W eekly Moment with the Mayor Thursday, April 29
hillcountryweekly.com
Getting back in the habit
It’s been a while since I’ve written an article for the local papers but I was asked by Christina Ryholm recently to consider getting back to the habit. Obviously I’ve taken her request seriously and I’m appreciative of Christina for the encouragement. This is good timing, also, as I’m wrapping up my first term as the Mayor of Boerne. And what a couple of years it’s been! When getting started in the role, I laid out my top five priorities and a reflection of what’s been accomplished is in order. Number one on my priorities was to improve communication across the board. From happenings in the city to working across governmental bodies to work together, I believe communication is clearly something that is never finished. By starting the “Mayor’s Minute” in 2019, those short little videos become more important as the pandemic of 2020 settled in our community. While some projects were put on hold, the workload for the City of Boerne did not lessen. Also, as the pandemic commenced, we started daily “COVID Calls” with the City of Boerne, the City of Fair Oaks, Kendall County, Boerne ISD, the Pastoral Alliance of Kendall County and many others. The purpose of those calls was to ensure complete collaboration among all the entities, and to discuss what we collectively felt was best for the entire community. We just wrapped up those calls this past week and the overall sense from the daily participants was one of pride for a job well done. We all felt the collaboration was incredible and the teamwork was unprecedented. Number two on my priorities was to work with Kendall County and Fair Oaks to establish a Transportation planning committee. The three bodies collectively agreed to a structure for the committee and in 2019 we established the Kendall County Boerne Fair Oaks Transportation committee. You have seen many communication articles about the committee and great progress was being made going into 2020. When the pandemic manifested in large numbers, the committee understandably halted in-person meetings. We did get some interim recommendations earlier this year, however, and the committee has started meeting again as of this month. While the work on IH10 will continue to test our patience for
City of Boerne Mayor Tim Handren a couple more years, planning for transportation needs beyond IH10 will be the responsibility of our collective team. I’m appreciative of all the work they have done so far and look forward to gaining momentum again in solving some of our looming traffic challenges. Number three on my list was to work with the City Staff to ensure we moved forward with a new Unified Development Code (UDC). This has been a massive undertaking with the initial objective of updating our city ordinances into one code. Many of our city development ordinances have not been updated in over 30 years, and our community is vastly different today than was contemplated when the ordinances were put in place. With the majority of the UDC now in final form, the next step has been to place properties in their proper zoning category that allow for transitional development. This effort largely affects commercial properties and is well underway. A great deal of effort by our Planning and Zoning Commission, along with our city staff, has gone into this effort, with the implementation date being July of this year. Number four on my list was to establish a Water Committee for our community. The goal of the
committee is to take a fresh perspective on efforts related to water conservation and water resiliency. There have been incredible demands placed on our water sources and the most responsible way to look at the future of water is to broaden our inclusion to all who effect water. Our committee has representatives from Cow Creek Groundwater Conservation District, city of Boerne, the various Water Control and Improvement Districts, San Antonio Water System, San Antonio River Authority, Edwards Aquifer Authority, Texas Water Development Board and others. This group was also formed in 2019, but lost some momentum due to the pandemic. They continue to meet and I’m looking forward to working with this committee to plan for our future of water. Last on my top five priorities was to ensure we put in place a practice to update our 10-year Master Plan each year. This annual update is not a wholesale start over, but instead an approach more like a business plan whereby our planned projects and capital investments are prioritized regularly. The City Council is about to go through that process in the next two months and this should become an annual update that takes into consideration anything new that arises or assumptions from the prior year that may have not been accurate or may just need some reassessment. Again, it’s a best practice in business and it will serve us well to do the same, as it also provides that additional layer of accountability and transparency that I believe is so critical. In spite of a very challenging 2020, as I reflect on my top five priorities, I feel that good progress was made on all fronts. We have a dedicated team in Boerne led by our new City Manager, Ben Thatcher, who has already proven to be an incredible leader in a very short time. Our City Council and City Staff have been tremendous team players and incredibly instrumental in so many accomplishments that are too numerous to list. I have observed an unwavering sense of commitment and loyalty to this community by all of them and I am grateful to be a part of this team. I look forward to serving for another term as the Mayor of Boerne. There is still much for us to accomplish and I remain committed to the entire, amazing community we all call Home. To throw in a little German, Bis zum nächsten mal (until next time).
