If Saladoans never see another orange cone after 2020, it won’t be too soon.
The year 2019 in Salado has been marked by the ubiquitous symbol of “Under Construction” with construction ongoing in several different areas.
Salado Sewer system
The Salado sewer went on-line on April 2. but not without its issues, namely a lack of customers tying on to the sewer system. As of Nov. 30, 55 customers had filed building permits to connect to the sewer, less than 40% of the 130+ initial customers.
On Feb. 24, work began to extend the Salado sewer to the Salado ISD properties on Thomas Arnold and Salado School Roads and on Williams Rd., even though the properties had not yet been annexed into the Village. The properties were formally annexed into the Village in mid-year. They were connected to the sewer over the summer break as work began on the Salado Middle School.
Salado aldermen in February approved a proposed professional services agreement with Jacobs/CH2MHill for the management and operation of the Village of Salado Wastewater System that will cost an estimated $161,000 per year.
Under the agreement, the firm will be responsible for the daily management, operation and maintenance of the new wastewater system.
In March, less than two weeks before the sewer service became available to a limited number of Salado properties, the Board of Aldermen adopted the following sewer rates: Residential rates of $20 base and $8 per 1,000 gal; Low Impact non-residential rates of $40 base and $11 per 1,000 gal. and High Impact non-residential rates of $60 base and $16 per 1,000 gal.
After taking up the issue of Impact Fees early in the year, aldermen relented on impact fees applying to existing properties in the service area by amending ordinance 2018-12 Impact Fee ordinance and ordinance 2018-13.
The amendment to ordinance 2018-12 Impact Fee ordinance does two things:
1. It will not apply impact fees to properties with existing structures within the initial service area.
2. It will increase the impact fee per Living Unit Equivalent to $5,125 from the $3,750 rate adopted in Aug. 2018. The Impact Fee Study in 2018 recommended an Impact Fee of $5,125 per LUE.
Ordinance 2018.13 was amended in the second reading as well. It changes the following:
1. Sets a criminal fine of up to $100 per day and a civil penalty of $50-110 per day. The limit of the fines is set at the total cost of impact fees based on usage by that property. For a property that uses just one LUE, the limit of fines would be $3,750. For a property that uses 10 LUEs, the fines could be as high as $37,500.
2. Continues to allow the Village to connect a property which fails to connect and to collect reimbursement for the costs associated with connecting a property.
Aldermen also authorized village staff to issue full refunds to existing properties that have paid any or all of the imposed impact fees. The motion passed unanimously. Ferguson told aldermen that this totals about $195,000.
Aldermen also set a deadline of Feb. 29, 2020 for the properties in the initial service area to connect to the Village sewer system. Cole gave the motion, which received a second from Preston-Dankert. It passed unanimously.
“What date after the 29th are we going to set? We’ve dangled the carrots, been nice and extended the deadline, gotten rid of impact fees,” Alderman Michael Coggin said, “There are still a lot of people out there who have no intent of paying any attention to the deadline. Are we going to go to the mat with these guys and start assessing fines?”
Annexations, subdivisions,
other growth in Salado
With the availability of sewer service, the Village anticipates considerable growth in the coming months. Thus far, the Village has annexed only one property (of 54 acres) that will be subdivided into residential lots of approximately 0.25. acres in three phases for about 171 new homes.
Meanwhile, the Village is still waiting for promise of Sanctuary growth to materialize. Told by the developer that the property will break ground in September (2019), the Village is still waiting. The Village did learn a few things about Sanctuary in 2019. First, that the commercial and mixed use parts of the development will not be developed first, as was expected during the negotiations that led to the annexation of Sanctuary property and the gift of six acres for a sewer treatment plant uphill from the majority of its customers. Instead, Sanctuary first applied for development of residential properties off of Royal. Aldermen viewed the first construction plat for the development in August. At that time they learned Sanctuary Phase I will be purely residential and will exit the property on Royal Street across from the Salado United Methodist Church. Phase I will have 15 lots of 0.08-0.1 acres in size, 157 lots of 0.1-0.2 acres in size and 20 lots over 0.2 acres in size. It will also have 20 acres of open space. Later in the year, aldermen learned that Phase I is being scaled back to 40 homes for a start.
