After several rounds of wish list reviews, the Boerne City Council has identified a roughly $50 million potential bond package after prioritizing projects earlier this week. One city council member sees the bonds as a more common solution to the city’s growing pains.
The city council met again Tuesday and somewhat succinctly and quickly identified the top projects to prioritize in its first bond issuance since 2007, where no tax rate increase was imposed. In its current state, the city is eyeing $9 million to finish Northside Community Park, $8 million for a second fire station with an express library, $14 million to improve Adler Road, $9 million to improve intersections and install turn lanes across the city, $4 million for park improvements and $6 million for land acquisitions.
“I think all these projects we’re going to talk about, frankly, are important because they’ve been ideated,” Mayor Tim Handren said early in the bond development process, summarizing the council’s sentiments. “They’ve been vetted with the public. I think they’re all important in one form or fashion. Now, it’s a relative importance. That’s going to be where it gets difficult. My belief is we’re putting this out there for voter approval, and ultimately that’s going to be it.”
Over the past couple months, the council was presented with roughly $90 million in projects from the city’s master plan that met what Boerne City Manager Ben Thatcher repeatedly identified as the staff’s four guiding principles: Implementing the city’s master plan, increasing public safety, improving mobility and quality of life and achieving council and community input.
Parks and recreation and streets and infrastructure projects made up “buckets,” or categories, for the council to organize projects. There will be separate propositions for voter input, but city staff still is working out how the projects will be categorized to meet requirements under state law. For example, voters could vote for or against parks projects separately from streets or infrastructure projects, compiling their own bond issuance wish list.
Public safety has been one of the guiding principles city councilmembers homed in on, and Councilmember Joe Macaluso sought to add a third fire station to the project list.
“Public safety is number one,” Macaluso said. “I personally think the way to approach this, in my own opinion, is that we build two fire stations. And we incorporate the express library and the police substations with those two fire stations. That would give you the biggest bang for your infrastructure buck. With the number of fires we have had lately, with the fact the drought is unpredictable in this area, with the expansion of both residential and commercial property in the area, I think that should be a priority.”
While nobody argued Macaluso’s point that a third fire station would be necessary in the city, some concern was raised over the operational costs to staff each fire station. Thatcher projected more than $1 million to fully staff two new fire stations.
Macaluso suggested the city consider bond propositions more frequently to address the infrastructure needed to meet the city’s growth demands, which could lead the city to mirroring the bond cycle the Boerne Independent School District is utilizing.
A $50 million bond package could call for up to an 8.5 cent tax rate increase, costing the average homeowner up to $24 more in property taxes a month or $288 more a year. However, Handren said the soaring property values across the state could lead to lower impacts if any at all.
The city council is expected to formalize a list of projects through June, with public outreach and call for an election to happen in July or August for the bond to appear on the November ballot.
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