City Council - Regular Meeting

[music] [music] Good afternoon and welcome to the uh December 16th, 2025 1:30 p.m. City Council meeting. At this time, we will um have pledge of allegiance and invitation by um our Councilman Lawrence. Almost pulling an officer. [laughter] 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. Father God, we humbly come before the throne, Father, and Lord, we ask that you just rule and reign over this city, Father, over not only the government, Father, but everybody that that lives here, Father. Lord, we ask that you be with those and you would guide and protect uh every citizen of this city and county. Father, Lord, we give thanks, Father, that you uh gave your only begotten son to us so we can celebrate this season and know that Father, with you, we are we can do all things. So Lord, we ask right now, Father, for wisdom to guide this city and this council. And Lord, we speak health and well-being over the surrounding area, Father. And Lord, we ask that you just uh give us this day everything of which we need to make you happy. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen.

He is the people. God is the Lord. And at this time any questions or comments from any citizens? I see none. So we are going to move on to um actually number 14 and our items to be considered. Um, do that real quick. Consider and take appropriate action to approve an agreement for the use of opioid settlement funds to support transportation services administered by Aspire, a mindful place. Mr. Spreading.

So, as the council's probably uh remember some more than others, you know, over the last several years, we've signed on to a couple of statewide settlements for the uh that the states have sued the opioid manufacturers and distributors for. So that's been going into our opioid grant fund. Those funds are restricted for very kind of specific things uh in that time period. I've heard some issues uh or a service shortage. I I it's not I mean I guess it is a problem, but I'm not want to make it sound like it's horrible, but a lot of people that are in the drug court program sometimes have issues with transportation. And so I think, you know, generally that's to be expected. When they get into that cycle and money goes to things that it shouldn't be going to, one of the first things that goes is is a vehicle. So when you're trying to get them to court appointments and and to work and and other things like that, uh- reliable transportation could be a problem. And so as we started getting some of this money, I I started thinking about that because my goal uh with this was to try to bring things to the council that that this money could fill a gap. you know, we don't we don't know how long we're going to have this. So, you know, we don't want to necessarily commit to like operating costs and then all of a sudden it go away. So, we're looking for things that that could come with that. So, during that time, I've uh Councilman Loft uh Councilman Lawrence, I'm looking at Pete and Bob's right here.

You're looking at the same Well, you know, look, you can't give me too crap too much after solid waste and some of that [laughter] stuff, but uh uh he he'd sent Rico with me and we had talked about some things. Rico volunteers with the Aspire and volunteers with the uh drug court program and and so I kind of outlaid some of the things that we we that the money could be used for and and what my idea was and the easiest way might be to uh just have the city purchase a car, take care of the maintenance, buy the fuel as long as the car is used to support the drug rehab uh programs. And so Rico got back, I believe, to Judge Mosley and and and Aspire and all of that. And so then uh we kind of had a meeting and talked about it and uh aspires agreed to kind of be the point person with that. And so if uh the council's agreeable with this, the way that the agreement would work is the city would provide a vehicle. Uh likely we'll go ahead and and provide one of the equinoxes that we have on the lot so that they can get it sooner rather than later and then we'll back fill with a new vehicle uh with that. Uh but that'll also give us the ability to rotate them newer vehicles. I mean, you know, as long as the program continues. There's about $49,000 in the opioid grant fund right now. Uh a new vehicle. Uh we're looking at replacing the Equinox with a Colorado that those are about 38,000. So that'd still leave us $10,000 this year for fuel and maintenance. Uh roughly right now, all of the settlements are generating about $6,000 a year. We have two new ones that we've signed on to in the last couple of months that will get a bigger upfront deposit which we still haven't got yet. Uh but that will uh then add a little bit more. So then we'll be looking at like $7,500 a year. So I think you know that's generally a pretty good amount of gas. Uh from what I understand we've got uh plenty of volunteers and plenty of

drivers. It's been the reliable vehicle that's the problem. But uh I don't know if you want to say something or if the judge wants to say anything or if you think I've done it justice or we our partnership with Aspire is with Rico is our peer support specialist on our team. Uh so he's our peer support specialist for all of our drug court people, but Rico is also a peer support specialist for many other people out in this community. uh who will pro not only will this be a drug court uh a big boon for drug court, it's a big boon for the city of border and those that are uh in substance abuse recovery even outside of drug court will be take that opportunity. Right now our problem of course with drug court is that you have people that don't have driver's licenses. If they do have driver's licenses, they don't have a car. Sometimes they have a car, no driver's licenses, and Chief Davis ends up picking them up uh because of no driver's license, which adds to their problems. uh and and driver's license are a big issue because uh by the time you get behind on that there's fines, fees, and all these they hit you with uh it's difficult to find reliable transportation and do it legally. Uh and so one of our biggest things with Rico is to be ability for him to drive somebody to Plane View to our rehab facility down there. Uh it is always best when we get people into our drug court program to immediately grab them, say hello, and then say goodbye because you're getting in the car with Brio to go to Plain View for 30 days. uh because the worst thing you can do is invite them into drug court, put them back out on these streets, and then hope they come back the next week uh and haven't used. Not a not a good plan. So, Rico is invaluable to us on that transportation aspect to be able to get them in a car, get them to Plane View, get them back. He drives people to work. He drives people to work at 4 in the morning to Amarillo. Uh and he so he's a critical part of our team, but a critical part of that is the ability to transport people to where they need to go. And so our partnership with Aspire allows us to do that not only for our drug corporate people but for others out in this community as well. And so it is highly uh valuable to us to have uh that source of transportation. And we appreciate you all considering that and we appreciate you supporting that uh as as a critical component of our drug court program. So thank you.

