Council approves $11.26 million EDC grant for County Road 137 / FM 1660 project over one dissent

Council debated Resolution R2026-071, which would approve an economic-development grant of $11,258,107.66 and authorize related funding agreements with the Hutto Economic Development Corporation (Type A) to fund the County Road 137 / FM 1660 CIP (T05-2023). Chaney Gamboa, the city's director of economic development, confirmed a project schedule exists, that the city engineer is assigned as project manager to track and enforce the schedule, and that the contractor submitted a Gantt-chart schedule as part of the bid. "They provided a Gantt chart with all the critical path items..." Gamboa said.

Councilmember Gordon said he would continue to object to routing the project through the EDC because he felt the EDC policy had not been fully vetted by legal; another councilmember expressed separate procedural questions. After discussion and an amendment and clarifications on project oversight, Councilmember Morris moved to approve the resolution with a second; the motion passed 4-1, Gordon voting Nay. The motion authorizes the city manager to execute agreements and the related EDC expenditures for the project. Council requested that engineering monitor the contractor schedule and report to council as part of monthly updates.