Commissioners talk thoroughfare and vessels

ANAHUAC— With the Chambers County Thoroughfare Plan wrapping up, commissioners discussed the next steps in finalizing details.

The Chamber County Commissioners Court held a regular meeting on Tuesday, March 11, discussing updates on the thoroughfare plan and a vessel turn-in program.

For the Chambers County Thoroughfare Plan, leads of the project, Houston-Galveston Area Council Principal Planner Carlene Mullins and Ryan Eurek, civil engineer with Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc., provided a presentation for the project.

The roadway plan is a long-term, malleable plan to preserve right-of-way for future roadway construction. The plan consists of about 50 new connections and extensions for current roads in rural and urban areas within the county.

"The vision of the Chambers County Thoroughfare Plan is to establish guidelines and policies to develop a safe, well-connected and efficient countywide transportation system that provides adequate mobility for people, goods and services and promotes orderly growth and redevelopment throughout the county," Eurek said.

Eurek said improving safety was a main priority after talking with residents during the public comment portion of the overarching schedule.

While mapping potential roadways, barriers, including railways and floodplains, were identified. Interstate 10 congestion was also considered.

"Congestion along there during peak times is phenomenal and trying to identify an alternate route to I-10 was a key point of the plan," Eurek said.

Information was gathered from recent developments and from residents to develop the plan.

The next steps for the plan include a review from county staff, consider adoption by the commissioners and a County Corridor Agreement Program with the Texas Department of Transportation.

"What that does is it gives you teeth to enforce some of these within the TxDOT's right-of-way, but also, TxDOT can come back and support you all," Eurek said, explaining the purpose of the corridor agreement.

Commissioners provided suggestions following the presentation.

"One thing that's very important is that east-west corridor from crossing the river. That's something we really gotta look at. We're getting more and more traffic every day," Commissioner Pct. 3 Tommy Hammond said. "I mean, that's about a 60-mile detour. You have to go to Liberty and cross and come back up."

Commissioner Pct. 2 Mark Tice said most of the complaints he gets are about eastbound traffic on I-10 headed to River Farms or Cove.

"They have to exit 3180, sit through a red light, where if they went over 3180 and exit, you're probably looking at about 600 to 700 homes that wouldn't be congested in the intersection of 3180," Tice said.

Also, for the thoroughfare plan, the commissioners will hold a public hearing on Tuesday, April 22, at 10 a.m. to discuss the plan.

For more information on the plan, visit https://engage.h-gac.com/.

The Texas General Land Office, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Chambers County Emergency Services and the Chambers County Sheriff's Office are partnering up with the commissioners for a Vessel Turn-in Program.

County residents will have an opportunity to properly dispose of derelict and inoperable vessels at no cost to residents.

The program began in 2014 through a partnership between GLO, Texas Parks and Wildlife and Galveston County. The program's main goal is to reduce the number of abandoned vessels in and near coastal waters through cost-saving efforts.

So far, 1,651 vessels, 3,481 gallons of fuel or oil and 104 trailers have been appropriately disposed of.

Successful demonstrations of the program have been seen in Galveston, Brazoria, Matagorda, Orange, Harris, Aransas, Calhoun and Jefferson counties. Other successes have been in the cities of Galveston, Port Isabel and Corpus Cristi.

Providing a title for the vessel is preferred, but Texas Parks and Wildlife will run the registration numbers if unavailable. Once the event is over, a pollution contractor will take batteries, oil and gas.

If interested, the program will be from May 8 to May 10 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The drop-off location is at Chambers County Solid Waste at 75501 TX-65, Anahuac.

Commissioners passed a motion for the new Anahuac Library to include the addition of designated exhibit space, office and a private restroom for the County Historical Commission.

"There will be space for the historical commission in the new library," said Mike Gafford, building maintenance director.

Commissioner Pct. 1 Jimmy Gore suggested getting with Sheryl Shaw, CCHC chairwoman, to share blueprints and see how they would like the space to be laid out.

Planning for the upcoming yearly budget, County Fire Marshal and Emergency Management Coordinator Ryan Holzaepfel discussed with commissioners about using BRW Architects for future volunteer fire stations.

"Looking at some of the older facilities and putting a plan together for possible replacement," Holzaepfel said. "It's to plan for that, see what the costs are gonna be, maybe do some design."

No specific stations were named as the project is in the initial planning stages.