$13 million Elder Hill Rdproject / Click on map to enlarge
Public input is being sought through September 30th. The CAMPO Board will make its decision in early October
Note: CAMPO and Hays County officials are proposing more than $140 million in road improvements in the county, spread over more than 50 projects. Some have strong community support and others are raising questions about funding sources, affordability, justification, debt concerns as well as complaints from citizens that nobody seems to know any of the background and details. Among the more expensive projects are: Loop 82 (Aquarena Springs Dr in San Marcos - $39.7 million; RR 12 Parkway right-of-way acquisition - $6.7 million; Old Bastrop Hwy (CR 266) - $6.8 million; and Hunter Rd - $3.5 million.
The CAMPO survey fortunately provides some explanation, along with a comment box for each of the proposed projects. Go to this link and click on the 'Hays County only' box. Click on the individual project links to download a very basic description and a diagram. You can vote "Support," "Do Not Support" or "Neutral." Meanwhile contact your county commissioner or County Judge Bert Cobb, bert.cobb@co.hays.tx.us, 512.393.2205, for more information. This is your county and your money. Please take the time to get informed and participate in the survey.
Full address link to survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CAMPOcallforprojects. Send an email to CAMPO at campo@campotexas.org
Also send your comments and questions to Wimberley Mayor Bob Flocke at rflocke@austin.rr.com or click on the "comments" at the bottom of the story
By Bob Flocke
Mayor of Wimberley
Guest Commentary
A significant step in Wimberley's efforts to increase awareness about the need for funding to construct sidewalks along FM 2325 has been taken. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has submitted a funding application to the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO) in an attempt to secure funding for the Wimberley sidewalk project.CAMPO is charged with selecting projects to receive funding in the region under Federal Highway Administration Surface Transportation Program Metropolitan Mobility (STP MM). TxDOT’s funding application seeks $2,151,500 in funding to install 6 foot sidewalks with curb and gutter along the south side of FM 2325 from Carney Lane to Ranch Road 12.
Last night, several of us attended the CAMPO Transportation Policy Board’s public hearing in Austin, and I testified in support of the sidewalk project and two other Wimberley projects (improvements to the RM 12/Old Kyle Road intersection and completion of the hike and bike trail from the RM 12/Winters Mill Parkway intersection to Joe Wimberley Blvd.)
Public input is currently being sought on the various transportation projects under consideration for funding, including the Wimberley sidewalk application, and public input is much more significant than mayor input.
This is an excellent opportunity to voice your support for the FM 2325 sidewalk project to those most likely to fund such a project.
It is important to note that Wimberley’s sidewalk project was not ranked high in CAMPO’s initial project ranking, thus making the need for a show of public support for the project even more important. Please take time to let your feelings be known to the CAMPO Board about the need to fund the project that will resolve critical safety issues in our community.
Public input is being sought through September 30th. The CAMPO Board will make its decision in early October.
Please note that this is a starting point in the effort to find the funding needed to construct the sidewalks on FM 2325. If the project doesn’t receive funding in this current CAMPO funding cycle, TxDOT’s application has at least helped plant the seed for possible funding in the future.
10 comments:
As a member of the CAMPO Executive Committee, Commissioner Conley identified all of the Hays County projects on the list.
De facto county judge Conley and elected County Judge Bert both know exactly which road projects are for their special interests and which are for the public interest.
Ask them how each of these projects made it to the CAMPO list.
From the Austin-American Statesman:
"The highway(SH 45),as currently envisioned on Central Texas' long-range transportation plan, would be a four-lane divided tollway built and operated by the Texas Department of Transportation. TxDOT, under this scenario, would have to transfer back to Travis and Hays counties right of way bought by the two counties.
TxDOT Austin district engineer Carlos Lopez, who said he supports building Texas 45 Southwest in some form, did not foresee TxDOT standing in the way of a local effort to build a more modest version."
Now it's OK with TxDOT for Hays and Travis Counties, "...to build a more modest version," of SH 45, but throughout the second Hays County road bond campaign (the first one failed), Commissioners Barton and Conley insisted that a, "more modest version" of FM 1626 was not possible, even though Hays County taxpayers were financing the US 290 version of FM 1626.
Why would anyone today believe Conley, or Barton for that matter? They say what their special interests tell them to say---even when taxpayers foot the bill.
Obviously the Hays County commissioners have their crony projects in this list of CAMPO funding projects.
It is very simple.
Vote AGAINST funding the big roads coming into and out of Wimberley that are really for tax funded special interest developments.
Vote FOR the pedestrian and bicycle improvements that really do help the safety and MOBILITY flexibility of the average Hays County citizens.
The proposed sidewalk with curbs and gutters along 2325 from Carney Lane to Woodcreek Drive is a big mistake! The expected light volume of use of that sidewalk does not justify the expense regardless of who's paying for it. This is just another boondoggle supported by the City of Wimberley Mayor and City Council when they should be addressing their sewer problems at the square. The amount of brush and tree clearing along the fence line of Eagle Rock will be disastrous to the peace and quite of that little community. There will be loss of privacy and increased road noise as well.
This is a bad idea with few if any benefits for the local folks. Someone forgot that hardly any High School students walk to and from school anyway.
Eagle Rock my grandson and his friends walk to and from school daily along 2325. We need to encourage more people to walk and maybe we would not be so fat!
It is easier to encourage exercise when people have a safe place to walk. Instead of saying no one walks we should be saying walk more.
The brush needs to be cleared along 2325 it is an eyesore.
I have voted in the survey and voted FOR all sidewalks, bicycle lanes and road shoulders. I agree we should support easier pathways for walkers and bicyclists and encourage it for everyone. The rest of the projects I am suspicious of and voted against, not knowing if their purpose is for more development or not. I am amazed at all the money that is available. I thought the government was broke. Where is it all coming from?
"I thought the government was broke. Where is it all coming from?"
It is being borrowed, that is what Bonds are all about. The people that voted for the road Bonds a few years back are responsible for this increase in debt. Remember, they said there would be no increase in taxes. This is the big lie more commonly told by insatiable School Districts when they pull off this type of scam,,,we fall for it by the thousands. Bonds = Debt, get it?
This Sept.27 newsletter from Mayor Flocke is big on news about sidewalks, but apparently he didn't tell Wimberley citizens that the mayor/council have come to an agreement with Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority for the City of Wimberley to buy the wastewater plant now operated by GBRA for Deer Creek Nursing Center (the only customer of the WTP). GBRA no longer wants to manage the WTP, and City of W will outsource the WTP management, just as the City of Dripping Springs does with its WTP.
"Eventually," said a press release,"plans are to move forward and expand city sewer facilities and service in Wimberley." One can hope that the Square will be first on the to-do list.
Big deal! So now the "City" of Wimberley owns a wastewater treatment plant. The questions are:
1. How much did it cost, and how will the City pay GBRA for it?
2. How much will it cost, per year,
to pay outsiders to opertate the WWTP?
3. When will the City begin to
expand sewer service to parts of the city? How will THAT undertaking be paid for?
4. How soon (months? years?) will it be before the pollution from the Square is halted?
I own a property in Woodcreek North.
I would like to have that property get out of the AquaTexas rate screwing and move it over to the new Wimberley waste water treatment plant.
How much do I need to pay the Council members to get it done? Everyone has a price.
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