City Council - Regular Meeting

[Music] no here by given that the city council of the city of Caldwell Bon County Texas will convene in a regular meeting at the city council chambers 107 South Hill Street cwell Texas regular meeting place thereof at 5:30 p.m. October 15 2024 please stand for the invocation and pledges led by council member kin Novak pray Heavenly Father we thank you for this day and for your many blessings father we thank you for who you are Lord you are good and everything you do is good we thank you for this town of Colwell that uh we have a p privilege of serving Lord we ask that our decisions be glorifying and honoring to you and to our citizens as well father it is dry we pray for rain that you send it soon but we know your will U be done will be done there and father as we enter the election season we pray that it is an uneventful uh period of Time Lord that regardless of the outcome we know that you will still be on the throne and in control and we just stand there and thank you for that and father we are mindful of all those that have suffered uh from breast cancer and from cancer Lord as we are uh wearing Peete today in honor of those that have lost loved ones that are going through it now that have survived Lord we just pray for all those families and ask your blessings and comfort upon them Father we are also mindful of our First Responders especially our firefighters during this time and the fires that have been going on Lord we pray for protection upon them and strength and energy as they fight these fires and Lord we just thank you for this great country that we live in and it's in your name we pray amen amen the American

flag to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible withy and justice for all Texas flag the Texas flag IED Al to the Texas one State under God indivisible hello good afternoon and thank you to the visitors that are here with us this evening our first item is citizens to be heard on City related topics and we have Mr Steve Burgess have a five minute Li okay here there uh over there please thank you so thank you'all very much I'm just here to address an issue I have with the Rubicon subdivision so I on a property right behind it um I've been dealing with Cham Arden and um Camden his staff we've been working on this couple of months and this is not really an issue with them they've been very helpful giving me all information that I need um we're having a drainage issue uh they have changed the grade and I have a property there I've had a renter in for 11 years and we have uh they've had to buy pumps and dams when it does rain to keep the property from coming in the back door the water from coming in the back door um I've addressed this and and exhausted everything with Rubicon and Chandler uh basically till about last week they told me to go pound San that this is an issue between me and the city um don't 100% agree with that they said the city um approved the engineering and anything from there it's between me and the city the water from basically the West that used to flow down out of all those properties and across theirs they

built the grade up and forced it to come down into my backyard this property own and um you know it's you know with the rising uh insurance and the rising property values you know I can't follow that with rents and U continue that you know I stand the chance of losing an 11year renter uh because of every time that it rains you know substantially you know all the water comes off of their property they've built a retaining wall but all that everything's running behind the retaining wall Cam's got pictures this is nothing that we need to you know look at here but we've got to start a conversation because since they purchased it they split some of those lots off to different Builders they're they're they've got open house today they're starting to sell those lights so we're fixing to be three deep into transactions of this property and we've got to go back to who's going to be responsible for this I've requested from Chandler to have their engineer come down uh and meet with them no no go um I've called I've actually called your engineer with no no call back I've called their engineer with no call back so you know uh this is this is going to be serious it's really going to be serious if we ever get water in the house um you know if they're gone and nobody's there to pump it back to the street you know it's it's not coming off the city property it's not coming off the street it's not backing up from the street it's coming down and it's gathering in the backyard where it used to go across their property but the elevation is been built up 3 4T of whereever they're building all their houses and all the water from the West all the water from these new houses are coming off and just coming into my backyard and like I said I've exhausted everything with them other than legal action and that's the next step is is

legal action and but being said that that's probably going to drag the city in also because the city uh Engineers approved this project uh 123 page engineering study I can't read it and make heads or tails of it I don't think many of us could force probably would be you know the closest to be able to do that but uh but I do want to like anything I've asked for from them Thomas Force CET the staff they've all accommodated me and tried to resolve this as peaceful and as we can but we're to a point now they're like man it's between you and the city that was as my last conversation with last week with shanon um can't really get dig down to see who who even owns it like who's the parent you know they got it LLC um Rubicon owns it you talk to one they say well we own this lot and these two lots and somebody else owns this lot and the next three and so it's a lot of shell game going on these are homes your homes on Terrace Drive no man' uh hle Street what 923 hole when you turn on hole the first house facing Cole on the corner and I I did own the first house there my mother lives in the first house on Terrace and so but yes Ma so the other day uh Fair week I think we got a very fast half inch rain was that a problem that day no not not to a point there that it that it tried to come I don't my renters did not say they had an issue that day okay okay so that's I begin the conversation and we'll go from there okay on behalf of the council we appreciate you thank you very much thank you

