By David DeKunder
Staff Writer

For the next few months, Schertz residents with traffic tickets, citations and fines will have to plead their cases in a different, yet familiar, location.

Assistant City Manager John Bierschwale told the Schertz City Council July 15 that renovations to the city’s municipal courtroom will start within the next two weeks and last for four months. As a result of the planned renovations, Bierschwale said municipal court cases will be held in the City Council Chambers located next door to the City Hall Complex.

The renovations to the municipal court chambers, located in the old City Hall building, will expand courtroom seating from 80 to 140 and add a glass-enclosed front to the municipal court building that will include a metal arched-roof and covered breezeway.

The renovations will serve both practical and aesthetic purposes. “We are giving more of an arch to the metal roof to control water runoff,” he said.

The enclosed area will be able to provide cover from the elements for an overflow of people waiting for their court cases or to pay their fines, he added.

In other action, the council:

• Approved a development agreement between NIDHI Partners, Ltd. and the city of Schertz Economic Develop-ment Corp. in which the EDC would deliver a cash grant of $30,000 for the construction of an 81-room La Quinta Inn at Four Oaks Lane.

• Approved the first reading on an ordinance that calls for revisions to the city’s charter and for those changes to be approved in a Home Rule Charter Amendment Election by voters on Nov. 4. The cost for conducting the election would be $9,000.

• Approved a resolution authorizing the city to apply for a matching $750,000 grant from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department which would go towards the construction of the city’s new recreation center that will be located along Schertz Parkway.