Rico's different really good. He did indicate that sometimes he wish his car was slightly more reliable. Yeah. He he has to use his own car right now and so that and so this I think this will definitely handle that and like I said Julie and I I've sent Julie the the the I mean we pretty much worked out all this. So I mean they'll log everything because you know we'll have to keep documentation to make sure that that the use is is related to the the approved uses in the uh opioid settlement since Aspire does do other things outside the scope of just drug abuse and all of that. We do have those uh lines driven and then they'll be able to submit us a report. So y'all be able to see, you know, how many how what how many clients the car is helping, you know, how many miles it's it's driving and stuff like that. I said we will get a fuel card designated to them which will be paid for out of the uh opioid grant fund. And then of course, you know, we'll maintain it just like we already do through the service center and all of our other vehicles. Uh for the most part, I mean, I do generally believe that this is a win-win. I think this is a good use for this. I think this fund can keep supporting that vehicle for an extended period of time and maybe close that gap and and help, you know, increase the success rate, you know, just a little bit for the drug court program. So, like I said, I do think it's one of the better uses that we can use for that money instead of just keeping it there sitting in the bank, but I'm sure the judge Julie or I or if you got any other questions.

I agree. I love this program. This is a great idea. All right. Well, I'll entertain a motion. I move to approve the agreement for the use of opioid settlement funds between the city of Borger and Aspire a Mindful Place and authorize the mayor and mayor prompt to execute this agreement.

A second. All in favor? I don't I've been in on some of these meetings. I don't want anybody to think but I am for it anyhow. [laughter] And it did pass. So yes sir. Thank you'all.

Thank you. Thanks, guys. All righty, we will move back to um I'll just say item five, the city manager's monthly report. Mr. Spradling,

so uh got the financials uh in your pack and everything's filled pretty much about on target with the 5-year averages. Nothing, you know, super super unusual at this time of the year. I will say that our December sales tax allocation was up 17% over last year. So we're now 1.5% over uh last year year to date. So uh you know we did kind of budget a little bit more thinking that our sales tax would be a little high with the turnarounds going on. December the December payment is for October collections and so there's still November collections which uh when the turnaround was kind of starting to slow down a little bit and then hopefully we'll have a strong Christmas. So sales tax right now is still kind of trending positive uh kind of the way that we had uh hotel occupancy tax is still trending positive. were still up about 19% over uh this period last year, but there again with the turnaround going in place, uh we should start seeing that down. So, some of our projects, we did get the screw pump project complete out at the wastewater treatment plant. So, uh Councilman Lawrence is glad we don't have to talk about that anymore.

Amen. [laughter] So, they are back working. There was one more payment in our bills this last month for the last of the pump rental. You know, we had been renting a pump to bypass those screws until they replaced. So that is uh in place. Uh actually overall that went really well. Uh you know there was a little bit of unknown going in. We had planned on regrouting and just uh enhancing the cinder block uh structure that those rest in. Uh that went well. So we didn't have any issues there. They got all that repaired and got the screw pumps in. Uh originally we thought it might be early February before we got this done. So everything did come in a little quicker and got it done a little bit beforehand. So we're glad with that. Of course, like we talked about, well 13's already been drilled. We're just waiting. You know, it's going to be a couple months again before the DCQ gives us our final water permit to actually produce water and use water from it. Of course, the winters are generally a good time for for that to happen. We are still using the old well 13 for just a little bit. Uh they do allow that until we get switched over. So, and then again, Strobe, we're going through some of the uh early stages of the bulldog loop transportation alternative grant. So, Stro's actually on a conference call with our architect in Tex right now. So, they're wanting to get that timeline kind of figured out uh early, you know, because I mean, like I said, this is a project for the next Texan annual budget, which is the 2728 budget. So, it's still going to be a little ways out, but uh they want to make sure there aren't any delays in that, and Dex's helping as much as possible. So, we're excited for that program uh for that project, too. Uh [clears throat] we did get uh the first round of feedback on the hazard mitigation grant for the double S wildfire which was the one by the carbon black last year. That is the grant we're re we're putting the third street drainage program on. Uh if you remember we submitted that last year to a statewide grant and we were selected as an alternate project. So the only time alternates get funded as if at the end of the round there's money left.

And so that doesn't always happen. And so since we had this other grant come up because of that fire, we have submitted it to that project. It's it's received its first kickback which was they didn't it was they just needed a few little information. So we do expect that one to go through and we do expect that one to be awarded. So that'll be about $980,000 of uh grant funding for the what we anticipate being about a $ 1.3 million project. So that one is progressing. So we're uh we'll talk more about that in our strategic session because we will have to budget for the the match on that. But I'd lot rather budget for a $400,000 match than than the 1.33 or $1.4 million. I thought we were going to have to come up and and fund it. I know that if anybody's gone out towards the animal shelter or the wastewater plant, I mean, they know I we talked about that a little bit before the meeting. It is continuing to erode a little bit, but I mean, we are working through that that project. Uh I think a little bit of erosion is worth putting up with possibly getting $980,000 in grant funding. So, we haven't forgotten about that project and one way or the other it's going to get funded at uh in the next budget. We just are moving forward with that. So, that's kind of where we uh other projects the new skate park equipment is in and starting to be installed up at the skate park. We have already uh replace the lighting up there with new LED lighting and we are uh getting looking into some security cameras to go in up there when all that opens too. Uh we might keep the park closed a little bit after it's in just to get some other clean up and little things done. The weather's not necessarily the best this time of year anyway. Uh but we will have a ribbon cutting probably at some point in the spring when the weather's a little nicer. So I don't think any of us want to go out there and plan something this time of year when the weather could change.

Don't skate around it. Yeah. And and the equipment we bought is not suitable for ice skates. So So, as we go through our department activity for last month, so in finance, uh we have uh finally received final amounts for the Windy Duce and Smokehouse Creek fires. So, that's been two years ago, uh we're looking at receiving just a little under $50,000. That's the money that will offset the overtime salaries for uh the employees that weren't on the Tiffas response to supported those fires and some of our equipment. So, that's uh finally there. We also have a little bit that's uh wrapping up on the double S fire for submission. We've been working through that. So, that's finally getting there. And of course, we are getting ready for our audit. The auditor will be here uh the first week of January to do his final field work for our audit. We are still on track and on schedule to have the audit presented during the second meeting in March, which is within the six-month period for the first time in a long long long long long time. So, we're going to be glad to see that kind of come in on time. So, I know finance has been doing a lot of work to kind of close out the year and get all that done. It's been a little more problematic with uh the switch over and upgrade in software. So, we've been having to kind of clean up some of those things that have come. So, emergency management, they've had a pretty busy last month. So, the project shield sponsorship letters have gone out for this year. If you recall, that's our little fire education program that we do now instead of doing it in conjunction with the the one that we were doing with where you could only buy things from the set magazine. So now we take those donations straight into a restricted fund and then we can kind of pick what that money goes to. So I think probably some of y'all saw the Facebook post that this last year it bought the uh stove top uh suppression canister. So they're they kind of look like a ferno table, like a a ferno fuel, but they go upside down. They've got the heat fuel, and so they put them in all the uh ta uh government housing apartments over on

