Golf Babe

2024.5 Coffee With the City Manager – May 2024



Live from the Conference Room at Lady Bird Johnson Golf Course.

A great opportunity for our community to get caught up on all things Fredericksburg and the surrounding Hill Country.

Special thanks to all our sponsors who make it possible for you to watch today:
– Realtor LeeAnn Bailey with Legacy Broker Group: (830) 998-0988.
– Fredericksburg Convention & Visitor Bureau: #LoveFbgTX!
– CreateHealthy.org: The future of health and wellness in the Hill Country.
– The City of Fredericksburg, Texas: https://FbgTx.org

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it is exciting getting ready for the big Fourth of July parade here in beautiful Fredericksburg Texas this has become burning with the rebounds everyone welcome to the fredicksburg Chamber of Commerce 3500 that go to we hear that promise again in John’s gosp we love living in the [Music] husb the fairways at lady bird have a way of slow hey there well welcome Billy fans this is on September 25th 1925 when she s Crawford fridge over [Music] community in Fredericksburg is growing and we know that people choose to live here and for a very good reason it’s important that we have resources in place so that people can take care of themselves so that our economy can keep moving so that this community can continue to thrive and this is our opportunity to help them stay well and stay part of the community as contributing members please join us in keeping Fredericksburg and glesby County Special be Texas friendly share the road put litter in its place respect private property and protect our Dark Skies thank you for caring about our community [Music] good morning everybody uh you don’t mind start taking your seats or a few of y’all want to thank you all for being here uh as you can tell I’m not Clinton Bailey my name is Garrett Bond I’m the assistant city manager yeah thank you um so you’re stuck with me this morning uh Clinton had to attend the uh Chamber of Commerce the Rockbox this morning so I think that’s a really good turnout to that event uh we got a number of Staff members who will be presenting at that so um we’ve kind of got a skeleton crew here but want to thank you all for being here and uh hopefully we’ll make this informative uh even in Clinton’s absence so um just like to touch on a few items that are going on uh in and around the city May is a busy month as y’all can tell um real quick I do want to start by going around the room introducing the city officials who are here and also City staff so just starting on this side we have Lieutenant Derek seelig uh uh let’s see former council member Sharon Joseph uh I know Clinton always says this is difficult so uh we have our Pio Shan Dory in the back uh he’s the man that’s always got the handouts for this event we have police chief uh Brian forau uh our building official Michael Irwin Chris kesy just walked in he’s our director of Public Works we have Andrea Schmidt our parks and recck director and our fire Chief Lynn Bizzle and I Tom muscleman is here there he is sorry former council member current pnz member Tom muselman did I former mayor as well so did I miss anybody okay so thank you all again for being here um also want to thank Paige Finley with fpg doli for uh simoc casting this event this morning so uh first off I wanted to touch on the city election that was held on Saturday May 4th uh hopefully y’all are all able to get out and vote uh but the results of the election are that the mayor mayor Hoover and two council members council member kersner and council member Klein were reelected to twoyear terms uh there were also 23 Charter amendments on on a special election ballot so we’ve got a lot of questions about why there were so many and basically the charter hadn’t been updated for a number of years and of course state law has changed within those years so the majority of the amendments were to bring the charter into conformance with current state law uh all of those Charter amendments did pass there’s 23 of them that were all approved by the voters the good thing is the new wording in the charter refers to current state law so it’s kind of a general statement so in the future as State Law changes we won’t have to amend the charter so when you see Charter amendments pop up on future ballots it should only be two or three not 23 um I did also want to thank all the election judges and workers that were involved in that process it is a a lengthy process and it takes a lot of time and effort um the hamerson I know were there and helped out um some of those election workers worked for over 24 hours the day of the event so they worked the polls and then also had to do the the counting of the ballot and and as you can imagine with 23 propositions that took some time so thank y’all um you know I think we’re really happy with the overall results so any questions about the election okay uh the other big news is uh on the the University Center so that that came up at the last meeting um negotiations are still underway but I would say that the article in the paper did a really good job of explaining the current situation uh the struggles that the University Center board is having with the current state of education um you know it was mentioned in the article that there’s really only five to 10 students at the facility so you have this 20,000 26,000 foot facility and very few students so uh as most of y’all know the facility is on City owned property so for the past couple months we’ve been working with the University Center on potential future uses of the facility