The Louie Minor Show
Texas politics from Killeen to Belton to Austin and beyond. Join the conservation with Bell County Commissioner Pct 4 Louie Minor as we dive deep into local government. Interviews with community leaders and the public.
The Louie Minor Show
Bell County Updates: Commissioner Louie Minor Tackles Chaparral Road and Local Priorities
Welcome.
Commissioner Louie Minor:You're listening to the Louie Minor Show. I'm your host. Bell County Commissioner, Louie Minor. Today is April 6, 2025. We have a lot to get to, so let's get started. We do have a Bell County Commissioner's Court meeting tomorrow, April 7th, so let's get to the agenda, the agenda for the regular meeting of the Bell County Commissioner's Court for April 7th 2025. We have the invocation Pledge of Allegiance consent. Agenda items. We have the approval of the regular minutes. Let's see Approval of the minutes for the March 17, 2025 meeting in the commissioner's court. We have personnel and budget amendments. Claims, accounts payable, payroll restitution and jury pay Item. Payroll restitution and jury pay item.
Commissioner Louie Minor:Consider authorizing the disposal of county property as either salvage or surplus, as allowed by local government code 263.5151 and 263152, and authorizing the disposal of such property to be sold by Bill Hall Auctioneers Inc. At 10 am on Saturday, april 26, at the Heritage Country Church Event Center, 9677 Lark Trail, salado, texas. Consider authorizing award of IFB number 21-25, stone Riprap and Rock Ridge Transport LLC as a primary vendor and Green Dream International LLC as the second vendor for the road and bridge department. An estimated amount of $100,000. Ratification of the purchase and ammunition of GT Distribution quote number QTE206257 under by-board contract number 698-23 at a cost of $62,788.61 for the Sheriff's Office. Item D consider authorizing alignment of the APO2 position within the CSCD department with an estimated increase to the budget of less than $2,500. And then E consider authorizing reclassification of contract services superintendent positions to the position of assistant superintendent. And that is everything for the consent agenda, presentations, proclamations and awards. We'll have a presentation by Raymond Suarez, general Manager, hill Country Transit Authority, to honor Bell County Judge David Blackburn for his years of service to the Hill Country Transit Board. Item B recognize Bell County Clerk Shelly Koston for being nominated by Region 4 of the County and District Clerks Association, texas, for Clerk of the Year.
Commissioner Louie Minor:Then we have county engineer items 8 Hood Section Subdivision Replat being a .2386 acre 1 lot 1 block subdivision located within Bell County Precinct 1. Then we have Consider and Approve a Plat of Moffitt Water Supply Edition being a 2 acre 1 lot 1 block subdivision located in Precinct 3. 2-acre 1-lot 1-block subdivision located in Precinct 3. And we have consider and approve a final plat of Mockingbird Acres being a 67.669-acre 14-lot 1-block subdivision located within Bell County Precinct 3. A plat of Grimeland Acres being a 10.1 acre 2 lot 1 block subdivision located within Bell County Precinct 3. Item E consider and approve the final plat of Cedar Acres addition being a 8.334 acre 2 lot 1 block subdivision located in Bell County Precinct 1. Item F Consider and approve a resolution to abandon request for a utility 10 foot utility easement and goats addition replat number 1 in accordance with Texas Code 251.058, bell County Precinct
Commissioner Louie Minor:3. Then regular agenda items. Consider the status and take appropriate action on the ordering prohibiting outdoor burning burn ban. B. Consider authorizing the county judge to execute an interlocal agreement between Bell County and City of Nolanville for regulation of subdivision in the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the City of Troy Respect to Waste Management Inc. Project and authorizing a county judge to execute certificates. Approving the order and public hearing. Item E consider setting the place date time for the public hearing regarding petition Considering requesting the formation of the Bell County Emergency Service, district no 3,. Said public hearing will be held at the regular session of the Bell County Commissioner's Court meeting May 5, 2025, 9 am. Bell County Commissioner's Court House, 2nd Floor, belton, texas, and let's see
