12/07/2024
AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM OUR WCID:
July 11, 2024
Dear Neighbors & District Members,
It’s hard to believe we are now more than five years into this effort. Now that the lake is restored, the Board is turning its attention to ensuring our lake’s future extends for generations. As we do this work, we intend to provide our District members an ongoing stream of accurate, timely, and transparent information about what is happening and what is planned or being planned — and to do the same for each other. These are values that every member of your board has committed to, both personally and as the board as a whole.
So, let’s dig into what happened since the last Board meeting in May!!
Lake Dunlap WCID and GBRA meeting
Directors Harmon and Johnson met with representatives of GBRA on July 1, 2024 in their new capacities as President and Vice-President, respectively. The meeting focused mostly on ensuring communication channels between these organizations remain open and transparent, clarifying points of contact, and other transition-related matters.
As part of those discussions, GBRA and the LDWCID reached a mutual understanding on the WCID’s authority in regards to Lake Dunlap versus GBRA’s authority, and in particular they agreed that GBRA is responsible for regulating the waterway and making decisions related to its use. The WCID’s role in the post-construction era is limited to monitoring the repayment of the monies that rebuilt the dam, ensuring that taxes stay as low as possible, ensuring that our maintenance and capital repair funds are adequately funded, and working with GBRA to ensure that the dam is operated and maintained in a safe and efficient manner.
In the meeting, Harmon and Johnson conveyed that the WCID’s attorney had carefully reviewed the powers our WCID has, and in his legal opinion, given its clear foundational purposes related exclusively to the dam, the Lake Dunlap WCID has no power, advisory or otherwise, to regulate a state-owned waterway. Previous communications to members of our community from other entities that may have implied otherwise are not binding on the WCID.
In response to concerns expressed by some members of the Lake Dunlap community about the level of the lake, GBRA noted it publicly reported that Lake Dunlap returned to full pool level, equivalent to permitted levels and the official lake level before the failure, on October 31, 2023. Their official position is that the lake is full and the dam is operating normally.
July 9th Meeting
The board held a special meeting on July 9, 2024 to hear public comments and take action on a number of items. The notable parts of the meeting are detailed below.
Public Comments. Community members Marc and Kate Villanueva, John and Brenda Blount, Barney Randal (representing April Graupner), and Cindy Brewer (representing the Courtyard Marriott and the Springhill Suites, which are owned by the same company), presented a proposal they have to extend the no-wake zone by installing four additional no-wake buoys at the upper end of Lake Dunlap.
The district members attending all own property or work for businesses that own property located in the area affected by the proposal, which they are making in the interests of public safety. They wished to communicate to the WCID that the high increase in boat traffic due to Lake Dunlap being the only currently accessible lake has made that part of the lake subject to unprecedented shore damage and difficulties in making passage through that narrow area, to the point that they are concerned for the public welfare.
Given the recent agreement between the Lake Dunlap WCID and GBRA that clarified which organization has responsibility and authority for regulating the waterway, and that GBRA had shared a suggested approach that the residents could use to make their case. Director Johnson shared what the GBRA told them was needed from the residents and property owners for it to address this proposal. Director Harmon recommended that the group reach out to GBRA to clarify what they needed to do as their best next step, and thanked them for sharing their concerns.
Report on Tax Collections.Director Hills met with the Guadalupe County Tax office to learn more about the collection rates for property taxes, which in the first year is usually only about 95%. The good news is that the trend for tax collections over the following 1-2 years increases the collection rate to about 98.5%. Eventually, the appraisal district aims to collect virtually 100% of what is owed. This is very good news, and we are working on developing models for this to allow us to maximize the impact of tax collections, which benefits everyone and helps to keep our tax rates as low as they are now.
Reconciliation of Dam Costs. Director Schaub presented the reconciliation of all the information we have to calculate the precise cost of our new dam. The final cost of the dam was $37,451,714. The full reconciliation can be downloaded here.