um it just it’s a coincidence but but the long-term needs for City Hall are around 26,000 ft of space so that that’s completely a coincidence we had a professional space study done in 2015 um so that seems to be the best option um you know negotiations are still underway um so I I can’t talk too much about it but I do expect to have further discussion at the council meeting on June 4th to talk about funding timelines things like that so so a lot happening sorry we can’t give you more information at this time but there will be a lot more information forthcoming um just a couple smaller items I wanted to mention so at the last council meeting Mark cornette with fredicksburg friends at the fields gave an update on the soccer complex I’m sure y all saw that on your way out here but the light poles are up a lot of the back stop and fencing uh posts are going up the Earth workor is still underway but the utilities are in place uh there’s parking lot construction underway if you have a chance on your way home swing by there it’s going to be a very nice facility um but as far as the timeline goes they’re hoping to plant grass by June 1st and again the plan is to start play this fall for the fall soccer soccer season so again it’s a really good facility that’s a public private partnership uh that involves Adar scripts Foundation a number of private families create healthy the Fredericksburg Friends of the fields and then of course the city of Fredericksburg are all all working together on that project and another uh public private partnership was the installation of three new El electric vehicle Chargers uh it’s by the old jail the the yellow brick jail um on San Antonio Street I think the address is 108 West the West San Antonio 114 I don’t know the exact address I did see a car using it this morning so those are three 100 amp Chargers and then we also upgraded the existing Chargers the city has by the Girl Scout cabin on West Austin Street um that was a project between the city of Fredericksburg and fredicksburg shines who’s a local organization so we want to thank them for their support of that project um next up I’d like to ask Andrea Schmidt to actually come up and give an update on uh a few items with parks and wreck including some improvements at Market plots okay can you hear me now good morning Andrew Schmidt parks department so as many of you may be aware we just completed a project on the northwest corner of Market Square The Market Square Redevelopment Commission has always taken the lead on Market Square and the new facilities that come online several years ago they started a fundraising campaign and they raised over a million dollars um to build this facility so they took the old Bank building and they converted it into a nice meeting room the John William Klein room and then they also added some new restrooms over there which is very convenient for parents with small children that need to take them to the bathroom rather than having to run all the way across the square so that project has just been completed on your tables you’ll see an invitation we’re inv everybody to come out for the ribbon cutting scheduled for June 5th at 10:00 a.m. um as part of this project they also installed two new busts in the Pioneer Memorial Garden uh one of Admiral nimt and one of President Johnson so we’re going to start there at 10:00 uh do a dedication there and then move over to the John William Klein room to do a ribbon cutting uh we’re actually going to start taking reservations for that room starting June 4th with the first reservation being 14 days after that so if you’re interested in reserving that room you can start calling uh June 4th or after to make reservations uh we will do one- Day reservations so they won’t be hourly it’ll be a full day reservation to begin with and then the weekends will be Saturday and Sunday together that’ll give people an opportunity to have plenty of time to set up and clean up depending on what they have going on so you can feel free to reach out for us uh to the parks department for that um the other thing I have on your table is now that Market Square has completed that project they are looking at more projects at the at the square in the future um the big one they’re looking at doing is a glocken Spiel or a German clock they brought the concept to city council several years ago and um were given preliminary approval that yes they can move forward with that um better planning for the project and fundraising so so the Market Square Redevelopment is working with another organization here in the community to try to fundraise for that anyone that is interested in making donations to the Market Square Redevelopment commission and future projects at the park uh feel free to um on that form there’s information for the community found of the Hill Country where they have a fund set up so you can make donations there uh they’re tax deductible you’ll get a letter from the Community Foundation and then that money will sit there until we’re ready to spend it on a project at Market square so those are just some of the things we have going on at Market square Redevelopment commission or at Market square itself thank you any questions Gary one of the things that our city council did last year was they approve funding to hire some security Personnel to help out at the park so we have security officers out there Friday evenings Saturday afternoons and then Sunday afternoons as well um I’ve been out there several times my daughter plays baseball or little league so we’ve been out there and we have a security presence and