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Highway 90 bridge to detour onto Veterans Drive for repairs
Columbus Mayor Lori An Gobert outlined the future of the historic Townsend home and called demolition rumors untrue, during a city council meeting, Tuesday, May 26.
Earlier in the meeting, councilmembers were baffled to hear Texas Department of Transportation’s plans to detour Highway 90 traffic onto Veterans Road for summer bridge repairs.
The council also voted on a future splashpad design and approved a $275,000 bid for its construction.
Townsend home
In late April, the Columbus Community Industrial Development Corporation quietly acquired a large property from Bob and Nancy Stiles that the historic Townsend home and two other historic houses sit on. As the CCIDC inquired how to split the assets for a future Columbus Volunteer Fire Department expansion, rumors of demolition started flying in and out of town. Gobert set the record straight.
“We are not doing anything immediately with the historic home,” Gobert said. “We are going to try to find somebody that is interested in restoring it on site or off site.”
The neighboring red house is set to be purchased by the Nesbitt Memorial Library Foundation and moved to an empty lot behind the library. Gobert said the city is in talks with another party interested in purchasing and relocating the third house on the lot. She emphasized no agreements have not been made.
“We have been in contact with the historical commission. They are aware of our plans,” Gobert said. “We will notify them if we are unable to find a way to preserve and restore.”
The removal of the red house and the third house behind it wil l make way for a future Columbus VFD faci l ity. Gobert said the city intends to preserve as many live oak trees as possible, but one will need to be removed for the new station.
“The new fire station is planned—now again, there’s architects and everything—the plan is to just be in that space, so we won’t be affecting the big oak trees or the big home,” Gobert said.
Officials added that the city intends to have an arborist inspect the health of live oak trees across town and in the middle of roads. The arborist wi l l provide recommendations for care options. Recently fallen limbs and the discovery of rot in one tree prompted the action.
Gobert also noted that the Stiles have one of the lot’s historical plaques, referencing concerns over its being missing.
Highway 90 bridge City Manager Donald Warschak reported that TxDOT will start construction in June to replace the bridge on Highway 90 north of the golf course. The agency plans to divert all highway traffic onto Veterans Drive for the project’s estimated 120-day duration.
“They’re going to take the bridge, close all of the eastbound, westbound traffic to it and divert the traffic onto Veterans Drive, which… is that narrow road right between 90 and the golf course,” Warschak said. “…Once you get up (the hill), everything can ride either on the east or west side of Milentz Street. They’ll construct a crossover to get back over to the main travelings.”
Warschak commented that any car accidents on the interstate will result in extreme traffic through town. The council laughed in bewilderment at the mayhem to follow the change.
“That’s the best they could come up with?” counci lmember Paige Sciba said “. . . People don’t manage that well as it is, and they live here and know what to do. Now, we are going to add strangers to it?”
Gobert said she didn’t expect the project to run concurrently with the Interstate 10 Expansion Project. She added the one upside is that school is not in session. Sciba doubted the 120-day timeline, citing previous TxDOT work across town.
“The 120 days? That sounds, ‘We’re real on top of our stuff,’ and I don’t know that that’s been the case,” Sciba said. “Do we remember the traffic light at 90 and 75? Just the curves, like do we remember how long that took, right?”
Warschak said he would request TxDOT to send their traffic control plans. Gobert said because it’s a state highway, it’s owned and managed by TxDOT, so the city doesn’t have a lot of say in the project management.
Splashpad
The approved splashpad layout will feature three play sections designed for di fferent age levels, two covered pavi l ions with picnic tables and a new perimeter fence. The splashpad wi ll be located at Midtown Park, and the entrance will be on the interior fence wall and not along a street.
Warschak said winning bidder, Oasis Water Playgrounds, could be on site within four weeks depending on coordination with Texas State Parks and Wildlife. Once started, the company estimated construction to last three to four weeks.
