DALLAS - Rapidly growing Williamson County, Tex., hired a public relations firm to help it gather opinions on a proposal to expand a heavily used road and to articulate plans for all road projects.
Eventually, officials want to widen State Highway 29, which runs east and west just south of Georgetown to 12 lanes from four. The county currently has numerous road projects underway using proceeds from a $228 million bond package approved in November 2006. At that time, voters also passed a $22 million proposition for park upgrades.
The SH 29 project wasn't initially outlined in the bond literature and the county sought the help of Martin & Salinas Public Affairs Inc. to help assuage adverse public perception surrounding the road expansion, including any suggestion that it will be a toll road.
"We're really trying to preserve the right-of-way for future use, as this is a 'not-until-needed project' that's at least 20 years down the line," said Connie Watson, spokeswoman for the county.
She said the project includes two lanes in each direction for through traffic, as well as two frontage lanes in addition to the current two lanes. Watson stressed that the county is looking 20 years ahead, wanting to secure land for the project now before businesses or residences occupy land that may be needed for the expansion.
Williamson County last issued bonds from the 2006 package about a year ago, and has $80.5 million of road bonds and $8 million of park bonds remaining from that authorization.
First Southwest Co. is the county's financial adviser and McCall, Parkhurst & Horton LLP is bond counsel.
Standard & Poor's upgraded the underlying credit of the county to AA from AA-minus prior to that sale. Analysts cited the county's "explosive" growth this decade that has resulted from accessibility to Austin and the high-tech sector's expansion in the area as credit strengths.
Williamson carries an underlying rating of Aa2 from Moody's Investors Service.
County auditor David Flores said last year that the county has "grown substantially the past few years, and it's due in part to all the roads we've aggressively built with monies from a $350 million bond passed in 2000, as they helped improve access to Austin and ease congestion, which parlayed into growth across the county."
Williamson County's population of nearly 386,000 is up 21.5% from just three years ago, according to analysts, and up about 54% from roughly 250,000 residents as of the 2000 Census.
Officials project the population to reach 550,000 in the next 10 years.
Standard & Poor's said the tax base has increased 46% the past three years to $27.7 billion with another 10% gain forecast for fiscal 2008.
