Gregg County commissioners place $19M bond on November ballot to fund parking facility

Judge Bill Stoudt speaks Thursday during the Gregg County Commissioners Court meeting. Commissioners have placed a $19 million bond on the November ballot that would fund a new parking facility and office space.
Michael Cavazos/News-Journal Photos

Longview News-Journal
By Yoleyne Romero yromero@news-journal.com
March 30, 2023

Gregg County voters will decide in November whether to approve a more than $19 million bond measure to fund the construction of a 13,000-square-foot parking facility and office space in downtown Longview near the courthouse.

Commissioners held a lengthy discussion Thursday to determine the future of the  facility planned on the site of the former Regions Bank and parking lot properties at the southeast corner of Methvin and Center streets. Gregg County commissioners previously approved spending $1.2 million to purchase that property.

A previous plan presented to commissioners showed the 65-foot-tall structure would be comprised of about 300 parking spaces and an office area that would house multiple county departments, including the elections office, visitors center, veterans office and a shared space.

At their last meeting earlier in March, commissioners were shown four plans of varying sizes and costs:

Option 1 for more than $19 million would include every part of the initial plan — a 293-parking space facility with administrative offices, a campus area and more.

Option 2 at $18 million would include the same number of parking spaces, but only the veterans service office would have a space.

Option 3 at $16 million would increase the parking spaces to 321 but remove the 13,000 square feet of office space, meaning the plan is for the parking facility only.

Option 4 at about $700,000 would be for a street-level parking lot with 75 spaces and no offices.

Veterans' concerns

Before Thursday's discussion, commissioners heard from numerous veterans who expressed support and emphasized the need for relocation of the Veterans Service Office.

The current office at 1203 E. Marshall Ave was described by some of the veterans as being frequented by solicitors, homeless people and as a site for suspected drug activity.

Amanda Pellicciotti, an Army veteran, said she frequents the office with her children, who don't feel safe when going there. 

"I worry about the workers too, even when they're leaving or by themselves in the office," she told commissioners. "We definitely need to get them up out of there and in a safer place."

Angela Stagg, assistant veterans service officer, said the proposed office space at the parking facility would drastically improve the environment of the office. She said she and co-workers frequently have to lock the doors to the facility since the location is a "hotspot for ... unruly sort." 

Stagg added that staff members often escort clients to make sure they make it to their vehicles safely. 

"The new facility would not only give us security and safety, it would protect our veterans and our family members better," she said. "There would be better measures to enable us to service them without keeping our heads on a swivel and having to monitor the activity outside during work hours."

Voters will decide

County Judge Bill Stoudt stressed the impact that recent state legislation has had on the amount of revenue that cities and counties can receive from property taxes.

He said these changes and the lack of secure income for the county need to be kept at the forefront of the discussion, especially since the county now has to tap into its reserves.

After the meeting, Stoudt said the county has about $40 million in spendable reserves.

Pct. 2 Commissioner Ray Bostick said if the county is going to build a parking facility, it may as well go for the full $19 million project to avoid later regrets.

"I don't wanna be sitting here five or six years from now saying, 'Boy, I wish we'd have built out that office space — we sure could use it,' " Bostick said. 

Pct. 4 Commissioner Danny Craig said there are other areas in the county that could benefit from such a large expenditure, but he also recognizes the need for a parking facility

Craig said his precinct could contribute at least $250,000 toward the project, adding that the funds would come from liquidating some of the equipment in the precinct on the condition the other precincts would continue to help as needed with work.

If office space is included, Craig said he'd like to see an area for commissioners to be able to meet with their constituents. 

Pct. 3 Commissioner Floyd Wingo said he agrees with Craig that issues such as county wages could benefit from additional funding. He added that he also understands if the county moves forward with the facility, it likely will have to borrow money, which will raise taxes. 

"If that's what's chosen, I'd like to allow the people to say that that's what they want," he said.

Stoudt said he wouldn't support any action that didn't allow voters' input and proposed a scaled-back version of the full plan that would include one story of parking and offices at a cost of $16 million. 

Bostick again recommended tackling the full project and cited previous successful bond propositions, including a $104 million package OK'd by city of Longview voters in 2018.

"It kind of looks like this community, when they identify a need and recognize it needs to be done and they get a good, solid, well-supported proposition to fund it and get to vote on it, that they support that with their tax dollars," Bostick said. 

He ultimately made a motion for the full $19 million project to be placed on the November ballot as a bond measure. That was seconded by Wingo and passed.

Stoudt later said if voters don't pass the bond measure, the full project would no longer be an option, and the county would do the work itself to develop about 100 parking spaces.

He said he is aware of other empty spaces the Veterans Service Office could move into that would be better than its current location.