City Commission Delays Northwest Park Development, Seeks More Input from Community

by Martha E. Ibarra/LFN

The La Feria City Commission held its regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 9, at 6:30 p.m. in the City Commission Meeting room at 115 E. Commercial Ave. in La Feria.

Immediately after following the usual protocol of a regular city meeting (invocation, pledge of allegiance, determining quorum present, call to order, and approval of the minutes of the previous meeting) Commissioner Esmeralda Lozano motioned to go into closed executive session to receive attorney consultation in connection with a contract of employment dated April 11th 1996 between the City of La Feria and signed by then Mayor Paul F. Beechner and Mr. Sunny K. Philip. After an hour and twenty minutes of deliberation, no action was taken.

After emerging from executive session, the commission reviewed the proposed Northwest Park Improvements and also considered action to authorize advertisement for bids for construction of the park.

Mr. John Pearcy came forth and spoke on behalf of Megamorphisis Inc.

“The area in question is a triangular portion of land bordered by Fourth Street on the north and Third Street on the south west.”

Pearcy presented his plans for the park to the committee, who were impressed with the designs. Pearcy and his team put together a motif for the park that is meant to be seen as a unifying element.

When discussing the motif, Pearcy said, “So one thing that we thought was really successful at Unger [park] was a unified color scheme that creates a sense of place… we plan to use the color green for this park.”

Pearcy also mentioned birds as part of the theme for this park. As a response to the concerns for graffiti brought forth by the committee, Pearcy presented the solution of an open mesh- no presence of a flat surface.

Instead of a gate encircling the park, a chain link fence with green vinyl covering would be installed; the furnishings would be open mesh and an arch with mesh material meant to climb on would be installed as well.

The total cost estimate of this park was $227,980.00.

Commissioner Julian Guevara Jr. expressed concern about the price, “It is quite a bit of money for such a small area.”

Pearcy finished his presentation and the committee was left to discuss. Commissioner Lozano expressed her concerns about the source of funding, the durability of the mesh material for the arch and also brought up the fact that there is not enough policing.

Mayor Olga H. Maldonado believes that at this time the best thing to do would be to take control of what the city already has. The committee motioned to table the review of the improvements to Northwest Park.

The next item discussed was the presentation and discussion on the city’s comprehensive master and strategic plans.

Mr. Chris Stewart had the floor and brought forth 11×17 format maps as well as hard copies of the draft for the committee to review.

Interim city manager, Esmeralda Sanchez, informed the committee that a draft of the plan would be available for the public to view at city hall and the library.

In order to get more public feedback, Stewart and his team put together a survey that had been available to the public for sixty days.

“Part of what we did to get additional feedback from the public was we put out a survey. We had the survey available online, also in paper format in English and Spanish. We ran the survey for about sixty days and we got thirty-four responses to the survey,” said Stewart.

Upon hearing of the thirty- four responses, the committee was not pleased. Commissioner Hoff asked if the survey had been mailed out with water bills to which the answer was no.

Commissioner Lozano voiced her concern, “Are we happy with the results? I mean is that all we’re going to push for? Is there time for another round or a different approach?”

The committee continued to discuss ways to get more feedback from the public and Mayor Maldonado fully supported Commissioners Lozano’s idea of out of the ordinary ways to get a bigger public response.

In the meantime, there was no action taken on the presentation and discussion of the city’s draft of the comprehensive master and strategic plans.

Next on the agenda was the consideration to take action and approve a resolution to establish water and wastewater service with the Military Highway Water Supply Corporation. It was motioned for approval and passed.

The consideration to take action to accept the certification regarding anticipated tax collection rate for 2016, and the certification of debt service requirement were also approved.

The commission also discussed to approve a proposed tax rate for 2016- the proposed, but not set or official rate, agreed upon was .810.

Next on the agenda the commission considered to take action to take a record vote and to schedule public hearings if the proposed tax rate will exceed the rollback rate or the effective tax rate.

The hearings have been scheduled for Aug. 23 and Aug. 30.