By Hali Moore
Shop in Seagoville
Crandall has completed one of the largest municipal debt issues in its recent history, borrowing more than $17 million as city officials try to build infrastructure fast enough to keep pace with residential and commercial growth.
But determining exactly where every dollar will go is not as simple as looking at one city document.
The Crandall City Council began the process in June by authorizing notice of its intent to issue up to $17.18 million in Combination Tax and Revenue Certificates of Obligation, Series 2026.
The authorization covered an unusually broad range of potential expenditures: utilities, streets, roadways, transportation improvements, public-safety facilities and equipment, municipal facilities, land, rights-of-way, easements, and the engineering, legal, financial, and other professional services associated with the projects.
By Aug. 17, the council was considering the ordinance formally authorizing the debt sale.
The final issue totaled $17.155 million — $25,000 less than the maximum amount originally authorized.
The money gives Crandall substantial new capital for infrastructure. It also creates a long-term financial obligation secured primarily by property taxes, with some of the certificates extending to 2051.
For residents, the central question is straightforward: What will $17.155 million actually build?
Utilities Are a Major Priority
Water and wastewater infrastructure appear to be among the most important reasons Crandall needs additional capital.
The city’s rapid residential expansion has placed increasing pressure on utility capacity, particularly wastewater collection.
One of the city’s major ongoing projects is its wastewater force-main system. In April, engineering firm Birkhoff, Hendricks & Carter presented the City Council with a wastewater collection system evaluation that included projected development, estimated construction costs, a project timeline, and next steps.
The city has been working on the force-main project for several years. Crandall’s adopted planning documents describe expanded wastewater capacity as essential to supporting future residential and commercial development.
The city’s 2025-26 budget described the sewer force main as one of Crandall’s most significant infrastructure projects.
The 2026 certificates specifically permit spending on improvements to Crandall’s waterworks and sewer system.
What the public documents reviewed for this article do not provide, however, is a final number showing exactly how many millions from the new certificates will be assigned to the force-main system and how much will be reserved for other utility projects.
That distinction matters.
The city clearly has major wastewater infrastructure needs. But an authorization to spend bond proceeds on utilities is not the same thing as a published construction budget identifying every utility project receiving money from this particular debt issue.
Streets, Roads and Transportation
The certificates also can finance street, roadway, and transportation improvements.
Those needs are growing alongside Crandall’s population.
Thousands of new homes are either planned or anticipated in and around the city, while new commercial developments are adding traffic to a roadway network originally built for a much smaller community.
Crandall has already been studying street reconstruction, drainage work, and transportation projects in several areas.
The city’s broader development planning also includes major corridors such as FM 741 and U.S. 175, while new residential projects will require additional connections to the existing street system.
Not every transportation project discussed by the city will necessarily be financed through the Series 2026 certificates. Some projects can use developer contributions, economic-development money, county participation, impact fees, grants, or other financing sources.
That is another reason a final project-by-project bond schedule would be useful.
The debt authorization establishes that streets and transportation are eligible uses. It does not assign a public dollar amount to each street.
Drainage Is Included
Drainage also appears in the more detailed description of planned uses associated with the certificates.
That is significant in a fast-growing city because development changes how stormwater moves across property.
New rooftops, streets, parking lots, and other impervious surfaces can increase runoff, making drainage infrastructure an increasingly important part of development planning.
Crandall has already considered drainage improvements alongside street rehabilitation projects.
Again, however, the available public bond records reviewed by Shop in Seagoville do not provide a single schedule saying, for example, that a specific amount will go toward drainage while another amount will go toward streets.
Residents can identify the spending categories. Tracking the actual allocation will require following individual engineering agreements, construction contracts, land purchases, and council approvals as projects move forward.
Parks Are Also Eligible
One potentially less obvious use of the borrowing is Crandall’s park system.
S&P Global Ratings, in its review of the Series 2026 certificates, listed park-system improvements among the purposes for which proceeds are expected to be used.
That means the debt package is not limited to pipes and pavement.
Park improvements can legally be part of the city’s capital program, although the credit documents reviewed for this article do not identify a specific park project or disclose how much of the bond proceeds could ultimately be spent on parks.
That makes parks another category to watch as future contracts reach the City Council.
Municipal Facilities
Municipal buildings are also included.
The original council authorization broadly referenced municipal facilities, while S&P’s description of the financing specifically referenced improvements to an administration office.
Crandall has been dealing with the physical demands created by a rapidly expanding city government. More residents mean additional permitting, inspections, utility administration, public safety, planning, and other municipal services.
The certificates give the city the ability to make facility improvements as part of that expansion.
As with several other categories, however, the public financing documents do not provide a final line-item amount for the administrative facility.
Fire Department Vehicles and Equipment
Public safety is another authorized use.
