Granite Shoals reviews 50th fete, new grants
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Glynis Crawford Smith/The Highlander
New banners are ready to announce the coming Granite Shoals 50th Year Bash April 23-24.
BY GLYNIS CRAWFORD SMITH
THE HIGHLANDER
The Granite Shoals 50th Year Bash and yet another prospective $500,000 grant were high on the meeting list of topics to discuss for the city council Tuesday, March 22.
“We are 31 days and counting toward the 50th Year Bash,” said City Manager Ken Nickel. “The committee already has 30 arts and crafts booths and eight food booths scheduled and they are looking at a crowd of up to 1,000 people.
“Banners are going up on (Ranch to Market Road) 1431 and we are asking the City of Marble Falls to display one,” Nickel said.
The small staff of the city has been operating in high gear all year preparing documentation for a grant that might offer more than half the cost of a multi-million dollar street restoration project and the proposal for another $500,000 grant for additional expansion to Quarry Park.
The new grant potential unveiled Tuesday night, however, would provide 90 percent of the funds for a new $500,000 community center project.
Like the $250,000 Kingswood Water Storage Facility grant just completed and other infrastructure grants the city has successfully pursued, the community center grant would be a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG). Like the proposed street grant, the community center grant is newly available at a very low match to very small cities.
“This is the second year of this new grant,” said Gandolf Burrus of Grant Development Services (GDS). “It was put out as a test at $350,000 and 10 of them were funded. The Texas Department of Agriculture decided to change the program to $500,000.”
“They have not announced the land donation rules for this project, but the footprint for the building should be donate-able (as the city's 10 percent match) and for $500,000 you should be looking at a 6,000-square-foot facility,” Burrus explained.
The council unanimously voted GDS a contract to pursue an application, but not before Council Member Mark Morren received assurance that the project would be for a municipal building, rather than a park that would bind the property in perpetuity to park use.
“I have been looking for a grant like this for 16 years,” said Mayor Pro Tem Shirley King, presiding over the meeting in the absence of Mayor Carl Brugger. “There has never been a grant like this available.”
A Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) grant that King authored for restoration of the existing community center fell through when LCRA engineers deemed the building unsalvageable.
Even in its structural state of dilapidation, community volunteers led by local airport enthusiasts, gave it an exterior facelift this month. Peggy Allen, assistant city manager and utilities director, said city maintenance employees used recent rainy days to take the project indoors.
Smith had a grant announcement of her own. The LCRA grant for a $35,696 rainwater collection project has been improved, she reported.
“Water from the large covered tennis courts will be captured for use for new restrooms and water from the roof of the small (QuickStart youth tennis) courts will be delivered with a solar pump for the wildflower garden,” she said.
Nickel had even more grant news.
“The fire department has received two grants for $15,000 for fire fighting and wildfire shelter gear,” he said. “We have talked about our application to the Capital Area Council of Governments (CAPCOG) for a solid waste grant. Today we received notice we will receive $9,955 for our twice a year citywide clean-ups.”
“We have officially completed all the work on current grants,” Nickel said, explaining that outstanding details on the Leo Manzano Hike, Bike and Run Trail and the Quarry Park Interpretative Center and adult covered tennis courts was complete.
In other action, the council voted to instruct City Secretary Elaine Simpson to place advertisements in The Highlander Friday, March 25, to accept bids on two city-owned lots on Hill Drive at a minimum bid of the appraised value of $2,200 each. Morren again wanted assurance that sale of the property would be added to the general fund, rather than a restricted park fund.
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