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4A, 4B quabble over future projects

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Though everyone had the best interest of Cedar Park in mind to fully embrace the need for continued economic development, there was some debate who would allocate the funds at Thursday's special-called meeting of the Cedar Park City Council, and the 4A and 4B boards.

The joint meeting, which saw almost all members present, turned into a back-and-forth discussion between 4A and 4B members on who would fund future economic development projects.

Kelly Brent, Place 3 on 4A, said the board is very limited in the fund balance available according to current projections. Brent tossed the idea of moving the hospital incentives to the 4B, which would fund one year's debt service and leave $3 million for 4A.

While Councilmember Lowell Moore thought the idea wasn't bad because he wanted the 4A to have funds to pursue future economic development projects, Maria Talamo was not open to the idea.

“We can do economic development and everything 4A can do along with community development,” said Talamo, vice president of the 4B board.

Talamo did not want to see the 4A pass on its debt to the 4B board in order to have money for economic development projects. “If [you] signed a performance agreement, then you should fulfill it and bring economic development projects to us,” she said, using the water park as an example of how 4B agreed to incorporate an economic development project into its budget.

Cedar Park Mayor Bob Lemon said it is imperative to protect 4A to do projects that it can - given that it is limited in what the board can do - which will free up the 4B to do other things.

Brian Rice, Place 5 member on the 4B Board, said he just needs to understand how 4B should go about weighing projects in the budget. Right now the budget is split between community development projects such as parks and roadways.

Lemon said the top tier for everyone should be working on projects that bring in sales tax revenue to the city. “Everything else is a second tier,” he said, with anything that makes Cedar Park a destination city at the top of that second tier.

Library assessment

After a lengthy assessment, Laura Isenstein with Providence Associates LLC presented the long-range plan and library needs assessment report, which was funded by the 4B.

Isenstein said the study found there to be strong library usage in Cedar Park based on the four demographic characteristics used to determine usage - number of homeowners, household income, young population and education.

She said the city is ranked very high in all characteristics, with 32 percent of the population having a bachelor's degree or higher. “It is a very well-educated population.”

According the report, 98 percent of the library's users are satisfied with the facility and what it has to offer, though there are certain needs the public is seeking. Isenstein said better access to the library website, a more user-friendly website, more current books and media for all ages, extended hours and a larger facility were some of the needs mentioned.

Based on the Providence study, Isenstein recommends the city look at building a new facility on about six to eight acres adjacent to the planned recreation center located at U.S. 183 and RM 1431 in the Town Center subdivision. In order to include everything, the building would need to be about 60,500 square feet and would cost around $23.8 million.

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