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Safety issues at the city pool, TCEQ
penalties, and street conditions were some of the issues discussed by
the City Council during the most recent meeting, Thursday, April 12,
2007.
All members were present for the two-hour
meeting.
“There have been some concerns about our
public pool opening up this year,” Mayor Danny Owen said. “The pool
has some problems.”
Owen then told the council that
representatives from the City’s insurance provider, as well as an
engineer, and even the State Health Department, had been consulted on
the matter, and that several problems were obvious.
“There were some issues with the
chlorination process, with the filtration of the water, ” Owen said.
“And there were some problems in that it could cause some chlorine gas
to settle on top of the water, causing problems. There was also a
great problem with our recirculating, we’re losing a lot of water out
of the pool itself, and that’s quite costly.”
Mayor Owen reported there were also
safety issues with the diving board and diving area, as well as
possible “trip hazards” due to deteriorating cement.
“Last year, it cost us $11,609.32 to run
that pool,” Owen said. “And our revenue generated off that was
$1,163.00, so it cost us a little under $9,000 to run the pool...I
really don’t know how we can afford to take this kind of loss again
this year, with so many other issues just around the corner.”
After a discussion involving the entire
council, a vote was taken to not open the pool this year, but to
explore options for the future, including possible grants.
“I’ve thought about this quite a bit,”
Owen said at one point, “and as few things as DeLeon has to offer our
children, I really did some soul-searching on this. I just hate to
shut down another activity.”
The council also addressed the recent
penalties assessed the city by TCEQ.
“This is on our wastewater plant,” Owen
said. “This has been going on for many, many moons, and we’re looking
at having to pay a penalty of $7,956 to TCEQ.”
“Where are we on pursuing the grant?”
Councilman Howard Gifford asked. “Because my understanding was, that
we were more or less encouraged to not do anything in the past,
because the more trouble we got into, the better our grant
possibilities.”
After a somewhat lengthy discussion
regarding various options, including an installment payment plan,
council members voted to pay the fine out-right.
“This is not going to go away,” Council
member Gayle Stroud said, just prior to voting on the payment.
“No, it’s not,” Councilman Gifford said. “And I hate to put it off on
the next year’s budget, or the next administration, or the next
council.”
The next agenda item discussed was one by
Councilman Avery Carlisle regarding the Livestock Association being
allowed to have the concession at the tractor pull at the new festival
grounds.
“Their main concern is, that’s their
biggest fundraiser of the year,” Carlisle said. “They spent almost
$24,000 on the kid’s animals last year at the sales in DeLeon and
Comanche. When this thing (the tractor pull) gets across the road,
who’s going to be in charge of saying who has the vending rights? The
city or the Festival Committee.”
Betty Terrill, executive secretary for
the Festival Committee, asked to be allowed to speak.
“In the agreement we had with the city,
when all this development took place, I have the papers to show where
the Festival has exclusive rights to the grounds the week before the
festival, the week of the festival and the week after the festival…we
had an attorney draw that up. We’ll have control, that will include
the tractor pull – that’s the entire thing.”
“I’ll have to get our attorney to look at
that,” Mayor Owen said. “That happened before our placement.”
“Of course, we’re all familiar with the
work the Livestock Association does, and the Festival has contributed
to it every year,” Terrill said. “But when the Festival moves across
the road, we’re expecting to lose some revenue that we have now.”
“Has the Festival Committee been the one
who’s approved the Livestock Association having the concession in the
past?” Councilman Gifford asked.
“They didn’t ask,” Terrill said, “they
just set it up.”
“It’s always been in the past, if you’ve
got it now, as long as you don’t get rid of it, you’ve got it next
year,” Carlisle said.
“They paid no rent to the Festival,”
Terrill said.
“It goes to the Legion,” Carlisle said.
“So is the Legion the one who okayed it,”
Gifford said. “Or did anyone okay it?”
“Actually the Legion did, I guess,”
Carlisle said, “in years past.”
