By KREIG KOHL
Special to the PRESS
Aug. 16 saw the regularly scheduled meeting of the South Padre Island City Council. The first order of business for the city council on their regular agenda was discussion and action on approval of Resolution No. 2023-16, adopting the five-year Capital Improvement Plan as required by section 5.09 of the Home Rule Charter. The council adopted the CIP unanimously.
The second item on the agenda was to approve a resolution to support a compact alliance of the Rio Grande Valley Region of Texas. This would help with marketing for the Valley under what Mayor Patrick McNulty called a “one region, one voice” idea. This was also approved unanimously.
The council’s third and fourth items, both accepting grant agreements from the Texas Department of Transportation, fifth item, discussion and possible action to approve change order six for Laguna Boulevard street improvements, and sixth item, a budget amendment to allocate funds from the Tax Note Series for Laguna Boulevard Street and Drainage improvement project, were all approved unanimously.
The next item, which took the majority of the meeting time, was discussion and action to select the style and spacing of the bollards on Laguna Boulevard. The presenter of this item showed the council many different types of bollards, or barriers, which could be placed along the walking and biking path in the entertainment district of the Island. The least expensive of these would be treated wood barriers and the most expensive one shown was an aluminum bollard with a self-contained light in its top.
It was suggested that if the city went with the treated wood it would match the nautical theme that already exists around the entertainment district as well as for lighting, they could extend out the light poles already in use across Padre Boulevard. The estimated cost for concrete bollards with electric lighting would come out to $139,575.
There was a short discussion about using the armadillos that are in place on Gulf Boulevard, but the bollards are meant to help protect pedestrians from vehicles, which the armadillos are not able to completely stop a vehicle. The council ended up asking the department to bring back a diagram of concrete bollards with different distance of spacings and lights every other bollard, as well as a drawing of the wood bollards with the median lights, and the cost comparison of the different proposals.
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