What community need is served by this road being built today? Does that need, if any, justify an additional $6 million in debt spending?
Note: If you haven't contacted your county commissioner or county judge in a while just to check in and see how things are going, this might be a good time. Tuesday's April 12 commissioners court meeting is chock full of potentially big ticket spending items and other very interesting matters. We've got a lot more information to share in later updates but we figure the court ought to be doing some of its own honest explaining for a change out from behind their big desks and official agendas.
County Judge Bert Cobb bert.cobb@co.hays.tx.us (512) 393-2205
Commissioner Debbie Ingalsbe (Pct.1) debbiei@co.hays.tx.us (512) 393-2243
Commissioner Mark Jones(Pct 2) mark.jones@co.hays.tx.us (512) 262-2091
Commissioner Will Conley (Pct. 3) will.conley@co.hays.tx.us (512) 847-3159
Commissioner Ray Whisenant(Pct 4) ray.whisenant@co.hays.tx.us (512) 858-7268
From Sam Brannon
Hays Citizens' Budget Project
With over $100 million in road projects soon to begin, and with tens of millions in dollars in other new projects being discussed (new Pct. 2 building, jail, 911 dispatch consolidation, roads, LCRA water pipelines, and others), we taxpayers would be well-served to pay closer attention to the money being spent.
A growing number of Hays residents are joining our call for full-on Public Hearings on debt and spending at the county government, as well as whether it makes sense to move forward on all of the construction projects as they are currently designed and scheduled.
Re-Evaluating Road Projects – Old Bastrop Highway
Our common goals of mobility and safety are valid, but whether the current list of projects meets these goals in a manner that Hays County residents can afford in 2011 and 2012 is seriously challenged by many facts.
The Old Bastrop Highway project is on Tuesday’s agenda in Commissioners Court as a closed-door Executive Session for right-of-way acquisition. I’ll be speaking on this item in court, asking that Commissioner Ingalsbe pull this item from discussion.
The $6 million Bastrop Highway project is a 1.8 mile stretch of road in the southeastern most part of the county, connecting pretty much nothing to pretty much nothing.
Click on images to enlarge
Several months ago when I asked Commissioner Ingalsbe for the justification for improving this lightly-traveled stretch of road, she informed me that this road gets a lot of bicycle traffic. I’ve never seen that in my passes, but that’s not a very compelling argument for another $6 million in debt in any event. Even the "student safety" argument is entirely unsupported.
This road construction begins 1 mile south of the school and continues south in a very lightly populated area. San Marcos High School only has one bus route running in this tiny corner of the county, and traffic is sparse, even during the 4:10p-4:20p “rush hour.”
I and more than 90 others expect Public Hearings to take place before spending any money on this project.
We want to know: What community need is served by this road being built today? Does that need, if any, justify an additional $6 million in debt
11 comments:
This should be reconsidered a few years from now, but.... the real backdoor deal hasn't hit the fan yet.
This is nothing, wait until you get a look at the new district maps. Looks like one potential Comm. Court Candidate will have to wait until 2014 to run unless he moves.
I live in Woodcreek North and travel 2325 twice a day or more and the traffic is horrendous in the morning and afternoon. We need a traffic light at Jacobs well and 2325 along with widened roads. Also if you travel that road on the weekends there is a lot of bicycle traffic. I invite the writer to try to turn from Jacobs Well onto 2325 at 7:30am and again at 3 to 3:30pm. I have waited for 15 min some days before the traffic had let enough for me to turn left.
The county has told us that someone has to die in a traffic accident before we can have a traffic light. I pray to God that does not happen.
Marm, thank WISD for that little traffic fubu. Try driving toward Wimberley on 2325 when people are dropping their kids off. For that matter, try driving by any school in those time frames. It's not a function of the road, but a result of school locations.
The entrance/exit to the new elementary school appears to have been designed by a blind rabbit.
The School District led by its jock superintendent York made a monumental error in locating the new school. When the school opened they hadn’t even asked TxDot for a school zone at the location. It will be even worse when the new subdivision next door goes in with about 130 homes. The traffic however, is made much worse by the parents that don’t want their little spoiled cupcakes riding the School Bus. There should be a State law requiring the kids to ride the bus.
Anonymous @ 4/12/11 12:50pm, you can't be serious, a state law that requires kids ride the bus is a terrible idea, parents save the district money by driving them themselves.
Taxpayers will pay, one way or another. If 2325 is "improved" the taxpayer pays; if the school bus runs longer, the taxpayer pays.
Bottom line the design is *bleeping* poor. Location is one thing, but the design of the drive is another.
We are already paying for school busses that haul 4 or 5 kids back and forth, why not fill’em up? How much gasoline is consumed by the parents that want to spoil their kids? And think of all that CO2; Al Gore would have a cow. When I was a kid we walked to school, and they could today if there weren’t so many mommies driving the roads with their cell phones in their ear and kids jumping all over the inside of the car. Maybe the mommy units could spend their time more productively and pick up trash along the highway or something.
These WISD moms spend too much time texting each other about Obama's forged birth certificate. That's why we have traffic jams on FM 2325.
Agreed, the design of the school is an abomination and an example if why a school district should never be involved in the planning of anything technical. That side of the brains of educators is not fully evolved.
They spent over $14 million of our tax money and didn’t plan on the 55+ mph traffic on 2325; how absurd. We are lucky that nobody was killed during the first months that the school was open. Only after the opening, and at the demand of citizens and with the help of Commissioner Conley did the district even contact TxDOT to get a school zone placed there.
Superintendent York was asleep at the wheel and full of excuses. York blamed the traffic jams on the large and unexpected number of parents dropping off and picking up their kids rather than putting them on the bus. The parents complained their kids would be on the bus for about an hour to get there in the morning or when coming home. Some were just over protective.
School districts like to have their schools located on a highway so they can show off their “Taj Mahals” for bragging rights and competition (at our expense) with other districts. What ever happened to the old idea of having schools located in the middle of neighborhoods?
Most of our property tax money goes to the WISD or other district and we know almost nothing about how they work or don’t work. The public needs to get more involved in their school systyems. We hear all this talk about local control of schools and I can tell you it does not happen. Ask yourself, when did you last attend a school board meeting? Do you even know the names of the members or when thay meet? Local control is a myth.
Kill the Old Bastrop Highway project and you will have another 2325 type problem in a few years. Look at the planned developments in the area between Centerpoint and Francis Harris.
This project is good planning on the part of the County.
to 4/17 11:12p Anon...
I've seen no evidence to support your statement, and just saying it doesn't make it so.
We'll have a post here on the RoundUp that further discusses the issue. Stay tuned...
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