Aqua Texas option back on the table
The Aqua Texas option is back on the table for the city of Wimberley’s wastewater treatment plant.
Wimberley Mayor Susan Jaggers held a “State of the City” town hall meeting last week that largely focused on the city’s financial health and the sewer system.
Jaggers showed City Administrator Shawn Cox’s financial estimates for the next five years. The estimates showed the city running deficits of anywhere from $270,000 to up to $430,000 a year.
Cox later said that these estimates were “quick and dirty” as the city has not yet started the budgeting process for next year. He said he assumed 1 percent growth for sales tax, which would be well below the city’s average over the last few years but above the growth rate the city is currently seeing in 2018. He also said he did not budget in any special projects into the forecast and used the most recent revenue projections for the sewer system.
“These are rough estimates,” Cox said. “(the projected deficits) can be balanced out with contributions from fund balance, we could re-appropriate money, assume higher sales tax or higher (sewer) revenues.”
Jaggers showed financials for each portion of the city’s sewer project and posed the question that the city may not be able to afford the project even with the loans and grants. She stated that the $1 million grant from the Economic Development Agency could no longer be used on the collection system because the city did not rebid the project when the lowest bidder pulled their bid. The grant could only be used for the treatment plant portion of the project.
Jaggers also thanked Peter Way for his commitment to the city through his $1 million grant. She posted a quote from Way reassuring his commitment.
“I want to assure you I intend to, and have never wavered in my intent to, fulfill my end of the bargain with the city,” the quote from Way said. “As you know I was integrally involved in the formation in Blue Hole Park, and my family roots in Wimberley run deep.”
The mayor then addressed the “elephant in the room” regarding Aqua Texas.
“If we go that direction we have to have an iron clad deal,” Jaggers said. “It’s not about what you deserve to get. It’s about what you negotiate. I’m not sure those parties (previous city administrations) negotiated so well.”
Aqua Texas President Bob Laughman confirmed that the city had contacted him recently about the possibility of using the company instead of building a treatment plant. He said the most recent offer from Aqua Texas made in June of 2017 still stands.
“The city would have to do a bit of a modification on their collection system on where it would tie into our system, but it would be very small,” Laughman said. “Other than that, they would retain responsibly for the collections system and construction. We would take the effluent and use the available capacity in our plant to treat the effluent. On top of that we have made the commitment that we would go ahead and not only upgrade our systems to get to type one levels, but with that we would make it available to the city to take that type one where ever they so desire.”
At this point, it is not clear what the cost would be to reengineer the collection system to tie in with Aqua Texas nor what the cost would be to construct the new addition. It is also not clear if the city would try and bore underneath Cypress Creek or tie the line under the Ranch Road 12 bridge over Cypress Creek, both of which would need permits from differing agencies. This change would also have to be approved by the agencies that have helped fund the project like the Texas Water Development Board.
The city has currently suspended the contract with Black Castle to build the wastewater treatment plant for up to 30 days. This does not impact the construction of the collection system, which is ongoing. Cox said the city has been “paid or invoiced” $749,398.40 from Black Castle as of Monday.
Both Jaggers and Laughman made it clear that the discussions with Aqua Texas do not involve the transfer of the city’s Certificate of Convenience and Necessity. The CCN is an area that the city has the rights to provide a specific service, in this case wastewater, and keeps other entities from being able to offer the service in the same area. Opponents of Aqua Texas have argued that it is important for the city to retain the CCN as they see it as a mechanism to control growth. Aqua Texas owns the CCN north of Cypress Creek while the city has the CCN for most of the area south of Cypress Creek.
At the meeting, around 30 people spoke. All but a few were against the city going with Aqua Texas.
“There may be an initial monetary cost up front, but the real cost is your rights,” Peter Lingamfelter said. “Your right to vote and change the service provided will be lost. There is nothing preventing Aqua Texas from changing the contracts, charging more and extending services at developers request… If you have a desire to retain the fabric of the community, you should retain the rights of the utilities.”
There were some in attendance that were in favor of going with Aqua Texas.
“I live on Mill Race Lane where all the property owners of Mill Race have pooled their funding to bring Aqua Texas down the lane to solve sewage leaking issues into Cypress Creek,” Mary Gibson said. “We haven’t asked anyone to pay for it. We are paying for it ourselves… I think it is abhorrent that I would subsidize someone else’s business growth with my hard earned money…I wish that all of us could find a way to realize that we love our creeks and rivers and our precious town, and we want to kept it that way.”
The city council held a special meeting on Tuesday afternoon with items relating to the Hotel Occupancy Tax, appointments to boards and commissions and the downtown restroom trailer. No items were on the agenda related to the sewer. The city council does not currently have another meeting scheduled until June 21.