Granite Shoals town hall to focus on repairs to main streets
JENNIFER FIERRO • STAFF WRITER
GRANITE SHOALS — The city of Granite Shoals is hosting a town hall meeting Nov. 14 to get feedback from residents regarding street repairs.
“We’re looking for input from our citizens on what we’re going to do about infrastructure in our city,” City Manager Ken Nickel said.
The meeting is 9 a.m. at the city’s fire station, 8410 RR 1431 West.
City council, staff members and the city’s street and water advisory group will be in attendance.
At the top of the agenda is the repair work on Phillips Ranch Road, Prairie Creek Road and Valley View Lane, which Nickel said are the city’s main arteries going north and south.
The Texas Department of Transportation sent five engineers to study Phillips Ranch Road, which is considered the city’s main street, to see what needs to be done and at what cost.
The projected cost “to do all of Phillips Ranch Road,” according to Nickel, is $1.7 million.
“The question is,” he said, “do we do it all at once or in sections?”
He added that one of the questions that must be answered is what does the city need in the next five to 10 years. That answer will help dictate how the city approaches these repairs.
“The mayor has challenged us and our street and water group to come up with a strategy to address the street concerns,” Nickel said. “(Phillips Ranch Road) is a good, solid street that can last 15 years … (with) the right foundation and paved properly.”
He envisions the meeting to be about brainstorming and discussion since some important decisions will have to be made in a short amount of time.
“We want (residents) to bring their ideas and bring their concerns,” Nickel said. “We’re going to ask questions about what we’re going to do.”
jfierro@thepicayune.com
4 thoughts on “Granite Shoals town hall to focus on repairs to main streets”
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It was a farce designed solely to help promote their quest for a bond election package for a single roadway Phillips RR. The other arterials were not included. Nor was any other streets etc. All questions or comments about other streets were directed only to city staff and the city Manager. The vast majority of this meeting was explaining the situation with Phillips RR and bonds options and only Phillips RR.
Despite their own data that showed Prairie Creek had more traffic and was in worse condition, it was ignored and not included in their bond efforts. In fact, their own papers statement was there was only 3 bond options they could come up with. These totally disregarded and there was no mention of trying to access available Federal and other State funds and grants for roadways and arterial roads.
The following statements from the article:
“We’re looking for input from our citizens on what we’re going to do about infrastructure in our city,” City Manager Ken Nickel said.
and
“At the top of the agenda is the repair work on Phillips Ranch Road, Prairie Creek Road and Valley View Lane, which Nickel said are the city’s main arteries going north and south.”
were lies and extremely misleading statements. Valley View was only mentioned one or two times.
The vast majority of the meeting and discussion was ONLY for and about Phillips RR and bonds. One option was to add a $20 per mth charge to every one’s water bill to help pay for that single remodel of Phillips that would not benefit most tax-payers and citizens of Granite Shoals. The other roads Prairie Creek and Valley View were NOT included. Maybe it is time for the non-resident, non-property owner, non-family affected, and non-tax-paying City Manager to retire if that is all he can do.
The debt of this small and citizen income poor town is more than $13 million +interest and climbing and now the City Manager and council wants to pile on an estimated $2 million dollars more debt for a single street that has no real benefits for the vast majority of the citizens, while so many other neighborhood street problems and increasing potholes exist and are getting worse.
To advertise and state what was stated in this article as the purpose of the Town Hall meeting then to not do it in deference to a blatant Bonds plea about and for a single roadway is absurdly inconsistent with ethical standards and actions. Not a single mention of even trying for any grant support funding was mentioned until a attendee said something. So why, one must ask, was the vast majority of the meeting about one single street and only bonds to pay for it instead of the other street and roadways issues and other funding options? What are they afraid of… or are they just incompetent and/or do not care about the rank & file citizen Tax-payers. Since this was a called meeting of the council and a committee, there should be a recording of it that people really need to hear the truth and facts. The again, considering the deception of this meeting, I think the recording device may have malfunctioned or someone forgot to plug it in.
CAVEAT EMPTOR !
The city was provided with resources and support options more than a year ago and rejected them. The Streets and Water Committee had recommended not to try to resurface Prairie Creek Road until these matters were studied and directions decided, however the city wasted thousands of dollars and “man-hours” doing it anyway. This meeting is most likely a ruse planned some time ago to have a excuse to borrow $2 million or more in bonds and add to the extreme city debt as they have several times before. One of the most highest per capita debt ratios in Central Texas. They have also apparently rejected available Federal funds. This is all similar to the previous Sewer meeting disaster. Something is amiss for the Horseshoe Bay wannabes, After all, Council members are elected and City staff is paid to figure out these things and find ways to do them. So either they are either ignorant, lazy, or looking for an excuse to get more money after raising taxes 3 times in less than 2 years. Look what the taxpayers hav gotten for their money so far. The most expensive Police force to protect the most expensive city hall in the Highland lakes region. Maybe should spend money on the people’s wants and needs instead of their own little petty games.
Thank the Lord in Heaven!! This meeting and gathering of input from the residents on the road situation in GS is LOOOOOONG overdue. I’ve in been in Granite Shoals since 2013. When I looked around and realized that the city is collecting taxes from some 5,000 residents, and some of the largest thoroughfares in town were in worse condition than some of the poorest parts of Burnet, a town with not too many more residents than Granite Shoals, I knew something was seriously wrong. All of that Tax revenue is going somewhere, but I’m not sure where…..So glad they are ready to listen to others about it….
Like you said, you have not been in GS very long to understand how the system works. Like you, there are a great many of us 4,932 est. citizens that would wish they actually listened. This problem could have been worked on and much fixed a long time ago. You are also correct… where does all that tax money go? Up until this past year, in $6 million dollar budgets only about $100,000 was for streets, culverts, etc. They have even been buying and financing heavier city vehicles due to what they said was damages caused by the streets. WOW! Like the citizens vehicles do not matter? They were provided funding options and have not lifted a finger to get them. Same like they did for the infamous sewer system bond failure. The EPA would have built the entire sewer plant with a grant, like several other small towns in Texas have done. The Fed Commerce Dept would help fund the major arterial needs they want to talk about but despite having the information and access, they have not tried. By the way… this small town of only 4 1/2 sq miles and with the poorest family incomes in the region, has a more than $13+ million dollar debt and rising despite the 3 tax increases…. Hope you got questions and solutions ready when you go to that meeting. Sincerely I do hope they will listen and do positive. History says no but we can always hope.