In June, Salado Airport held an Open House to unveil plans for the 50-acre private airport with a 3,500 foot grass runway.
Salado Airport LLC purchased the property and is selling 75 hangar lots and hangars as Salado Airport Condominiums. Lots are 100-year land lease with a renewable 50 years. Phase 1 has 75 lots listed ranging in price from $52,500 to $119,920. Lot sizes vary with some being 55 feet by 71 feet.
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has issued a preliminary decision on a wastewater discharge permit by ML DEV, LP and Mr. Louis Tsakiris for a wastewater treatment facility with an average flow of 250,000 gallons per day. The facility will be located approximately 4,200 feet east of the intersection of Hackberry Road and Interstate Highway 35, in Bell County, Texas 76571. The discharge route will be from the plant site to a roadside ditch, thence to South Darrs Creek, thence to Darrs Creek, thence to Little River in Segment No. 1213 of the Brazos River Basin. TCEQ received this application on April 23, 2019. In its preliminary decision, TCEQ Commissioners stated: “A Tier 1 antidegradation review has preliminarily determined that existing water quality uses will not be impaired by this permit action. Numerical and narrative criteria to protect existing uses will be maintained. This review has preliminarily determined that no water bodies with exceptional, high, or intermediate aquatic life uses are present within the stream reach assessed; therefore, no Tier 2 degradation determination is required. No significant degradation of water quality is expected in water bodies with exceptional, high, or intermediate aquatic life uses downstream, and existing uses will be maintained and protected.” The comment period on the initial decision ended on Dec. 23. A permit may be issued in 2020.
TCEQ issued a wastewater discharge permit to Pampa Investment Group LP, for the discharge of treated wastewater at a volume not to exceed a daily average flow of 300,000 gallons per day. The domestic wastewater treatment facility is located 2,000 feet northwest of the intersection of FM 2484 and I-35. The discharge route is from the plant site to an unnamed tributary; thence to Salado Creek. The permit was issued July 2. Some clearing of trees have been done in the area for the Salado Commercial Center.
Mill Creek Golf Course
After pursuing rezoning of the Mill Creek Golf Course from Single Family Residential to Private Recreation in late 2018 and January 2019, the Village of Salado approved a Conditional Use Permit to operate the golf course. The CUP was presented prior to an executive session at a special called meeting of aldermen on Feb. 5.
The Planning & Zoning Commission voted 4-1 against the proposal to rezone the golf course property with K.D. Hill, Tom McMahan, Susan Terry and Ronnie Tynes all voting against and Larry Roberson voting in favor.
After informing nearby property owners, public hearings were held on the CUP and finally approved by the Board of Aldermen.
Not long after this, Mill Creek reopened the old supper club as The View at the Creek gathering venue. The facility will have capacity to seat more than 230 for dining. It will have a full bar through the Mill Creek Country Club license for groups, weddings, reunions and parties that lease the facility. The facility also has a set-up space for caterers. it opened in June.
The end of the year saw the announcement that the property at 109 Royal Street has been purchased by a group of Salado investors and will open in March 2020 as Rio Salado Cocina y Cantina.
Gail Allard also announced in December that Salado Glassworks will be staying in Salado, boosting the spirits of local retail businesses that have survived seven years of construction.
Main Street Construction
Work began May 6 on Main Street by placing debris barriers for the first phases of the year-long project.
Capital Excavation, the contractor for the $5.2 million project that will replace the Main Street bridge over Campbell Branch (near the intersection of Rock Creek Dr.) with a wider, longer, concrete bridge that meets current roadway safety and design specifications. The approaches to the structure will also be upgraded and replaced.
Additionally, the project will also include sidewalks, bike paths and street lighting and pavement upgrades at various locations within the project area of 0.98 mile on Main Street from Salado Plaza Dr. to College Hill Dr. north end.
