Council votes to change Richmond speed limits in Texarkana | 45 mph zone eliminated

TEXARKANA, Texas - During a regular meeting Monday, the City Council voted to change some speed limits on Richmond Road north of Interstate 30.

The speed limits will be 40 mph for north- and southbound traffic from SH 93/Summerhill Road to a point 1,100 feet south of Airline Drive and 50 mph from that point to the north city limit. The 45 mph zone on Richmond will be eliminated.

The Council unanimously approved the changes, which had been recommended by the Texas Department of Transportation after a recent engineering study and traffic survey of Richmond, aka FM 559. TxDOT will erect new speed limit signs.

The ordinance authorizing the changes contains an emergency clause, which makes it effective immediately.

The Council also approved leasing the soccer complex at Grady T. Wallace park to the Texarkana United Soccer Association for 20 years in exchange for improvements to the property.

TUSA uses the soccer complex year-round pursuant to user agreements with the city. The organization plans to apply for a $50,000 matching funds grant from the United States Soccer Federation to improve lighting at the complex, but a long-term lease is required, TUSA President Gene Joyce said. The lease will allow applications for other grants in the future, he said.

Also approved was a $398,000-plus contract with Dallas-based Brinkley Sargent Wiginton Architects to design the new University Avenue fire station. Funding will come from $7 million in bonds the city issued last year to pay for the station and an extension of Gibson Lane over Wagner Creek.

The building's design is in its earliest stages, but it will include modern safety features that help prevent firefighters' exposure to carcinogens in their clothing and equipment, Fire Chief Eric Schlotter told the Council.

The Council also held public hearings and voted on two zoning and permitting matters. A vacant lot in the 3000 block of St. Michael Drive will be rezoned to allow restaurants there in the future. And ordinances have been amended to allow, on a case-by-case basis, driveways in the rear yards of single-residence properties.

By consent, the Council approved two budgeted infrastructure contracts: a $231,000-plus contract for repairs at the Wright Patman water treatment plant and a contract worth more that $616,000 for replacing and relocating almost 5,000 feet of sewer main along Kings Highway north of I-30.

The meeting was Council Member Josh Davis' last in office, and Mayor Bob Bruggeman and Council Member Bill Harp thanked him for his service. Davis resigned the Ward 6 seat to run for Bowie County tax assessor-collector, and a special election will determine his successor.

"This is like a family to me," Davis said. "I'm going to miss our Monday nights."

The Council's next regular meeting is scheduled for Feb. 10.

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