I think it has helped considerably just having people there it kind of keeps problems from getting out of hand to begin with and I’ve heard heard some feedback from the community that they that things have gotten better out there so I haven’t we’re not reporting the graffiti or the vandalism like we were prior to those security officers being out there I could ask now you got new now that you’ve got the new soccer fields going in what are the plans for the existing soccer fields when you finish with those so those will convert back to just uh dirt fields and we’ll decide what we’re going to do with that piece of property in the future on the original plans that went out the voters for approval here several years ago it was to be additional baseball fields which we don’t have enough baseball fields so that may be something that we still do in the future we just have to find the funds to do it any other question yes sir before or during the reservation Market plots and everything else there was discussion about future big events that market plots and with the up Food and Wine Festival anything about if it’s going to be there or we going to actually continue looking for places it to happen so the Food and Wine festing Festival is being handled by the Chamber of Commerce this year and they will have the event a one-day event at Market square this year on that same weekend on Saturday um the Friday night before they’re right now they’re planning on having just a a dinner in the street um a small dinner in the street that evening before and then what they do in the future they hope to expand it but all those details haven’t been worked out yet yes sir question the John room capacity uh so it’s about 90 people theater style seating and then we have 10 tables uh so you can fit probably 70 60 to 70 seated at Round taable similar to these or if you do theater style you can probably fit close to 90 and there is a patio outside the kitchen is a catering kitchen and it’s fairly small but there is a backd door entrance where people can come in if you have a caterer we have a refriger full-size refrigerator full size freezer where food can be stored especially if you run it for multiple days you’re welcome thank Andre sure just a couple other quick updates on Parks so the splash pad officially reopened on May 3rd um so the hours for the splash pad are Tuesday through Sunday from 10: to 7: uh except for on Sunday it’s noon to 5: so the only day it’s closed is on Monday uh the pools will reopen on May 25th um the good news is we have plenty of lifeguards this year uh it’s been amazing like there’s a lot of interest in being lifeguards again so we’ve actually had to turn some people away which is a new problem for us to have um the other thing again the city is the official sponsor of the July 4th parade now so we are currently taking applications for Parade floats if you’re interested in that you can contact Jennifer Kupa and she’ll help you with that thank you uh next up I’d like i’ like to ask Chief Bizzle to come up and give a a quick update on fire and EMS operations and also uh Chief 4H hour is here if you have any questions related to PD we don’t have him slated to to give an update but if you have any questions for him he’s available okay good morning everyone I appreciate everyone being here this morning and uh uh listening to some updates from the city from a Fire EMS perspective uh I don’t have the actual monthly report right now I should be getting it later today uh over the last week we responded to 80 calls one uh structure fire and as usual um about 85% of what we do was medically related uh we’ve had we had one uh really bad accident on 87 South yes yesterday or the day before um and then another on 290 East uh but it was pretty far out it’s almost in blano County so uh we’re all doing well uh we have a lot of activities that are going on uh over the next few uh few weeks uh including the Crawfish Festival which will be uh Staffing first aid station at that at that event as well as other events that follow up uh there on Market Square the good part is we’re right next door uh with our units and our supplies and stuff and things of that nature so we can get to to individuals really quick in a in a medical event so as as far as last week we we we responded again to 80 calls um that’s a one we uh that’s a one week uh response that that we uh we responded to over over the the last week um if you ever need anything please feel free to call me uh you can call my cell phone night or day uh or if you have any questions from a from a fire or EMS perspective uh just give me a call and we I I can point you in the right direction so thank you very much thank Chief any questions for Fire EMS has has there been any movement toward a uh fire station toward the eastern part of the county so as part of the discussions with the University Center that’s an ongoing negotiation uh we’re we’re continuing to work with the county uh the county is looking at some funding options for a potential fire station but that is a a perfect location as far as response times go uh so that’s definitely something that’ll be talked about as we continue the negotiations put there potentially it’s all based on warrants uh but especially if there were to be a fire station there you know a signal would make sense to make sure we can get the fire guys out any other questions okay next I’d like to ask Chris Kazi to come give an update on some of the CI projects we have going on ready to go good morning so uh just a quick update on water I think we do this uh every month I give