Steve okay next consent agenda items if we can have a motion to approve minutes nomination of Claire marks Justin Miller and Jeff Lindell to serve on the Main Street Advisory Board and resolution 202 410- amending the adopted Master Fe schedule any discussion on those items um I can tell you on nomination of the three individuals for the Main Street Advisory Board uh never since the dawn of time have we had people that were excited to join we um actually had um more people wanting to be on the board than positions available so that was that's finally a fantastic thing so and these are great uh great individuals move for approval all in favor of accepting items on the consent agenda raise your right hand none opposed motion passes next regular agenda items request to allow a side setback variance for a carport Edition located at 10004 Woodson Drive submitted by David and Brenda Gilbert so this uh applicant came forward about two or three weeks ago and they are wanting to put a cport on their property um I know images screen work um but if you look at the first exhibit it'll show you the property it's located directly the hospital Drive the uh with Edition has specific setback requirements for the plat and 20 ft from the front side set back of 8 ft and 10 ft from the re the applicant is

requesting to have a zero on the side set back in order to basically match where the driveway is and so the flat is also in there as an attachment and so you can see where the driveway is located on the flat Junction where the house is located and then you can see the the boundary lines of the that is currently at so this would be all the way on the right side thatty line um there's an image in there that shows you the driveway with x on it where the carp would be located um so it's going to be up against the fence all the way to the property line and then covering the driveway over to where the AC unit is um and it'll come out to about where the middle of the garage at so um in the staff report staff would recommend denial of the application just because it's on the property line and we're trying to encourage people to not put things all the way up to the property line to keep that setback um because the construction of it is metal frame and whatnot it is non composable so from Shelby's perspective on the code side it's not really issue um but it doesn't really match the aesthetic of the wion addition but the caveat to this application is that the applicants have already purchased the carport because they didn't realize any VAR request until they came in full department so they've already purchased it it's already on it way so it's up to y'all on what the decision is but just from staff side we wouldn't recommend approval just because it doesn't match the existing character of the neighborhood and uh the only other carport on that street that's approved or I don't know if it

was approved but that's on that street is the house on the corner of Terrace and Woodson Drive and it's on the side of the um house and it's not on the front of the house so it's not as noticeable because there's trees and bling there's actually two there's one across from M on the yeah the one that you probably to send the no so they have one yeah that facing but you can still see the one on the corner fromel out confence discuss so the water off on zero set back side um is there so that's another issue onty line and I don't know drainage look like if it'll be going towards the street or if it's going to be going towards other house other

any other conversation well I agree the tics is not going to look good especially on the side of the house where the garage is and we where it's not like this is a grandfather type deal where the lot was on the road and we're not going to move a house and all that stuff this is in a subdivision that is fairly nice and and they got the car Fork that's going to stick out like a sore thumb way I look at it from this view not a structural carp but a metal aluminum or whatever car [Music] is it for a motor you [Music] know do we have a motion to allow or deny any side setb back variant well I'm not for it so I'll make a motion to deny it that's my view even though that there's other ones within two where where where do we draw the line we have a new Co I'm asking that's what I'm asking we have codes that we've got in place and this is not like the ones that we have approved before this is totally different I'm just one

vote of disapproving it for the sole reason that I don't know what longterm scenario is going to happen with dra cominger property okay we have a motion on the floor in a second to deny the side setback variants all in favor of denying the variant raise your right hand any in favor of okay motion passed to deny the Sid setb variance next Capital Improvement projects for parks and wreck departments KCK this off this was something that was brought up at the end of our last meeting um to to set the background if you don't members of the council don't know when Mr Johnny H pass he left oil royalties from under the park to the city we've since received two checks because this was over a year at least a couple years now so this is kind of a and this will be ongoing royalties as well so this Mr wanted to to have a conversation on projects that that we can start discussing on this so that's kind of the discussion piece for this my my thought on it just to throw it out there to start with is I'm not sure what we'll have going forward and I don't as far as the royalties coming in and I don't want to peaca a solution if we have an opportunity where we're going to have you know more Revenue coming in then I'd like to look at big picture items I don't know if this is too early to have this conversation but you know at yall's request we put it in like only

agenda so I got today from his estate for uh from his attorney Mr Hill's attorney that says in his will uh oil and gas mineral rights relating to this acreage um is for improvements to the Davidson Creek Park located in calwell Texas so um I think it was asked whether so can this money be used for Street improvements no he wanted it your Mar strictly for Davidson Creek Park improvements so anyway thank you and so my thoughts were um I and ironically today I received an email from a lady with pictures of this group they're all as old as us or older that play pickle ball on Tuesdays and Thursday mornings it's a big group and they were asking what are the odds of getting another pickle ball court at least in town uh what about covering the park playground equipment um you know those AR huge huge things but they would eat up a big chunk of what's already been received how much has been received can you disclose that approximately 325,000 and you know talk too about um the city pool will more than likely never reopen again and expanding the splash pad well that's that's $150 $200,000 project at least to expand the Splash Pad but is that the only water fund for our kids in the community you know what I'm saying so there's big projects just we need to figure out what we want to do with them so as far as improvements the disc golf is done soccer pills look great had Cross Country meets out there that's all

