The Boerne City Council conducted its third of four bond meetings Tuesday, laying out which road projects may appear on a November bond election.
City councilmembers were shown five projects from the city’s master plan totaling $43 million. While several of them noted all the projects identified were important, improvements to Adler Road and adding turn lanes to existing intersections in the city sat high on the priority list.
“Adler Road is one of our roads that is in such bad repair that we have to completely tear it out and basically rebuild it back,” Direc tor of Development Services Jeff Carroll said. “So today its mostly a two-lane road. Just for economies of scale, if we’re going to completely tear out a road and put it back, it makes sense to kind of come back with a three-lane road with a two-way left turn.”
The $13.5 million project proposed by Carroll to council members would involve tearing out the existing pavement and widening the relief route to include center turning lane. Carroll said Adler Road currently has a Pavement Condition Index of 22 out of 100, marking it as one of the city’s worst roads.
On average, Carroll said city roads sit at a grade of about 70, with the other collector roads in town averaging a grade of 74 on the index.
The councilmembers were also supportive of a $7 million project to reconstruct several streets around the city and to add turning lanes at existing intersections, alleviating bottlenecked crossings. West Blanco Road, West Kronkosky Street, Parkway Drive and Shooting Club Road were all identified as reconstruction targets in the project presentation.
“In terms of quality of life, the biggest bang for your buck is coming right here on this one,” District 5 Councilmember Joe Macaluso said “The $7 million for immediate improvement and turning lanes. These streets are terrible. Sidewalks are also an amenity for quietly of life. So right there, you got $8 million basically. … I don’t see anything here that’s minor in terms of the city.”
Carroll said Kronkosky Street has the lowest PCI grade of any road in the city, with a grade of 5 out of 100, making it the “worst street in town.”
The intersection of Adler Road, Main Street and School Street, which has come up numerous times during the countywide transportation committee as an ideal spot for a roundabout, was presented as a $7 million project. However, information from Carroll seemed to leave the dangerous and troublesome intersection rolling toward a different fate.
District 3 Councilmember Quinten Scott said the Texas Department of Transportation was not interested in getting involved with a roundabout at the three-way intersection and questioned whether that opinion had changed at all. He questioned whether the city would be on the hook to handle the project on its own if TxDOT wasn’t on board.
“We’ve gone and looked at other schematics and ways we can maybe not touch the gas station property, and that would be looking at other properties on the north side of the intersection,” Carroll said. “They basically said we like the idea, but we’re scared to touch the gas station.”
Further, Carroll said TxDOT also expressed concern about the first roundabout in Boerne being a two-lane roundabout, which is the schematic the transportation committee has favored.
“So, we need to build a practice roundabout first,” Scott said with a twinge of humor. Carroll agreed.
A $14.5 million project was presented to the council that would widen Old San Antonio Road between Cascade Caverns and Herff roads, adding a two-way left turn lane in the center. However, this project seemed sink to the bottom of the council’s priority list as TxDOT has approved funding for improvements to Cascade Caverns Road sometime in the next three years. Several councilmembers agreed the Old San Antonio Road improvements should be reconsidered once the TxDOT project is underway.
A $620,000 sidewalk project garnered little excitement or enthusiasm among councilmembers, and the general consensus was the sidewalk projects could be completed as road improvements were made.
Driving home the guiding principles in the bond process for the third time, Boerne Assistant City Manager Kristy Stark said all bond project recommendations are intended to implement the city’s master plan, increase public safety, improve mobility and quality of life and achieve council and community input.
As the bond tally continues to grow, the end of the council’s bond talks Tuesday turned to dollars and how the city was going to pay for this growing sum.
“So the citizens in my view, at least certainly then, the vast majority overwhelmingly approved a bond issue,” Macaluso said, referencing the 2007 Quality of Life Bond approved by Boerne residents and noting the council at the time implemented only two cents of the 6-cent tax increase tied to the bond. “So for me, four cents is on the table. I’m just speaking from my point of view because there’s no way you can begin to touch any of these projects, much less the ones that you foreshadowed this with from parks and lands and facilities with some $10 million bond issue.”
Scott expressed concern about a big property tax jump when property values in Boerne continue to rise, using the Boerne Independent School District’s May bond election as an example. BISD is expected to have a $165 million bond on the May ballot, and school officials are saying the bond won’t impact property tax rates.
“With all due respect to previous councils and managements, I think that’s a failure on admin or council,” Scott said in response to Macaluso’s comment on the city’s 2007 bond. “I mean, that was a voter-approved bond that kind of wasn’t executed, and I think it’s important that as we plan, that we execute. You know, it’s not just that we go out and get the money approved, we have to complete the project. We have to do the work.”
A $10 million bond is projected to raise property taxes on the average home $95, a $30 million bond would increase those taxes $285 and a $50 million bond could raise property taxes on the average home $475.
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