BUDA — City of Buda Bond Program Manager Kenny Crawford gave a presentation regarding the status of the 2021 bond program at the Nov. 6 Buda City Council meeting.

The bond program includes $73.67 million for Proposition A – Transportation and $16.09 million for Proposition B, along with additional grant money and funding from the Hays County 2020 Parks Bond program.

“This is going to be a snapshot of the time. We want to focus on the financials and we want to focus on the schedule. We want to highlight a couple of things and also provide a little bit of expectations,” said Crawford, who stated that the city is on the 1,100th day in the bond program, or 54.3% of completion.

According to the manager, when city staff initially presented the program, they stated that two-thirds of it would be spent in the planning process, with the last third being construction. Currently, there are several major projects coming up, which council members can expect to see in the spring to summer time frame when staff begins the bidding process.

Crawford also shared that they have recognized patterns throughout the work of the bond program that have impacted it throughout the past four years — consumer price index, fuel prices, construction prices and concrete and steel and facility prices — all of which continue to be at their peak prices.

“That means we’re getting less for our allocated dollars. This isn’t the hitting of the panic button or sounding of an alarm; however, these elements are impacting what we can afford compared to what we envisioned in our program, guiding document, plans and our codes. This requires us to clearly identify and agree upon the priorities relating to time, schedule and cost,” said Crawford.

He continued by noting that because of this, council members will have to make tough decisions regarding the bond program in the future, as there are already projects in which there is a gap in the money needed. In an effort to reduce this, staff is attempting to create bid alternates, table projects, phase projects and deleting projects in part or in whole.

Despite this news, Crawford emphasized that there are still some positives, such as experiencing “healthy competitiveness” from construction companies. Additionally, the East Side Park acquisition, the parking lot at City Park and Stoneridge Park have been completed, said Crawford. Staff has also completed the final design review of Garrison Park and anticipates advertising the project in February, with construction beginning in May. Currently, there is a project gap of $2.63 million.

“Are there any potential grant opportunities [or] funding we can get that could help close that gap a little more,” asked council member LaVonia Horne-Williams.

According to city staff, there is a pending grant application for $750,000, for which they expect to know the answer to in December 2024 or early January 2025.

“I just want to make sure that we are tapping into all of the potential resources that we have and I know that there’s a lot of grant money because they just started the new fiscal year and so, hitting those program up early is going to be important,” said Horne-Williams.

Additionally, the following bids were awarded:

• Garlic Creek Trail for $1,803,700 to Noble General Contractors, LLC, with a 10% construction contingency not to exceed $180,370

• Onion Creek Trail for $989,905 to M&C Fonseca Construction Company, Inc, with a 10% construction contingency not to exceed $98,990

• East Main Street Interim Solution for $585,129.50 to Jerdon Enterprise L.P., with a 10% construction contingency not to exceed $58,512.95

Both Garlic Creek Trail and Onion Creek Trail are noted to begin in December 2024 and end in April 2025, though the bridge timeline is dependent on the manufacturer. The interim solution for East Main Street aims to add a dedicated right turn lane from westbound Main Street onto northbound IH-35 and will be constructed in the existing right-of-way. The project is also expected to begin in December 2024, but will end in late spring 2025.

Buda City Council will meet next on Nov. 19.