City Council - Regular Meeting

Good. Good afternoon. Welcome to the January 20th 1:30 p.m. City Council meeting. At this time, we'll stand for the pledge and uh prayer. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

And since I forgot to ask anybody, I guess I'll do prayer. So, um, dear heavenly father God, we just come to you, Father, just thanking you, Father, for all that you do for us, Father. Thanking you for what you do for us as a city, Father. And Father, I just ask right now, Father, that you just give us the knowledge and the strength, Father, to stand strong, Father, as a council, Father, and to just uh stand firm with our beliefs, Father. And uh, Father, just that we would uh look to you, Father, for our answers, Father. And I just thank you for that. I praise you, Father, that we have a council, Father, that um works well together, Father, that that uh that we um you know, stand firm on what we believe, Father. And I just thank you for for that, Father. And I just ask that you bless all the um city, Father, the employees of the city, Father, but also the citizens of the of the city, Father, that you give them the most incredible blessing, Father. And father just uh lighten the load this weekend on the uh cold and snow father in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. And at this time uh we'll have questions and comments from any citizen that would like to speak. And I see none. So uh we'll move on to the city manager monthly report. So, we'll start with a little bit of our financial review through three months in and we're still doing pretty well. You'll notice from the charts that our general fund revenue is pretty much on our 5-year average and our expenditures are trending a little bit below budget. Uh, which is good. You'll notice pretty much the same thing is true and water sewer. Our revenue is uh trending close to target. We're a little bit below, but if you remember, nutrient was down for a turnaround at the first part of this budget. So, you know, their water sales will catch up later in the year. So, uh that's not all that uncommon. what we're right there with the expenditures uh with our budget sales tax uh through the first three months is above our budgeted projections and a little bit above our 5-year average. Now, we did get uh December's collection or January's payment was uh back down some. So, it's that, you know, we've got some some businesses pay on an odd number which kind of screws which month their revenue comes in. So, like last year it came in last month, this year it came in this month. And so when you're comparing year-over-year, that can change it. So like we were up I think 10% in October, but then we were down like 9% in November. Then we're up 15% in December, and now we're back down 12% in uh January, year to year, because of some of that's just how those payments hit. They don't hit in the same month every year for whatever reason, how those businesses pay. But overall, we're still trending well, a little bit above budget. So, we'll keep an eye on that, but everything's still looking good with there. You notice on the hotel occupancy tax. So, we budgeted uh $450,000 in revenue for the entire year. We're already over $230,000 with the turnaround. So, we're trending very positive on there. Of course, that is good news as we're in our centennial. We'll be able to use some of that money

to help support our Centennial Vance plus the mobile stage that the council authorized earlier this year. So, we're uh trending really good on hotel occupancy packs. uh some of our projects. Not a whole lot of projects going on right right now, but uh we did get the new skatepark equipment set and installed. Are still working on a few finishing touches up there. Uh we will have a open ribbon cutting kind of official grand opening uh probably late February, early March when the weather's a little more predictable. Uh but it if you haven't been up there, you should go up there. It looks pretty nice. equipment's definitely much a of course it's improved over what was there but it's construction method is definitely much better than the uh previously inherited equipment so that should last us a pretty good long time so that's much improved up there uh we are still continuing to have our uh talks getting ready for the bulldog loop sidewalk project that's still uh still a ways out but text's not uh wasting any time on that uh we are getting ready to bid out the seal coat project for the year so that'll probably be uh in front of the council at the first meeting, maybe second meeting in February. So, working through that as well. And we are getting ready to review our first OPC's on the sports fields assessment that we're doing as part of our uh strategic capital outlay uh for the debt issuance coming up later this week. So, we've or later this year. So, we've got some progress on that as we go through our departments. Pine developments getting ready to tear down 723 Platt is the next demolition to be going on. So, you can look forward from that to come down. That one's definitely need to be come down for a little while. They're also getting ready. They uh state did change the law this year on our spray licenses. Used to you have to you had to have a rideway endorsement to spray in the rideway. I don't know why that required a special endorsement, but that is no longer the requirement. So, all of our spray personnel can spray in the rideway. So, that opens up a little more flexibility. used to you had to have the rideway endorsement to spray in the rideway but not so like our code

enforcement didn't have the rideway because they mainly deal with lots and things like that. Streets had the rideway endorsement so now we can tag team on both. So with that code enforcement is getting ready. We're going to try to pre-treat all of the new sidewalks going to ask this winter to try to keep down the weeds growing up through all the textile sidewalks that they planted this year or planted and the way the weeds grew. It looks like they might they probably planted them, but uh after they constructed the sidewalk. So, we're we're going to we're still kind of testing to see how what what if if that's going to keep it down. It it should definitely help. So, we'll get that done before everything starts growing. Uh John and Kevin also have renewed their spray licenses so that we can be ready to go for that. And John uh completed his continuing education as plumbing inspector. And then uh John and Josh with our code enforcement department also presented a session in the winter growth camp.