“But this land won’t be Legion land,”
Terrill said. After Gifford and Carlisle said they realized that,
Terrill added, “There will be other activities out there. This is the
Festival’s time of year, and the Livestock Association could have it
the rest of the year, but I’m trying to protect the Festival’s
interest here, and as the executive secretary, I feel like I can speak
up for them.”
“Well, like I say, we’ll have to have our
city attorney look at the information you have,” Owen said. “The city
has a tremendous financial stake in this park also. We need to see how
we can all get along and it can be a win-win for everybody. But I’m
not aware of any agreements or contracts that have happened in the
past.”
Councilman Howard Gifford then made a
motion to table the issue pending further research to see if the City
had the legal authority to even make such a decision. The vote to
approve was unanimous.
Mayor Owen and Councilman Carlisle agreed
that that was the appropriate action, with Owen adding, “I just don’t
want to burn any bridges and I sure don’t want to cross any boundaries
of any pre-set agreements. This is a community park out there, and I
don’t want anyone to feel they can’t use the park. We just need to
make sure what’s been done in the past, and that we’re not violating
someone else’s rights.”
Suzanne Stratmann and Woodie Powell were
both on the agenda to discuss the condition of the South Bowie Street
cul-de-sac. Powell introduced Stratmann as his new neighbor. Before
she addressed the issue of Bowie Street, Stratmann mentioned an
inaccuracy in the agenda which was also printed in the newspaper.
“When I filled out that piece of paper
with my statement, and signed my name to it, I didn’t mention the
street washing away,” Stratmann said. “I mentioned that I wanted to
come before you about the condition of Bowie South cul-de-sac, and
those are real different kinds of ideas there. I was taken aback, I
must say, when I saw the words in the newspaper. Those are not my
terms -- I wouldn’t say that – I would say the condition was poor.
Stratmann said she’d come to the meeting
to present the council with information, as well as to learn. She also
mentioned that someone had very recently placed gravel at on Bowie
Street.
“That made things look a whole lot
better,” Stratmann said. “If you drove up the street, prior to the
gravel, you wouldn’t think that that street had any problems. If you
didn’t look left and right, and get out of your car and look, you
wouldn’t think that. I realize we have all kinds of streets in DeLeon.
We have gravel, we have dirt, we have paved, and something else might
exist that I don’t know about. Anyway, this happens to be paved. If
you came up the street after the gravel was put out, if you drove up
the center of the roadway, you’d think ‘this is not a bad street,
maybe a couple of pot holes, but this is entirely passable.’ And if
you still didn’t get out of your car and look around, you still
wouldn’t know what’s going on.”
Stratmann said that she wasn’t concerned
about the roads accessibilty.
“My concern for the street is not so much
the roadway itself, because like I said, I can drive in and out of it
just fine, anyone can,” Stratmann said. “The problem is, that this
paved street, whoever made it back when – we need to get a hold of
them. Because they put a big dome street, with deep, deep gutters. On
the west side of the street, that’s the low side of the street for the
houses – but the high side of the street for the gutters. On the east
side, where I am, that’s the low side of the gutter, and the high side
for the houses. So basically, the run-off cuts down our side fairly
deeply. That’s what we have concerns about. The people on the west
side have to worry about water coming in and flooding them out. That’s
their major concern. My concern, and what I wanted to tell you, is
that you really need to pay attention to those concrete gutters and
curbs, because that maintains the integrity of what’s going on on
South Bowie on that cul de sac. Because right now, and you won’t see
it because the gravel is covering it up, near my house and Janice
Simpsons’, right between them, there was a deep crevice that had cut
down below the road bed, below the gravel, below the asphalt, and all
you saw was clay. And it’s cutting down right by that gutter. Down by
Woodie’s house, the same effect, it’s cutting right down by that
concrete gutter...It’s going to cut down as long as it wants to,
because it’s not being maintained adequately, and pretty soon you’re
going to have a big hole, and that concrete can fall into it, and the
front of the yard can go too, the curb, and then you’d have a major
problem. And like my grandmother always said, ‘A stitch in time, saves
nine.’ At some point, a lot of people in the past have put a lot of
asphalt patching along there, that kept all this from taking place,
pretty much, but it’s happening now. If I had happened to have ended
up on a caliche street, that would have been fine, or a street with
just dirt, and that would have been fine, that would have been my
choice, but I ended up on this street, and I think it’s really
important, because the water wants to turn the street into open
ditches. And I think that at this point, we can’t let it make that
choice, we have to put asphalt. I think you really need to maintain
the integrity of those curbs and gutters.”
