266 Express
Welcome to the 266 Express, your official podcast of Sanger, TX.
In every episode, we paint a picture of life in this beautiful North Texas town.
You will gain insight into everything from our rich history, community events, and the rapid growth and development of Sanger. Welcome to the 266 Express.
266 Express
Building Sanger's Future: Donna Green on Urban Transformation, Downtown Revitalization, and Community Progress
Picture a city on the brink of transformation—how does a 50,000-square-foot grocery store fit into the puzzle? Join us as we promise to unravel the ambitious plans and strategies that are reshaping Sanger, from the determined efforts of the Economic Development Corporation to the strategic incentives that have attracted a major grocer. Our discussion spans new residential developments necessitating enhanced City infrastructure, with insights into what these changes mean for the community at large. Donna Green and John Noblitt explore the intricate web of planning that supports Sanger's growth, bringing you closer to the vibrant future envisioned for this thriving City.
Dive into the heart of downtown revitalization, where the Porter Park redevelopment project stands as a beacon of progress. Listen as we share the City's vision for a dynamic live-work-play environment, with a focus on community involvement and private investment as key catalysts. We bring to light the critical role of existing attractions like Uptown Rail Brewery and the Old Bolivar Station Songwriter Festival in fostering this vibrant atmosphere. Discover the transformative potential of creating a bustling hub in the City center, where community participation and strategic funding elevate Sanger's downtown landscape to new heights.
From parks to public safety, this episode is rich with updates on infrastructure and community projects. Explore the creation of Porter Park Phase II and the innovative Miracle Field, designed with accessibility in mind, as we highlight the
City's commitment to inclusivity. Get a glimpse into the proactive strategies behind managing the City's electric system and the exciting advancements in fire and police department operations. We round off with updates on the I-35 and 455 expansion projects and a preview of upcoming community events that promise to engage and excite. Prepare to be captivated by the dynamic changes unfolding in Sanger, as we guide you through the milestones shaping the City's future.
You have been listening to The 266 Express, the official podcast of Sanger, TX. IF you have comments or suggestions, please send them to dgreen@sangertexas.org
Welcome to the 266 Express. I'm your host, John Knoplin, along with my co-host, Donna Green. Donna Green, I don't see anybody with us today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we don't have a guest today. We are going to just talk about different things going on in the city, maybe answer some questions for some people and give them some updates on what's really going on around here.
Speaker 1:All right, so we'll kick us off.
Speaker 2:Well, I think the big thing that everybody wants to know about first and foremost are the city developments, and the big, big, big one is this grocery store. Are we really getting a grocery store?
Speaker 1:No, no no, yeah, surprisingly, we've talked a lot about. I've been here three years. We've talked about a grocery store from day one. It was obviously when Burris was here and the expansion came up with I-35 and they left. The city took a big hit. You know, we absolutely understand that people would shop there and having a local grocery is a huge amenity for any city, regardless of size. We've actually had the grocery store booked for a lot longer than what people think. I mean, we're hearing a lot more about it here in the past year because there's actually been documents that are related to the grocery store permits, platting, conversations with the developers that have taken place in public meetings that discuss it.
Speaker 1:But we can almost go back three years and it was not long. Not that I had anything to do with it at all. The EDC has been hustling hard for years, but it was not long after I arrived that we knew that that was a deal that was going to be done. It was. It went from a conversation to we have some facts on the ground and we have some some things that really give us the security of knowing that this is going to happen. Now that we're closer to that, and what has kind of held that up would have been the financials, as everybody knows, the interest rates and everything else. Those really impact development as a whole and they certainly impact developments when you're dealing with a large-scale developer like Maloof, who is principal on the commercial side of this project, or Graystar who's handling a large portion of the residential apartment portions, like that, when they are out and they're trying to get their financing and they have investment there. Those interest rates matter. Well, now that there's a little lightening of the load on investments, now you're going to see a lot of those projects move and the grocery store is absolutely one. We anticipate that by the time this podcast goes out everybody will know who that is.
Speaker 1:The EDC. Shanie over at the EDC has done a fabulous job working with the city to craft an economic development incentive, to kind of nail down some parameters that soften the cost a little more to make sure that we not only get a grocer but we get a large grocer. They're a 50,000-square-foot footprint, which is huge. That indicates this is a full service. You know, when you walk in, we expect to see delis, we expect to see, you know, meat counters. We, you know probably some floral, maybe a pharmacy. This is a full service grocer, and then the incentive also indicates who that brand will be. It guarantees us that we have what we refer to as a flag. You know there's four flags that most people want. I can assure you it's not an HEB right.
Speaker 1:But it is a grocer that everybody knows and has a long established history of being in that business, so we're very excited about that. Now, what makes that happen is not just a few of those incentives but the development as a whole. There the council really gave into a little bit of density that we don't typically do. Density for us creates a different sort of problem sometimes when you look at it's great for your tax base and it's great for projects like this where you're building in a few more customers to ensure that you have the numbers you need within your market to have a different type of retailer, different names with the retailers, whether that be restaurants or boutiques or grocers. But it creates some challenges for us. When it comes to first response, you know when you move into apartments, which this one does contain some apartments, I think in actuality we're first phase and second phase. Between the two phases it's going to be almost 600 units. We show 582 right now on the ground, but that's over two phases. It's 300 a phase.
