Roads may not be ready for new Marble Falls school campus

By CHRIS PORTER • Daily Tribune Staff

MARBLE FALLS - A series of proposed city roads leading to a new Colt Elementary School campus may not be finished in time for the school’s anticipated fall 2009 opening, officials said Monday.

The news came at a special joint workshop of the Marble Falls City Council and the Marble Falls Independent School District Board of Trustees. No action was taken at the meeting.

School district officials weren’t happy with the news of the possible delay.

“From day one, we have said we will stay on the same construction schedule with the city,” said MFISD Superintendent Ryder Warren. “What has changed? We have 600 (Colt Elementary) students sitting in an absolutely inadequate facility right now.”

Marble Falls Mayor Raymond Whitman pointed to two factors: Cost and time.

“We haven’t even started engineering on the roads . . . that’s six months at the worst,” he said. “Even if we had the right of way today and started the engineering tomorrow, it could be nine to 10 months before we go out for bids.”

The ever-increasing construction costs present another hurdle, Whitman said.

“We’re dumping an enormous burden on our tax base, which is much, much smaller than yours,” he told the school board. “The cost of the roads should have been included with the bond, but they weren’t. We’re still not sure where that proposed (Colt Elementary) campus will go.”

Construction on the new elementary school is set to begin next February, with a planned opening in fall of 2009.

The project, along with a number of other improvements at district campuses, was funded by a $63.2 million bond issue approved by district voters in May.

The roads in question - an extension of Coach Road leading to Mormon Mill Road and a new 1.8-mile major road leading to the campus north from RR 1431 - will cost city taxpayers more than $6 million, according to City Manager George Russell.

Current plans call for the Coach Road extension to allow access to the new Colt Elementary, while the new road will allow access to both Colt and the high school.

“For the (main) road, we’re talking between $4 to $5 million for that scenario,” he said. “Extending the utilities there is hitting us at about $3 million per mile.”

The increased cost is forcing the city to shuffle some of its planned improvement projects, Russell added.

“We’re going to have to re-vamp the capital improvement plan,” he said. “Then there will have to be a subsequent bond sale.” The planned bond sale is included in the city’s existing capital improvement plan.

School Board President Martin McLean said the district will re-think some of its scheduling.

“We are going to have to do some reconsidering, as far as scheduling is concerned,” he said. “We obviously can’t build a new elementary school and have a grand opening without a road going to it.”

Warren said plans for the new high school stadium are also temporarily on hold.

Several homeowners living near the stadium site have raised concerns that the construction would violate deed restrictions on two residential lots owned by the district.

Plans call for the district to use the property for the stadium parking lot.

“We have put the brakes on the stadium,” Warren said. “We have to work with the homeowners and the city to work through issues.”

Warren was confident the stadium will still open in time for the beginning of the 2008-2009 school year, however.

chris@thepicayune.com

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Roads may not be ready for
new Marble Falls school campus