Parkwood Neighborhood

Folks, I as well as others have worried about the unsafe conditions of Prue Road and here present some information I have received. I invite all ideas from anyone here in Parkwood about how to band together and get Prue Road improved as soon as possible!

Mr. McCormack:
Your email was eventually forwarded to me for response. (see the trail below)
First, there is a project currently under design to realign the eastern portion of Prue Rd.from Network to intersect Huebner Rd thereby eliminating the problem with the Prue/Fredericksburg intersection. This project is scheduled to be let for construction, following design, in April 2004

Second, there is currently no funded project for the westerly portion of Prue Rd. However, they have been identified as transportation issues and so reported to your District 8 Councilperson. The soonest any improvements could be funded would be in an upcoming Capaital Improvement Bond Program, currently scheduled, tentatively, for November 2003. I am not aware if the council district has requested consideration of Prue in this program. However, it is early in the project development and staff is currently identifying candidate projects and some portion of Prue is a very likely candidate. That's the good news. The bad news is that the list of viable candidate projects will very likely be at least ten times the amount of money that can be included in the Capital Bond Program and Prue Rd. would be competing with a large number of similar steet construction needs throughout the City, some which have endured substandard conditions even longer than Prue.

I hope this answers your question. I might suggest you contact your council representative to express your interest in such a project.

John Friebele,P.E., PTOE
Traffic Engineer
City of San Antonio
(210) 207-8291

John - Have you submitted this stretch for consideration for the bond. The citizen is asking if there is anything that can be done today. I will let you address that. There are no CIP projects addressing this stretch of road today. Bill

-----Original Message-----
From: Nina Nixon-Mendez
Sent: Monday, February 10, 2003 9:21 AM
To: William Krause
Subject: FW: Query about the Status of Prue Road, Babcock to Bandera

Bill,

I received this inquiry regarding Prue Road. Are there any plans in the works for the segment from Bandera to Fredericksburg? You assistance to address this inquiry would be greatly appreciated! Nina

-----Original Message-----
From: M.E. McCormack [mailto:mccormackm@mindspring.com]
Sent: Sunday, February 09, 2003 11:52 AM
To: Nina Nixon-Mendez
Subject: Query about the Status of Prue Road, Babcock to Bandera

Nina,

I do not know if I have contacted the proper person or office. Please be so
kind as to guide me to the appropriate person accordingly.

I reside in Parkwood near Bandera and 1604. Prue Road runs from
Fredericksburg to Bandera and over the subject segment there have been
numerous traffic accidents and deaths of late (1998-present). It appears to
a layperson like me the design and traffic controls for this segment of the
road have some format of shortcomings to make the road ''unsafe.'' I wish to
learn what are the improvement plans for this road, the schedule
(timetable), whether engineering design solutions have already formulated,
and what can be done immediately to remove fatalities from the road without
delay.
Please advise.
Thanks,
Mike McCormack

PS -- Our new District 8 Council member, Art Hall, is just starting his term and we can help encourage him to help us improve Prue Road. Call him or email him with your suggestions!

Some Thoughts from Art Hall

Folks,

I asked Art Hall, District 8 Council member to outline his objectives and priorities recently. Suggest anyone interested check with Frank, Jerry, and Mike, our Board Directors, and visit with Art on July 28 or sooner....

Art's email of June 22nd,

Mike,

Thank you for your congratulatory e-mail. I campaigned on my general stance on a variety of issues. I working my way through this first month of orientation, then July we'll have off, so I'll sitting with my staff to come up with some concrete agenda items. Once we put that together, I'll forward you a copy. Thank you for your interest.

