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Eagle Lake City Council discussed but ultimately took no action on the future of the city pool and the bank building and the installation of an LED sign for public communication, Tuesday, March 10.
Sign
City Manager Tink Jackson introduced the possible installation of essentially a digital billboard to display graphics about upcoming events, city and government notifications, sports games and more. The LED sign would rotate the graphics for drivers to view either on one side or two.
“We are always having all kids of discussions about how to reach more people, how we get messages out to more people, how we get information out about what we do anywhere in town,” Jackson said.
Jackson said the sign would have to be located near one of the few stoplights in town for drivers to be able to safely and comprehensively read the information displayed. The two ideal locations would be at Buc-ee’s or at the intersection of Highway 3013 and U.S. 90 Alternate.
“A lot of people drive through here going to San Antonio, coming back from San Antonio, and they might live in East Bernard or wherever,” Councilmember Randy Turner said. “…They might see it, then they might go, ‘Hey they’re having something. Let’s go and see it.’” Councilmember Amy Maxwell presented an alternative solution: a mobile app for the city that can send push, text, phone call and social media notifications to those who sign up. The service, provided by the company GoGov, would cost up to $4,300 a year and could also provide code enforcement case management, permitting and licensing forms, bill payment processing and more.
“I wanted to solve the problem of communicating with our residents. To me, that’s a way higher priority than getting people to our events,” Maxwell said. “…People complain in this city that we don’t communicate, and nobody knows what’s going on. Our job is to solve that.”
Mayor Tim Kelley pointed out that the service would not provide the city with a way to entice non-locals to come to the area. Councilmember Billy Sosa later said the city struggles to get residents to come to events. Kelley said the majority of locals know what is happening in the city.
“If you didn’t know we were having a Galentine’s event, then you were living in your closet,” Kelley said. “How do you not know what’s going on? You just don’t want to know. You don’t want to get involved.”
Turner suggested replacing the screen on sign on the old First National Bank Building to start. Maxwell recognized his idea as better than replacing the letterboard sign outside the post office on the same corner due to being more visible. Kelley pointed out that the location would not include U.S. 90 Alternate traffic. Jackson said he would work on getting a quote for redoing the screen on the bank building’s sign.
Pool
Jackson and council revisited the possibility of replacing the nearly 92-year-old city pool with a splashpad or new pool. Jackson said he met with two companies and reviewed limited public information to calculate an estimate cost for revitalizing the space. A 2,000-squarefoot splashpad would cost around $175,000. Replacing the pool with a smaller HOA-style pool would cost an average of $70,000– $90,000 or more, depending on the materials selected.
“It would be nice to have both, a smaller pool and a smaller splashpad,” Maxwell said. “…You could take the deep end out and put the splashpad over there… That’s where all of the problems are.”
The council considered how to keep children of all ages engaged. Sosa noted that younger kids would enjoy the splashpad while older children and teenagers would play in the pool. Maxwell also emphasized the importance of keeping a pool for senior water exercise classes and swimming lessons. Sosa suggested adding slides, and Turner suggested installing sunshades. Jackson decided to investigate the insurance possibilities of slides and potential grant funding.
Bank
Councilmembers debated how to efficiently divide and utilize the interior space of the downtown bank building. The First National Bank of Eagle Lake donated the building to the city for office space in 2023 due to moving to its newly constructed location.
Turner drafted schematics for the bottom floor of the building for the council to review. The schematics included six key aspects that need to be addressed: building a new concrete wall across a hallway, a doorway to be blocked off, the installation of French doors between the council chambers and executive session room, the addition of a public family restroom where the drive-through teller area currently is, the construction of a new ingress door and walling off a break room.
“Our next steps would be to do a project scope, put it out to bid, so that we can see how much this would cost,” Maxwell said.
The council primarily discussed the possibility of moving the offices of Colorado County Justice of the Peace Precinct 4 Judge Stan Warfield into the building. The future council chambers and executive session room would also serve as a courtroom and jury room. The current floor plan would have to be divided up more to create enough individual office space for the judge, clerks and other necessary rooms.
Jackson said he would work on bringing a project scope with the six items mentioned and other ideas discussed for review at the next council meeting.
Other
The city approved to elect the unopposed candidates Ann Capps Jones and Michael Cooper for the two unexpired city council vacancies for a one-year term. Cooper previously served on the council but did not seek reelection in May 2023. The council then cancelled the May 2 special election for the unexpired vacancies.
Eagle Lake will still hold a May 2 general election for the mayorship and two councilmember positions for two-year terms. Turner, who is currently filling one of the unexpired vacancies until the election, will face Sosa and Maxwell on the ballot. Anthony Johnson and Bob Craig will vie for the mayorship.
Jackson and city staff are developing a large, all-day community celebration, similar to the Galentine’s Sip and Shop event, on July 3 for Independence Day. He reported organizing a classic car show, a barbecue cook-off competition, a vendor and food market, a golf scramble, live music and more. Jackson said he is working on finding sponsorships, organizing city space and finding an organizer for the classic car show.
