ccswks 07-09-1997
SPECIAL hv~KSHOP SESSION OF THE CITY COUNCIL
JULY 9, 1997
The Schertz City Council convened in Special Workshop Session
on Wednesday, July 9, 1997 at 7:00 p.m. in the Conference
Room of the Municipal Complex, 1400 Schertz Parkway, Schertz,
Texas. The following members were present: Mayor Hal
Baldwin, presiding; Councilmembers Charles McDonald, Tim
Swinney, Norman Agee, Sr., Ken Greenwald and Joe Potempa.
Staff present were Assistant City Manager Steve Simonson, John
E. Bierschwale, Director of Public Works and Dolores Butler,
Deputy City Secretary.
11 HEARING OF RESIDENTS
No one signed up to speak.
12 Discuss policy and necessity for sidewalk
construction along PM 3009 and Schertz Parkway.
Mr. Simonson noted the memo and information provided in the
packet going back quite some time, a copy of the ordinance
that was changed in 1990 and the memo deleting sidewalks on FM
3009 and the overlay and Mr. Simonson's recollection of what
happened in the past. Si1vertree was being developed at the
time when Mr. Simonson first came to work for the City and
there was quite a bit of discussion of whether Mr. Vaughan
was going to build sidewalks in front of his property on FM
3009 or not. Mr. Simonson said he did not know who made the
decision not to, part of it was because of the overlay
greenbelt, part of it was because of what they perceived as
topography up and down that road which undulates so much. We
had been going on that premise all this time and the ordinance
was changed in 1990.
Mayor Baldwin said he guessed the question (has come up from
previous council meetings) how serious are we about sidwalking
FM 3009. Can we do it, do we want to do it first of all, do
we need to do it.
Mr. McDonald said his concern is the safety of youngsters
walking up and down FM 3009 in the daytime and evening and
there is nowhere for them to walk. The highway is poorly lit
and one of these days one of them is going to get hit, it
can't be avoided. Another concern is if we ever have to meet
the new emission standards EPA is coming out with, we may be
having to look at some kind of mass transit bus lines as we
grow. This is out 10 or 20 years; but we have to address
pedestrian traffic and somehow, save some lives. There is no
shoulder for vehicles to move to if they break down or and it
is dangerous to stop in a lane of traffic - if you run out of
gas you have to walk in the road.
Mr. Swinney said he wished
compensate for bike trails.
the state would at least
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Mayor Baldwin suggested getting a big van or something the
city council members could all get into and drive very slowly
down FM 3009 and all members together, take a look at 3009 and
from the standpoint of are there areas that would be
impossible to put a sidewalk. Everyone needs to get fixed in
their mind whether it is feasible to put a sidewalk down all
of 3009 or not.
Mr. McDonald said we need to insist that developers bring
their sidewalks out to the right of way so that if we do put
bus service in we've got sidewalks at least to the right of
way so people can get out there and get on a bus. Mr.
McDonald said he visualizes bus service because of emission
standards.
Mayor Baldwin said he saw a guy crossing from Deer Creek going
across headed for Dimrock, standing in the middle of the fifth
lane, waiting for traffic to clear to get across.
Mr.
that
that
McDonald said we are going to be seeing traffic
street going through to Deer Creek and Woodland
will provide some crosswalks.
lights at
Oaks, and
Mr. Greenwald said council had initially asked Kerry to find
out what the state law was on sidewalks. Obviously we haven't
got an answer back.
Mr. Simonson said from an informal phone call Mr. Sweatt
made, the state will work with the city if we want to
sidewalks in their right of way. Mr. Simonson said part
that area looks real nice in a level that follows the road
it slopes away, that grassy drainage area that becomes
maintenance area if we put something in.
had
put
of
but
our
/-
Mr. Agee said he hesitates to want to do anything that would
encourage more people to get out on foot on 3009. He would be
for putting up some kind of barrier to keep them from getting
out there. You don't see any sidewalks going up and down
other major highways. They do have shoulders and that is a
screw up on the state's part.
Mr. Greenwald stated he thinks "Mac" makes a good point ....
the streets from the subdivisions out have got to be
installed. Even if nothing else, if bus service does come in
the future, we can pour pads at intersections and make it a
bus stop.