Speaker 1:Well, you go multi-story. We need a new piece of equipment, which we have coming, which that's the. We have a Quint, what they call a Quint truck, which is an aerial apparatus. It's a ladder truck. It's used to get water over a fire on a large structure or even remove people from a large structure. If you have an incident and then it creates some challenges with the police department, because where there's density you can have an uptick in some property type crimes and things like that. We have a great police department. We have a great chief who's been here now and has done a great job with community policing, which is how we kind of combat that. But as we grow we have to make sure we're on top of that, so that development alone is going to force us into some additional challenges that we're prepared to handle. But all of those things I say that to go back to all of those things were done to ensure that we could get a large grocer here in Sanger to meet the demand of the residents that we heard over time. Perfect.
Speaker 2:So we've also. There's been a lot of talk about Raleigh Ranch. We've talked about that, it seems, for a couple years now. Let's tell people what Raleigh Ranch is, why we have it Riley Ranch.
Speaker 1:We refer to it as Riley Ranch because the former owner, mike Riley, and his family. It was a family estate essentially there it's a little over 450 acres. We have identified between you'll hear a couple of these other projects over time as you look at our feeds, like Lane Ranch and some you know, sable Creek as it continues in its phases as we grow. The other challenge we have outside public safety is usually infrastructure as a whole water, electric sewer, sewer long term, because we are nearing benchmarks or thresholds where we need to accommodate some minor changes to the current plant. But the current plant site is not going to be large enough for all the growth. So to get ahead of that r Riley Ranch, we had identified a spot on that property which is on the southeast portion of Sanger. Right now it's outside the city limits. Of course that's all coming in because we own it. We identified a spot there and as part of those discussions to get that site it was kind of an all-or-nothing type deal discussions to get that site it was kind of an all or nothing type deal we needed to acquire all of that property or none at all in the need for a sewer plant site where we could control costs, and that has a lot to do with floodplain and flood regulations. We had to take this entire parcel. So right now we have our engineers identifying the amount of property we need for a what we call a regional plant. When we say regional, we would love for it to be regional for other users, but in reality it will be primarily Sanger's use because we're going to move over the next you know, 10, 20, 30 years into two, maybe two and a half times our current population.
Speaker 1:Um, so we're we were really looking for the last sewer plant. This this, we hope, will be the last plant that we have to to do for wastewater treatment for the city for perpetuity. So we needed a location that we could start with, expand, grow into and then maintain for the long term. That was the principal reason we bought the Riley Ranch property. Now we're also looking at that site for some water storage needs, because along with wastewater comes water usage. As we grow, we're going to have higher demand users for water. We're going to have more residential users on the water side and, although we're very good on water for long term, unlike a lot of cities, we're still going to have to take more water in the future to provide for that base long term.
Speaker 1:So the engineers are working that site and as they work that site we thought it was in our interest to bond out that property. So we issued two bonds. We issued a $5 million bond that was non-taxable, which covers roughly 100 acres of that property which we'll keep long-term for the sewer plant. We're looking at a park to add to our trail system there. That will probably remain natural. Again, the final determination on that will be the council's ultimate decision with feedback from the community.
Speaker 1:And then we'll parcel off the remainder of that property to, hopefully, a developer to recoup the $10 million portion of that bond.
Speaker 1:And that $10 million portion of the bond we issued is a taxable bond, meaning that when we sell that property, not only can we retire that bond, that $10 million, as soon as possible, we can also take any revenue that we generate from that sale and apply it to other projects outside of what that property was utilized for. It becomes revenue to the city that is unrestricted for use anywhere, whereas that bond is restricted to the use on that Riley Ranch portion. In the future, as we retire that debt, we'll be able to utilize that for other things. So if there's some expansions in areas that need to happen that are coordinated with the plant, we're able to do that. Or if we want to expedite some of our future street utility maintenance programs, we're able to use those funds to do that. So kudos to our CFO, clayton Gray, on really helping craft the strategy on how we would not just issue that debt but how we would retire that debt and how we would manage those proceeds to keep all the other projects on track. Awesome.
Speaker 2:So some more fun things. I think when you're a wastewater treatment plant, yay, you need it, but not much fun there. We do have a couple of projects that I find very interesting, especially the downtown park. Downtown park yeah, it's an exciting one, right, it's very exciting.
Speaker 1:You talk about it, donna, I'm chatty. Kathy over here.
Speaker 2:Well, so we have the concept plans for it and council has seen those and they're beautiful. It's really making use of an existing building that we have there, so there's some cost savings. And then also we're using some material that's already there, that can be repurposed, which is great, but the intent is going to be for a multipurpose gathering space, event center and even some meeting space, indoor meeting space. So I can tell you, I look forward to decorating that for the holidays.
Speaker 1:If I hear I'm ready to get my tree again, I'll go, not this year but maybe soon. That is a very exciting project. You know, we worked with the EDC who owned the warehouse which most people are familiar with down by the rail for the city to acquire that. We were able the city was able to acquire a couple of other lots so that we could put a full city block and a half together for that project. Full city block and a half together for that project.
