More than three years after Amtrak agreed to allow a Texas Eagle stop in De Soto, the city has been given the go-ahead to seek bids to build the platform.
The city has committed to contributing $500,000 of the estimated $2 million Amtrak platform project.
“The design includes a 350-foot platform that is 15-feet wide with a 10-by-60-foot-canopy centered on the platform,” City Manager Todd Melkus said Oct. 23. “It will also include 17 parking spaces, as well as ADA (Americans with Disability Act) sidewalks and lighting.”
Melkus said the City Council will hold a special meeting in late November to approve the bids so the city can start working on the contract documents.
Construction has been held up by planning process approvals needed from both Union Pacific and Amtrak. Melkus said getting to this stage doesn’t mean the hurdles are over.
“We still have hurdles to cross which entail additional items concerning finalizing the lease with UP, as well as the construction and management agreement that will have to be completed before construction begins,” he said. “Due to the potential delay of the construction and management agreement, my guess is (construction will begin) well after the first of the year.”
City officials have been trying to get the project going because the other funding for the platform could be lost.
“We still have the $1 million from the state that we’re going to be receiving for that, as well as some money from the county that we’re hopefully going to be spending by the end of the (calendar) year,” Melkus told the council. “The state funding is not in jeopardy because we got it rolled over until June of next year. The county funding ($500,000 of ARPA funding the county received) is what we have to spend before the end of the year or we lose it. We’re working very hard to do that and just trying to nudge Amtrak and Union Pacific along as much as we can to get that going.”
Fiscal budget approved
The Amtrak platform and some major road projects were rolled over from the 2026 fiscal year to the 2027 fiscal year, which begins Nov. 1.
On Oct. 19, the City Council unanimously approved a $20,401,094 budget, which projects the city will bring in $17,065,200, leaving a deficit of more than $3.3 million.
“It sounds like a substantial difference, but over the last three or four years, we have built up our reserves in both our capital half-cent sales tax fund as well as our county half-cent sales tax fund, knowing that we had these big projects coming down the pipeline,” Melkus said. “The difference in the budget is coming out of (all the) reserves that we built up over the years.
“Just in our general fund, for example, we only estimated (in 2026) adding $200,000 to our reserve fund at the end of the year. And due to some of these rollovers and not spending things, we’ve added $1.13 million to that account.
“At the end of this year, we are still estimating that we’re looking at over $9 million in our (general) reserve fund. When I first started here (in 2018), that reserve fund was about $2.5 million. The council has done a great job of budgeting to build that up because you never know when those major disasters are going to occur or when you’re going to have an issue with our revenue.”
Melkus said the $2.2 million St. Louis Street project (surface, sidewalk and stormwater improvements) that was budgeted for the current year was pushed to the coming year due to additional design requirements.
He said the $1.3 million Miller Street resurfacing and sidewalk improvements project has been rolled into next year, too. He said the city will pay $340,000 for the work, and the East-West Gateway Council of Governments will pay 80 percent of the cost.
The $800,000 Dewitt Street bridge project is another partnership with the East-West Gateway Council. East-West will pay 80 percent of the cost, and the city will pay $140,000.
Under stormwater and parks projects, the city plans to spend about $400,000 to replace a failing culvert on Coachlight Drive and about $350,000 on Walther Park’s road resurfacing, Melkus said. The city plans to do $300,000 worth of street maintenance repairs, as well. The kennel addition project that was supposed to take place in fiscal year 2026 has been placed on hold due to bids coming in much higher than anticipated.
The budget included a $4,160 per year pay increase for each full-time employee. The salary increase will cost the city $249,603, Finance Director Tasha Dennis said.
In addition, full-time employees also will receive a one-time $1,500 retention stipend in November, which the council unanimously approved on Oct. 19. Melkus said the stipend cost the city $130,995.
The employee retention stipend has been approved by the council each November for the last five years to reduce turnover. The city employs 74 people, 57 being full-time employees.
Other council business
In other business, the council agreed to purchase flood plain property at 106 E. Third St. from Blonde B LLC for $5,000.
“As you all know, we have been diligently in the last six to seven years purchasing as many derelict properties as we can in the area that’s in the floodway,” Melkus said. “This property was actually purchased by a potential landlord that was going to renovate the property, and once we made them aware that they had to meet the flood-plain requirements, they understood that it was not going to be fiscally responsible for them to do that. Unfortunately, the properties over there can’t be rehabilitated without elevating them to be 2 feet above the flood plain.”
Like the other properties the city has purchased in the flood plain, the structure will be torn down and left as open space, Melkus said.
In other action, the council:
■ Approved raising the number of licensed establishments for selling alcohol from 15 to 16 and approved a liquor license for 7 Hills of De Soto.
■ Approved rezoning request for multiple family district R-4 and minor subdivision from John Lochirco at East Plattin and Moulton streets.
■ Formally agreed to join Crystal City and Herculaneum in a lawsuit against the state for a recently passed law that restricts cities’ annexations within Jefferson County.