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The DeLeon City Council met in regular
session, immediately following a special session, Thursday, August 24,
and addressed a lengthy agenda. The special session, scheduled to
begin at 5:30 p.m., was primarily a training session on the Open
Meetings Act for new council members and actually started at 5:40.
There was one additional agenda item, listed as, “pay reimbursement to
the Comanche County Emergency Management Coordinator, Ray Helberg.”
Mayor Owens reminded the council of an
interlocal agreement signed recently for emergency management with
Gustine, Comanche and the county.
“We do owe Ray some back money at this
time,” Owen said. “The way I understand it, in October this will be
done differently, it will be paid to the County, but we need to take
care of this back pay.” The decision was unanimous to pay Helberg.
At the beginning of the regular session,
Owen apologized for things running late, and then explained to
everyone about the required training.
During the Citizen’s Presentation portion
of the meeting, Todd Griffin, representing the DeLeon Baseball
Association, addressed the council regarding the score boards which
were struck by lightning, some months ago, on several city-owned ball
fields. Griffin said the repairs, which cost $820.87, have been paid
by the DISD, but he was wondering whether the city might be willing to
split the repair cost three ways, “since they were city-owned parks.”
When asked by Councilman John Holdridge for clarification on who the
three parties would be, Griffin explained that he was referring to the
DeLeon ISD, the City of DeLeon and the DeLeon Baseball Association.
Mayor Owen told Griffin that the item would need to be placed on a
future agenda, as no action can be taken on Citizen’s Presentation
items.
Next up, was the approval of minutes for
two called meetings and one regular session of the DeLeon City
Council. Neither of the called meetings, for July 30, and August 15,
actually took place, but Karen Wilkerson, city secretary, explained
that she needed to have it officially noted that the meetings never
occurred. Mayor Owen explained that the July 30, meeting did not take
place because the applicant and his wife “came to town, looked around
a little bit, and then left because the wife did not really care for
our city.” The second meeting did not occur due to a death in the
applicant’s family. The minutes for the regular session, August 10,
were approved with no discussion.
Dale Spurlen addressed the council next,
regarding lighting for the high school boy’s baseball field. “This is
the field that’s over by the Cross Timbers Health Clinic,” Mayor Owen
said. “I believe the school has an agreement with the city to use it.”
“I’d like to see an effort between the
school, the city, the baseball association, and any interested
individuals and organizations, to see some lights put up on the boy’s
baseball field,” Spurlen said. He went on to say that there were seven
light poles laying near the field, although he didn’t know who built
them, or what condition they were in. “If they’re in good enough
condition, we’d have a good head start,” Spurlen said. After a brief
discussion, Councilman Holdridge and Councilman Howard Gifford both
noted the need to know how much it would cost to install the lights
(Gifford said they needed a “ballpark” figure) and a decision was made
to table the item until Spurlen could gather enough pertinent
information. Councilman Holdridge noted that the council would also
need to know who else would be participating in the endeavor.
Naming the streets of the DeLeon Cemetery
was next on the agenda, and Councilman Holdridge submitted the
following list of 20 names on behalf of the Special Projects
Committee: Patterson, Kenyon, Harris, Pate, Nance, Smith, Harvey,
Streety, Carter, Weaver, Campbell, Stewart, M. Schuman, R.N., Whaley,
Terrill, Dabney, Redden, Haskins, Inzer and Counts. It was noted that,
“These names were picked from the original commissioners of the City
of DeLeon and some were added for what they’ve done with, and for, the
City of DeLeon.”
Fayne and Ruby Pair, who’ve chronicled a
detailed list of every person buried at the cemetery, also submitted
proposed cemetery street names, including, among others, Peach Path,
Cantaloupe Path, Peanut Place, Watermelon Path, San Jacinto Road,
Veteran’s Way and Texas Ranger Trail. Fayne Pair told the council
that, “The worst part about using personal names, is that somebody is
going to be hurt because their family name wasn’t used.”
After an in-depth discussion, council
members voted to approve the names submitted by the Special Projects
Committee, with Council member Norma Locke noting, “The thing I would
really worry about, is that a lot of kids, and a lot of grown folks,
might think names like Cantaloupe Path, Peanut Place and Watermelon
Path were funny and might take them down.”
“Those were things that made DeLeon what
it is today,” Ruby Pair said.
“I know it is,” Locke said, “but a lot of
kids now-days may not think of that.”
The condition of the city streets was
discussed next, with Mayor Owen announcing that he’d asked each of the
councilmen to drive the streets and form opinions for themselves as to
what needed to be done. The last two council meetings have seen
requests from citizens for the paving of Juarez Street, and (at the
August 10, meeting) work on Bell Street.
“I’ve driven on several streets and I
guess I’d have to say that I didn’t find any that paving would benefit
more than Juarez Street,” Holdridge said. “Of course, you can drive a
block off of Hwy 16, in any direction, and find a street that needs to
be paved, but I have no objection to starting with Juarez Street.”
Other council members echoed Holdridge’s opinion, with Norma Locke
adding that she wished they could find a way to pave at least part of
Bell Street.