Commissioner Louie Minor:Then. We have a closed session pursuant to Section 551.074, texas Government Code to discuss and deliberate about officers, employees of the governmental body relating to the appointment, employment, evaluation, reassessment, duties, disciplines or dismissal of a public officer. And then we have G consider taking action required or warranted relating to the matters of personnel, as discussed in closed session. And that is everything for our regular agenda. Now let's go to our workshop that we'll follow. Immediately after that we have let's see presentation on P3 public power pool activity. Commissioner Greg Reynolds' Next item will be a discussed Chaparral Road improvements and potential recommendations for engineering
Commissioner Louie Minor:services. That will be put on by myself. Then we have reports and updates from various county offices and departments Capital improvement project updates. Update on the jail expansion, temporary jail facilities. Clean annex Divergent center renovations. Update on the jail expansion, temporary jail facilities. Clean annex diversion center renovations and discuss FY 2025 CIP plan. And then we have let's see discuss procurement options for subgrant award DR-4485-0064, the grant administrator. 4485-0064, the grant administrator. Then discuss request to reclassify a corporal sheriff's office position to a deputy sheriff's officer position, effective immediately. Reclassification will result in a return to the general fund of approximately $2,326 annually and $2,326 annually and $1,163 for FY
Commissioner Louie Minor:2025. Human resources. Then we have some items in the afternoon. Closed session Texas Government Code. 551.072, deliberate related to the purchase, exchange, lease or value of real property relating to the pre-strived property in Killeen Texas, the deliberation of which in an open meeting would have a detrimental effect on the position of the government body in negotiations with the third person. Then our next closed session would be pursuant to Section 551.0725, government Code, to discuss the deliberation concerning contracts being negotiated with the Killeen Annex. The deliberation concerning contracts being negotiated with the Killeen Annex. And then, finally, closed session pursuant to Section 551.074, texas Government Code, discuss and deliberate about officers and employees, the governmental body relating to the appointment and duties of the county engineer. And that is everything that we have on the agenda. We do have some potential
Commissioner Louie Minor:meetings. August 9th, 2025 at UMHB, there is a community Central Texas Community Health Summit, Connecting the Dots. Then we have on the 15th Conference of Urban Counties meeting board meeting Central Texas Community Health Summit, connecting the dots. Then we have on the 15th Conference of Urban Counties meeting board meeting. On the 16th there is a Conference of Urban Counties membership lunch. Also on the 16th, there is a TPPB meeting, belton, texas I don't know what that is and then there is a Hill Country Community Action Association board meeting in Lampasas. And then on the 26th, the Bell County auction and surplus items and automobiles, as I mentioned before. And that is everything. That is everything, as I mentioned before, and that is everything. That is
Commissioner Louie Minor:everything. So let's switch gears real quick and just kind of highlight again I know I had mentioned it last week about Kendall Scudder getting elected as the chair the new state chair for the Democratic Party. He's been on a lot of social media and interviews and everything, so I just want to play one. There's another podcast that I listen to that it talks about a lot about Texas politics and that's it's called Yolotix. It's out of the DFW area and they had a real long interview podcast with Kendall that came out today. I think it's about 45 minutes long. It's a great listen if you're into politics which, if you're listening to this, I'm sure you are. But I want to take a little clip of that just so you kind of hear a little bit from the new chair. So sit back and enjoy.
Speaker 3:There is no time to waste and there needs to be a sense of urgency for every Democrat, not just to build an institution and apparatus, but because we're terrified of what's happening in our government right now and what it's going to mean for working people. And if you're going to go on the news and tell people that act like it People aren't seeing this level of urgency in the party that they want to. You know they see Democrats just crying foul and saying, oh my gosh, we're so upset. Well, what are you doing about it? You know? So I wanted to show people it's a new day in the Texas democratic party. Uh, you just elected a millennial progressive to lead your party and we're going to be operating with the understanding that that's what the people on the ground want. And if that works for me at the next convention, awesome. And if it doesn't, that's great. I'm going to roll up my sleeves and help the next folk.
