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City of Rhome receives updates on infrastructure studies


Rhome City Council is preparing for a future that could transform the city from a small rural town into suburbia.

City council members Thursday night heard several presentations that reflected this change in Rhome’s future land use, infrastructure and water and wastewater systems.

Kimley Horn consultants kicked off the presentation to how this growth could take shape. First up was land use. Some of the highlights included commercial development along Main Street and the U.S. 81/287 and Texas 114 corridors. They also separated Rhome’s extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ), mostly used for agriculture, into tracts for future housing development.

“There are lots of development potential for the city over the next 20 or 30 years,” one of the consultants told the packed council room. “We’re projecting that a majority of this will be single-family residential development.”

The plans presented seemed to focus mostly on 10- and 20-year increments of what the city would need to do to prepare for the growth that city leaders across south Wise County claim is coming their way.

For the future water system to accommodate this growth, some of the issues highlighted included adding pump stations and updating water lines to make sure proper flow and pressure is maintained.

“It’s a crystal ball projection of what it would take,” the consultant said.

He also pointed out that there are current pressure issues that the city needs to address for current residents and listed more than 30 issues that would need to be handled in the next 10 to 20 years.

On the wastewater side of the plan, consultants identified 25 issues that would need to be addressed, including “rehabilitation” of the west wastewater treatment plant, which currently serves a majority of the residents.

As for infrastructure, several improvements were listed, but none of it seemed to have anything to do with road problems currently affecting residents.

The cost of these city improvements exceeds $15 million, far more money than currently available.

In other business, Quorem architects, who are handling the design for transforming the old school building into a multi-purpose municipal complex, made a presentation that included the removal of the senior citizen center.

The Quorum representative recommended the senior citizen center to be demolished to make room for parking. She also indicated the idea behind the new design was to preserve as much of the old schoolhouse as possible. She compared what they would be doing to a renovation and claimed it would hopefully be ready by summer 2021.

A public hearing is planned for Dec. 12 to get public input on the plans.

Other items of interest included a presentation by students from the University of Texas at Arlington. They recommended several urban programs the city could implement to build a stronger community. Some of those programs included Taste of Rhome, Mayor’s Community Table and a mentor program.

City council members also voted to award the contract to finish the Master Thoroughfare Plan to Kimley Horn at a cost of $38,000. The city currently has $15,000 budgeted and could possibly pay the rest during the next budget year.

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