EDIE ZUVANICH Special to the Press
HUTTO — Weather, time and inattention have been unkind to Hutto’s roads. After years without receiving maintenance, some of the city’s roadways are crumbling into unsafe stretches of wash boarded, pot-holed danger zones.
“This is an emergency situation, obviously,” Council Member Amberley Kolar said.
She pointed out that every council member had heard from the community about the roads, specifically County Road 137 west of Farm to Market 1660.
“This is kind of out of our control. Obviously that road was already rough and failing since (Winter Storm) Uri in 2021, that really hit it hard, then this last winter storm crushed it as well,” she said.
Kolar was one of five council members who voted to declare an emergency situation regarding CR 137 at a special joint City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission meeting Thursday, Jan. 25. Council members Dana Wilcott and Brian Thompson were not present for the vote.
The city has $1.2 million budgeted for road maintenance in the current fiscal year. Repairs to CR 137 were not included in this year’s budget. Public Works Director Rick Coronado estimated repairs to the county road, which runs in front of Farley Middle School, will cost $200,000.
The council discussed several options for reallocating the budget in order to prioritize repairs to CR 137, including shifting money budgeted for road repairs in Old Town or the city’s portion of CR 133.
Another option for funding was to delay performing preventative chip seal maintenance to roads that have begun to experience cracks. However, redirecting the chip seal fund to be used for repairs could end up costing more in the long run.
“You save $200,000 on crack seal and because you didn’t do the crack seal, the roads fail quicker and you’re going to end up spending $400,000 fixing those roads when you could have spent $200,000 preventing them from failing even more,” said Mayor Pro Tem Peter Gordon.
Ultimately, the council decided not to delay repairs to CR 133 or Old Town roads, but to use the chip seal fund for immediate availability. They also directed city staff to find other places where budget items could be cut so that the chip seal projects could still be completed as planned.
City Manager James Earp told the council that even with funding it will take a while before repairs can be made.
“We don’t have crews and materials just sitting over there ready to go lay down and fix 137. We have to bid it. So, we’re having to go through procurement processes so you’re looking at 45 to 60 days before there’s even a chance probably of a crew being out there rebuilding that road,” Earp said.
Earp told the council if the road met emergency protocols, it could be fixed sooner. The city attorney would need to verify that the road meets the requirements of an emergency.
Council then voted to declare CR 137 south of FM 1660 to be an emergency situation in need of immediate repair due to unexpected storm damage, leading to numerous citizen complaints, safety issues on the road and reported damage and potential future damage to citizens’ vehicles as they try and navigate the damaged roadway.
