Coppell City Council approves deceleration lane, discusses re-allocation of ARPA funds

Coppell Gazette
By Arianna Morrison | Star Local Media
October 12, 2022

The City of Coppell held its bi-monthly city council meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 11 where the council discussed adding a deceleration lane in a construction zone, heard a funding update on the American Rescue Plan Act, and conducted several proclamations. 

During the council’s work session, Kent Collins, Coppell Director of Public Works, presented a memo proposing a deceleration lane at SH 121 Frontage Road and East Lake Drive. With the addition of a deceleration lane, Collins said it would be possible to prevent crashes in the area.

“The accidents at this intersection are happening because people are slowing down to turn right and then they’re rear-ending vehicles that don’t slow down,” Collins said. 

There is already a deceleration lane on Westhaven Road, but staff is requesting an additional deceleration lane on East Lake Drive. 

The estimated cost for the deceleration lane is $250,000, which includes design and permitting. There are two options that the city can take — request from TxDOT, which has an estimated 3- to 5-year implementation time frame, or design and construct the lane locally, which has a one-year implementation time frame.

The council recommended staff move forward with the project and work with TxDOT to implement not only the deceleration lane, but prevent excessive merging from 121 all the way over to the right lane. 

Another item in the work session was a funding update on the American Rescue Plan Act or ARPA. Part of ARPA’s funding comes from business assistance grants and this year it includes the Coppell Business Rent/Mortgage Assistance Grant Program and the Coppell Business Revenue Recovery Assistance Grant Program. City council dedicated $2.75 million to these programs to aid businesses in Coppell. 

Several businesses in Coppell are still struggling due to COVID-19 and part of the Coppell Business Rent/Mortgage Assistance Grant Program is to assist small businesses for this reason. For this specific program, $650,000 was dedicated from ARPA funds. The need for assistance was so high that the city council dedicated an additional $1.8 million to this grant program at a previous meeting earlier this year. 

The Coppell Business Revenue Recovery Assistance Grant is for small businesses that rely on drive-by traffic and drop-in customers located on S. Belt Line Road who were negatively affected by the ongoing reconstruction. City Council dedicated $300,000 to this program to help small businesses in the area. 

During the work session on Tuesday, the city council decided to revisit allocated funds for a later date. 

Moving into the regular session, there were several proclamations to begin the evening. The Mayor named the month of October as “Fire Prevention Month,” “National Breast Cancer Awareness Month,” and designated Oct. 11, 2022 as “Bishop Dr. Theodosius Mar Thoma Day.” 

Bishop Dr. Theodosius Mar Thoma is the 22nd Malankara Metropolitan to occupy the Holy Apostolic Throne of St. Thomas.

The consent agenda items were previously approved and only two items were pulled from the agenda, which were item B and H. 

Item B was for the consideration of approval to amend the Code of Ordinances by repealing Section 6-15-7, which is "political signs and polling places." Staff recommended to provide a severability cause and provide an effective date and authorize the mayor to sign. 

As written, the motion for Item B carried 4-2. 

Item H was for the consideration of approval to award RFP #190 for the annual Holiday Lights Program to Premier Lighting Enterprises, LLC in the amount of $240,608.00 as budgeted. In previous years, the budgeted amount was under $200,000, but because of facilities’ combination with the parks and recreation department, the city has increased the amount.

As written, the motion for Item H carried unanimously. 

The rest of the items on the consent agenda were approved unanimously.