Speaker 1:The council has been very, very helpful with their direction and guidance to really say we want a destination spot in Sanger Now for a guy like me on the other side. Operationally we get excited about that because all these events where we're closing down blocks downtown we don't necessarily have to do when that park comes up. You know, when we talk about food trucks and farmers markets and old Bolivar Station Songwriter Festival and all these things, we'll be able to contain a lot of those within that space, which not only frees up parking but it frees up our ability to drive, you know, foot traffic past our downtown businesses. The catalyst for that was our comprehensive plan that was completed a little over a year and a half ago and adopted by the council. The council looked and downtown in that comprehensive plan really is a is a mixed use type place is a mixed-use type place. We want people to as you phrase it in the marketing world live, work and play downtown. It's kind of what they're looking at and the city. We own a lot of property downtown, mind you, but we don't own it all and over time we want to be able to pass that on to people that can redevelop it for a better use than what we use, pass that on to people that can redevelop it for a better use than what we use.
Speaker 1:So when we're looking at that, we sat down with the council and said, okay, we don't have a lot of opportunities to spur this development. We know the intent is to broaden our downtown footprint and to make it a really active place, but we really don't have enough control over the resources to make that happen. So what can we do to spur this in the old Bolivar Station Park or whatever that turns out to be named someday? As you can tell, I kind of I'm a fan of a certain title, but once they determine what they want to call that park long-term. That is the one item that the city has full control over.
Speaker 1:We absolutely can fund a park. We absolutely can fundraise for a park. We've got the conceptual designs that I'm sure you can put a link to so people can see what the council has vision there. That is the one thing that the city really does have enough control over. That we can put our money where our mouth is to a degree and then point at these people downtown and go we're, we're doing it. Can you do it too? Can you come along for this? Because this is going to be an exciting journey. This is years in the making and it'll take years to complete, but once it's done, we feel that that downtown destination park will be the item that encourages others to really see and implement the vision of that comprehensive plan for your downtown area.
Speaker 2:And you can already see other businesses that are buying into the theme. Yes, so we have the Uptown Rail Brewery.
Speaker 1:Uptown Rail coming.
Speaker 2:And I've been in there and it has a very rustic, almost railroad theme and I know they've got some murals going in there that really complement the Old Bolivar Station Songwriter Festival and some of the things that we've talked about for downtown. So it's moving along great.
Speaker 1:And that you know Old Bolivar, the Songwriter Festival. You know kudos to you for taking, you know, pretty much a weird demand from me to make that happen right, but that you know Old much a weird demand from me to make that happen right, but that you know Old Bolivar Station Songwriter Festival was an event. We said let's start with this event, let's see if we can grow an event, and part of the reason for that event and putting it downtown was to encourage an event and an event growth. Another really signature event for the city that we could grow into.
Speaker 1:We need to get this into the destination park we need to move this off the streets into this location, you know. So there's there's a lot of things. I'm that guy that says I would rather have a program and build a program and outgrow what I'm doing to prove demand for a new location than to build a new location and then go let's fill it, because that's a lot harder to do, you know, in practice than it is in theory, but it's exciting. I mean, it's going to be an amazing venue once it's once it's done and we'll be calling on a lot of people and a lot of people that are listening. We're, you know, we want community involvement. We're going to have to raise funds outside what we typically do, because it is a very broad and very expansive project.
Speaker 1:So, you know, on our side we're looking at all the funding resources we can get uh, you know what's at our, our fingertips through our typical resources, but also what grants are available as a destination venue or the things that we can talk to the county about. Can we get the county involved on some of these items? These are all things that we're doing now. So when you don't see, when you drive past that warehouse over the next year or two years, which you'll see, we're temporarily going to locate the fire department there as they're doing a station remodel, but that's not permanent. But, as you see, those things, we don't want people to get discouraged and go. Well, they're never going to do a park. We're absolutely doing a park. But it does take time and it takes a little more when you broaden that scope.
Speaker 1:And I'm very excited that the council, who in my opinion had a little narrower vision maybe at times and again, this is just my perception coming in the door, they seem to have broadened their vision by leaps and bounds over the past several years. I'm very appreciative of that. It's very challenging because it sure makes the ball harder to hit sometimes, but it does help you know a little more what pitch is coming, sometimes too. So it's kind of a give and take that we've seen, which the baseball analogy obviously is Porter Park Phase 2, right, yep? What have we got going on in Porter Park Phase 2?
Speaker 2:So that's going to be exciting. That's where we have the Miracle League will be. Miracle League Field will be located there, and then I think we have plans for four additional ball fields to go with that, and then some green space, some more walking trails. I know that we're working with TxDOT to connect the two parks so that you can go easily from one to the other. Hopefully, some playground space over there, and I think it's going to be great. You know I do worry about my fireworks, so we're going to have to work that out because we launch from there.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I don't want to catch the park on fire, but I don't want to go to drones, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I think it's going to be uh great. And then I know we've got some.
Speaker 1:I can put some links uh to below this, because we have some concept plans, rough concepts for that they're really rough at this point, but kind of give you an idea of what we're thinking yeah, I believe the uh edc is a partner on that, as as they are with the downtown park. We're going to see the council will see some conceptual plans come across once the parks and EDC boards approve the conceptions. The council approve a concept plan, because there's a couple up in the air right now and they'll nail that down. You'll actually see Porter Park will run at a faster pace than your downtown park. A couple of questions. I'll answer one, which is we're working right now on Railroad Ballfield Park.
