City council considers advancing South Guadalupe Street Improvement Project

The San Marcos City Council will vote on awarding two construction projects for the South Guadalupe Street Improvement Project. 

They are both slated to be awarded to New Age General Contractors, Inc. One for bike lane traffic signals in an estimated amount of $183K and another to the same group for sidewalk and landscaping, estimated at $793K.

The council will also vote on an organization to award the Community Development Block Grant- Coronavirus Response (CDBG-CV) round three funding of $567K for the design and administration of a COVID-19 Emergency Housing and Business Relief Program.

Applications from Community Action Inc. and BR3T as well as the Veteran Services Office and the HOME center are being considered although city staff recommends awarding the contract to Community Action, with the stipulation that a minimum of $454K be awarded to beneficiaries of the program.

In other business, an ordinance is being considered, which amends sections 7.2.4.1 and 7.2.4.2 and Chapter 8, Article 1 of the City’s Development Code. The amendments include limitations on turfgrass installed in new developments, requiring the use drought-tolerant turf grass species in new developments, requiring minimum soil depths in new developments, adding a definition for turfgrass and other minor edits for clarification.

The councilmembers will also vote on awarding contracts for on-call electrical engineering services to Stanley Consultants, Inc. and McCord Engineering, Inc. with an initial two-year term and authorizing three additional annual renewals in a not-to-exceed amount of $5,000,000 per firm for the full five year term.

They will later vote on an ordinance amending Chapter 2, of the Code of Ethics of the San Marcos City Code. The amendments include requiring ethics complaints to be sworn before a notary public and  establishing a six month time period to file a complaint regarding an alleged violation.

City employees and officials would be required to cooperate in hearings before the ethics review commission and  the use of intimidation to discourage employees from filing ethics complaints or testifying at hearings before the commission would be prohibited. Retaliation in the form of adverse personnel action against city employees who file ethics complaints or testify at commission hearings on pending complaints would also be prohibited. 

The councilmembers will vote on approving an agreement with TMT Solutions, Inc., relating to the replacement of the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) software system with an Ignition system to support the City’s Water and Wastewater System in the estimated contract amount of $1.579 million.

They are also voting on financing $521K for the purchase of an air street sweeper, a dump truck and a Takeushi excavator for use by the stormwater division of the Public Services Department. 

There will be a vote on awarding an agreement to Hi-Lite Airfield Services LLC for the striping of three runways at the San Marcos Regional Airport on an as needed basis in the annual estimated amount of $75K.

The councilmembers will also vote on a contract with Holiday Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram for the purchase of eleven Dodge Charger pursuit vehicles for use by the San Marcos Police Department in the amount of $270K.

Later, councilmembers will consider Councilmember Gonzales’ nomination to the 2021 Charter Review Commission.

Tuesday's City Council meeting will be held virtually at www.sanmarcostx.gov/videos or on the Grande channel 16 of Spectrum channel 10. Anyone wishing to participate during the Citizen Comment portion of the meeting must email citizencomment@sanmarcostx.gov prior to 12 p.m. on Tuesday.