Brittany Kelley
KYLE — Kyle City Council approved items relating to roundabouts, the upcoming community center and fiscal year 2025-26 budget at its Sept. 16 meeting.
Kohlers Crossing roundabouts
According to director of Transportation and Public Works Mike Trimble, earlier this year, in April, council directed the city manager to negotiate a contract with American Structurepoint for roundabouts at Kohlers Crossing, which includes a preliminary summary of information, a 30% plans, specifications and estimates schematic design, an environmental review, supporting public involvement, analyzing traffic data, performing surveying and mapping and completing surface utility engineering.
The roundabouts included are located at Kohlers Crossing and Marketplace Avenue and Kohlers Crossing and Kyle Crossing.
“These contemplate two-lane roundabouts at these intersections,” said Trimble. “The schedule for this is a seven month schedule to perform the services and so, if we were to start these services in the October time frame, we would anticipate finishing up these services in April of [20]26.”
Regarding the timeline, council member Lauralee Harris questioned why it would take so long for only a portion of the project, but, according to Trimble, a big driving point to the schedule is the fact that there are right- of-way utilities to be dealt with. The full project would take an estimated year and a half, he said.
“Those intersections are so dangerous. I see cars almost get hit all the time and, in fact, they do get hit on those intersections because they are blind; there’s a hill there. I just would appreciate getting these moved quickly,” said Harris.
Echoing this same sentiment was council member Michael Tobias, who shared that he has also experienced immense traffic in these areas.
“As far as the design of these specific roundabouts, one of the things that we’re going to be primarily focused on is the truck traffic through here,” said an American Structurepoint representative.
The item to approve the contract in the amount of $954,259 was approved 5-0. Council member Bear Heiser and Mayor Travis Mitchell were absent in this portion of the meeting.
To coincide with this project, council also approved 5-0 three uses of eminent domain for properties owned by Plum Creek Homeowners Association, Cluck Yeah LLC and A+ Federal Credit Union.
Kyle Community Center renovation
The property located at 1500 Dacy Lane was originally purchased by the city in December 2024 and council has since approved a contract with Brinkley Sargent Wiginton Architects and approved the multi-flex design option. Following this, bids were opened for construction, which included six multi-purpose rooms, a catering kitchen, lobby area, caretaker rooms and more, in July and closed in August. The multi-purpose area, if fully opened, said Parks and Recreation director David Lopez, could accommodate up to 300 community members.
Four proposals were submitted to city staff and, ultimately, Trimbuilt Construction is being recommended by staff.
“Why we picked Trimbuilt was because they had the most expertise on file for the project, comparable expertise. They seem to have a strong delivery rationale for the timeline,” said Lopez, who shared that the project could be completed by March 2026.
According to Lopez, the timeline has shifted from the January 2026 move in date to March to allow for unforeseen variables to be accounted for.
“We want to push as quickly as we can, while also making sure that we get a quality product. So, we believe that extra 30 to 60 days that we’ve talked about in the schedule allows us to do that,” said city manager Bryan Langley.
The base bid was at $3,330,075, according to agenda documents, but three additional projects were added by staff and required council direction:
• $2,228 for additional parking lot island planting and raised landscape planters around the building
• $3,493 to provide limestone benches
• $410,647 for motorized operable partitions in lieu of manual partitions in the facility
This would bring the total for all three additions, as well as the base bid, to $4,495,731.60, including a 20% contingency.
“I hope that everybody realizes that we didn’t forget our seniors; we didn’t forget the community. We’re actually investing heavily in both and it’s something I’m really glad that we were able to do as a city: keep our promise to our seniors and our community. So, I’m looking forward to moving forward on this project. I want it to come to fruition as fast as possible,” council member Robert Rizo emphasized.
The item to approve the contract with Trimbuilt Construction for an amount not to exceed $4.5 million was approved 5-0.
In addition to the other items, council also approved the $603 million budget 6-1, with Tobias dissenting for the 77% water rate increase that is affecting residents who live outside the city limits. In addition to the budget, council unanimously approved the new $0.5957 per $100 tax rate.
