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Wylie public works director lays out sidewalks, fleet savings and project timelines
Summary
Public Works presented performance data and a plan to expand in‑house sidewalk work and fleet maintenance to reduce contractor costs and improve response times. Staff outlined timelines for Macmillan Road, Stone Road and HSIP lighting projects and requested modest additional staffing and facility capacity.
Levante Childs, presenting the Public Works and Engineering overview on June 9, told the City Council the department now covers six divisions and roughly 66 employees and reviewed 2024–25 operations, from resident service requests to fleet maintenance and ongoing capital work.
"Public works is six divisions — administration, trees department, fleet services, the water division, wastewater division, and engineering division. We currently have 66 employees across the organization," Childs said. He told council the department corrected mapping errors that reduced the fire‑hydrant tally and identified water main conditions that lowered average daily pumping from 5.4 to 4.9 million gallons per day after repairs.
Childs emphasized sidewalks as a major workload. He reported the city has about 4,54 sidewalk locations in its system and completed nearly 7,500 linear feet last year with contractor and in‑house crews. Childs proposed adding two in‑house operator positions (fully loaded cost estimated at about $129,000) to increase in‑house production and reduce contractor expense; "Our goal is to do 6,000 feet a year," he said. Staff presented contractor vs. in‑house cost comparisons and projected a combined annual sidewalk program cost of roughly $444,876 if expanded.
On fleet and maintenance, Childs said expanding in‑house work accelerates vehicle turnaround and reduces vendor costs: staffing and equipment investments now save the city roughly $126,846 a year compared with sending work to vendors, staff said. He also described plans to bring state vehicle inspections in‑house once a DPS certification is finalized and proposed more garage bays as part of a longer‑term public‑works facility expansion.
Childs reviewed major projects in design and construction, including Macmillan Road (divided, four‑lane upgrade and bridge — traffic signal expected in July), Stone Road (culvert replacements; completion target summer 2026 but delayed by a mislocated water line), and multiple TxDOT HSIP lighting improvements along the 544 corridor pending TxDOT review.
Council asked staff about scheduling risks, utility coordination and how crews triage sidewalk and pothole work; Childs described a zone‑based approach and a plan to bundle sidewalk repairs to reduce small‑load concrete costs.
What happens next: staff will refine cost estimates and return to council during budget deliberations with specific personnel and capital requests for FY2027.