youall kind of where we are on a oer uh standpoint would like to remind everybody we are still in stage four so that’s one day a week watering depending on the last digit of your address uh from 6:00 to 10: in the morning uh so that is uh still uh still the watering stage uh as far as um monitoring of the groundwater Wells uh that link is now on our website uh we talked about that uh at the last meeting uh we put the uh the link to the Texas water development board which owns the equipment that we monitor um both the locations of the Aur uh both southeast of town and and then east of town and those two uh primary well fields that the city has uh similar uh update as to last time the old s Tony Road monitoring well is about the same um as we were this time last year uh same same level uh the canal wellfield is is about 10t higher than we were this time last year so uh continuing to see positive signs and a little bit of recharge uh based on some of the rainfalls we’ve seen um with that being said if we continue that rainfall pattern and we can continue to see some of the recharges you know maybe later this summer uh for sure in the fall we’ll look to going back to stage three as a possibility but right now we’re not we’re not really seeing I mean we’re seeing more average rainfall but we’re not seeing really above average rainfall to get us to that point to to make a change to the watering stage right now um the next thing I’d like to talk about is the tech stop Mill and overlay project uh down Main Street so there was some information in the standard um little bit of incorrect information I would say we’ve had a uh meeting with Tex do uh last week uh to talk about that project as a whole so the the project bounds are all the way from the Y to Crystal Drive and I think the the standard reported a little bit shorter section I think they reported from K Street to Washington Street uh it is all the way from the Y all the way down to Crystal Drive which is down there by The UPS Store uh that’s the full extent of the project as far as project schedule um they will start some some of the work after 4th of July um I would also like to note all of this work is being done at night so none of it’s being done during the day it’s all being done at night I don’t have those exact hours but I would anticipate it starting 7 to 8 o’cl in the evening probably 8 8:00 in the evening something like that um all the way to about 6:00 in the morning so it’s all all night work uh and we’ll get that information out uh with Sean and and social media uh in the newspaper and so forth when we get a little bit more information in the details um yes ma’am excuse me could you please explain what exactly is being done absolutely so the the work that’ll be done right after Fourth of July is they’ll actually come and take all the pavement markings off of the the pavment surface and they’re going to restripe it according to a plan uh that a consultant that we hired developed and that plan uh does a few things uh at the intersections but it also takes away that funny yellow median uh down Main Street um it takes that away to give a little bit more um a little bit more uh width on that outside driving lane uh everybody drives kind of you know your your out inside Tire I guess or or what have you drives in the other lane because of the the fear of hitting a a car that’s parked um along Main Street so it takes that away to give a little bit more width there and the reason they’re going to take the payment Market parkings off and restripe is to give a little bit of time to see if it works before they come back and do the full-blown Mill and overlay so that Mill and overlay I don’t know the exact depth of of millings that they’re going to take off but they’re going to take off um some pavement and then come back with new pavement you see them doing this all over the state particularly on I 10 and other locations as well um that will start in August so it won’t start in July but the mill and overlay will actually start start in August so um give it about a month to 6 weeks uh to test out the new payment markings before they uh take that off and uh and and put new asphalt down uh it’s about a month project maybe just under 3 week project yes sir I’ve got a question you there’s the construction site in front of the elephant Saloon in the Albert hotel it’s been there for two years are they going to move those things and when they come through and pay for this they gonna move those concrete Burns or they goingon to leave them there and go around them they’ll have to be removed as part of the project um same thing with parking on Main so we’re going to work with PD on making sure there’s no cars you know parked in those spaces so it’ll be all new asphalt not going to go around those existing construction sites I know there are a lot of local projects to you know chip seal like in front of City Hall earlier this week you teed it up perfect that was my next topic to talk about I was just wondering how these things are being noticed because the way I find out about them is I drive up and a road’s closed yeah and typically it’s a it’s a day project so it’s not a full shutdown uh from block to block uh we we notice those folks along in other words if their if their hous is along that street uh we notice those uh two two days in advance is our policy to make sure cars and stuff can be removed um but yeah so the Main Street excuse me the the city of fxburg uh Paving project so right now you see um as as in front of City Hall the level up work going on so uh this is prior to us coming