Art A. Hall
City Councilman, District 8
San Antonio, Texas
(210) 207-7086

''Choosing right over wrong, ethics over convenience, and truth over
popularity... these are the choices that measure your life. Travel the
path of integrity without looking back, for there is never a wrong time
to do the right thing.'' (Quote from only picture on my office wall)

and,

Art's email of July 10th,

Mike,

Sorry it has taken a little bit to get back to you. I would like to invite you to join me at our District 8 Leaders Meeting on 7/28, 5:30-7 PM, at the Cody Library on Vance Jackson. I will introduce my staff and give more details regarding my plans for the district.

For now, I'll give you a brief synopsis of my priorities. The two major issues for the district have been water/air quality and transportation/congestion. So, I will be aiming to take the lead on policy decisions in these two areas. On the water side, I'll be making zoning and other decisions aimed at protecting our acquifer, focusing on SAWS/EAA and city conservation initiatives, reviewing ways to harvest rainwater, pushing to do another Prop 3 effort, and prioritizing flood and drainage issues in the district. On the air side, I will be closely monitoring our federal air quality compliance and reviewing our options to improve our air quality.

On the transportation/congestion side, my zoning and planning decisions will be based on improving housing density and ensuring that road construction is sufficient for present and coming developments involving neighborhoods and commercial areas. I will also be involved in fixing existing traffic issues throughout the district, ie I-10/De Zavala and others.

The Quality of Life Committee, which involves water/air and transportation issues, is one of three committees on which I will be serving. The other committees are the Governance Committee, the Economic and Human Development Committee, the Committee of Six (Regional Flood and Drainage), the Fire and Police Pension Fund, and the Fire and Police Pre-Funded Health Trust.

My most immediate ''on-the-ground'' projects I aim to complete include 1) a District 8 Community or Senior Resource Center and 2) more parks.

Finally, in addition to several city-wide initiatives, I hope to take a lead on the charter reform efforts to include council pay, expansion of term limits, and campaign finance reform.

I hope that gives a general idea of where I am headed. Much of this is dependent on available resources -- as you know, our city is facing an approximate $36 million budget deficit, so I'll have to be creative and flexible when working to accomplish District 8 goals.

Art A. Hall
City Councilman, District 8
San Antonio, Texas
(210) 207-7086

''Choosing right over wrong, ethics over convenience, and truth over
popularity... these are the choices that measure your life. Travel the
path of integrity without looking back, for there is never a wrong time
to do the right thing.'' (Quote from only picture on my office wall)

Folks, now is the time to get Art's attention and his support, yes?

Fm Leroy Alloway, Art Hall's COS

Here are some good informational items about developments on Prue Road, along with the following couple of email messages appended to this one......

From: mccormackm@mindspring.com [mailto:mccormackm@mindspring.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2006 11:45 AM
To: Leroy Alloway
Cc: mccormackm@mindspring.com
Subject: Re: Prue Road Discussion and Status

Hi Leroy,

A person named Kathleen, if memory serves correctly, in the city
engineering department mentioned to me of a recent meeting held
concerning Prue Road, wherein the attendees identified their questions
about the implications of the road, its status/situation, with the new
elementary school being built at Old Prue and Bandera. Also the
numerous issues of traffic control along the road is not surprisingly
another source of concern.

The short view I have of the road, since moving to San Antonio and to
the Parkwood subdivision area in 1998, is that there have been nice
improvements of Prue at Fredericksburg and some other short spots along
the way westerly on the road, to include some intersection work just
west of Babcock at (I am guessing here) Summertime.

However when I can count the several subdivision additions along the
road from Babcock to Bandera and the repeated traffic accidents, some
fatal, and the inadequate design features (road surface curvature,
width, signage, curving (where a straigtaway would seem more
reasonable), traffic volume, speed control, etc., etc.) I think much
more needs to be done in an intelligent way the sooner the better.

Please email me any details of this earlier meeting.

I will try to reach you by phone today, also.