Speaker 2:What should people expect to see over the next three or four months? First, 90 days from you?
Speaker 3:You should see a democratic party that has more bite in it. You'll see a democratic Party that doesn't just take punches but throws them too. You're going to see a Democratic Party that is much more present in places where we typically haven't been and that is willing to start making rights, some things where people on the ground have felt like we've fallen them short. And I think you're going to see a Democratic Party that really emphasizes and focuses in on what this, this broken, rigged economy, looks like for working people.
Speaker 2:Billionaires like Donald Trump have successfully stolen away the working class. I would say from the Democratic Party what is the Democratic Party not not saying?
Speaker 3:they've, they have, they have in elections, but they have also successfully killed the middle class, and so we as a party had gotten. So I think we got scared of the Donald Trump situation. We locked ourselves into preserving institutions. We were terrified of what could happen to this republic that we care so much about, and lost the guttural reactions of why people vote. Folks vote with their guts, not their heads right, and so, instead of leading with the idea that we're here to preserve institutions institutions that have failed working people time and time again we're going to talk about that from time to time, as it makes sense. Maybe some of those institutions don't need to be preserved. What we're going to focus on is making sure that working people are the center of every discussion we're having, and how every bill we write, every bill we are able to get passed. Everything we advocate for. How does it impact a person that's trying to put soccer cleats on their kiddo?
Speaker 2:The golden goose that the Republicans have is this messaging. They have it down. They have AM radio, they have cable news, they have social media. How do you counter that? Grassroots is great, but it seems like the younger voter is on TikTok. You need the influencers to move into the next generation to find that voter. What's your plan? Yeah, what do?
Speaker 3:you do millennial? To answer that question now, I would say as a party we've been very risk adverse and hesitant on alternative media. I think the one example that's been beaten like a drum is the Kamala Harris Joe Rogan example, right when maybe you're afraid to go on places that that they disagree with you. Well, I go places where people disagree with me all the time. We call it Thanksgiving dinner.
Speaker 2:Right, I mean we disagree with you when you're a Democrat from East Texas.
Commissioner Louie Minor:You know you're not walking into a room of liberals, ok. Well, there you go. Kendall Scudder, new chair of the Texas Democratic Party. I look forward to working with him and I did send him a text message and told him congratulations, and I know he's ready to get to work, as am I. So, speaking about work, you know I had told you earlier on the agenda an idea, idea. Well, not an idea, but it's Chaparral, one of the major roadways in my precinct, precinct 4.
Commissioner Louie Minor:Now, chaparral Road. If you remember, last year I had a disagreement with some of the other commissioners on putting a stop sign, multi-way stop sign out there at the intersection of Chaparral and Featherline Lane. Now Chaparral Road is an interesting road because that is the boundary road between the city of Killeen and the start of Bell County and Chaparral. Featherline is kind of the dividing line between Precinct 2 and Precinct 4, and also the dividing line between District 3 and District 2 and the city. So there's a lot of things coming together right there at that intersection. But I commissioned a study with Friesen Nichols, an engineering firm, to give the county a recommendation for improving the traffic flow with current conditions. With current conditions Now, chaparral Road is at least on schedule on paper. They're trying to make it a five-lane road, multi-lane road, and connect from Highway 195 all the way to the Lake Road and Harker Heights, and so that's a lot. That is a lot, and then the city of Killeen would take the road over then. Now they're projecting that this is going to cost an estimated $100 million to do this five lane. There's going to be streetscape and they're talking about roundabouts and all kinds of good things. But, like I said, it's a lot of money. The county I already put in $3 million to help with this project. The city of Killeen is spending a lot of money, but a majority of this money is going to come from federal funds and getting community development block grants from our congressional representatives and that got cut as part of this continuing resolution, this CR that we had talked about to keep the government open, to keep it from shutting down. That money was a casualty Now, not the full amount, but just some of the money to help with offsetting that cost. So that was a casualty of the CR. But what I want to talk about is what are we going to do now? What is Bell County, precinct 4, county Commissioner Louie Miner going to do about Chaparral Road. Well, let me tell you what we're going to do.