great just the extras right what are what are some of the needs down there right now the mayor cover well I know okay but I mean are I'm talking about like are there needs versus wants right you know soccer league if it feels look good they've talked us about you know really installing a better lighting system in the back and then some pable goals um that they could host tournaments you know little small tournaments out there I think the splash pad we we Dro money into that on a regular BAS bis and it's not getting any younger so those are the things that I think we need to consider course we've talked about putting shade over the the playground for a couple of years and nobody would respond to US during Co so we were never able to kind of get anything rolling with that well if we do that we need to look at also covering the Fitness in court because all that gets so hot you can't even grab anything uh as far as the pickle ball we can still do one there on that if we do it sideways is that correct should be able to mirror that it won't it can't go this way uh not enough room but it can go long ways and we already have the lighting so that's just really basically painting fence or is the fence fence painting for that and soccer goals I uh I'm not going to bring up any names here tonight but I think you've seen the ones at the by the city warehouse and that was all donated and I'm sure and they're so light that one

person can even move it easily without wheels or anything it's not heavy enough that if it does fall like somebody F gets on it's not going to hurt them so that might be some things that we can look at also of course we've already discussed the walkways the trails and we had like Janice just said for everybody here that we had four uh District Cross Country meets from Burton from mford as as Camp been informed me Friday and cwell there high school and Junior High that's pretty impressive that they wanted to and Janice went to the first one Thomas gave me a tour the whole the whole course run it or it come on neither and feedback uh yes as I was walking out um par from other schools were there just very very impressed with the park and how nice everything was and very well run do you know what the that's kind my question do we want to to start checking on prices on some of these or do we want to you know give it a couple three months to see what the world are going to look like coming in so we can have more of a big picture Big M plan for that part or do we want to survey the public to see what what improvements they'd like to see so that was going to be my question so the park team would they be interested in not necessarily them forming a committee but

are there things that maybe people ask them when they're out there hey why does the park have so and so with you know their input will probably be somewhat valuable the team and the signings that we're already working C is working on but that's something that we need to also have right I know the P we talked about Pilan being painted so I think we need to make a list of the things before we go and to me I think we need to take care of what we have first which is The Pavilions and you know I heard the tanks were stock today you know do and then we've been in a drought so how I haven't been down there in a little while so I don't know how the tanks are holding up but know do we need to do something with that uh to make sure that they don't go dry and our fish die um so prioritize what we already have and then go right because we don't want to I mean there's no need in building new stuff when we have other stuff right if we have other stuff that looks bad right to redo the whole thing know we're having rep like major repairs annually I don't know if you guys ever look in the tml magazine that you get with your mail um maybe six months ago it was a big article about communities large and small are they're all getting rid of their pools because of insurance maintenance cost all of those things and everybody's doing squash pads which is no lifeguard no chemicals you know so that's where it's at is a splash pad and with our Splash Pad the water runs off into the ponds heat F right

um but I think there's some things that I mean we can I because nobody's going to use the splash bad till next year so we have a few months to see what the royalties come in before we I know there's bidding in stuff we have to go through but how about we revisit this in January and um that way if we decide to do at least covering over the park that we can order something uh before summer hits okay fair okay next department and Community reports any discussion on any of those I had a citizen um tell me they were gonna be here tonight to talk about hot funds and the fact that we capped it at $3,000 and I said part of it is we don't receive completed paperwork as far as who is staying at your hotel for these events so any we kept it because of the number of people apply right I told you that so on our financial C yes right now huh it's a mat right now well that's fine I just like seeing the balance in the bank that's what's going to be that's kind of what's a mess right now we're in the process of cooling all of our cash or used do we have 16 18 accounts right our consultant is recommending cooling of that cash we're cooling that cash before we move to Prosperity since they got the uh award

on depository so it looks really messed up right now but I mean do we have 19 million is that I mean is that ACC Investments and everything like that so and we have paid all of our big Capital trucks and stuff that we bought this year correct so still you're looking at about 16 and a half in this report inv okay once once everything's cleared up we're going to move Texas class a certain amount of money about I will approve it's already my00 we figure out the back into of this schol cash and moving bank accounts get the rest [Music] um AR is friends with the project manager of cat Fleet so for Planning and Development I think they're just about done so that's been a long long process but I don't know when you're planning to start the building and facilities are done thank you Benji for the um report and the code enforcement the skeleton is gone could left it up at least till after supp oh okay any questions on reports