Tahas. So if you've got a stove top fire at bus first and put the powder onto the fire so that the elderly don't have to try to get an extinguisher, get something like that. A year before that, they did bicycle helmets for all of the the elementary school kids. And so that's been I think a pretty good project for us and being able to have a little more local control over what we use that funding for. Uh they're also getting ready uh actually just did an active shooter training again and Pender participated as a trainer in that and they're getting ready for March. One thing that Dedra's talked about and we've mentioned before is that ripple effect which is the distracted drunk driving demonstration that'll go on for the junior and senior class. So they'll rig up a, you know, they'll mock a fake accident and do do all of that stuff. So that's coming up with the school district in March. Also, still some early planning for the health fair coming back in April. And they also did finally get a RSK case submitted and got an indictment on a wildfire arson from two years ago. So working through some of that. So I'll just leave that like there. It has been busy uh issuing ID cards. You probably see some of us wearing them around a little bit. This is the first part first part of our two-factor authentication system for the computers. So we'll eventually use those to help log in to the computers making them secure. They'll begin transitioning PD and dispatch to the two-factor authentication first. That has to do with their sieges requirements. So that's coming. Uh y'all don't normally access city networks, so lucky for y'all. Y'all don't get any more complications than what you've already got. Uh it is also getting ready to start supporting the uh uh city of Fridge with the IT agreement we signed last month that actually officially starts the 18th of this month. So that'll be next week. Also got the city hall servers ordered that was in this year's budget. So we'll be updating and switching those over. Uh dispatch is uh been working on uh kind of redoing how we handle wildfire

dispatches a little bit. mainly that for a hotspot detection now that we have access to uh Excel's fire detection cameras and with the future, you know, our that grant is still it's been awarded. We're just in kind of the final funding stages to add our own wildfire detection. So, we're working on, you know, kind of dispatching that a little differently since until we kind of get a good feel on how, you know, we don't want to send an entire wildfire response to every hotspot alert that the cameras pick up until we kind of get maybe some confidence or see what's going on. Now, there will be when you get an alert, the dispatchers can see the camera. So, I mean, there's a difference between that alert coming in and them seeing a big column of smoke. Yeah. They get that alert and see a big column of smoke, they're going to dispatch it as a wildfire. But, if they get that alert and they look at the camera and they don't see anything, you know, then they'll dispatch a little differently just so that we can still get eyes on it, but make sure we're not sending everything someplace that it's not. They're also getting ready to uh test some uh critical software. So, we're going to start. This is a applicant testing software. Uh dispatch has had a little bit of trouble in in and hiring and retaining some employees mainly because dispatches there are definite some skills required for that job. It's it's not just personality and and you sometimes the best way to find out is just to get them in there and see if they can do it. And because of that, we've had some people that just haven't been able to adapt or haven't had those skills to do that. So, we're hoping that this critical software will let us get a little better judgment of some skills that are needed by dispatchers so that we have a kind of reduce that turnover over there because our turnover for the most part in dispatch is it's just been those same entry- level positions. It's not, you know, we've got some pretty good longevity and keeping people. It's just making sure that we get somebody in there that can actually adapt and do the job. And it it is it is a very unique job. I mean, I think it can be very rewarding and it's it's very definitely a community benefit, but it's not just because you've got a good

personality doesn't mean that you can can do that. So, like a lot of the other things that we interview for for a lot of other jobs, that just doesn't work in dispatch. So, they're working on that and hopefully that will will be showing a little bit better improvement in this this round of dispatch applicants that we have. uh as part of some of their uh some of Sydney's uh dispatch training, each dispatcher is allowed to work on a passion project. So, uh last month, uh Whitney Schultz's passion project got completed. She uh raised a did a donation for Aiden's closet up at the hospital and got a bunch of clothes and and things raised for that. And so, we're excited to see the dispatchers helping the community in other ways as well. uh also operate uh emergency management kind of helped coordinate all the public safety departments and organizing and sending out the Salvation Army angel trees and silver angel gifts. You might have seen that on Facebook. So that was a kind of a good outreach for them. Uh we're also starting to work with text dot on our burn plan reviews for the next uh 207 and 152 rightway burn. Trying to make sure that we keep that moving forward. Uh we already mentioned the grant application for the third street drainage project through the hazard mitigation grant project. Uh we also did get our teammatou that was the uh mutual aid agreement we approved at the last council meeting has been submitted and accepted by the state. So we're back good to go with that. Uh also been reworking a little bit of the radio system. We added a new console to the radio tower for the uh V21 which is one of the simplex mutual a channels. that's greatly uh increased the range in which dispatch can hear and interact with those people the uh responding agencies on the mutual aid frequency that's not part of the repeater system. So trying to get ready that we're you know get ready for that wildfire season that you know we always we're kind of getting into that winter wildfire season. So trying to make sure we're ready and increasing our public uh outreach. You have seen some more uh

social media and print media outreach for the uh firewise mitigation efforts as we get into that too. So that's, you know, making sure that people know, you know, how to keep their trees trimmed and clean up their properties and and all of that. We have sent out notice for the uh new seven mile burn. Well, I shouldn't say new, but the this year's burn of the seven mile burn. Uh so just as soon as we get weather and people lined out to do that, we'll be doing that. Keep in mind that, you know, there is relative humidity standards, wind standards, personnel standards, temperature standards. So you know, it does take some time. We've given everybody a window, but now we have to wait for everything weatherwise to line up for that. But that uh is coming up. OEM's also started working with Frd to get their uh things implemented into the hazard mitigation plan. So we are trying to reach out and get the ISTDs in the hazard mitigation plan that will open them up to those hazard mitigation grants as well for or like hell resistant roofing and some other uh projects like that if we ever get hazard mitigation grants uh in the county again. So we are trying to get but you can only a hazard mitigation grant will only fund a a mitigation effort that is in the county's mitigation plan. So that's you know we put the third street flood in there. We've put the fire detection camera systems in there previously. We've put generators in there previously. So, so now we're just trying to get some more projects from other government entities in the county to make sure that they have access to that same pool in case something and we could still continue to work with Texas Forest Service as they're preparing the airport for the new air base for fire uh suppression aircraft. So, that's going pretty well. I do think uh we've talked to them. We're likely going to give them some space at city hall uh until they get everything worked out there. So, we'll let them they'll bring their own furniture and stuff, but we'll give them an extra office downstairs so that we can get them here a little closer. So,

are they going to be um like every day uh here every day? Uh do you know it's it's going to start out seasonally at in in high dangers. Their goal they are really pushing to have a ground base here as well. Okay.

