Los Fresnos Council Approves Bid for New City Hall

by Tony Vindell/LFN

A project to build a new city hall took a big step last week after the city council approved a bid submitted by a company that will construct the complex.

D. Wilson Construction was chosen out of a list of seven companies with a bid submitted of $3,369,000 – nearly $1 million over what city officials had anticipated.

The McAllen-based company submitted the lowest bid and it also received the highest rating by a committee in charge in reviewing the qualifications of each company.

The council also approved a source of financing for the multi-million-dollar city hall.

Under it, the city will use money from its utility services, from the Community Development Corp., the street and drainage department and from deducting money from the low bid for a total of $602,629.

City Manager Mark Milum said the city’s general fund has a surplus of some $160,000 and it can pump money into some capital projects this year instead of doing it next year.

By doing so, he said the city will free up the money and invest it into the new city hall.

The council also approved during Tuesday’s meeting a recommendation to set the property taxes at 71.5 cents per every $100 of assessed valuation.

As an example of that, a house assessed at $100,000 will pay $700.15 in city taxes.

However, there will be two public hearings to get input from the taxpayers before the council officially adopts the rate. The meeting were set for this Thursday, Aug.23 and Aug. 28.

In another related issue, the council was informed that the net taxable value for Los Fresnos stands at $274 million, gaining an increase of more than $21 million from 2017 as 12 new properties valued at $6.3 million resulted in an increase of more than 31 percent in the taxable value.

In another matter, the council denied a request from developer Roberto Delgado to repeal a CDC item to deny him a permit to build a duplex in a residential area of the city.

However, the council was receptive to the idea of building two houses on the large lot Delgado owns.