Mr. Swinney said it sounds like to him that 3009 is almost
water under the bridge - we've built so much and gone so far
that there isn't much to do with that and we ought to
concentrate on areas of the City we can do something about.
Mayor Baldwin asked if he is hearing that we ought to forget
3009 and let it go the way it is?
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Mr. Swinney said actually, his philosophy is with "Mac";
however, the practical side .... can we afford it? There
seems to be a lot of opportunity on Schertz Parkway and Elbel
in front of the school.... things like that.
Mr. Greenwald wanted to know what would be wrong with asking
the next group of developers to put up 75% of the cost and
putting it in escrow.
Mr. McDonald said he saw nothing wrong with that - developers
on Schertz Parkway need to put into the sidewalk fund in front
of their development even though a lot of development has
already taken place, there is going to be more coming and what
we do collect is just that much less the City will have to
come up with.
Mayor Baldwin asked how we would explain this to new
developers - ask Ashley to do it voluntarily.
Mr. McDonald said we would ask them to voluntarily do it,
there is nothing in the rules that says we can force them to
do it but from this day forward, everyone will have to do it.
Just like Ashley place putting a road through to 3009, that
should have a sidewalk out to the 3009 and Schertz Parkway.
The subdivision behind H.E.B. has sidewalk on one side all
the way out.
Mr. Simonson said the developer of Forest Ridge was informed
of our ordinance, he landscaped and put that in and to save
trees, he's got about six feet of property on one side that
doesn't have the sidewalk and there are some drainage and
other areas and he's gone through the formal process of asking
a waiver. Planning and Zoning will be sending you that
request with the pictures and everything. I can tell you that
we've gone to developers of Greenshire saying they have to get
those sidewalks across the creek and up to 3009. Mr.
Bierschwale and I have gone back to Ashley Place and said on
Unit 2, get it down here. In Unit 1 the mistake was in not
making them turn it to come out Schertz Parkway. We got
Carolina Crossing.
Mayor Baldwin said if we are going to make future developers
escrow 75% toward the cost of sidewalks along Schertz Parkway,
Carolina Crossing and the two Ashleys have already gotten off
the hook.
Mr. McDonald suggested we go back and ask Ashley if they will
voluntarily put in sidewalks.
Mr. Potempa reiterated his concern about 3009 and the
dangerous conditions with people walking at night with dark
clothing. If nothing else, put a sign up stating that walking
on the highway is illegal. They can walk on the grass. We
need to do something to prevent a serious accident.
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Mr. Swinney said he didn.t think we could legislate people
walking in the street -- when it is flooding, they aren't
going to walk in the mud or in taIl grass. Do we need more
lighting?
Mr. McDonald said the lights are far and few between and are
pretty dim. He agreed with Mayor Baldwin that the council
members should drive out and look at it. He will check into
getting one of the small, air conditioned school buses and
whenever it is convenient, we can all drive down real slow and
take a look and take some notes. We probably ought to do both
Schertz Parkway and 3009.
Mr. Swinney asked the status of Lancaster's development.
Mr. Simonson said Mr. Sweatt sent him a letter just before
he left on vacation and Mr. Lancaster faxed Mr. Sweatt a
letter back today (he'd been out-of-town) and basically he has
come to the point where he is saying '1'11 give you the
money'. He's figured it out 4' wide by so many feet long from
his entrance out toward 3009 and is offering to pay the city.
Mayor Baldwin asked for a convenient Saturday to meet and
council agreed to meet at city hall on Saturday, July 19, at
8:00 a.m. An agenda will need to be posted 72 hours in
advance. Mayor Baldwin will see if the school can furnish a
bus and driver. It might be in line for the city to pay the
driver.
Mr. Agee
thing, if
wheelchair
said something to
we start trying
accessibility.
think about
to follow
on
the
this sidewalk
topography is
Mr. McDonald said he attended the bond
meeting last night and a lady wanted to know
sidewalks on both sides of the street in the
study committee
why there weren't
old part of town.
Mayor Baldwin recalled that the Urban Renewal project in the
old part of town didn't include sidewalks, it brought streets
and curbs and drainage and the sidewalks that are there are
the result of a grant that I think the City got years ago. It
was just enough money to kinda loop on one side through those
subdivisions.
Mr. Willman (Planning and Zoning) said the money came from
Urban Renewal. They asked the City what streets they wanted
sidewalks on and the City provided the names of the streets.