And so when that happens, I think you're you'll see more permanent. Okay. and they are talking about this location for one of the you know the forest service did get authorized in the budget to buy their own aircraft and so it is likely that we'll have one of their aircraft here at that point it might be more permanent now the I think what they're looking at on a more permanent basis right now is two to four people but if the ground base comes you'll get a lot more with that

right and you know we've done we've been pretty good you know at trying you know, we're very well situated to a lot of the wildfires that end up being really large just because half the times they do get really large because of the drain and the Canadian River breaks and all of that. So, we are a lot of times much more better situated because once they get east of us, they're generally gone. You know, they're gone until they're through Roberts and Wheeler County. So if you're wanting to stop stop a lot of those big ones, it's important to get to them quicker and we're a lot more centrally located to those big wildfires than say even their Randle County at the Randle County Fire Station where they've got a lot of resources and especially in Childress.

So you know as you in the Childress area, those generally kind of stay pretty small. They can have wildfires, but the the land down there is pretty flat, so you don't have access issues. And so that's a lot of times what drives a lot of it up here is just being able to get access to the fire. If you can't you can't get to it, [laughter] you can't do anything about it. So we are looking to see how how that comes up. So in planning development, uh we have been focusing a lot more on alley cleanup now that the winter is behind us. They've already cleaned 236 blocks of alley this year, removing 8.44 tons of debris. So, you know, we got a little bit of news traction on that illegal dump being by the dumpster. Uh, you know, I will remind people that that you do not, and I know a lot of people get upset, well, I put it beside the dumpster. I don't know why the trash truck didn't get out and pick it up. There are 4,200 dumpsters in this town. If the trash truck driver stopped and got out of his truck, every time something was beside a dumpster, you would never get all of the dumpsters empty. And then instead of you being upset that we didn't pick up the oversized waste, you'd be upset that your dumpster was always full. Oversized and excess waste is not supposed to be put by the dumpster. You can call and schedule a pickup for it. It's easier for us to get it if it's at the front curb. Anyway, uh we talk about this a lot. We have the self-help bulk refuge program. We will come set the trailer for you. You throw it in the trailer, we will haul it off. You can take it to the transfer station. Every resident of Borger gets an extra,000 pounds per month. That's an extra 12,000 lbs or six tons per person per year if you would just take it to the transfer station. Uh metal is free if you take it to the

transfer station. They do not charge you for that. There is a metal pile. You can just take it and drop it off. Limbs, if you separate those and take them to the limb pile, it is free. No charge. So, we have a whole lot of things. And it amazes me like that the waste that was dumped in Keeler by that dumpster, someone hauled it there.

Yeah. If it it was already on a trailer or in a truck, why did you not just haul it to the transfer station? You know, some people still, like I said, I ran into a guy uh he was taking it out by the football field by the uh dumpsters out there. And I asked him, take it to the transfer station. He said, "I don't want to get charged." I said, "You live in a city limits aboard?" I said, "Come on, I'll take you over there." And we went unloading. And you know, they keep saying they don't know, but I don't know how much more information we can put out there to get them to understand. If you're not sure, just call and check.

Well, and you know, we we we try every way we can. And you know, you know, the council authorized a new position in this budget year. Actually, he's sitting right out there as Scott, who's going to be the new media specialist. So, we're going to have all sorts of videos and educational new ways of telling you how to do these things that that aren't that hard. People generally will go to more effort trying to illegally dispose of it or dumping than they would actually just do if they would do it right. The bulk help trailer free,000bs at the transfer station free. Like I said, that's six tons a year per person. We picked up we only picked up 8.4 tons. So, in a given year, two people could have disposed of that amount of trash free without any extra charge if they just slowly taken it to the transfer station. But I just kind of bring that up. I mean, we are trying I mean, there there's and I know that this is my broken record, but but you know, everything we do is in partnership. We can't expect the residents to do everything, but the residents can't expect us to do everything either. You know, it takes both of us. And so, they are at least getting trying to get caught up in the winter as much as that as they can. Uh they did complete the uh demolition of the house on Thompson Street and are getting ready for the next one after the first of the year. I'm not 100% sure uh what address that one's going to be, but they are working through all of that. And of course P&D and several of our departments I did allow departments to adopt an angel from the angel tree this year. And so some departments have contributed to that. So that's it. So in the fire department, they participated in the toys for top drive at the Walmart, the Christmas parade. Uh Emerald Fire Department came over and did a WPU class and they took a air modern class in conjunction with Philip 66. They've also been helping with the Salvation Army. Uh Captain Williams earned his fire officer 2 certification. And you might have seen on their Facebook, both assistant chief hall and