Speaker 1:There's some certain challenges there due to the property itself that we have been working through, and when I say we, I say that uh, ryan, uh, with our our parks director, ryan nolting, has been working with our environmental attorney to make sure that we have all the things in place to go. Uh, as we disturb that site a little bit. Uh, we're in compliance with the tceq. It's nothing as so people, people don't fear. That's an old landfill that was sealed up and probably really not used that much. But because it was a landfill site or designated as a landfill site, we have to go through a lot of permitting and monitoring on that site to ensure that we're not doing anything to create an environmental issue. An issue doesn't really exist there now that we're aware of. You know, we've looked at it. So they're going to go through and they'll be scraping a little bit of the ground, they'll be leveling things up. I don't know if that means they're going to add fill or reduce fill, how that works, but Ron's been working really hard to get that done, to make sure that we have ball fields, not just for that segment of the community, that side of town.
Speaker 1:When I say that segment of the community, we have a lot of sub-developments there east of the rail. We want to make sure that they have a park that's close and accessible, just like west of 35, we have Porter. But we also want to maintain the ball fields because we, the Porter Park, we want to enhance our offerings as opposed to reduce them. So you will see that as we add these park fields, the question has come up. Well, four fields may not be enough at your new park. Well, we're really, because we're not reducing railroad, you're really moving to six or eight fields or you know, whatever, whatever that layout becomes as we go.
Speaker 1:At this time the city has no plans to dissolve the railroad park ball fields. It just it doesn't make sense for us to get rid of an amenity and make other amenities, you know, that are not as accessible as the ones that people have used. So that's the first question and I hope that answers it a little bit and anybody that has questions can contact my office or can contact us and ask us questions through our marketing email, which will be linked and Donna will give us in a minute. But the second question and I think it's a more important question, is what is a miracle field? For those people that don't know what a miracle field is, Right, so you want me to tell people.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:So a miracle field is a field, that is, it's meant for use for anybody with any type of accessibility issues. So the field is softer.
Speaker 2:It's more of a spongier thing Wheelchair accessible, so no matter what your physical condition is, you're able to get out there and play sports just like everyone else. So it makes the dugouts a little wider and there's zero transition, so you don't have to worry about going up a stair or down a stair or whatever. And along with putting amenities that are like the concession stand and the restroom and everything close and accessible too for that field so that everybody can access it and everybody can play, it's usable.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think we're also looking potentially at maybe a playground.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's very exciting because when this opportunity came up, it was something that, unless somebody tells you, it's not always at the front of your mind and for no reason, it probably should be right. There's a whole segment of all communities that you know accessibility is an issue whether it. There's a whole segment of all communities that you know accessibility is an issue, whether it's in a public building or a public park or the grocery store or anywhere else. And so when the opportunity came up for Miracle-Phil, I think the city and the city council agreed that having a more accessible park was a pretty important portion of the amenities we should offer as a city, because we were missing a segment of the community that we serve, and so they took that as an opportunity to maybe expand that a little bit. And you know, it's probably the first of what we hopefully see many opportunities for us to take advantage of being a little more considerate of the the people we serve and and finding a little more equity long term. So it's pretty. It's pretty neat.
Speaker 1:The miracle league is actually already established and they're actually doing some activities too, so they're they're working in partnership with with the city on the design of the facility, which is a requirement of what we do to make sure that we are not just throwing something up, that we're actually putting in fields and playgrounds and restrooms and parking and all those things that will meet those needs to just enhance our offering and hopefully and this is what we've heard hopefully we'll be able to provide some opportunities for those families in the community that have felt like they haven't had them in the past.
Speaker 1:So kudos to everybody who brought that to our attention and again, kudos to the staff and the council and the EDC board and the parks board who really took what we offered and said, yeah, we need to handle that. So you're looking at the Miracle League field and again, the baseball fields, the walking trails, the green space, the playgrounds, and really taking that, which is important to us, really taking those both sides of I-35, right, the east side, the west side of 35, porter Park 1, porter Park 2, not only connecting those but really creating a space. That is a kind of a road sign for Sanger. I mean you just in my mind. I think about those people coming in either direction, but primarily coming out of the DFW area and you top that hill. You know, you top that hill coming in and you can see everything there.
Speaker 1:That's a big statement piece for us. You know we really become. You know a lot of people mention the Bella Mansion which they're working through right now. It will be a wonderful venue, but that has kind of been the statement piece for us for years. People, when you say Sanger, that comes up what's happened to that old house there? Right? Well, you know, hopefully in 10 years as people drive by Sanger they'll go man, that complex they have down there is fantastic. I wonder what else they have to offer. And they start hitting those exits a little bit because the dynamics here are going to change tremendously. But that Porter Park 1 and 2 is an opportunity for us to not only provide an incredible amenity for the community and finish out the vision that was already started, but a kind of a way to put a beacon out there on I-35 for the community as a whole.
