Discussion on the proposed Fiscal Year 2020 budget continued during Tuesday’s Brownsville City Commission meeting and covered street maintenance, street reconstruction and drainage among others.
The second public hearing for the proposed budget included a presentation by Finance Director Lupe Granado and Assistant City Engineer Doroteo Garcia with a breakdown of which streets would be reconstructed and how much funding would go to each district.
The total funds for street reconstruction are $6.7 million.
District 1 reconstructions, with a total fund of about $1.5 million, target Chaparral Street, Marvis Drive, San Pedro Lane, Elsa Street and Avenida de la Plata.
District 2 reconstructions, with a total fund of about $1.6 million, target Portway Street, East 11th Street, East 12th Street, El Valle Drive, Grande Boulevard and Lourdes Boulevard.
District 3 reconstructions, with a total fund of about $1.5 million, target Jose Marti Boulevard, Janet Lane, Calle Norteña, Res Drive and Woodruff Avenue.
District 4 reconstructions, with a total fund of about $1.6 million, target Calle Espacio, Calle Galaxia, West Los Ebanos and El Mar Street.
Mayor Trey Mendez asked Garcia how streets are prioritized.
“We have a street rating service that was completed in 2014-15,” Garcia replied. “We rely on that mainly. Second is the number of complaints we get from neighborhoods but mainly on the [Pavement Condition Index] rating is how we rate them.”
He also said that the ratings include traffic volumes and conditions of the streets.
Street maintenance would receive a total funding of $4 million, with $1 million going to each district.
Drainage improvements would receive a total funding of $7 million.
Engineer 1 David Licon presented projects that would be included in the Texas Water Development Board – Clean Water State Revolving Fund loan the city is applying for. The application was submitted and has been preliminary approved.
New drainage projects include the Southmost Waterplein Park, Impala Pump Station, SCADA/Culvert Improvement and the West Brownsville Drainage.
In other business, the commission:
–appointed Tessie Sarmiento, Bryan Martinez and Leticia Castillo to the Animal Shelter Advisory Committee;
–authorized the purchase of data modems for patrol units for the amount of $138,897.05;
–authorized City Manager Noel Bernal to execute a management agreement contract with First Transit for up to five additional one year terms in the amount of $1,542,056.72. The amount will be funded over five years with the total for Fiscal Year 2020 being $296,319.15; FY 2021, being $302,245.53; FY 2022, being $308,290.44; FY 2023, being $314,456.24 and; FY 2024, being $320,745.36;
–approved a term contract increase to Freese and Nichols in the amount of $83,500 for interim planning professional services;
–approved the Master Professional Services Agreement and Professional Services Agreement in the amount of $450,000 for Unified Development Code and Building Code Update Facilitation and;
–established a City Charter Review Committee.