#3 CITY MANAGER'S REPORT: A. Mr. Simonson reported on
the formal briefing by Texas and FEMA people, attended by
Mayor Baldwin and himself today. They have come out with some
interesting things .... are passing out dual language fliers
telling what different areas can be eligible for and give
phone number to call. They take the assessments and nobody
gets in the system unless they start with this number. This
number has multi-lingual responders. A team of FEMA
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volunteers are going door~to-door and where they can't talk to
people, make sure they get the door-hanger package. They are
using the list we provided from our initial assessments and
are grateful to have that list; that is one of the things
that highlighted how well Schertz did its job - that we were
able, in a short period of time, to give them addresses, names
and initial assessments on the affected properties. FEMA will
be setting up recovery systems in Schertz and will be the only
one in this area. They expect to have the office (location to
be announced) open next week. There will be grants and low
interest SBA loans (basically 4% up to 8%), depending on
income, value of loss and other things.
Mayor Baldwin said they are offering IRS services for people
who may be able to write some of the loss off income tax,
extending 26 weeks of unemployment benefits to those who lost
jobs resulting from business being wiped out due to the flood,
housing assistance, rental assistance, money for clothing,
relocating .... one of the big things coming up is individual
participation (loans) and public assistance to counties and
cities who had road, bridge, park damage etc. It is a 75%-25%
split and it looks like we may qualify. The third thing is a
hazard mitigation program that will provide money to relocate
people who are in flood plain to buy their land, demolish
whatever is there and relocate them to other areas.
Mr.
they
up to
Simonson interjected that it is to relocate them or if
can be flOOd-proofed, can go in and jack their building
get them above the flood plain.
Mayor Baldwin said Bexar County Judge Krier said the county
would try to help us get some money to help clean up what
floated into the creek bed further down.
Mr. Swinney asked if flood-proofing or raising might help
with the low water crossing at Aviation.
Mr.
knows
water
Simonson
the FM
crossing
said that was not a likelihood as the state
78 bridge is going to be upgraded and the low
at Aviation is not the only ingress and egress.
John Bierschwale said there is a tiny, hairline crack across
the center of the bridge.
Mayor Baldwin said if the bridge is damaged and would be
dangerous, then it would be eligible for part of the bridge
money.
Mr. Swinney asked what it would take to get something done
about the low water bridge - money from the state, county?
Mr. Simonson said we have tried every avenue that we know of.
When FM 78 was being proposed Mr. Sweatt tried very hard,
extremely hard to get the highway to formally route traffic
and rebuild that bridge so it would stay out of the water most
of the time and raise the level. The estimated cost was over
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a million dollars and the highway department adamantly refused
to do that, although they know and we know that Aviation
Boulevard is going to be a mad house once construction is
begun on the FM 78 bridge.
Mr. McDonald asked if there was any feedback from the letters
sent out to mobile home park owners.
Mr. Simonson said Mr. Bill Carrol was in today and
information from Pecan Grove that they will comply with the
letter and we'll work with them. Frontier is a different
situation. They have some RV sites they might like to do
something else with the property. The process was explained
and Frontier is going to fully accept this in the flood plain
area. Pecan Grove plans to turn the property into a large RV
area and they have plans (all are not known at this time) to
remove the buildings up front which will probably be converted
to a mobile home sales area and RV center. On the Bexar
County side they are changing all their rules to allow people
to live up there and make it one of the better mobile home
parks.
Palms Apartments are being dealt with on a case-by-case basis.
They have been asked to have a surveyor survey their property
with elevations on it because nobody knew whether they were in
the hundred year flood plain or not. Their entire area - most
of the property - is right at the edge of the hundred year
flood plain. The way our ordinance reads is that if there is
less than 50% assessed damage of the assessed value of the
property it would be pretty hard to stop Mr. Figol from
rehabing; however, the City has advised it will do what it
can (under the FEMA programs) to see what can be done with
that property to bring it out of the flood plain or help them
relocate.
Mr. McDonald asked if the same applies to the day care
center.
Mr. Simonson stated the day care center is right at the edge
of the flood plain and we don't have an elevation there so it
would be very hard to say 'yes, we're in, no we're not'. They
are going to be allowed to rebuild because that is a gray area
over there but anyone who applies for loans is going to have
to get flood insurance whether they are in the flood plain or
not.
