Members of the Boerne City Council prioritized public safety during its second bond issuance meeting, covering facilities, to whittle down projects for a November bond election.
The meeting last week addressed public facilities in Boerne and was the second meeting of four scheduled to address the major projects in the city’s 10-year plan. Assistant City Manager Danny Zincke reminded the council and audience of the city’s four major guiding principles in considering bond projects: Implementing the city’s master plan, increasing public safety, improving mobility and quality of life and achieving council and community input.
“We’re dealing with a lot of needs that have been planned for a long time, but we haven’t taken action on it,” Mayor Tim Handren said. “When we get down to that fourth meeting, which may take more than one meeting, what do we want to put out there, right? And which projects can we try to shoehorn into a budget that we think is palatable.”
Zincke kicked off the presentation noting five facilities projects on the city’s 10-year plan which totaled $17.5 million, but he said several of the projects were priced out a decade ago and would certainly cost more in today’s “volatile market.”
Second fire station
A second fire station seemed to have the greatest support among councilmembers. Zincke estimated a new fire station would cost roughly $7.6 million.
Two plots of land were identified toward the city’s southern and eastern limits, including public lands in the Regent Park and Esperanza neighborhoods.
District 3 Councilmember Quinten Scott asked whether land in Esperanza would need to be annexed before a fire station could be built, but Zincke and City Manager Ben Thatcher both said the facility could be built outside the city limits.
District 2 Councilmember Nina Woolard recalled Esperanza was meant to put money toward a fire station as part of the development agreement. Zincke confirmed the subdivision is set to give $1.5 million toward a station, but he said that isn’t triggered until 1,200 building permits had been approved, and the development has currently put in 300-400 permits.
District 5 Councilmember Joseph Macaluso noted that public safety is the city’s primary job, adding that as the city grows, demand on the service with one fire station may create some issues.
Animal facility An expansion of the
An expansion of the 2,300-square-foot animal care services facility was estimated to cost about $2.4 million, but this was one of the projects Zincke said had an outdated price estimate. Currently, the building and the 900-square-foot storage facility sit on half an acre at 330 S. Esser Road.
“We need a new facility, period” Macaluso said. “That one is grossly out of date and overcrowded.”
While Zincke said there were alternative options to expanding the animal care services facility without building out, Woolard questioned whether it made sense to shift services to the county.
“There are other options for us to discuss, and I think it’s an important point to make as we’re determining whether this is priority or not,” Zincke said. “We may be able to build a smaller facility if we contract some of those services either with the county or with another partner. We’ve done that in several cities that I’ve worked with to reduce that need for an actual facility that would hold a shelter.”
Woolard questioned whether the county had the space for all of Boerne’s animals.
Parking garage The parking garage long sought after by residents and visitors alike seems to have been pushed to the wayside as several city councilmembers pointed out there was little to no room in downtown Boerne. Building a parking garage outside of downtown would warrant some form of hyper-localized, public transportation, something Woolard said was tried and failed.
“For those of us who have been here for very long, you know this is constantly brought up as a need for downtown parking,” Zincke said. “There have been several different options that have been looked at. I will emphasize the point here at the top which is multiple partners will be needed to accomplish this.”
Zincke said property owned by both Kendall County and the Boerne Independent School District has been considered, saying a parking garage likely would require partnering with one of the local municipalities.
“It’s going to be very difficult to put a parking lot in the center of downtown Boerne,” Macaluso said. “So, you’re talking about something more at one end or the other. I’ve raised the question: ‘Why don’t we consider as some part of this some kind of shuttle bus just on Main Street?’ So if a visitor comes to park at the far end, wherever this facility is, they can get to Cibolo [and] they can get to River Road.”
Woolard said a small-scale public transportation system was attempted by previous councils but failed because of a lack of users.
Zincke said the $2.5 million estimate tied to the project omitted the purchase of any land and depended heavily on the involvement of another local municipality.
“I can tell you that those spots will fill up,” District 4’s Bryce Boddie said. “Wherever you build it, it’s going to fill up. Every weekend now, no matter what. Market Days or not, downtown is packed.”
Street and fleet
Council members also discussed expanding and improving the street and fleet department building on Esser Road. Zincke said the departments are outgrowing the bare-bones building, and he said the facility’s simple build was suitable when it sat on the outskirts of town. Now, the building is in the middle of Boerne and an eyesore.
Zincke estimated expanding the footprint of the building and rebuilding would cost about $17.4 million if the square footage was doubled. Assistant City Manager Kristy Stark said this estimate included the cost of purchasing new land at $8 per square foot. However, Handren said the Boerne ISD bond set for the May ballot includes expansion of the school district’s facilities, which he said could create an opportunity for the city.
Express library
Finally, the council discussed a $1.6 million project with the Patrick Heath Public Library for an “express library,” where freestanding, unmanned machines could dispense books or other resources to residents.
Macaluso asked what the advantage or increased access would be compared to the library’s online services.
“I think when we originally talked about this idea, it was so we could provide services to the underserved portion,” library Director Kelly Skovbjerg said. “What we see in the library is we see people who want the resources – they might also want them digital, there’s a whole segment of the population that just wants digital resources ¬– but we also want to make sure that we’re listening to the needs of the people who say, ‘We really want meeting spaces.’”
While Boddie said the library project sounded really cool, the project seemed to fall low on the priority list of the rest of the councilmembers.
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