Public Works officials strive for a better Cleburne

Jul. 20—"We're going to have a lot of ribbon cutting ceremonies coming up," Cleburne Mayor Scott Cain said of the many public works projects in the planning or development stage.

Cleburne Public Works Director Jeremy Hutt updated Cain and council members on those projects during Tuesday's meeting of the Cleburne City Council.

Given that public works plans and projects ongoing span a "broad spectrum," Hutt limited his focus to highlights and a broad overview of the several facets of the public works department.

May 6 brought heavy rainfall and high winds, for example.

"Which brought downed limits and other problems," Hutt said. "Our crews responded immediately and stayed out throughout the night. Once daylight hit on May 7 we realized the amount and extent of the damage."

The sanitation department's reserve grapple truck hit the streets to collect limbs and debris while the street department employed backhoes and dump trucks to clear debris.

"Because of the significant amount of downed trees, they worked extended hours for about an month trying to clear all the brush," Hutt said.

Partnerships play a huge role as well, Hutt said. Those include partnerships with private developers working with the public works department to ensure proper and quality installation of streets and other infrastructure in new subdivisions. Such is not the case everywhere.

"Other cities have seen challenges from five year old subdivision where things weren't done right and they're having to look at going in an replacing all that," Hutt said.

Partnerships too, Hutt said, with regional entities such at the Texas Department of Transportation, the North Texas Tollway Authority, North Central Texas Council of Governments and others.

Talks are underway, albeit in the early phases, of expanding the Johnson County portion of the Chisholm Trail Tollway, for example.

Equally important, Hutt said, is customer service and public works department efforts of recents years to improve the culture of customer service.

Hutt touched upon the department's various resident feedback programs including the See Click Fix Program.

That app allows people to take pictures of or report things like potholes, downed signs and so forth," Hutt said.

Feedback garnered during the resident comments section of each city council meeting help too.

One resident in May broached the challenge of Fergason Road at the intersection of West Henderson Street.

The road's poor condition caused motorists to drive down the middle of the road.

"When you get to the intersection and you're parked in the middle of the road waiting to turn that causes problems for anyone wanting to turn off Henderson onto Fergason," Hutt said.

Challenges arose given that the city controls a portion of Fergason Road with the county controlling another coupled with the fact that TxDOT controls West Henderson Street.

Nonetheless, within a month and a half, city workers were able to mitigate the situation by widening Fergason Road at the intersection.

"I think that goes to show that we do listen to our residents when they provide input and express concerns," Hutt said.

Something Cain encouraged and praised.

"You mentioned the key aspect when you talked about changing the culture to more customer service oriented," Cain said. "Because that was not always the culture in Cleburne, Texas, but you and your department's teamwork has really been phenomenal. You guys are really doing that and improving the customer aspects of that."

Less drought

Drought situations have improved markedly since last year in Cleburne, Hutt said.

"That was a major topic last year," Hutt said. "But it's been kind of quiet lately because we've gotten some good rain, which helped replenish our lake."

Last October Lake Pat Cleburne sat at its lowest level in 20 years more than 9 feet below capacity and only 51.9% full.

Although still 3 feet below capacity, Lake Pat now sits 82.4% full and in much better shape than last year.

To mitigate hot months and possible future drought situations, the city recently implemented year round watering schedules for residents and businesses.

More help is on the way thanks to the West Reuse Pipeline Project. The 4-mile, 20-inch diameter line will transport reclaimed effluent from the Cleburne Wastewater Treatment Plant back into Lake Pat Cleburne depositing a minimum of 2 million additional gallons of reuse water into Lake Pat every day.

Work on that project is underway, and ahead of schedule, with completion set for early 2024.

A huge project also underway is expansion of the wastewater treatment plant, which will increase plant capacity by 40 percent.

That project, now 72% complete, should wrap up early next year, Hutt said.

Hutt spoke of water and other capital improvement projects in the works or in the planning five or more years out. Planning to ensure proper foresight and maintenance of city infrastructure into the future.

Work continues on the expansion of Sparks Drive and should complete later this year.

The project, which includes installation of a bridge over Buffalo Creek, will connect the existing portion of Sparks Drive to the Chisholm Trail Parkway thereby enhancing access.