So not only could all of the kids fit inside the demolition bucket of the loader, which according to Nicole and Dedra, they didn't want to get out of. They also have all now been certified junior code enforcement officers. So hopefully maybe they'll be able to educate uh their family and others on on their code enforcement. And we also continue to work with the college on their dorm project as that continues to go through. In HR, we've completed the open enrollment and our shift over to the new insurance year. So, that's always a a big process. Appreciate Michelle and Raven both down there. We've added all new deduction codes to help us balance and be a little better with that with our new accounting software. So, that was definitely some work there. And we're continuing to update the payroll records for all of that. We also got the W2s set out. little bit more difficult this year as people are of course we're trying to find a way to call out overtime

since you've got that executive order that allows certain that we think is going to allow certain overtime exemptions on your taxes. So we we get most of that handled out. So that should be at the benefit of a significant significant number of our employees. So, in emergency management, uh, fire marshall completed the issued the certificate of occupancy for the new Duncan inside the Walmart. So, I think that's getting close to opening. There's I guess some debate on whether or not they're going to have donuts or if it's just the coffee drink portion.

So, they may or may not have a certain amount of donuts. So, we'll find out when they open. Uh we're also working on kind of setting up the council might get notifications in your VOCI which is the emergency management communication app. We're going to try to host a uh start doing regular uh conference calls when we have emergency events potentially happening. This week we're going to address the cold weather coming up. Uh so we are trying to prep for for whatever that might bring. Uh winter weather is always a challenge. I joke most of the time is I don't trust a winter wear a winter I do not trust a winter weather forecast more than 24 hours out

but we need more time to prep for that. So we are taking some steps with that. The streets will be ready with the salt and pot ash and make sure that we we've got city facilities as hardened as we can for all of that. Uh we're pretty used to what what scares me just a little bit is this storm's projected to hit the metroplex pretty good. And if you remember last year when we got that big snow, you know, the Metroplex was projected to get about a foot of snow. Uh text doesn't have as much snow equipment down in that area. So they took some of ours up in the panhandle to send down there to pre pre-locate to make sure that they were good. And then that storm hit. We were supposed to get like three inches. They were supposed to get a foot. They got like a trace and we got a foot.

Yeah. But all of our equipment was down there which slowed some of that. So, we're trying to make sure that we're kind of prepared and making sure that that all of that happens depends on what it is. Of course, like I said, right now, you know, the forecast, you know, depending on which one you believe is got anywhere from four to 14 inches of snow. So,

we will see. I do think what is probably certain is it's going to be cold. Yeah. And so we just kind of want to remind people that we've had a pretty mild winter this year so far. So it can be kind of hard to remember that it can I was getting ready to open my pool.

Well, uh do it before this weekend. Also working on uh we also have got the radar back up in partnership with News Channel 10 and Panteek. So that they've uh uh Whistler was joking in our monthly meeting yesterday, they found I guess they've got an old technician from uh News Channel 10 Tan that was able to use some of his Korean war skills and uh piecing the radar back together. So not for sure if that's true or not, but uh but it is back working. Also, been working with uh figuring out how to update dispatch procedures and stuff with the uh Skellytown ESD. if uh Carson County voted on emergency services districts last year. So, those are kind of replacing a little bit of of who's responsible for what in Carson County. So, we're making sure that we've got all that updated uh to make sure that we are dispatching appropriate resources based on how that's kind of changing. So, they they did a fire ESD and a EMS ESD. So, since especially going east, we're pretty close to Carson County and then again going south, you know, we're not that far from Carson County. Uh also getting ready for the uh weather services call and we're doing our fire weather conference again in Borger this year. That's on February 4th. So that'll be at the dome on February 4th for the fire weather conference as we get ready for that. We've also been coordinating with Borger ISD on getting their employees some radios on our system so that we can help uh you know speed up communications during emergency situations or emergency needs. So we're seeing a lot of good collaboration there with that that we've been working on for a long time finally come to fruition here lately. I've got the final specs for our two new generators. If you recall, the the uh budget included a new generator for dispatch and a new generator for city hall. Uh the generator in dispatch is burning through significant amount of coolant. It's probably about 15 years old. Uh the one at city hall is about 12 years old. Uh we have ordered the diesel trailer that we'll be using to support the new diesel generators, but uh we'll probably miss this bout of cold weather with it, but we will have uh that probably in another month. And so that's

