City Council - Regular Meeting

[snorts] That's good.

Hello. Hello. How are you, sir? How you doing? You doing okay? Good to see you. Welcome. Good. [clears throat]

Well, welcome everybody. Amber, are you leaving us? Good night. [laughter] I would like to welcome everybody tonight. Ask you to silence your telephones and join us for the invocation. And I'm gonna ask Doug to offer the invocation. [laughter] I will. Heavenly Father God, Lord, we come to you. We give you praise, thanks, and just keeping everyone safe as you have. Uh Lord, we just ask you to be the council tonight. decisions for our city, keep everybody safe as they travel home. And we ask this in Jesus name. Amen. [clears throat] Amen.

Please join me in the pledge. I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [snorts] All right. So, we have a couple of little things here tonight in the items of community interest. There's a couple of things I'd like to for the community to be aware of. One of them is I'm going to give you a little bit of information about the governor's action to issue a state disaster declaration last week prior to this weekend's ice event. The importance of this is that the public be aware that the disaster declaration relates to preparedness for our city and the cities around us and the counties, not necessarily anything that happens because of the ice. Um the cost is generally related to things we have to do for preparedness like curfews and um staging, preparing to avoid price gouging and stuff like that. Uh, and I just want the public to know it doesn't necessarily relate to individual properties. [snorts] At the same time, I want the council to be very aware of how lucky we are to be surrounded by such wonderful employees. Because of that, we did not have a lot of problems this weekend. Um, and what we did have, they took care of immediately. And that's what we like to see. We also like to see that you didn't have to go out in any of this bad weather. Um, linemen always take their life in their own hands when they have to do that. Um, while I have you here, I have invited Kirk to come up and talk to us about the things that took place this weekend because with respect to the weather when this happens, we always ask Kirk to take the phone calls, answer the questions, get the help, work with TDM,

among many other things such as what he did this weekend, he'll tell you about. And it's all about little things that we take for granted sometimes. He did work non-stop this last 72 hours and I want to recognize him for being there for people that needed our help and assistance. So, Kirk, I want to turn this over to you.

Okay. Last time it was 10 pages of stuff. This is just two double spaced. So, just so you know, um this all actually started last Monday the 19th. The National Weather Service has a policy that they don't forecast more than seven days in advance. So Monday, they knew it was coming. Monday is when they started messaging about the winter weather event for the weekend. Uh once that came out early Monday morning, we immediately shared that via social media with everybody that's follows our Facebook page and the city's pages and those kind of things. Uh we also participated in the National Weather Service uh Facebook live presentation at 8:00 PM that night to help describe what was going on. Tuesday the 20th, weather service issued a winter storm watch at about 2 in the afternoon. We shared that via hyperreach and social media with everybody to get the word out. Uh Wednesday the 21st at about noon the weather service issued an extreme cold watch. We shared that via hyperreach and social media. Uh we also contacted the American Red Cross to initiate shelter opening. uh that was due we were able to do that because we had set up the memorandum of understanding with the Red Cross in the past so that they had already inspected the community center. We were good to go. We just had to find the staffing and those kind of things. Uh there was a uh Texas Division of Emergency Management special uh special operations center call at 10:00 a.m. that morning. There was also a National Weather Service webinar at 1 PM that afternoon to discuss what was going on. Thursday, things started to kick up. We activated

the EOC Thursday morning. The weather service issued a winter storm warning. They then issued an extreme cold warning. We shared that information via Hyper Reach social media. Uh we also began messaging regarding the American Red Cross shelter. At that time, we didn't have a specific time, but we wanted to get the word out that it was going to be there. At 11:55 that morning, the governor issued the state disaster declaration. Unfortunately, because of a Microsoft Word 365 issue, that information didn't get sent to us until 9:49 that night. Had we known that earlier in the day, we probably would have issued a local disaster declaration earlier, but we didn't get it till that evening. We also had a uh special operations center call at 10. Uh TDM had a district 3 call at 400 p.m. and the weather service at 100 p.m. again for a webinar on Friday. Activated the EOC again first thing in the morning. local disaster declaration was issued at 9:00 am and forwarded to the governor's office. Uh we also shared that information with the city secretary who's required to make public announcements and post that information. Got it shared via social media as well. The temperature in Monte County fell to 32 degrees at about 3:30 that afternoon. The American Red Cross shelter opened at 5 that afternoon. Um, we shared the information about the opening of the shelter via iPod. How many cell phone went berserk Friday at about 4:30? That was our FEMA system for notifications. That message went out to every single cell phone inside the box we drew on a computer screen and it worked