guys okay onward administrative and elected officials reports large projects are rolling ARA those are the two lift stations we we desperately need um not to proceed on that was given on August 30th it'll be a while before we see a whole lot of action there long Le times on the pumps on the panels stuff like that as soon as they get that in you'll start to see work at those locations um the road project for Glo notice proceed is 1021 U that's 180 day contract so that'll be done pretty quick they'll start over here um on the drainage improvements at Harvey first and then they'll move over to clip Street um let's see how many days was that 180 180 the Glo mainly the Wastewater improvements as to lift station and some other Wastewater lines notice proceed on that was 1021 they probably won't get started the same thing long lead time on that till January I believe that was 280 days to completion so those are all moving um the airut project still moving forward we um have finally received some some information back and forth and we keep pushing on the PC side of that Temple Street the drainage project there I signed that we're doing some geotechnical work to make sure that we have the bedge of support U the box covers that we utilize for driveways for the existing driveway anyway and that that way we we know okay we need add some rock do this so we're not sinking I want to make sure we have all the information we'll finish that exhibit and then go out for bids on that

um I will continue to work with Mr Burg just to see how we which direction we go on that project and U appreciative of his comment you know gives us something to think about as we move forward with with other developments that we have have any of the other houses on terce street been affected I know I know that water just it comes from the West down okay so in you know and they basically just created a an almost ditch you know where it and it just comes down and dumps in the back of that yard I I mean I don't know going forward of the brinkman's U you know I haven't spoken but they haven't we haden't heard anything they don't have a house that is way right well I didn't know if they were getting it in their backyard they off the that if you look at the pictures it's coming down I would expect that it's running in their backyard it's just cooling pulling down at his and if they have theirs that slop this is right it's in a channel okay basically what used to come out of theirs owned their property right it's coming down here the issue is too is they're sloping those houses towards back right the back third the house right yes right so when they had that attum wall it should have continued because nothing's because actually they're putting water on these people's property I mean do we know that they engineered it or they built it to the specifications I mean have we but we haven't had other than that rain that Jan just mentioned we haven't had a soaking rain and then a

heavy rain behind that to see if what we cleared out as thas and his Department cleared out to see if it was going to be able to run out so that that's not the issue that that water where they were having issues is coming out of their retention Pond the water I'm speaking of is coming from the west and off the back of these houses in more water is getting dumped into my backyard that can't even get to the street to get to what Thomas then clear out okay it's running behind their reten they built the retaining wall it's all running behind the retaining wall and dumping out into my tenis yard and so and then they're pump turnning around and pumping it to the ditch then it's going on and going across the road but t no sir we've not had since then since you know 3 four months ago yeah unfortunately and we haven't had a they didn't have a roof on the house they were just framing the house that happen so we didn't they don't even have they didn't even have a roof that was dumping right Steve correct I mean now you got two completed houses and that it's going to dump more water back there and and more planned on going going west [Music] I don't have that much tonight either because y'all covered it all uh Thomas you want to give update on the drainage ditches over there on Shaw and we cleaned it on show up to the

fence line right now we're locating the guest L and Jeff said he has a 10 in water line that goes in the bottom of that ditch so we're don't have to watch that we got permission from Sam train which owns all the complex over to Texico that we can use his property to put the brush and stuff like that on so it would just be permission to really can't get bids but to proceed in time but we're going to have a contractor yes push the brush to us and then the city's going to hold everything off and do you have any type of timeline cuz what's going to happen is I know it's going to rain one of these days y one of these days it will and with with the uh white tail those people got after it and that that's going to be uh coming to toward us too so I'll just yeah all the DU in a r then what we can what we can do over there it shouldn't be that extensive of a project this mainly a clean up we can't go a whole bunch deeper but help it okay uh by the way there uh we got an update just last week uh we're there's going to be a invite only disc off as I've talked about before they were plan on 130 right now they've got 111 because it's only taking the best of the best uh this tournament is going to be $10,000 worth of prizes and plus

