July 26, 2016 - Mayor Carl Jernigan updated the Tenaha City Council during the July 18, 2016 meeting on the BNSF street closure and payment. He stated obligations have been met by all involved parties.
"The railroad sent their check in the sum of $250,000 and it was received and deposited into the city's improvement account on June 28, 2016. So that's a plus, it's all completed and everybody is happy with the results," said Jernigan.
The council discussed amending the minutes from the July 20, 2015 council meeting regarding adopted ordinances relating to trucks and dogs and cats in the city of Tenaha. Sheryl Clark, City Secretary, explained the need to revisit the ordinances and make amendments.
"Per the city attorney, I had to send these finally to him because for some reason they didn't come back from [Stephen] Shires. So, we had to have them drafted in the ordinance format okay, and based upon that we issued numbers. We're going to try and be very congruent with our numbers moving forward on ordinances," said Clark.
A motion was carried to approve the amendment.
Jim Bowlin spoke with the council of the desire to once again have a Back to School Bash in Tenaha.
"It's going to be August 20. We would like to do it more or less on the square, but focusing over at the Tenaha Youth Center," said Bowlin.
Bowlin stated area churches are assisting in their endeavor and the main focus of the effort is to get supplies together for kids. It was determined holding the bash on the street in front of the Hope Clinic would prevent the necessity of putting barricades up to block the street in front of the youth center.
Takita Reed spoke with the council about water bills and service cutoff scheduling. Reed stated the billing day was once always on the 20th of the month and lately it has been more irregular where the bill due date is sometimes on the 18th and other times it's the 20th. She said extensions are no longer available to customers and she hopes that changes.
Mayor Jernigan stated there was a mishap where the scheduling was off once. Matt Barton, Director of Public Works, suggested it would be a good idea to return to the former scheduling where the customer has the full business day of the 20th to pay their bill and then the day of shut off would be the 21st. Councilwoman Stephanie Marie Glenn agreed. Mayor Jernigan stated the city is there to provide services and is not there to punish anyone.
Glenn said a lot of "kinks" are currently being worked out and the city is looking to move forward and she asked for Reed to wait until next month so the issue can be addressed. Mayor Jernigan and other council members were appreciative of Reed for attending the meeting and letting her issues be known.
"There are a lot of things the city could have been doing for years, and a lot of things we should have been doing for years, and I want everybody to understand that we understand our role now and that's to provide services, and you know we work for y'all," said Jernigan
Melanice Williams stated she lives on Robertson Road and she brought a complaint to the council involving water. She stated there is no water pressure on her road, the water is undrinkable and it stains cookware. She also said the when the water is boiled, a sticky substance develops.
Williams said there are several drainage issues on Robertson Road and the drainage ditches have not been cleaned out for years. She said schoolchildren live on the road and school buses traverse it regularly with great difficulty and she said something needs to be done.
"You're addressing something that's pretty much citywide. Even on my street I spent three weekends actually clearing all of my neighbors brush and trees hanging over the road and everything else just so the bus could get down through it without knocking their windows out," said Jernigan.
Mayor Jernigan made a request for the future of the voters in Tenaha.
"Two years from now, whenever we're back in this council meeting, if you hear the same excuse I want y'all not to vote for me. My excuse right now is, I honestly hope you understand that we are playing catch up on years and years of neglect. I can only promise you this, we've got good ideas, good ideas are leading to good intentions and I hope the good intentions are leading to good actions," said Jernigan.
Jernigan also stated he would like to see community efforts put together where citizens get together to work on improving their city over weekends.
The meeting went into executive session at 6:04pm and returned to open session at 7:38pm.
Department head reports were heard toward the end of the meeting and according to Jimmy Wagstaff, Tenaha City Marshal, for the month of June there were 147 traffic stops, 104 citations, and 7 calls for service. Wagstaff announced Deputy City Marshal Darren Gray resigned his position and is now working for a security firm in Center.
Wagstaff is now seeking applications from prospective officers.
Matt Barton, newly appointed Director of Public Works, stated the transition of leadership at the department is ongoing and they are currently working on street repairs, which has developed some favorable comments in the community. He is working on the ISO report on the water department side for the fire department.
The main line has been repaired in front of Well 2, there was a service line tapped into a 6 inch line that was leaking. One more fire hydrant issue on U.S. 96 that has been an issue and remains an ongoing project.
Clark reported she attended a a TMRS (Texas Municipal Retirement System) training in Nacogdoches and a lot of questions for her were answered. Clark stated no changes for the plan adopted by the city of Tenaha have been made since 1994.
"Once of the big things is we have a 25 year retirement program in existence at this point in time and in all honesty most cities around us are 20 years. So, right now that's kind of detrimental in recruiting new employees," said Clark
Mayor Jernigan stated the city has already had one individual not take a job because of that additional five years. Clark stated TMRS will help the city to make any adjustments. She got permission from the council to invite TMRS to a future meeting.
Agenda items approved during the meeting: 1. Minutes of the June 20, 2016 Regular Scheduled Council Meeting. 2. June Financials. 3. RFQs for administrative services from Raymond Band and Associates LLC. 4. New City Council Meeting Time, 4th Monday of each month. 5. New Compensation Package for Sheryl R. Clark. 6. Matt Barton as Director of Public Works and New Compensation Package. 7. Adjournment 8:05pm.
