RAYMONDVILLE — City officials are dipping into a new $4.8 million general fund budget as they launch a $10 million drainage project, a $1.6 million sewer plant expansion and a $1 million plan to help the city sustain itself in case of drought.
The new budget, $300,000 bigger than last year’s budget, comes with a $500,000 cash reserve.
“We’re doing well,” Mayor Gilbert Gonzales said Wednesday, referring to the budget. “It goes to cover our normal operations — to cover what we need for each department.”
As part of the overall budget, city commissioners are giving 5-percent raises to the city’s 68 employees, dipping into the general fund for $65,000 while pulling $35,000 out of the water and sewer fund, City Manager Eleazar Garcia said.
Under the new budget, the city’s property tax rate of 77 cents per $100 valuation is projected to raise $32,358, or 1.99 percent, more than last year.
Meanwhile, the city’s total assessed value climbed to $214.2 million, up from $209 million last year.
This year, the city’s property tax collection’s expected to raise $1.49 million, up from $1.48 million last year, while Garcia’s projecting sales tax revenue to climb to $1.49 million, up from $1.3 million last year.
Street repairs
As part of the general fund budget, Garcia’s setting aside about $155,000 for street repairs.
Meanwhile, the city’s $10 million drainage project’s expected to lead to further street upgrades as officials repair streets following storm line expansions.
“I’m going to be doing some streets as part of the drainage project,” Garcia said, adding he didn’t have information readily available to identify the streets that would be repaired.
Water, sewer fund
As part of the water and sewer fund, Garcia’s projecting total revenues of $4.3 million, up from $4 million last year.
“We have a healthy fund balance and a healthy financial situation,” he said.
About $125,000 in water and sewer revenue generated by the Willacy County Regional Detention Facility remains contingent on Willacy County commissioners’ success in developing a plan to continue operating the 580-bed prison after the federal government terminates its contract with U.S. Marshals Service in about six months.
Under President Joe Biden’s order, the Justice Department’s phasing out contracts with private prison operators such as Management and Training Corp., which has run the prison since it opened in 2003.
To help run the water and sewer operations, officials are planning to finance the $400,000 purchase of a vactor truck, Garcia said.
Drainage project
By spring, officials plan to launch construction of the largely grant-funded $10 million drainage project aimed at drawing floodwaters into the Raymondville Drain, a regional floodway running from Edinburg to the Laguna Madre.
As part of the three-year construction project, an 8,000-foot storm drainage system will open into two detention ponds, where a 2,400-foot storm line will run to the Raymondville Drain.
The project will include 18,436 feet of canals aimed at curbing flooding in the city’s northwest and southwest areas.
Meanwhile, a 3,800-foot storm drain line will run from the downtown business district along Highway 186 to help drain that area.
Water, sewer projects
The city’s also planning two projects funded through its $2.69 million share of the American Rescue Plan Act.
As part of a $1 million project, officials are building Raymondville’s second deep water well as part of a plan to help the city sustain itself through drought.
The blueprints are calling for the second well to draw as much as one million gallons of water a day from the region’s aquifer about 1,500 feet deep. Now, the city’s using as much as 1.7 million gallons of water a day.
About eight months ago, officials opened a grant-funded $4.5 million reserve osmosis plant to turn the salty, brackish groundwater into an alternative water source.
Through its filtration system, the reverse osmosis plant cleans and softens the water.
Meanwhile, Garcia’s tapping the stimulus check for $1.6 million to expand the city’s 25-year-old sewer plant to treat an additional 500,000 gallons a day.
Now, the plant’s treating about 1.5 million gallons a day.
By spring, Garcia’s planning to launch the projects’ construction, estimating their completion about a year later.
