Treatment plant’s continued pause
The Wimberley City Council extended the pause on the Black Castle contract, which is for the treatment plant portion of the sewer project, for another 30 days.
Wimberley Mayor Susan Jaggers said the justification for the continued pause is that Black Castle has not submitted the appropriate documentation for the city’s engineer to review and approve payments.
“The engineer has currently disapproved the applications from what we have paid them so far,” Jaggers said. “…We have given him plenty of time to come forward with the payment justifications.”
Jaggers said that the payment justifications are required in the contract and by the Texas Water Development Board and that the city’s engineer must approve the payments. She said Black Castle has not submitted all of the required documents yet.
The city also withdrew money from the Blue Hole Regional Park Fund to the Wastewater Fund in order to pay for the first interest payment on the Texas Water Development Board loan.
In total, a little more than $65,500 was pulled from the fund. Councilmember Allison Davis voted against the measure stating the she believes the Blue Hole fund “has generally been kept sacred and is for the development improvements of the park.” She advocated for the money to be pulled from the City’s General Fund.
Jaggers stated that the money had to come from Blue Hole per the TWDB agreement and that the city could consider replenishing the Blue Hole fund during the next budget cycle, which comes up in the next few months.
The council also reorganized multiple boards and commissions. The changes were made to the Parks and Recreation Board and Transportation Advisory Board. Terms are now one year, instead of two years, and board members can only serve for four consecutive terms. This does not impact the currently appointed board as the four-year rule starts from this point forward. It is required that at least four of the six members live within the city limits. Up to two appointments could reside within Hays County but outside the city limits. The council also cut the total number of board members from seven to six. Each member of the council and the mayor get one appointment.
On the Parks and Rec Board, the six appointments are Mike Stevens, Gary Pigg, Mark Bursiel, Merry Gibson, Bex Hale and Matt Meeks. Previously, there was a consensus appointment that was referred to as the “Friends of Blue Hole” appointment to the board. That position was removed so Marilee Woods is no longer on the board.
On the Transportation Advisory Board, the six appointments are Michael Murphy, Gary Callon, Bobby Dettmer, Mike Crowley, Mike Moeller and Ruth Mince. Rachel Emry was the consensus appointment, and therefore is no longer on the board.
The council also updated the members of the Hotel Occupancy Tax Committee. In previous weeks, the council reverted back to the makeup of the HOT Committee from 2015, which is a seven-member board with four appointments from the Wimberley Valley Tourism and Lodging Association and one representative from each of the Chamber, Wimberley Valley Arts and Cultural Alliance and Wimberley Merchants Association.
The appointments for the HOT Committee are Clay Ewing, Julie Ray, Traci Ferguson, Mark Bursiel, Lois Mahoney, Dan Sturdivant and Natalie Meeks.
The city also revived the Wastewater Ad Hoc Advisory Committee, which was decommissioned previously. The advisory committee is to “aid in researching, planning, organizing and communicating the Central Wimberley Wastewater Project,” according to the resolution.
The members appointed to the advisory committee are Maridel Martinez, Kirby Atwell, Deborah Koeck, Tom Keyser and Chris Oddo. Phil Collins is expected to be the final appointment.
A short term rental review committee was also established to look into short-term rentals in the community that are not currently in compliance with both the city and possibly state law.