Speaker 2:So I want to switch topics just a little bit. Something that I know, especially last year, was on a lot of people's minds, and I know that you've done a fabulous job of ensuring that we're not going to have any problems in the future. But I want to talk about electricity and what you have negotiated and accomplished and kind of what that means for the city long term.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, big statement there. No problems, maybe a few. No electricity. Again, with the growth comes the issues that we have with infrastructure, and everybody sees them and everybody knows the roads are, are, uh, we have areas and towns where the in in this town and in this community and we know bells met, you'll hear marion and there's several areas downtown where the, the streets and roads need to be managed. You know, and we're working through that with the sump program we already talked a little bit about water and sewer, but electricity is our, our other challenge, I mean you we can't have these things coming in without power and the uh, the uh.
Speaker 1:The electric um system itself is very. It is one of the truly self-sustaining departments we have. It's one of those departments where we typically spend less than what we bring in. But it's not a huge revenue gap and there's a lot of technicalities that go into how you manage that electric. If you don't generate that power to control what everybody realizes are our margins to make enough profit to do improvements and things like that, one of the biggest areas that most cities have and most electric companies have is if you're not generating that power, then you have to buy it wholesale. And everybody's heard about ERCOT. You hear it on the news all the time. Well, we buy through the ERCOT market, which at times can fluctuate wildly because it's supply and demand. We were coming up on the end of our current contract with a wholesale provider. It was a wonderful contract.
Speaker 1:I think Mr Bryce and his team had negotiated that contract years ago and they were able to control some of those costs. One of those things they could not control was the cap the city has always had a portion of. When we hit a certain amount of usage, we have to go back out to the open market and buy it on demand. There was just no real way around that. We have a lot of what they call ancillary costs. A lot of electric departments have. The prior administration did a good job of being able to maintain contracts where that did not impact the city. The ancillaries really just didn't exist in that way. So the cap was always a problem.
Speaker 1:Managing the cap as we were coming up on the contract, we were able to find a contract that was basically a cooperative-type contract and work with a new provider to lock in a long-term agreement. It's an agreement, maybe one of the longest the city has been in. It's a 16-year agreement, but we're able to get a lot of those costs diminished, including the cap. You know the city now purchases. We're going to purchase at a flat rate over the term of 16 years. Now that will be. The rate will fluctuate in five-year increments but we will pay whatever that rate is. So if we're paying $1 per megawatt now and I wish we were, but if we were paying $1 a megawatt now and we reach that what used to be our cap, which was about 16 megawatts around there it was about 16 megawatts around there, 16.1, 16.2, we will pay a dollar. You know, regardless of whether that's one megawatt or you know 100 megawatts, we'll be paying a dollar a megawatt from now on. In the past we'd pay a dollar a megawatt up to that cap and then we might be paying, you know, $300 a megawatt.
Speaker 1:That's what got people in Storm Uri, winter Storm Uri, not just the ancillary fees, but you know that power went from, you know, $24, $25 a megawatt to $5,000, $6,000 a megawatt, and that's charged. You know that fluctuates every 15 minutes on the open market. It's an uncontrollable cost for a lot of people and that's why you saw a lot of electric bills go up, because they're trying to accommodate that now. That big loss that everybody had across the system with URI Sanger fortunately did not have to participate in the ERCOT funding. You know ERCOT put out about $2 billion in debt to improve the grid and stabilize those things. Because we didn't have those costs related, we were able to opt out of that. So our customers are going to benefit not just from the lower rate of not having to participate in a large bond initiative that was approved for our cot.
Speaker 1:We now also can control those margins much better because we know what our rates are years in advance, whereas in the past we didn't really know what our rates are years in advance, whereas in the past we didn't really know what it was going to be, because you never knew how much power you're going to have. So we're very excited about that because that's you know. This year we started that contract in January our margin right now we've saved probably a million dollars since January over what we have spent in the past. That that's huge and when you add that up over 16 years, that's tremendous at today's rates. And even though our rates will fluctuate a little bit because we're not on an open market, we don't have to worry about wild fluctuations over that 16 years either, which means those savings could be, you know, a million dollars or they could be $30 million. It's really just at this point depends on how we manage our system and how we manage those margins and how we manage that rate structure for the customers. The council has been very adamant over the years that we want our customers to benefit from those savings. It doesn't mean we'll never have rate increases or anything like that, but it does say we're able to manage those where we do not believe that we will ever have to do some emergency rate increase or something that people are not expecting it gives us time to make better decisions.
Speaker 1:On top of that, there was a challenge last summer. We shut off power. We blacked power out for about half an hour and that was due to the heat in our system. The city of Sanger now operates on a single transformer for power, so we buy, our power comes into our substation and we have one unit that controls our whole system, and it's an aged unit it's probably 30 years old or it's pushing it During the heat of summer and summers are hot, getting hotter in some cases. That unit has to be working at 100% efficiency to make sure that we don't burn it out, and so there's times where we have to make tough decisions and uh, and last summer was one where where we our concern was we can maybe roll a blackout for a little bit, or if we leave this on, we could run the risk of this unit going out, and then we may be out an indefinite period of time. You know you could be out eight to ten hours at minimum, getting a substation a mobile substation in to provide that power, or you'd be out in days. It was.
Speaker 1:We got a lot of pushback on that and we respect that. It was not a situation we wanted to be in, but we also saw several other cities around Texas that they were kind of in a similar situation and they did. They lost transformers and their power was out. You had one, I think, crum, in that area. You had one go out Electra Texas not too long ago. Their sub went out and they were out for an extended period of time.
