By Alexis Aguirre
Buda residents had an opportunity to provide city council feedback on Nov. 12, on the bond initiative Buda voters passed last year.
Buda’s bond progress open house meeting was held at Buda Elementary Kunkel room; residents voiced their thoughts on Buda’s five ongoing propositions that were approved in November 2014.
The propositions are in the planning stages as the city gathers information on which matters Buda residents care about most.
The five bond propositions include municipal facilities, public safety facilities, streets, drainage and parks and trails. The five propositions were approved by 55 percent, 66 percent, 72 percent, 67 percent and 59 percent, respectively.
The total cost for these five propositions is estimated to be $55 million with approximately $21 million going toward municipal facilities.
The municipal facilities will include a multi-purpose building that will house a library, municipal court, city hall, along with an emergency-preparedness space and a community multi-purpose room.
The facility will be located on 8.6 acres along north Loop 4 near the Jardine Foods facility.
Citizens expressed opinions that they wanted to preserve Main Street and its character when expanding that road.
In addition, citizens also gave opinions on their ideas of how the municipal facility should be used.
“Often times you see bonds that are passed and those bonds just kind of sit on the shelf and they don’t get to them for many, many years,” Buda Mayor, Todd Ruge said. “We are determined. We are going to get these done quickly.”
Jonathan Sylvie, a representative from Page Architects, said the team is working to gather community members’ input prior to beginning the design phase of the facility.
“We are in the process now, we’re getting ready to design the buildings and we’re trying to get feedback from the community about what they value the most from Buda and what they want to see in the new facilities,” Sylvie said.
Environmental studies are currently being done based on the recent flooding to address the drainage problems.
Sylvie said no additional money has been added to this project yet and preliminary drawings of the building should be complete around December.
