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Vandalism at the DeLeon Cemetery was one
of the agenda items addressed at the most recent meeting of the DeLeon
City Council, Thursday, January 24, 2008.
Council members Howard Gifford, Norma
Locke, Avery Carlisle, Gayle Stroud and Mayor Danny Owen were present
for the 6 p.m. meeting, with Roy Dale Freeman absent. Also present
were City Secretary Karen Wilkerson, Police Chief Ralph Dickey, and
Ray Helberg, emergency management coordinator.
Two audience members -- Bob Huddleston
and County Commissioner Bobby Schuman participated in the cemetery
discussion.
“I requested this be on here,” Mayor Owen
said. “I know all of you have seen this in the paper, the vandalism
and everything that has happened, and we are aggressively trying to
get leads and apprehend the individuals.”
Owen then mentioned that he hoped the
generous reward being offered would prompt someone to come forward
with information.
Mayor Owen also mentioned that Mike Riggs
had agreed to reset the markers and monuments.
Karen Wilkerson said she had talked to a
TXU representative about extra lighting at the cemetery. “He suggested
six new lights,” Wilkerson said. “Two on Hampton, two on Reynosa, one
on Cato and one on Coke. He thought the setting of those would be
free, it would just be the service that the city would pay for.”
Mayor Owen said he was interested in
pursuing the additional lighting, and hoped the council felt the same
way. There was also a short discussion on solar lighting, and trimming
some of the trees.
“There are no vehicle tracks, no
four-wheeler tracks, not anything to indicate they took a motorized
vehicle and did the damage,” Owen said. “I think it was just done by
several individuals. I want us to do something that will keep this
from being such an easy target. I don’t know if we’ll ever get it
stopped but with everybody keeping an eye on it and maybe with some
addition lighting, it will slow it down.”
He then asked Huddleston and Schuman if
they had any suggestions or input.
Huddleston said that the two committees
he was on (DeLeon Cemetery Association and the Special Projects
Committee) were very interested in the matter being pursued.
After a bit more discussion Council
members voted to contribute to the reward being offered for the arrest
and conviction of the vandals, and to pursue lighting for the
cemetery.
In addition to the cemetery, the contract
with the current solid waste disposal company -- IESI -- was
discussed.
“Our contract with Community Sanitation
was just a continuous renewal,” Mayor Owen said. “Of course, the type
of service being given now, versus what we had -- this is automated
and the other was hand-loaded -- there’s quite a bit of difference in
what’s going on now, and what the original contract was. So we’ve
spoken with the city attorney and she’s advised us that we can go out
for bids since this contract will end in June. We’ll be responsible
for sending them a letter telling them that we’re not going to
automatically renew, but that we will invite them to submit bids for
the service.”
Mayor Owen mentioned that the City would
pursue this soon, so as not to be caught without time to investigate
all possibilities.
“I think there’s been some improvement,”
Owen said, “but just when you think that, here comes some more phone
calls (of complaint.) I think if we could ever get on the same track
and know who to talk to, and quit running through so many channels it
would help a whole lot.”
“There have been fewer calls since they
started doing bulk pick up on the regular day pick up,” Wilkerson
said. “The only complaint now is that the polycarts are not lasting --
the wheels are falling off.”
Wilkerson then stated that she needed some guidelines from the council
on what was expected from the waste disposal companies, for the bid
packet.
“I mean do we want hand-loaded, or do you
want to stay with polycarts,” Wilkerson said. “But I think eventually
everyone is going to polycarts (automated pickup).”
Owen agreed that that was the direction
waste disposal seemed to be moving. He then noted that bulk pick up
and dumpsters needed to be addressed in the future contract.
Council member Gayle Stroud said that she
would like to see arrangements for the twice a year city-wide clean-up
in the contract. Stroud also expressed interest, as have some of her
constituents, in having recycling services offered again. A waste
disposal company had offered it some years ago for DeLeon, before
ending the service due to not having enough participants.
“Maybe with all the emphasis and interest
in ‘going green’ there might be more people interested in
participating now,” Stroud said.
A general discussion on recycling then
ensued, including doing some research on whatever options are
available. Eventually Council members voted to approve going out for
bids for solid waste disposal.
During the open discussion between City
employees and City officials, Mayor Owen mentioned the fact that the
Council had regretfully accepted the resignation of Public Works
Administrator Rob Duncan in a called meeting, Monday, January 20.
“We are going to be putting some ads in
the paper, and there are ads on TML (Texas Municipal League website)
but we’ve already had a couple of applications come in,” Owen said.
“So word’s floating, and we’ll see what comes in. I don’t want to rush
in to it too fast, but I would like to get the spot filled as soon as
possible, but not go in such haste that we get someone that might not
be the best candidate for the job.”
Mayor Owen then discussed more of the
recent vandalism and theft to hit the area, including the loss of the
Comanche Chief rack from in front of the DeLeon Free Press offices,
and the damages done to the Free Press racks. “We’re working on all
this, and hopefully we will catch them soon,” he said.
Karen Wilkerson then said she wanted to
apologize to City customers for including a pamphlet for a health
screening in with their February water bill.
“We haven’t had too many complaints,”
Wilkerson said, “but we have had some. It was not my intention to
promote this screening (scheduled for the City Hall auditorium by an
out-of-area company) over any other organization. It was just to get
the information out there. ...This is all my fault, I didn’t call and
ask the Mayor if it would be OK, I just didn’t think twice about it
being a problem.”
Wilkerson said that including the
pamphlet with the water bills did not result in any additional cost to
the city. Chief Ralph Dickey then updated the Council on various
security precautions that his department has recently implemented to
stay one step ahead of area vandals.
Chief Dickey also alerted the Council
about a recent phone scam attempt in DeLeon, involving a caller who
pretended to be a Social Security Administration representative.
Dickey reminded everyone to use caution and common sense in such
situations. He also noted that in the USA an identity is stolen every
four seconds.
Wrapping up the open discussion segment,
Ray Helberg said (tongue-in-cheek) that his office (Emergency
Management) has not received any calls from Austin linking the recent
UFO sightings to terrorists. He also reported that the small amount of
moisture received lately was a good thing. “Our fire danger is down,”
Helberg said. He then added that he was concerned for the future once
this moisture is gone.
In other business, Council members:
• Approved the minutes from the January
10, 2008 meeting.
• Approved Ordinance # 001-08, ordering
the May 2008 election. There are three terms expiring this year --
Council Place 1, Council Place 2, and Mayor.
• Took no action on an agenda item
described as “Discuss and consider street lighting tariff revision.”
Karen Wilkerson explained to the council that they could sign an
ordinance related to the street lighting tariff, or they could take no
action, as they have in the past. “There are two ordinances,”
Wilkerson said, “you can approve it or deny it. If you do the
ordinance to deny it, they’re going to appeal to the Railroad
Commission. If you do nothing it’ll be up to the Railroad Commission
anyway.”
Council members then voted to “take no
action.” |
