by BRAD ROLLINS
Kyle officials are talking about calling a bond election in November to seek approval to borrow money to rebuild and widen major thoroughfares like Lehman, Bunton and Goforth roads and Burleson Street.
| Estimated construction costs for adding a center turn lane to four major thoroughfares in Kyle total nearly $26 million according to estimates compiled for the city by engineering firm Lockwood Newman & Andrews. The projects include: BURLESON STREET BUNTON/GOFORTH ROAD GOFORTH ROAD LEHMAN ROAD |
The total cost of the projects range as high as $26 million, according to preliminary estimates compiled by engineers, but members have not gotten as far as deciding which projects might be submitted for voter consideration if a bond election is called in November. Constrained by its new financial management policy that effectively prohibits the council from adding to the municipal government’s $73 million debt load, Mayor Lucy Johnson said the only real option for the needed road expansions was to ask voters for permission to sell general obligation bonds.
“I think that’s our only option if we want to see these roads done anytime soon, and by soon I mean within the next four or five years,” Johnson said. But she said she does not think the climate is right for asking voters to increase their own taxes and would rather pencil in a bond election for November 2012 instead of five months from now.
She was joined in that sentiment by council member Russ Huebner, the panel’s resident budget hawk and chair of the finance committee. Barring a significant boost to the property tax base, the city will have to raise taxes 16 cents by 2015 just to pay for debt already on the books, Huebner said.
“I think when that happens we’re going to all be unelected even though we didn’t issue that debt,” Huebner said.
But other council members lined up firmly in favor of sending the road bond issue to voters. Council members David Wilson and Brad Pickett said even if the roads are approved by voters this November, it will still be years before the expansions are designed, engineered and constructed.
“If you start today, it may be on the back end of five years before you get where you have to pay anything on the debt. The time to start this is right now. We’re talking long distances,” Wilson said. “We’re not sitting on our hands, saying the sky is falling. ... We’re moving forward with planning.”
Said Pickett, “I’m very much in favor of letting the citizens decide what the debt level is. ... If they’re willing to pay for it, I’m willing to put it in their hands.”
One of the roads could possibly be paid for with the aid of transportation money from the Federal Highway Administration. The council voted on Tuesday to apply for $4,168,000 in federal funds to cover 80 percent of the expansion of Burleson Street between Center Street and the Interstate 35 frontage road from two lanes to two lanes with a continuous center turn lane.
If the grant money is approved by the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, the city will be on the hook for about 20 percent of the project, about $1,042,200. (The council also voted to apply for $770,400 to add 3.4 miles of sidewalks and bike paths along FM 2770, Rebel Road and Center Street.)
Should the Burleson project not receive CAMPO funding, city leaders will have to decide between adding a turn lane to the road in its current route or realigning the thoroughfare to connect with Kyle Parkway. The city estimates the cost of rerouting Burleson to run along the east side of Union Pacific railroad tracks to Kyle Parkway via Marketplace Ave. will cost $7,548,000; the projected pricetag jumps to $9,931,000 for a different configuration that connects Burleson to Kyle Parkway west of the railroad track.
