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Danny Owen conducted his first full
council meeting as DeLeon’s newest mayor, Thursday, June 8, with all
council members present except Johnny Howell.
Although the agenda was a lengthy one,
the items were dispensed with in good time because they were fairly
routine; many of them having to do with the recent change in
administration.
Among those items was the appointment of
representatives to the Industrial Development Board. According to City
Secretary Karen Wilkerson, Gayle Stroud, (who served on the Industrial
Development Board during her time as a council member) has agreed to
continue serving. Mayor Owen agreed to replace former Mayor Adams on
the board.
Council members selected John Holdridge
to replace Stroud on the City of DeLeon Special Projects Committee,
but no official action was taken until a resolution could be prepared.
A resolution authorizing the City of
DeLeon to adopt a “Hazard Mitigation Action Plan” was approved, with
Ray Helberg, Comanche County Emergency Management Coordinator, noting
that if a plan were not adopted, “there would be no FEMA money” in the
event of a disaster -- natural or man made.
Resolution #010-06 was adopted,
designating authorized representatives for the Tex-Pool accounts,
which is described as “an investment service for public funds.” In
this case, the new representatives are Mayor Owen and Howard Gifford,
mayor pro tem.
A resolution was also approved “denying
Atmos Energy Corporation’s request for a gas utility rate increase,
“so the company may pursue a system-wide rate case with the Railroad
Commission of Texas.”
An ordinance amending an existing
franchise ordinance between the City of DeLeon and TXU Electric
Delivery Company was approved, with Wilkerson explaining, “Right now,
they (TXU) pay their franchise fee annually, and they’re wanting to
move the payments to quarterly.”
An item listed on the agenda as
“Resolution # 011-06,” authorizing closure of the “Historical and
Cultural Society” bank account was also approved, but the actual
resolution reads “...close the Cultural and Civic Center bank
account.” Wilkerson said that the account had been established, as she
understood it, by John and Helen Adcock, during the time of the stage
curtain renovations. “And they turned it over to the city, after John
left as mayor,” Wilkerson said. She went on to explain that the money,
$1,387.62, was not being used for anything, and that it was costing
$10 per month to maintain the account. The resolution to close the
account was adopted, with the money going to Developing DeLeon Today,
“for the purpose of supporting cultural and civic activities in the
City of DeLeon.”
Council members also discussed and
approved the sale, by sealed bids, of a station wagon which was
donated to the city by a local resident for use in transporting
Hurricane Rita evacuees last year.
After a 25 minute executive session,
council reconvened in open session and addressed several employment
issues, which included voting to take police officer Dustin Paulsen
off probation and giving him a 75 cents per hour pay increase. They
also voted to hire Antonio Campos as a city worker, subject to an
acceptable background check, and voted to table a decision on hiring
Staci Arpin as a reserve police officer for DeLeon.
Council members also heard a report on
the activities with the Texas Parks and Wildlife grant, pertaining to
the Festival Grounds Park.
Karen Wilkerson told everyone that “the
dance floor is complete” and that forms for the office building would
be built tomorrow (Friday) and forms for the stage area would be built
next week.
Wilkerson also gave the update on the
Texas HOME grant project, saying that all the demolition and dirt work
was done, and that foundation work on two of the four homes had
already begun.
An agenda item described as “Discuss and
consider swapping L&R, Ronnie Russell and David Welch’s services to
Upper Leon” was tabled pending further research.
During the staff discussion between city
officials and city employees, Mayor Owen commented on, among other
things, how well the city crew had done trimming and shredding trees
and brush in certain areas of the city. “I’d also like to get
something on the next agenda,” Owen said. “We have several old
vehicles, I think it’s three pickups, at the City yard, and I’d like
to put them out for sealed bids, and whatever money we can get out of
that, there’s some stuff that the street and water department needs.”
Councilman John Holdridge inquired about
the still blinking signal lights downtown, and Owen said that he was
informed by TxDOT that they should be operable by next week.
“But there are some signs that are up
right now, that under the new guidelines might have to come back
down,” Owen said. “I think we’re going to lose the signs that say
‘Police Department’ and ‘Library’ because they’re not meeting the
requirements.”
After several questions on exactly what
the requirements were, Owen said that it basically had to do with the
width of the sidewalk.
“There’s probably going to be some
businesses that won’t be too happy,” Owen said, “because when this is
all done there’s going to be some flower pots and benches and things
that are going to have to come off the sidewalk.”
“We (the city) can’t put our benches back
out,” Wilkerson said. “We can have them out during the festival, but
not any other time.”
After accounts payable and payroll were
approved, the meeting was adjourned at 7:45 p.m. |