down and putting the chip seal we come do a level up with with just cold mix uh that that truly Smooths it out so that when we go back with that new asphalt surface uh it has that nice smooth clean surface uh for a finished product uh so that’ll continue probably for the next two to three weeks uh our plan is to start Paving probably in early June all weather dependent but probably early June is is the is the schedule and with the paving uh we will get that on social media typically we upset update it on our website uh to get a little information out but some of it is weather dependent or equipment breaks down uh you know equipment does break unfortunately and so sometimes that causes delays in the project as well yes ma’am no no problem the little red pickup is yes ma’am there is that median or there’s just something that comes out into the middle of the lane and sometimes there are cars parked there and sometimes there are not when the cars are not parked there I have seen at least three cars run right into and myself included almost into that Medium because it is not marked there’s no red you know there’s nothing to indicate that there is a an out what a bump out there’s nothing sure um and it’s been over a year that I’ve been asking about that can something please be done I’m talking about the city of fredicksburg could the city of Fredericksburg not put either paint that curb that comes out or a plant there so that you know that there’s some obstruction we we can certainly take a look at it I mean anything that is done there has is you know approved by Tex do that’s Tex dot right away so we can certainly work with Tex do uh I wouldn’t anticipate any changes as far as the the uh the little you know bump out that youall see there but but we can certainly look at you know if if markings or something might help that so yes ma’am are they resizing I don’t believe there’s changes to the parkings I don’t there’s any the plan is to standardize the parking so it right now from block to block it changes so the the plan is to go and they’ll all be consistent throughout Main Street that’s just no nothing’s occurring with this project so that’s just an idea that’s been thrown out there any other questions Paving yes sir yes sir there you go is there a stage five in the water process there is what does that represent uh just cut off water essentially stage five is no outdoor watering okay I mean from a irrigation standpoint that’s what that would mean that would be a very critical uh like Mecha major mechanical issues we lost multiple Wells we couldn’t get water to town uh I you know looking at the O for itself um I think we’re we’re in good shape I I wouldn’t anticipate you know the O for dropping to a point where we’d have to go go to stage five uh it would be a major mechanical issue of some sort that we couldn’t get water into town uh into our tanks yes sir real quick I’ve made a couple of involuntary donations to the city because my watering at my old office was done in the evening which I thought was the better time to do it than in the morning why the change sure so last year when we went to stage 4 uh it was actually in the evening uh from 7 to 11 uh when we continued into Stage 4 in the fall months because of the daylight hours it was switched from 6: to 10: because of the the daylight hours in the evening from 700 to 11 not really working well for people and so uh talking with irrigators and Landscape folks and and the the general public they feel the morning is better and so that’s that’s where we we’ve uh landed in fact when we go if if we go back to stage three we’re actually going to change the watering hours in the morning from 6:00 to 10 excuse me from 6:00 to 10: in the morning 6:00 to 10: in the evening just for consistency so everybody uh there there you know there’s not this 5 to 9 in the morning 7 to 11: in the evening it just gives a very uh very easy to remember um you know the 6 to 10 morning and evening so that’s something that is currently not in the ordinance but we will update that in the ordinance uh should we ever go back to stage three Chris do you mind touching on the project by the Y the Wastewater line rehab sure just the timeline of that yeah so uh one of the projects that it’s a undersized sewer main uh that that we’ve known about for a while and we’ve been working with Tex do and a local contractor to to upsize that from a 4 in to an 8 in uh it is in Main Street uh to the 800 block of West Maine uh it shouldn’t affect traffic too much we’ll have to close one lane uh it’s about a week long project uh we expect it to kick off um it might have kicked off this week in fact I’m I’m not okay um so it is under construction it it’s uh like I said just a sewer line replacement but we’re doing that before the mill and overlay we don’t want to come back and tear up the new asphalt um at after it’s after it’s put down so that is a project that’s ongoing if you drive out on the west side of town you’ll see that all right the last project I wanted to talk about um is the South Leno shared use Bridge uh so that’s the the uh section of loo there from uer Street to San Antonio Street uh where the new uer Street apartments are going in uh our contractor will be mobilizing towards the end of this month uh and starting to set up their storm water controls uh silt fence and so forth uh then the first part of June uh you’ll start seeing some work uh sidewalk work as well as uh the bridge abutments and so forth uh being installed with our Bridge being delivered I think the latter part of June so uh you’ll see some work again