'4 ITEMS BY COUNCIL: A. Mr. Greenwald reported the
preliminary report on the Carizzo Wilcox water is fantastic
and the amount is just about as much as we want to buy. The
source is in the Leesville area. They are only looking at
preserving their farms. Crockett Camp is working on one set
of numbers for a 24" line from there to us which would give us
somewhere around a 20 to 25 year water supply at $1.50 per
thousand. We asked for another set of numbers increasing to
36 two 18's, some set of numbers that we can literally
create our own water district and sell water to area cities,
maintaining 51% ownership. When we got the first set of
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samples Johnny (b~erschwale) couldn't believe the mix.
Crockett Camp is supposed to bring us some numbers sometime
the latter part of this month or the first part of August.
Initially he was looking only at servicing the City of
Schertz.
The word is starting to leak out and I've told GBRA and Canyon
Regional and everyone that the City of Schertz is not going to
be dependent on a sole source of drinking water.
Mr. McDonald asked what would be the vehicle to pay for
financing.
Johnny Bierschwale said we could issue bonds or establish a
contract with the other cities and they would be obligated to
buy water.
Mr. Greenwald said there are any number of ways to do the
financing.
Mayor Baldwin said 'let's just say we did it and had all these
people signed up and all of a sudden, through some act or
should Canyon, LCRA or someone else come up with some real
cheap water from somewhere else and took all our customers
away, what would happen.
Mr. Greenwald stated the length of a contract agreement(s)
would be established for a period of time in order to at least
payoff the debt. If we don't get other cities to sign on,
we'll just build a little 24" line to service our citizens.
CRWA is pushing for contracts before the 1st of August.
intend to ask the Board the 11th of August to go out for
and their intent is to use our system, as they can't put
pipeline through a 12" ROW (FM 78).
They
bonds
a 30"
Mayor Baldwin asked where we are with CRWA and Mr. Greenwald
said as of yet, we haven't and don't intend to sign their
contract unless the contract amount is out of the firm yield.
Mayor Baldwin asked what that has to do with Canyon Regional,
to which Mr. Greenwald replied that we want to buy the water
ourselves. What they want us to do is agree to buy x number
of acre feet of water. That ties us to them as we would have
to treat it through their plant.
Mayor Baldwin stated that right now CRWA is just an option,
Carizzo-Wilcox is an option, and 1,000 acre ft is an option.
Mr. Greenwald said New Braunfels is probably a better option
if we have to do river water there is nothing wrong with
putting our own plant in.
Mr. McDonald:
needs cleaning
pretty good now.
A. Stated the area around the old shoe store
up with a weedeater. Otherwise, FM 78 looks
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Mr. PotemDa: A. Asked what happened to the structure fire
on Mill Street about 6:00 this evening. Mr. Agee said he
heard the white house on the corner across from Sonic caught
fire.
Mayor Baldwin said that is the one the city has to buy (for FM
78 ROW)l
B. Said a week ago (Monday) at the Board of Adjustments
meeting a Mr. James Long who lives in Freeway Manor,
approached him and told him the city of Schertz won't help the
property owners out there. He said he had sent a letter to
Representative Kuempel and Mr. Potempa requested a copy for
the city council review.
Mr. Simonson said Freeway Manor was platted in 1958 by the
same developer of that handled Wiederstein Road/13th Row. The
city obliged them, let them run their water lines and gave
them meters and tried to help them. Continental Homes still
owns quite a few lots in Freeway Manor. This was a deal where
they sold lots to people with a lot of promises and no
improvements. The people we are getting a lot of calls from
are JOhnny-come-latelys who are trying to divest themselves of
these lots, sell them very cheaply and people are coming in
asking for a water line. After driving up there, our
situation was if we allow willy-nilly development we will have
a spider mix of 1" lines running allover the place up there.
We have fire hydrants and water lines on IH-35 but the roads
cannot carry emergency equipment right now. Mr. Long has
been told that no more development is going in there unless
city ordinances are complied with.
Mr. Sweatt has been putting together all this information on
what areas were annexed because the original annex was weird
with a V up and V down that crossed part of Freeway Manor and
about four (4) or five (5) years later the city annexed some
of the frontage. Around 1990 we annexed the rest of the
property.
