Field notes on Jersey Village — drainage, budgets, planning, and the long work of building a city worth staying in.
The easy path is always well-lit and always applauded. It also almost never leads to the best result for a city over the next fifty years. Here is why I take the harder road, and why the way we treat people who do is quietly the biggest threat to a town like ours.
A plain-English guide to the City of Jersey Village's proposed FY2027 budget — the numbers that matter, the ~$1.80/month homeowner impact, and the decisions Council has to make.
A visual walk through the City of Jersey Village's proposed FY27 General Fund — where every dollar comes from, and where it goes.
Jersey Village will spend $12 million on emergency services in FY27 — but the General Fund covers only half. How two dedicated districts keep public safety from swallowing the budget.
Clark Henry Pool opens in 2027. The FY27 budget puts the pool's fee schedule — and how much the City subsidizes it — in front of Council. Here's the tradeoff.
Three places in Jersey Village's FY27 budget where staff deliberately made no recommendation and handed the decision to Council: trash fees, golf-course lighting, and park field scheduling.
Lower tax rates and a well-run city are not opposites. The trick is spending discipline that shows up every budget cycle, not just in an election year.
A comprehensive plan is not a binder that sits on a shelf. Used correctly, it is the reason a city's decisions add up to something over twenty years instead of contradicting each other every two.
Flood mitigation in Jersey Village is not one project. It is a decades-long partnership with the county, and here is where it actually stands.