1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 9 Special Session 10 Tuesday, June 18, 2013 11 10:00 a.m. 12 Commissioners' Courtroom 13 Kerr County Courthouse 14 Kerrville, Texas 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 PRESENT: PAT TINLEY, Kerr County Judge H. A. "BUSTER" BALDWIN, Commissioner Pct. 1 24 TOM MOSER, Commissioner Pct. 2 JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Pct. 3 25 BRUCE OEHLER, Commissioner Pct. 4 2 1 I N D E X June 18, 2013 2 PAGE 3 1.1 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to ratify and confirm the Regional Water Planning 4 Grant contract with the Texas Water Development Board for Eastern Kerr County and Western Kendall 5 County 3 6 --- Adjourned 9 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 On Tuesday, June 18, 2013, at 10:00 a.m., a special 2 meeting of the Kerr County Commissioners Court was held in 3 the Commissioners' Courtroom, Kerr County Courthouse, 4 Kerrville, Texas, and the following proceedings were had in 5 open court: 6 P R O C E E D I N G S 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Let me call to order this special 8 meeting of the Kerr County Commissioners Court posted and 9 scheduled for this date and time, Tuesday, June 18, 2013, at 10 10 a.m. It is that time now. The agenda item for 11 consideration for today is to consider, discuss, and take 12 appropriate action to ratify and confirm the Regional Water 13 Planning Grant contract with the Texas Water Development 14 Board for Eastern Kerr County and Western Kendall County. 15 Commissioner Letz? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I will -- this is the planning 17 grant that we submitted last December. We were awarded the 18 grant -- I believe it was in March. There are some court 19 orders already in the record that kind of give a lot of 20 authority to get this stuff signed, but I think it's always 21 better that we have a specific court order relating to 22 signing of the contract and authorizing the County Judge to 23 sign the contract. The total amount of this grant is kind 24 of -- I'll summarize it a little bit. The total amount of 25 the grant is $69,400. We're responsible for 50 percent of 6-18-13 4 1 that, "we" being the participants. The participants in this 2 are Kerr County, Kendall County, Upper Guadalupe River 3 Authority, Headwaters Groundwater Conservation District, Cow 4 Creek Groundwater Conservation District, and the Kendall 5 County W.C.I.D. Number 1. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Do each one of those 7 entities put in an equal share? 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, it's broken out a little 9 bit. The total amount of the -- the contribution by the 10 group -- the entities is 34,700. Of that, 10,000 is in cash 11 and 24,700 is in-kind. Some of that may be converted to 12 cash. The resolutions passed by these entities was a little 13 bit -- it's broad enough that they could adjust it if need 14 be. The two entities that put up cash -- the 10,000 in cash 15 is the Guadalupe Blanco River Authority put up 5,000, and 16 U.G.R.A. put up 5,000. Cow Creek, Headwaters, an additional 17 $1,000 from Upper Guadalupe River Authority, Kerr County, we 18 all did kind of a cash or in-kind to give a little bit of 19 flexibility as to how things are going. And part of that, 20 you know, is -- as an example, the cash/in-kind that Cow 21 Creek and Headwaters are doing, they're going to pay for -- 22 jointly pay for a geologist to do some regional geologic 23 cross-sections. But it's more efficient for them to hire the 24 geologist directly themselves rather than give the money to 25 Tetra Tech and have Tetra Tech hire the geologist, getting 6-18-13 5 1 more money out of it, so that way they can have a little 2 closer management of it. That's how it's going to run. 3 The project is going to look at -- essentially at a 4 very broad brush overview of centering a regional water 5 distribution system out of the Comfort area that would serve 6 pretty much Center Point to the east, and Comfort probably a 7 ways towards Boerne -- at this time, it's not a real 8 identified area -- using the basic distributions that already 9 exist in Comfort as the hub. We're looking at a combination 10 of A.S.R. -- and the components of that would be working some 11 sort of surface water, and then if the A.S.R. is a viable 12 option in the Comfort area, looking at that, looking at the 13 water permits that U.G.R.A. currently controls, and the 14 possibility of using that as a source for that A.S.R., or 15 possibly using it independent of A.S.R. And then there will 16 be a pretty in-depth analysis of the 6,000 acre-feet Kerr 17 County has under a memorandum of understanding with Guadalupe 18 Blanco River Authority for water in Canyon Lake. And this 19 will be the first time that we've looked at the cost of a 20 pipeline. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: From Canyon Lake? 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: From Canyon Lake to Comfort 23 area, and then -- then bring it from Comfort to the west, 24 what that cost would be. And the options of bringing in 25 treated water versus untreated water. One of the benefits of 6-18-13 6 1 bringing in treated water is you don't need to build a 2 treatment facility. Anyway, so that's kind of -- it's to 3 look at all of those, and to see if there is a viable option 4 to go forward and look at or not, and primarily have a 5 feasibility study. