City to hold capital improvements town hall

By LYNETTE SOWELL

Cove Leader-Press 

The City of Copperas Cove is holding a town hall meeting on Monday at 5:30 p.m., in the city’s Technology Center, located at 508 S 2nd St., to update residents on the city’s capital improvement projects and to get input from residents about current and future projects. 

Street and sidewalk projects, parks and recreation projects, water and sewer, drainage, and public safety projects are laid out as part of the city’s Capital Improvement Plan, or CIP. The current plan is for fiscal years 2020-2024.

The projectas fall under five different funds for city budgeting, to include the city’s General Fund, which is supported by property taxes and other revenue. Street/transportation projects, parks and recreation and golf course projects are under the General Fund. The Water and Sewer Fund and the Solid Waste Fund, are “enterprise funds” which come from customer revenue; the Drainage Fund, and the Golf Course Fund. 

Notable items in the current CIP include a number of street reconstruction projects. For the current fiscal year, 2019-2020, the reconstruction of Pecan Cove will be under way this year. The Pecan Cove project has been listed for several years and has an anticipated cost of $1.477 million. 

Also on the plan is Eagle Trail reconstruction at $448,982 for 2020-2021, followed by Oak Hill and Deer Flat Drive reconstruction at an anticipated $1.238 million in fiscal year 2021-2022. Veterans Avenue sidewalk improvements are on the plan, at $439,932, also slotted for fiscal year 2021. 

Freedom Lane and South 1st Street are slated for reconstruction in fiscal year 2022, at $1.067 million and $528,781, respectively. 

Constitution Drive, one street which residents have complained about for years, is presently not listed on the plan. 

Other streets named for reconstruction on the plan include Ogletree Pass, Grimes Crossing Road, Suja Lane, and Meggs Street, in fiscal years 2023 and 2024.

Fire Station #4 has been listed on the CIP for years, after voters approved a bond issue to construct the facility in The Narrows Business & Technology Park. 

Previously slated for 2020, this future station projected to cost $12.8 million in construction and nearly $1.9 million in equipment, has only $690,000 listed on the plan for fiscal year 2024, with the construction funding for that facility pushed to beyond fiscal year 2024. 

More than $8 million in parks projects are slotted on the CIP for fiscal years 2020-2024, with restrooms set for the current year. Future phases include pavilion placement within City Park, South Park, Heritage, Highland, Kate Street, and Rhode Park in phase 4; playgrounds, shade canopies, fitness stations, security lights and multipurpose fields in phase 5. 

The current CIP in its entirety – 104 pages – can be accessed at http://www.copperascovetx.gov/files/budget/plans/cip/FY2020-24.pdf.