the kind of first step as we try to transition to those diesel generators which generally we have a better fuel source in an emergency than the natural gas which we talked about during the budget process. Dispatch was also at the winter growth c growth camp. They educated the kids on some dispatch issues and taught them how to crochet. So apparently they've got I think that was some good patience practice for probably the dispatchers and the kids. But hopefully they uh got some uh some good skills there. We're also waiting to hear we did put in for a national wild line wildland urban interface award a wooie award. So I think we got a pretty good shot at getting that. We should be hearing from that in another week or so. And then we're still working with text to schedule and work through our next rideway burn on the highway rightway. Uh we did have that uh as you were talking about starting we had the seven milei burn scheduled for today but the wind picked up just a little bit. uh you know if people don't know the conditions that you know we we monitor RH wind lift all sorts of things for a prescribed burn to actually go off successfully and so that's why you've seen it a couple of times that we've tried to plan that and it just you know the weather hasn't cooperated. It's been nice but it's not been nice for prescribed burning. So we'll continue to keep trying to schedule that. So, in the police services, uh, and animal control, Candace has completed her pet first aid class along with a few others. Right now, animal control is also doing cat vaccines for $5. So, if you'd like to come get a lowcost cat vaccine, you can go buy animal uh the animal shelter and they can do that for $5. And they also helped with snack pack for kids this month. At the police department, they did sponsor the alert active attack class. Uh you've also, if you've noticed on social media, they're getting ready to host the praise class again, which is the citizen response to active shooter. So that's for the public. So that's coming up. We've had pretty good feedback in the past when we've offered that. So uh if you're

interested in that, be watching all those social media platforms for the time and and place for that. Our newest recruit started the academy uh the first Monday of January and our last recruit is on Ghost Phase and the field training uh program. So that's last phase of that. So, she's about to be out on her on her own. So, still making good progress with that. And all of our patrol sergeants. Recently got back from an FBI leadership training in the Dallas area. In the fire department, recruit Daniel Gunther passed his fire academy. So, he's now fire and EMS certified. Once he gets uh his background check and all that, he'll be a full-fledged firefighter. That's another internal candidate. He actually came from the street department at started or solid waste. He started in streets and went to solid waste and then is now at the fire department. So that's a good career opportunity there as we continue to you know show those career paths. So we're happy for him. Uh when he took it uh you know we kept his hourly rate the same. And I was trying not to add stress to him. I was like but now keep in mind you know I I this is probably going to take a while. So you know I'm not put pressure on you but I don't know that your old position will be there if you don't pass everything. So good thing he passed and we're happy. So now he gets gets a raise and working on all that. Uh the fire departments also received a $10,000 donation from HB. Uh during the Smokehouse Creek Windy Deuce fire, they had intended on sending up a bunch of supplies and somehow something happened and that that never did. So they felt bad. So they've been making a monetary donation to the fire departments up in the area for for the fact that we we didn't get that. And of course, like Mike said, the $10,000 was probably better than the uh pallet of dude wipes and a lip balm. So, I think we're excited about that. And of course, the fire department also helped with the winter growth camp. And they were also at BISD career fair and uh Chief Hall uh Jeff Ste and Captain Hart uh completed a te's leadership

training here this month as well. So, in public works, we have a post of the assistant director position as Winston gets ready for his retirement. Uh, I'm I'm going to try not to judge him too much by the excess of U apparel that I'm sure he's probably about to start wearing on a more regular basis.

But, uh, we wish him well. He won't be too far cuz Stella's dragging her feet a little bit behind him, so be around for a little bit more. But, we are starting that hiring process to get somebody, uh, to make sure that also has been working through their capital budgeting and getting ready for the internal or

it's it's it's open both ways right now. So, we'll see what what candidates we have that job more than some. I mean, there are some particular skills and background that you're looking for in that job. That's that's it. You know, streets and solid waste licensing and things like that. So there is there is some we've uh I know I've we've seen a little maybe a little bit of push back on Facebook from some of the candidates that have already been rejected, but that job you've got to have some uh property maintenance is not a proper background for public works.

