By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Work on a north Del Rio sports park, drainage issues and the rollout of a new citizen engagement measure are among the projects the city is working on, City Manager John Sheedy told city council members July 25.
Sheedy spoke about those projects and others to the city council during his regular “city manager’s update” during the city council meeting.
“We’ve got our Buena Vista sports park, the Field of Our Dreams, we’ve got that field, and everything’s working great. We have received a call from our turf experts that have been doing some work there, and they have given us a five-star rating on the way that we have been taking care of the Field of Our Dreams. They were very impressed with the way the crews are maintaining. We’ve got fertilizer, we’re treating for pests, we’re treating for everything,” Sheedy told the council.
“So it’s looking really good. We’re currently under a turf management program, a vendor that’s assisting us to make sure that our fields stay good, and this is also, by the way, the consultant that we’re going to have review our golf course, which we’re also looking at, so we’re going to ask them to give a review of that,” the city manager added.
Sheedy thanked members of the city’s parks and recreation department for all their hard work.
Sheedy also told the council the city’s parks department has reactivated Horseshoe Falls, a water feature in a city park near the Moore Park pool at one of the entrances to the city.
“When you come into Del Rio, it’s kind of a nice water feature, and I’ve been going by there and people have been enjoying it. There are picnic tables there, and they’ve been playing Frisbee. . .We’re kind of in a trial basis right now, to make sure there’s not going to be any problems, but future plans, we plan on putting some up-lighting and possibly, of course with council approval, some kind of sign there as you’re coming into Del Rio,” Sheedy told the council.
“We’re continuing to work on multiple drainage issues in our community that have just built up for many years. I want to thank everybody that’s been working with us. I know there’s a big group that’s been involved. We’ve had meetings with public works, planning and zoning, our county partners, worked collectively on this comprehensive solution for all the property up north of Del Rio, next to Walmart, and out farther west. We have to get those drainage solutions in place,” Sheedy said.
“Later in this meeting, we’ll be introducing our new storm water design manual, which is going to assist our city tremendously in the future for planning, designing and approving drainage projects in the city of Del Rio with storm water drainage, so we’re very excited to bring this manual to you tonight,” Sheedy added.
“801 South Main, that’s our new City Hall. We received last week our bids on the demo, and basically, we just now have to review those two bids and make a decision to present to council so that we can possibly get started on the work. We’re working with the beauty college to move them to another location. That’s something where we’re trying to find the best way for everybody. City staff is assisting them in finding an alternate location, and I want to especially thank Jorge Ramon, who put in a lot of time to find this beauty school an alternate location,” Sheedy said.
“Our residential traffic management program. . . We’ll introduce this program at the next council meeting for adoption. This program, again, will allow the city to have a process in place to take citizens’ concerns regarding traffic congestion, speeding, stop signs, other traffic control devices, quicker and with the necessary equipment. We’re very excited to get this in place so we can address the concerns of our community and elected officials so much quicker,” Sheedy said.
“Our multi-purpose facility, the Good Bar Restaurant. Staff has been working diligently for the last couple three weeks, so we’re getting them up and running. The Good Bar is tentatively scheduled for a soft opening the week of Aug. 14.
“The golf pro shop is temporarily located to another office on-site, and speaking of the golf pro shop, we’ve got plans and budget to remodel the old pro shop location. We’ve completed that. We still need to bring some things to council to review and then hopefully, we’ll be able to begin that remodel, to provide a really new, welcoming pro shop to the golfing members of the community,” Sheedy said.
“At our Joe Ramos Boys and Girls Club, we’ve finally got some repairs going to the restrooms now. I think they’re almost complete, and we’re waiting for the arrival of some new fixtures. The walls have been repaired and a coat of paint has been applied. We’re currently working on restoring the terrazzo tile inside, and I’m very excited to see us restore this gym for our community. I know, again, it’s something that’s been allowed to languish, but we’re very excited to begin the hard work at Joe Ramos,” Sheedy said.
Sheedy also spoke about a new community engagement program the city will roll out this week.
“We keep telling everybody about our community engagement program, Rock Solid, again I’m so excited for this. We are going live on Aug. 1, so I can just tell everybody that it’s going to be intuitive and it’s going to make things so much easier for all of us to communicate and keep on the same page,” Sheedy finished.
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