(Photo: The City of Center Council (seen above from left) consists of Jerry Lathan, Leigh Porterfield, Howell Howard, Mayor David Chadwick, Jim Forbes, Charles Rushing and Joyce Johnson.)
December 12, 2014 - Newly elected Center City Council members were sworn in at their recent regular scheduled meeting held on Monday, December 8, 2014.
Incumbent council members Leigh Porterfield, Jerry Lathan, Jim Forbes and Charles Rushing were all sworn in by Barbara Boyd, City Secretary, and following the swearing in the council members voted to keep Charles Rushing as the Mayor Pro Tem.
Lathan was the only council member seeking re-election whom had a challenger in the race; however, he retained his seat following the election.
The council approved Ordinance 2014-16 - Water Conservation & Drought Contingency Plan which is mandated by the state for the city to submit to the state. Chad Nehring, City Manager, explained the contingency plan is redone every five years as mandated by state law, "The only significant changes other than the data values for recent water usage consumption does adapt the goals for gallon per capita for daily down slightly, I do think they're achievable and obtainable and quite honestly there's no penalty if our customers don't end up meeting those goals."
According to Nehring, one part of the plan which may be of interest to customers is the drought watering schedule, "We have adjusted and adapted the drought watering schedules several times, the last several years, particularly after the 2011 drought."
Nehring states the plan is as lenient as the state allows. The schedule shows stage 1 of the plan to allow a two day a week watering cycle, stage 2 allows for one day a week and stage 3 would not allow any outdoor watering or excessive usage.
Resolution 2014-32 - Authorizing 2015 CDBG Application was approved by the council. This is the bi-annual application cycle for US HUD funds distributed regionally throughout the state by COG regions for low to moderate income area community development projects.
A benefit of $275,000 in grant funding is possible should the grant be awarded to the city with a required local match of $56,000 in funds. The system Deep East Texas Council of Governments (DETCOG) uses to decide if a project meets specific requirements has been altered and different projects have moved up the ladder.
"Historically water and sewer projects used to score at least one point better than streets, which then subsequently scored at least one point better than parks, other community activities," said Nehring. "This last year they changed the scoring, only in DETCOG, to make parks and other community facilities score one point better than water, sewer and streets."
Nehring stated a plan was drawn up two years ago for work to be done on Perry Sampson Park; however, the funds were not available at that time. According to Nehring, with the changes in the scoring system Perry Sampson Park would have a greater chance of scoring well in the new system.
During January 5 - 19, Nehring reported a biannual water maintenance program will be in progress as the water department as they flush chloramine from the water system with chlorine. He explained residents will take notice of the bleach odor of the water during that time period.
Several 100s of thousands has been returned to DETCOG for re-appropriation within the region for disaster recovery projects not fully funded or were not completed, "We did submit a letter two years ago asking for those funds to be considered for a project that we had to downgrade. One of the generators got cut at our water plant, at the lake actually. We had the mayor go ahead an reiterate a couple of weeks ago the same request to at least attempt to garner those funds that had to be backed off in the first place."
During the meeting recognition was given to Howell Howard for one year of service on the council and to Jim Forbes who was recognized for his 20 years of service on the council.
Items on the agenda receiving approval include: 1) Minutes of the Regular Meeting on November 17, 2014. 2) Elect Charles Rushing as Mayor Pro Tem. 3) Ordinance 2014-16 - Water Conservation & Drought Contingency Plan. 4) Resolution 2014-32 - Authorizing 2015 CDBG Application. 5) Resolution 2014-33 Authorizing Land Acquisition. 6) Resolution 2014-34 Authorizing Agreement for IP Telephony System. 7) Award of bid - Hutcherson Drive - TCF Project: Drewery Construction in the amount of $336,210.50. 8) Award of bid - Utility Treatment Chemicals. 9) Authorization of contract with Terra Renewal for Sludge Lagoon Maintenance. 10) Award Grant Management to Gary Traylor & 11) Associates for 2014 Downtown Revitalization Texas Capital Fund Project.
