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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1977-06-07 - Regular City CouncilREGULAR SESSION - TUESDAY JUNE 7, 1977 - 7:00 P.M. CHAMBER OF THE CITY COUNCIL CITY HALL, CITY OF STEPHENVILLE, TEXAS The City Council of the City of Stephenville, Texas, met in Regular Session Tuesday, June 7, 1977, at 7:00 p.m. with Mayor Donald R. Jones present and pre- siding. Councilmembers Jim Chambers, W. M. Irwin, Calvin McGee, Charles Riggins, Raymond Anderson, Larry Hammett, E. W. Ferguson and Betty Heath were present. Others attending the meeting were City Administrator Marshall Shelton, Dir- ector of Public Works R. Y. Gann, Director of Utilities Danny Johnson, City Attorney Joseph Chandler, Fire;Marshall Kenneth Haley, Director of Parks & Recreation Ronnie Isham, and Accountant Betty Chew and others. Mayor Jones called the meeting to order. Councilwoman Heath made the motion that the minutes of the May 3rd, May 17th, and May 20th meetings be approved as written. Councilman Chambers made the second. Motion carried unanimously. Mayor Jones read the proposed Speed Zone Ordinances recommended by the Texas Highway Department for the following highways within the City Limits of Stephenville. U.S. 67, U.S. 67 -377, U.S.281, U.S. 377, S.H.108, Loop 195, F.M. 8, F.M. 988, F.M. 2157. After some discussion Councilwoman Heath made the motion to accept the recom- mendations of the Texas Highway'Department on setting the speed limits to the approaches and egresses of Stephenville, Texas. Councilman Anderson made the second. Motion carried unanimously. Mayor Jones explained that since the homestead exemption act had been passed later than January 1, 1977, that the deadline for filing the exemption be July 1, 1977, to enable the Tax Department to compute these exemptions and to workup the budget. After this yeaxrthe deadline will be April 30th of each year. Councilwoman Heath stated that there would be a need to publicize this information to enable everyone to take advantage of the Homestead Exemption. Councilman Irwin made the motion to approve July 1, 1977, as the deadline for the Homestead Exemption Act for this year and April 30th hereafter. Councilman McGee made the second. Motion carried unanimously. City Administrator Shelton explained to the Council the need to purchase a new machine for the Accounting Department and the Tax Department. He said that the machine now in use is thirteen years old. The Burroughs Company has an L5000 machine which will handle the Accounting Function, Tax Billing,and Payroll. This machine can be purchased for $9,000.00 or leased at 7 %. Mr. Shelton said depending on the bid for the City's C.D.'s he felt that it would be to the City's advantage to lease the machine rather than purchase it. He also stated that the lease would be $300.00 per month. The Council then discussed the advantage of buying instead of leasing it. There was also discussion of possibly omitting the maintenance contract if possible. Mayor Jones also stated that if the City chose to buy a machine they would have to take bids. If the machine was leased bids would not have to be taken. Council- woman Heath made the motion to allow City Administrator Shelton to get a copy of the lease agreement for the Council to review. In the event that he feels the lease agree- ment is not suitable then he would have the authority to draw up specifications and go out for bids. Councilman Irwin seconded the motion. Motion carried unanimously. Mayor Jones stated that City Administrator Shelton and Director of Public Works R. Y. Gann had done considerable work on checking the streets and curb and gutter in three of the local subdivisions. City Administrator Shelton would like to get the council's opinion on steps that were going to have to be taken to correct several of the streets and curb and gutter in three of the local subdivisions. City Administrator Shelton also asked for the Council's backing on the enforcement of these subdivision policies. The City Administrator said that when the time came if these errors were not corrected that building permits would not be issued in these subdivisions. He also stated that these means of enforcement were used to save the taxpayers money. The three areas in question are l) Paving in Tanglewood North Addition; 2) Paving McAlister Second Addition; 3) Curb and Gutter in Tanglewood West Addition. Councilman Chambers stated that he felt that if we have these ordinances and specifications that they should be made available to the contractor and adhered to. He also felt that if we:_ were not going to periodically inspect the iaork of these contractors or have their work tested then we had no right to put the burden on the contractor. Mayor Jones said that he agreed with Councilman Chambers but he was concerned whether the burden should be on the City, at Taxpayer expense, to have a fulltime inspector or should the developer be expected to do the job according to the Subdivision Ordinance. Mayor Jones also stated that the ordinance was not directed at the City but at the developer. M _ After some discussion of possibly lowering the standards, Councilwoman Heath stated that she felt the taxpayers of Stephenville were entitled to good streets just like the people of larger areas and that she was against any lowering of our street paving standards. The Council then called on Director of Public Works Gann for his opinion. Mr. Gann stated that if the problem was in testing then he felt the City could comply with this request. Mr. Gann said that he felt that not issuing building permits was the'only way he knew to eliminate the problem. He said that the street paving standards were easy enough for any contractor to understand and comply with and that he did not see any problem in this area. City Attorney Chandler made the point that in the Subdivision Ordinance the contractor is to put the street in according to the street paving specifications whethex'it is tested or not and that, in his opinion the City should not have to be constantly watching the contractor to see that he is following the specifications. Mayor Jones asked David Montgomery to come before the Council and give his.ob- servations as a developer on this situation. Mr. Montgomery stated that his only ob- servations was that the Council was giving the matter very thorough and reasonable consideration. He said that he felt that administration and supervision of the con- tractor is at the core of the problem. He also said that the inspection process had helped