At Monday night’s city council meeting a deeper look at the results of the city’s audit was given by J.B. Smith of JBS Water from Houston.
Specific items relating to the audit were explained to the council about how they could use the audit in different ways to answer questions about Rockdale’s water problems. When the audit was done they found water losses of 24%. Both this audit and the massive iron pipe replacement project can help to lower this percentage to under 10%, which is the standard.
ROADS— The cit y is moving closer to the US 79 work being done. There will be a star installed in the intersection of Main (FM 908) and West Cameron (US 79) as the final element of the construction. The city will then be installing 14 decorative streetlights in the downtown area. Big Creek Construction workers were busy in the downtown area removing the plastic spacers they had put in when the concrete was being poured, many of which had broken and become a tripping hazard.
“We’re unique as a town because most of our main roads are TxDOT facilities. The city does not own, operate or maintain these roads (US 79, FM 908 and FM 487), but they carry most of our traffic. The next project TxDOT has is a mill and overlay for the north portions of both FM 908 and FM 487. You’ll see utility work ahead of their work, with survey markers and utility flags next to the pavement as Oncor, Atmos and the city move their facilities out of TxDOT’s right-of-way. That work should be starting this summer,” according to a news release the city sent out on Friday.
SIDEWALKS— At some point after the above work has been completed, TxDOT will rework the sidewalk on Main Street north of East Cameron Avenue. That should complete TxDOT’s work in our community for a little while.
Rockdale MDD Director of Economic Development also got the go-ahead from the council to award the Texas Community Development Block Grant which, if funded, will go to KSA Engineers, the only company to respond to the RFQ (request for qualifications) when it was issued.
WATER RIGHTS— The former Alcoa property, now owned by SLR Property, has given notice that it plans to drill for water on the property and possibly send it elsewhere as they’ve already done for Samsung in Taylor.
There is no animosity between the company and the city, but the city has hired notable water attorneys Naman, Howell, Smith & Lee since the city is an “affected party” who could be affected by SLR’s decisions.
ASSISTANT CITY SECRETARY— The council was divided on the hiring for this position, which was brought up by mayor pro tem Lin Perry, as a way to avoid the problems associated with losing a city manager and the lag time between hiring a new one, which have come up in the past when former city manager Chris Whittaker left Rockdale for Angleton.
The city does not have the money to hire for this position but several revenue possibilities were brought up, all of which are only good for a year. The discussion was tabled after everyone got a chance to voice their opinions.
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