wonderfully. I made a bunch of people mad, but it worked wonderfully. Um, we had a conference call at 10:00 a.m. with TDM, a webinar with weather service at 1 and 900 p.m. that night. The weather service does also occasionally offer 3:40 a.m. calls. We opted not to join any of those because it wasn't going to change for us. Uh, Saturday activated the EOC at first thing in the morning. conference calls again, 10:00 am, 100 pm, 900 pm, and then Saturday was spent running back and forth to the shelter, helping the Red Cross with different issues and getting things that they needed. Uh, Sunday activated the EOC again in the morning. Winter storm warning expired at 6:00 p.m. Sunday night. Conference calls again, 10:00 a.m., 1:00 p.m., 900 p.m. Uh, Monday activated to EOC. The Red Cross shelter closed at noon. Uh the TDM call 10:00 a.m. The webinar with a weather service at 100 p.m. Um part of the reasoning for closing the Red Cross shelter was because of the gas outage in the DFW Metroplex. They were having to reallocate staffing to go open shelters in the DFW area because they had no gas for heat. Uh Tuesday morning, the extreme cold weather expire warning expired at 9:00 a.m. and there was a TDM uh special operation center called at 10:00 a.m. this morning and we've just been cleaning up from things uh most of the day. During the event, there were two waterline breaks that I'm aware of that are pending being repaired because a it's too cold and b getting the 811 crews out there to mark the area for underground pipelines you have to do

before you can do it and they're kind of behind. Uh we also had I believe one two houses without electricity due to the fact that their transformer blew. The electric department guys got out there very quickly, got that taken care of. They didn't have to evacuate their home due to the cold. We also had I know of three residences on Jefferson Street that lost gas because of condensation in their gas lines that froze and Atmos got out there quickly. Unfortunately, it required having to replace all of their meters and doing some digging. So, that took them a little bit of time, but they got that taken care of. Other than that, and some small structural damage in town, we've got three uh awnings that I've noticed are down. Uh I've heard some carports that were damaged as well from the weight of the snow and stuff. We did not suffer anything as bad as has gone on in the county. I'm not sure if you heard the bus barn at St. Joe ISD collapsed with all their buses inside. So, they're scrambling to figure out how they can get the buses out today. Uh, Carter Lake Baptist Church had some roof damage from collapse as well. I guess the steeple now points kind of sideways. Um, I'm trying to think there was also something this afternoon with the Nakona water tower has got an issue, but all in all, we did very well. I think it was St. Joe's. They had a hole in their water.

No. No. No. No. Somebody told me St. Joe. Now, if you've been watching the internet, big rumor about the same thing happening again this weekend. The National Weather Service is suggesting that there is a chance for another winter storm, but it will be more the east coast, the northeast, and the southeast. It will be east of us. They're not predicting anything bad from here, but it's going to be cold.

It's going to be chilly. Um, several web weather sites are saying, "Oh, there's an even bigger one coming down the road, but they're looking two weeks out, and you can't really trust a forecast two weeks out for that kind of thing." But right now, we're looking good. It is going to warm up. Freezing fog tonight, which is going to be interesting. Everything that melted during the day is going to refreeze tonight. The roads are going to be terrible again. Um, and it's it may even refreeze again tomorrow night. That's kind of in question, but we done good this time. So, we got lucky.

I appreciate the report. I I wanted the council to know just exactly what your job is because um sometimes we forget that you're back there and um we appreciate everything that you did during the not to mention every other department that worked. Um so the thing about the Red Cross was really great. We didn't have to staff it. They staffed it themselves and there was somebody there 24 hours a day and it wasn't anybody on our crew. So that was really nice. It went very They did an amazing job. They were very very nice people. Was there So what how much utilization of the shelter?

