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6 Investigates: Bond Election Part One
Posted: Nov 2, 2012 6:31 PM by Andrew Ellison - aellison@kristv.com
Updated: Nov 2, 2012 6:52 PM
CORPUS CHRISTI - A major ballot item in the upcoming election will be Bond Issue 2012. $90 million is being asked for to fund city improvement projects, but the largest chunk of that money would be used for street repairs. And while the city is asking voters to approve another bond package, we found some of the street projects approved in the 2008 bond issue still haven't been completed.
The bond package from the Bond 2008 election was a hefty one.
It included 7 different propositions that totalled 59 projects and $153 million.
The largest portion of that bond package went to street repairs. It included 31 projects for a total of $100 million.
And while few will argue that the streets need repairing, the process hasn't been a smooth one.
Andy Purivs owns Beamer's Sports Grill, a restaurant located off Staples between Saratoga and Holly. That section of road is one of the biggest street repair projects. Mistakes from the construction crews have hurt his business, like when crews accidentally hit a water main and cut a power line.
"One morning we opened up at 9 o'clock to start our preparation, and we had no water... Or you're in the middle of lunch and all of the sudden, your credit card machines do not work anymore or your telephones don't work and you're not getting any delivery calls," he says.
While Purvis was prepared for some problems to come up, he says he wasn't prepared for a construction project that has taken over two months longer than originally scheduled.
"We were prepared for a sixty day stretch where our business would be interrupted. We were not prepared for 130 days. So, we've had to, you know, just make every penny count... We were told they were going to work day and night, but that seems to have stopped," Purvis says.
We found that only half of the 31 street planned for repairs from Bond '08 are complete. That leaves 16 uncompleted projects, and of those, 14 either don't have a completion date or won't be done until after 2013.
Councilman David Loeb says the projects are often stretched out so that they can remain within the budget. He admits it's not a perfect process.
Loeb says it's unacceptable for any business owner to have to deal with a street repair project longer than they should.
"People have invested their lives and their livelihoods in those businesses and we have to make sure we repsect that with our construction projects," Loeb says.
So for now, business owners like Purvis wait for these projects to finally get done so that their everyday operations can get back to normal. He told us he feels like the glass is half full rather than half empty.
"When this is over and we come out the other side, we think we'll have a great road and a great business with great food and great customers," Purvis says.
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