Uh so you know there's some of those we are you know I I don't like keeping anybody hanging. So I mean if they clearly aren't a fit for the job we are are dismissing those. So, and I think it's always hard, it's always hard, you know, anytime you apply for a job, you don't know all the other candidates that that applied and you're trying to, you know, you think you're the best, but you don't know anything about anybody else. And so, that is always a difficult for us. And we do try to hire for fit. You know, there are cultural fits and things that we're looking for, you know, that help make the organization run smoothly. And so, it's a little bit of both. Uh, in the city secretary's office, of course, they're g gearing up for a uh election process. you know, you've got part of that on your agenda today and we did we'll just remind everybody and I'll mention again when we get to that, but we have already called the special election for the local liquor option election. So, this is for the U council positions. And then we did have two trials last week or the week before in court. So, they've been busy doing all of their kind of normal stuff in the finance department. Uh, of course, the auditor was on site two weeks ago, so we've been busy in audit work and getting everything ready for that. Uh also did finally finalize the Windy Deuce reporting. So we should be getting our money back on the uh what the state owes us for that response. That turned out to be I think a little over $46,000. So we talked about that a long time ago, but there's a lot of paperwork that goes into that. And then we've also been doing some text reporting that was required as part of our advanced funding agreement on the 10th Street project. So that's finally all just about tied up. Uh with that, Tex has updated their maintenance agreement. So we'll be talking later this week with Tex and that'll be on a future uh agenda item. The maintenance agreement that we have right now dated back to I think 1958. So there only minor changes, but text thought it was time to update it. I don't disagree considering that the last one was in the 50s. So it's mostly the

same though. uh in downtown uh of course they uh held their community partners lunch at the dome which just seems to had a lot of good feedback. They also did a re uh realators for revitalization meeting which got a lot of good feedback from 14 realators that showed up. So we were surprised that we had that much good attendance. So we are starting to see those partnerships develop. Uh keep in mind that a lot of that was kind of part of our main street program and some of the skills and suggestions that come out of that. So, we're uh going to see how that comes together. Nicole's also been working on her Main Street America assessment. So, that's our first kind of assessment tied to our initial year in the Texas Main Street program. We are an associate member technically for that first year until we submit our first report and become the affiliated member. So, we're still working through that. Uh continue to work on that TEI grant. Uh we're getting pretty close to probably having the details, last details of that. Then we'll take it to the tiers board and bring it back to the council. Uh the goal there is to support some building enhancements in downtown trying to remove some of the barriers that can prevent businesses from operating downtown. So we're excited about that. Also hosted another vision board night uh for downtown. And of course I've got uh they will be sent out in your weekly email update this week. Uh but we've got the annual reports for the dome and Main Street. So you can kind of see what that's done. Uh the dome in a lot of ways was I think last year was the busiest year out of the three that we've been reporting other than maybe one or two down months. So little over 22,000 estimated people in attendance at the events throughout the dome all of last year. So definitely still being good in public engagement. Uh we're continuing to work through the ripple effect which is the distracted DWI program that we'll be doing with the high school. You know trying to get kids to be more mindful and drive safer. Uh we're getting ready for the mom prom coming up. I've been coordinating with the chamber and the

EDC on the business boot camp. So uh trying to get uh get some businesses in there. It's follows a a kind of like an associates type uh of business, but give them marketing skills and give them some some information to help uh see their businesses successful and grow. So we're excited about that. We've also been coordinating I sent out an email to the council uh today on the trees for Houston which is uh funded through P66. So that's coming up February 28th. You're going to start seeing a lot more information on that. But we're going to be planting 50 trees in city parks. Uh we're getting 50 30gallon big trees and then they're going to give away five 500 55gallon trees. So, we're gonna have set up for that. So, these are these are these I think are good. These aren't kind of like what you normally get where you get the seedlings where probably 90% of them dry uh dead. So,

and they're not mosqu, right? So, we are going to have a whole lot of trees to hand out. You know, that is kind of a lot of the feedback we hear from people a lot is they wish there were more trees around town. So, there again, like I my broken record is, you know, everything we do is in partnership with the community. We need the, you know, we can't do it all and we can't expect them to do it all. This is another one of those good partnerships. There's 500 trees coming out in a five gallon bucket that have a pretty likelihood if you take care of it, you know, have a pretty likelihood of rooting. So, we're excited for that.

