ABILENE, Texas — The Abilene City Council held a retreat to discuss several significant projects, including the potential introduction of paid parking in downtown Abilene.
“What we’re seeing, and the reason why we’re looking at this is that you’ve got people and businesses that are just parking and they’ve got business equipment, trailers, business vehicles,” said City Manager Robert Hanna. “They’re using it as their private lot, which is, I don’t think was the intention of the public parking lot.”
If the council decided to implement a paid parking program, it would not be for all of downtown Abilene. The council discussed keeping two parking lots by the Abilene Public Library free lots with two lots on Cedar St. designated as paid lots.
Using the “Park Mobile” program, the council said it would bring in new revenue that could be used for improving downtown Abilene.
The council also discussed the street maintenance plans.
“If there’s residents out there that are saying, ‘Well my street is horrible and it’s never getting fixed,’ and complaining, complaining. What would you say to them as far as, ‘Well, come to a board meeting or email the board or continue to do See Click Fix or…?” councilmember Blaise Regan asked.
Abilene Director of Public Works, Max Johnson recommended residents use any of Regan’s suggestions and added that the city has invested $140 million on streets and improved 29% of roads.
Johnson also stated that multiple street projects have already been approved for 2025:
- Rebecca Lane
- South 14th St.
- North 18th St.
- Lytle Estates
- CW Gill Park area
There are also multiple streets under consideration for next year’s projects.
A complete rehabilitation of Lake Fort Phantom’s northwest and southeast boat ramps were also discussed during the retreat.
“This is the first step and it takes a lot of the elements that were already proposed, not quite to the level of what the masterplan was, but fixing the boat rams, fixing the parking, adding lighting, adding restrooms, adding boat slips. That is all within the master plan,” said Leslie Andrews, Director of Parks and Recreation.
Andrews said the asphalt by both ramps are very worn down and in need of repair.
For a full rehabilitation of the northwest ramp, it would cost around $2.3 million and the southeast rehabilitation would cost around $1.9 million. The City is looking into applying for some grants to help fund these projects.
Other items discussed in the retreat include the Abilene Airport Terminal Expansion Project, improvements for the Convention Center, and various water infrastructure updates.
None of these topics were voted on or finalized.