Speaker 1:So in order to manage that, we've been working with Brazos about upgrading our substation and it's our biggest challenge has been really supply chain. Supply chain has been a wreck for everybody. Electrical equipment and transformers that use a lot of copper and a lot of wiring and a lot of metals and steels have been the worst. You know we see those out at. You know two years, two years plus.
Speaker 1:Brazos has agreed to work with us on upgrading the substation, providing some redundancy and providing additional resources for more power as we move into the future and we'll see that probably really start rolling around 2025, with a completion around 2027, because it is again we don't have full control of the assets or the resources, but that we believe, coupled with the long-term power contract, should be really the last few upgrades that we really need to do on Sanger's electrical system to finish building out the system for the long term in our service area and providing the same or better service for our existing customers while bringing new customers on as we grow. So we're super excited about the power agreement because that one really again gives us flexibility and gives us more ability to make better, more educated decisions, as it relates to not just the electric system but how we're spending and providing some of those funds citywide on the other services that people demand.
Speaker 2:So you mentioned a little while ago that we're getting a new Quint and that's very, very exciting. I know when that arrives we'll do a big push-in ceremony and all of the hoopla because it's an amazing thing that we got. It's hard to get them and they're very, very expensive. But tell us about. You know. We've got some great things happening in the fire station right. So we've got the upgrade coming for the current existing station and we've got a modular building coming to help us there a little bit. So kind of tell us where all this is going and what all this means for the residents of Sanger.
Speaker 1:Sure, the fire department, police department. You'll see change over time. As we grow again, those demands go up for the resources needed to manage a large community, especially in an emergency situation. But the day-to-day is just as important, if not more so, because I think we all understand that crime prevention and fire prevention really start with planning. You know the better prepared you are and the better your resources are, the less an emergency an emergency can be, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1:With the fire department you've run a part-time and volunteer department for years and years. Over the past probably decade, there's been a slow transition into a full-time department, which we are now. Really a full-time department which requires a few more firefighters and a few more pieces of equipment to manage that, not just fire apparatus like the engines or the quints or the things like that. But for our fire department who runs EMS ambulances because a majority of what we really do daily are probably ambulance calls because fire prevention has gotten so much better on the commercial level and even on the residential level. So we will, you will slowly begin to see those services expand. We are really beyond a one station city because the equipment has changed and our needs for the number of firefighters we have on shift. They'll be redoing the downtown station and then, as they shift there, that station will probably always remain. You know, or at least I don't see that station going anywhere before I do for sure Because we're again, it's a 20-year vision, not a two-year vision. So they'll make those modifications to the station that are needed and then in our long-term planning and in our capital budgets we have a public safety center scheduled it's on the books which is property acquisition, planning and construction of basically what we would call Station 1 for police and fire. You know it would be police, fire, ems, municipal courts, all those things that function there. We want to get them into a secure location, separate from some of the other services we provide, because they are different and better located to serve both sides of the community. And so you will see that to get there, you will begin to see us grow these both departments a little more organically.
Speaker 1:So for a while these departments may be compressed into some facilities that we need to do better on and we're working to do better on. So the update of the firehouse again is to make sure that we always have some type of availability on the west side of the tracks, and now we want to make sure that we have availability on the east side of the railroad too, because that's really the biggest failure point you have in public safety if you can have one is what happens if there's a train sitting on the tracks and we have to go around. I mean that's going to impact your response times. We're working on fixing that and we have been for a while. Identification of the right spot has been the challenge because with the growth the available property becomes more difficult to acquire. I'm working the fire department has put together what they call a 10-station plan, but it's a long-term plan for growth on what stations would look like.
Speaker 1:I believe after you have your main station in, you will see us move to a station further east and further west, one probably closer to Bolivar and one probably closer to the lake, because we're expanding our footprint a little bit. But we have agreements with the county for EMS and fire that pay us for calls that we make in the unincorporated areas of the county. That's how the county fulfills their obligation to county residents through the contracts with the cities. We will put some satellite stations out at some point and they'll be minimal stations. They'll be housed with full crews, but they'll probably have maybe an ambulance and one of them may have a brush truck, one of them may have an engine. It just depends on where they're located and what type of density and what type of equipment is most commonly needed in those areas. So we'll put those satellite stations out to hopefully secure some of our boundaries and some of those things that help subsidize the cost for the city to run the fire and EMS, because it's a very expensive endeavor that our tax dollars really don't cover. So having the ability to stretch our legs out a bit into these areas and then plant our feet helps us make sure that we don't lose things that are paying into our system now when we make those calls.
Speaker 1:So to build off fire and just kind of move more into police, the police department, you will see we are slowly moving, and I say slowly. It's really been paced faster than it has been in the past, but we're slowly moving to a more proactive and community-oriented department and you've seen that under the leadership of Chief Cheek, and you see that with FIRE too, under Chief Pennington and Assistant Chief Welburn, we're becoming more visible and becoming more in tune with the community. With that you will begin to see the police department change some of the things. They'll slowly have more people on the ground. But you will also see one of the challenges we've had in the past is really property crime. Property crime is a big one. We and you don't you know we went for years and years with a single investigator for anything and that's almost impossible in a rural-type community with crime, property crime to doing investigations. You've got guys carrying 200 or 300 cases. It's impossible. And so that came with a different set of challenges.