other prizes given out so uh that they're going to have a uh practice round on uh October the 26 and then November 1st and uh second and third will be they're having a party the night before in Brian at some brew store there so they'll probably be happy uh but second and third U and this golf course um as talking to the person at Armory golf Dustin Sanford uh he thinks it's one of the best courses that's why they're able to have this what they call the 2024 Throwdown Gauntlet championship and this is the best of the best in Texas so if y'all ever want to come watch uh Des off that's going to be going on first you want give an update on possibility of getting a grant for this downtown speaker system that main Street's working on um T-Mobile Hometown Grant they provide up to 15 million a year in community grants and so it's basically anything um that you think of for a community that benefits the community you can apply for um so the Main Street is going to consider applying for that they do a quarterly Grant application so this next quarter will end on December 31st and so there was a recent project that got approved for a different city

for their downtown speaker system and they were able to get $50,000 for that so basically covered the whole cost the project so hopefully if everything gets submitted in time then that would be covered completely by that Grant and then other funds can be used for and Eric on is meeting with stound company this week is that right to get another bid outcome um cam Senior Center have we had the structural evaluation has that been done working on the senior Citi Center under our Direction okaying on making guess that's it um went through Madisonville last night and I saw the green lights for the charging stations work we ever going to get in so the Tesla Chargers that were supposed to come to the water uh I believe after their layout that they had in January um they have not responded want get Elon a call call we get Trump um okay so thank you on that and then uh I had Melissa put these at your uh for your information Janice and I serve on the BB Cog board um which is Brad Valley Council of government serves the Seven Counties around brades County including brades

County we're number 13 it's not listed on the map but we are number 13 but this just kind of tells what the Cog has done for buron County as a whole and then um I also serve currently as president of tar Texas Association of Regional Council so I wanted to give you all some information on that they're just the the Texas for all the cogs of the state um but what what the tart does is they communicate heavily with legislature the legislature anyway and helping to um do what's best for communities and with a most of the cogs are really the big cogs the Dallas the Houston they don't particip ipate with I don't even go to the T meeting so it's a lot of the smaller communities and so uh we came up with the 89th legislative session objectives um so those are some of the things that tarp will be promoting through the upcoming session to help um help with small communities like ours but if y'all ever know of something or you know if y'all read this and kind of learn some of this if y'all ever need think of something you want me to present it or Janice to take it to the car please let us know because we're always looking for ways to better support our communities and help the citizens of of our of our towns so um I just wanted to share that with Youk uh October 26th is scare on the Square and that is this year not being run by the chamber correct it's being run by the library so it is a community event um Trunk or Treat happening lots of fun things so October the 26 um November the 5th is election day

and regardless of our political affiliation never a reason to lose friendships cause hate violence any of those things but it is your civic responsibility to please go vote um Dr Smith's statutes have we have you got with Keith I think he was the last he was the last one we come together on um because Dr Smith I don't know if you know um his estate they want to donate quite a few of his statues to Caldwell and so um that sounds all great however um where are they going who is moving them who is maintaining them once they're donated it's a lots of questions to be asked and so uh we're going to meet with Griff who is the spokesperson for the family now with Keith ster because it you know if you want to put some on the courthouse Square that's County and around town or you know other County places um so anyway I think it's awesome that the family wants to donate his art to the city but there's lots of questions and avenues to go down before we get them so anyway and that's all I have I don't nothing Mr enrick um po we talked about Sur do that I've got the uh we got an approved contract their attorneys agree on our attorneys agree on I need to go back actually I'm going for a demo of their system the it's called a loom I think on Thursday so what I need to follow up with okay what is that contract going to look like it something that has to come to counsel or is something that that I can approve yes we would do a survey of the polls transfer that entire process of pole connects you know as we get a

new telecommunication provider or anything like that if they want to connect to our polls that process would be through a third party now basically they would ensure that we have the clearance that we need for our electrical lines if we don't have the clearance we need a taller pole they would basically set all that up at the uh connector's expense is there a standard plan right now I think be above there yeah and yeah I think there's certainly some that we're going to have to take a look at yeah hopefully I'll have an answer to that maybe a contract executed by the end of the weekend I ask I ask this for that you mentioned I ask this for you know we we do all the trimming for electric lines but how come there are no guidelines for tree limb in these lower telecommunication lines and stuff they're govern by different regulatory bodies so the city doesn't they're our pose and they're hanging off but they're not response no as a part of this project I think we change what our full contact agreements say okay and we say you will maintain you know vegetation management as well one um all the water meters and stuff on order just for lot started water meters are here uh we're waiting on the communications equipment to come in and be installed and then that process can be started we on the electric side we're going to order basically four meters four to six meters we'll plug those in make sure they're transmitting properly before the rest of them are order because they'll build those before us so we got to make sure that the ones that

they they put in are going to work first [Music] so they should fit right in the other can you have plug and plate okay do we have ation to thank you all for coming please don't leave I need to get a picture you want to break your camera see