Council awards $6.5 million road project

San Marcos City Councilmembers voted unanimously Tuesday to award a roughly $6.5 million construction contract for the Uhland Road improvement project to a Taylor-based company. 

Patin Construction, LLC was awarded the construction contract during Tuesday's city council meeting. 

The project is meant to alleviate flooding along County Road and Uhland Road to improve mobility and the drainage infrastructure during storms, according to city documents. The project includes a stormwater system with a new outfall to the Blanco River, and it will replace water and wastewater systems within the new roadway sections.

Related to the COVID-19 pandemic, Director of Public Safety Chase Stapp reported high case counts as well as multiple days that the Trauma Service Area O, which includes Hays and Travis counties, has exceeded the 15% COVID-19 hospitalization-to-capacity ratio. 

If these levels continue for seven consecutive days, according to Gov. Greg Abbott’s Executive Order, businesses that have been operating at 75% capacity will have to decrease to 50% capacity and bars will close, among other restrictions. 

Stapp reported cases following holiday gatherings are still trickling in and warned that numbers may not have reached the  levels of the peak in June and July yet, but testing is nowhere near as high as it was back then. He said there is, “no reason to think (cases) will miraculously start to go down ... Vaccinations are our greatest hope for that number going down but there are so few doses at this point.”

According to Stapp, 20 local providers have signed up to provide the COVID-19 vaccine, but only six have been approved. The Texas Department of State Health Services reports four providers of the COVID-19 vaccine: two HEB pharmacies, Premier ER San Marcos and San Marcos Family Medicine.

In other business, the councilmembers approved a parking variance with a vote of 6-1, with Councilmember Baker as the sole no vote, in the Whisper Planned Development District for a new Amazon Warehouse due in Sept. 2021.

On Dec. 15, the city council approved the resolution with several conditions to ensure the facility and the parking area would take environmental precautions. 

The conditions included over detention of site runoff, grass-lined channels providing water quality, 10 employee electric vehicle charging stations, 10 electric semi-truck charging stations, 100% rooftop solar panels and a hydrogen field system and a designated ride share location. The approved resolution in Tuesday’s meeting updated the original recommendation to substitute 100% solar panels with “construction of a roof structure that is designed to accept future solar panel installation.”

Baker was disappointed by the leniency of the newly recommended resolution and said the parent company Amazon could afford to be more sustainable.

“We are letting another Amazon come here, we know it’s bad for small businesses ... they won’t be paying great wages, and they aren’t really making a strong commitment to sustainability,” Baker said. “They are putting pittances in place here, and I won’t be supporting this.”

City Attorney Michael Cosentino confirmed the resolution does not require Amazon to install solar panels at all, but other councilmembers were not concerned.

“As soon as they are up and running we will start making money that day and with our budget we need this. We are lucky to have (Amazon) here,” Councilmember Melissa Derrick said. “I have full confidence that they will install solar panels in the future and I don’t feel a need to pin them down on percentages and a completion date.”

Mayor Jane Hughson emphasized the additional tax revenue and jobs with health benefits coming to San Marcos with the new warehouse.

The 1,005,000 square foot SAT6 distribution warehouse would occupy roughly 71 acres in north San Marcos in the Whisper Subdivision near Yarrington Road and Fortuna Road, across from the Hays County Transportation Center.

In other business, the councilmembers approved the purchase of a hydro-excavation system from Freightliner of Austin for use by the Public Service Department for $432,741. They also approved a developer participation agreement with a vote of 5-2 providing for the city to participate in the cost of extending wastewater infrastructure from the Trace Subdivision to the Posey Business Park area in the amount of $850,248. Councilmembers Melissa Derrick and Saul Gonzalez voted no.

They approved a change in service to the agreement with Sigma Technology Solutions, Inc. through the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts Department of Information Resources program for the purchase of Nexus equipment and support services in the estimated annual amount of $44,182 and authorizing four additional annual renewals. 

The councilmembers awarded an Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) master contract for fiber optic installation, repair and maintenance services to TCD2, LLC in the estimated annual amount of $700K, but not before amending it to authorize two additional annual renewals, pending council approval.

The councilmembers renewed their office rental agreement with the San Marcos Area Chamber of Commerce with a vote of 5-2, with councilmembers Alyssa Garza and Baker voting no. The item was originally presented with an annual amount of $38K, and was brought back at $24K after the cost per square footage was reevaluated by staff.

Baker characterized the agreement for seemingly underutilized office space as a “good example of government waste,” while Councilmember Mark Gleason expressed his reason for supporting a growing city that is running out of office space.

After two public hearings, the annexation of 73.412 aces of land out of the Joel Miner survey located at 2811 Harris Hill Road for a mobile home park was approved 5-2 with councilmembers Saul Gonzalez and Shane Scott voting no. The rezoning of 72.85 acres of land located on Harris Hill Road one mile south of Yarrington Road from Future Development District to Manufactured Home District was not approved with four votes no and three votes yes.

The no votes of councilmembers Gonzalez, Garza, Scott and Baker echoed public commenters opposing the mobile home park, who stated that it cannot be called affordable housing if the occupants don't own the land, as well as concerns that emergency response times would take an estimated 22 minutes. 

“I have a problem with this because if you are going to create affordable housing people need to own the land,” Scott said. 

The developer now has options to work with the city to work in land ownership in the park or to not move forward with the annexation. 

The councilmembers voted unanimously to grant an easement to the Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative for the installation of electric infrastructure to serve the city’s new Public Service Center.