EMS coordinator uh Jeff Ste uh graduated from the certified public manager class. So they join. I believe we now have eight certified public managers in our organization. We've got at least two more starting the next cohort. So I'm excited to see those. The CPM program is really good because so many of us come up in the silo of the little department that we have and that CPM program a lot of times can help open your eyes to see all the different operations and it it really gives you a much over bigger picture and I think helps most executives uh be more effective. We were again this year ranked second in the nation by the uh fire chief's association for mitigation hours and mitigation efforts. So they do that by total hours and they don't factor in the size of your department. So it's just we have we are second in the nation in total hours contributed to mitigation efforts. So that's that's right up there. Like I mean if Dallas fire department who has like 4,000 firemen if they reported all their hours, we did more than they did. we did more than almost the uh the I don't remember which executive department was but the number one was out of California and so you know so I I do think that that is really important just to kind of that's two years in a row we've been second in the nation for those mitigation efforts and so I know that in 2024 we saw the importance of that but it's it's necessary to keep reminding everybody of that because we don't want to become lax in any of those efforts It it took almost 20 years for those efforts to pay off in 2024. And I know sometimes people, why are you doing that? You know, nothing's ever happened. And you say that a lot until something does happen. But that that $500,000 a year that's mostly recovered from other services that we do provides a

significant amount of benefit over the tens of millions of dollars of loss that probably would have happened had that fire not been stopped at that mitigation burn. So we are excited to keep uh keep being recognized for that that as far as EMS. So we've gotten a little more update. Uh so you know we've been kind of ambulance poor. So in 2026 so that might change. Right now uh we're slated to get one ambulance in March, one ambulance in June and one ambulance in September. That one that we're getting in September is technically slated for next budget year. So, we might actually have to tell them, you know, well, we're we might amend the budget to go ahead and take it, [laughter] even though it's not budgeted just after all the problem we we we've had. We'll uh we'll find a way to make that happen. But I do think we are finally getting caught up on that. That's kind of the last major uh hold up on on equipment the citywide in public works. So, we appreciate the uh street department. They stripe the dome parking lot. I don't know if you all noticed at the party that you could see your parking spaces a little better than than you had been. They'll get back out there here shortly to do the fire lane is the last thing that they they owe that they lack on that. But we are also starting to already prep for our sil coat program next summer. You know, we've got to make sure that all the trees are trimmed in streets so that the equipment can get under them. You've got to remove the vegetation and the growth at the that if any at the streets and we have to and we crack seal those streets. So, you're starting to see that that award should come in the council late January or February. We have uh got a pretty good extensive uh uh block on that. That's pretty much all of Fairlanes 2, uh all of Phil. Uh we're going to do Bulldog Boulevard this year. We're going to do St. John's Road this year. And then we're going to looking at the micro

ceiling Sixth Street and College. Uh they're connecting West Wilson to Roosevelt that got uh silk code last or micros microilled last year. So we'll get as we finalize that and get quotes, we'll get that to you. But there that there is quite a bit of prep work for that with the number of streets that we're going to do. So we're excited to see that. So far I do think the micro surfacing is holding up pretty good. So, it hasn't been super cold, but it made kind of that first cold spell and I haven't seen anything. So, I think we'll try to keep doing some of that uh as a test, but kind of keep it to high traffic. You know, streets are important to be a little a little better. Uh we already talked about the parks department kind of helping the skate park going up and of course they did get all the Christmas decor hang up last year. So, you know, they u I know the community likes that. You don't really realize how much they like it until you don't put them up in one section or they're burned out in one section and they call and want you to know that they're burned out. So definitely know that the uh public enjoys all the Christmas displays and we're happy to do that. Also getting ready for a controlled burn at the limp pile cleaning up getting ready for the the spring trim up season and courts and city secretary. Of course, uh Stella and I helped to give out chocolate, hot chocolate during the Christmas parade. That was uh uh good for the public. Um little bit of a mess for me, but uh we won't go into my faults too bad on that.

15 gallon. Well, yeah, we went through 15 gallon. Well, [laughter] I'm not for sure how much we handed out because two or three gallons of that ended up on the floor outside of my office. Oh, I wasn't aware of that. It's because I was so mad I got really quiet. [laughter] [snorts] But uh when they handed me the second gallon back to go make the third five gallon batch, the spout was left open and I didn't notice it. So when I started pouring the powder and the chocolate in there, it uh was pouring out for a while before I realized

Yeah. Well, and you know, of course, then that we had the sewer back up and the cast iron that burst. And so then I was moving boxes out of the records room while I was being leaked on with whatever was coming out of that. It it looked mostly clear. So I tried to tell myself that it was water. [laughter] So, but uh I did get them moved and I felt okay, but on my way home, I kind of started uh itching and burning. So I decided maybe I better get in the shower. Lord,

but it was a that's a what do they joke about that that that the last sentence in everybody's job descript descriptions and other duties as assigned. Guess I'm just sometimes it's can't when I sign them to myself though, can I? Well, [snorts] he went above and beyond [laughter]

or below since it was in the basement. Uh court's having court today. So, we had a jury trial today. We originally scheduled for six. They got some things settled in just one, but if you drove by and saw a lot of cars this morning, that was for court. And then uh we will be getting ready to call the uh general election the second meeting in January. So that's coming up uh next month. In police animal services, uh Candace and Jared both continued to complete a bunch of continuing education. Uh they did participate in the Christmas parade. I'm not for sure. I I know that Jared just completed animal cruelty training and he might need to talk to Candace because I'm not for sure if glow sticks around a dog's neck or not is cruel and unusual treatment [laughter]

non-toxic. [cough] Although the the light up collar was uh generating quite a bit of attention in the parade. So hopefully she asked the the animal if he wanted to participate first. [laughter]

And then we also did get our UV lights installed in the service truck. So that's part of our uh efforts to reduce disease spread and transfer. So we're some of the first in the area to have have that. So we're excited to see that. The police department of course the they got to participate in the borger fridge and Pampa Christmas parades. Uh motorcycles tend to go to all of them. So they you know Pampa will come over here and help us. So we'll go over there and help them. and they kind of make the make the rounds. Sergeant Gter is complete went down to the alert symposium to make sure he stays up to date on all the latest changes for that. And then of course like the fire department and emergency management, they help with toys for Todd and the Salvation Army. And then our newest recruit is getting ready to start the police academy on the 1st on the 12th of January. So we'll have another one in the police academy pretty soon, which means the other one's probably getting fairly close to being off FTO. M main street. So Nicole's been busy submitting our final uh documents and close out for the first street initiative. You know, now that we're transitioning into the full Main Street. So, we got that going. We did have our sip and shop over the weekend to kind of uh promote and uh get people out to some of the local businesses. Been helping with all the Christmas events. We're also finishing up the dome annual report and the main street annual report. Those will be on a future agenda along with our annual PM report. That'll probably be the second meeting in January. We'll have those on is is our goal. Uh public engagement continues work on our centennial book. So, this is [clears throat] our last council meeting of the 99th year of the city of Border. So, our next meeting will be the first meeting in our 100th year. So, we will definitely have a whole bunch of centennial stuff starting to show up and be uh incorporated into all of our events next year. So, we're getting ready for that. Also continue to work with the parks and Phillips on the trees