Now, is there going to be I might have misread the email or whatever, but there going to be teams for planting to the trees. The third the 30 or 50 that we're getting in the parks, the teams are going to go out and the park the parks department is going to have the holes pre-drilled or pre- augured.

Okay. And so we just have to go out and get them set and get them all put them in there and and do all of that. So that's part of the volunteers that they're looking for. And then the others are to work the little handout line. So we're going to try to do that in a drive up fashion so that it doesn't get bogged down. And you know, we don't want everybody fingering every little tree searching for what they think is the best tree.

Absolutely. So I'm sure I'm sure there will be some people that won't be happy with that because they're going to want to go pick the perfect tree. But, you know, when you've got 500 and a limited amount of time and a limited amount of volunteers and it's free, right? We hope that they'll be happy with what they get. Also, continue working through all of our Centennial uh events. We've just about got all of that fine-tuned and we'll push out a big list of all of our Centennial themed events coming up. And then we completed our January cleanup. They're laughing because I thought it it collected a total of 40 pounds.

Oh, that's terrible. So, I'm going to chalk it up to the holidays and uh you know, just everybody being gone because we've been averaging between 2,000 and 4,000 pounds. But, uh we are still still doing those. So, you know that we'll keep pushing out all of that. So, that's what we've had happen for the last month. I'll entertain any other questions that anybody might have.

Just want to make one comment. I really like our new tattoo. It It's a It is temporarily held so that after the centennial's over, we can go back to our fancy uh engraved one. But there is a If you didn't notice, there's a bronze permanent one installed out in the front lobby. So,

I didn't see it. I wasn't looking down. It's on the wall. Okay. I wasn't looking up either. Well, you weren't looking. I wasn't looking. You didn't look to the left. You always look to the right. Okay, that's all. Okay, if there's nothing else, then uh we'll move on to the consent agenda items 6 through 8. And if there's any questions or comments, and if not, I'll entertain a motion.

I make a motion to cons consent items uh 6 through 8 to be accepted as written. Second. All in favor? And they pass. And item uh nine, consider and take appropriate action on the following. Uh A, an order to call a regular general city election. B a notice of election to be conducted on May 2nd, 2026. C resolution R-00002-26 ordering a regular general city election to be held on the second day of May 2026 providing details for the holding of an election for one member in place two and one member in place three of the Borger City Council and D a joint election order between the city of Borger, the Borger Independent School District and the Hutcherson County Hospital District. But Mrs. Sauls, I don't know if you want to say anything or

Well, that it speaks for itself. This is the day that we're going to call it. The applications opened on the 15th. Okay. They closed on February 13th right in February 17th. So,

interested in a place on the ballot can pick up those applications in the city secretary's office. Yes. Yeah. So, and again, remember that this is this will be held at the same time as the special election, but we were required to order the special election previously because there were deadlines tied to the petition submission. Yes.

So, in addition to place two and three, there will be the special election for the local uh option. Options are correct. Yeah. Okay. Any questions? Thank you, Stella. Um if if there's no no questions or comments then I'll entertain a motion and I guess we can do all

Yeah. A through D need a motion. I move to approve the order notice resolution R-00002-26 and the joint election order calling the 2026 general city election. Second

and all in favor and it passes. And then item 10, consider and take appropriate action on resolution R-00003-26 authorizing Borger Inc.s sale of lots 2 and 3, block 2, Borger EDC Industrial Park, unit number one to equipmentshare.com LLC. Um, Miss Jesse, Mr. Sheffield

mister. Wow. I have to say I haven't been in since y'all modeled city hall. Looks great. Thank you very much. Uh mayor, council, seen our new place, huh? Not from that side. Well, I have, but from not from this side. From that side. That's right. You're

Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Okay. Mayor, council, city staff, I want to say thank you for allowing me to come in. Um Amy's out of town and Eddie's got a doctor's appointment, so you get me. Sorry about that. Uh over the past couple of months, Borger EDC has been negotiating for an unimproved property contract with Building uh Equipment Share LLC, excuse me. They've been trying to find spots here in town, and they finally decided they really would like to be in the Enterprise Park. So, we've actually got two lots that they've been looking at, and they have worked out an agreement with not only the city, but uh but u with the EDC to purchase those two lots. The purchase price of those two lots will be $225,000. But Equipment Share would like to go ahead and they'd like to improve those two lots for what be is best for them. So by doing that, they're going to spend somewhere around $425,000 to extend the road to put in infrastructure into level lots, do everything they need to in exchange for those two lots. Their plan is to build somewhere around a over a $4 million business out there uh structure and do the the problem of the land. So, it's a good build for us for the city and for the EDC. So, they have come to us and they would like to work out that agreement with y'all's approval for for that exchange of land for them to do that work.

