Becoming a city

Becoming a city

Written by Pamela Stephenson Monday, 07 May 2007

In the early 1960s, Austin began an aggressive annexation to the north with the plan to add the Pflugerville community. Pflugerville citizens wanted to retain their identity, so a group of business leaders, including I.B. Krienke, W. E. Pfluger and Burwell “Tuff” Knebel, drew up a plan to incorporate the town, which the community did in June 1965. At the same time, I.B. Krienke was elected the first mayor of the new commission form of government, calling for a mayor and two commissioners. Pfluger and Knebel were elected as the first commissioners.

Clarence Bohls, elected a commissioner in 1970, and later as an alderman when the city voted again to change its form of government, remembers sitting around a table with four metal chairs in a back room of the First State Bank, where the council met once a month to conduct city business. Bohls also served as mayor from 1976-1981.

Council meets developers’ needs

By the 1970s, the council wanted to own the water system and approached Otto Pfluger, who owned the waterworks at the time. Bohls said he negotiated a purchase price of $40,000, with a promise from the city council to provide Pfluger with free water as long as he and his wife lived in their home.

Later the administration decided that the city would need a wastewater system. With a discharge permit from the State and grant money from the federal government, the voters passed a bond issue to build the city’s first sewer plant and start a park system. Once developers heard that the city had a sewer plant, they began buying the farms to build subdivisions.

“The council wrote subdivision ordinances and zoning ordinances and did central planning to get off to the right start,” Bohls said.

Bohls felt the recovery or impact fees were on the high side, but said the $2,500 capital recovery fee and $2,000 tap fee charged for each house were accepted by the developers, who lined up to pay their fees. In one year, the city collected $1.25 million to pay for the sewer plants and the water works, making the growth pay for itself.

Then Nash Phillips Copus (NPC) came to Mr. Bohls informing him that they had purchased enough land south of the city to build 4,000-5,000 homes. NPC wanted a guarantee that the homes would be serviced with water and sewer.

After long sessions with the developers and city engineers, Bohls told NPC that if the developer would give the city enough money to build the utilities needed, the city would guarantee the services. NPC agreed and the three million gallon-a-day central wastewater plant was built for about 10 cents on the dollar. The $6 million investment for the plant and land cost the city about $870,000. The plant is still in operation today.

Building for the future

“Council members of the 1970s and 1980s were really proud that they were building for the future, not just the present,” Bohls said during a recent interview for the Pflugerville Oral History Project. Growth since the 1980s has been rapid, developing from a population of 745 to more than 4,500 by 1990 and more than 28,000 by 2005.

For more information about Pflugerville’s history, Pflugerville: A Heritage to Remember, is available for $15 at the Pflugerville library, 102 Tenth St.