After posting the bridge update yesterday, I received a response from Senator Fraser’s Abilene office. I had previously contacted the Senator’s Abilene office and asked for their help in finding out the status of our new bridge request. Tab Thompson had also contacted the Senator through his Austin office. Also, as mentioned in my previous update, I made several phone calls, and sent emails, to several different TXDOT, Austin and Fort Worth, officials earlier this week. Things are moving.

The Senator’s Abilene office reported yesterday afternoon that a representative from the “Legislative Affairs Section” of the “Government and Business Enterprises Division” of the “Texas Department of Transportation” had contacted the Senator’s office and stated that our new bridge request had been placed on an emergency status and did not need to go through the normal process of, “Transportation Planning and Programming Division - Commission meeting” on November 17th, for approval. She also stated that authorization to start the bridge design will be issued immediately. The Fort Worth TXDOT office told me on Wednesday that they had already received the approval from Austin to start the design work. Thanks to Senator Fraser’s Abilene and Austin offices for helping with this issue.

The right-of-way for the emergency outlet road was cleared yesterday. Jerry Martin says he will finish it next week – weather permitting.

Also, thanks to Fred Cross for allowing the county to build an emergency outlet road on his property to allow the residents of Heritage Hills access to our homes and jobs in case we have a heavy rain that washes out our low water crossing. I visited with Mrs. Cross this morning and personally thanked them.

And, thanks to Melvin Hammit for working with us and agreeing to let the county build a road through his proposed development to our North. This option proved to be too costly because of having to build the road to meet city specifications and a state “turn lane” requirement on highway 914.

Please feel free to call me at 965-6990 or email at bgordon61@our-town.com if you have any questions or concerns.

Bridge updates are being posted on www.our-town.com

Bill Gordon

102 Saint James Court