Officials Discuss What to Do About the San Angelo Area's Terrible Roadways

For many years, San Angelo and Texas residents have implored city and state government representatives to fix city and county roads, as well as state highways. Thanks to one local City Council member speaking up about allocating funds for road repairs at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, and thanks to state representatives fighting for legislation that will help provide a long-term solution to road repairs and infrastructure, people may finally be able to drive down a city road or state highway without hitting potholes, loose asphalt and other dangerous hazards that plague Texas roads.

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Above: Lt. General Joe Weber, executive director of TxDOT, discusses what comes next with Prop 1 allocations.(LIVE! Photo\Brandy Ramirez)

Granted, it might be some time before this happens, but with city funds allocated toward road repairs and new legislation that will be available to Texas voters in November, this scenario can be a reality in the near future.

“One of the reasons I ran for Council was to make a solid effort to repair our streets,” said Marty Self, San Angelo City Councilman representing Single Member District 2, as Council members reviewed the final budget for fiscal year 2015-2016 during the City Council Meeting Regular Agenda session held at the McNease Convention Center, 501 W. Rio Concho Drive.

Additionally, the San Angelo Chamber of Commerce hosted the 1.5-day 12^th Annual West Texas Legislative Summit beginning Tuesday afternoon at Angelo State University. The topics of conversation were transportation and energy.

At the Summit Wednesday morning, Lt. General Joe Weber, executive director of Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), said during his presentation that he was grilled on safety when he started with TxDOT; and although Texas has worked hard to improve safety and repair the roads, “[That’s] not good enough.”

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Above: (From left to right) State Rep. Drew Darby, Lt. Gen. Joe Weber, State Rep. Andrew Murr, Congressman Will Hurd, and President of ISI Communications Karen Rove discuss what's next for funding.(LIVE! Photo\Brandy Ramirez)

“Every day, approximately 10 people die a day on Texas highways,” Weber said. He views this number as disconcerting and hopes people will help lower the number of tragedies by supporting Proposition 7.

Proposition 7, if passed, will dedicate 2.5 billion in general sales tax revenues to the state highway fund. This is as long as overall sales tax collections do not exceed $28 billion. Additionally, the amendment will add 35 percent of motor vehicle sales tax revenues above $5 billion to the SHF. To read more, click here.

Proposition 7 is an extension of Proposition 1, which was on the the Nov. 4, 2014 general election ballot and approved. This measure diverted half of the general revenue received from oil and gas taxes from the Economic Stabilization Fund (ESF), also referred to as the Rainy Day Fund, to the State Highway Fund as a way of providing transportation funding for repairs and maintenance of public roads.

Allocated Funds Help Get San Angelo One Step Closer to Road Repair

Originally, Budget Manager Morgan Chegwidden and her team allocated $115,000 for inflation to streets; however, Self said that wouldn’t begin to fix the problem.

“[That amount] helps us with the maintenance on our streets, but it doesn’t help rebuild the streets we’ve lost,” Self said.

As a solution, Self suggested to take the Pay As You Go Capital of $500,000 and the money allocated to Vehicle Maintenance, $340,158, and place that money toward streets. Those funds, combined with the three cents that come from debt service, would help start with street repairs. Although that wouldn't be the total needed for repairs, Self argued the five cents would be a step in the right direction.

“If we don’t start making an effort to put some money in there to redo streets, all we’re doing is maintaining the streets we haven’t lost,” the Councilman said. “[This] is a bold move, but I think it’s gonna take something like that to get our streets repaired.

Johnny Silvas, San Angelo City Council member representing SMD 3, said Marty was right, and the citizens of San Angelo don't care about the logistics of how the funds are divided. All they want to know is “when we’re going to break ground.”

After debating the issue, the Council agreed to allocating money from both the Development Process fund and Vehicle Maintenance fund. That will mean temporarily cutting down on city employee continuing education and development and on city vehicle maintenance. In order to avoid raising taxes on citizens, however, this was the best option. Therefore, not only does the city have $115,000 for street maintenance, but it also has $827,047 allocated toward savings for street repairs thanks to Self’s suggestions and the Council’s willingness to approve moving funds around.

Texas Legislation Will Provide a Long-Term Fix to a Big Problem

During the Summit, public officials who spoke at the event, including Weber, State Representative Drew Darby, and Congressman Will Hurd, said Texas has to find a long-term solution to Texas’ infrastructure and energy sector.

“I think our infrastructure is getting better, but there is always room for improvement,” Congressman Hurd said. “Texas is solving the problem itself, however. "What the state has done to arrange long-term funding is a significant step in making sure we have a great infrastructure,” he said.

Hurd also said the amount of commerce here is huge, so fixing our roads and infrastructure is a must.

In particular, the amount of trade that’s going to happen between Mexico and the U.S. is extensive and “we have to prepared for that,” Hurd said. Outside of Eagle Pass, there is a route where 200 million cases of beer come across the border, and that’s going to increase.

“That’s a lot of trucks, and we have to be prepared for that,” the Congressman added.

Hurd, who represents 29 counties from San Antonio to El Paso, and across 820 miles of land along the border, said he there are significant problems in the rural parts of the state because they get “forgotten in the mix.” 

That's changing though.

“Six months ago, I wouldn’t have been hopeful for a solution to this problem, but now, talk Is different in Washington than in the districts. We’re getting things done,” Hurd said.

Unfortunately, because rural parts of the state get forgotten, not all rural area citizens are convinced of a solution. One San Angelo citizen who came to the Summit said in passing that he has attended these Legislative Summits now for four years, and he has yet to see anything done with our roads.

State Representative Andrew Murr, another speaker at the event, said this skepticism is prominent in rural areas because sometimes the people serving and having the discussions about Texas infrastructure come from suburban areas.

“They didn’t grow up in rural areas like I did,” he said. “As changes are made, we have to be careful not to forget about the rural areas because they are underrepresented. We have a lot of road, and we conduct a lot of business on those roads. We bring a lot of business.”

In fact, Weber said that $374 million dollars of Proposition 1 has come out of West Texas, but addressing the challenges in the infrastructure is difficult. He said TxDOT workers will go out and fix on road, and then they'll go fix another one, but in the interim, the area they previously fixed collapses all over again. Thus, they’re back to where they started.

“The foundation on some of these structures don’t have a base,” Weber said. “We have to go out and fix this in a more permanent way.”

Obviously, a more permanent way requires long-term funding. Weber noted that if this legislation passes, the state will have the largest funding in its history.

“This is a long-term conflict, and we can always plan; but I think we will be more effective this time because we will finally have the resources.”

As for the rural skeptics, Weber said he would want to visit with them to discuss and alleviate their concerns.

“The issue with our energy sector is frustrating, but this legislation will provide a significant impact,” he said.

Hurd agreed. He said with this legislation, and with state representatives working hard with the Federal Government, Texas is on the right path.

“We’re committed to a long-term solution in Washington. Conway and I get people’s frustration, but there is a lot of new blood in Washington, DC, and we’re trying to make things happen. We have creative solutions to a long-term problem. Citizens can decide if they agree or not come November.”