Uh equipment share is taking over the the refinery business for United Rental. Yes. Uh so the benefit to this the city and both the EDC is being located in the enterprise park. They will be in the city limits. So the sales tax that they generate from the lease of that equipment will come to the city. Uh United Equipment was outside the city. So we weren't getting all of that. and uh the improvement that they're specifically talking about. So the in industrial park as it sits now there's a storm water the two lots that equipment share is is building on has got a drainage easement that runs through that splits those two lots. Uh the storm water system that collects from Prosperity Drive that isn't built yet goes out and spills into the kind of the natural creek right there. So, what they're going to do is they're going to extend that storm water system farther so that they can level out the land on top and be able to traverse both lots. The drainage easement will remain. They won't be able to build on top of the drainage easement, but they will be able to, you know, drive across it or access.

And so, there's actually no money uh changing hands. It's they're going to use what they would have paid the instead of the EDC having to move the storm water and extend the storm water system, we're letting them keep that money and they do the work.

Okay. Does that make I just kind of wanted Will they be bridging over it for transport or No, it's an underground pipe. Okay. So, yeah. It's just right now the the head wall is just kind of right there. It's it the edge of the road. The concrete pipe stops maybe 30 ft into the lot and ends in a head in a head wall to just discharge onto the surface to follow the natural.

How huge is the pipe or how big is the pipe? Uh it's it's pretty big. It's it's sufficient to carry anything. Oh, yeah. It's it's like I'm thinking in Yeah, it's every bit of 18 inches. And it's it's concrete. Yeah. And that b that that that will benefit the whole business,

right? Yes, it will. Right. So because we got to that takes the storm water all the way from Prosperity Drive which connects back to SPS road. So all the dra all the storm water that would eventually be put that any of those lots would put into the street would be carried away. So to a natural stream or creek

that is correct where the bridge is. Yes sir. Anyone have any questions or comments? If not then I'll entertain a motion. I move to approve resolution R-00003-26 authorizing the unimproved property contract an addendum between the Borger Economic Development Corporation and Equipmentshare.com LLC and authorizing execution of all documents necessary to complete transaction. Second

and all in favor and it passes and Jesse's going to stay. Um for number 11, consider and take appropriate action to approve resolution R-00004-26 authoriz reauthorizing Borger Inc.'s purchase of approximately 30.71 acres in the southeast quarter of section number 24 block Y AB survey Hutcherson County, Texas.

Yes, Mayor. Uh this is a property roughly 31 acres that the EDC has been working on for some time. In fact, I believe Miss Linger started this back when she was the executive director, and of course, we've changed that. Uh, this property is owned by three individuals in in a family, and we've been sort of working with them, trying to get them to sign off on the purchase that y'all approved in 2023. Uh, unfortunately, one of one of the members has has since passed. Well, now the the other family members are really anxious to sell this property. It's 31 acres. Uh, as you're aware, it's just south of 1551 and just east of Huber Avenue, but it's got rail along the east side, which, as y'all know, in economic development is is big because we've had a lot of people who wanted to come into town and start a business. However, we didn't have anything with rail. This has rail on it. So, we're excited about the opportunity to purchase this land because it's it's going to turn fairly quickly. So, we're excited with it. We've been working with with the family. were ready to sale. Uh the original price was 130,000. Now that that's been changed because it's three nearly three years down the road, they've asked for 180 and the and the EDC and the board excited to pay the 180 because it's it's well worth the money. So, we're just asking for you all to re to reapprove the the new purchase price so that so that we can uh execute the documents and purchase that that property. works out to about $6,000 an acre,

which is pretty good for rail serve property. Yeah. Uh some of the council might remember back when we we were a pretty serious finalist for a company called Bulldog Pipe Pipe. And the rail service was pretty much what led them to New Mexico, I think, had we had this property that Bulldog Pipe because we, you know, we we tried to tell them they've got the perfect name to be located in border,

but they they were bringing in a lot of the plastic pellets by rail car. So they really wanted that rail serve property. So there have been several opportunities that we've missed without rail serve property. So reiterating what Mr. Sheffield said, I do think this is well priced. This is some of the cheaper land that, you know, we paid a little more per acre for some of the residential land that we bought, but that land was right next to utilities for dense development. So I think this is a fair price for for that. If you don't know where we're talking about, this is the land between the old Ed Baker and the railroad track. Yes.

