CITY CORNER by Mayor Brent Hinckley

Summer activities are in full swing and the work load at the City continues at full pace.  The City swimming pool is open and kids of all ages are enjoying a cool dip on these hot days.  If you need specific information on swim times or would like to reserve the pool for a party or gathering, please call the City office for help.  The parks and street crew are busy mowing and keeping the public spaces of Mason clean and neat.  The crews are continuing to work on the replacement creek crossing for Post Oak, and the top surface should be done in the next week unless there is an interruption for rain.  We are all glad for any rain we get, but when you are working on a project in a creek bed, the extra water can delay work for a bit until the ground is dry again.  We want to open that street up again as soon as possible, but we also want to make sure that the crossing is safe and complete before we take down the barricades and let the traffic use that crossing again. 

     This past Monday the City Commission held their regular monthly meeting with a long agenda and several issues that were complicated and time consuming.  There was consultation with a couple of professionals, including the attorney that we are working with on some specific problems and the auditor that has completed the review of our last fiscal year.  The Audit reinforced the understanding that the City is financially healthy and the budget is continuing to be a good reflection of the activities of the City as we deal with the daily services for the citizens and improve the infrastructure and assets so that we can meet the needs of the future.  In other work, we also had the quarterly Investment Report and two Ordinances and a Resolution to approve, one of which establishes the Certificates of Obligation that will finance the new water treatment facility.  With these steps taken, we are ready to complete the final steps in the Texas Water Development Board financing that will allow us to move forward with the planning and construction of the improvements to our water system.  It is expected that the preliminary planning and work will be completed in the next three months along with the site survey and environmental review and we should be ready to start construction about the first of this next year.  We will have a full presentation of this project and the upcoming work at our July Commission meeting, so if you have questions or would like a complete update consider attending on July 16.

     Our meeting on Monday included discussion on a couple of other issues that have been under consideration by the Commission for several months, but one of the more important decisions was to set a workshop next week for discussion of goals and budget expectations.  At this time of year every governmental organization begins working through the complex budget process, and the City is no different.  With the regular business of the City resulting in a revenue and consequent expense balance of over $5 Million Dollars each year it is critical that the elected officials and City staff work diligently to set a reasonable budget and work to stick to it.  We have done a good job for many years, but in the next fiscal year, which begins on November 1, 2018, we will have some very significant Capital Projects that will have a major impact on the overall budget.  With the water treatment system project being primarily scheduled for our next fiscal year, there will be an extra Two-and-a-half Million Dollars in capital expenditures.  In addition to that project, we are planning on the permitting process for the new landfill to be complete at about the same time, and although we do not have a firm estimate we are estimating that there will need to be several hundred thousand dollars spent on that project that will also affect next year’s budgeting.  After preparing budgets for the City for the past dozen years, I anticipate that this year will be the most challenging and complex that any of us have seen.  With a deadline of having a final budget by mid-August for review and passage by mid-September the next several weeks will be a tangle of numbers and projections in my office. 

      One of the most important tasks that we deal with all of the time, but especially as we look at the budget, is the need to get feedback and consider the goals and suggestions of our residents.  If you have ideas or opinions on what we can do to best improve our community, now is the best time to talk with your elected officials and let us know what you think.  We will be meeting and talking about the future goals of the City in the next few weeks, and if you want to contribute to that discussion now is the time to share your thoughts.  Each of the Commissioners is eager to listen to our residents, and I am available most all of the time to hear your ideas.  As we work to present a balanced budget for the next year, your thoughts may be the key to improving our community in a real way and we would be glad to listen and work to make good ideas a part of the reality of our future.   Working together we can plan to build a future for Mason that is even better than the past, and now is the time to take the first steps towards that bright future.