Kerrville to Vote on $1.84 Million Contract to Build a New Park — Days After a Deficit Warning and a Second Catastrophic Flood
City of Kerrville
KERRVILLE, Texas — When the Kerrville City Council meets Tuesday, July 28, it will vote on a nearly $1.84 million contract to build a new riverfront park — less than two weeks after a second catastrophic flood tore through the city, and days after a councilman warned that Kerrville is running a deficit it has not been showing.
Item 8.B on Tuesday's agenda is a $1,838,819.29 construction contract with JK Bernhard Construction for the Granger MacDonald Park project. The agenda, posted July 22, lists the item as "(BUDGETED)" — meaning the money is already accounted for in the city's approved budget, not new spending assembled in the flood's aftermath. The park is named for the late Granger MacDonald, a prominent Kerrville developer and former national homebuilders association chairman who died in 2020; the council named the future park after him in 2021.
It is not the only large contract on the agenda. Item 8.A seeks $4,645,178 for a ground storage tank and pump station — a water-infrastructure project also marked "budgeted." Kerrville Breaking News will have details of this project in the coming days.
But it is the park that has struck a nerve. The vote comes just days after the July 24 budget workshop, where Mayor Joe Herring signaled the city may need to consider a disaster property-tax rate again, and where Councilman Kent McKinney warned that Kerrville is "running deficits we're not showing," telling colleagues the city needs about $2 million but has "800,000 or something booked." It also comes with the July 15-16 flood still fresh: the disaster tore up the city's river parks once more and killed one man in the county, John Mark Steward, whose home washed away near Goat Creek Road.
To some residents, spending nearly $1.84 million to build a new park while existing parks lie in ruins — and while the budget strains — is the wrong priority. "After two devastating floods in two years, I believe our priorities have changed," resident Holly Fetterman wrote on social media. She said she worried about residents leaving Kerrville, and that recovery should be about rebuilding lives, not just buildings.
The frustration is sharpened by questions about where last year's flood donations have gone. After the July 2025 disaster, local leaders pointed donors to the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country as the trusted place to give. The fund raised about $150 million. A year later, it had distributed $82 million — leaving roughly $68 million not yet released. The foundation says the pace is deliberate: CEO Austin Dickson has said rebuilding takes time, and the remaining money is set aside for long-term housing, mental health services, public-space reconstruction, and a $10 million resilience fund.
Some of that money has already been directed to parks. In April, the foundation announced $14 million for park and river restoration along the Guadalupe, including $8.2 million to rebuild Louise Hays Park, Kerrville's signature riverfront park. To critics, the pattern compounds the unease: donated and budgeted dollars flowing toward parks while flood-damaged households wait and officials warn the city's finances are worse than they appear.
Supporters of the Granger MacDonald Park project can point out that the contract is budgeted and that the city committed to the park years ago, long before either flood. But the optics are what residents are reacting to: a new park advancing on a Tuesday agenda while neighborhoods dig out, tens of millions in donations sit undistributed, and elected officials warn of a hole in the budget.
The council meets at 6 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall. The public is invited to speak. The agenda also includes a 2026 flood recovery update from Assistant City Manager Michael Hornes.
