By V. Hugh Lewis II, Jefferson Jimplecute
The Jefferson Economic Development Corp (JEDCO) restarted their monthly meetings this week with a special meeting geared at getting new board members up to speed on JEDCO activities and hearing presentations on Railroad Quiet Zones and a new housing development on Moon Lake Road.
JEDCO has not held regular meetings since COVID-19 began in early 2020.
“For a variety of reasons we had delayed elections which means delayed nominations,” said Jefferson Mayor Rob Baker. “We’re on the cusp of an election which will potentially reshuffle some positions. I also want to announce the resignation of Bob Avery. Bob has been juggling some health concerns and get his feet back under him. Bob and Robin will be leaving in June anyway due to term limits. So we’re going to do elections to get you through June and we’ll see where we stand. Today we are minus a president and Vice President with Ted Dickson’s election to council. We’ll get to June and then reset the officers.”
Doug Thompson was elected as Interim Board President. Thompson will also continue in his role as Treasurer. Raymond Sanders was elected Interim Vice President.
New members of the board include Sanders, Dr. Bruce Bradley, and Willie Turlington.
Railroad Quiet Zones have been a hot topic of interest in Jefferson over “multiple decades.” As I’ve looked into this I’ve gotten with railroad consultants and my bottom line is if you don’t know how much it costs, how do you move forward?
Baker presented a request he’s put together with a local group on beginning the process for establishing Quiet Zones in Jefferson. Baker proposed a phase 1 study going from the private crossing just south of downtown on the KCS line over to Alley Street. Future proposals would expand the zone out to the current city limits.
“Federal regulations which says you cannot start or end with a private crossing,” said Baker. “So, we’re in discussions with the land owner south of the downtown to convert the private crossing there to a public crossing.”
Baker said the first thing is to do an engineering study, to the tune of $46,000 from Benesch of Fort Worth. “They will come in and have a variety of meetings with us and look and review each railroad crossing and do an analysis to see what can be done to be quiet zone safe. This might include closing some crossings and moving that equipment to other crossings. There are a variety of meetings with the railroad and the state. They will organize that information and educate us and setup the meetings. We’re basically asking this company to lay it out to us cafeteria style so we can choose what we want to do. This way we will know exactly what it will cost in 2021 dollars” and can plan accordingly.
“To have a quiet zone each crossing has to be completely safe – where you can’t drive around it,” said Baker. “ “This will also give us that high level scope of what needs to be done to have a quiet zone across town.”
Thompson asked if this addressed the frequent blocking of Texas 49 at West Broadway by the railroad.
“This doesn’t address that, but as Mayor, let me tell you I’m also pursuing that,” Baker said. “We have two [railroad] stop signs coming into town. The one under US 59 is what causes that problem. When trains come around the corner and see that stop signal, they have to stop. And at that point, they’ve already blocked 49 and that blocks up traffic. I’m pursuing that as well with TxDOT. It would be extremely expensive but hopefully TxDOT can come up with funding and put that in place.”
“JEDCO is currentily working with Texas A&M on a Strategic Plan for Jefferson,” said Board Member Robin Moore. “I asked them if a quiet zone could be part of that plan. My thinking is that they could incorporate it and provide us with a list of options as to what a quiet zone could look like. I’m thinking part of the strategic plan is where this quiet zone would evolve. I would like us to let the strategic plan incorporate that so it’s in the plan.”
“I know the A&M Study got stopped due to COVID, how long will it take to get that in place,” said Baker. “Usually those are multi-year projects.”
“Probably in the fall would be when we begin,” said Moore.
“I think when we’re building a plan you can’t also shut down the city, while you build the plan,” said Thompson. “This is one of those we need to consider the study to see the next direction.”
“So $46,000 for the study?” asked Moore. “I think we need to discuss it more before we decide anything.”
“You’ve got to have the study before you do anything,” said Bradley. “What happens when it comes down to the cost of implementing this?”
“We’ll look at that when we have a cost,” said Baker. Hopefully there will be a “cost shift” into the county as it moves forward.
Due to the wording of the item on the agenda, JEDCO was unable to take any action on the proposal, but did decide to put this on their next meeting agenda as an action item.
Kyle R. Mayden made a proposal to JEDCO to help fund a waterline down to Moon Lake Estates, which he is currently developing at the end of Moon Lake Road on the East Side of the City Limits.
“Moon Lake Estates is a 408-acre mixed use community which will consist of 95 home sites and offers 100 ares of building sites, 6.5 acres of commercial reserves and more than 5 ares of park space. It is a planned, gated community, Project to 50% build out is expected to take approximately 24 months,” according to material distributed.
“We wanted this to be low density and maintain that rural charm and enhance the Jefferson community,” said Mayden. “We’ve put in the roads and cleaning land to get it build ready. We started working with the City and NETexas Water District to get water. We had hoped to tie into the line from the City at Moon Lake Road and Tx49. However, in testing the pressure at that line, it would not be able to facilitate any type of housing development.”
Mayden and his partners requested assistance from JEDCO to help fund a new water line from Titus Street out to Moon Lake Drive and then on out to the development. The cost of the water line is approximately $1.2 Million. Mayden requested any assistance from JEDCO and the City as possible.
“We had not planned or budgeted for that kind of cost,” Mayden said. “That is the last step we need in this development. If we do get that funding, our start to building is probably 90 days.”
The proposed water line will be placed in the county right of way along Moon Lake Road. Adjacent property owners will be given the option of tying onto the line and receive water services from the City.
The City of Jefferson is considering annexation of the new development and will receive additional revenue from the sale of water to the properties.
How wastewater is being handled at the development was raised and Mayden indicated septic services will be on individual aerobic systems per property but the deed restrictions on each lot require the owner to maintain the system and provide an anual inspection report to the homeowners association or face a fine.
Again, due to the wording on their agenda, JEDCO could not make a decision at the meeting. They did decide to place this back on their next agenda.
Board members were also provided information on the Texas Open Meetings Act training requirements and a copy of the JEDCO Bylaws to review. Members have 90 days from appointment to complete OMA training.
JEDCO’s next meeting is their regular meeting at 5:30p Tuesday at City Hall. The Jimplecute/Marion County Herald will be live for that meeting.