Right on the other side of 1551 for Agnes. How y and there's good utilities by there. The substation for exale is real close. So there there's a lot of good opportunities and and positives for this piece of property. Thank you, Jesse. Thank you.

Thank you, Jesse. Yes. Anyone have any questions or comments? No. If not, I'll entertain a motion. I move to approve resolution R, excuse me,-004-26 authorizing the unimproved property contract and addendum between the Borg Economic Development Corporation and Melissa Steagall, Charles Max Rush and Tracy Wade Wright and and authorizing exe execution of all documents necessary to complete the transaction And all in favor? And it passes. And at this time, in compliance with chapter 551, Texas Government Code Open Meetings Law, the council will retire into executive session relative to section 551.071, consultation with attorney regarding pending or contemplated uh litigation. State of Texas versus Southwestern Public Service Company doing business as Excel Energy and possible litigations against the city of Borger as a member of the Panalo Alliance of Safe Electricity and the city's consulting services contract with Don't Burn Me Services LLC. And we're going in executive session at 207.

left us. What is up? Who did that? I guess this is what uh smells like fresh paint.

I was going to come get some of that chocolate. My milk. No. Come here. No. Which one? Finger. There's one. Terrible. Terrible.

Good. Good. Anybody else need chocolate? I like that you're rare. I got TO GO FURTHER WITH Y'ALL. IT'S A GOOD THING I can't hit the broad side of a barn. Count as a bribe from you, though. No, I don't know. I don't know. That wasn't on camera, was it?

I hope not. We're both going to be in trouble. Oh, that would be bad. Somebody be like, and the council council has returned from executive session where no decisions were made. At this time, I would entertain any motion related to the items discussed in executive session. I move to withdraw from the interlocal agreement form in Panhandle Alliance for Safety Electricity pursuant to the agreement's withdrawal provisions and to terminate the professional consulting services agreement between the city of border and don't burn me services LLC pursuant to its termination provisions and to authorize and direct the city manager to provide all required written notices and take all administrative actions necessary to effectuate such withdrawal and termination.

Do I have a second? second. Uh and uh all in favor and uh the motion passes. And at this time, I I would like to um as mayor, I'd like to read a statement. I have been praying and trying to listen to my heart about this issue and what I feel is best for Borger. Today's action is about keeping our focus where it belongs, on safety. We support the attorney general's lawsuit and believe it is the state's role to fully investigate what happened and hold parties accountable where appropriate. That responsibility belongs to the state of Texas and not the city of Borger. Fires in our region have started for many different reasons. In Borger, we are placed at a high a a bigger risk of fires started from unregulated oil field electric lines which do not have the same rules or oversight as other electric services. At the same time, this council also recognizes that regulated utilities are not without issues and we believe stronger oversight and accountability are needed there as well. There are lots of emotions and thoughts on the best way to address these issues. I and all the council members have had many long hours thinking and the best thinking of the best way forward. In my heart, I know the best way to improve safety is to look forward by working to improve what we currently have. That means looking at all electric services, regulated and unregulated, and working together to improve safety across the board, without focusing on just one company or one solution, we remain committed to safe electricity for all at a reasonable rate. While while we have and will continue to

support our regional cities in whatever efforts they feel best serves their communities, the current effort has become more centered on a single utility with a forced ownership or leadership change. We do not believe this is a city's role. To us, that only fixes a part of the problem and does not address Borger's larger issues. It also could disrupt or dis delay new electric generation that we need for economic development. This council wants to be clear that safety, not legal action, change of ownership or financial recovery is our top priority. This decision does not mean Borger is stepping away from working with other cities. We will continue to take part in regional efforts including the alliance of Excel of Excel municipalities that improve communication, coordination, and safety. Thank you. And then next we will move on to item 14. Consider and take appropriate action to adjurnn.

Make a motion that we would adjourn. Second. And all in favor? And we are adjourned. Thank you.