Do you have suggestions for how 11th Street could be improved?

If you do, you might want to get on down to Port Aransas City Council chambers today, Thursday, Jan. 20. The council is scheduled to discuss the street during its regular monthly meeting, which begins at 5 p.m. at council chambers, 710 W. Avenue A.

The council is set to talk about the possibility of putting before voters a bond issue which, if approved, would fund a few million dollars worth of work on 11th Street, one of the main traffic arteries in town.

The council will hear public comment on the 11th Street issue, or any other city-related topic, for that matter, at the meeting.

As envisioned by city leaders, the bond issue could be put on the ballot for the May 14 elections.

Eleventh Street is a bumpy, two-lane road with no curbs, gutters, underground drainage or sidewalks. The thoroughfare, which parallels the beach, is lined by condominiums, apartments and homes.

Rehabilitating the street would be a big project, costing an estimated $6 million if work is done throughout the street’s full length, from Avenue G to Beach Access Road 1A, a distance of nearly two miles.

City staff has envisioned work including all-new pavement, curbs, gutters, underground drainage, a center turn lane, a sidewalk and a concrete hike-and-bike trail.

If the street work is done, water line work also would be undertaken alongside the street work, according to Mark Young, manager of Nueces County Water Control and Improvement District No. 4. Gas line work might be done, too.

The council needs to decide by February whether to put the bond issue before voters in order for it to be on the May 14 ballot.

Council members could end up offering a bond issue that would, if approved, fix up the full length of the street, all at once, with one bond note, said Deputy City Manager Dave Parsons.

The council also could decide to offer a package in which the street would be addressed in two phases, financed by separate bond notes, Parsons said. Both phases would be voted upon in May, but the second phase wouldn’t get started for four or five years, he said.

Another route: The council could choose to offer a different kind of two-phase project, with the first phase financed by a bond to be voted upon this May and a second phase to be decided by voters in a later, as-yet-unscheduled bond election.

Parsons said Phase One probably would extend from Avenue G to Royal Palms Drive, and Phase Two would be from Royal Palms to Access Road 1A.

No work is planned for the short section of 11th Street that lies between Lantana Drive and Avenue C.