“I tend to agree,” Councilman Howard
Gifford said. “Although I think we’re a lot like other small
communities -- we could have a whole lot more money...and still not be
able to do what we need in street repairs.”
“There is a problem here,” Mayor Owen
said. “I think the council was on a good path, planning for future
road improvements from this day forward, and having a plan. But we
don’t have the money we thought we had. I’ll turn things over to Rob
(Duncan) now and let him discuss it a little bit.”
“I asked Karen to put together something
on what we had,” said Duncan, the Public Works Administrator for
DeLeon, “and what we’ve actually brought together since we’ve been
collecting this money, and then go ahead and figure what we’ve
actually spent.”
“We started collecting this sales tax in
October of 2003,” Karen Wilkerson said. “From then until now we have
received $90,285.99. Over that span of time, we have spent $68,911.83,
of that tax money on street repairs.” After naming the streets which
have been repaired, Wilkerson said, “We have a balance of $21,374.16
left, as of right now.” She then added, “And $22,000 has been allotted
for next year (in the city budget) for road improvements.” Wilkerson
later noted that, “From what you budgeted for this year, for street
repair and maintenance, you’ve got $21,151.32 left. In the road
improvement, line item, you have the $21,374.16. So you’ve got a total
of $42,525.48 that could be spent for this year.”
“There’s a difference in having that in
the budget, and actually having the funds,” Gifford said.
“That’s what I keep telling everybody,”
Wilkerson said.
During the course of this discussion,
budgets, proposed budgets for the coming year, future emergency road
repairs, and estimated future taxes were examined. At one point, Joe
and Josie Martinez asked for West Almante Street to also be paved. “We
have lived there 30 years,” Joe Martinez said, “and all this time
we’ve been eating dirt.”
Rob Duncan expressed concern, several
times, over spending the available street repair money for one paving
project, instead of maintaining the roads which are in passable
condition.
“On high-traffic roads we already have,
which aren’t in really bad shape,” Duncan said, “there is 19,000 feet
which need a seal-coat. If we have a cold, wet winter, and a lot of
freezes, we’re going to lose a lot of those too.” “We’re going to have
some budget meetings,” John Holdridge said, “and it seems to me we’d
better see what develops and how much we’re going to have left to do
some paving.”
“Well, if these figures are right,” Mayor
Owen said, “then we know what we’ve got right now. The tax money
coming in may change just a little bit, but we do know what we’ve got
right now. It’s one of those things, do you hold it a little bit
longer and try to accumulate a little more and do more streets, or do
some seal coating and try to protect the ones we have.”
“We can’t let the ones we have in good
shape get away,” John Holdridge said, “because we sure can’t afford to
replace them.”
Howard Gifford then asked Duncan, “As
Public Works Administrator, what is your recommendation for the best
use of the money?”
“I think you need to maintain your higher
traffic streets,” Duncan said. “We might get lucky and have a dry,
warm winter...but if it’s a wet winter, every place you see that’s
cracking, moisture is going to get in those cracks, and when it
freezes, that’s going to push the streets apart.”
Eventually, after much discussion,
Councilman Avery Carlisle made a motion to “Use what we have, to save
what we have -- the high traffic streets Rob was talking about.” The
motion was seconded by Howard Gifford, with all voting in favor except
Norma Locke, who chose to abstain.
Council members entered in to Executive
Session at 8:42 p.m. to discuss a complaint against the animal control
officer, Chuck Crawford. Council reconvened in open session at 8:56
and Mayor Owen announced that the complaint had been dismissed by the
council. “The ordinance was followed correctly,” Owen said, “and there
is no further action needed.”
In other action, council members:
• Approved a two-year contract with D&C
Services (Charlie Carruth) for maintenance of the DeLeon Cemetery.
• Approved a two-year contract with
Donnie Hardin for maintenance of the Garden of Memory Cemetery.
• Approved entering into a one-year
contract with Texas Central Railway Company to lease the peanut dryer
sheds and attached building on the south side of Almante, for the sum
of $12. Mayor Owen explained that although this property was
originally pursued as a site for the produce vendors, he hopes to see
some sort of monthly “flea market or trades day” to bring visitors to
the area.
• Approved the designation of Karen
Wilkerson as Public Information Coordinator for the City of DeLeon.
• Heard a report from Jamie Welch,
assistant city secretary, on the Texas Parks and Wildlife grant for
the Festival Gardens Park. Welch reported on recent fund-raising
efforts, including selling “chances” on a gun, which brought in
$192.05, and concession sales during the P&M Festival which brought in
$258.35. Welch said the opportunity to keep the park activity efforts
“visible” to area residents was the chief motivation behind these
fund-raisers. She then mentioned that tickets were still available for
a chance to win a San Antonio trip, and that the winning ticket will
be drawn October 14.
• Heard a report on the HOME grant in
which Jamie Welch reported to everyone that even though there had been
some delays, the homeowners would soon receive their keys and do a
final walk-through. (See photo on front page). |