C. Advised that he is on vacation the 11th through the
but will attend the city council meeting and will bring
daughter and son-in-law who will be visiting.
19th
his
Mr. Swinnev: A. Stated he had a visit with someone who
observed the parade who gave a lot of negative feedback. They
didn't understand all the V.I.P.s and all the reviewing
stands, they felt the parade is possibly getting a little
commercialized. There is a lot of confusion regarding the
throwing of candy and it is his opinion that this was not
properly communicated to the entrants which resulted in
refusal of some to participate. Mr. Swinney suggested that
Mayor Baldwin or someone might want to write an article for
the newspaper explaining the reasoning behind the decision not
to allow candy to be thrown from floats, etc.
Mr. McDonald said he had received some feedback regarding the
commerciality, especially the announcer promoting businesses.
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Mayor Baldwin said the only complaint he heard was that there
was no food, but these are some things the Business
Association needs to take a look at. Sitting on City Council
and as a member of the Business Association, the day has
become bigger than they are capable of handling, considering
there are only two (2) people who are involved (Annie Almond
and Anita Clark) and they do it all.
Mr. Greenwald opined a three-day event is
Mayor Baldwin agreed; said because of
wanting to come in and set up for just one
into a two or three-day event.
just
the
day,
too much and
carnival not
it had turned
Mr. Swinney stated he feels we need to get rid of the
commercial stuff and get back to a one-day celebration. A lot
of these issues need to be addressed.
On the positive side, Mr. Swinney watched our fireworks and
Randolph's fireworks and they were of the same calibre. For a
lot less money, he thought the show was just as good even
though it was five (5) minutes shorter.
Mayor Baldwin stated we need to sit down with Annie and Anita
and their board and negotiate this thing out.
Mr. Potempa inquired if people going up and down selling hot
dogs, cokes, etc. are required to have vendor permits.
Mr. Simonson stated that anyone who sells food is supposed to
have a permit and health cards - said he would have to check
on that particular situation.
B. Asked about the $10,000 exemption for senior citizens, is
that in the budget? If it is, that should be emphasized in
our bond education, that we're trying not to put the burden on
the folks that can least afford it.
Mayor Baldwin said he thinks Mr. Sweatt is planning to do
that this year.
C. Stated we need to start looking at the deferred compo His
concern is what is it going to cost the city to administer
versus how many employees are going to take advantage of it.
Feedback is that not many employees are going to take
advantage of it. Has a survey ever been done of all city
employees on what they would like on a cafeteria plan or what
is important to them, or any educational fair on the
importance of saving?
Mr. Simonson said he would bring this to Mr.
attention.
Sweatt's
Mr. Swinney stated, if it is the consensus of the council, if
we are going to start talking about deferred comp, we probably
need to look at the comprehensive situation, and also, he'd
like to see some numbers of how employees feel about different
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things. I would frame it maybe two ways: a) are you willing
to pay for this; and b) do you think this is important if it
was affordable. Like any survey question, some of it depends
on how it is phrased. Mr. Swinney said he thinks a survey
would tell us where we need to allocate our resources and
maybe part of taking care of employees is education.
Mayor Baldwin stated an area where city employees really need
some help and he doesn't know how, but we really need to make
family medical insurance affordable.
Mr. Swinney, putting things in perspective, said he had
talked to USAA members in different states paying $600 to
$1,000 a month on premiums and what city employees are paying
isn't unreasonable.
Mayor Baldwin reminded Mr. Swinney, that if an employee is
only making $700, $800 or $1,000 a month it is unreasonable
and he would like to see the city come up with something that
would take an employees salary level and bring some effort on
our part from the bottom, as employees at the very lowest rung
who are heads of household and can't afford medical insurance
where the city pays some part of it. Maybe we need to get
with Bob Feike and work out some way to do that.
It was the consensus of the council to take this issue to the
employees and see what their response is.
Mr. Simonson said he would brief Mr. Sweatt on this and
bring him up to date.
'5 ITEMS BY MAYOR: Had nothing except that he enjoyed
the meeting.
.6 ADJOURNMENT
On a motion by Mr. Potempa and seconded b Mr. McDonald and
unanimously carried, the meeting was adjou ned at 8:58 p.m.
,
Mayor, City of Schertz, Texas
ATTEST:
[j~ ~~HR~
Deputy City Secretary, City of Schertz
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