The June council documents allowed financing for public-safety facilities and equipment.
S&P’s subsequent review was more specific, identifying vehicles and equipment for the fire department among the purposes of the Series 2026 financing.
Large fire apparatus can represent major capital purchases for a growing city, particularly when population growth and annexation increase the territory and number of structures the department must serve.
But the public documents reviewed do not state how much of the $17.155 million will ultimately be spent on fire vehicles or other equipment.
Land, Easements and Rights-of-Way
Infrastructure cannot always be constructed entirely on property the city already controls.
The original authorization therefore also allows the proceeds to pay for land, rights-of-way, and easements associated with the projects.
That could become particularly important for utility lines, road projects, drainage improvements, and municipal facilities.
Those expenses may attract less attention than a new fire truck or newly paved street, but acquiring the legal right to construct infrastructure across property can be a significant part of a project’s cost.
Engineering and Other Professional Costs
Not all of the $17.155 million will necessarily result in visible construction.
The debt authorization permits expenditures for engineering, legal, financial, and other professional services connected with the projects and financing.
Major utility and transportation projects typically require engineering and design before construction begins. Bond transactions also carry financial, legal, underwriting, and related costs.
That means the amount borrowed should not be interpreted as $17.155 million of construction alone.
Crandall’s Tax Base Is Growing Quickly
The timing of the debt issuance is closely connected to Crandall’s extraordinary growth.
S&P described Crandall as a small but rapidly growing community and reported that the city’s tax base had increased approximately 100 percent over five years.
The rating agency’s most recent credit metrics placed Crandall’s market value at approximately $689.9 million, compared with about $368.8 million in 2023.
Population growth has followed a similar direction. S&P used a recent population figure of approximately 6,900, compared with roughly 5,100 in 2023.
Even more growth could be ahead.
S&P reported that the city anticipates approximately 4,000 additional single-family homes over the coming decade.
New rooftops can help spread the cost of municipal debt across a larger tax base — but they also create the infrastructure needs that require the borrowing in the first place.
That is the financial balancing act confronting Crandall.
New Property Is Already Adding Revenue
Crandall kept its 2026 property-tax rate at $0.75 per $100 of assessed value.
Even without increasing that rate, the city’s FY 2026-27 budget is expected to generate substantially more property-tax revenue because property values and the amount of taxable property have increased.
City budget documents state that the new budget will raise approximately $655,497 more in property taxes than the previous year’s budget, an increase of 13.51 percent.
Of that increase, approximately $456,415 is expected to come from new property added to the tax roll.
That new development is important when evaluating the $17 million debt issue.
A growing tax base gives the city additional capacity to finance infrastructure. But the certificates remain obligations of the city, primarily secured by an annual property-tax levy.
S&P also noted a limited pledge of surplus water and sewer revenues of no more than $1,000. Because that amount is so small, the rating agency evaluates the certificates essentially on the strength of Crandall’s property-tax pledge.
S&P Gives Crandall an AA- Rating
The borrowing did not trigger a downgrade in Crandall’s credit rating.
S&P assigned the Series 2026 certificates an AA- rating with a stable outlook, while maintaining the same rating on the city’s existing general-obligation and certificate debt.
The agency cited Crandall’s expanding economy, improving financial reserves, and history of operating surpluses.
S&P reported that the city’s reserves had risen from approximately $648,000 in fiscal 2020 to about $8.4 million in fiscal 2025.
The city also recorded seven consecutive General Fund surpluses, according to the rating agency.
Those are important counterweights to the increase in debt. Crandall is borrowing heavily, but it is doing so while its tax base, population, and financial reserves are also growing.
What’s Missing Is a Simple Allocation
The most important transparency issue surrounding the $17.155 million is not whether the city has identified legal uses for the money. It has.
The official records clearly identify utilities, streets, transportation, drainage, parks, municipal facilities, fire equipment, property acquisition, and professional costs.
What residents cannot easily find in the documents reviewed for this article is a simple public accounting such as:
$7 million for one wastewater project.
$3 million for specified streets.
$2 million for drainage.
$1 million for fire equipment.
Those numbers are examples only — not Crandall’s actual allocations.
That type of project-by-project breakdown has not been established by the records reviewed for this article, and Shop in Seagoville will not guess at figures that have not been publicly documented.
Instead, the final accounting will emerge as the council approves engineering contracts, construction bids, equipment purchases, land transactions, and other expenditures tied to the certificates.
That is where residents will be able to see what the borrowing actually produces.
The $17.18 million authorization gave Crandall considerable flexibility.
The final $17.155 million debt sale gave the city the money.
Now the important phase begins: following the dollars from the bond market to the streets, utility lines, drainage systems, public buildings, parks, and equipment residents ultimately receive in return.