“I did drive up that way,” Mayor Danny
Owen said, “I was the one who requested them to go and start on the
pot hole repairs, and I’d been up there and seen some of that. I
really don’t have an answer for your concerns right at the moment. I
know the city does not have the money to go in and do what needs to be
done. If you’ll drive down a lot of the side streets in this town,
there are streets with so many patches, it’d be smoother to actually
be dirt.”
“Well, I looked up Lamar,” Stratmann
said, “and they have a similar, ‘going up the hill’ effect. Their
yards come right out to the street. They don’t have this problem, at
least the part that I can see, because it was constructed differently.
I know there are streets with open ditches, and that would be fine
here. If there were an open drainage ditch in front of my house that
would be fine, but there’s not.”
A discussion ensued, including a few
comments from other audience members, about the original construction
of the street, problems with the street, other streets, possible
solutions, and, ultimately, the city’s lack of funds. Woodie Powell,
who was next on the agenda, also offered some insight on the Bowie
Street problem.
“I understand ya’lls situation, I was on
the council one time,” Powell said, adding that he would still
appreciate any consideration that could be given to paving that
portion of Bowie Street.
“We may have to get somebody in there to
look at it and see what we can do to prevent further erosion,” Owen
said. “I can’t promise you the moon,” he added after still more
discussion of the problem, “but we will see what we can do to protect
(the street.)
“I do thank you for the gravel,”
Stratmann said.
“Yes,” Powell said, “we do appreciate
what you’ve been able to do so far.”
“We appreciate ya’ll bringing this to our
attention,” Owen said.
Councilman Howard Gifford then made a
motion to have Rob Duncan, public works administrator, “look at what
options the City might have to prevent erosion” on that portion of
Bowie Street. The vote to approve was unanimous.
In other business, Council members:
• Approved a resolution for the closure
of Texas Street (Hwy 16) Wednesday, August 8, and Saturday, August 11,
for activities associated with the 93rd annual Peach and Melon
Festival.
• Approved the tax statement for the
March 2007
• Approved the minutes for the regular
meeting on March 22 and the called meeting of April 3, 2007.
•Approved accounts payable.
• Approved the payroll.
• Approved renewal of fireman’s
insurance, with Councilman Gifford noting, “We need to do what we can
do to protect our fireman.”
• Tabled an upgrade on the insurance for
the K-9 officer, Hannah, pending further clarification of the policy
in question.
• Approved the financial statement as of
March 31, 2007, wherein Wilkerson noted that the General Account has
profit of more than $15,679.55, the Utility Fund has a profit of
$137,364.96, for a total profit of $153,044.51. “But this is without
Burl’s adjustment,” Wilkerson said. “I did talk to him, and he’s
planning on having it on the next agenda, or for the first meeting in
May, for our audit.”
• Agreed to convey an easement to a
property owner on Lamar Street.
• Approved an increase to the
telecommunications right-of-way access line rates (formerly known as
franchise fees) for 2007.
• Approved a resolution for the City of
DeLeon to join a coalition with several other cities to get a better
price for seal coating the streets.
• Heard a report on the Texas Parks and
Wildlife grant, wherein Wilkerson noted, among other items, that work
had begun on the tractor pull area, and that some of the playground
equipment had been assembled (by members of the Masonic Lodge.) |
