COUNCIL ROUNDUP

KYLE — From proclamations to splash pads, Kyle City Council discussed several items at the April 4 meeting.

Six proclamations declared

Council member Michael Tobias brought forward an item recognizing April as Autism Awareness Month.

“I’m living with autism … and I’m happy that I was born with autism because that’s what makes me special,” said his son, Matthew Tobias. “I’m telling you all this because autism isn’t something to be sad about. It’s something that makes me who I am.”

Council member Miguel Zuniga recognized Animal Control Officer Appreciation Week, April 9-15, with a proclamation.

“This is a job that takes a lot of dedication and is really hard emotionally, and these professionals do it because they care,” said Zuniga.

Council member Daniela Parsley recognized Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

“Sexual assault happens no matter your gender, your age, religion, race. Every 73 seconds an American is sexually assaulted,” said Parsley. “And every nine minutes, that victim is a child.”

Mayor Travis Mitchell continued with a proclamation recognizing Child Abuse Awareness Month.

“More than 62,525 cases of child abuse and neglect were confirmed in Texas in 2022, resulting in 9,623 children in foster care and the death of 165 children,” said Mitchell. “Every child in Kyle deserves to be safe and nurtured with supporting and caring relationships.”

Parsley brought forward an item recognizing Kyle Eagle Scouts Class of 2022.

“The leaders of this nation in business, religion and politics, three out of four were scouts,” said Parsley.

Zuniga recognized Earth Month with a proclamation.

“The city of Kyle encourages every resident to get involved and help conserving and protecting the environment via green activities such as recycling, water and energy conservation and tree planting,” said Zuniga. “We can gain environmental education about environmentally friendly companies and advocate for more sustainable policies.”

City eats costs on rainwater harvesting design

City of Kyle Project Manager Derek Bird brought forward an item requesting an amount of $23,500 to pay PGAL for a design of a wet well constructed for the Public Safety Center (PSC).

The design consisted of creating a wet well to capture rainwater on the PSC.

After the design was made, the engineering team asked for construction to be discarded due to the high price.

“Council directed PGAL to design the rainwater harvesting system after the building was mostly designed and it was the engineering that let us know that to make a rainwater system happen was not going to be cost effective,” said interim city manager Jerry Hendrix.

Because the design was already complete, the company must be paid, but the city will not be receiving the rainwater harvesting system.

“So, it looks like in the end we’re just going to have to eat $23,500,” said council member Yvonne Flores-Cale.

Splash pad design and construction approved

Council voted to approve an additional $125,000 to be added to the original estimated $500,000 allotted to Oasis Water Playgrounds.

The 3,000 square-foot splash pad will be located in Gregg-Clarke Park and includes picnic tables, a changing station, shading, walk ways and an ADA-compliant concrete path.

“Without having to compromise the design … the vendor was able to add the items that were most requested by the community,” said Parks and Recreation Director Mariana Espinoza.

A second splash pad will be 2,300 square feet located in Steeplechase Park, costing $495,000.

Roads expanded to 24 feet

Council approved an amendment to the fire code that will change the requirement of residential road width from 20 feet to 24 feet.

Parsley brought the item forward due to her personal concern of safety in her own neighborhood.

“I have seen over and over again our first responders, especially our firetruck, having to take detours within the neighborhood in order to safely get to a house,” said Parsley.

Both the fire chief and most of the council members agreed that the streets would be safer with 24-foot roads, though Zuniga did mention some concerns.

Zuniga explained that he has seen the danger that comes with large roads encouraging car speed. He suggests by widening the roads, the city would only enable that behavior. Zuniga was also concerned that by creating these requirements, builders might be driven away from our growing city.

Ultimately, council voted 6-1 with the motion carried by Parsley and seconded by Flores-Cale. Mitchell cast the sole dissenting vote.

Purple pipe discussed

The city has received a draft for purple pipe that is currently being looked over by staff.

Purple pipes are pipe systems that allow water to be recycled for items that do not require water fit for consumption.

At the time, it is unclear how many gallons will be saved through this system, as users need to first be identified to gauge the usage.

“The concern that I’ve heard is that we need to find some users that use a lot of this water,” said City Engineer Leon Barba. “When you do [find that user], suppose we get a rainy day … people are not going to want to use that reclaimed water because they’re going to let the rain do its job. Then we won’t be able to push out that [reclaimed] water at that point in time. We’ll have to go back [to getting water from] Plum Creek.”

Flores-Cale motioned for the staff to review state guidelines, find users who would use water and find ideas that use the reclaimed water.

It was seconded by Parsley and carried 7-0.