We had two adults and one dog that spent every night there. We were open during the day. We had quite a few folks come in to use it as a warming center. Um but it was just the two spending the night. So how many warming centers were there in North Texas? [clears throat] Interesting question because TDM maintains a database listing that's up to date of all the shelters that are open. Of the ones that were registered on that, we were the only shelter in North Texas. So, district three up to Witchaw Falls and to us.

There were only four in region two, which is the DFW Metroplex and us. There were a lot of shelters that were open who opted not to register on that list because they were afraid of being overwhelmed. Witchto Falls all had several churches that were open, but they didn't publish that widely. So, so um I I know I shouldn't do this, but city of Buoie was there for our people and others again. Yeah. And I'm very proud of that and the staff that makes that happen. [snorts] So, and we will, I'm sure, be utilizing the Red Cross again. They did an amazing job. And yes, they even had a nurse there,

two of the nights. So, so, all right. Well, thank you very much for making them aware of everything that went on. Yes, sir. What area is affected by these two water mane breaks? Uh, they're not water manes, they're just small lines. Yeah, they're the individual lines. Well, there's one on my side. I don't know what the second one is, but they're both the small lines. Stony said elementary school. Yeah, near the elementary. The other one is the reason why there's flowing water across Pan Street down here. Haven't been over there. Yeah, it's right there underneath it. So, but they're they're considered minor. Yeah. Okay. So, anybody have any more questions? All right. Well, then let's move on to

see what you do, Kirk. Uh, city manager report.

Y'all need to again, I said this last time, I say it again. I wrote this a week and a half ago, so things changed quickly. But, uh, the Texas Water Development Board hosted a webinar last Tuesday on the water supply infrastructure grant program. [clears throat] It's one of the few I've ever seen, a 100% grant made possible by the constitutional amendment that adds additional $1 billion per year to the Texas Water Fund. uh we were certainly apply for something uh in my notes there you'll see I had number one two three and four uh that's changed a little bit based on the fact that there's there's three reasons that you can get a grant uh the main one is people that are under orders from TCQ about their water is going to be the the number one and and we're underwater from TCU about the the raw water pump at the lake. So, we might apply under that. Uh but there's a pipeline that runs from Mil Street down Tarant all the way out to the O lake. It's an 8 inch line and you know that's several million dollars. I think five million is all we can get grant for. So that that probably gone on the down on the list. the uh water plant is probably going to be 10 million. Uh so, you know, you know, that's probably going to be above what to do. But [clears throat] there's other things that we can apply for and we just need to sit down and scratch our heads and see which one is going to be be the best one. The raw water pump counting engineering is it's pretty much already engineered. So, uh, you know, the faster we can get the thing in that's

engineered, the better our chances are. The webinar that they had, uh, I sat there and watched the count. You when you're watching it, you can see how many people are on and at one point there was 700 and something people watching that webinar. And I can pretty much guarantee you there's going to be at least five to 700 applications for that money. So, that's how competitive it's going to be. Uh, anyway, we're gonna we're going to apply for it and see what happens. Uh, if you don't, it's kind of like the lottery. If you don't buy a ticket, you can't win. So, we we'll be right there in front. Uh, I made a presentation last Wednesday at the TCQ solid waste grant program. We asked for a large dump trailer for the electric department transfer trees, limbs, and other vegetation to the shreddered location. This need arises from the PUC's uh and the legislaturator's house bill 144 and 145 which mandates wildlife wildfire mitigation plan for transmission and distribution lines. Uh house bill 144 also requires a distribution pole management plan. If you'll recall, this came out of the fact that they had all of the fires in the panhandle and they blamed the electric company up there and you know for and that probably what caused it. We've had electric fires around here before too. At any rate, uh uh we made application for it and the late news is yesterday uh we got our scores and we scored well enough to be funded. Uh the cost of the trailer is going to be $24,711.37. Uh TCQ has to approve the scoring and it may be several weeks before we know the final outcome, but it looked like we were successful. So we're certainly glad

of that. What's Is there a match on that trailer? What? A match? No, it's 100% grab. Any other questions? All right. Well, if not, let's move on to the consent agenda items. In your packet, you have the January 13th regular meeting minutes, and you have the resolution write-offs for the utility and the library. [clears throat] So, I would entertain a motion if if you have uh read it for the approval of all three as presented. So moved. Shaw. Do I have a second? Second. Post. Truax.