Speaker 1:As they identify more proactively what's going on, they're able to scale those services too. So you'll see probably we'll add a detective this year. We added another supervisor last year to the department that the department is fully staffed. So you're going to begin to see more police, but not in the way of you're seeing them because they're pulling you over. You're going to be able to see them more. They're going to be more visible to you in a way that if you have a need you're able to turn your head and identify that I'm probably safe because they're right here. So we're super excited with the way public safety is moving. It is moving to a more proactive and more prepared and those guys, both Pennington and Cheek, have done a fabulous job, knocking on my door and going we need this resource or we need this training, which we're happy to provide because we want to make. The safer and the better equipped both those departments are, the better the service and safety we can provide the community.
Speaker 2:Awesome. So another project, you know the 455 project, expansion project I've given people it's going to be great but it's giving people a headache. People see the high school being built over there. So that's coming along nicely. And there's been a lot of work on the I-35 project. Although you don't necessarily see all of the work that's going on, you see some stuff. So give us kind of an update on the I-35 project and what's going on now and what people can expect to see in the future.
Speaker 1:Well, we know they're going to be wrapping up 455, probably the end of this year, into 25, right? So you'll slowly see those other sets of lanes be completed and they'll open those roads up and get cleared off. Those roads up and get cleared off. Probably the biggest thing on 455 that you have yet to see is they have been building the access ramps to the new overpass as part of the project. At some point they'll close 455 overnight and put the main beams in for some of these other items. They'll actually get those lanes ready to open so everybody will be driving the new lanes or have the ability to.
Speaker 1:And that was slated as part of the 455, as opposed to the rest of the I-35 project, i-35, we are doing the utility relocates, as mentioned. We are boring under 35 for additional water or sewer accessibility from east to west to make sure that we can loop our system. And again, city of St George is really working on infrastructure completion build-outs right. Again, we know what our footprint is. Now we're trying to make sure that we are prepared to build out that footprint or let other people build out that footprint and provide those services. 35 will begin just on the hills of the 455 closeout and so you're going to have several years of those widening of those lanes.
Speaker 1:We on our side, outside the utility relocates, we're working on some aesthetics, just the pretty things that people like to see medallions and things like that. But principally, our work will be done, our work, the city's work, which is all utilities. No road work will be done here in a few months and then it will all be TxDOT and then we coordinate with TxDOT on reimbursements. Most of this was not a project on 455 or I-35 that the city took on 100% of the cost and good for us. It was a partnership with Tx dot and a lot of these funds are reimbursable. 455, for example, the city will, uh, will recoup about two and a half million dollars off that project which we're working through the reimbursement process, which is a process you think dealing with the city is rough deal with the state the feds a little bit um and then hopefully uh, at the tail end of that you will.
Speaker 1:You will see a little relief with the traffic patterns here because they have been miserable at times. But we encourage you guys to continue to call us, let us know when there's uh, where there's incidents, because we are able to uh get with TxDOT and make them aware of the issues that we're having. Uh, I will be honest with you, we don't always get the response we want or we feel we need, but we do get a response. It just takes a while sometimes. Okay, oh, look, I see upcoming events. Yes, that sounds like Donna. Tell us about upcoming events.
Speaker 2:Well, so by the time this airs, we will have just wrapped up our first national night out. We anticipate and I expect that to- be a very big event.
Speaker 2:It would be nice to dunk some firefighters and some police officers in the dunk tank and Chief Cheek is going all out for a great barbecue. So hopefully everybody listening didn't miss it. But then, coming up on October 5th, we will have our second annual Old Bolivar Station Songwriter Festival. If you've not received, if you've not seen the link to get your t-shirts, if you want to order a t-shirt, we we had a big demand for those last year and I didn't have any to sell. So this year we've worked with our local print shop, stitchin' and More, and they're allowing you to order them and they just ship them right to you or you can pick them up in the store. So that's nice.
Speaker 2:But we will have two main stages. One will be on the downtown square and then one will be inside of the new brewery Knock on Wood. They're really close to finishing, but they've assured me they'll be done in time fingers crossed. And then we'll also have some performers in kind of a song swap format inside of Revival and then to close out the night, our headliner will be Jordan Shepard and the Cypress Knees. So they were the winner from last year's songwriting contest and then people also got to see them this year at the Fourth of July Festival.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they can go back a couple episodes and hear Jordan himself.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, we did do a podcast with Jordan, so if you want to hear his story, it's definitely worth listening to. Let's see, October 19th is going to be our fall cleanup days. That's going to be on Saturday from 8 to 11, and that will be out at Railroad Park and they are taking some household hazardous waste materials. So if you check, you can either check on our Facebook or I can post a link in the description of this and you can check out what we are accepting and what we're not. I know medicine is being accepted this time.
Speaker 2:Right and a lot of people ask about that, so we do have that service this time. Then, on October 26th, from 8 to 5, we'll have the Sanger Celebration, and that's hosted by the.
Speaker 1:Chamber of Commerce.
