Yesterday was a cold and blustery day here in Garland, so I decided to stay inside and knock a few honey-dos off my list. The big task of the day was replacing the garbage disposal under our kitchen sink. The disposal was probably as old as the house (1994), and the black plastic side of the disposal had cracked. Water and food particles had begun to leak out of it whenever it was turned on.
This was just one of many items we had replaced in our house since we moved in three and a half years ago. The previous owner was arrested in June 2012 and pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and one count of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance (https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/dallas/press-releases/2014/physician-sentenced-to-57-months-in-federal-prison-on-health-care-fraud-conviction). As a result, the government took possession of the house, and it sat vacant for three years.
During that time, maintenance on our future home was neglected. Also during that time, Duck Creek Golf Course went bankrupt, and the fairway behind our house was not maintained. The waist high grass provided a perfect habitat for all sorts of critters, some of which decided to make our house their home with no owner present to shoo them away.
When we moved in, our first task was to make repairs necessary to make our house pest-free. We hired a professional to remove the rats from the attic, and seal all holes they had created in our eaves to come into the house. We removed and replaced the insulation and sanitized the attic. Later we replaced the hot water heater, made irrigation sprinkler repairs, replaced the dead lawn with new turf, fixed the fascia on the chimney, replaced a garage door with a busted spring, and the list goes on an on. The garbage disposal was just the latest item to upgrade or replace.
As I laid on my back with the dirty water of the P-trap dripping on my face, I started to think how similar home maintenance is to maintaining a city. Because of the Great Recession of 2008, many maintenance concerns of the city were placed on hold. In speaking with several city council members of that era, they did the best they could to keep the basic city services functioning while having to cut city salaries and staff. I am no way blaming them for what they were required to do with citizens losing their jobs, property value assessments lowering and city tax revenues falling. They were put in a tough spot and made some difficult decisions.
But as a result of those hard times, many city maintenance items were put on hold — similar to how my home was left abandoned with no maintenance. The parks budget was cut to nothing, funding for was slashed, and city employees’ salaries were cut and no raises were given for several years. Just now is the city beginning to dig out of that hole and turn things around.
As a member of the city’s 2018 Bond Committee, city staff presented over $1.2 billion worth of projects to help rebuild the city. The Parks Department had over $300 million worth of projects alone with the remainder spread between streets, drainage, libraries, municipal facilities and economic development projects. I believe this high number was directly a result of not having the funds to do those projects over the past decade.
While our Bond Committee recommended to the City Council the highest tier of projects — $489 million worth — that amount is only a third of the needs requested. Much like my house repairs, I only have the funds to do so many projects per year. While my house is certainly comfortable and livable, my wife and I are making incremental gains towards everything we would like to upgrade or remodel.
Rebuilding Garland will take time as well. We cannot do it all in one bond program nor would the voters stomach the tax increases needed to fund the projects at once. This doesn’t even consider the impact on the city’s bond rating if the city took on over $500 million worth of bond debt.
Garland has always been a hard-working, do it ourselves, make the most of our limited resources type of town–and that’s what I like about it. Much like my garbage disposal project, we aren’t afraid to do the dirty work to make the city work. Thankfully the city does have a plan beginning with the proposed bond. I hope to be your city council representative for District 7 to implement those bond projects and continue to shape that plan. We can rebuild this city together even if it does take multiple trips in the same day to Home Depot.
At the end of each blog post, I will add a musical selection. Let’s keep this campaign positive and fun.
Um Dylan I suggest you keep your day job. Advise from a Master Plumber.