TEMPLE, Texas — Kevin Koonce has lived in Temple for six months. He said he likes his new home on Claremont Dr., but the view is about to change.
The city of Temple is putting a new water tower across the street from his house.
At first, Koonce thought it was a mistake.
"I sent an email to the city of Temple wanting clarification," Koonce said. "Clearly didn't think they wanted to put a water tower across the street. I got confirmation that not only was there a project and it was destined to start next month."
Koonce said he's worried the project will drag down property values.
He wished there was an opportunity to address the council about the issue, but he said there was not way to know where the property was being built because of the way it was listed on city council agendas.
"It was never referred to by an address. It was called the Pepper Creek Water Storage Tank Project," Koonce said. "Pepper Creek is nowhere near here."
After looking back at past council agendas, Channel 6 could not find an agenda item with "Pepper Creek Elevated Storage Tank" with any kind of address.
After looking at addition documents in the agenda packet for June 20, there were finally documents explaining the new location of the tower roughly a month before the city told Koonce construction would start.
"It's one thing to lose a fight on something like this," Koonce said. "It's quite another to not even know you you were in a fight in the first place. There is supposed to be open meetings and open notification."
However, Koonce said he isn't against the city building a new tower for the area. In a city email sent to Koonce and forwarded to Channel 6, project engineer Sharon Carlos explained why the new tower is needed.
"The water tower will be larger than the existing one around the corner near Brown Ln.," Carlos wrote. "The goal of this project is to increase water capacity to the area and address low pressure issues."
The new tower will hold one million gallons of water compared to the current tower that holds less than 250,000 gallons.
The new tower will cost the city $2.68 million.
Carlos said in the email the city the project will take around a year and the city will demolish the previous tank afterwards.
Koonce is not looking forward to the construction.
"It's a one year project with heavy construction equipment," Koonce said. "This thing will go hundreds of feet in the air. We had no opportunity to voice a concern."
Channel 6 reached out to the city of Temple for an explanation of why there was no public hearing on this project. The city did not have an answer Monday, but promised to provide a response as soon as possible.
"We are not ready to comment on this because staff is still doing their research on the topic and we want to provide you with only accurate information," Director of Marketing & Communications Heather Bates said.
Channel 6 will post the city's complete response as soon as possible.