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The issue of City street repairs provided
the most discussion at the DeLeon City Council meeting of August 9,
2006.
All council members were present for the
6 p.m. beginning except Avery Carlisle, who was absent due to his
responsibilities as Peach and Melon Festival chairman. Karen
Wilkerson, City Secretary, was also absent due to a training session
in the metroplex.
There were no citizen’s presentation
items but there were several citizens present for agenda items.
The conditions of Bell and Juarez streets were listed separately, but
since the items were related somewhat, Mayor Owen just combined the
two items.
Joe and Nelda Pittman, of 1200 N. Bell,
provided the council with a letter prior to the meeting, which read:
“We are writing for the citizens of North Bell Street. If you could
not pave it, would you consider cutting the bar ditches and widen it
so two cars could pass. Then we would appreciate it if you would put
some kind of topping so the dust would not be so bad. My (Nelda’s) Mom
and Dad have lived up here for 50 years and have paid taxes all the
years and have never had the privilege of having a good street. We are
new citizens of DeLeon and are building a new home on this street and
will be paying city taxes. ...This does not seem to be asking for much
since there is no paving on this street and never has been, Bell
Street is paved on the south side of Hwy 6 and we should have the same
privileges as the other tax paying citizens. Thank you for your time
and consideration.”
Harold and Marie Nabors, of 741 W.
Juarez, also provided the council with a letter, signed by them and
eight of their neighbors, which read, in part: “Thank you and the
City Council for considering the paving of West Juarez Avenue. As this
matter comes up for consideration again, (the Nabors’ discussed the
item at the July 27 meeting also) we would like for you to consider
the following facts: Juarez was at one time paved. The city chose to
blade up the pavement and repave it rather than to try to patch it any
more. That was some time in the 70’s. As we understand from former
residents of Juarez, an additional tax was assessed to the homeowners
at that time to cover the cost. Now, more than 30 years later, the
street still remains unpaved from Burleson to Cato.
"Juarez is not a bad street. It is
quite smooth for a dirt road. But through the years, the street has
been graded and re-graded until it is nothing but dirt. There is a
prevailing south wind, and every time a car goes by, the dust is a
major problem and a contributing factor to breathing problems for some
of our residents.
"It is our understanding that the City
of DeLeon has money available for streets, through a portion of our
sales tax being dedicated to streets. For several years, very little
of the money has been spent. The residents of DeLeon all pay taxes at
the same rate, whether we live on paved streets or dirt streets, but
it seems we do not all get equal consideration when it comes to how
the streets are maintained. We feel that streets that have no pavement
should be made a priority over seal-coating streets that are already
paved. Thank you for your consideration.”
The Pittmans, the Nabors, the Council and
Rob Duncan, Public Works Administrator, discussed the conditions of
both streets in-depth, with Joe Pittman saying at one time, “we’re not
asking for it to be paved, we’re just trying to get rid of that
sand..and there are no bar ditches in that area, so when it rains it’s
a like a creek bed when it gets through.”
Owen mentioned that he and Duncan had
“driven around looking at streets, and it was difficult to find a good
street.”
Duncan noted that there was nothing wrong
with the streets that “money couldn’t solve” and said later that his
main concern was saving streets that could be saved with a seal coat,
before they too were beyond repair.
“Let me just say one thing,” Nabors said,
“if they have any pavement at all, they don’t have the dust we do.
That dust is killing us.”
“I have mixed emotions on this,” Mayor
Owen said, ...but I still think we need to follow through on paving W.
Juarez.”
Eventually, the council agreed to table
any action, on either street, pending further information. Later in
the meeting, Rob Duncan provided the Mayor with a quickly-figured
estimate for the Juarez project.
“Rob has come up with a figure to pave
West Juarez, from Texas Street to Cato, depending on no price changes,
of $42,000,” Owen said. “Even if we could do this for $60,000 we may
still be able to do some other streets in the near future, depending
on how much tax money comes in that’s set aside for street repairs. We
probably have enough money to do this, and do some dirt work on N.
Bell. Of course, this is something we’re going to have to get on the
regular agenda, because we can only discuss it at this point, we can’t
take any action.”
“You mentioned that you and Rob had
driven over all the (city) streets,” John Holdridge said, “in your
opinion, are these the worst problems we have?”
“Well every one of them have some pretty
bad issues,” Owen said. “They’re rough, they’re patched, but they’re
not dusty.”
“I just don’t want to get in the mode of
fixing streets, everytime somebody shows up to complain,” Holdridge
said. “I don’t think we can operate that way.”
Owen agreed, and Holdridge stated, “I
think we need to pin-point some priorities, and go as far down the
list as we have money to go.”
