On Dec. 20, 2022, Comal County commissioners unanimously redirected $8 million in federal recovery money and $1.2 million in unused salary funding toward the Goodwin Annex, bringing the project’s stated allocation to about $27.2 million. The Dec. 20, 2022 minutes record the unanimous vote.
The vote kept the mental-health treatment facility moving outside the federal recovery-fund plan while concentrating about $27.2 million on the Goodwin Annex and public-health/emergency-management facility.
County staff said the facilities had been budgeted at $350 per square foot, above an earlier consultant estimate of $275, before architect and pricing-consultant figures reached $650 per square foot. The $650 figure included contingency and carrying costs for about a year; competitive bids still had to establish the market price.
The $8 million had been assigned to the mental-health project under the American Rescue Plan Act. Moving that project outside the federal-funding plan made the money available for the Goodwin work. Commissioners also moved $1.2 million left from budgeted project-manager, senior-buyer and attorney salaries. The minutes said a little more than $200,000 had already been paid to architects for the mental-health facility’s design.
Seven Other Recorded Actions
The court unanimously approved the claims presented for payment. The court unanimously raised the daily Hays County jail-housing rate from $85 to $100. Hays County had already executed that amendment, according to the outcome record.
The court unanimously approved a payroll, accounting and internal-audit services agreement with the Third Administrative Judicial Region of Texas for indigent-defense work. The court unanimously approved public-official bonds for 12 listed county and judicial offices.
The court unanimously moved Elections money from office supplies to overtime for the remainder of 2022. The court unanimously moved jail money from hourly personnel to utilities to cover the final 2022 utility cost.
After a closed session on economic-development and legal matters, the court recorded that no action was needed. The official agenda explains the authorized executive-session subjects considered that day.
What the 2022 Plan Called for Next
The county planned competitive sealed bids for the facilities and left later budget savings or a 2024 appropriation as possible ways to finish funding the mental-health project. Those were the next steps described in the 2022 record, not a statement of either project’s present status.
Comal.News later tracked the mental-health facility as a separate construction project. That follow-up provides another point on the project timeline; the December 2022 minutes remain the source for this funding decision.
Later budgets, bid awards and contracts are needed to trace the projects from that funding vote to their final scope and cost. Readers can inspect the full meeting minutes for the recorded discussion and votes, and the meeting agenda for the original list of proposed actions.