Regards,

Mike McCormack

-----Original Message-----
From: Leroy Alloway
Sent: Jan 11, 2006 10:57 AM
To: McCormackm@mindspring.com
Subject: Re: Prue Road Discussion and Status

Mr. McCormack-

Thank you for contacting the District 8 office regarding possible
improvements along Prue Road. I'm unsure as to which meeting you are
referring as, in the past few months, Councilman Hall has met with one
association along Prue to discuss possible traffic signal improvements
in front of their subdivision but there has not been a full discussion
of improvements along the corridor you referenced in your email.

I would be glad to discuss the issues on this roadway with you in
detail and discuss possible bond projects with you that may help
address some of the concerns in this area.

Please feel free to give me a call at the number listed below or I
will be glad to answer any questions you may have over email.

Sincerely,

Leroy

Leroy D. Alloway, MPA
Chief of Staff
Office of Councilman Art A. Hall
City Council, District 8
City of San Antonio, Texas
P.O. Box 839966
San Antonio, Texas 78283-3966

(210) 207-2888 (Voice)
(210) 207-7027 (Fax)
www.sanantonio.gov/council/d8.asp

More from Leroy Alloway

-----Original Message-----
From: Leroy Alloway
Sent: Jan 11, 2006 12:19 PM
To: mccormackm@mindspring.com
Subject: RE: Prue Road Discussion and Status

Mike-

The meeting Kathleen was referring to was a meeting with homeowners
from the Creekview Forest and Creekview Estates HOA to discuss specific
concerns at their entrance as it relates to Prue Road and the
construction of the new NISD school across from their subdivisions.
Specifically, these HOAS are seeking the installation of a traffic
signal and the City's Department of Public Works has been in
conversations with the Northside School District over concerns our
engineering staff has with studies down in this area on the topic of
traffic signals.

Improvements to Prue Road are needed, and this is a subject that
Councilman Hall has dealt with since taking office. There are a number
of differences in opinion as to what should be done to which section of
Prue, as you might suspect.

At present, there are planned and funded improvements occurring with a
realignment of Prue Road to remove the Prue/Fredericksburg connection,
and redirect the bulk of the traffic flow along a new realignment which
will have Prue intersecting with Huebner Road at Research Blvd. This
project was part of the 1999 Bond Election for the City of San Antonio
and still needs to have a final environmental public hearing conducted
before any construction could proceed.

Aside from that, there have not been any operational improvements,
aside from traffic signal retiming, done to the Prue and Fredericksburg
intersection.

Prue Road, in front of the Woodridge Village Subdivision, will see
improvements in the form of the construction of a bridge to remove the
low water crossing which currently exists. This project was funded by
the City with 2003 Storm Water Revenue Bonds, costing approximately
$2,000,000 and work should start later this year on this project.

On Prue from Babcock to Bandera road, Councilman Hall has looked at
ways we could straighten the curve out, or other operational
improvements that could be conducted by the City of San Antonio to help
address design issues which have been present for a number of years.
During the preparation for the 2003 Bond election we did look at
improvements in this area, however, similar to a number of our
transportation related projects, the cost for the project was more than
the available allocation of funds for District 8. For the 2003 Bond
issue District 8, like other Council Districts, received approximately
$6.35 million to designate for projects. The estimated cost, in 2003
dollars, for the necessary improvements for Prue Road from Bandera to
Babcock placed the project in the $8 million range.

We have and continue to look for funding mechanisms which would enable
us to move this project forward, and there is a potential bond issue
coming in 2007 which may provide funding for this and other
transportation related projects. Additionally, since Prue Road is
considered a functionally classified roadway, it can be eligible for
funding in the next round of the MPO call for projects, which should be
occurring in 2007/2008. There has not been a call for projects by the
MPO since the late 1990s due to a shortage of available funds and cost
overruns on projects which had cost inflations.

We are actively working, with the MPO and other public entities in San
Antonio, to ensure that future projects selected for a call for
projects are estimated with tremendous detail so we don't have the cost
overruns and can continue to have a regular call for projects to keep
this region moving.

(cont'd)