Council denies funding for Gateway Monument Project

In a unanimous vote Monday, Sept. 19, the Waxahachie City Council denied a request to authorize funding for the Gateway Monument Project.

According to city staff, the Waxahachie Community Development Corporation board unanimously approved the use of $625,000 from its unrestricted fund balance for various costs related to the project on Sept. 13. The monument would be placed on a piece of land at the split of U.S. Highway 77 into Elm and Monroe streets, just north of the Union Pacific Railroad.

More than four months ago, staff received approval from TxDOT to use the land for this purpose and hired a consultant to design and develop the monument. It would be a double-sided Corten steel sign with landscape beds full of native plants, boulders and lighting, as well as irrigation. Executive director of parks and leisure services Gumaro Martinez explained to council members that their approval would authorize funding, so they could take the next step with design and engineering.

“How did we get here to where we have a piece of metal with some flowers around it that costs $600,000?” council member Travis Smith said. “As someone who just bought an entire house for less than $200,000, there is no way that I can justify three crape myrtles, some bushes, a piece of metal … in the middle of a street that if you’re on you already know you’re in Waxahachie.”

The price presented to the council was determined based off estimated costs of supplies according to current prices, and there’s a possibility the prices would go down, Martinez said.

“That would be the goal for staff to entertain bids that are lower than what we have found,” Martinez said. “That’s always our goal, obviously, to be good stewards of our money.” City manager Michael Scott said, when entering into bid contracts, they have options to choose cheaper materials to bring the cost down.

“There’s several steps we can go through here to hopefully keep the dollars in check through that bidding process,” Scott said.

Smith described the maximum cost as an “astronomical” amount, equaling “three of his houses.”

Council member Chris Wright said he agreed with Smith and felt the amount was “exorbitant” and found it hard to support.

“I’m sure that there’s other things that WCDC has allocated for this that would be better off,” council member Patrick Souter said. “There’s folks out there that have said we have not been good stewards with the money, and I think that this would be a poster child for that complaint.”

“I think we’re all in agreement that the number we’re seeing there is just really way out of the ballpark as far as what council would be comfortable to spending on such a project,” council member Billie Wallace said. Originally published September 20, 2022 - https://www.waxahachiesun.com/news/local/council-denies-funding-for-gateway-monument-project/article_f96d6f1e-3924-11ed-8d9d-0b7d551e172d.html