Karnes City leaders are looking to get financial assistance from the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) and may seek the taxpayers’ help in obtaining it.

The project is geared toward a massive overhaul of a water system Karnes City Administrator Larry Pippen has called grossly outdated and in major need of repairs and upgrades.

Most water lines in town are four inches or less, and in a city wanting economic growth, the infrastructure just isn’t there to support it, Pippen said. The current system handles the current demand, but water leaks are frequent, costly, and draining on the utility department’s manpower resources.

The upgrade Pippen is proposing will put six- and eight-inch water lines in certain areas of Karnes City and will upgrade the system as a whole. It will cost around $3.6 million to get done.

Pippen said the city is currently in a great financial position. The general fund that was at a negative balance just a year ago now sits at a surplus for 2006.

"We’ve had a very successful fiscal year," Pippen told council members during the city’s December 19 council meeting.

The loan from the Texas Water Development Board is a special, low-interest loan that will be paid back over a 30-year period. Council voted unanimously during the meeting to apply for the financial assistance.

The next step will be waiting and seeing what TWDB decides, but Pippen said he’s confident the city will get an interest rate no larger than 2.95 percent.

Earlier in the meeting, council members also agreed to abandon city property to allow a local church room to grow.

The decision came after hearing from Karnes City United Methodist Church Pastor Ken Houston, who said the church has been dealing with the blessing of growth and is working on expansion.

Needing room to do so, Houston requested council members sell them 20 feet of a city alley between the church and the school. He said the church was more than willing to pay fair market value for the property.

"I have no problem abandoning it because we are not using it," Mayor Don Tymrak said.

Pippen told council members there were no utilities running through the property, to the best of his knowledge.

Council members voted unanimously to abandon the property and a proposal to sell the needed space to the Methodist church will be on the agenda in January.