Commissioner Louie Minor:Nothing's been done to the road, I think, since 2018 or 2019. It's been a long time. The county does a seven-year cycle. From what I'm told on roads, every seven years there's supposed to be some type of new chip seal program where they go out you see it before if you've lived in the country where they'll put oil down on the road. Then it seems like they put a bunch of gravel. Then you see a sign that says loose gravel for a couple of days and then, as it gets heated up, it kind of melts down into everything. So that's all the county does right now. We don't do any type of hot mix, which is your regular asphalt that you're accustomed to seeing in the cities. We do a chip seal program, but it's been a long time since Chaparral has had that.
Commissioner Louie Minor:So my intent is to redo Chaparral Road and spend the money on redoing chip sealing the road from 195 pretty much almost all the way to Featherline. We're going to do it this summer. Bell County is going to perform the work. We're not going to bid it out and it should cost close to around $300,000 to do that and it should cost close to around $300,000 to do that, and that should cover all the leveling up, as they call it. There's some areas where you can see, if you drive down Chaparral Road, the base is failing because you're having a bunch of spider cracks, you're having holes and dips where the asphalt and everything is starting to come apart. So we're going to go ahead and fix all that. That should take about a month roughly, so it'll be a month in the summer that we're going to do that.
Commissioner Louie Minor:What Friesen Nichols is going to present tomorrow at the Commissioner's Court is to put a stoplight, a multi-way stoplight, there at the intersection of Featherline and Chaparral, and also a that would be a northbound turn lane off of Chaparral Road to Featherline. So that's going to help alleviate some of that traffic there. We have made improvements. One of the ladies that I know that works there at the school at Shoemaker I'm sorry, not Shoemaker at Shepard High School. She said I actually saw her Friday and she was talking how well everything is working. There haven't been any accidents, even though it may be just a little bit slower, that that it is doing better. It is doing better, it is doing better. So they're appreciative of that.
Commissioner Louie Minor:Now, this road, this turn lane and this light. Now, this is going to be the first light in the entire county that is county owned and operated and maintained. So you know, all we have are stop signs. We've never had the density needed yet for a traffic light, so this is going to be the first one that is going into Bell County. So I'm a little bit appreciative that that's what we're doing because it's needed. The first one is going to be in Precinct 4.
Commissioner Louie Minor:But this project for this turn lane and this light is probably going to be around $800,000. So if you bundle that together, that $800,000 with $300,000 to rechip, seal the rest of a portion of Chaparral Road, that's over a million dollars that I'll be investing in Chaparral Road. Because, I mean, you're probably thinking to yourself, if we're going to redo the road to a five lane, why would you quote unquote waste the money on that? Well, the problem is we don't know when that road is going to get funded, when it's going to happen. According to the history of Chaparral Road and the improvements, this has been on the books for 20 years and it still hasn't been done. So I don't know if it's going to happen in 2029, like the city of Killeen is anticipating and the road cannot wait for nothing to get done up until 2029. And then probably, if it doesn't get funded, it'll just be delayed anyway.
