Voters agree to special utility district designation
(Seguin) — Springs Hill members have overwhelingly agreed to converting the water corporation into a Special Utility District. (SUD)
That decision was made Saturday during the May 4 Election.
A total of 480 votes (67 percent) were cast in favor of the measure while 235 (33 percent) votes were cast against it.
Applauding the decision to not only accept the challenge but to also come out and vote is Springs Hill General Manager Mike Andrews.
“They are seeing that with all the growth we have in the county — that we needed to do things to keep that growth going at a pace that wasn’t out of control but not rained in and the SUD gives the organization and our board the best opportunity to try to keep that growth down the middle, not too fast — and I’m glad that most of the votes were early. People thought about it and expressed it early and I was very very happy to see that and everybody that I talked to as I was going around town — I had spoken at Rotary and at Lions Club and at other organizations and the support among Springs Hill members was very nice,” said Andrews.
Andrews says there at least two important changes that voters will initially see.
He says the first allows the SUD to immediately take resources to its existing members. He says people, who voted in this election, will get to have their water lines upgraded to 2024 standards.
“It’s going to allow the organization to go into some of the older Springs Hill neighborhoods where there were water lines that were laid say in 1965, 1967, 1970. And, we can do the math. Some of those are getting close to 60 years old. We are going to have the resources now to go back in and lay new water lines just like it was a new subdivision out on Highway 46 or going up 123 and they will be able to get new water lines in some of those places. And, from a maintenance perspective, we are not going to have to go out there and fix leaks as often,” said Andrews.
Second, Andrews says by operating as a SUD, it gives them the resources to buy the water that is necessary for future growth and development.
“The reason why I can start buying water that I couldn’t buy before is because there are many government entities that sell water — Canyon Regional Water Authority, Schertz-Seguin Local Government Companies are two examples and they are very generous and have worked really well with us all the years but they are required to really work with governmental agencies first and then whatever, they have leftover, they can go to private. Well, we have been a private, not for profit all along and as soon as we officially switch over to becoming a special utility district, then we are getting to sit –for a lack of a better word — at the big kids table. So, we can buy water just as easily as the city of Marion or the city of Seguin or Santa Clara or any of the other special utility districts — Green Valley or Crystal Clear — so we are on equal footing. There are almost 11,000 proposed houses waiting within the Springs Hill coverage area that are waiting for us to say ‘Yes, we have water. Subdivisions A,B and C, you can start building,” said Andrews.
During the voting process, this specific election, due to the water code and election code, asked that voters sign an affidavit of eligibility just before casting their ballot. At the end of voting, Andrews say there were only three provisional ballots cast — meaning that only three people decided to not sign the affidavit per the Secretary of State’s Office.