Early City Administrator Tony Aaron stopped by KOXE Wednesday morning to provide an update on a number of items including the proposed 2023-24 tax rate, Town Center Project and proposed YMCA.
Among action that occurred at Tuesday night’s Early City Council, Aaron said, “We had a public hearing on the tax rate, which looks to be set at $0.3993, which is up a little bit from last year ($0.3624), but it’s down from 56 cents in 2018. We’re pretty proud of a .3993% tax rate.”
The vote will on the tax rate and 2023-23 fiscal year budget will take place Tuesday, Aug. 22.
The City Council on Tuesday also approved entering into an agreement with architect consultant Scott Sower with SSARCO regarding the Early YMCA project.
“He’s an architect out of DFW that has designed and built several YMCAs,” Aaron said. “One that’s similar in size to us is Joshua, Texas. He designed that one and a couple of others and we’ve been talking to him. We vetted several other consultants prior to settling in on him as the best fit for the Early project. The council accepted his proposal and we hired him.”
The next steps in making a YMCA in Early a reality, according to Aaron, are, “over the next 90 to 120 days Scott and his team will be coming down and meeting with us and other stakeholders. He’ll develop a floor plan, a use of spaces and programming we want in terms of square feet for the things we want. He’ll come back with a floor plan, 3D renderings and this will be information we’ll use to kick off the capital campaign looking for funding whether that’s donations, corporate sponsorships or whether it goes to the voters for a bond election.”
The City of Early website still has a survey up asking residents of Brown County what they would like to see in a YMCA. The link is https://www.earlytx.net/323/Town-Center—YMCA-Project
Thus far, Aaron said, “There’s been a lot of conversation about child youth activities … and an indoor aquatic area. There’s a plethora of things that people are suggesting but it’s starting to paint the picture of what the Brown County YMCA will look like. The YMCA caters to the needs of a community and provides things that are void and not duplicate services. Scott will take those surveys and he knows the YMCA world so he would know the right sizes for us.”
Regarding an update on the Town Center Project, Aaron stated:
- one fishing pier I in place and another one will be in next week
- the bridge that crosses the creek is in place
- shoreline stabilization, building fish habitats, and adding water to seal off the bottom on the pond is taking place
- work continues on the batting cages and pitching machines have been installed
- more than 1,500 feet of eight-foot sidewalk was poured Monday, with the total expected to be 4,000 feet my completion
- light poles for the walking paths are going in place
Aaron added that 90-95 percent of the architectural plans are complete for the boardwalk and designs will be going out for bid in September. The boardwalk will include railing, seating, festoon lighting and fire pits, among other amenities.
In addition to the boardwalk, buildings that will house retail and restaurants will sit between the boardwalk and Mangrum Road, which is 95 percent engineered. Both those additional projects should be under construction by the end of the year, Aaron said.
And construction is underway on the sundial as Early TMCN students Reese Estess and Aryn Lesley raised more than $100,000 for their project.
“It will be 28 feet tall and we’re setting middle support posts in the middle of this 60-foot circle,” Aaron said. “There will be additional sidewalk around the sundial along with block and rock columns. That’s happening in conjunction with the sidewalk installation and should be completed by the end of September.”
