The Whitney City Council met in a special session Thursday, July 31, and discussed a grant resolution for a local park project, moved forward with a master drainage plan for the city, heard about a community volunteer initiative and discussed other business.
The park project has been an ongoing effort spearheaded by the Lake Whitney Lions Club, Mayor Janice Sanders, Tami Gardner and Christie Rogers. Fundraising has been underway to create a new park area near the old tennis courts close to Whitney City Park. This site was seen as an ideal place to create a new park because the city owns this property, while the City Park is leased from the Corps of Engineers.
Gardner said that the effort began as a cleanup project but grew into the idea of creating a park area outside of the City Park. Operations Director Billy Pribble said that doing anything on Corps land requires a laundry list of federal regulations to be met, and even trying to plant a tree to create shade at the playground was subject to the bureaucratic process.
If all phases of the new park plan are completed, the area would ultimately include a splash pad, dog park and other features, but the cost of the current phase-one proposal, which would create a playground, is $281,001. Project organizers proposed seeking a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department grant that would cover 50% of that cost, but the grant would require the council to pass a resolution committing to providing the other half.
If the city approved the resolution, it would be responsible for providing $140,501 towards the project. While the goal is to have this completely funded through donations, a funding gap of about $92,000 remains, and the council discussed whether to commit to the project while fundraising is ongoing.
After discussing the issue in executive session, the council took no action to approve a resolution when open session resumed. After the closed session, council member Amy Teal said that the city did not have the means to make the commitment, but she hopes the effort continues and builds momentum. Grant applications are accepted annually, and the city can consider the issue again next year.
The council voted to move forward with a three-year master drainage plan process after considering two options presented by Westwood Engineering in June.
Westwood was selected by the city as the engineering firm to develop the drainage plan through the FEMA Resiliency Program. The plan will help the city address drainage issues, which will allow effective street and sewer work to be performed.
“I think it’s imperative we understand the impact drainage has on our roads,” said Pribble. “If we don’t get the drainage taken care of, it doesn’t make sense to spend a dime on our roads.”
In June, a Westwood representative told the council that there are two FEMA grants that could benefit the project by providing 90% federal funding with a 10% local match. There may be additional money available from the Texas Water Development Board to reduce the local match. Westwood reported that the city has a good chance of securing funding for the project.
The firm presented two options, one with a higher upfront cost of at least $114,795, and another with a lower upfront cost of just under $16,000. The plan with the higher upfront cost would have construction ready to begin in three years, while the lower upfront cost plan would take six years until construction.
The council voted to move forward with the faster option due to the importance of the plan, with Teal voting no and all other members in favor.
Council members also approved seeking proposals for grant administration services regarding a Resilient Communities Program grant through the Texas General Land Office that requires no match or out-of-pocket expenses. If received, the funding could be used to create a comprehensive plan. The plan would include studies of infrastructure, population, housing, land use and capital improvements. It would also provide updated mapping of streets and water and sewer lines.
Rob Barthen of GrantWorks told the council that the plan would be a forward-looking document that would provide a road map for the city’s future as administrations and council members come and go.
Pribble said that the last time a building and capacity study was performed in the city was 2000. “We are in desperate need of this,” he said. “With this being a no-match grant, it seems like a no-brainer.”
The council discussed an agenda item brought up for discussion by council member Vicki Wilson, who said she would like to organize a group of volunteers to help with projects inside the city limits, such as helping people who are unable to care for their lawns and other community cleanup efforts. She proposed setting September 6 as the first cleanup day.
Mayor Sanders said that she had hosted previous meetings on community beautification and enhancement, and while there were a lot of good ideas, nobody stepped up to lead the effort. “I think it’s a great idea,” she said. “I think it’s a much-needed program in Whitney because we have so many people who can’t take care of their properties. If there’s anything we can do to make this happen, we should definitely do that.”
Pribble agreed, calling it an excellent idea, but he said that the details regarding how properties would be nominated and how people would sign up to volunteer need to be decided.
The issue was discussed further in executive session. After open session resumed, the council took no formal action, but Teal pointed out that this freed up the community service project to continue unimpeded by city constraints.
The council heard a citizen’s agenda item submitted by David Caster, who is concerned about upgrades underway at Texas-New Mexico Power Company’s substation on Trinity Street.
Caster said that the upgrades are impacting residents, businesses and the downtown landscape. He said that two 100-foot towers went in overnight, and there is now another 100-foot tower on a large base close to his business and home. He expressed concerns about the area being an eyesore, its impact on property values, heavy equipment traffic damaging Trinity Street, drainage impacts and floodlights that shine in his windows.
TNMP Director of Operations Clint Bryan addressed the concerns and said that representatives recently met with the city and county about the project. Bryan said that the substation had undergone decades of patchwork maintenance while larger cities received more attention. “We’ve gotten to a point where a lot of facilities in smaller communities are reaching the end of life, and it’s incumbent upon us to replace these facilities to maintain reliability and improve service for the community and increase load capacity for future growth and development,” he said.
He said that when replacing a 70-year-old transmission structure, it is prudent to replace it with something that is going to extend the life of the transmission line, which is why the old wooden poles are being replaced by large steel poles.
Bryan said that Mr. Caster has been very polite, and TNMP had been working to address his concerns as much as possible.
He explained that every improvement being done is within the current substation’s footprint and is not an expansion. While the work is ongoing, there is a mixture of old and new infrastructure until everything is fully switched over and modernized.
Addressing the road conditions, Bryan presented pictures revealing that the road was deteriorating steadily prior to TNMP beginning its work, but he acknowledged that the equipment could impact the road. TNMP plans to install an asphalt base and resurface South Trinity Street from East Polk Avenue to the intersection of East Washington Avenue, which will improve conditions until the city performs more permanent street repairs.
Bryan said that the project has not changed the shape of the street or drainage, and he said that the floodlights were adjusted to point down to minimize impact on neighbors.
Bryan said that Caster purchased property that had a transmission pole almost on his doorstep, and it is not something that can be moved to another area when it is upgraded from the wooden pole to the larger steel pole. He said that TNMP is moving the pole 18 feet further away from Caster’s building than the current pole, but that is as far as it can be moved because it would cause engineering difficulties.
Caster also asked for some type of screen to be placed around the facility to improve the look of the area, but Bryan said that the substation has never been wrapped and it would not do much good because of the height of the equipment.
“I believe we’ve addressed Mr. Caster’s concerns as far as we were able to accommodate,” Bryan said.
In open forum, Stephania Shelby spoke about animal control, saying that she and two other volunteers have trapped 30 stray cats and had them spayed/neutered and either released or placed in homes since May. Since August 2024, they have addressed 76 stray cats. She said that the city continues to have an issue with stray animals, but that there are people still working behind the scenes to improve the situation.
The council’s next regular meeting date is Thursday, August 21.
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