Commissioner Louie Minor:So I think it's important for the residents out there that live out in that part of the county. It's a very dense area. It's growing fast, it's only growing faster. That's the same road that Turnbow Ranch is on. That's a municipal mud municipal utility district and that's going to have 3,000 homes in it. So this thing is growing quick. The city is growing quick. There's another 300-home subdivision that is going to be. There are 300 home subdivision that is going to be. That got approved off of Featherline and they're doing a thousand the preserve at a thousand oaks right off of Stagecoach. So I mean, this area is growing and it's not stopping. And I think it's really a disservice to our constituents if we tell them to wait until 2029 because we think something is going to happen and then if it doesn't happen we've just allowed the road to deteriorate even more and it's going to cost more. So that is my proposal that I'm bringing Now the county, each precinct we do tax the residents a road and bridge tax that is divided by road miles into each precinct and that's how the money is allocated.
Commissioner Louie Minor:So Precinct 4 gets an allocation of $2 million roughly every year for maintenance of roads and this year I've prioritized our Chaparral Road. So that's where we're going to discuss. The discussion that I'm interested in having is with Precinct 2 County Commissioner Bobby Woodson, because, like I said, my precinct stops at Featherline but right at the intersection where the school is. That was another proposed place for a right turn lane and another light were called out in the study that Fraser Nichols did, saying that all of this stuff needed to be done to maximize the traffic flow. Is it going to maximize traffic flow if that intersection by the school doesn't get prepared at the same time that I am doing the Precinct 4 section? Yeah, it is going to affect it because it's not going to be working together.
Commissioner Louie Minor:But that is not my decision to make. That's going to be that commissioner's decision on what he wants to do and what's a priority to him. This is a priority to me. It's a safety issue and you know our constituents deserve it because that road definitely needs a lot of improvement for our citizens of the county. So that's the plan, that's what we're going to talk about in workshop tomorrow and probably what I'll do is, after we talk about it, I'll play a little bit of it for you next week, just so you kind of get caught up on what we're going to do. But the plan is to award it this month, next week, just so you kind of get caught up on on what we're going to do. But you know the the plan is to to award it this this month, to to freeze the nickels.
Commissioner Louie Minor:That's the company that um is uh doing the proposal. And then they now and they cause they're doing a lot of work already with Chaparral road city, because they're doing a lot of work already with Chaparral Road City of Killeen hired them to be the main engineer of record for this five-lane improvement. So they already have a lot of the survey work done. They already have a lot of the stuff already there modeled. So it made sense to go with them because it saves time. What Friesenichel said is, once we turn them loose, they should be able to have a set of plans within 45 days and then we go out to bid.
Commissioner Louie Minor:I'm hoping to get this completed during the summer break. I don't want to have this impact our business, our kids when school opens up, but it may, it may. So you know, we just have to prepare, prepare for that. But you know, definitely the improvement is needed. The citizens want it and I I want citizens to be able to see that you know their government is listening and responsive to their needs. This was brought to my attention over a year ago, a little over a year ago or no, not even a year ago. It was brought to my attention and just in that time, that short amount of time, we were able to get a stop sign there. The city of Killeen put a turn lane off of Featherline onto Chaparral Road and then now we're going to make improvements to over a million dollars on Chaparral Road and that improvement, I think, should last us well into however long it takes to get final improvement of Chaparral Road into that five-lane arterial, minor arterial, minor arterial for the future. So, yeah, exciting things, like I said, it's been in the works and yeah, that's what we're going to be talking about on Monday on Chaparral Road. Go figure, we're also going to be talking about the Killeen Annex Bids came back, so we'll be talking about awarding. That that's another exciting thing happening in downtown Killeen. So a lot of interesting things going on here locally and you're a part of it. You're part of the change and I'm excited for it. So I think the biggest thing that happened this week in state local news is HB3, the voucher bill for taking public school dollars and putting it into private schools cleared its first hurdle and that's getting it out of committee Now. It got out of committee last legislative session and died on the floor, so let's hope that is the case here. So let's hope that is the case here Now.
