City Council discusses upcoming projects
HANS LAMMEMAN STAFF WRITER
HANSPLAMM@GMAIL.COM
Road crews will soon be prepping four local streets for a road maintenance project that will cost the City of Yoakum more than $100,000, with service costs about 57 percent higher than last year.
At last Tuesday’s meeting, the Yoakum City Council awarded the contract for the annual street improvement project to the only bidder, H&C Construction Company. The company offered to complete the work at $2.83 per square foot, more than a dollar over the rate they charged the city in 2021.
“Each year, we designate a batch of streets that (are due for) a seal coat. Basically, it’s the maintenance to keep those in driveable condition,” Yoakum City Manager Kevin Coleman said last Wednesday. “We anticipated a little bit of a price increase when we sent that out and put that together, but we did not anticipate the price increase that we saw.”
While the list of streets is likely to be finalized during May’s council meeting, the project will apply preventative maintenance measures to a minimum of portions of Poth St., West St., Lavaca St., and Nelson St.
The Council scaled back the list of streets they hoped to address in this year’s project because of the unexpected cost increase revealed by H&C’s bid. Coleman explained these costs were likely a result of increased labor and fuel costs.
The Council ultimately voted in favor of Councilmember Tanya Wenzel’s motion to award the contract to H&C, betting the price would not decrease over the next few months. City crews will soon begin preparing the roads for the project. Coleman expects H&C to complete the project by the end of September.
RODEO ARENA
Jeromy Neitch and Marlin Galloway returned to the Council to represent a group of five people hoping to breathe life into the Yoakum Rodeo Arena and provide a space for kids to practice rodeo sports.
Neitch explained to the group they plan to use their equipment, time, money, and skills to begin renovations on the arena in exchange for the city giving them access to the facility and suspending its free public access.
“These five folks intend to put together (an) operation group for the Rodeo Arena. They’ll secure it; of course, the city would maintain the key,” said Coleman last Wednesday. “Their concept is they sell memberships (or) partnerships— whatever they end up calling it— where for a monthly fee you get access, upon demand. You just cannot show up, for it would not be a public facility.”
Neitch said some visitors to the arena break glass, litter beer cans, and make the facility less safe for people and livestock. The group agreed to dedicate $2,500 of their own money to improve the arena if the council would allow them to operate the arena and keep visitors out that would further worsen its condition with no intention of cleaning up after themselves.
Some of the improvements the group hopes to bring to the arena include building a deck around the announcer’s box, installing plexiglass windows, and erecting a fence along the property line.
“As it is now, (the Rodeo Arena) is an underused asset that we have,” said Coleman last Wednesday. “If (the group is) willing to put sweat equity time to increase the usability of the facility, Council is comfortable with kind of restricting that use (for the public). The net gain is on (the city’s) side.”
Coleman expects a draft to be presented to the Council at May’s council meeting and potentially action on the final agreement in June.