Discussion of a proposed tax rate for the 2024 tax year. Issues with the implementation of a new state property tax law and its software implementation have delayed the reporting of district valuations all over the state. We expect to have our district valuation data by the end of July, and will bring those back to the district at our August budget and tax planning meeting.
Second Annual Bond Payment. The funds are in place to cover our second annual bond payment, which will happen early in August, if not sooner. The fiscal year-end projection is that we will be under the established floor for Hydro revenue, so under our contract with them, GBRA has advanced us additional funds so that they are contributing the minimum $500,000 towards the debt service for the year as agreed.
Under the terms of the contract, the difference between the actual hydro revenue for the year and the $500,000 minimum payment will be repaid to GBRA in future years when the Hydroelectric Fund exceeds $300,000. This clause in the contract with GBRA allows us to smooth out wet and dry years over time and ensures our debt payments will be made in a timely way.
Eighth Monthly Report on Hydroelectric Revenues. Starting last November, the WCID began receiving monthly reports on the hydroelectric revenues that come to us each month from the dam’s generating capacity. These numbers are posted on the WCID website monthly for those who are interested in the amount of revenue coming in.
Our area is currently enduring a severe drought, but the generation numbers continue to be within ranges we built the plan on. Year over year, rain totals go up and down. As we receive more rain and river flows increase, these revenues will also increase accordingly.
Currently, 100% of the hydro revenue we are producing is going toward paying off the bond debt. In most years,when we get more rain, we produce more than we need for that, but in dry years, our contract with GBRA ensures that their annual payment is always at least $500,000. This fiscal year marks the first time we have seen this aspect of the contract come into play.
The target we want to see is $50,000 or more on average per month. This year we will be short of that by about $100,000, but the “floor” provision will ensure we do not have any issues with our bond payment, which as noted above, is in the bank and scheduled to be paid in the next few weeks. This is both because our average production over these eight months has been less than $50,000/month and because there were two full months when production was minimal, as the dam was being tested ahead of completion. A good heavy rain could change things, but that is our analysis at this point.
Interesting Factoid. We are only able to produce electricity when there is a minimum flow through the canal of 160 cfs; to be able to produce all day, we would need a sustained flow of 500 cfs. Currently, with the low flow rates we have this summer, we are only producing electricity for about an hour a day, which is occurring at about 5 am.
The lake drains until we drop below the 160 cfs threshold, and then the pumphouse is on hold until we have built up enough flow to produce that again. 500 cfs is not an unusual inflow from Canyon dam and the Comal, but we’ve not seen that so far this year. If we could produce 12 hours a day on average or more, the Generation numbers would increase substantially! Pray for rain!
Other Business. The remaining items in the meeting were relatively routine, things like reports from our accountant, paying the district’s bills, and approving a procedure to more efficiently schedule and plan meetings. You can find full information on these here.
Going forward, our meetings will be held every other month, on the third Tuesday of each month at 4 pm, with an additional meeting each August to allow the Board time to discuss the budget and tax matters. The September meeting will include the formal public tax hearing required of all taxing authorities.
Meetings have moved to the Riverbend Clubhouse at River Bend Community Center 451 River Bend Dr., New Braunfels, TX 78130.
Members of this list can expect to receive a brief notice about each upcoming meeting as soon as its agenda is drafted and a detailed report after each meeting. Encourage your lakefront neighbors to sign up if they are not receiving these communications on the LakeDunlapWCID.org website!
We hope to see you at an upcoming Lake Dunlap WCID meeting!
The Board of Directors
Lake Dunlap WCID
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This message is an official communication from the Lake Dunlap WCID.
The Lake Dunlap WCID is committed to keeping District Members accurately and transparently informed about WCID business and actions in a timely fashion, and to providing timely updates on state of the dam and the lake as needed.
Copyright (C) 2024 Lake Dunlap WCID. All rights reserved.
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