Temple Area Builders Association

Interstate 35 Expansion Funding Secured by Local Leaders
Major appreciation is in order for the Bell County Officials contingency that went to Austin to attend a recent transportation commission hearing.  They brought back funding that will provide the completion of the expansion of Interstate 35 in Bell, Hill and McLennan Counties (except the urban segments).  Senator Fraser, Representative Sheffield, County Judge Burrows, Commissioner Brown, Mayor Jones and David Blackburn all attended the meeting and testified in support of the funding recommended by Transportation Commission staff.  In all, more than $1 billion will be spent on the expansion, and large amount of those dollars will go for projects in the vicinity of Bell County.

Thank you for your leadership Mike Pilkington! 
Mike Pilkington of Pilkington Development has served the TABA Government Affairs Committee well as our Chairman for the past two years.  During that period he didn’t miss a single meeting and has taken great pride in living up to this major commitment, working diligently to expand his knowledge about the inner workings of local and state government.  In addition to attending local GAC meetings, he has attended every Texas Association of Builders GRC meeting that I’ve attended.  In service to the City he has served on the Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee and the Temple Planning and Zoning Commission.  To the latter board, he was recently nominated Chair for 2009 - 2010.  In Belton, Mike was instrumental in assuring that our industry was well represented as the City worked to adopt new development standards.  Thanks for your great service and commitment to our industry Mike!

HomePAC Update
HomePAC met for our last time this year in November.  Preliminary budget work for 2010 is complete, and nominations have been made for next year’s trustees, which if approved by our members, will look much the same as in the past couple of years, however a change in leadership will take place as Chairman Dean Winkler has completed his two year term in that role.  Join me in thanking him for his great leadership over the past two years.  Taking his place, would be Mike Pilkington.  Chris Alexander will step down from the trustees, as she has completed her term as TABA president and her accompanying role as automatic trustee during her tenure.  Chris is going to spend the next year focusing on her business and her new grand baby, who lives in San Antonio.

City of Temple to Adopt 2008 NEC
2008 NEC has been considered and approved by the Temple City Council.  As few may recall from when the TABA Code Council, chaired by Phillip Snyder, began reviewing other codes for adoption, the Temple Electrical Board was reviewing the Electric Code.  This has been going on for some time now (since 2007), and the board has now unanimously agreed to recommend the code with amendments.  These amendments were reviewed by the GAC when City Construction Safety Director Richard Therriault presented an overview at a recent meeting.  He will present a similar overview to our membership at a January Codes Seminar at TABA.  Be on the lookout for more information about that event next month in On the Level.