Speaker 2:They've done a really good job. They've expanded a little bit. This year it's including a car show, which I think is new for them. This year. They're bringing back the Wiener Dog races and of course they'll have tons and tons of vendors and the Little Miss and Mister, mister and some other fun stuff. So that'll be fun and I know they're not doing their Safe Spook as a part of that. It's going to be a separate event this year, so that'll be new for people and they're actually going to do a Safe Spook actual event, so the kids will get all dressed up.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then most exciting for me is on Saturday, december 7th, starting at 2 o'clock, we're going to do the Christmas on the Square and Holiday Parade that will be downtown, and anybody that's been before or seen the lights over the last few years I've changed it every year. Anybody that's been before or seen the lights over the last few years, I've changed it every year, and so this year you can expect to see gingerbread houses and gumdrops. So thank Candyland at Christmastime. That's kind of what it's going to be we're going to have once again.
Speaker 2:We're doing the letters to Santa. He has agreed to put his special mailboxes in our downtown downtown so children can drop off their letters, no postage necessary. Santa does not know what to do with that money when he gets it, so please don't put postage and don't give any money. Uh, santa mail stuff for free. He's got magic elves, that does it. But you can drop off your letters up until the 17th of December and he will respond personally to you. We'll have photos with Santa during the event, crafting with Mrs Claus once again, and then she'll also be doing a reading just before the parade. We have craft vendors and there'll be food trucks, of course big secret, I don't know if you know, but I'm going to make it snow, that's what I heard.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've got some connections and it is going to snow in downtown Sanger for Christmas on the Square. I'm so, so excited about that, so I mean it's going to be a great event. You can go to discoverstangercom slash Christmas on the Square to find out more. It's going to be a great event and we're going to wrap it up with the parade. Last year's parade was beautiful and we already have several entries that have come in for this year. So if you visit the website, you can see that, or on our Facebook page, you'll get the link to apply. We'd love to have as many floats as possible this year. And then another great event we're actually going to do hot cocoa with you. That's what I hear. Yeah, so we're going to do that on. Let's see. I think we changed the date. It's coming up. It'll come up in November. We'll watch our Facebook pages for that.
Speaker 2:I'm confirming our venue, so look for that. It's a great time to meet with you, ask a lot of questions. I know you're always there. A lot of your city staff is there, along with police and fire. It's a great time to get connected with the city staff, find out questions and just kind of get to know us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a great opportunity. Yeah, how else can they stay connected with us, donna?
Speaker 2:We have so many ways to stay connected, so we do a monthly video with you that kind of lets people know what went on that past month and kind of what's coming up for the following month. The mayor does a council recap, so kind of highlight. We talk about the highlights of whatever council covered for the previous month. We have the quarterly Sanger Sentinel that goes out. That'll go out again in October. We have Ask your City and that is simply sending an email to marketing at sangertexasorg with the subject line Ask your City, and that email comes to me. I don't know the answers, but I know all the people who do and I can get answers back to you and then we'll also post those answers on our website and in the Sentinel so all the different places, so that people can find their answers in a timely manner.
Speaker 2:We have Facebook. We have Facebook for the city, we have Facebook for economic development, the police department, the fire department, the library. So anything going on in the city you will find it on one of those Facebook pages. And of course we have our 266 Express podcast, which has been wonderful. It's a great way we talk about what's going on in the city, but then you also get to hear from people like Jordan Shepard and I know upcoming we have. Ramey Hammonds will be on talking about development services and how to start a business in downtown Zanger, so that ought to be really great. And then we do our, our coffees, our ice creams, our cocos and or whatever, with our city leaders, that's, you, the fire department and and anybody else that I can get to to come along. We have a youtube channel where we post all of our videos, and so if you need a recap of them, then they're there the economic development newsletter we have. And then, of course, we have our websites, sangertexasorg or DiscoverSangercom.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and those are all great resources for everybody. Again, looking at the weekly paper is a good way to see some of the information that we're putting out there. We encourage you to use all of these resources and I would encourage you, the fastest way for anybody to get a hold of us is call City Hall and kind of ask your question and we'll get you to the right place, because I know I don't respond on Facebook and I don't really see a lot of those things, but they, they make it there. But sometimes I'll know days after and I know some of my department heads know days after, uh, probably something that that uh, if you just pick up the phone and call city hall, we'll, we'll do our best to help you because we're we're here to serve, I mean, and we're uh, we're a community together and it takes us all. I encourage you to use the Ask your City at the marketing email address. That would make days like this more interesting. We could probably hit some of those questions, yeah.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and you'll get answers really quick there too, because I'll just barge in and ask the question, no matter whose office it is, so that's always good.
Speaker 1:Well, donna, it looks like we're out of stuff. We're out, that's about it.
Speaker 2:We've covered a lot Two-hour podcast. One-hour podcast, but good information.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so this week on a special episode of the 266 Express isn't that what they do when they have the after-school specials. So we have an extended episode this week or this month. This month.
Speaker 2:All about the city and what's going on.
Speaker 1:It happens right? Please, please, please, please, please, let us know your questions. We're here to help. Thank you again for listening to the 266 Express. I'm John Knobleth. I'm.
Speaker 2:Donna Green.
Speaker 1:We appreciate you listening in to what's going on in our small little North Texas town.