Hi. Holstein. Hi. Post. I Walker. Hi. Shaw. Hi.

Thank you. All right. Next item on the agenda is the [clears throat] second reading of ordinance 2026-01 an ordinance of the city of Buouie, Texas abandoning all-right title an interest in a portion of that certain alley rideway describes as a land track of land consisting of 31 acres out of block 34 and block 39 of hill count hill county school land survey A319 city of Buouie Monte County Texas and being more particularly described in exhibit A here to attached attached here too providing for [clears throat] the furnishing of certified copy of this ordinance and recording it for official public records of the Monte County, Texas as a quit claim deed authorizing the city manager to execute any documents necessary to complete set abandonment and providing an effective date. This was again presented at the last meeting. So this is the second reading. This is basically the finalizes the easement uh over in the Glenn Hill lift station where we're going to build a new lift station over there. We just had to have more room. This part of the ne negotiations to we basically changed an alley from an alley to a utility. So, it's not that big a deal.

Uh I would entertain a motion to accept the second reading as presented. So moved. post. Do I have a second? Second. Who said that? Lar Shaw. Yes. Walker. Hi. Holstein. Hi. Post. Hi. Truax.

Hi. [clears throat] All right. The next item on the agenda is second reading of ordinance 2026-02, an ordinance amending the adopted municipal budget for fiscal year 2024 25 for specified funds account and light iteing designations declaring all other appropriations of the budget document unchanged, instructing the city manager to make the necessary revisions to the city's accounting records, declaring [clears throat] a severability clause, and providing for an effective date. And I believe that you all remember that Pam was here last month regarding those two line item adjustments and they were made at the declaration of the auditors and it was to hopefully keep our records underneath that million dollar threshold or a single line item audit.

So um since you're familiar with it, I would ask for a motion to accept as presented. So move Hstone second. Second Shaw Trux. Post. Hi. Walker. Hi. Shaw. Hi. Holy. [snorts] Hi. Thank you. All right. The next item on the agenda is new business. The reappoint to the planning and zoning commission. We have to do these individually. The first one on your list is for Mark Burus. I would entertain a motion. Does anybody ask Mark?

David did today actually to reappoint Mark to the planning and zoning commission. So moved post. Do I have a second? Walker Shaw. [laughter] Yes. So you don't want to be his friend is what you're saying. [laughter] True X. Holstein. I post I and Walker Hi. Our second individual is for Todd Brown. Um I don't think he's here. I would entertain a motion to accept Tom Brown as a reappoint. So moved. Shaw. Do I have a second? Second. That was Boyd. Larie, you got to speak up.

I know you got a bigger voice than that. Okay. Shaw. Hi. Truax. Hi. Holstein. Hi. Post. Hi. And Walker. Hi. And the last individual is Gary Cunningham. I would entertain a motion to appoint Gary reappoint Gary Cunningham to the planning and zoning board. So moved. Post. Do I have a second? Second. Larie Shaw. I Walker. I Trux. Hi. Post. I Holstein. I.

All right. Here's my favorite report all year. I don't know why. I just love it when you come to do that. I don't love the way you did it tonight, but I love when you come to do that. So, we're going to have uh police chief um present. [laughter] I was looking for the word present. I'm all over Facebook. Racial profiling report. Okay. Good evening. Good evening. I'll try to hit the highlights and I don't think you want me to read every single line, but I'll answer your questions. Sir, I read it.

Okay. So, there are 3,47 traffic stops, 2,645 are on city streets, 228 on US highways, eight on county roads, 131 on state highways, and 35 on private property. Um, was race or ethnicity known prior to stop? Yes. Was 92? No. was 2,955. Uh, the race ethnicity was broken down by Alaskan Native, Alaskan Native and American Indian, six, Asian, Pacific Islander, 51, black 104, white 2,740, Hispanic or Latino, 146. There were 1,190 females, 1,857 males. and reason for stop violation of law was 57 moving or pre-existing knowledge 32 moving traffic violations 1,761 vehicle traffic violations were 1,197 and 205 were searched 2842 were not and then it breaks down if y'all want me to go into more details I can or if you have any questions basically what this is the state requires by law that the governor body of every mun or every law enforcement agency that we're required to give this report so that you guys can see or if you see a concern that you think that the department is stopping individuals that it's not consistent with the demographic of your community that you could put a stop to that and uh based on our demographic I think we're we are not racially profiling I don't believe

