City Councilman Lane Carter Growing into the Job

SAN ANGELO, TX — San Angelo City Councilman Lane Carter has a clear vision for the City’s next four years and shared that vision at the San Angelo Pachyderm Club’s regular monthly meeting Wednesday.

Carter, 31, will be sworn in for a second term on the city council after no one signed up to run against him in the May election for Single Member District 5.  Carter along with councilmen Harry Thomas and Tommy Hiebert were all unopposed and will serve four year terms.

Carter says running San Angelo is like solving a Rubik’s cube with each side being its own issue.  Carter has matured during his first term on the council and says his priorities are economic development, streets, water and funding for Police and Firefighters.   

Carter told the Republican group that the San Angelo Chamber of Commerce is doing a good job of attracting new businesses to the city. He says businesses have a check list and that San Angelo has to have good streets an infrastructure, a dependable water supply and a low crime rate.

Carter said street improvements are underway with the reconstruction of Bell St.  Carter said the council voted to spend the extra money to concrete Bell St. because it extended the life of the roadway.  He also said College Hills Blvd. from Loop 306 to Ave. N is now in the design phase and will be reconstructed after Bell St. is completed.

He also mentioned the city is pursuing the water reclamation project and expansion of the Hickory well field to increase and stabilize the city’s water supply.  The water reclamation project includes taking treated wastewater and filtering it down the Concho River the recapturing it near Mullins Crossing at Veribest and pumping it back to the treatment plant.  Carter said the project includes upgrading the 100 year old water treatment plant.

After his presentation, councilman Carter took questions from the audience.  He was peppered with questions about the deteriorating condition of city streets.  One person asked why the city didn’t fix potholes on streets before they were seal coated.  Carter explained that the city has two crews with 12 workers who fix potholes and the seal coating is done by an independent contractor that seal coats complete neighborhoods at one time.  Carter says the city has an average of about 170 pothole calls at any given time.  Carter also said the city has trouble keeping workers for the street and bridge crews because those workers leave for the oilfield for higher pay.

San Angelo Police Chief Frank Carter was in attendance and said his department has just hired ten new officers who graduated from the Police Academy but he still had about 20 open positions.    

The city council is poised to cancel the May election during its regular meeting  next Tuesday. Lane Carter, Thomas and Hiebert will be sworn in to their next terms on May 7.