As we enter 2022, we have a new planning process for the city of Boerne. While our budget cycle is from October through September, we start planning for the next cycle in January of each year.
Commensurate with our new approach to long-term planning, the Boerne City Council held a workshop in January to talk about several very important topics which are noteworthy to discuss, all in regards to the aging of our city.
First on our list was a discussion about stormwater planning that is the culmination of several months of work, led by Jeff Carroll, director of Development Services. Boerne has not taken a comprehensive look at stormwater drainage management since 2002.
The purpose of this study was to find solutions for drainage issues that have plagued our city for a long time and prioritize projects that will correct those issues. Recall that in 2019 we put in place ordinances to protect waterways in Boerne, and over the past several years, floodplain maps have been revised based on historical experience.
A couple of key takeaways for me were the number of structures that are presently in flood prone areas, based on 10 500-year flood events. Just over 280 structures are in the 10-year flood plain and almost 600 structures are in the 500-year flood plain.
Good news from the study is that there are solutions that can help mitigate the risk of flood for some of those structures, but not all. Also, several of the projects identified solve some of the usual road flooding challenge that have existed for a very long time. Of course, these projects come at a cost, and the early estimates for a subset of these projects exceed $20 million.
A second topic we discussed at the workshop was wastewater treatment plants. As you probably know, Boerne has two wastewater treatment plants. One is relatively new on Old San Antonio Road and the other is original on Esser Road.
Mike Mann, director of utilities, gave a great overview of the history of these plants and their capacity. More importantly, the older plant (decades old) has done a fine job as it was designed, but it was not designed with the current environmental quality requirements, as defined by the TCEQ (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality).
That plant is authorized to operate as is through 2024, and at that time we will have to consider how to manage this very old plant. There are options, like routing all that wastewater to the new plant or upgrading the old plant to current standards.
However, both of those solutions are very expensive. We must plan now for our future requirements and we’ll have to determine how to pay for this.
A third topic we covered was the quality of our existing road system within Boerne. For engineering nerds like me, this was an educational discussion.
Over the past two years, our city staff has “scored” all the roads within Boerne on a scale of 0-100, with 100 being the best. In that assessment, it points out that for most of our streets, roughly 80 percent of the roads are in fair to good condition. Major thoroughfares are not as good as local streets with the cause being all the large trucks that use the major thoroughfares.
The good news about this discussion is that early maintenance is the key to the longevity of our existing road systems. Heretofore, the city budgeted less than 2 percent of its budget to road maintenance, or roughly $500,000. By doubling that to just over $1 million per year, we would have an adequate budget for long-range maintenance of our roads. Our city staff has really done an amazing job with such a small budget over time.
For the last topic at our retreat, Ben Thatcher, Boerne city manager, presented a modified summary of several key areas that affect our overall quality of life in Boerne. The areas referenced all come from our 10-year master plan, and just a handful of the projects in there add up to over $70 million in costs.
Again, there are many items that need attention, whether aging infrastructure, improved streets and sidewalks, public safety or parks and open spaces to name a few. Putting the ideas in a document is the easy part. Prioritizing and paying for them is the more challenging part.
Boerne has not considered a quality-of-life bond since the last one in 2007. At that time, the voters elected for a $21-plus million bond package that had the potential to raise taxes by up to 6 cents. The good news is that all those projects were completed, and taxes were not raised. That’s because property values increased enough to cover the costs.
At the conclusion of the workshop, there was unanimous support by the city council to move forward with a quality-of-life bond consideration for the future good of Boerne. What that means is we will now go through the process of identifying very specific projects that make the most sense over the coming few years for our collective future. We will also be engaging Boerne residents for additional feedback and perspective.
Ultimately, we hope to put a plan together over the coming months so that we can hold a bond election in November of this year.
My hope is that we can all get more educated on which priorities make the most sense for all of us. Boerne has more than doubled in size since the last bond election, and there are numerous needs that we must address.
The entire council is energized to get that list pared down to something that is rational and great for our city. Ultimately, it will be up to the residents of Boerne to vote on the projects and our future, and I look forward to sharing much more about this over the coming months.
Bis zum nächsten mal (until next time).
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