that’s just a pedestrian um Bridge a bicycl bridge it’s not it’s not for vehicles so uh but you’ll start seeing some work develop in that area uh as part of that project so uh we’re excited to to get that underway it’s a was actually a tech stock Grant so a good project a majority of that was funded uh via Grant so any other questions about City projects or yes sir when do you expect Bridge uh probably later this year what do you think maybe August I’d say mid August at the latest and I think the apartments are slated to open around September or October so timing is just right all right thank you yes ma’am question yes ma’am you updated has there been an update on the um watering for watering of yards versus human usage flushing of toilets that seems that your last water update of usage was like 2010 or something like that or has there been an update much because so what I’ve been noticing is more and more people are putting in rocks and that that decreases the watering and the Landscaping but we’re adding more and more Apartments of housing to fredicksburg so I’m sure that it I feel it would change the water pattern usage does that affect watering stages at all I don’t yeah so during the summer months uh about 50 to 60% of our water um pumpage out of the ground goes to irrigation of landscape um we haven’t seen a huge change in that I mean there are some people converting uh their yards for sure uh which is a great thing uh some people putting in drip irrigation and other more efficient watering practices uh we haven’t seen a huge change and the so the reason we know that that amount of of water is going on to to landscape irrigation Ty type practices is um during the winter months we pump about 1.8 to 2 million gallons a day during the heat of the summer we’re pumping about 4 to 4.3 million gallons a day and we don’t see any change on the Wastewater collection side so what we’re seeing at the wastewater treatment plant uh is is very similar throughout the whole year uh telling us that you know that water is not going through the house it’s not being used in the house uh just for for daily activities cooking bathing drinking and so forth so um that’s it’s it I would say we’re not uh unusual in that regard I think most communities see you know very similar patterns so all right thank you and we’re we’re always watching those numbers so that’s an ongoing effort thank you Chris um wanted to make sure there’s plenty of time to go around the room and answer any questions but I know development is always a Hot Topic so um at the next council meeting Clinton is going going to give his regular city manager update it will be heavily based on development we’re developing some maps to show the ongoing developments and plan developments um I think he’s also trying to get some aerial photos to show some of these developments around the town especially on friendship Lane uh but also you know p a lane there’s development corridors that are just blowing up so um also at the next Speedway um so so next month at coffee with city manager we’re we’re going to talk a lot about development I think we’re going to have the Albert hotel developer here to talk about their timeline and all their improvements uh we may also try to have a couple other developers speak about their developments so um we’ve heard y’all uh I did want to see are there any other topics y’all would like us to include in this in the coming months everything’s perfect okay wonder if you have a thank you wonder if you have for next time or for a future time an update and kind of a vision of when do we think things will start changing understood so uh that was incl ined as part of the comprehensive plan there’s an update to the thoroughfare plan um council’s priorities haven’t changed um but there’s no immediate funding being talked about at one time we were thinking about a May uh Bond proposition for next year but that’s with with all the discussion about the University Center we’ve kind of stepped back from that so again I’d say the highest priority projects as far as roadway extensions go are the mulbery Street Extension which would go from 16 or around to Culligan and Ace Hardware at Main Street and then the other one is the posto extension which the school is now building post o along the new Middle School site so that will extend all the way down to Friendship Lane it would go from there all the way around to Cherry Street and Main Street y yes sir stod so um again what’s that we have to pass a bond issue first well those would be Bond funded so um those two projects alone I think currently looking at around 17 or $18 million so they’re not cheap yes sir Colin we we already talked a bit about uh usage of water and the treatment plant as well as as well as for irrigation but a long process is to change and code development for any future developments coming in here their plan for zeros scaping taking away all the green space that we’re allowing for future developments I mean we can’t stop future development it’s going to continually happen so that would be something in the building department so I’d like to see that stay on the Queue and everything else the second thing is that you brought up was about elections um City elections and County elections what is the process and why do we need absentee voting for that because it is so hard and it is such a lengthy process versus having just the day voting going on for those two elections national elections I totally understand but city and county that’s a it’s a hard process most of it goes back to state law state election law okay so