for Houston project which is going to bring 500 public plus trees. So, they're going to be able to give 500 trees away to the public here in Borger. Uh those are like five gallon bucket trees. So, these are not seedlings. These are, you know, legit trees. and then they'll be working with their volunteers to plant about a 100 trees in all of our parks as well. So, that'll be exciting. Coming up, of course, we already talked about the ripple effect planning. Uh that will actually be on March 4th. We'll get more information out as that comes. And then we have been doing a small uh website redesign, kind of updating the appearances of it and keeping up, make sure it stays up with the latest technologies. That will go live sometime in the first uh of the year as well. So that's what I have for the last month on the department's activities. I'll entertain any questions anybody might have.

Good report. One question on your sales tax. Does that include the Amazon? Yes. Just want to make sure. Yes. So Amazon pays at the point of delivery. And so I do think that that is some I think that is some of our increase. Uh like I've said before, while we would always support, you know, the physical sale here, uh a lot of things that people used to drive to Amarillo for, they're buying online and getting delivered here. So, we do get the sales tax on that. So, while we always want people to shop locally, if you can't shop locally, it is better to buy on Amazon than to go and buy it in Amarella.

It saves them money, too, because that way you don't have to take your wife or whatever to [laughter] you don't have the expense of the gasoline. And I've been told this. [laughter] Does that work for you? I hope it will. My wife isn't watching as far as I know, so I should be safe.

I might get a fix. [laughter] Okay. Anybody got anything else? All right. We're going to move on to the consent agenda. Items six through 10. I will entertain a motion.

I'll make a motion [clears throat] we approve consent items six through 10. Second. All in favor? And it passes. All right. We will move on to items to be considered. Um, move on to 11, the animal regulations ordinance to consider and take appropriate action to approve on final reading ordinance 0-017-25 amending chapter 2 animal control of the code of ordinances of the city of Borger, Texas by updating and adding regulations regarding the outdoor feeding of feral animals and required uh microchipping of impounded animals upon release. So far, Following our discussions last week, we talked about adding clear exceptions for the traps spay and release programs. So, this version does have those in there. The exception for the outdoor uh feeding states a match. Uh let me get over there to my red line version. forgot how big how long this ordinance was.

It was very long. That's a big So the new exception for uh outdoor feeding is feeding conducted as part of a trap space/neuter and release program or other animal management initiative initiative operated by a nonprofit organization, private individual or other non- city entity provided the program maintains written procedures and policies. policies and has been reviewed and approved by resolution of the city council. So that's what we talked about during the work session at the meeting last week for the the feeding exception. [clears throat] And that same exception is in the trapping section. Trapping conducted as part of a trap, spay, neuter, and release program or other animal management initiated initiative operated by a nonprofit organization, private individual or other non- city entity, provided the program maintains written procedures and policies and has been reviewed and approved by resolution of the city council. So, the exceptions for the most part mirror everybody, one for the feeding, one for the trap. Other than that, the other uh parts of it remain unchanged from the previous version. Other questions or

any have anything? All right, I'll entertain a motion. I move to approve on final reading ordinance 0-017-25 amending chapter 2 of the city of Borga code of ardin relating to animal regulation. Second.

All in favor? Passes. Move on to item 12. Consider and take appropriate action to approve an interlocal agreement with Clemens Stanette Phillips Consolidated ISD for school resource officer services. Chief Davis.

Good afternoon, council. Uh so I'm here today to uh visit with you about an agreement or possible agreement with uh Plennet Phillips CISD which is the school district in Stenet. I was approached by them a few months back um inquiring about the possibility of us taking over school resource officer services for them. Um, first and foremost, I want to say that I believe that the fact that they even reached out to us is definitely a testimony to how well of a job our school resource officers are doing and how people notice that they're doing great work if we have other school districts that are interested in having us take over services for them as well. Um, STE does currently have a school resource officer uh to meet the requirements of the legislature. The way their campus is set up, they're required to have one officer, which is what they have. Um the officer that is there has um voiced his uh desire to come be employed by the city of Borger if we do take over the contract there and continue services there at the school. Um which I think would be phenomenal. He does a great job there. He's established there and the kids all know him and love him. Um I know this is kind of strange due to the fact that Stanette is outside of our our jurisdiction. However, the way that this agreement is written does give the officer um concurrent jurisdiction on school property. And then also in Texas, your peace officer commission, you can be commissioned in more than one entity at a time. And the officer there is going to maintain his commission with the city of Stette as well. So that's kind of a double um commission there, if you will, but that will make sure ensure that he has full author jurisdictional authority to do everything he needs to do there. Um the outline of the agreement, it is set up similar to the agreement we have um with the city of Borger. However, it's at an 85% cost on the Stenet School as opposed to the 80 that Borger does just due to them being outside of our our area. Um it also includes a um of course payment for the officer salary and

benefits. They're 85% as well as a onetime purchase for a vehicle for him um similar to like we did uh I think two officers ago. Was it Garrett or was it the number six? Okay, number six. Spring Creek School, we made B, you know, we had we had absorbed the vehicle purchases, but they we they'd added, you know, we went from we had three for a long long time and then within like a two-year period, we had six.

And so there was just too many to absorb the cars and we're still kind of in that same boat. So this does include that car which the cost there for the vehicle is listed on here at $37,900. That's for a Dodge Charger, which is what all of our SRO's are currently driving. Um, due to the uh nature and the difference of their duties compared to what our patrol officers do, the Charger is a sufficient vehicle for them and has seems to work well for the the officers that we have in them. Um, the agreement is set up into two separate payments on a um it's a longer basis with two payments in it. The reason is is their contract actually ends at the end of December. Um, so the new contract would begin in January, but we went ahead and set it up where it would go ahead and align with the rest of our SRO contracts. So that way we can do them all at the same time each year and review them at the same time each year.

