September 23, 2016 - The Tenaha City Council set the tax rate at their recent meeting held on September 12, 2016 and also heard concerns regarding a street in the area of Tenaha.
Presented to the council for approval was the advertised 2016 Effective Tax rate of 0.21420 per $100 of value. Mayor Carl Jernigan inquired if the rate was staying where it had been.
"It's slightly lower, because we had some values increase, so the effective rate kind of evens it out," said Sheryl Clark, City Secretary.
She shared the rates of neighboring cities with the council to make them aware Tenaha is currently lower than the majority of surrounding cities. Clark stated the city would only be generating another $350 more total tax this year.
A motion carried to approve the proposed effective tax rate.
Marie Crawford, a resident of Tenaha, spoke with the council during public comment about an Economic Development Committee being officially established for Tenaha. Several members of the community including herself have been unofficially working to establish such a committee.
"I really think that because of the size of our community, in order to get as much input as possible, I would really like to see the city adopt a formal Economic Development Council. Then we operate under the guidelines the way that the state says you should operate, because you should have a posted agenda," said Crawford.
She understood that was something that could not be an agenda item on the night of the meeting; however, she was hopeful the council would consider having it as an action item for consideration in the future for the benefit of the community.
Crawford said a lot of good viable ideas have developed from the community members meeting about the Economic Development Committee.
"We've got several issues as you all know very well going on, and I think that the more involvement we have with people that have more time to spend, then the better off the city will be as a whole," said Crawford.
Stephanie Marie Glenn, councilwoman, asked Crawford how someone would get on that committee and if she would be willing to participate. Crawford said she is interested and whoever would be on the committee would be entirely up to the council.
Jernigan stated he would like to see the benefit of an Economic Development Committee reach beyond the city limits.
Mina Lopez, Tenaha resident, lives on Boykin Street which runs into FM 2141 and she has concerns over potholes in the road as well as a culvert which does not let water flow and she says is a danger to children. There has been discussion over the road at a previous meeting and there was some doubt as to whether the street is within the city limits and may be a private road.
The meeting went into executive session at 5:28pm and returned to open session at 5:44pm. The meeting adjourned at 5:49pm.
