Sheriff Jim Kaelin introduced this week's speaker,
Chad McGill, member of the City Council for three years
and a fellow Rotarian.
(Below, images of City Council Member, Chad McGill.
Photo Courtesy: Gary Blum, DDS, MS)
Chad McGill started his presentation stating, "I have never fought so hard to not raise your
taxes".
McGill talked mainly about construction, maintenance and reconstruction of streets. He said
that there are four major strategies used by the city to rescue streets. The first he said, involves
the city's program to replace major streets every 2-4 years, the city by voter approval goes
into debt to replace and reconstruct major streets.
The second strategy, he said was policy improvement, McGill stated that policies needed to be
brought up to date to change the results they were getting from out-dated policies. Take for
instance, he described policies which increased the expectation of streets to last for 20 years
rather than 30 years. Such policies demand an improvement in the quality of roads that were
being constructed.
The third strategy according to McGill is street maintenance. He said most most people were
aware of street maintenance, because it shows up in utility bills. McGill likened street maintenance
to performing an oil change in your car. According to him, roads that are already in good shape
may get an over-layer or seal coat, to keep them in good shape for a longer time.
The fourth strategy is residential reconstruction. McGill informed the audience that there are over
1200 miles of streets in the City of Corpus Christi, out of which 800 are residential. Each street
is given a graded score between 0 and 100 based upon the street's condition over 20 items that
may affect the street such as pot-holes, cracks and so on. Anything street that has a grade of
55 or above is eligible for reconstruction. He further stated that 469 miles that fall below the 55.
(Below, City Council Member, Chad McGill receives
4-way test pin from President Michelle Maresh-Fuehrer.
Photo Courtesy: Gary Blum, DDS, MS)
McGill also talked about his support for Tax Payer involvement in
deciding where their taxes go to, in funding street projects.
He said that when increasing taxes, the City should, "...Develop
a plan, a communicate it to the taxpayer, allow the tax payer to
decide what potion of the money they want to fund, and then you
go into full implementation and execution of that plan.
For his presentation, City Council member, Chad McGill received
a 4-way test pin from club President, Michelle Maresh-Fuehrer.