Capital Excavation will have 40 days to replace the Campbell Branch Bridge with a start date of Jan. 5 2020. It will require a closure of Main Street in that area with traffic detoured from Main St. to Blacksmith from Thomas Arnold Rd. and Church St.
The project will have six foot concrete sidewalks on both sides of Main Street from College Hill to Salado Plaza Dr. From Thomas Arnold north to Salado Plaza Dr., the project will include bike lanes along the asphalt with striping to separate the bike lanes from the cars and trucks lanes. On the outside of the asphalted lanes will be concrete sidewalks and drainage.
The project will include work on drainage, including some closed storm sewer drains.
Some parking will be parallel and other parking along Main Street will be back-in angled parking.
Amity Bridge
Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) began a project to replace the CR 493 Bridge at Salado Creek, northeast of Salado on Feb. 25. Knife River Corporation-South, of Bryan, undertook this bridge replacement project at a cost of $1.2 million. The Amity Bridge reopened in late 2019.
Salado also saw the start of construction on the school bond projects. Turn to page 1B for more on that.
Salado Museum
The Board of Directors of the Salado Museum and College Park (SMCP) named David Swarthout as Executive Director for the historic museum effective May 1. One of his first projects was a month-long display on the history of editorial cartoons in Texas, sponsored by Salado Village Voice.
Chamber Banquet Awards
Salado Winery Co. was named the Business of the Year at the annual Salado Chamber of Commerce Awards Banquet. Paulette Chandler was named the Citizen of the Year. Claire Hartman was named to the Hall of Fame. Chris Hale presented Eldon Miller with the Chairman’s Award.
Gault site
Archaeology magazine named the Gault site and recent research from Texas State University that moves the date of the peopling of Americas back a few thousand years earlier as one of its choices for the Top 10 Discoveries for 2018. The Gault site is southwest of Salado in Williamson County.
“A new discovery from the Gault site, in central Texas, offers robust evidence not only for a much earlier peopling of the Americas, but also of a previously unknown tool tradition that is older and more varied than scholars ever expected,” writes Lydia Pyne in the January/February 2019 edition of Archeology magazine.
Salado salamander
The Center for Biological Diversity informed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in December 2018 of its intent to sue the federal agency for violating the Endangered Species Act when it failed to designate critical habitat for the Georgetown salamander and the Salado salamander when the FWS listed the two species as Threatened in 2014. On June 3, 2019, the Center filed suit in the U.S District Court for the District of Columbia against Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Local elections
Jeff Kelley was re-elected to the Salado ISD Board of Trustees and Amy McLane was elected to a three-year term on the board on May 4. Amber Preston-Dankert, John Cole and Rodney W. Bell were all elected to two-year terms on the Village of Salado Board of Aldermen.
Heroes honored
Salado police officer Chris Dunshie and State Trooper Daniel Michael were honored by the Village of Salado for their actions on Feb. 18 when they responded to a head-on collision on southbound IH-35. Upon arriving on the scene, they found two vehicles on fire, and the drivers trapped. Officer Dunshie climbed into the smoke filled back-seat compartment of one of the burning vehicles, and with the assistance of Trooper Michael, worked to free the trapped and critically injured driver, pulling her to safety saving her life. The officers were presented with proclamations for their life-saving act.
Salado native Allen Sirois was announced in 2019 as one of the recipients of the Carnegie Hero medals for his lifesaving efforts in reaction to a truck crash on I-35 in Belton. He crawled into the cab of a burning truck to save the life of Melvin Belcher.
New Chief
Saladoans took the opportunity to meet the new Village of Salado Police Chief Pat Boone during an informal reception on April 4. Boone started work in Salado on April 1.
April Fools?
Local property owners received their Bell County Appraisal District Notice of Appraisals and for some of them it seemed like a bad April Fools’ joke. Turns out, the increase of more than 30 percent in some reported cases in the Salado area, is no joke.
Looking forward
Looking forward to 2020, Marilyn and I hope that the orange cones disappear, that visitors can enjoy the safety of walking Main Street with the completion of that project, that businesses continue their upward growth and that as newcomers come to Salado, they find the same sense of community, giving and loving that we did 32 years ago.