Director of Public Works Rudy Flores emphasized that public safety and the integrity of Sealy’s public water system could be at risk if the city’s infrastructure concerns continue to be dismissed.

During last Tuesday’s regular meeting of the Sealy City Council at the W. E. Hill Community Center, Flores explained just how old some equipment is.

“The city infrastructure in its current condition cannot continue without construction of new water wells,” said Flores during the Public Works Director’s report. “Three of the city’s four water wells have been in service for over fifty years. The disregard of these aging water wells could result in failure of the city’s water system which could pose a risk to the health and safety of the public.”

Flores detailed the status of each of the city’s four functioning water wells, three of which were pumping between 12.4% to 47.6% fewer gallons per minute (GPM) than they were originally designed for.

“Wells are much like a car, we maintain and we can keep them up as much as we can to keep them going. Eventually, one day, they’re going to give up and fail just like that old car. We can’t continue on this path, we have to think about making an investment in our water infrastructure,” explained Flores. “These wells are not only needed for the health and the safety of the public, but also for the future of the integrity of our water system.”

After Flores stressed the importance of addressing the city’s aging water infrastructure, Mayor Carolyn Bilski discussed the possibility of accepting debt to afford the critical infrastructure projects.

“We have our bond council coming in March to talk to us about borrowing some money because we don’t have cash reserves sitting for these projects,” said Bilski. “When we have to go borrow money and everyone is worried, we have to go back to (the video of this meeting) and hear this again on what is really going on with our infrastructure so that we don’t get cold feet and we go ahead and make those tough decisions to get this fixed.”

Councilmember Chris Noack voiced that he agreed the infrastructure concerns should be corrected but he believed the lack of attention paid to existing infrastructure was in part due to past councils and staff focusing on growth.

“I think the priorities were not in place. I think our priorities are wrong, our priorities should be focused on our current residents (and) our current taxpayers. They have not been,” Noack said. “The money that our current taxpayers are paying for which are our current COs (Certificates of Obligation) are being spent on water towers that are helping growth.”

The discussion of the water infrastructure was in a presentation agenda item so no action could be taken on the matter last Tuesday.

EDC to relocate

Katherine Ellis introduced herself during last week’s meeting as the EDC Executive Assistant filling in for Interim EDC Executive Director Chelsea Humes. Ellis detailed the EDC Boards’ recommendation from their Jan. 27 meeting for the council to consider not renewing the lease at 313 Main Street and relocating to the Sealy Business Professional Building at 330 Main Street.

“Our current EDC building lease is $1,950 (per) month and it’s due to end on March 31. If the EDC renews the current lease for a three-year commitment the new lease rate will increase to $2,100 (per) month,” said Ellis. “The EDC Board and staff agreed that the best option of the three is the Professional Building which is located across the street from our current building, it’s at 330 Main Street.”

The prospective location consisted of two offices located in Suite 8 near the front entrance of the Professional Building at a month-to-month lease of $650. Ellis said that the EDC is not using all of the space at their current building, thus downsizing to a smaller office wouldn’t be detrimental.

With a motion from Noack, the council approved the EDC not to renew their lease at their current office and to move forward with an agreement concerning the space at the Professional Building.

BOTA Updates

Christina Luffman of the Sealy Main Street Advisory Board provided updates to the council concerning BOTA (Battle fOr The Arts) Sealy, the cultural arts festival scheduled to take downtown Sealy by storm from April 28 through May 1.

Luffman explained that the inaugural festival will host up to 100 vendors, culinary competitions, screenings for several Texas-made films, live performances downtown, a battle of the band competition, a flash mob dance, live skits and much more.