Within the past year, a second drive-through lane has been added to the El Dorado Water Utilities to help alleviate traffic backups and improve efficiency for customers who use the drive-through service to pay their monthly bills.
Now, the EWU and Department of Public Works are looking to ease parking issues at their offices, which are adjacent to each other on North Washington Avenue.
The El Dorado City Council has given the go-ahead for Robert Edmonds, director of public works, to begin negotiations to purchase property across from the EWU office and existing parking lot.
During an El Dorado Water and Public Works Board meeting earlier this month, Edmonds told city officials that the corner lot that is located at the intersection of McKinney Court Avenue and Church Street recently went up for sale.
"I'd like approval to negotiate a deal to purchase that property," Edmonds asked, adding, "I just think that could be additional parking for the (water) utility or public works."
In 2021, the city purchased property next door to the EWU for $150,000.
A portion of the property was used for the expansion of the EWU drive-through service and the Department of Public Works later moved from City Hall into an office building that sat on the property.
The city initially sought to purchase a strip of land just north of the EWU office to build a second drive-through lane -- work that entailed a new lane with a pneumonic tube and a payment drawer for the existing lane/window.
However, Edmonds said the property owner preferred to sell the entire piece of land, which included the office building.
On April 12, Council Member Judy Ward noted an abandoned, derelict house sits on the 0.13-acre lot on McKinney Court.
The house is 970 square feet.
Edmonds said he will consider the asking price or the appraised value -- information he did not yet have.
Council Member Frank Hash asked if there was money in the EWU budget for the capital expenditure and Edmonds said he thought the purchase could be split between the EWU and the DPW.
Edmonds also told the water and public works board that bid invitations should be ready to advertise this month for a long-running effort to build a new storage shed/workshop for Lions Club Municipal Golf Course.
Plans for the shed/workshop have been nearly four years in the making.
Ken Goudy, chairman of the El Dorado Parks and Playgrounds Commission, broached the topic in September of 2019, saying that LCMGC manager Danny Carelock had expressed the need for a shed to safely store chemicals -- a requirement by the state -- and a workshop where LCMGC employees can repair equipment in a secure area.
Carelock had provided an estimate of $15,000 - $20,000 for a 32 x 30-square-foot building.
"The one that's there now is falling down and it's not secure. So, it's going to cost that much to do that and to do it right," Goudy said at the time.
In December of 2019, Edmonds said the project would cost $30,000.
Weeks later, city officials agreed to suspend some city projects to assess how the COVID-19 pandemic would affect the city's budget and the storage shed/workshop was among the projects that were put on hold.
Edmonds told city officials in December of 2022 that the $30,000 bid for the shed came in prior to the COVID-19 outbreak and the project would have to be rebid.
He had said weeks earlier that bids were advertised last summer but none were submitted.
The bid specifications have been retooled and Edmonds said the project is expected to be advertised this month and the bid opening held three weeks later.