Why are sewer issues just now bring presented?
At the TWDB hearing March 28 2019 Susan Nenny spoke to the environmental issue of the Golden Cheek Warbler (which may or may not still be an issue in certain areas) making it impossible for the Wimberley Sewer line to be built should the sewer line be in the Blue Hole Park........especially during the months of Mar thru Sept. I find this so interesting as she never brought this subject up (neither did the TWDB) during application time as well as during sewer plant site selection time.....which as we all know was intended for the area where she saw Golden Cheek Warblers. Does this mean that Blue Hole Park out -door concerts will be put on hold during that Mar. to Sept. time should a Wildlife Biologist find the noise level to high????.
Mr. Andrew Weber spoke to the request of The Johnson Property being allowed to de-annex from the City of Wimberley and the amount of tax dollars the City would not be able to collect. It was noted the Johnson property is undeveloped and approximately 2/3 of the property is in the flood plain. The dollar amount lost will always be in question. There is a case study of a subdivision (near Corpus Christi) asking the court to be de-annexed when the city could not provide the subdivision with any utilities. This was allowed even with out getting city (Corpus) approval. I point this out as Wimberley has 2 such subdivisions having expensive improvements. Both would be eligible for de-annexation. If successful it would be a far greater loss of tax revenue than the Johnson property.
Additionally had Mr. Weber considered this he would have remembered the Meeks property long ago was given some freedom from hookups in order to get a sewer easement.
Last but not least the additional environmental issue of the Edwards Aquifer. I was in a meeting with Ms. Miller, Todd Chenwenth, Dain Larsen, Wimberley Mayor, etc we specifically addressed environmental
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issues and at that time nothing exciting was brought up. At the last minute this NOW seems to be an issue. However Ms. Miller, upon research, will fine that Wimberley is in the Contributing Zone of the Edwards Aquifer, NOT the recharge zone
Clearly Jeff Walker of TWDB did not know or does he recognize any consequences of the TWDB team when they attended a review meeting in Wimberley. In the spring off 2018 the team went on the fact finding mission as Wimberley’s then Mayor led some to think the wastewater plant was “shovel ready”. The unintended consequence of this meeting was the collection site was located under the wires of the PEC utility Co. making the site unacceptable. The lack of “review” by the TWDB member was addressed at the March 2019 TWDB meeting and at that time it was pointed out that the City took 8 1/2 months to purchase an alternate site. TWDB should be held accountable for this financially crippling event.
When Clay Schultz help with the Wimberley loan application he wrote that the loan was “weak”. Why is it now such a surprise to find Wimberley financially weak and TWDB needs more security. More unintended consequences????? Blue Hole Park has always had water available. Well water as well as wastewater from an on site sewer plant. Had anyone spent $400,000.00 the Park could long ago had Type 1 water for watering whatever.
In the private sector most of these issues would be examined and decisions made BEFORE “rushing to judgement”. These meetings usually would include not only the borrower and lender but those that were experienced in the fields of construction.... assuming all this in small communities. This has been a proven way to cut down on “unintended consequences” and certainly would help TWDB to save time and money therefore become good stewards of the tax payers monies.
Lila McCall