WOODVILLE – The Tyler County Commissioners Court announced on Tuesday that it is calling a special meeting for Friday, June 28 at 10 a.m. to take place in the Commissioners Courtroom of the Tyler County Courthouse.
Under the six items up for consideration, approval or informational purposes on the agenda, three of them are focused on the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT)’s US 69 Woodville-Colmesneil Relief Route project.
The commissioners are slated to accept a donation of time and service from attorney Brad Elrod to complete and submit the suggested proposal and resolution for the route to TxDOT.
The governing body of the county is also putting up for a vote to adopt both a resolution of support, from the commissioners, on a suggested route for the project, as well as the suggested route proposal, itself.
Elrod, along with another attorney, Tommy Don Fortenberry, had previously sent a letter to TxDOT on behalf of several citizens, in support of TxDOT utilizing the long-touted railroad right-of-way route, or the eastern route, as it was labelled on the current projected route maps. Among those citizens who signed on to the letter were Steve Pittman and Greg Adams, who have mapped out an alternate route, using the railroad ROW, but with adjustments from what TxDOT had mapped.
Those adjustments, according to Pittman and Adams, would cause minimal disruption to homes, churches and businesses, particularly in the Colmesneil area, where they began the mapping work.
Under the current route proposals from TxDOT, the proposed eastern route would affect 60 homes and 46 other structures, as well as seven businesses. The western route would displace 15 homes.
The route being developed for the commissioners’ consideration would affect 12 homes total, with two homes in Warren, six in Hillister and four in Woodville, many of which are either unlivable or can be moved, according to the proposal information.
The proposal also highlights the possible “slow agonizing decline/death” of the county’s business community and tax base if the relief route were to be located along TxDOT’s western route, with a possible impact to Tyler County Hospital and up to a $1.5 million shortfall in tax revenue to the city of Woodville.
The resolution up for consideration states, up front, that both of the current proposed routes “are not in the best interests of Tyler County and its citizens,” with the “unnecessary taking of private land, businesses and homes.”
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