pretty spot on So, anybody have any questions? It was a very long report. It was I don't remember it being quite this long last year. The state requires all that information. No question. And it's on the on the website at the the state, every agency in the state of Texas, even Doug has to click yes, I stopped cars or didn't stop cars. So, anything you want to look, you can find on any agency in the state. All right. first numerous years. Would anybody like to make a motion to accept this racial profiling report as presented? So move. Holstein. Do I have a second? Second.

Shaw. Truax. Hi. Holstein. I post I Walker. Shaw. Hi. All right, Doug. We're up to you. approve an agreement for automatic aid assistance between the city of Buouie fire department and the Buoie rural volunteer fire department.

Good evening, council. Uh it's an owner and local agreement uh which it's going to be an automatic aid agreement. So if we have an incident, fire incident inside the city, uh they'll automatically send a truck uh a man vehicle uh so they'll have a minimum crew of two uh and respond to assist us as well. Uh and we will reciprocate in kind. If there's a fire in the Buoy Rules District, we'll do the same thing. Uh if we don't have personnel available, then we don't go. Same thing. If they don't have personnel available, they don't come. Uh it's just one way of getting some additional equipment and manpower there. Uh we all have those struggles. Uh and hopefully this is one of those things that we could do uh to solve that. uh everybody maintains their own liability. The responsibility and breakdown is on them uh just like ours is on us. So we're asking for that approval and it's the same thing on the next item. Uh and sunset uh we all basically kind of come together uh touch and it's a good thing.

Are these renewals or No, these are the automatic aid agreements, not mutual aid agreements. Okay. uh mutual aid agreements. You wait till you get to your incident, then decide you need the additional help, then call for help. But now you're that however far removed from that you are, it takes that additional time for them to get their response going. So, this is an automatic aid agreement to where when the tones go out, it's just an automatic and and they're sending their one truck uh to us or we're sending our one truck to them. So, basically, they're sending whoever's available and the closest, right?

Okay. And the good thing is is these three departments buoy bule and sunset are in the southern half of the county. So we're pretty much with those three departments for protect southern half of the county and we all work real well together when we get there. [clears throat] I got questions. You go. [laughter] I got questions. So it's an it's an automatic if we have the people will go. They have the people they'll come. Correct. Doesn't that spread us thin though? I mean, we're also the ambulance. It's not You don't forget about our volunteer fire department members uh that come and assist us as well.

It's not just the paid department. It's the entire department. Okay. So, we're not we're just relying on who's on duty. No. Okay. Uh you know, we have the five on duty if and we we've had the discussions with them already about how we're going to proceed operationally. Uh if we're low on staff, we're not going to go or we're just going to wait for all volunteers to show up uh and respond that vehicle. Okay. Okay. Any other questions? That kind mine's kind of the same. Would that not create more call outs for us? It does. Do we feel like we'll be able to cover that and then reciprocate? Yes, it will. How long does it is the agreement good for?

It's perpetual. Okay. Yeah. It's got a I think it's a 30-day out. Uh if if any department decides at any time that it's it's not working, they give a 30-day notice and then it's done. So maybe in about six months you come back and tell us how it's working. Sure. I like that idea. Anybody else? Yeah. Yeah, I'd like to see an update kind of in the future just to know what what it is looking like in practice. What has added to you? I'm sorry. What what would have added to you in six months? That's what kind of what we're looking for. We'll be more than happy to provide you a report on that.

All right. Well then, council, the first vote is for the fire department, the Buoie Fire Department and the Suns Sunset Volunteer Fire Department. Do I have a motion to have they agreed to these? Yes. Okay. Do I have a motion to proceed with the agreement between the Buoie Fire Department and the Sunset Fire Department? So move. True X. Do I have a second? Second. Post. Holstein. Hi. Truax. Hi. Post. I Walker. Shaw. Hi.

