Summer is about upon us, and school is out. Big changes to the daily schedule start now for many families. Fortunately, it does seem to help a bit with traffic over the summer, so I am certainly looking forward to that!
Speaking of traffic, time for an update on the FM 407 breakout project. It is important to understand that County Judge Andy Eads and Commissioner Dianne Edmondson have been the best possible partners in this project. They went above and beyond in securing the funding for the design and construction of the project long ago which led to this design starting in 2023. It is because of these partnerships that this project is happening at all.
When TxDOT initiates projects, they work towards what they call a ready-to-let date, which means design is complete, all the right-of-way (ROW) is acquired, and utilities are relocated. The original ready-to-let date assumed a very quick ROW acquisition schedule of three months. ROW acquisition is now complete, but it took 15 months to complete. TxDOT is now working on moving utilities and are hoping to be done in spring 2026. As Mayor, I am working feverishly to accelerate the utility portion to try and make up some more time. Spring of 2026 is TxDOT’s FY26. The funding is currently banked in FY28. If utilities are moved sooner, TxDOT will try to accelerate the project to go out for bids before sometime in late calendar 2026. From what I can tell, any acceleration in utility relocation that we can make happen now will contribute to TxDOT’s ability to go to bid sooner rather than later.
On that front, we met with Atmos Energy, and they were extremely helpful. They are willing to do everything possible to speed up their project now that they have finally been cleared by TxDOT to start their process. They understand the urgency of this project and I look forward to collaborating with them on accelerating their schedule. They have been working on their paperwork with TxDOT and that is being worked through the system about three times faster than normal. We hope to have final clearance from TxDOT on Atmos’ plans very soon. We also have been talking with CoServ and Upper Trinity Regional Water District as they are the remaining major utilities that need agreements in place for this project. I am working to make sure that they are doing everything possible to move these critical steps along as well.
Council made appointments to our boards at our meeting on May 22. I would like to welcome Mr. Ray Callahan to the Board of Adjustments as well as Mr. Sal Esposito and Mr. Roger Nolan to the Planning and Zoning Commission. Joining our EDC is Mr. Adam Crockett and joining our CDC is Mr. Craig Calvert and Mr. James Cavin. We had many applicants, and I enjoyed speaking to every one of them during this process. I wish that we had seats for everyone, please do not let it discourage you if you did not get onto a board this time. I encourage all our applicants and newly-appointed members to attend council meetings and get to know your leadership so we can shape the direction of the town now and in the future. There will be other opportunities to gain experience and grow as well such as Town Hall 101 class coming later this year.
