Drivers around Snyder Primary School will face street construction delays, beginning as early as mid-September, after the Snyder City Council voted to rebuild a portion of 37th Street.
On Monday, the council approved a $477,347 bid from Nobles Road Construction, Inc., of Abilene, to rebuild 37th Street between College Ave. and El Paso Ave. The other two bids for the project were more than $500,000.
The project will involve milling the top two inches of the current street and then filling it in with hot mix.
The money for the project will come from the $319,358 that was budgeted this year for street maintenance. The balance will come from reserve funds, which the council will have to approve through a budget amendment.
Public Works Director Eli Torres said the project could begin in as soon as two weeks and would take about two weeks to complete. He said the city hoped to keep two lanes of traffic open during the project, but that traffic flow details remained to be finalized.
The 37th Street project is not part of the discussions the council has held about implementing a monthly street fee or raising the property tax rate to pay for ongoing street repairs and maintenance.
After no one spoke during public hearings about the proposed 47 cent per $100 valuation tax rate and the proposed 2018-19 budget, the council approved the city’s $18.8 million budget and approved the first of two votes on the 47 cent per $100 valuation tax rate. An additional public hearing for the tax rate is scheduled for Sept. 4 and the final vote will be Sept. 10.
Because the budget was approved, any reduction in the tax rate after the next public hearing would likely lead to the city drawing money from reserve funds again next year. The current tax rate is 44.10 cents.
This year’s $18.8 million overall budget includes $7.54 million in the general fund, which pays for most city operations; $501,405 in the city’s special revenue fund, which includes $425,000 in Hotel Occupancy Taxes (HOT) and $76,405 for the Tax Increment Financing zone; $10.37 million in the enterprise fund, which includes water, sewer and sanitation services; and $397,495 in the central garage fund.
The general fund budget increased $337,570 over the current year, and includes just more than $2 million in capital expenses. The general fund must be a balanced budget.
Expenses in the enterprise fund budget decreased by $825,640.
The special revenue fund budget decreased by more than $130,000, with the anticipated HOT revenues budgeted to decline by $150,000.
The council also took its second and final votes on an ordinance setting rates and rules for the disposal of wind turbine blades at the city’s landfill and agreed to cast the city’s votes for the Texas Municipal League Intergovernmental Risk Pool board of trustees for the four candidates City Manager Merle Taylor suggested.
Image
Body