Lake Dunlap Election Update
October 27, 2020
It's Countdown Tuesday! Just 7 days till November 3rd ...
Dear Neighbors.
Wow!! It is hard to believe we're down to the final week! There is a lot going on as we round this final turn, and if you have not already voted, we encourage you to take advantage of in-person early voting if you can. It continues through 7:00 pm Friday.
Now, let's get into it!
The Construction Bids are in!!
As we announced a few weeks ago, GBRA has been in the process of soliciting bids from major construction companies to do the work required to restore our dam. At 2:00 pm today, GBRA opened the construction bids for our dam!
The bids range from $32.4 million to $35.7 million, all of them from really capable construction firms. Those numbers are definitely in line with our projections of cost, and even a bit better!
The bidders, Thalle Construction Company, Zachary Construction, and Archer Western Construction, all enjoy highly regarded reputations for being up to the kind of difficult work our dam is going to require. Of course, these bids are contingent on us bringing home the election — but it's great to finally have hard numbers for the final unknown in our tax calculations.
Along with the outstanding news we got last week about receiving approval for a zero-percent loan to cover the cost of construction, now we have hard data to back up our estimates for the tax rate. Even the high bid will still allow us to keep the tax rate at or below 20 cents per $100 valuation. If the lowest bid wins the contract, it could be even lower, but I can say with confidence that it will not be higher - we have everything we need, save one crucial thing! And if you have not yet voted, well — that's you!
We need everyone who has not yet cast their vote to make a plan to do so, and to vote FOR Props A, B, and C!
While we're working hard here at the campaign to get out the vote this final week, a team composed of engineers and other experts from GBRA and the WCID will be reviewing the bids over the next couple of weeks and ranking each company against a range of factors — one of which is how soon the water can come back up! We could see construction start as early as January, folks! This is a really big deal!
Early voting continues thru 7 pm Friday!
New Campaign Video!
We know we are getting close because the final video of the campaign is ready! This one outlines the arc of our common story — the reasons we want this plan to pass, what the plan will do, how to vote — and most importantly, why we need all of us to vote!
It's 90 seconds of pure Lake Dunlap love. Enjoy! And please share like crazy!! Believe it or not, there are still people who haven't voted!
New Video: "Vote. Vote! Vote Now!"
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIyRd6v3mQnUDNuROWSkCiQ
Early Voting ends Friday at 7pm!
We've had a great turnout for early voting overall, and ten more days remain! As of the close of polls yesterday, we had 604 of our 1162 registered voters vote early — that is a whopping 52% turnout so far!
In Guadalupe County, our turnout has been nearly 63%; in Comal County, we are at just under 40% for turnout.
These are GREAT numbers! Any registered voter (including children of voting age and tenants) that is registered at an address within the new WCID will be able to vote on the approval of the District, the associated propositions, and the board of directors. (The rule of thumb is that if the property touches the lake it is in the District; if it doesn't, it is not).
Campaign Update
Since last week, we have made even more progress working to reach voters in Comal County. A lot has been going on, including what we are calling the Hot Dog Polls held at both Westshore Colony and at Hawthorne Riverside. We had a couple of amazing gourmet hot dog vendors on site serving up free dogs in exchange for registered voters at the apartments sharing how they voted on props A, B, and C.
The results were hard to misinterpret — we were able to talk to 25% of the registered voters at each complex and 100% of those samples voted FOR! FOR! FOR! Seriously. 100%! We have one more polling event on Wednesday and we hope to confirm those really good numbers with a different sample of Comal County voters.
If you have already voted, thank you. If you are planning to vote either in early voting or on the 3rd, please snap a selfie and post it to one of the Lake Dunlap Facebook groups!
Bottom Line: If you haven't yet voted, please go vote, and vote early if you can!
If you have voted, thank you!! Let's win this!!
Notes on the McQueeney and Lake Placid WCID elections
We got some questions yesterday after KENS 5 aired a nice piece about the McQueeney WCID election. In case others are wondering, each of the three upper lakes has created their own WCID, with Lakes McQueeney and Placid following plans very similar to those Dunlap developed for our dam. The Districts are separate entities and do not physically overlap at all.
Each plan is based on the same idea we had, which is to ask the waterfront owners to tax themselves to pay for the reconstruction. To be clear though, when we vote here, we just are voting for our dam, and when the folks downstream vote, they are only voting for their own dams. While the propositions sound similar (they also are voting A, B, and C!) because we are all WCIDs, the projects are all a bit different and all are independent of each other.
That said, let's all wish them well on election day too! No one knows better than us that having your dam fail is a terrible thing!
That's it for now! Stay tuned — please go vote, and vote early if you can!
Sincerely,
Dr. Larry Johnson
Vote ABC! Vote the Slate!
Vote Early!
Five clear benefits of restoring our lake
Clean, safe, and fun year-round recreation opportunities for everyone.
Restored economic vitality for property owners and local businesses
A safe, affordable, modern dam that will last for generations to come.
Ecologically sound habitats for all our lake residents, including our fish and wildlife
Enough clean, renewable hydroelectric energy to supply over 1,500 homes