County to construct drive-thru at tax office

County to construct drive-thru at tax office Main Photo

3 Apr 2022


Guadalupe County, News

Dalondo Moultrie The Seguin Gazette

Wait times are soon to change for residents handling business at the Guadalupe County tax office.

Recently, county commissioners approved a quintet of measures aimed at furthering plans to install a drive-thru lane at the finance center located at 307 W. Court St.

“These are the initial steps and contracts that have to be in place prior to any construction of the drive-thru at the tax office,” County Judge Kyle Kutscher said.

Guadalupe County Commissioners Court unanimously approved line items that included accepting a proposal to hire Astex Environmental Services to conduct an asbestos survey of the finance center.

The court approved a contract with ADA Consulting Inc. to serve as civil engineer for the project. Kutscher expressed concern to a representative of Thorn Architects to be careful with current features around the building whenever construction begins.

“In the design, please be mindful of that turn radius, traffic interaction in the parking lot,” Kutscher said. “There’s a rider and a box there that’s offset from the building as well as that older tree on the outflow of the drive-thru with roots and all those things. I know we’ve talked about them.

“It’s just important we convey them to the design group and everybody else looking at all that stuff.”

Commissioners court entered into an agreement with REM Engineering to serve as the structural engineer for the project. REM Engineering will be responsible for designing a steel structure for the covered canopy portion where cars will drive under and a pneumatic tube system will help with transactions at the drive-thru.

Commissioners chose AMZSA Consulting Engineers to perform electrical engineering tasks of the project. That will include powering the lighting and pneumatic tube system at the building.

Lastly, the court voted to hire Rock Engineering and Testing Laboratory Inc. as a geotechnical engineer to design a canopy, footing and pavement work to keep the drive-thru covered.

Commissioners Court styled the idea of installing a drive-thru at the tax office in Seguin after one at the county services center in Schertz, Kutscher said. County government received positive feedback after installing the feature, he said.

“It’s reduced the foot traffic in the building,” Kutscher said. “It’s also allowed the elderly or individuals unable to easily get in the building access to get their business done in that building.”

The county budgeted $250,000 to start the project but he’s pretty confident it will cost more, though he’s unsure exactly how much more, the county judge said.

“If this goes as every other construction project has gone, it’s going to be more,” he said. “We don’t know that yet. We have to do the initial ground boring, the engineering, the design of the canopy that’s going to be placed there and the pneumatic tube system that’s going to be placed there before we have an estimate on costs.”

The tax office in Seguin is one of the most visited in the county, Kutscher said. It likely will get even busier as population continues to expand in Guadalupe County, he said.

Alleviating some of the long lines and wait times by adding the drive-thru could be a bonus for county residents and others doing business at the tax office, Kutscher said.

“I think if we could have another avenue or option for people to get that service and not have to come into the building, it would be a benefit,” he said. “If you can go online, go through ad rive-thru or come in, we should have a lot of the bases covered.”

View article on SeguinGazette.com