Roads, water top concerns for county

More than 10,000 new residential housing lots are soon to be built within just a few miles of this city of 17,000, and a 1,000 lot mobile home park is scheduled to be built on Texas 79 behind Covert Ford, County Commissioner Russ Boles told a packed audience at the Greater Taylor Chamber of Commerce monthly business luncheon on Monday.

“There’s a migration change. It is a ‘turn and don’t look back’ moment. It has never happened before,” the Pct. 4 commissioner said. “People are coming like nothing we’ve experienced before.

We’re trying to build roads and be proactive, but that takes time.”

Boles said much of that new development is happening in the county rather than inside city limits, and as a county commissioner he has no authority over land use. He cannot stop builders from creating new neighborhoods in rural areas.

“A fundamental difference is cities derive their authority from the state constitution, and unless there’s a law saying they can’t do it, the cities can do it. The county, we derive our authority from the state legislature. So unless there’s a law saying we can do it, we can’t do it,” he explained.

Boles spoke on two of the biggest concerns in this area — transportation and water. Both issues are impacted by the region’s fast growth.

One of the largest and most debated projects is the East Wilco Highway. Boles reported that section one of the near Texas 130 is now open and section three should be open by next summer.

“Section two is a $60 million project. That’s the largest project in the history of the county. We’re doing it because the east side needs it and Taylor needs it,” he said.

Boles expects the project to be completed within the next 24 months. While not everyone wanted the project initially, Boles said Taylor was an early advocate for the highway.

“I was trying to explain to people that we were behind. But people in Taylor got it. You understood it right away, you supported it and you’re a large part of the reason that project is moving forward,” he said.

The commissioner also touched on Samsung Highway, saying the next portion of the road will tie County Road 973 to Texas 95. Boles said the county is currently trying to get federal funding for the road and may also need to finance the project through a bond.

“We know its an important route. It’s going to be the center of everything so we’re trying to get that route built,” he said.

Wastewater disposal has become a hot button in the area, with cities and residents fighting the construction of neighborhood wastewater plants by developers. Boles said even though they are in the county, they are not within his purview to stop.

“Package plants are approved at the state level, not the county level,” he said “The question becomes, 20 years from now standards are different, that package plant needs to be upgraded and who’s going to pay for it?”

The commissioner said that water sources and disposal are subjects everyone should be discussing and becoming more knowledgeable about.

“We are becoming a dry county. I wouldn’t say we’re out of water, but where’s our water coming from?” he asked the crowd.

Boles listed many of the sources that local cities use to supply their residents with water, and explained that in some cases it’s not a shortage of water but a shortage of capacity to process raw water into clean drinking water in the amount required.

He pointed out the Samsung Austin Semiconductor plant is getting their water from an old aluminum plant well and not competing with cities for water sources.

“It’s all out there for conversation,” he said. “The growth is going to be coming. We need to make our own choices and find our own solutions to our problems and do it the way you want to do it.”