A Boerne bond issuance certainly will now appear on the November ballot as the city council formally called for the election during a special meeting Tuesday night. Parks and road improvements are being prioritized in the $36 million measures.
Less than a week before the deadline, the Boerne City Council formally called the election for the proposal, which will be broken down into two measures – or “buckets” – for Boerne residents to vote on. A $23 million road infrastructure measure would include a complete rehaul and widening of Adler Road and other general road and intersection improvements, and a $13 million parks measure would cover the cost of developing Northside Community Park along with more minor improvements to other city parks.
During the roughly yearlong process leading up to the election call, city staff presented about $70 million worth of projects for city councilmembers to consider and prioritize. Unsurprisingly, road improvements weighed heavy, and Assistant City Manager Kristy Stark said Adler Road and these other road improvements could almost bring the city’s pavement condition index to its target.
“I get an email daily almost about the condition of our roads,” District 2 Councilmember Nina Woolard said during an earlier bond discussion. “And you know the bottom line is we don’t have $10 million-plus laying around to address a lot of these road issues that we’re looking at. I agree with the $36 million because it does address the two things the public had said over and over and over again are important to our community. ...
“We’ll let the public decide. They can either vote yes or no, and if they’ve got two propositions here, they can decide which is more important or they may decide neither one of them. So, we can at least give it to the voters and the citizens and the taxpayers in the city of Boerne to decide what’s important to them.”
During the meeting Tuesday, Stark said the city’s PCI currently sits at 70, but the goal in Boerne is 80, which City Manager Ben Thatcher said is the standard most cities set. The roads projects, if voters elect to fund them, would bring the city’s pavement index to about 77, she said.
The improvement won’t be free, however, as the Adler Road rehaul is expected to cost about $14 million, and the other more general improvements are expected to cost $9 million. City officials said the Adler Road rehaul is not a simple repavement but a complete reconstruction and widening to allow for a center turn lane to be added.
During a meeting with The Star, city officials said the expansion of Adler was economical as it would need to be repaved if it wasn’t torn out and rebuilt. So, the most cost-effective solution is to completely rehaul the road and widen it at the same time to allow for increased traffic.
Currently, the road is one of very few east-to-west routes from Farm-to-Market 474, which turns into Herff Road that allow drivers to bypass Main Street or River Road. The road likely would see increased traffic if the measure to improve Northside Community Park passes, and traffic will increase down the road as the Kendall County commissioners are looking to build a justice center next to the soon-to-be-expanded county jail.
The Northside Community Park measure will include several improvements to the facility, which city officials said will include many park features residents have been asking the city to provide for years, possibly including a dog park, a pickleball court, an all-abilities play space, walking trails and a splash pad.
Now that the election officially has been called, early voting on the two bond measures will run from Oct. 24 to Nov. 4 with Election Day Nov. 8.
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