Travis County Commissioners Court
August 10, 2004
Item 28
Now, item number 28 is to consider and take appropriate action on request from the northridge acres water supply corporation and the Texas water development board for assistance with water improvement plans in the northridge acres subdivision. We had a presentation on this item a couple weeks back and since we this that presentation we have had other developments. One is that we did have a meeting with the Williamson county Commissioners court. Can we just get an update on of that?
>> yes, sir. My name is dan smith, office of county judge. Since our last appearance here, we've gone up to the Williamson county Commissioners court -- I’m sorry, we also have the executive administrator kevin ward of the water board and don ward and others. We were warmly received by the judge and Commissioner burkman. The update in the water improvement plan was favorably received and they expressed interest in coordinating with Travis County to request assistance in providing grant assistance from the Williamson county cdbg entitlement funds. We plan on going back to Williamson county in the next couple weeks to try to get formal approval of that request. On July 20th, we gave an update to the Texas water development board. We were enthusiastically received by them. They are pleased with our progress to date. And they reaffirmed their commitment to fund the application that's currently before their board. And I think that's why mr. Ward is here today. The real good news is that the city of Austin water and wastewater commission adopted a resolution on a 7-0-1 vote that recommends the city council approve a resolution to participate in the water improvement plan. We anticipate formal approval from city council at its August 26th meeting. The other thing from administrative viewpoint, we have established a working legal subcommittee that is currently working on the side party draft agreement and hopefully we'll have that ready by the September meeting of the Texas water development board for their approval. Then we would bring that back to the various entities for their review, comments and approval.
>> Williamson county basically felt favorably about giving $150,000 in cash?
>> yes, sir.
>> but they have not formally voted on that yet, but we have every reason to believe they will.
>> yes, sir.
>> okay. What we wanted to do in pages 2 and 3 of the backup memo was to indicate what was requested of Travis County, it was funding in the amount of $30,000 for grant construction management services. And in-kind services of $207,000, and mr. Wheeler is here because we asked him to look at the specifics and basically give us his opinion about our ability to perform these services and about what he thought that would cost. And we will get to you very, very soon, mr. Ward. But mr. Wheeler?
>> don wheeler, road and bridge, t.n.r. I met with dan the other day, myself and don ward. We went over these requests or what the estimate is. The 207,450 is on page 3. We looked at what the type of work and what would be needed and feel that based on our contract, based on our work ability, that we could do this contract or do these repairs or do this in-kind service well within this 207,000. In fact, way well. And then we would come back to the court if it's approved and put it in t.n.r.'s work plan, road and bridge work plan.
>> the project is in the position where cash is real important. We talked about that long possibility last time, so the $150,000 in cash is very helpful.
>> yes.
>> and this is basically the kind of work that we do on roads and drainage anyway so I think we felt a little more comfortable with the in-kind conclusion than cash money, but the $30,000 is necessary in order to get the contract services provided. Do we steal your thunderstorm senator.
>> no, you didn't, I appreciate being here, but I’m just here as a source to answer questions in event you have any. I’m not going to lobby your loan bill.
>> everything seems to be moving quite smoothly. It's requiring a lot of parties to work together to get this done. So far the ones we need are still on board. We're kind of to the stage where formal action is needed from the various entities, but so far everybody is pretty much indicated a desire to participate and willingness to give that formal approval real soon is what I’m hearing.
>> yes, sir. It is obviously is a project everyone feels they should endorse, but it looks from all angles one that complete and would provide a shreugs of multiple benefits not only for the community but the entities that would participate. Yes, we've been seeing favorable approves all along, and in our board case, this is the first project to come through the program and it looks like one that could become a model for the others going forward. It also helps us to look at the necessary coordinations and support from Commissioners courts like yourselves across the state in other similar situations and the cooperative efforts of the various funding agencies and entities and the locals in order to bring a project like this forward. If it indeed continues to proceed on its course as it is right now, it will have certainly accelerated way past the stages it was in before and would be bearing fruit in a very quick manner compared to other projects across the state for small communities.
>> okay. If we look on page 1 of the backup, that loan amount I guess was our biggest worry last time. But if in fact we're able to get $150,000 of cash from Williamson county, would that amount be appliable to that loan amount?
>> yes.
>> and so that would leave us with about 135 [indiscernible] 286 which is a whole lot to work with if we have 18 months or so.
>> that's right.
>> judge, is there a suggestion in terms of this 30,000 so that it's more than just good, kind wishes, but I mean did you have a thought as to where we could come up with that money?
>> not yet. But if the court signs off on it, we would try to find out the best place. And give directions to go ahead and put a contract together to present that to the court, then we would come up with a source of funding by then. I really wanted sort of formal feedback from the court to make sure everybody is still on board. It seems to me we have made dramatic improvement over the last three, four, five months thanks to the efforts of all these individuals before us and a lot of others. So my motion would be for us to go ahead and basically give approval of this strategy, indicate the county's willingness to participate as set out here, authorize the drafting of an appropriate contract by the contract services, and also we'll brainstorm over the funding for the 30,000 cash and get with joe and don and speak further about our ability to provide these in-kind services. I guess a lot depends on when they must be provided, and if we stay on schedule, we're looking at late '05?
>> summer, late summer, early fall of '05.
>> second.
>> seconded by Commissioner Gomez. Any more discussion? If it's fall of '05, that would be our '06 fiscal year. Then the flexibility. The 30,000 cash may be a little thornier, but --
>> bigger numbers.
>> we certainly have. I want to say publicly thank to you everyone who has been involved in this and I especially want to -- because a fresh set of eyes and energy get us over the hump. Thank you dan and bob Moore in Commissioner Daugherty's office. I think you all did a superb job. Thank you lisa burkman up in Williamson county, and judge dur rfer.
>> we have ms. Brown, ms. Snyder and ms. Johnson.
>> [inaudible].
>> oh, okay. How are you all doing? Anything else today? That's the motion.
>> well, I mean and let's not leave out kevin ward. You really get the sense that the state, you know, has really enthusiastically come to the table on -- and sometimes, kevin, as you know, the government doesn't get many pats on the back. But this is the kind of thing where, you know, you felt the enthusiasm from your part, I mean from the word go, which is encouraging. A lot of times when you don't get that kind of feeling it sort of permeates and everybody sorts of lays down, so to speak. So thanks for getting to the table when you did and being as helpful as everybody else.
>> let's not forget the city of Austin because let's make sure they are not forgotten.
>> our favorite partner.
>> we don't want them to feel we have not mentioned them. They've made a great deal of con concessions here related to their utility system.
>> I think governor perry has done an outstanding job of bringing --
>> feel the love.
>> how about george bush? [laughter]
>> one or two?
>> anything further? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Thank you all very much. Thanks for your patience also. I thought we would get to this item a lot earlier.
>> that's all right. Thank you very much. [inaudible].
>> that's next week.
>> thank you all.
>> thank you all.
>> good to see you all.
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Last Modified:
Friday, October 28, 2005 9:10 AM