June 24, 2019 - The recent Center City Council meeting held on June 10, 2019 was well attended by community members seeking to share their concerns over heavily littered areas in Center and desires over park improvements.
Alex Cloudy and Jeremy Smalls addressed the council over what they feel are needs in Perry Sampson Park. Cloudy gave his top five smallest concerns for the park and they included the need of lighting, water fountains, hydrants for hose connections, electrical sockets, and a pavilion to cover the basketball court.
Smalls said he has been in contact with area businesses to help fund the needs of the park and possible sponsors such as Tyson Foods.
"We are active in our search for others to meet the proposed $75,000 that you guys have set out for that," said Smalls.
Smalls remarked on the availability of the Texas Parks and Recreation grants and asked if the city has attempted to be awarded any of those funds. Mayor David Chadwick said the application has been entered three times and in the coming fall that opportunity will become available once again.
He explained it has been necessary for the applications to have a theme in the past such as bike trails, or sidewalks. According to Chad Nehring, City Manager, the city has applied twice with Community Development Block Grant and once with Texas Parks and Wildlife.
"We will look for bids on those as we traditionally do and that is the purpose of the $75,000 that we've set aside, because we want to match that," said Chadwick.
Smalls inquired about a construction committee or assembling team, and Chadwick said it's a little premature at this time to establish either.
"Your committee informing your ideas has been very valuable and that is essential that we have an understanding of what is wanted, what is needed and where our direction will be going in solving what we all want," said Chadwick.
He continued by stating, "You need to understand a little something about me, if it's not good, if it's not the best that we can do, then we'll be against it. So we're looking for the best we can put in that area. We're looking for it to be comparable to any of the other parks that we have."
Mayor Chadwick encouraged Smalls and Cloudy to meet with Nehring and Chadwick in a more of a committee environment to reach the desired results of all involved.
Delbert Jackson was next to address the council on his concerns involving illegal dumping of trash in the community where Noble Street in Center meets County Road 2050 in the county at the overpass of Loop 500.
"It's easily accessible from the Loop, so it's easy for someone to just drive off the Loop and just drop it there and keep moving," said Jackson.
He remarked that problem didn't exist at that location before Loop 500. Jackson also mentioned a need of ditches to be dug out at Florence Street. Chad Nehring stated the ditches have been dug out in the last couple of months.
"As you're aware the dumping is an issue that is not isolated to one spot. It's a most disgusting part of our habits as a community," said Chadwick. "I'll tell you very frankly we have been known to go to dumping sites and look through the bags and find a name on an envelope."
Terry Scull, Council Member, inquired who owns the property in question and mentioned a lot of times property owners do bear some responsibility.
Thomas Burrows was the next speaker to address the council. His first concern was in relation to Campbell Estates, about which he said he has spoken to someone at the city since 2003.
"There's abandoned vehicles, there's piles of trash around the dumpster. I would hope that we would have code enforcement on this if we're going to run a subdivision," said Burrows.
Burrows said he filed a code enforcement violation with city website and did not get a response, he also said he reached out to the code enforcement office as well as City Manager Nehring and didn't receive a response from either individual.
"I want to be fair neighbor you at least responded to me and talked about this issue," said Burrows.
Burrows remarked the old McClendon house site at the intersection of Shelbyville and Center Street was in need of cleaning.
"Maybe you guys can ignore the vehicles, maybe even ignore the trash that has rats in it, but the fire time there's a major fire in this area and somebody dies the lawyers are going to swarm like buzzards," said Burrows.
Burrows gave the council until the 1st of August to clean up the area, and mentioned to Jackson to tell him what area he was talking about and he would write the check.
Chadwick thanked Burrows and remarked he was addressing issues the city deals with every day.
"As you know we are dealing with private land owners and we have to respect them. Some of the things that we have to deal with is sometimes, instead of being able to address a problem by standards that we want we have to do it by elimination of the problem," said Chadwick.
Regarding the Campbell property, Chadwick clarified that is private property with their own roads and would not be acceptable to the city.
"We deal with them on a regular basis and we send out citations," said Chadwick.
Burrows responded, "Mr. Campbell is welcome to call 911 when I send my people to clean that up and escort me off the property, but I will clean it up."
Nehring updated the council on the bid received for the Streetscape project in the city. He explained the original bid was extremely excessive and above the original estimate of $3.8 million at $5.1 million.
"They had a multiplication quantity error that immediately reduced over $200,000 of that cost and they also had a supplier vendor error that they had transposed into their bid, so immediately in writing we were able to produce an additional $288,000 that was a calculation error from a vendor," said Nehring.
After correcting the previously mentioned errors, Nehring said the actual bid is at $4.6 million for the project which originally was estimated at $3.8 million. Nehring also said $150,000 of that total cost was utility related and will be carried by the city utility fund.
In reviewing the project with the design team, several alternate material options are being considered. Nehring remarked there is the potential for a $600,000 depending on the contractor is agreeable to contractural term of value engineering the bid.
There is also the potential for disposal of materials being handled partly by the city, reducing the cost potentially by $40,000.
Mayor Chadwick postponed the vote until the meeting of June 24, 2019.
The Center Fire Department has been in need of a replacement grass truck since one of theirs burned earlier.
A brand new model would cost $90,000 and a replacement truck was located by the fire department which would cost $25,000 total. With the $11,564 in insurance money from the burned truck the city was asked to contribute $13,436 to the purchase of the replacement vehicle.
In addition to the departments need for a grass truck, a side boom cutter and mini excavator were added to the total for budget adjustment.
A motion carried and the budget adjustment was approved.
Kevin Sage is a new reserve police officer Chief Jim Albers requested be approved. Sage was a May 23, 2019 graduate of Angelina Police Academy. The addition of Sage would give the police department four reserve officers.
A motion carried to approve his appointment.
A motion carried to re-approve the appointment of Josh McAdams, John Howard and Ward Herndon to the Planning and Zoning Commission.
Agenda items approved during the meeting include: 1. May 28, 2019 Regular Meeting Minutes. 2. Accept winning bids submitted by the Baker Group and adopt the ordinance 2019-06 authorizing issuance of certificates of obligation. 3. Ordinance 2019-07 Residential Building Permit fees. 4. Budget adjustment for partial purchase of fire truck, side boom cutter and mini excavator. 5. Appointment of Kevin Sage as new Center PD reserve officer. 6. Planning and Zoning Commission re-appointment of Josh McAdams, John Howard and Ward Herndon.
