January 12, 2016 - Center City Council approved all agenda items at their Monday, January 11, 2016 regular meeting. Many of the agenda items are annual ordinances and resolutions the council revisits with each new year including the approval of the Annual MLK Day Parade and March set for Monday, January 18th at 4pm. Participants are to meet in the middle of the downtown Center Square for line up at 3:30pm.
One item on the agenda which was new was authorizing the sale of green street signs which are currently being replaced by a new unified design of white with blue lettering and the city logo. The city council approved designating the green street signs being removed as surplus and approved them to be sold at the set price of $5 per sign on a first come, first serve basis. After 30 days, any signs not sold individually will be sold for scrap metal prices locally.
Bids accepted for other surplus property were as follows: Ford 1700 tractor - Johnny Cockrell for $700; 1998 GMC Pickup - Keith Lane for $529; 2005 Ford Crown Victoria - Donald Storm for $1,000; 2005 Ford Taurus - Donald Storm for $1,000; 2006 Ford Taurus - Donald Storm for $1,000; 2006 Ford Taurus - Donald Storm for $1,000; 2004 Ford F350 Pickup - Norris Daniel for $3,000 worth of street work. The last item will be a deduction off of a current work contract the city has with the buyer making it the same as a cash bid.
Upon the recommendation of Center Police Chief Jim Albers, the council approved Ordinance No. 2016-1 which regulates curfews for minors. The city has previously approved the ordinance which expires every 3 years and requires re-approval to remain in effect. The curfew is for persons under eighteen (18) years of age and prohibits the minor from being in any public place in the City between the hours of 11pm and 5am on school nights and between the hours of 1am and 5am on weekends. In a letter submitted by Chief Albers to the City he stated, "While this is not currently a problem for the City of Center, the ordinance is a useful tool to Officers and in fact may be one of the reasons we are not experiencing this problem."
The full ordinance does allow for exceptions to the curfew such as an emergency, traveling to or from work, or in attendance of a school, religious, or government sponsored activity. To read the full ordinance, click here.
Council approved Ordinance 2016-2 which amends the Fiscal Year 2016 budget to separate the Solid Waste services financials from the General Fund. City Manager Chad Nehring said, "This basically takes the revenues and expenditures out of the General Fund and just transposes those into a separate independent fund for solid waste, trash services primarily. It's not adding new money, either by revenue rates or anything else nor adding additional expenditures. It's just purely moving it from where it has been allocated to a separate fund."
Nehring addressed the TxDOT Maintenance Use Agreement, "Many of you will remember the Texas Department of Agriculture awarded a downtown enhancement grant to the city a little over a year ago. We've had several different design problems with regard to adjusting our locations of work to accommodate TxDOT's already planned and funded sidewalk installations. After those modifications were made there were some areas remaining on Highway 87. TxDOT has decided the new state policy and practice is for any programs or projects that are not funded and completely controlled by TxDOT, under their complete control, that you have to have a separate maintenance funding and long term maintenance agreement in place on anything you build in their right of way." He advised the Resolution 2016-2 is that new form contract which is just for that segment of Hwy 87, Shelbyville Street just south of the downtown square. Council approved the TxDOT Maintenance Agreement.
Resolution 2016-3 was approved next which was authorizing a Tax Abatement Agreement in Reinvestment Zone #14 with Sustainable Soil Solutions, LLC. Mayor David Chadwick explained, "This is the plant location in the old Armstrong building and it is, has been designated as an investment zone upon the inception of their time with us." Nehring added, "The council has already designated the reinvestment zone 14 which includes the entire plant after Bruce's [Armstrong] closed down to allow for an immediate, more immediate response to dealing with any reinvestment on that parcel." Nehring finished saying Sustainable Soil Solutions meets criteria required to qualify for tax abatement.
Last year the city offered vendors an opportunity for an automatic one year renewal and the caustic vendor was the only vendor to not execute the extension agreement. Over last years prices, the city did see an increase form 1.69 to 1.75 per unit for the lowest bid which increases the bottom line slightly. The city awarded the bid to North East Texas Chemicals for the purchase of caustic.
Council authorized the cleaning of the lagoon at Lake Pinkston by Dredgit Environmental Corporation. Nehring said, "We expect that this will have a significantly better impact on the cleaning process and extend the life expectancy of the lagoon significantly longer than our historical approach. It is slightly more but not significantly. We will have about $11,000 of additional materials disposal cost after they are done cleaning, otherwise, it's about the same. We'll just have to handle the materials after."
Colleen Doggett gave an update concerning having Fairview Cemetery designated historic. The application process is to the point of submitting the history of the cemetery which is the last step before the historic designation. The process began four years ago and Doggett reported researching nine deeds before being able to write the history of the cemetery as she knew it. Mayor Chadwick said, "Congratulations and thank you very much. These are those small things that add so much value to our community."
The meeting adjourned without need of entering executive session.
Items approved by the Council
1. Minutes of the Regular Meeting on December 14, 2015.
2. Ordinance 2016-1 Juvenile Curfew
3. Ordinance 2016-2 Amending FY 2016 Budget
4. Resolution 2016-1 Designating Official Newspaper for City Publication to be the Light and Champion
5. Resolution 2016-2 TxDOT Maintenance Agreement
6. Resolution 2016-3 Authorizing Tax Abatement Agreement in Reinvestment Zone #14 with Sustainable Soil Solutions, LLC
7. Award of bid for Water Plant Chemicals to North East Texas Chemical for caustic.
8. Signs designated as surplus property and bids accepted for surplus property which were as follows: Ford 1700 tractor - Johnny Cockrell for $700; 1998 GMC Pickup - Keith Lane for $529; 2005 Ford Crown Victoria - Donald Storm for $1,000; 2005 Ford Taurus - Donald Storm for $1,000; 2006 Ford Taurus - Donald Storm for $1,000; 2006 Ford Taurus - Donald Storm for $1,000; 2004 Ford F350 Pickup - Norris Daniel for $3,000 worth of street work.
9. Authorize Lagoon Cleaning - Lake Pinkston. Bid awarded to Dredgit Environmental Corporation.
10. Zoning Board of Adjustments re-appoints (Place 1) Lisa Christian, (Place 3) Randy Collard, (Alternate 1) Murray Borders whose term expired Jan. 2016.
11. MLK Parade and March - Monday, January 18th at 4pm.
