by Michael Robinson | Uvalde Hesperian

05-12-25

Diana Olvedo-Karau spoke at the Monday, May 12th, 2025 Uvalde County Commissioners Court criticizing the Uvalde County Auditor for not providing public records she had requested two months ago pertaining to the Uvalde Together Resiliency Center’s full budget.

She also asked why the decision was made to change certain Uvalde County Road Department employee’s compensation on a salaried basis vs. hourly pay. According to Karau, salaried employees would not receive overtime pay. She claimed she had talked to some road department employees, and they preferred to be paid on an hourly basis.

Karau also asked the court why county offices staffed with more than one employee would close during the noon to one lunch hour vs. leaving the office open during that hour and staggering employee’s scheduled lunch times allowing citizens better access to those services.

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by Michael Robinson | Uvalde Hesperian

Top Image by Manfred Richter from Pixabay

04-29-25

Uvalde County Road Administrator Dee Kirkpatrick reported to the Uvalde County Commissioners Court on Monday, April 28th three county road crossings have been washed out due to recent flooding. including low water crossings on CR410, CR412 and CR416.

He went on to say the department would be working on CR416 and it would take 3 days to repair each crossing.

Kirkpatrick also reported the county road department picked up illegally dumped tires on several county roads including CR301, CR302, CR307, CR310, CR319, CR371, and CR416.

 

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The Texas Pace Program, if approved by the County, would create am option for property owners to finance improvements—like energy-efficient HVAC systems, solar panels, and water conservation measures

by Michael Robinson |Uvalde Hesperian

Top Photo: File Photo from the Uvalde County Commissioners Court

04-14-25

Texas PACE Authority President Charlene Heydinger presented an overview of the Texas PACE Program to the Uvalde County Commissioner’s Court this morning on Monday, April 14th, 2025.

“There are no taxpayer dollars involved. It’s completely voluntary,” Heydinger said.

The problem we are trying to solve is the equipment that makes property more energy efficient or more importantly saves water, is very expensive and has a long return on investment.   So, if you are going to put a new roof on a building and it’s not going to break even in 10 years and the bank wants it paid back in 5… There is a cash flow problem,” she said.

 According to Heydinger, the program applied to business, commercial property and residential property for multi-family use.

 Texas PACE Authority Wins Approval to Provide Financing for HUD and FHA Multi-Family Projects in Texas – Texas PACE Authority

The article states: “Approved by the state legislature in 2015, and established by 83 local governments, the Texas PACE Authority’s programs enable building owners to lower their operating costs and use the savings to pay for eligible water conservation, energy efficiency, resiliency, and distributed generation projects. Owners gain access to private, affordable, long-term (typically 10-20 years) financing that is not available through traditional funding avenues.

Since 2013, the Texas PACE Authority helped mobilize more than $362 million of PACE financing for energy and water efficiency projects across Texas. More than a third of that amount, over $125 million, was used for multifamily properties. Many of these projects also received historic tax credits and other incentives.

With additional energy efficiency tax deductions offered under the Inflation Reduction Act and other federal incentives also on the table, Heydinger said the addition of PACE for HUD and FHA multifamily properties “will be a much-needed game changer for scaling efficiency efforts in affordable housing in Texas.”

Heydinger’s delivered an informational overview of the Texas PACE Program and no vote was taken at today’s Uvalde County Commissioners Court.

STEPS for Local governments to establish a PACE Program:

from How-to Create a TX-PACE Region:
A Guide for Local Government see full .pdf below:

Within those three steps, referenced in Figure 5, there are four items in the Adoption step that
the PACE Act requires a local government to complete in prescribed order to establish a PACE
program:

1. Initiation
2. Preliminary region development including concept socialization and recruitment of key program
   participants
3. Adoption (requirements)
4. Publish a report and make it available for public inspection
   3. Adopt a Resolution of Intent to create a program
   4. Hold a public hearing
   5. Adopt a resolution establishing the program
5. Implementation
6. Establish program administration

pace-guide

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Michael Robinson |Uvalde Hesperian

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