Commissioner Louie Minor:On Friday there was an event NAACP banquet, scholarship banquet and I attended that. Brad Buckley was there, state representative for this area 54, house, district 54. He's also the author and chairman of the bill, chairman of Public Education Committee, calling complaining about getting into private schools, needing private schools, wanting money for private schools. I have not heard one person, republican or Democrat, say that to me. What I have heard from Republican and Democrat, is that property taxes are too high and they keep going up and they're being squeezed. Every time that happens Every tax year they're being squeezed, their mortgages are going up, their insurance is going up and that has effects on families, it has effects on renters and that's what I hear people talking about. So I told them. I said can we not use this $1 billion allocated to drive down property taxes? Because the largest culprit on your property tax is not the city, it's not the county or any other special district, it's the school district. That is the largest bill on your property tax rate.
Commissioner Louie Minor:Now he said we're doing that. We're doing all kinds of things to you know, we're increasing the cap. I think it's $100,000 now for the homestead. They want to bump it up to I think $150,000, $125,000. And that's great. Then he said that they're increasing the tax exemption for business property. I think it's $2,000 now they're going to increase it to 250,000. And that's great. I'm not saying any of that stuff is bad, that is good. But what I'm saying is that this $1 billion that they're going to put into private schools could be used to increase those two things Increase the cap on your homestead Could increase how much you get as exempt from a business property.
Commissioner Louie Minor:A billion dollars is a lot of money and it could go to helping offset property taxes for homeowners. And to say that it would not, because that's what I said, why not put it in lowering property taxes? And he's like, oh no, that wouldn't do it. Okay, maybe the financing. He knows a whole lot more than I do, absolutely he does as the chair. But I'm sure somewhere in this financing, somewhere in this math, somewhere in this arithmetic that you could plug in a billion dollars and it'll help lower property taxes. I know you can property taxes, I know you can, I know that much about government math that if you have a billion dollars and you put it in somewhere, some line item, you could put it in and the school districts will not have to levy that tax burden onto the local taxpayer. I know there is Is it the basic allotment? I don't know, but somewhere they can do that.
Commissioner Louie Minor:So you know anytime that I'm going to talk about this issue, about vouchers, about vouchers. I don't think I'm going to even go around right or wrong and I'm just going to pull back and go straight to property taxes. You see it on forums, on social media. That's what's hurting people, that's what they're complaining about, not about private school access. I don't hear anyone complaining about that Zero, and if you have a good argument, so be it. But definitely the majority of people here across the state, in this county, in this city, in his district, care less about public schools or private schools. What they're going to care about is lowering their property taxes.
Commissioner Louie Minor:Because I had a good friend of mine. She's a Democrat and she's like Louie what the F? Why is my property value, my mortgage, going up 200 bucks a month because of property taxes? And this is someone who's an activist and very involved and I an activist and very involved and I told her I said I voted against raising property taxes this last budget. I was the only commissioner to vote against the property tax increase. But every other district here in the county raised property taxes because we had to.
Commissioner Louie Minor:And then right now there's legislation at the state to limit counties and cities' ability to increase property taxes, that anything that goes above the no new revenue rate is going to have to get voter approval. And I could see I could, I can see that if that gets anywhere near to possibly passing, I could see a scenario where every taxing authority in the state would probably make a mad dash to raise their property tax rate to the maximum allowable before the voter approval rate, which is 3.5%. If the state does that, because they'll never be able to do it again without voter approval, I could see that scenario playing out and that would be a massive tax increase all across the state and it would be painful to people. But it would be equally painful to counties and cities and special districts if that law passes, because you're going to be tying hands of local government and being able to meet the needs of the community because they're taking away local control and that ability to be responsive to our voters' needs, our constituents' needs.
Commissioner Louie Minor:So, anyway, a lot going on. We have May elections coming up. I need to reach out to try and get some people on. Definitely want to focus on the school district and have Lan Carter. She's running for Killeen ISD school board. I want to get her on here, probably next week. So anyways, we will talk to you later. Have a great week and I'll see you next week. Bye, we'll be you next time.
