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Ingleside officials ask port for $5 million
CORPUS CHRISTI Ingleside’s city manager asked Port of Corpus Christi officials for $5 million to help offset the infrastructure expenses his city will face as the port redevelops Naval Station Ingleside.
On Tuesday, City Manager Jim Gray told port commissioners it was important for them to understand the need for a new wastewater treatment plant and an industrial corridor before they sell or lease the property. The port will take over the base property at the end of this month. The base fell victim to military cutbacks.
John LaRue, the port’s executive director, said he would evaluate the Ingleside request and discuss it with the commission. Attempts to reach port Chairman Mike Carrell were unsuccessful.
“About 90 percent of Ingleside’s industrial force resides outside Ingleside,” Gray said. “You might say Ingleside’s just asking for money and we are. But we feel this is a regional issue.”
A workforce that resides within the community pays property taxes and helps lower water and sewer rates, Gray said. Municipalities receive franchise taxes from services such as electricity, natural gas and cable television.
“These are the revenue streams a municipality relies on to fund all city services,” he said. “When a workforce works in a community and then leaves at the end of the day these revenues are taken to the community they reside in. This forces higher utility rates and higher property taxes on residents of the community. “
A transient workforce is not unique to Ingleside, said Larry Demieville, business development director for Workforce Solutions of the Coastal Bend. But Ingleside has a special need because of the impact of the base closure. About 70 percent of working residents of San Patricio County work outside the county, he added.
“We cannot and should not speculate on how the transient workforce affects Ingleside,” Demieville said. “Whether that is the responsibility of the adjacent counties and their institutions is a subject left up to those with authority to make those decisions.”
Gray asked the port to implement a $5 million up-front payment, or impact fee. The payment could be made incrementally, not to exceed three years, he added.
The money would help with the design and engineering of a new, 2-million-gallons-a-day wastewater treatment plant, estimated at $13.8 million.
Gray said another consideration is a multimillion-dollar funding opportunity through the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The estimated $4 million up for grabs would come as a 35 percent grant and a 65 percent loan, Gray said. The department requires up-front money and the application must be submitted by December, he added.
Part of the $5 million request also would fund the design and engineering of a proposed $23 million industrial corridor that would route State Highway 361 traffic around the bulk of the city and connect on the outskirts with Farm-to-Market 1069, which leads to the base property. The goal is to offer heavy trucks a safe route without having to travel through the congested intersection of the highway and Main Street.
“The city has an annual budget of $10 million,” Gray said. “There’s no way we could do this on our own. These are two projects that would have a regional impact.”
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