Pearsall’s Comprehensive Master Plan

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A WORD FROM THE MAYOR

Ben Briscoe

The City of Pearsall’s last Comprehensive Master Plan (CMP) was completed in 1995. These reports are in-depth reviews of every aspect of the city and report on those conditions. They project growth and calculate what the city needs to do to prepare for that growth while also keeping everything running in optimum condition. The CMP streamlines all this into a plan with timelines and priorities. It’s a tool that, along with city leadership, administration, and department heads, can best plan the course forward for our city.

It is important to understand all the moving parts that make up a city. A lot of attention is put on streets, for example, and while important, what lies beneath the streets is critical. All the components of what brings utilities to your front door are not readily seen, therefore folks may not fully grasp the critical aspect of what needs to be done to keep those in good condition, meet current needs and provide for anticipated growth. The city has about 60 miles of streets that are swept, patched, repaired, and on occasion, replaced. The wastewater plant (or sewer plant), by comparison, has over 50 miles of sewer lines. A large percentage of that line is over 40 year-old original cast iron. Manholes must be maintained and, at times, repaired or replaced. We have eight lift stations around town that assist in moving the sewage down the lines to the plant. The plant itself has four or five stages that process the sewage. Every wastewater treatment plant around the state is heavily regulated by the TCEQ. In our case, we need licensed professionals to oversee and run tests on our plant daily, to insure compliance with these regulations. The billing and accounting departments track the financial aspects of the wastewater treatment plant. Billing and accounting for all utilities are run together, there is no separate department for water, wastewater, solid waste and gas. There are also a lot of electric parts and motors, monitoring systems, flow lines and many large, moving components at work (moving about a million gallons of sewage per day), so you can imagine, over time, they wear out. This is just wastewater; water and gas have similar components. Basically, when you turn on a water tap and clean water flows or flush a toilet and it works, a lot has happened behind the scenes to provide that amenity which makes life easier. We aspire to provide the best level of service possible in each of these areas; it’s helpful for our citizens to understand all that goes into providing these services.

This CMP helps us to evaluate all city utilities, review zoning ordinances, roads and thoroughfares, parks, population analysis, housing status and future needs, land use, highlights our central business district, lays out capital improvement programs and provides funding options. Over the next few weeks I hope to present all this to our citizens so that there is a 40,000 foot overview regarding what we need to keep things operating smoothly and prepare for the future. This is being proactive and is a road map for how we can get there.

God Bless the City of Pearsall, the County of Frio, the State of Texas, the United States of America and You.

Ben T. Briscoe

Mayor of Pearsall