All right. Then the second one will be for the Buoie rule and the I'm trying to see where my next page is. There it is. The Buoie Fire Department and the Buoie Rule Volunteer Fire Department. Do I have a motion to approve? So moved. Post. Do I have a second? Second. Trux Shaw. I Holstein. Hi. Walker. Post. I and true X.

All right. The next item on the list is to consider donating funds to the Helen Farabe MHMR for opioid related treatment in Monte County. I believe Bert wants to talk to you about that.

Several years ago, I went to a meeting in Lakeway, the Association of Rural Communities, and the Texas Attorney General's office was there and they of course were suing the drug companies and getting money out of them. and the money was coming to the state and and then it was distributed to municipalities and counties across the state. Uh the money is to be used for opioid and other drug uh treatments programs and things of that nature. It's limited to that. And we've been collecting money for for four years now. And we're we've got I think $56,000 and change in the bank just sitting there. And I we we could use the money. Uh I've talked to Doug. I've talked to Guy. We we get Narcan for free. There's a lot of things, but we don't do any treatment program. when the ER was open, I thought we might be able to get with them and do some sort of a drug program, whatever. Couldn't. So, anyway, I just got a bright idea one day. I I call your mom. Miss true act helped me connected me with uh han therapy center MHMR and I talked to them about it made sure and lo and behold they're already getting this money from Witchaw County to you know and so I I just said how would since we're we don't know how much more funding we're going to get and and so it won't all just hit them at one time, uh, which they'd probably like, but I'm thinking somewhere around $20,000 a year. And if we get a little bit more, that'll give us three years of

giving them $20,000 a year and stuff. Uh, and they they follow all of the rules that the attorney general's office put out for this. So, I just think it'd be a good thing to use the money for. And I'm going to specify to to them that I want this money used in Monte County. And so anyway, I would recommend that y'all uh approve this for us and let us give them a check for 20 grand this year and we'll I'll bring it to you again next year if it seems to be working well and we'll try to give them 20 grand every year until the money runs out. So

can they say that it'll go to Monte County because I remember heard talking about that last year. I don't know because some of the funds collected do go into a mutual pot for the 13 counties they cover. You know I just just so they know that we want them to. Uh I think they'll try to do whatever they can to abide by that. But there, you know, if they get abide or something I can't withhold money for somebody that's going through a treatment program like that. So sure. I can't make make a requirement. I can make a request. Let's put it like that. Well, we we're not using the money. Sure.

So, it's going to help somebody at MHMR. I agree. I just know that our particular office here covers a lot of area for a lot of different people more so than some of the other ones because yet again, I feel like picking up the slack on some of the surrounding communities. You're probably not wrong. They're an example of this. I know they are. Yeah. That and they're picking up slack, too. So, Uh, and would this be on top of because I think we have 8,000 budgeted in a donation. We have done $8,000 a year, but it they get to use that money as they see fit. This will have some restrictions with it. Okay.

So, $20,000 is the number you're looking for. Yeah. I mean, that's just my recommendation. If you want to give all of it to them in one fail swoop, they can. or we can just, you know, try to meter it out every year. At least that'll give them some operating money every year. So, well, no, I hear my mom's side of it all the time. Would it help the council members if we were to get her up here and just, you know, have her ple her case? I I don't think there's a case to plead. I think that's a definite need even without

been up and and spoken to us before and and does a good job and that's why we started doing the 8,000 a year. Somewhere back, you know, eight or nine years ago, the city quit giving money to it and then we started again. And anyway, so it's [snorts] just a good good place for it because drug treatment is sorely needed. I'm apt to to agree with Bert and let's start with the 20,000 I think for this year would be good. So, would you put that in the form of a motion?

I would make the motion that we donate $20,000 of these opioid related treatment funds to be used at the Halen Fairy Center in Monte County. Second. Thank you. Got a first by Shaw and a second by Holto Tr. Yes. Walker Shaw. Hi. Pstein. Hi, that's the end of our items on the agenda, but we are open for public comments. And I see that there's two people in the audience. Do you are either one of you wanting to speak in public comments?

And you two? No. Anybody else? Well, that's easy enough. In that case, I will adjourn the meeting tonight at 6:38. Thank you. Oh, no. Thank you.