Mayor Owen later encouraged council
members to “get out there and drive the streets” and form an opinion
for themselves of which streets should be paved or repaired first.
“That’s the only way I know of for the council to see our needs,” he
said.
In other business, council members:
• Approved a request (pending the results
of a quick review of City finances) for air conditioning work at the
Senior Citizen’s Center in the amount of $2,400.
• Denied a request from a Mr. Kuykendall
to waive a $100 finder’s fee related to moving his son’s remains and
monument from a Llano cemetery to the Garden of Memories Cemetery,
because it is “a set fee and standard practice, and if we waive it for
one, we’ll have to waive it for others.” Mayor Owen explained that
“finder’s fee” is the term used for “going out and showing them where
to put the monument.”
• Approved a request by Bill Lamb for an
easement for property at 1249 Johnson Street.
• Took no action on a request by Jerry
Jones to allow him to build concrete walls in the creek located at the
corner of East Juarez and Bell to conform to natural flow because
Jones was not present at the meeting.
• Approved the July 2006 tax statement.
• Heard a report from Jamie Welch,
assistant city secretary, on the activities with the Texas Parks and
Wildlife grant, in regards to the Festival Gardens Community Park.
Welch noted that things were progressing quickly at the park now, and
she updated council members on a few fund-raising activities.
• Heard a report on activities with the
HOME grant, also presented by Welch, in which it was noted that the
homes are almost complete, and that homeowners would do a final
walk-through and receive their keys Wednesday, August 16.
• Accepted a bid from Perkins Electric of
$58,900 for electrical work on the R.V. park at the new Festival
Gardens Community Park. It was noted that only one bid was received.
• Approved a request by Scott Walker to
place a VA plaque and/or urn for his father, Charles, in the Garden of
Memories Cemetery, providing the marker conformed to “standard
practices and procedures” of the cemetery. Scott Walker could not
attend the meeting, but explained in a letter to the council that his
father’s marker would be a standard flat, bronze VA marker placed
within the two existing Walker plots, those of T.N. and Neeta Walker,
his grandparents, and that he’d like the option of burying his
father’s ashes in an urn 2 feet deep in the existing plots.
In the open discussion between city
officials, city employees and the Comanche County Emergency Management
Coordinator, Mayor Owen informed everyone there was a meeting with a
police chief applicant scheduled for Tuesday, August 15, at 6 p.m.
Owen also mentioned that the city recently received complaints about
meter-reading errors, and a complaint regarding the animal control
officer. He indicated that the latter issue would probably be placed
on the agenda for the next council meeting.
Councilman John Holdridge, a member of
the Cemetery Association Committee had two items to be placed on the
next agenda regarding naming streets at the DeLeon Cemetery. Holdridge
said that much of the discussion regarding the street names occurred
prior to his joining the association. “But I believe the first 10
street names are from people who signed the original city charter,” he
said. “The other 10 are names of founding fathers who do not already
have a street named for them”
Holdridge also mentioned some street
repairs for the cemetery that needed to be placed on the next agenda.
Councilman Johnnye Howell discussed the
possibility of the city applying for more grants. Mayor Owen informed
Howell that there were grants that the city could apply for, but
“You’ve got to play the game to get the money.”
"That’s why Jamie Welch will attend a
grant writer’s class,” Owen said, adding there was a great deal of
competition for grant money.
Councilwoman Norma Jo Locke spoke briefly
about a paving project at the cemetery.
Councilman Howard Gifford asked if there
had been any response from the roofing company the city had contacted
regarding the city buildings with shingles which needed repairs.
Neither Mayor Owen nor Jamie Welch were aware of any.
Ray Helberg, Comanche County Emergency
Management Coordinator, told the council, “mostly we’ve just been
fighting fires.”
“We’ve had several fires in the county,”
Helberg said, ...that consumed about 3,200 acres.” Helberg then
responded to concerns about why the DeLeon Fire Department wasn’t
paged out for the largest of the fires.
“There was some concern on the Dudley
fire, on the Sunday the fire started, of why DeLeon was not paged
out,” Helberg said. “You can’t put all your resources on a fire.
DeLeon was covering the whole county. We had departments from Brown
County, Hamilton County, Eastland County, Mills County, plus the
Forest Service. Those are units out of North Carolina, engine
companies out of North Carolina who were in here on that fire. And we
just had to have somebody to cover the rest of the county. DeLeon was
there Monday, when we had a break-out again, and DeLeon was on the
rest of the fires. They weren’t forgotten, they’re excellent fire
fighters, and they’re and asset to the county.”
Helberg then noted that the Comanche
County Command Center trailer was “set up at the festival ground” if
any of the council wanted to see the recent “upgrades” to the
communications part of it. |
