A couple of important meetings are coming up, and we have some updates, so let's jump right in.
1) PLDA Town Hall set for October 9. Our next Town Hall will be held Oct 9, 2019 at 6:30 pm. at the New Braunfels Convention Center, located at 375 S Castell Ave, New Braunfels, TX 78130.
We plan to use this very important forum to update the community on the considerable progress toward fixing the dam since the first Town Hall back in early June. While that meeting focused on the damage and the scope of the challenges we faced, this one will be focused on what we plan to do. We will listen to questions or concerns that waterfront owners, the future members of the district, may have, and try to answer those for which we have answers. While we still have lots to do, what has been accomplished over the last 4 months is considerable and a very positive story. You'll hear presentations from the PLDA board members leading the efforts, as well as from our Water attorney, Tony Corbett, and members of our community advisory committee.
The meeting is again open to the public, and we are especially encouraging all lakefront property owners on Dunlap to make plans to attend. If you receive a postcard from us in the mail this week, that means you are on the list we have created of future district members. Bring that postcard for special seating with your waterfront neighbors. (We sent it to your appraisal-district-listed mailing address — if you don't get one and think you should have, just let us know.)
Only those waterfront owners were sent the postcard, as they will be the ones that will be taxed to pay the district's share of the repairs and future maintenance. If you are in that group, we know you have a special interest in our plans. The postcard will identify you as a future district member so you can make comments or ask questions via the microphones during the Q&A segment.
While the Town Hall meeting is open to all, we will only be taking questions from those owners that are most directly affected (thus the postcard, which will be a way to easily identify yourself as a future district member). Questions or comments will be limited to 3 minutes, as is common for public sessions of this kind.
2) PLDA Board Meeting Oct 17, 2019. As our focus on this meeting is on how we plan to repair the dam, we are asking folks who want to talk about other PLDA business to join us at our monthly PLDA Board meetings, where we welcome the members and public, and always have a Q&A segment. PLDA Board meetings are always at the RiverBend clubhouse on the 3rd Thursday of each month at 6:30 pm. The next one is October 17.
3) City Council Endorsement of our WCID Application. The New Braunfels City Council unanimously passed a formal endorsement of our WCID application this past week. This was a required step in our WCID application process, and the last big step we needed to complete. You can read the resolution here.
4) WCID Petition Update. We have heard from many of you that you would like to have a chance to include your name in the petitions submitted to the TCEQ, and we appreciate the support of all the waterfront owners who have already signed one. We absolutely want to give any waterfront property owner who wants to add his or her support to the WCID application by signing a petition the chance to do so.
If you want to sign a petition, and are a waterfront property owner, please let Dr. Larry Johnson know (just hit reply to this note) of your interest. He'll be in touch to either send the form and let your own notary witness it, or to bring you a petition and a notary, or to invite you to an upcoming petition event. Whatever we need to do, we'll make it happen. If both you and your spouse are on the deed, both of you can sign a petition!
5) Lake Dunlap diesel pumps have shut down. The diesel pumps have been quiet for the past week, and we understand that they have finished burning off the remaining fuel. Water operations have converted to electric pumps, and hopefully, the noise has stopped for good.
6) Shoutouts! This week we want to thank HMT Engineering and Surveying for their tremendous help in creating our (very complex) district map. Thanks to Thor Thornhill and his really amazing team for getting this work done so fast and so well! That was a huge piece we had to get done, and now it is with our other parts of the application up in Austin!
Also, a huge shoutout to all our PLDA members whose support has been so valued over the past few months as we came up to speed on what it really takes to do something like this dam project. Thanks also to all of you who have signed a petition — we need and appreciate your support!
And lastly, a special thanks to our Community Advisory Committee. These folks have been invaluable in helping us ask the right questions of the right people, thinking through challenges, pushing our assumptions, and adding a great deal of business, financial, engineering, construction, and other expertise to every topic. They have contributed hours of their time, and they continue to do so. Thanks to all.
As always, for the latest and most accurate news about Lake Dunlap, continue to look to the PLDA. Our vision is to remain steadfastly committed to moving forward on all this in the spirit of collaboration, community, and full transparency, and we remind ourselves of that commitment every day.
J Harmon President PLDA jrharmon123@yahoo.com