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Jim Wallingsford drove his white Chevy truck one morning last month down North Walnut Street in Lacy Lakeview, dodging potholes on his way to inspect a repair project on a sewer lift station.
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As public works director for this Waco suburb of 8,000 residents, Wallingsford is always triaging the city’s needs: Cracked and cratered streets, aging pipes and pump stations and the old water tower, which needs a $1 million facelift.
“I want to be a good steward of the City of Lacy Lakeview with the money I’m given to spend,” he said. “So I give everything a weighted scale and I base it off of the likelihood and consequences of failure.”
Lacy Lakeview, population 8,000, is typical of many small Texas towns that lack the resources to keep up with streets and pipes that are wearing out. Most of that infrastructure in Lacy Lakeview was installed more than 50 years ago. And the longer maintenance is deferred, the faster it deteriorates.
Mayor Chuck Wilson has pointed to the city’s maintenance backlog to justify the pursuit of a data center. He wants to partner with Infrakey to develop and annex a proposed $10 billion data center north of town near Ross.
That development represents tax base that would increase Lacy Lakeview’s tax base enough to increase city tax revenues from $6.5 million to $50 million a year. But the project has drawn a backlash from neighbors of the Infrakey site, as well as from some Lacy Lakeview residents, who just elected data center opponent Amy Gage to the City Council.
As Wallingsford sees it, the city needs new development, or the existing taxpayer and utility ratepayers will be on the hook for improvements.
“Everything that we purchase is going up, literally,” he said. “The only other solution is that we have to have a rate increase just to be able to keep up.”
Wallingsford stopped his truck at the Meyers water pump station, which was under repair after it was observed to be leaking.
“The consequence of them failing is pretty high but their issues aren’t critical and they continue to operate,” he said. “The city only needs one pump to operate and we have three, so there’s a backup.
“At the end of the day when something fails, we go back and work off of the plan.”
Wallingsford, a former city of Waco staffer, said utility infrastructure like this typically has a 50-year lifespan, and the ideal practice in public works is to set aside 2% of the system’s cost each year for replacement.
“I haven’t worked for a city that’s ever done that,” he said.
Even more visible is the wear and tear on Lacy Lakeview’s 30 miles of city streets. Asked which ones need to be repaved, he didn’t hesitate.
“All of them,” he said. “They all need to be done. I’d say we have about 15 critical streets” that need to be repaved.
The city is now repairing and reconstructing streets using a $9.5 million bond issue that voters approved in 2024. To save money, the city is using its own workers and equipment to grind up and recycle pavement, which is then compacted and resealed.
Among the most critical projects is Walnut Street, which is being reconstructed along with replacement of water, sewer, fiber optic and gas utilities under the street. That project is to be completed in February 2027.
This article first appeared on The Waco Bridge.