Chris Kahlmorgan made his way slowly along the U-shaped array of easels, pausing at each to study the displays of more than $90 million in street, public safety and parks projects the city is considering for a May 11 bond election.
He struggled to balance the city’s needs against the tax increase that would come with the election.“Our biggest priority is doing what’s best for the city,” said Kahlmorgan, among about 75 Mansfield residents who turned out for the special meeting at City Hall on Jan. 30. “If it’s going to better help the community, obviously we can’t do it for free.”It would be the city’s first bond election in nine years. Although the last bond was set up as a five-year program, the economic downturn forced many spending cuts and delayed plans for another bond election, said city officials, who say many of the currently discussed projects now are critical.The City Council and staff have culled through a list of about $100 million, trimming the total to about $65 million at their previous bond work session. Several projects were added back for the Jan. 30 presentation to let them compete for public support.The bond program on display includes:$18.4 million for 23 street projects across the city and traffic signal installation at three intersectionsNearly $14.5 million for public safety, including a $1.5 million for a ladder truck and an ambulance, $9.2 million for a new 50,000-square-foot facility for most police operations and $690,000 for a 2,000-square-foot expansion of the city’s animal shelterNearly $23 million for parks that will fund the extension of Walnut Creek Linear Park to the city’s western and eastern city limits, the phase 2 construction of the 80-acre Williams Community Park on Matlock Road, and the purchase of more land for future parks$34.5 million for community services facilities, including a 58,000-square-foot expansion of the Mansfield Activities Center and a new 50,000-square-foot public library. There is also $3 million to renovate the existing libary to house the senior citizens center -- if the new library is approved.Councilman Cory Hoffman said citizen input will help the council determine higher and lower priorities.“I think the more the merrier,” Hoffman said. “The more input we get, the more informed we’re going to be when we make our decisions.”The city also has set up an online survey on its website -- www.mansfield-tx.com -- to let the public mark the bond projects that they would most support. The city launched the survey at noon Jan. 30. By midday Friday, more than 700 people had completed the survey, said city spokeswoman Belinda Willis.The survey, which resembles a ballot, has details on all projects, including all the designated street projectsOne or more city staff officials manned each of the easels to explain their projects to each resident who stopped.Fire Chief Barry Bondurant said the $1.2 million ladder truck, or quint, is needed so that a 10-year-old truck, one of two in service at Fire Stations 3 and 4, can be reassigned to back-up duty.“If one breaks down, we don’t have another quint to put in its place,” Bondurant said. He had to decommission the previous back-up quint, which was 25 years old and increasingly unreliable,.Mansfield resident Shelia Favor was especially interested in the park projects, but she had her own agenda. She was working to curry support for her own proposal -- a dog park.“We’re not the little country city that we used to be,” said Favor, adding that she often meets Mansfield residents at Arlington’s dog park. “We have a great park system. I just think a dog park would offer another perk to people looking to live here.”Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
