(Seguin) – The preservation of a local lake has taken a step forward this week. Guadalupe County Commissioners on Tuesday approved a petition request submitted by Meadow Lake Nolte Dam stakeholders regarding the creation of the Meadow Lake Water Control and Improvement District No. 1.
Following the failure of other aging dams in neighboring lakes and the threat to the body of water, the Meadow Lake Nolte Dam Association Board, HOA and residents of the lake have chosen to follow similar steps of creating a water control district in effort to fully preserve the body of water which sits entirely in Guadalupe County.
Representing the lake residents at the public hearing were Citizen Volunteer Tess Coody-Anders and MLNDA President JC Robbins.
Coody-Anders says approval by the court was the first step in getting the taxing entity on its way and into the hands of voters this fall.
“As you know throughout the last three years, we’ve worked really closely with you all, the city, GBRA to move forward with an actionable and efficient solution to the challenges that we face with the 100-year-old spillway and fixing and repairing those gates. Meadow Lake is not only a vital asset as part of the entire lake association but for the city of Seguin and the county as well – economically and culturally. We are excited that we have arrived to what we think is an actionable realistic solution but any of those efforts – the dependency is the creation of a water control and improvement district which would allow our residents then to purse in November – making a final decision on the creation of the WCID and any financing opportunities that might subsequently follow that creation,” said Coody-Anders.
Guadalupe County Judge Kyle Kutscher confirms that everything that has been submitted to the county is in accordance with Chapter 51 of the water code which regulates all the requirements that need to be followed to implement, approve, and create a water district.
“We’ve gone through this — three other times with the other lakes. Meadow Lake is unique, and we all know that because of its size. It had a smaller number of properties, lower amount of appraised value, a little bit different situation than the other water control improvement districts that had been created and that is what has been the biggest challenge for these individuals that live on this body of water compared to the other 30. Individually, I support the creation of it. Everything that needs to be done has been done,” said Kutscher.
Kutscher says the challenging part now is informing the public and making sure that they understand that the details behind the creation of a water district now lie within the entity if and when approved. He says the county faces no financial obligation.
“In the petition and in the report, it talks about the construction range being about $ 7 to $17 million and I’m talking about a wide range of numbers, and I bring that up because I want the public to understand that as a commissioners court, we are not approving the detail of the construction, the financing amount, the method, how things go about. We review the petition as it was submitted to us in accordance with that chapter of the water code to say ‘we think there’s public necessity. We think this is feasible. We think there’s a benefit individually to those homeowners and the properties to the lake, to the county and to the community as a whole. That’s where our authority kind of ends…”
We have seen some other water districts not only in our community but around the state that have been created with initial assumptions on cost of projects that have changed once you got to construction and that’s where it got messy for the homeowners and the voters and all those things. I know this group of people sitting in court today are doing their very best to be open, transparent and communicate all the issues and challenges to get to a successful project. I don’t think we should stand in the way of that. Basically, the folks who live on Meadow Lake are the only ones that are impacted financially for the construction of this improvement but ultimately, everybody gets to benefit from it like Dunlap, McQueeney and Placid,” said Kutscher.
County officials applauded the lake residents for their persistence in getting to this point of creating a water district due to the limited number of properties. Approximately 118 signatures were submitted in the petition to the court.
Like other lakes, this proposed WCID is believed to be a key factor in working with GBRA for the repair or replacement of the hydroelectric dams along Meadow Lake and the other hydroelectric lakes in the area. It was in the summer of 2019 after a failed dam on Lake Dunlap that GBRA announced its plans to drain each of its lakes, because of concerns about the safety of the dams, which in some cases are 90 years old. However, after unsettling litigation, some parties were able to reach a consensus that WCIDs were the fastest way to go to maintain the waterways. Although Meadow Lake has maintained its lake levels, its integrity remains at risk without the creation of this proposed water district.