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, it's just doing some 7 feasibility studies to look at options and decide whether to 8 take the next step. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And if you do take the next 10 step, what direction do you take? 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I've met with U.G.R.A., I guess 13 last week, about it, several of their board members, and they 14 were -- they're very, very positive about this, very happy 15 with the grant. We've been working very closely with 16 U.G.R.A. on it, and they're -- you know, they think this is 17 the way to move forward, as I do. So, that's kind of where 18 it is. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Is Headwaters Groundwater 20 involved? 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. They're committing -- 22 Headwaters is -- I think about $4,000, maybe 4,500, at least. 23 I think it's 4,500. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, everybody is -- 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Every entity, every member that 6-18-13 7 1 I mentioned before. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The -- the lowest participant 4 amount is Kendall County, and they're really not directly as 5 involved as a lot of the other entities, but they are 6 providing -- they'll be doing all the GIS and mapping, which 7 they have a very good department of that, and at no cost. 8 And it's about $2,500, estimated, producing everything. So, 9 the next step will be -- assuming we approve this, will be to 10 hire an engineering firm to actually do the work. We -- 11 formally, because we don't have a contract, we couldn't hire 12 anybody. Tetra Tech has been helping us get as far as we 13 have on this so far, but they're not under contract. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And so the contract will be 15 with -- 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: With the Water Development 17 Board. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Water Development Board? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I believe the -- next 22 summer is the deadline. I think it's -- I want to say June 23 of 2014. It's anticipated we'll be finished before that. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: August. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: August? August of -- August of 6-18-13 8 1 2014. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: A question on that, just -- 3 has it ever come up to look at the feasibility of using some 4 of the gravel pits -- abandoned gravel pits for reservoirs? 5 I know they'd have to be lined, but lining is less expensive 6 probably than digging and building. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They have been -- that has been 8 added as a strategy to be analyzed under the regional water 9 planning under Region J. They're adding -- recently added 10 that. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Or not recently; a couple years 13 ago, added that in as something to study, and that was 14 discussed again with U.G.R.A. I think, again, that will look 15 at a little bit of feasibility of how that would happen. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: If it's in there at all. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It will be looked at. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: As part of this? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, cool. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I need to stress, this is a 22 very cursory overview. Because, I mean, for $65,000 or 23 whatever -- 69,000, you don't get much. I mean, reality is, 24 it's truly a cursory overview of -- of where you may want to 25 start looking. 6-18-13 9 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Get about half a man-year. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You don't get much. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Anyway, with that said, I'll 5 make a motion to approve the contract as submitted from Water 6 Development Board, and authorize the County Judge to sign 7 same. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded as 10 indicated. Is there any further question or discussion on 11 the motion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 12 your right hand. 13 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 14 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 15 (No response.) 16 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Any further 17 business to come before the Court under this agenda? Hearing 18 none, we'll be adjourned. 19 (Commissioners Court adjourned at 10:09 a.m.) 20 - - - - - - - - - - 21 22 23 24 25 6-18-13 10 1 STATE OF TEXAS | 2 COUNTY OF KERR | 3 The above and foregoing is a true and complete 4 transcription of my stenotype notes taken in my capacity as 5 official reporter for the Commissioners Court of Kerr County, 6 Texas, at the time and place heretofore set forth. 7 DATED at Kerrville, Texas, this 18th day of June, 2013. 8 9 JANNETT PIEPER, Kerr County Clerk 10 BY: _________________________________ Kathy Banik, Deputy County Clerk 11 Certified Shorthand Reporter 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 6-18-13