we’re just following the rules that the state has set okay I wasn’t aware that so yeah we I agree though it it makes it very confusing and complicated um real quick before before before we go around the room I just wanted to touch on the May 21st council meeting so um with the recent election we’ll have a ceremonial swearing in of the the reelected council members the the formal swearing in has already happened that was at the canvasing earlier this week uh but there will be a ceremonial swearing in uh at the council meeting um we also will have Council considering a construction agreement with the friends of the fredicksburg Nature Center so they’re proposing new Nature Center to be located across from the park headquarters out here at ladybird so a really nice facility uh basically this agreement would allow them to begin fundraising so still a couple years out but but it’s a very nice facility probably five years out okay five years will be the deadline so nothing gonna g to happen immediately uh and then we’ve also been talking about the operating agreement with Texas historical commission relating to Fort Martin SC um so we’ve been working closely with the state um I think we have an agreement that everybody it can get behind um if that agreement is approved the historical commission could begin operation as early as June so they are chomping it the bit they want to be out there and and doing something with the facility and and we’re happy to see something happening so another question for future meetings here um could the city give an update on De annexation what what parts of the city have requested and been granted de annexation uh who they you know who they are I guess that’s all public knowledge in in most cases yes okay and any kind of any any rationale besides I don’t want to pay city taxes okay well and I think we can roll that into the development discussion so we’ll we’ll try to talk about that at the next one right because it’s yeah that that that will that will affect future development and to be honest there there’s not a whole lot of it happening you know there’s small tracks that are requesting it release from the etj uh again the the dis annexation along Post Oak was related to a lawsuit um so that’s settled now so all that’s done the properties along Live Oak remain in the city the properties along Post Oak have been de annexed so we’ll try to bring a map to show youall yeah because there are a lot of property owners that that still want to be in the city so they can have city services so it’s a weird situation thank you yes sir for a topic for future I’d be interested in an update on last year you were doing local town halls around the neighborhoods haven’t heard anything about that in a while but be just an update for a future meeting okay so again I think we covered the entire town the one we’re working on now is is one focused on the Main Street area talking to the property owners and Merchants we’re working with the Chamber of Commerce on that Jim Mula is trying to develop a group so the the plan would be to have a a town hall for that group you know focus on the downtown area and then I think moving forward what we’re talking about is is putting the city into kind of quadrants and having kind of quarterly meetings as opposed to these smaller you know neighborhood meetings so um you know we heard a lot of good information at those but 27 is honestly too much um so again we’re I think we’ll be looking at more of a quarterly update with those so I guess we’ll go ahead and go around the room we’ll start over here if y’all so I know we’re doing road work downtown some of the sidewalks are still in pretty bad shape what’s the status on that who’s responsible for that because that’s a safety thing so it’s a coordination with texite generally it’s the city’s responsibility as part of a what they call a municipal maintenance agreement um so the city does have our annual sidewalk program um and a lot of those areas focus on Main Street the problem is finding the right time to get in there and try to do the project just because there’s so many pedestrians so generally we try to do that work in the June or I’m sorry the January to March time frame um but that’s a very limited window to try to get a lot of work done so it’s a process every year we try to you know chip away at it but there’s there’s a lot of issues so somebody chime in at one time there was this some work study I guess being done on Spectrum on Internet services uh highspeed everything else do you have any update on uh how it was so so again Frontier recently came in and installed fiber throughout the city I think some neighborhoods have it now others it’s still in progress um we really haven’t heard much from Spectrum to be honest um we thought with increased competition they would make improvements but I don’t think there’s anything being planned we’ve heard good things about it and and on the the city side of things again we have our our fiberloop project that again that’s not an end user we’re not providing an ISP um but we are getting that word out to other isps like hey we we have a fiber Network now that you can tie into to get around town and not have to tear up the streets to do it since you’re not the internet service provider does the city get any benefit from co-opting with other internet service providers like joint use agreements so there’s a franchise fee that those those people pay and then if they tie onto our system we will get paid for that that per unit or is that per it depends uh and and honestly we’re we’re just finalizing that rate