CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Mayor Paulette Guajardo joined KRIS 6 News at Noon Thursday in her weekly session answering questions about the daily operations of our city.
Guajardo met with KRIS 6 Noon Anchor Paulo Salazar to discuss the public commentary at Tuesday’s City Council meeting about the controversial desalination plant.
Guajardo described where we stand on the desal question. .
"We are looking at desalination as we've been for the last several terms in regards to why do we need desalination, where is it going to be, how do we get to it and how do we do it responsibly, affordably, and taking care of the environment at the same time,” Guajardo said.
Corpus Christi is a booming town and we're going to need a water source that's reliable moving into the future and that's why desal has been brought up. Guajardo describes how she is trying to convince the public that may not be on board with the project about the benefits of desalination.
"Educating people we are the regional water supplier for 500,000 people, it’s not just about Corpus Christi but half a million people we're suppliers of water to,” she said. “That's a huge responsibility and something we've been talking about for years. So we had to educate people and we take water for granted."
Another item that came up during the council meeting was storm drainage fees. Guajardo describes how the proposal came about and translated into dollars for households and how the city comes up with the fee.
"The stormwater initiative has everything to do with equity and being equitable across the city in terms of what you're paying,” Guajardo said. “Right now, you pay one fee but you don't know what is water and what a stormwater.
“So. we're basically going to pull the stormwater out of your bill and you'll receive a bill that says water X amount and stormwater X amount. What that will be $6.12 so your water bill will decrease by $6.12 and you'll see another line that says $6.12 so it's basically a net zero.”
Guajardo will continue her visits with us next week.
If you have any questions you’d like for the mayor to discuss, please send them to us and we’ll ask her in upcoming sessions with her.