Orders are July through June. So we're just going to this 18month would get them on the same rotation rotation and that it also allows the payment to be made over two of their fiscal years. And so that's why the payments are split like that. So, one will hit this fiscal year and then one will hit their next fiscal year. So, it'll work out on that aspect of it. Um, that messed my train of thought up. I'm trying to remember what else I was going to visit on that. Uh, this is I still feel it's a benefit to the city. A um we get another officer for a lesser price. So, that's one more officer to help with our different events that we have going on and different things here. While it is outside of our our normal assigned area, it is still very close. It's within the county and it's also where we can if we need assistance from another officer, it gives us another body to be able to help with things. Um,

in reality, as the largest law enforcement agency, if anything big happens, we're the one a lot of times carrying the bulk of the response. So, having that knowledge and having that communication in a school environment, I do think is beneficial. uh having an entire SRO department, it allows our other PE, you know, our other officers can fill in if that officer is on vacation or vice versa, that officer can help cover down here depending on what's going on. So, it does give some more flexibility. When we're talking about covering sporting events, those are paid by the school districts uh as overtime for those officers. So, there's a more way to spread that out. Right now, SNET's got one officer to try to cover all the sporting events. And that's just I mean

and that's a benefit for our officers too because they have another opportunity for overtime if you know if they need extra money or whatever. So that's good for them as well. The jurisdiction in the contract technically gives it to all border PD officers. So any BPD officer will have jurisdiction on school district property. And so that's a similar if you remember two years ago when we took over Spring Creek we added that language because we needed that for border tube since script since the

Spring Creek property is outside of the city limits. So it it does just mirror that. Uh in theory they've also got some our jurisdiction actually covers over to any city property. So, you know, all the water property and stuff up around Stonet 2, we already have jurisdiction in

how how is the time going to be spent on each camp? Uh, is it going to be, you know, high school half a day, middle school? So, well, so the way that they have this campus set up, it is all in one large campus. Now, the high school, the middle school, and then the elementary are actually all one campus. So the way that Officer Edwards does it now is he's he he gets his steps in every day, but he he pretty much just covers every campus and he is there, you know, in one part of that throughout the day. Awesome. Which for an example I'll tell you on the extra coverage with our school resource officers during the wildfires whenever the Remr fire you know we were that day we were dealing with the uh the Smokehouse Creek we were dealing with the Windy Deuce and then the Reamer fire actually came up also during that time period and it came across and is at what initially burnt uh Scots acres parts of Scots acres and then in you know tied in with the Smokehouse Creek fire. The officers that did the evacuations that day were your school resource officers from here in Border and myself. Um, we had everybody spread so thin that day. It was great to have those extra officers because they immediately came up there, helped with the evacuations and got, you know, a ton of people out of there and warned them before the fast moving fire came through. So, that's kind of an example of how we can utilize those other positions when we have them for emergencies such as that. That's a good example of how we've done that. Um, but that is pretty much the outline of the contract. I'm happy to answer any questions or address any concerns that you may possibly have.

I got I guess I have a misunderstanding. Does he stay with the Stenette Police Department or does it be moved over to the border? So, the way that would work, sir, is he would become employed by the city of Borger as a borger police officer. Okay, that will be his his full-time job, his primary responsibilities with the city of Borger. Now, what they have is his dual commission is is he maintains his commission through Stenat as a part-time employee. So that makes it where he is still a peace officer for the city of Stenet as well. We actually have several of our I say several we have a handful of our officers now that are dual commission with other entities like that. He gives the officers kind of a part-time job or a part-time opportunity to work at another place to make a little extra money and that's kind of how it's going to maintain there with that is he'll still be a part-time employee for the city of Stinet for purposes of his commission and such but he'll be a full-time employee with the city of Border.

So does that fill one of the openings in the border police department? No, because this would Yes and no. This would add a position. It adds a position, but it also fills said position because we have an officer that's already willing to take that or wanting that position. So, it's technically neutral.

So, signing the contract would create the need for another officer. If he comes over, he feels that additional. So, it's a neutral impact. You'd be getting insurance to us, right? And that that's where

our personnel M our personnel policies, our police department policies, his his I mean Yeah. [clears throat] He's an employee of the city of Border. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Don.

And it's nothing against they are definitely trying to focus on their own selves right now. And so, you know, there's no adverse feelings with all of that. They, you know, uh, like I said, I did the the the the reimbursement is slightly different. I, you know, I knew that we couldn't quite give them the same deal we give BISD. And so that's why we we did that different so that it's not it because it is not quite apples to apples. It's similar but not the same.

If he's replaced as an SRO officer, does he remain a policeman city of border? Yes. [clears throat] And in theory, any of the SRO's have all the opportunity to promote or change assignments or anything else within the police department.

I will say on that, we're very blessed with the group of school resource officers that we have. Each of them is, I think, an excellent fit at the campus that they find themselves at. If you go to any of the campuses, the officers there, they love the kids, their age group that they're with. Some of them, I don't know how they do it every day, but they do. um that they fit in great with the with the campus. So, it's nice to be able to have those officers in the position where a they want to be, but b where it's honestly where they're best served and I think officer Edwards and Stanette is no different. He uh is vested there. He's been the school resource officer for a long time and and does an excellent job for the school. So, it would be another good fit for our SRO program. I believe

when we realigned the salary, we added those level two positions, you know, which gave an extra seven steps which allowed allowed the SRO's to have some more career progression without promoting or having to move out of the SRO position. That had been kind of one of the long-term complaints is that an SRO was like a regular patrolman and you had your regular five steps and that was it. And if you wanted to promote, you had to promote to something other than SRO. So with the SRO's now, as big as they are, we added an SRO sergeant when BISD added the fifth one. like, you know, look, if you're gonna have that many, we need a sergeant that that supervises that many. And we added that that two. So, you've got the SRO one, SRO 2, SRO sergeant one, SRO sergeant 2. So, in theory, they have four progressions that they can move through, which is the same number of progressions a regular patrolman can move through without leaving the SRO designation. There is special skill for that. I mean, you know, and there is different education. And so it definitely behooves us to pay them a little bit more to keep them in that role longer. I mean, you develop the relationships with kids and it it it takes a takes a special person. I mean,

