For the last 15 years, the city of Bellaire has worked hard to improve the city’s streets, sewer and drainage system.
In 2000, voters approved a $45 million Bellaire Millenium Renewal program that included $23 million in bonds to upgrade the city’s sewer and drainage system, and an additional $22 million for street improvements.
In the wake of Tropical Storm Allison in 2001, many of those repairs were made with an emphasis on improving drainage in flood-prone Bellaire.
But, City Manager Paul Hofmann and City Engineer James Andrews are laying the groundwork for a new bond referendum later this year, or in early 2016.
The city needs to make at least $11 million in water and wastewater improvements, as well as $16 million in road improvements over the next few years.
“I do see us needing to issue some general obligation debt sustained by water and sewer revenues, and a plan for water and sewer rate increases,” Hofmann told the Bellaire City Council Monday.
Asked the amount of a bond referendum that is likely to be submitted to voters, Hofmann replied: “That’s the big question.”
In a presentation to the Bellaire City Council on Monday, Dave Kasper from Andrews’ firm of ARKK Engineering, explained that many of Bellaire’s water lines and wastewater lines are “more than 70 years old.”
There are approximately 145,000 feet of the old water lines — originally built in the 1940s- that need to be replaced, Kasper said. A review of work orders and emergency repairs by the city’s Public Works Department shows that nearly 10 miles of old water lines in Bellaire need to be replaced in the very near future, Kasper said.
The cost of replacing the old water lines would be about $11 million over the next five years, Kasper said. The condition of the remaining 93,000 feet of old lines should be re-evaluated after that five year replacement program is completed, Kasper suggested.
In addition, repairs are needed to the city’s wastewater treatment system’s four lift stations, Kasper said.
The City is presently completing a “Needs Assessment” to quantify and
document what the Department of Public Works and its staff would like to have in
an improved SCADA system. (SCADA is the acronym for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, a computer system used to monitor and control water and wastewater systems, telecommunications, oil and gas refining, etc.)
In addition to improvements SCADA improvements at the City’s four wastewater lift stations, Kasper said that there will need to be $60,000 in SCADA improvements made at each of the city’s water plants: the Central Water Plant, the Feld Park Water Plant and the Renwick Water Plant.
The bond program, which is in its formative stages and would require city council approval, would include funding to maintain “an acceptable level” of maintenance of Bellaire’s city streets.
Earlier this year, Hofmann and Andrews told the Bellaire City Council that there are about 4.5 million square feet of roads in the city of Bellaire that are in “unacceptable” condition. The cost to bring those streets up to good condition would be about $16 million, to be spent over an 8-year period, Andrews said.
In a detailed presentation to the council, Andrews noted that there are currently about 4.5 million square feet of roads in the city of Bellaire that are in unacceptable condition.
The cost to bring these streets up to a good condition would be about $16 million, to be spent over an 8-year period, Andrews said.
To maintain the city’s infrastructure, Andrews outlined a program that would cost a minimum of $2 million each year. Hofmann said those funds could come from a potential 8 percent property tax increase to raise about $1 million each year, and a possible general obligation bond election to raise the other $1 million annually.
Hofmann stressed that the potential bond program will be presented to the city council in the next few months, to work out the details. A bond referendum, which would be submitted to Bellaire voters, might include funding for the construction of a new Bellaire Library, Hofmann said earlier this year.
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