City may buy displaced family’s home

The now uninhabitable Little Oaks home was flooded and is in the path of a bridge project.

ROUND ROCK — As Round Rock officials prepare to build a bridge over the railroad tracks at RM 620, they might purchase several homes in the adjacent Little Oaks neighborhood to make way for the project.

City officials have already approved a $4 million purchase of the Commons, a tract that is home to a handful of businesses just east of the neighborhood.

About six homes in the neighborhood could also be in the city’s sights, but that won’t be known until the completion of an environmental study in April, said Charlie Crossfield, an attorney working on the project for the city.

Officials say the bridge would prevent major traffic snarls — which have been known to back up traffic on Interstate 35 — that happen when trains are crossing. The city has spent almost $800,000 in the past couple of years on studies of the project, and it could be under construction as soon as 2014, officials said.

Williamson County recently agreed to pitch in $4 million toward the estimated $15 million project, as long as the city awards a bid for construction on the bridge within five years. Gary Hudder, Round Rock’s transportation director, has said he hopes it could be completed around 2016.

The city might move to buy one home in the Little Oaks neighborhood before the environmental study is completed, Crossfield said, because the Ketchum family has been displaced since the home flooded July 15.

Beverly Ketchum, who, with her husband and three children, sleeps in a camper parked in the driveway, blames the flooding on an infrastructure project in the neighborhood. The project was meant to improve streets and drainage, but the Ketchums say the changes diverted water to their home, which had never flooded in the 20 years they lived there.

“Staff is going to recommend we acquire the property, but that is contingent upon us being able to reach an agreement with the property owner for the price,” said Crossfield.

He said the city wants to buy the Ketchum house, appraised at $122,926 by the Williamson Central Appraisal District, before the other homes because of the family’s current situation.