definitely does that. I am not that person. I'm not either. [laughter] I don't know. The little I could probably the elementary kids and everything that they still love you at that age. When you get to the older kiddos, bless them. But like carried on. Well, and the thing is is most most of our SRO's right now, if I tried to take them out of the school they were assigned to, the school district probably hang me from the flag pole. So, uh, we're very blessed because we have good fits where the officers are. So,

and we have tried to, you know, make those personnel policies around that to to create some longevity, you know, in there and and make sure that they're they're happy. And that's that's worked out pretty well. I mean, the and we talk a little bit about the sum in the budget. you know, turnover costs way more than what paying people cost. So, you know, we want to be mindful of that. Now, that doesn't mean we have unlimited ability to pay salary, but we can definitely add in adding a two and a half% step, you know, that's nothing compared to what you run in overtime to fill a vacant position. So,

okay. Thank you. Thank you. All right. I will entertain a motion. I move to approve the interlocal agreement between the city of Borger and Flemenset Phillips Consolidated ISD for school resource officer services and authorize the mayor to execute the agreement.

Second favor and it passes. Thank you. Oh, we get to come back. All righty. Item 13. Consider and take appropriate action on resolution R-020-25 authorizing a multiple use agreement between the city of Borger and the Texas Department of Transportation for the construction, use, and installation of the flock traffic cameras located within state ride ofways.

Hello again. Uh so this is another umou on our flock camera agreement that we started on I want to say two years ago now. Um, but it's with the uh the flock traffic cameras that we have are working on getting set up. We currently have two in use inside the city. This helps us pave the way to get the rest of our cameras put up in an agreement with Tex Dot. There's been a process for this in Austin where they've had to go through a lot of different steps and a lot of different things to approve this to go on Tex dot rideaways and Tex equipment. Um, we currently have two of the cameras set up at Roosevelt and Wilson. Um, I do want to remind everybody that this is not a red light camera. This is not a speed camera. This is a this is a camera that is used for criminal investigations, Amber Alerts, things such as that. Um

notice I think in the news if you the the the unfortunate issue with the senior couple out of panhandle that those cameras did let them know which direction they had gone. That is how they found out where they went was actually off the flock cameras just like what we have here. So there is it's not something where it's just monitored every day to see who's driving where or how many times Miss Perez goes to Walmart on a day, anything like that. It's not we can't we can't tell you you Mr. L. You were talking earlier about your wife maybe going out and spending money. [clears throat] We can't tell you how many times your wife's gone to Walmart. [laughter] That's not what the purpose of them is. The purpose is a criminal investigation. I give a fine example. Well, if somebody, let's say, steals your vehicle and we're trying to figure out where your vehicle's at, we can enter that license plate into the flock camera system and they're all over the panhandle, all over the state, and actually are working into other states now as well. So, if they take off and go a certain direction, those flock hits will hit on that license plate. It reads that license plate and then tells us, hey, this vehicle that's stolen went this way. Furthermore, if a stolen vehicle from somewhere else, let's say, just happens to pass one of our cameras, the camera hits, it recognizes that it's a stolen vehicle that's entered in the system, and then it sends an alert to our officers. So, hopefully helps us catch the uh the vehicle or find the stolen vehicle. Also, like on an Amber Alert, if we put an Amber Alert or any of those alerts that you see like that, they go into the flock system, and if that vehicle crosses one of those cameras, it tells you what time they went through there and help us be able to locate them hopefully for a good resolution. So, I do believe we were able to do this through a a grant which has been phenomenal for us because it's made the cost very small. We have budgeted the cost for these again this year for our portion of the grant that we do pay to that. But almost I won't say every entity, but most entity law enforcement entities in the panhandle got in on this grant. So, it's great because that expands our network that much further out. So, if we're looking for a vehicle for whatever criminal investigation, it helps us know if they're somewhere else in the panhandle or in the state, it gives us that knowledge. So, it's a great tool for us to hopefully help us be able to remedy some investigations or to, you know, come to a conclusion on things that we need to.

We are looking at using these possible same cameras at skate park and at Huber Park, you know, so that they can add into that network, too, but then also give us alerts when they have some built in. You can use them to more than just how they're using them on the highways to where we can get AI alerts that, hey, someone's spray painting.

[snorts] So they have the ability to do facial recognition and that kind of stuff if you get the right camera. The ones that we have on the No. Well, the the ones the ones that are in the going in the rideway are merely there to log license plates license plates and vehicles. And so then all you really get to do is you query and it'll tell you if if that license plate passed any of them. So you you you for the most part have to know a license plate before you query.

So does it do it past tense as well as pretense? Yes. Yeah. So, like if you enter that, it'll it'll say, "Hey, this it passed a week ago here." But but you can refine that search, too. You know, like if it just got stolen yesterday, you probably don't care what it was doing the day before, but then you then tell you a week later that, oh, it did just come right back,

right? And that's like with the with the unfortunate incident with the elderly couple and panhandle, you know, when they passed by those cameras, nobody knew that that they were missing at that point. But then after they the sheriff's office and panel PD got to work on that, they entered it in the system. Well, then they got hits that hey, it passed this direction going towards to carry which is ultimately where they were found.

So it it is a great tool for a lot of our investigations to kind of help us be able to locate those vehicles. And this is technically the third time you've approved this. We've got That's what I was getting ready to say. I was trying to remember. I want to say this is time. Unfortunately, we just got to make sure we've got everything the way that text needs because text required the specific locations to be in the resolution that approves the accompanying. The last resolution didn't have the locations specifically called out in the resolution.

That's the So, we were going to add them into theou and so that's that's the real reason you're back in front of this is because we needed the specific locations in the resolution. Third times a charm. We hope it is. If not, I'll be back to see you in a few weeks and we'll do this all again. But hopefully that that does what we need it to. So,

well, thank you. Appreciate y'all. Thank you. All right. Anybody got anything? All right. I'll entertain a motion. I move to approve resolution R-0020-25 authorizing a multiple use agreement between the city of Borga and the Texas Department of Transportation for the construction, use, and installation of the flock traffic cameras located within state rightway. Second.

All in favor? It passes. We'll move on to item 15 which is consider and take appropriate action to journ. I make a motion we adjourn. All in favor?