TEMPLE, Texas — The city of Temple is building a new million-gallon water tower on Claremont Drive to replace another, smaller, tower in the same area. People who live in the area know the new tower is needed but still had questions about the project --questions they never got to ask.
The tower is called the “Pepper Creek 1.0-MG elevated storage tank,” and would replace the previous Pepper Creek tank that held around a quarter million gallons. While the project appeared on the Temple council agenda multiple times, the agenda items never stated what road the new tower would be on until June 20th - the same day the City of Temple approved a contract for the towers construction.
On Tuesday, Channel 6 asked city officials why the new location of the tower was not previously stated in the council agenda. Temple City Engineer Don Bond told Channel 6 the city had, in fact, identified the location of the project in an earlier April council agenda but there was not street number.
"Because there was only an un-numbered general address at the time, that's what we included in the agenda item," Bond said.
Bond disagreed with home owner's claims that it was not possible to identify were the project would be.
"There was the property specific id, there was the location given in reference to the existing tank, and there was also the cross streets," Bond said.
The information Bond had referenced was only the in "agenda packet" version of the April 4th council meeting. The agenda only said the new tank was "located in the same general vicinity" and the "cross-streets" only said "located on FM 2305 west of FM 2271." There was a property ID in the agenda packet which could be used to find the actual location of the property on bellcad.org
Channel 6 asked Bond if a five digit property number and a unfamiliar water tower name was enough to inform the general public.
"Yes," Bond said.
Homeowners in the area like Jessie Walters disagree.
"Before I wasn't really involved in seeing what the Temple City Council was doing, and now it seems like I have to pay real close attention to what was going on because they will slide something right past you," Walters said.
Kevin Koonce, who lives right next to the site of the new tower, told KCEN Channel 6 he found out about the project on June 19. He said a neighbor found information on the new tower location buried in the June 20 agenda packet, but there was never a public hearing on the item. On June 20, the council unceremoniously approved construction on the project.
Neighbors met at Koonce’s house a few days later to try to find out what they could do to stop the project, or at least question the city about the project. It appeared the decision to start construction had already been made.
Channel 6 asked the city of Temple why there was no notice, public meeting, or public hearing at council about the $2.68 million project.
“There have been four action items related to this project at three different City Council meetings. We provide an opportunity for public comment at every City Council meeting but we had no public comments received regarding this topic. No project-specific meetings have been held,” spokeswoman Heather Bates said in an email.
Homeowners continue to point out that the location of the new project was never mentioned, so they had no chance to sign up to comment on the project when they discovered their neighborhood would be affected.
Today, Channel 6 investigative reporter Andrew Moore is asking the city why the location, or possible future locations, of the project was never released until the meeting in which that project was approved.
Moore will also ask if the project could be delayed to allow for public comment.
Expect more as our investigative team digs deeper into this issue affecting your community and beyond.
More Six Fix stories on KCENTV.com: