Candidate debate hits on heated sewer topic
The six candidates vying for a spot on the Wimberley City Council debated at the League of Women Voters candidate forum last week.
Obviously, the city’s sewer system was the hot topic for much of the evening.
Three candidates backed the city’s current plan to send effluent to Aqua Texas. The three other candidates talked positively about the city-owned treatment plan, but saw potential issues with both plans. No council candidate committed to reversing course back to the original city-owned treatment plan at this point though three said they were open to evaluating the options.
(Editor’s Note: The following answers were taken from different questions related to the sewer system. The Wimberley View attempted to take the most full answers given by individual candidates on the issue. To listen to the complete debate visit www.wimberleyvalleyradio.org/archive-vault)
“From my perspective I feel like what we have to do is assess where we are,” Rebecca Minnick, candidate for Place 1, said. “We don’t have a change of scope yet. We are still in the original (city-owned treatment) plan. I am a pragmatic person. I don’t want to spend another nickel on another new plan. We need to see what the environmental study yields and see how it works out with water development board conversion of the bonds. I don’t want to play ping pong wit this any more. I don’t want to play any more games with our businesses who are relying on this. We should have been flushing by now. Time is of the essence. That is the main factor for me. The time and money.”
Tim Dodson, who is also a candidate for Place 1, said that he was “100 percent” sure he would continue with the plan to have Aqua Texas treat effluent for the city.
“First of all, I think the sewage system is in a position that has been taken around the horn enough,” Dodson said. “It is time to get it done. We have people waiting on it… it is close to being done. I live on the river, and my main concern is discharge into the river. That was my main concern when I first started getting involved in city government… As far as how we handle the sewage, and how we take care of keeping it in a proper format of keeping it out of the river... we don’t need to discharge waste into any waterways. The fact of the matter is I don’t think we need a discharge permit.”
Wimberley Mayor Susan Jaggers, who is running for Place 3, said she would continue with the Aqua Texas plan.
“This has been a contentious issue for years,” Jaggers said. “What I would do is definitely stay on course for what the water board has approved as our change of scope (the Aqua Texas plan). We will have no plant. We will have an environmentally more effective way to process our sewer.
It will be more affordable. And we can put this can that has been kicked down the road.”
Christine Byrne, who is also running for Place 3, supported the city-owned treatment plan, but said that the city may be too far down the path to Aqua Texas to turn back.
“I have always thought the city plan was the better plan,” Byrne said. “I wish we would have moved forward with that back in May; however, we are in a completely different situation now than we were a year ago. A change has not occurred yet and that is my line in the sand. Once a change order occurs from TWDB, I don’t believe there is any move forward with the city plan it will be Aqua Texas. But that hasn’t happened yet… Time and money, I would not want to spend any more money. There are possibly insurmountable barriers to moving forward with the city plan. I don’t know where we will be come May
5. There is a lot that can happen in the next three weeks.
Erik Wollam, who is running for Place 5, said that he is in favor of the Aqua Texas plan.
“I told you why I was doing this,” Wollam said. “It is to protect the Blanco River. It is no discharge. In the late 1980s the Texas Water Development Board put out publications saying that the best way to protect the Blanco here in Wimberley is land application of effluent. In 2002 the city’s master plan and the 2004 engineering study that came out about wastewater stressed the need for no discharge. What happened between 2004 and recent years? The city lost sight of protecting what is most dear to us and that is our waterways.”
Bo Bowman, who is also running for Place 5, said that he sees significant issues with both sewer system plans.
“Once again, I am going to call for those (public on the sewer system options). I don’t even know at this point if you could go back to the original city plan. The delays and the cancelations and the loss of some of the grant money probably make it impossible. But I also know in 2015 the state legislature took some very determinative action to limit the issuing of bonds through certificates of obligation. I think it is going to be a massive issue to get (the Aqua Texas plan) financed. The Aqua Texas plan has huge problems and that is why I keep asking if you could come in here and have the information out on the tables how both sides could be financed or if that is even possible. Lets get together in this room and figure it out together.”
To listen to the complete debate visit www.wimberleyvalleyradio.org/archive-vault.