Friday, September 19, 2008

Cedar Hill’s Pleasant Run Road going to four lanes

By Steve Snyder of TODAY Newspapers

Ah, the freedom of a four-lane road.

CEDAR HILL — The city of Cedar Hill has two new bond projects on the table.

Sept. 9, the Cedar Hill City Council voted to issue $7.5 million in general obligation bonds and $3 million in sewer improvement bonds.

The general bonds will be for widening Pleasant Run Road to a four-lane street east from U.S. 67 to Duncanville Road. They come from bonds approved in a 2003 election.

The water and sewer bonds are based on the separate utility fund for city water and wastewater service.

Standard & Poor upgraded both the general bond and the water and sewer bond ratings for the city, and Moody's upgraded the water and sewer bonds, a representative of Fulbright and Jaworski, the city's bond legal counsel, told the city. Moody's now rates the city at Aa3 and Standard & Poor at AA-.

The council approved both bond items.

Later in the meeting, the council approved a seismic survey license agreement with Dawson Geophysical Company.

It wants to do a seismic survey on city road rights-of-way and other city property on the west side of the city to determine how much gas reserves are in the area.

The area it intends to map includes the northern one-fourth or so of Lake Ridge north to the northern city limits, west of the railroad line.

In other items in a brief meeting, the council renewed the city's restaurant inspection service contract with Food Establishment Inspection Service for another year.

The company has been inspecting city restaurants for six years. Inspection results are posted on the city's website.

It also approved a contract with Modern Contractors to build the new Tri-City Animal Shelter for $2.2 million.

Finally, after initial discussion Aug. 26, the council approved a secondary metal recyclers ordinance, requiring recyclers to get IDs from people selling copper, catalytic converters and similar items, restricting payment to sellers of such items by mailed checks, and forbidding their hours of business after 7 p.m.

Before the meeting, Melissa Stephens said the city had about $500,000 for beautification purposes. And, it has about $1.6 million in potential projects, topped by $500,000 for FM 1382 medians, then $470,000 for Hwy. 67 entryway work and $260,000 for east FM 1382 entryway features.

The council indicated its preference for the east FM 1382 entry work plus $110,000 for other work at the FM 1382-Belt Line split.

Stephens then said Waste Management would probably ask for an increase of 5 percent or more for its contract for city trash services for next year, primarily due to increasing gas prices.

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