set up um want to make sure what’s good for the goose is good for the yes yeah yeah so I I think for like the hospital the the school district uh the county those people that are already using it they P they pay by the mile um if there’s an ISP that comes in it may be based on the number of customers they have so again those rates are being finalized we just want to make sure it’s legal because this this is really brand new there’s only a few communities in in the entire nation that are doing it so uh I’d really like to just applaud you the city staff the city council and the Hill Country University Center for exploring a potential proposal that I think will benefit all parties and particularly this community uh one thing that hasn’t been said enough is that while it will provide the city space which is incredible uh it’ll also provide incredible amount of resources to provide scholarships for the Youth of this community for years to come I mean uh it I think it won it’ll benefit folks after we’re all time y so and and I I think that’s a great thing yes so there still is an educational component to to this plan um I don’t believe I mentioned it but but again it’s not just for City Hall if we are able to move City Hall and administration out there it fre up the space in the current city hall which we can move PD and fire into to have an increased presence downtown it will help with response times at the same time if we can move the council chambers to the HB room that frees up additional Spates at the law enforcement center so the Sheriff’s Office and PD can expand into that area so lots of benefits and a lot of discussion still to be had so thanks for that bud good morning I’m Cheryl r and um I just wanted to um as a part-time employee of the city of Fredericksburg visitor and information center um we had a lot of discussion even in this forum about the conflict and the potential kind of rubs between our tourism industry and our locals I would encourage you to go into the visitor center um there are a couple of my fellow employees here but just come and check us out and see what we have it’s a delightful building it’s a wonderful space um just what we have to offer and even if you’re a full-time resident we have things for everyone and it’s just just come and see what we’re about thank you pardon me just a quick question there’ve been rumors that there’s been some at least preliminary discussions with regard to the uh Ranger Museum Ranger Center there and possible uses of that since it appears that the use of that facility may be changing uh and the city might become involved or or a visitor center uh do you have anything you can mention on that uh we’re talking to the former Texas Rangers we had a meeting with their board uh a couple weeks ago and I think the mayor is putting together a follow-up letter so so again what what’s out there right now is is phase one of their plan they want to build kind of a Heritage Museum on that site um and that’s all covered as part of a a 380 development agreement with the city of Fredericksburg because that is city property as well um the issue with that is I believe the term of that is till sometime in 2025 so that’s our discussions right now we’re like you know y’all aren’t going to make that deadline what what is your your plan so they’re looking at a number of different options based on what we’ve heard it would it would result in an amended 380 development agreement so that’s something the council would have to consider I don’t know if they’re going to come present that to the council or what the plan is we’re kind of waiting on them at this point so it will not necessarily revert back to the city not necessarily but it it could um so are they current with their payments yes well there there’s no pay it’s just a a development agreement so it’s not like there’s a monthly payment um but yeah more to come on that as well I hope to know more by the next month or two any other questions or comments yeah uh good morning Bill Wagman from Heritage Hill Country about four Saturdays ago uh while I was out in the front yard Mo Milan had a heart attack put me right down put me right out and I’d like just to publicly thank all the First Responders Chief Lynn and his team police sheriff who all showed up and uh without their prompt action and their good work I wouldn’t be sitting here today so I just like to publicly thank all about glad to have you here um you know it’s amazing how many times we hear stories like that so well I I have a saying now that’s it’s always better to be seen than viewed that’s for sure so well I think that’s a good note to end on in July okay so I think we’ll still try to have an update on development and then I guess we’ll have Albert hotel here in July I think they still are planning to open for sure by the end of the year but what year so days yeah thank you all again for being here um and we’ll see you next month community in Fredericksburg is growing and we know that people choose to live here and for a very good reason it’s important that we have resources in place so that people can take care of themselves so so that our economy can keep moving so that this community can continue to thrive and this is our opportunity to help them stay well and stay part of the community as contributing members please join us in keeping fredicksburg and Gillespie County Special be Texas friendly share the road put litter in its place respect private property and protect our Dark Skies thank you for caring about our community [Music]

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