Council weighs road, drainage spending
Mayor points to repairs as good use for some of $1.3M in city’s discretionary funds.
The West Lake Hills City Council considered how to prioritize approximately $1.3 million in discretionary items during a recent meeting.
Mayor Linda Anthony suggested funding be focused on major road repair projects and the city’s highest-priority drainage projects. The city has been studying drainage issues with the help of consultants at K. Friese and Associates and has homed in on a list of projects determined to be in the “top 15.”
Some of the $1.3 million in discretionary funding will likely be reserved in a “rainy day fund.”
The council indicated it would like to allocate $100,000 to major road repairs and $250,000 for street paving. “We’re really only talking about only a few streets — Redbud Trail, Westlake Drive, maybe Terrace Mountain,” Anthony said. “There are sections of Redbud Trail where it’s just failing and overlay is not going to solve the problem.”
Anthony also singled out drainage projects around Reveille Road, and City Administrator Robert Wood suggested that lumping together two projects under one contractor could save money, estimating the city should allocate $200,000 for the projects.
“I like the idea of being able to do two in close proximity to get a cost savings,” Anthony said. “The reason that I focused on (the Reveille Road) area is that when we did all these other drainage things for the heavy rains, they were all in the hilly areas, and we didn’t go into the lower areas. They really haven’t gotten the same attention as other areas in our top 15 (projects), so let’s help them out.”
The council did not take action on the proposed spending.
No residents were present for the first scheduled public hearing on a possible tax rate increase. The second public hearing will be Sept. 13.