immensely, especially the developer. Conrad Callicoatte, an engineer, told the Council that in his experiences with this type of problem that the main cause of streets cracking as these have done was due to a lack of proper packing in the service ditches. He suggested possibly filling these ditches with base material to get the proper compaction. fr Councilman Hammett stated that City Administrator Shelton and Director of Public Works Gann were going to enforce the Subdivision Ordinance and Street Paving Specifi- cations'?and were asking the Council to back them, not to change any Subdivision stand- ards. TherrCouncil being in agreement with City Administrator Shelton and Director of Public Works Gann on enforcing the Subdivision Ordinance and Street Paving Specifi- cations and there being no further questions, the discussion ended. The';Council did not discuss inviting bids on the Garbage Franchise due to the fact that City Administrator Shelton needed to talk to the Garbage Franchise Committee again before coming before the Council. Mayor Jones called upon Councilwoman Heath for her observations on the recommendation of toll free telephone service between Stephenville and Dublin. She said that she felt the service would be greatly beneficial to the economy of Erath County in general. Councilwoman Heath also mentioned that the last raise Gulf States Telephone Company receivedwas along with the directive to improve service. She stated that in her opinion the phone service had not been improved. She also said that since the phone company had recently been given a 27% rate increase across the board that this would be one means of,improving service and she would like to see an impact study done on the recom- mendation. She said that some phone companys provided joint listings of husbands and wives aCno additional charge and thought that this might be a service that Gulf States could provide. Mayor Jones directed City Administrator Shelton to contact the phone company re- presentatives as to the feasibility of providing these two services. Mayor Jones gave a brief report on the Boy Scouts desire to use the old Girl Scout House, which is owned by the Girl Scouts but which is located on City property, when the new Girl Scout House is completed. Mayor Jones also mentioned that there had been some discussion of making the property into a parking lot when the house was vacated. He said that he felt the Council had three options: 1. Yes, the house could be used by the Boy Scouts. 2. tIt could be used until such time as the City would use it in its program. 3. No, the City was fixing to use the land immediately. Mayor Jones then opened the matter to discussion. Councilman Irwin suggested the possibility of the Boy Scouts moving the house to a different location. A representative of the Girl Scouts stated that their organization would be using the house';until their new facilities are constructed. They would then like to sell or rent the guilding with no preference as to which way it was handled. Councilwoman Heath stated that she would like to see the building made into a public room due to the fact that Stephenville was lacking in such facilities. Councilman McGee said that he felt that it would take a complete rebuilding of the existing facility to make it suitable for this purpose. He also stated. that the new Girl Scout House was being designed to be made available for meetings. Mayor Jones directed City Administrator Shelton and Parks & Recreation Director Ronnie Isham to check on the City's possible uses of the land, the feasibility of the purchase of the building if the City wanted to, and if the property was not needed in the near future the use by some other organization. C Gas be second lwoman Heath made the motion that the proposed franchise for Lone Star oved as read on the third and final reading. Councilman Irwin made the tion carried unanimously. Engineer Conrad Callicoatte came before the Council and presented the bids that had been received for the construction and paving of the cross winds runway at the City Airport. 1. 2. 3. Mr. he felt! problem': 10% of t City's F bids are as follows: A -1 Maintenance Co.--------------------------------- - - - - -- $47,315.00 Zack Burkett Co.------------------------------------ - - - - -- $67,251.00 Abilene Paving Co.---------------------------------- - - - - -- $83,557.00 Callicoatte stated that the original estimate had been $45,000.00 and that the A -1 Maintenance Company bid was within the budget and that he saw no with the FAA in funding the $47,315.00. He also said the City would be paying he total project cost. The total project cost will be $52,315.00 with the art being $5,231.00. Councilman Chambers made the motion to accept the low bid of $47,315.00 submitted by A -1 Maintenance Company subject to FAA approval of the bidder. Councilman McGee made the second. Motion carried unanimously. Councilwoman Heath inquired about the ramps to provide access to the square for handicapped persons. She also mentioned that the Area Agency on Aging is going to have funds for this type of work. She stated that she would be looking into this matter further. Councilwoman Heath made the statement that she was pleased to see the news media was receiving reports from the City and would like to see more of this. Mayor Jones commented that he had received very good reports on the City's Juvenile Offier and Criminal Investigator. Councilman Ferguson expressed his concern over the fact that the police were not responding to General Alarm Fires to help control traffic. He said that in the past the police had responded and he was concerned as to why they were not re- sponding now. City Administrator Shelton commented that the police would respond when asked. He also ';stated that there had been a request made by the Fire Department for the police to respond only when asked. City Administrator Shelton said that he would look into the matter further. Councilman McGee inquired as to the feasibility of an access to the City Park from the South Loop. City Administrator Shelton said that he had talked with George Black of the Texas Highway Department and Mr. Black felt that it was feasible and a letter had been sent to request the study. Mr. Black had further stated it might be cheaper to come off; of Graham St. if the City could acquire the right -of -way. There being no other business to be considered, Councilman Chambers made the motion that the meeting adjourn. Councilman Riggins made the second. Motion carried unanimously. ST: meeting adjourned at 10:00 p.m. -et