From the Mayor’s desk – 3/27/26
Happy Friday! Thanks to all who came out this week to Stahlman Park for the meet & greet with our new City Administrator, William Cox. Also, thank you to The Breeze for providing food for the event.
A little shorter letter today. I have purposefully been transitioning the daily operations over to William since his arrival last week. As a result, I believe that he will be the best person, closest to the action, who should be providing the weekly updates from City Hall. Next week, we will co-author an update and we may just continue with that going forward. My goal has always been to provide the most detailed information as possible to citizens of Surfside, and that shall continue.
Grants & Major Projects:
A new Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) special onetime funding opportunity will be opening for applications on April 1st. It is called the Water Supply & Infrastructure Grant. A one time offering of 100% funding based on annual median household income (AMHI) and the needs in the municipality. We met with our regional leader from TWDB this week to review the requirements and discuss our options for Surfside to have the best chance of receiving some of this one time funding. We have some hurdles to jump through to qualify and compete with other small municipalities (under 150,000 residents), but do intend to put together a submission for Surfside. Much more to come on this topic in the coming weeks/months.
Josh recently posted a notice about a public hearing for dune mitigation at the end of Hwy 332. This is part of the Groin and Beach Nourishment project. The TxGLO requires us to permit the work to shift existing dune at the main entrance in order to accommodate the construction of the East Groin that will be located at the end of Hwy 332. Post construction of the East Groin, the new entrance will be shifted slightly to the east of today’s main entrance. As a result, the dune will also be shifted.
Beach & Parks:
Brazoria County roads crew has started their asphalt work on the roads to be overlayed. They expect completion to be fairly quick on this project and we will soon have fresh pavement on Ft. Velasco, Thunder, and Starfish. Next year’s interlocal agreement for up to 4 streets and maximum of 2 miles of roadwork will be evaluated and approved with the help of our new City Administrator.
An little update on a project that has been spearheaded by Councilman Jon Gerber. He has initiated a project with CenterPoint to repair, replace, and add a few new street lights around the Village. Thanks to Jon for his individual efforts to make this happen. Our existing street lights were is very bad disrepair, needing attention, and the new ones on the edge of the Village towards Galveston are a welcomed addition to let motorists know that they are entering Surfside and speed limits drop to 40 MPH.
Tourism:
Thanks to all the volunteers and staff who worked last weekend’s Surfside Sunset and Sound market and music festival. It was a great “ribbon cutting” for the new Sunset Sound Stage. I also wanted to thank Councilman Oscar Jalifi for his work as liaison to the Tourism Committee and his commitment to launch the Stage. I believe that the Stage is a great addition to Surfside and will be used to promote tourism for many years to come. The test was a success and I look forward to seeing what David and the Tourism Committee will have in store for us at the next event!
As always, I hope that you have a great day in wonderful Surfside Beach! The weather has been incredible. Get outside and enjoy our little piece of paradise!!
Thanks,
Zach