Vote set for Nov. 3 general election
HUTTO — Voters on Nov. 3 will decide the fate of the city’s proposed $42 million Justice Center, which is planned to include new digs for the Police Department.
The City Council is scheduled to formally call for a bond to be placed on the midterm election ballot at its Aug. 6 meeting, when it will also determine the amount.
In other news from the July 17 council session, city leaders learned fees for utilities are increasing.
Meanwhile, the city’s new Justice Center project has been pared down from the original $75 million design to about $44 million. With an estimated tax impact of $45 per year on a $100,000 home, Hutto is giving residents the opportunity to decide whether they support the development by putting it to a vote in the November election.
“We have scrutinized, in my mind, every single cost short of, ‘We don’t build a police station,’ and I don’t think that’s possible to not build a police station,” said Mayor Mike Snyder.
According to Snyder, the facility is needed to retain officers, improve morale and maintain the city’s safety ranking.
When the Police Department moved into its building at 401 Front St. in 2002, the force consisted of eight staff members serving a population of just over 4,000 people. That building also housed City Hall and the council chambers.
Today, the department serves a community of more than 46,000 residents with a staff of 70 in that same building.
The U.S. census this year noted Hutto is the 13thfastest growing city in the country, according to local officials.
The current police station is 11,000 square feet. The new justice center is designed with a 45,360 square-foot main building and a 7,000 square-foot police asset building.
It will be on a 16-acre site south of Limmer Loop and west of CR 132.
Jessica Molter of PBK Architects said the size should meet the city’s needs as it grows over the next decade, and the building’s location will allow room for future expansion. She added the building cost was trimmed from the original estimates by consolidating or eliminating some of the public-facing spaces.
“The idea was to try to build for at least a 10-year outlook. Cutting further from that point ... you’d probably be looking at adding on or expanding this facility sooner rather than later,” Molter said.
The new facility will include space for Hutto to operate its own 911 emergency dispatch center. The city currently pays Williamson County $1.3 million annually to operate its dispatch services.
Snyder directed municipal staffers to determine whether the city could become certified to operate its own dispatch service and what that would entail.
“The only thing worse than paying a million for it is doing it yourself and paying more than a million for it,” the mayor said.
Also at its July 17 meeting, the council approved a $35,000 contract with Core Construction Services of Texas as the construction manager at risk on the project.
The CMAR oversees the project from pre-construction to the finish, helps establish a guaranteed maximum price for the project and is responsible for ensuring that subcontractors and other parties stay on budget and on schedule.
The city has created a tax calculator on its website so property owners can determine the increase in their property taxes if a bond passes in November election.
The estimated increase is $3.82 per month for a home appraised at $100,000.The tax calculator is available at https://tx-hutto2.civicplus. com/868/Proposed-Justice-Center- Bond.
Utility fees set to rise
The cost of skipping utility payments is going up, meaning water and wastewater service fees are increasing, the council heard.
Hutto Controller Christina Bishop told members on the dais the amount required for customer deposits is not adequate to protect the city’s costs if a customer doesn’t pay his or her bills.
“If someone has an average payment history and they miss a payment, we want their deposit to cover at least one month of the average bill,” she said. “Poor history, we require two months of an average bill. This is just to encourage making your payments timely.”
She added the increases will more adequately compensate for staff time to perform connections, reconnections and administrative work.
Deposits are refunded to customers after one year of on-time payment of their water and wastewater bills.
The city is also raising fees on after-hours services, water meters, temporary water-meter installation and other services.
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“The idea was to try to build for at least a 10-year outlook.”
— Jessica Molter of PBK Architects
