Council votes to remove highway marker

After an hour of discussion ranging from the effect of Confederate monuments on black Elginites to the city’s authority in the state’s jurisdiction, the Elgin City Council passed a motion by one vote to remove the highway marker at Taylor Road and Main Street bearing the name of Confederate president Jefferson Davis.

The highway marker was first brought to the council’s and the community’s attention by citizen Randy Krapf during a previous meeting on September 3. During the following meeting on September 17, nine people spoke during public comment regarding the marker, many of which asked the city to move or remove it.

The marker appears to have been erected in 1937 to designate a piece of the Jefferson Davis Highway, a planned roadway stretching from Virginia to California that was sponsored by the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) in the early 20th century. The marker is within the right-of-way of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), but they have given the City of Elgin permission to remove it if they wish.

During this meeting, a total of six people addressed the council during public comment.

Martha Hartzog, representing the Texas division of the UDC, said Davis was chosen not only because he was the president of the Confederacy, but because of his other military and political activity. She also asks that the Texas UDC be consulted if the city council decides to remove the monument.

Barbara King said she believes the monument should be removed because it “represents a history of hate, division and white supremacy, and is setting a bad example for all of our children.”

“I know removing this monument won’t change the hate in people’s hearts; only God can do that,” King said. “But by removing this symbol, you will make a bold statement.”

Cristin Embree, a local archeologist who spoke at the previous meeting, encouraged the council to have more open public meetings to gather feedback from the community.

Embree found the original 1937 article in the Elgin Courier about the placement of the marker and noted it had nothing to do with honoring fallen Confederate soldiers and veterans, but with preserving and honoring Davis as a soldier and leader who openly believed black people are inferior. As a result, she suggested instead of removing the marker, the city interpret it by providing its history.

William Russell said Elgin is “too small to be racist,” and he has seen much racism in the past in Bastrop County.

“I figured in this little town here, we can all come together,” he said. “That marker needs to go. … We can do it together, we don’t need to fight against each other about this marker.”

Gwendolyn Johnson, president of the Elgin branch of the NAACP, had written a letter to the council on behalf of the organization and addressed the council regarding the letter. The NAACP feels such markers serve as an inspiration for hate groups.

“The Elgin NAACP is asking the City of Elgin to divorce itself from this racist past and remove symbols that terrorize African-Americans and people of color,” she said.

Council member Forest Dennis, while saying there may be merits on both sides of the argument, the council’s job is to “uphold law where (the city) has jurisdiction.” He said he does not think the city should be the entity to handle this situation since it is in TxDOT’s jurisdiction.

“The state is always hard and fast on everything that goes on in their right-of-way, except for this,” Dennis said. “Because this seems to be a controversial issue, it seems like they’ve thrown up their hands and said, ‘We’re going to let the city handle this.’”

Later in the meeting, council member Daniel Lopez expressed a similar concern. He said he isn’t saying the marker shouldn’t be removed, but that the city should go through the proper channels; additionally, he was concerned that letting the city work in TxDOT’s right-of-way in this situation could set a precedent for the city to get involved in other TxDOT rights-of-way.

Council member Sue Brashar agreed with Dennis; she also emphasized that the city should listen to both sides of the arguments, as citizens of Elgin fall on both sides of the argument.

“I think in Elgin there a few who (are racist), but there are a lot of us who love everybody,” she said. “What happened in (1937), I can’t control. I don’t think that way, and I don’t ever want to be put in that category. But I think we have to see both sides.”

Penson pointed out that, since the Jefferson Davis highway was never completed, the marker isn’t designating any official road, and she said as a result, it’s not representing any history except for a past of hate and white supremacy.

“All it boils down to is this Jefferson Davis highway marker is not marking a highway, so it should be removed,” Penson said.

“At the time this marker was placed, it was placed to impress upon blacks that they were inferior to whites,” she added later in the meeting.

Mayor Chris Cannon suggested allowing another monument to be constructed nearby, such as one celebrating Juneteenth or Martin Luther King Jr., to show the progression of Elgin.

