Taking a dive into water towers

Navasota City Manager Brad Stafford discusses the city water supply and the potential need for an additional water tower in this edition of Grilling Stafford.

Highlights from Grilling

Stafford – Episode 64

Seen on Highway 6, College Station is having a new water tower built. Is Navasota at a point where we might consider installing another tower? What are the criteria for considering building an additional or new tower?

“That is a really good question. Yes, we are actually doing a water modeling right now, I don’t know if anybody heard that at the council meetings. That is part of how we’re trying to figure out do we need to add a water tower, new pumps, new wells or anything like that. We’re getting close with our population growth to needing something. There are multiple ways, you can add storage, pumping ability, to give you some options. We’re trying to work through all of that, see where we need to be, I don’t really want to go into details, I don’t know if I can give you all the details of what it takes to get there but it’s the number of gallons per capita that are stored, pumped and the ability to produce.”

Is there a “magic number” of residents or businesses which will have to relocate to Navasota in order for utility projects to be funded without an increase to our utility bills? And do you foresee utility work ever happening without an increase?

“No, that’s pretty tough because we have all these lines that are already here. When new residents come into town, yes that adds to our revenue, but it also adds to the pressure on the system. New subdivisions are adding new lines, so that keeps us from having to build those lines right now but in the future those lines will need repairs and replacements. Everybody’s paying their way: doing it cost a lot of money. We did a study and just the municipal cost index has gone up over eight percent this year, so it’s hard to keep up with the inflation and cost but these are not nickel and dime projects when we start replacing. So, I don’t foresee utility work happening without some increases over time. You’ll see small projects that we’re able to do every year, but when we start doing major projects it’s very difficult to do without an increase.”

Is it true that the former Precision Office Supply space is now going to be a bar? We really need a good office supply store rather than our city to become known as the Navasota version of “Drinking Springs!”

“I actually don’t know what the plan is for the Precision building. I’ve heard several different things, but I have not spoken with the new owners so I’m not exactly sure what their business model is. I wish we had another office supply store; it would be more convenient for us as well – we buy a lot of office supplies. We put the word out all the time of businesses we need (leakage). That’s one of the things the retail coach does for us, they show that we have a leakage of office supply purchases. Many shop online or go to College Station, Bryan or maybe even Houston. But, I do agree it would be nice to have a good office supply store.”

There is a building being torn down at West Washington Avenue. Do you anticipate a particular merchant to occupy that space, or what are they doing there?

“That building needed to be demolished. The owner determined it was not repairable, so they wanted to go ahead and demolish it. It is taking them longer than they anticipated it. I don’t really know what the plans are yet, but the owner definitely wants to see something retail wise coming into that area. I’m not sure what they’ll do or how they’ll do it, but I’m sure the owner is weighing all options.”

To view the full video of Grilling Stafford – Episode 64, or to watch archived episodes, visit The Examiner website, www.navasotaexaminer.com. If you would like to submit a question for Grilling Stafford, email news@navasotaexaminer.com. New episodes of Grilling Stafford are released every Thursday.