I Could be Wrong
by RAY WOLBRECHT
Growth in and around Kyle has been on my mind – and has been written about lately. But, in my opinion, the most ignored fact is that growth never pays for itself, resulting in much increased problems for those who lived here quietly before the growth and enjoyed the small town ambiance.
Kyle went on a buying spree over the past few years, and that includes some buildings that the city itself is funding. In my mind, that includes the new library being completed on Meyer Street. I asked Kyle City Manager Lanny Lambert the other day if he alone could have made the decision to accept the current design of the library, would he have done so. He said the building is pretty….(an evasive answer?). Then he told me that the city paid too much for almost every building completed during the boom. For instance the city barn was $1.3 million too expensive, he said. And its rock-veneered 2,500-gallon rainwater collection tank which is used to water the plants: how much was that little extra fluff?
Over a year ago when Kyle Councilmember Russ Huebner was a newbie, there was a meeting to discuss the new library. The architects were there and mesmerized the audience with their powerpoint. Then the floor was opened for questions. After such probing queries as, “Will it have WiFi?” and, “How many parking places?”, a man stood up and said, “I have two concerns but before I list them let me say that the library staff is incredibly attentive and falls all over you when you need library help. The library is the best deal for our tax money.
“But I am concerned that what will be built will be so gilded that its opulence will far exceed its function, like that palatial monster of glass, brick, rock and turrets in downtown Kyle that houses four fire trucks. Second, the city is $76 million in debt (about $2,800 for every person in the city) and has no business funding at this time a $4 million library. Retire some of the debt and then reconsider.”
Huebner asked then city manager Tom Mattis if a separate library fund could be started. Mattis said in his usual patronizing air of condescension, “It doesn’t work like that.” He shut down the new councilmember. The council voted to build the library now. Councilmember David Wilson’s reason for his vote? “A lot of people wanted it.”
Never was the question answered openly, “How do we pay for it?”
Go look at the library. The most financially efficient way to construct a building is to make it as square as possible with a simple roofline. Departure from this theme results in decreased floor footage with an increase of expensive perimeter walls. Note on the library the exotic metal roof. It’s a pretty sight but I’m guessing the fuzzy, feel-good design cost well over an extra million.
The library was just one example of a city manager and council that went hog-wild spending money and betting that building permit money would catch up to spending. Who did not see, long before the housing industry imploded, that something was not kosher in the way people were abandoning their houses when they saw they couldn’t make the first payment?
I am glad that Lambert shook some sense into the process of city finance. Taxes and fees had to be raised. The question remains – what’s that going to do to those who are barely hanging on to their house now? And will those taxes and extra fees go back down when the debt is under control?
This is the sad side of growth. Bad decisions were made. Let’s pray that those who have their hands on our wallets have learned something.
That’s what I think but I could be wrong, you know.
