The Village of Salado will elect a Mayor to a two-year term on May 7. Mayor Michael Coggin filed for a position on the ballot. Linda Reynolds has filed as a write-in candidate.
We asked the following questions of the candidates
Question 1: What do you foresee as the greatest challenge facing the Village of Salado in the next five to 10 years? If elected, what will your approach be to addressing that challenge? (200 words)
Question 2: With the change in annexation laws in Texas, what can the Village of Salado do to grow its boundaries? Should the Village try to grow its boundaries? Why or why not? (200 words)
Question 3: When other cities appeared to be annexing toward Salado, the Village accepting many annexation requests into the ETJ so that those neighbors would not be annexed into other cities. With the change in annexation laws, it appears that this is no longer an issue for those outlying areas. Should the Village release those areas? Why or why not? (100 words)
Question 4: Should the Village enter into an agreement with Bell County to take over the Subdivision approval process in the ETJ of the Village as several other cities in the county have done? Why or why not? (100 words)
Michael Coggin, PE
Question 1: Our greatest challenge in the next years is the GROWTH in and near our Village! The landscape in our area is already changing with new subdivisions starting. Traffic in our region is increasing and will continue to increase with the creation of Interstate 14 which means Salado is at the crossroads of two major interstates. FM 2484 and FM 2268 will need to be improved. Commercial businesses are looking to build in the area. If elected, I will use my engineering and community planning experience to position Salado to meet the growth challenges with focus on keeping our historic Salado small town feel. I will use my experience as your mayor to plan future budgets to maximize our tax dollars to provide efficient police protection, plan for traffic growth by providing improved roads and grow the number of our sewage customers to spread the cost of the sewage system bond debt and operations.
Question 2: The new annexation laws in Texas now correctly provide protection to individual landowners to keep cities from involuntarily annexing property. We are Texans and this is an inherent Texas right to choose to annex into a city or not. This also applies to Extra Territorial Jurisdiction (ETJ). I have as your mayor only worked with landowners who request to annex into our village. I have as your mayor only accepted areas for annexation that are GOOD for the landowner and GOOD for the Village. I am also taking steps to limit encroachment into traditional Salado areas by our neighbors. I am doing this by communicating with our neighbors, working on areas of concern and possibly extending our ETJ for our protection. Please elect me as your mayor to continue to protect our boundaries and provide smart growth!
Question 3: Should we keep our ETJ – the answer is a definite YES! We need to have a strong ETJ buffer around Salado to control development and prevent other cities from encroaching on our way of life.
We have the best Subdivision Ordinance in our area that controls how developments will be planned – lot size, road/traffic planning, fire protection requirements, parks and other key components of master planned communities are all included in our ordinance.
Question 4: NO – the Village should not allow Bell County to take over subdivision approvals! (We really should take over Bell County subdivision approval authority…) We have a much stronger Subdivision Ordinance than Bell County. We require the largest lot size in the area for home construction that is on a sewage system. We require finished roads with drainage, sidewalks and other safety features to provide an outstanding quality of life – similar to how Salado was originally planned. The Bell County approval process does not have these requirements and is more focused on rural requirements.
Linda Reynolds
Question 1: The safety of our infrastructure will be tested in the next 5-10 years. Every entry into the Village feels unsafe.
From the south, we will be jammed with hundreds of apartment residents and I35 drivers flying down the hill into Main Street.
Baines entry, from FM 2268, is so dark at night that it is easy to miss, and speeders from Baines, and from the East on Royal, fly into the Village’s South side.
From the North entrances, drivers deal with 3 intersections that seem too wide to cross safely.
And on the West? Entering all school areas morning and afternoon is done at great risk, while 2484 will only grow more and more dangerous with no end of developments in sight.
How to solve the lack of infrastructure planning? Our leaders promoted more and more houses on small lots with no thought for infrastructure. We need to discuss a Moratorium on any more residential sewage pumped up the hill, and work on our infrastructure.
Nothing has been built as of April 2022, but the 175 houses across from the new middle school will soon begin to sprout, and their sewage will be sent under I-35 and up the hill.
In the next 2 years, I propose a moratorium on any more contracts for sewer use in residential developments.
Question 2: Does Salado need to grow? That depends on if you are a Realtor®, developer or a business that profits from buying/selling or renting property.
If you are a resident who just wants to live in a small, peaceful and safe Village, you may be happy with our Village as it is. You may wish for a moratorium on any more residential developments. I do.
Question 3: Salado taxpayers no longer need to spend time and money on an ETJ. The ETJ concept was introduced over 50 years ago.
But once Texas caught up with most of the rest of the country, and decided people ought to be free to live outside a government taxing entity, forced annexation was kicked out the door.
If Salado drops the ETJ, the only thing that changes is the Village tax payer stops paying for both the Village and Bell County’s duplication of paperwork!
We may lose a little Hotel tax which has so many Austin strings, it isn’t worth the cost of administration.
Question 4: This answer is moot if we simply drop the ETJ. We will save the Salado taxpayers money, and the Village manager the need for extra assistance.
Way too much of his time is managing the ETJ instead of taking care of Village business. It took me 13 business days to receive a list of the 90 sewer users. (Remember when Jim Reed identified 330?)
The current sewage plant is only at 30% usage. If we put a 2 year moratorium on any more sewage coming from residential developers who want to build apartments, maybe the Village and developers can work together for the benefit of all?