jim had said uh too, we can use this like a chance to distribute city material when we have it available. Give people then give it to the ambassador but know what's there or do a welcome basket for a new family. Um there's quite a little research what you might I didn't really know but families uh people 80 and over are more and more tending to live alone. In fact they say the number is going to go from 4.5

million to 10 million. So, we have a lot of people that will be aging, but they're not moving away and they're not going to nursing homes. And so, this will be a good way of kind of monitoring and knowing what to do to help without interfering, but I think it's a great program that will do some good. So, just a reminder specifically what council is considering tonight is an approval of an expenditure of $300 for this first series of umformational trainings and gatherings to try to uh nail down these block ambassadors. Do you have any other comments or questions about that particular concept?

All right. All in favor say I. I. I. All I passed. Thank you. We have an executive session to enter at this time. Different. Okay. We'll be entering executive session at 9:21. A few things incl Oh my gosh. I almost looked at it again. We have an executive session under Texas government code 551.0. 071 consultation with legal counsel related to county water and wastewater interlocal agreements or ILA

uh executive session at 9:39. No action was taken. We'll move into council considerations for future business. Do you all have any future business you'd like to bring up? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What? Um, we did send in just preliminary work on from the subcommittee that was asked to look at the digital sign plan and come back with alternatives. So, want to bring that back to council. Awesome. Anyone else? Is there a second?

Oh, yeah. I think No, because that one's a old item. The second time I think we've been doing that. I'm just cur.

No, that's the garage sale. That's like the garage sale. I keep getting very confused with them because they're so the other. It really throws me off. The one you do online and when you do in person I thought is that in first or the whole pickup you can do it online. That's what I thought. Yeah. Yeah. It's a lot. If you come in and fill it out, we have to go and and put you in online no matter what. So, gotcha. Thank you. It's under forms. Okay.

Um, I would like to bring forth a beautiful Wimberly boot presentation for Wood Creek for consideration. Anyone like to second that? I second that. Thank you.

Anything about beautiful Wimberly? Anything? Yeah, we don't discuss that. It's just you introduce it. She's talking about emotions.

I love it. All right. Any other council considerations for future business? No, everyone's closing their computers. All right. Announcement portion of the night. April 11th, 2026 in the citywide garage. So that's this Saturday. Obviously, it might get rained out. We don't know. We'll address that at the time. Uh, signups end tomorrow after that. April 15, 2026 is the bolt trash pickup. Sign up closes April 13. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Um, and that is next Monday. Music in the Park May 1st featuring Maxwell Pearl um will occur and we will have food from Schoolyard Dogs and baked goods from This will be the last of the series, so I hope you all can make it if you haven't made one. Uh, we also still need volunteers for all advisory bodies. We have three spots open on trees and parks, one spot on the planning and zoning commission and one spot on the community relations committee. Do I have a motion to adjurnn?

Is that