City Officials Present to the Dayton Rotary

Several of the City Officials attended the Dayton Rotary Club and presented an informative program of the club. President Rachel Ansley introduced Mayor Caroline Wadzeck who started off the presentation before introducing Director of Planning and Development Services, Kimberly Judge and Interim City Manager, Calyn Wesson. All three ladies had a portion of the presentation. They were optimistic, transparent, and excited about the future of the City of Dayton. Here are a few highlights of their presentation: Updates on several TXDOT projects taking place within and close to the City: ○ An asphalt overlay project on Highway 90 has begun, with the project area being between the intersection of Hwy 146 at Hwy 90 on the west end stretching just past Colbert Street and Hwy 90 on the east end. Most of the work is taking place at night. Curbs along both sides of 90 have been removed and will be replaced the week of Jan. 12-16. Beginning Jan. 15, there will be a traffic switch while workers remove the top layer of current asphalt, make needed repairs, and finally lay down the new surface. TXDOT Area Engineer Roberto Rodriguez hopes this project will be completed by mid May.

○The projected overpass on Hwy 90 over the candy-cane railroad track is progressing with utility exploratory work and environmental studies, which should be complete by mid 2023. Construction should begin in May 2024 and take approximately two years to complete. This project will significantly help to move traffic through Dayton.

○The overpass work at Hwy 90 and FM1413 has run into a conflict with utility lines and engineers are currently working on the redesign of the bridge. The best estimate of time to complete that project is sometime during 2025.

New business: ○Health Center of SETX ○Perrett Auto (I think this is going to be a used car dealership.)

○Popeyes ○Shopping center ○Starbucks ○Storage Building Sales ○Rail Logix Lovers’ Lane- City has acquired the rights to extend that road all the way to 146. Now looking for grants for funding the construction of the road extension.

Waco Street- Wanting to extend this road also to ease some traffic. Will be working on this in the near future.

Planning Department Activity Comparisons: ○Number of building permits issued- In 2013 there were 388 permits issued. In 2022, there were 1,031.

○Number of Plats Issued-In 2013, only 2 plats were issued. In 2022, there were 23 plats issued.

○Number of New Residential Permits- There were only 8 new residential permits issued in 2013 compared to 74 in 2022.

○Number of New Commercial Permits- In 2013 there were 3 new commercial permits issued. In 2022, there were 16 issued.

A Balanced budget was presented to the City Council. This was a huge celebration for the City.

Police Chief Derek Woods is excited with changes within his department, including pay, quality of officers, and equality.

○At the close of 2022, DPD had filled every position in the department for the first time in a while.

○For the first time in Dayton PD’s history, there are five female officers.

At the end of their presentation, there were many questions for the City Officials before President Ansley led the group in the 4-Way Test.