Deal paves way for successful Super Bowl LI
New commissioner eyes cooperation to improve conditions on four streets
County Commissioner Gene Locke and Mayor Sylvester Turner strike a deal that ensures streets around the site of next year’s Super Bowl will be repaved.
The newest member of Harris County Commissioners Court has brokered a city-county agreement he’ll present to his colleagues next week to repave the streets that access NRG Park in time for the Super Bowl next February.
Commissioner Gene L. Locke, appointed last month to complete El Franco Lee’s term, plans to spend $ 12.5 million of Precinct 1 money to improve driving conditions along 4.5 miles on four city streets.
The deal took shape after he met with Mayor Sylvester Turner to discuss a number of infrastructure projects where his urban precinct overlaps with the city of Houston.
Locke proposed the idea of joint cooperation, beginning with roads that are critical to accessing the city’s epic NFL extravaganza and that could extend to clearing vacant city lots and abandoned properties throughout the precinct that have become dumping grounds or environmental hazards. At least one county official views the scope of this deal as a historic first.
Under the plan, the county would cover the cost of the roadwork, Locke said, shouldering the hefty tab that presents a challenge for the cash-strapped city. The city would return the favor by sharing some of its block grant money to fund county programs and services.
Among the projects would be a jobs program, a Fifth Ward sidewalk project and park improvements, said Janice Evans, Turner’s communications director.
“The agreement is very important because it represents the spending of county dollars in the city,” said Evans.
Locke said his overarching goal for this venture is to ensure a higher quality of life for citizens, bring additional services to the precinct and save money for both governments.
“What I am attempting to do is to establish what the model is for an urban commissioner at a time when there are scarce pub- lic resources, but there are high demands and high needs throughout the precinct,” he said.
John Blount, the county engineer, said this is the first time in 29 years he’s seen a Houston mayor and a county commissioner tackle a joint agreement for road and bridge work.
“The joint processing center was a building, and they did joint radio shop before that,” Blount said, but he added that roads are
a bigger undertaking. If the parties were so inclined, the agreement could extend to any structural project the two governments wanted to undertake, including new sidewalks in subdivisions, traffic signals and additional street improvements, Blount said.
But the deal is not beyond the realm of what’s been done county-wide, according to Commissioner Jack Morman. Precinct 2, which has 15 cities inside its boundaries, has used these sort of partnership agreements to revitalize Sylvan Beach Park in La Porte and to rebuild weathered roadway at the Port of Houston, Morman said.
The lines between these overlapping government jurisdictions are rarely visible to residents.
“Most people when they drive on a street don’t know if they’re on a city street or a county road or a TxDot highway,” said County Judge Ed Emmett. “If this money can be used to help with mobility funds, why not use them for mobility wherever its needed.”
Emmett said the county has been steering toward joint government cooperation in various arenas, and he expects to see more of it as the price of oil declines.
“Everybody has tried to stay in their silos for so long,” Emmett said, but there is a precedent in place for cooperation. “We did it on libraries. We did it on jails for the joint processing center. Mayor Turner wants to do it on crime labs.”
Ideally in these scenarios, the two governments need to discuss what needs to get done and sort out who is in the best position to take on which aspects of the projects, Emmett said, “whether you’re talking about streets, libraries or icons like the Astrodome.” Future ventures include cooperative planning to ensure the George R. Brown Convention Center and NRG Park share resources when major events come to Houston.
The county judge said he spoke candidly with former Mayor Annise Parker a while ago about the millions Houston could reap from hosting the Super Bowl in sales tax revenue, which the county does not collect.
“I do think the county deserves some acknowledgment and attention when we have needs because we don’t get any of the money that is being made off the economic impact of Super Bowl,” Emmett said.