Penson made a motion to remove the marker, seconded by Gonzales. Next, Dennis made a motion, seconded by Lopez, to not take any action and refer the matter to the state level since the marker is in Tx-DOT’s right-of-way. In the event the first motion does not pass, the second motion would be voted on.

Penson, Bega, Arreaga and Gonzalez voted yes on the first motion, while Lopez, Jones, Dennis and Brashar voted no. As Penson brought the motion, Cannon was the last to vote, and after a pause, broke the tie with a “yes.”

As he left the council chambers following the vote, Don Cyphers, one of the citizens who spoke at public comment, said, “You’ve got guts, Mayor.”

Highway 290 toll road extension discussed

Citing traffic problems, the council passed a resolution in support of a Highway 290 toll road extension through Manor.

City manager Thomas Mattis said the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA) reached out to Elgin and Manor regarding this potential project. The project would extend the toll road through Manor to FM 973 between Manor and Elgin. This would help commuters between Austin and Elgin and beyond since much of the worst congestion between Austin and Elgin occurs in Manor past the end of the toll road near Parmer Lane.

“We’re philosophically in support of them extending the toll road,” Mattis said. “This is our way of stepping up and saying we’d like to see it happen.”

The resolution does not commit Elgin to any financial commitment for such a project.

CTRMA gave a presentation on October 28 to the Bastrop County Commissioners Court, and they also reached out to the City of Manor.

During their October 16 meeting, the Manor City Council also passed a resolution in support of the toll road extension. According to background information in the executive summary in that meeting’s agenda packet, Manor citizens expressed protests for toll roads in general several years ago, although the city was in favor of the tollway.

Annexation, zoning tabled for new subdivision

The council tabled action for a new subdivision on FM 1100 near County Line Road.

Stone Creek Ranch is a proposed residential development that would put 289 single-family homes on about 69 acres of land. The land would be voluntarily annexed, and the developers were requesting that the land be zoned as an R-3 single-family, two-family and industrial housing district.

This type of zoning would allow for mobile and manufactured home parks; because of this, Cannon said he was hesitant to approve the R-3 zoning, since if the developers decide not to build the houses and sell the land, it would allow for a mobile home park. He offered the alternative of asking the developers to come back with an agreement for a planned development district to detail exactly what the project would be.

In order to keep all of the action items together as one package, the council agreed to table all items related to Stone Creek Ranch and let the developers bring back a planned development district agreement at a following meeting.

Sales tax agreement with Brickston approved

The council approved a strategic partnership agreement with the Brickston Municipal Utility District to allow the city to collect sales tax from a strip of commercial land within the planned community through a limited annexation arrangement.

Brickston is a 2,500-home residential development that will be located on Highway 290 west of Elgin in its extraterritorial jurisdiction. The development includes 22 acres along Highway 290 designated for commercial and retail use. The agreement would partially annex this land for the purposes of sales tax collection by the City of Elgin.

Before the action item was voted on, the council held the second of two public hearings for the agreement.

Abandoned vehicle initiative continues

Mattis also offered an update on the city’s recent enforcement initiative to enforce the ordinances regarding abandoned and junked vehicles in the city.

The city code defines junked vehicles, or a motor vehicle that is wrecked, dismantled or discarded or has remained inoperable for more than 72 hours on public property or 30 days on private property, as a public nuisance and prohibits them from being in public view. The city, through Elgin Police Department and the code enforcement department, have been working on more thoroughly enforcing the existing ordinances since this spring.

Since the initiative began in May, 168 notices of violation have been issued, 20 abandoned vehicles have been found, 28 vehicles have been towed, 192 vehicles have been voluntarily brought into compliance or moved from the property, and 87 warning citations and 114 citations have been issued for illegal parking.

Mattis emphasized the high number of voluntary compliances and the low number of vehicles that have been towed.

“The vast majority of them—192 vehicles—have been into compliance voluntarily,” he said. “The vast majority of folks in town want to comply with the law.”

Police and code enforcement are currently working on the south side of Elgin, with one more patrol district remaining to target.