City Council - Regular Meeting

All right. Who Who's collecting the fines for everybody still going? Eddie. He's still going. Chief Wilson. Chief Wilson. Okay, there we go. Good evening. The regular council meeting for the city of Coppers Cove held March 17, 2026 is called to order at 6:01 p.m. Please rise for the invocation by Miss Hart followed by the pledge of allegiance.

If you will please bow with me in prayer. Dear heavenly father, we are thankful for the day that you have given us. Thank you for all the countless blessings that you bestow on our community and we ask you here to be present with us today as we make these important decisions that are so vital for our city. And we keep in prayer our neighbors in Gatesville as they're going through this tragedy within their city. But we know that they will be uplifted by your love. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen.

Please join me our nation's flag to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands one indivisibley andice for all. and to the state flag. Honor the flagg and indivisible. Please be seated.

Madam Secretary, please call the role. Mary Yansy here. Christina Strous here. Rita Hogan here. Howard Hawk here. John Hail here. here. Dale Treadway here. Vana Hart here. Jack Smith here. All right. All present today. We go to item D, announcements. None for me, Mr. Mayor. None for me, sir. No, Mr. Mayor. Okay. Ryan.

Yes, sir. Uh this Thursday at 8:30 in the morning at uh HV Plus on the east side of town, uh Keep Coers Cove Beautiful is holding a uh trash collection event. come out and support our community, your community, and clean it up. Uh also, uh there is a special city council meeting next week on the 24th. Uh that will be uh to primarily to go over budget planning. We'll uh continue with discussions on projects as well. Uh on uh March 28th at 11:00 a.m. uh Coppers Cove will be celebrating its 147th birthday. It will that will occur at Allen House. Uh the address for that is 401 North Main Street. Uh later that evening on March 28th at 3 PM. Uh we are hosting the um Covers Co. Spring Fest out at City Park. Starts at 3M, goes all the way until 8:00 p.m. Uh come out, enjoy the festivities, the food, the fun, the music. Um lots of vendors will be out there. So encourage everybody to come out. Then the following Saturday on April 4th is uh the Easter egg roundup at City Park beginning at 10 a.m.

Thank you. Okay. I have nothing sir. Thank you. Yes, Mr. Mayor. If we just remember the community up in Gatesville from the fire they had last night in the downtown square. Yes. I just want to say thank you to all of those who attended the state of the city address by our mayor and and the questions that you submitted for our city manager to be able to answer as well. Um I really truly appreciated seeing all the community out there. It was a nice turnout for events. Also today I would like to thank everyone who came out to our uh touch a truck. Uh there was a lot of kiddos, lots of family and I appreciate all the volunteers and um city staff that put that together. Thank you. Jake,

no announcements. All right, we move to item E, citizens forum. At this time, citizens will be allowed to speak for a length of time not to exceed five minutes per person on any item which is listed on the agenda and items not listed on the agenda. 30 minutes total has been allotted for this section. Pursuant to section 551.042 042 of the Texas Open Meetings Act. Any deliberation or decision about the subject of inquiry which is not listed on the agenda shall be limited to a proposal to place the subject on the agenda for a subsequent meeting.

Thank you. Is there anyone to speak during citizens forum? Anyone to speak during citizens forum? Okay, we'll close that. We move to item F, consent agenda.

All matters listed under this item are considered to be routine by the city council and will be enacted by one motion. There will not be separate discussion of these items. If discussion is desired, that item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered separately. Item one, consideration and action on approval of city council workshop meeting minutes for March the 3rd, 2026. Ashley Osborne, deputy city secretary. Item two, consideration and action on approval of city council regular meeting minutes from March the 3rd, 2026. Lisa Wilson, city secretary. Item three, consideration and action on awarding a bid and authorizing the city manager to execute a contract with Bell Contractors, Inc. for the award of bid number PW2026-03-82, Ash and Yucka Transmission Maine and Long Mountain Pump Station Improvements Project. Scott Osburn, assistant city manager, director of public works. All right, council. Is there any item on the consent agenda you wish to pull and consider separately?

Okay. If not, is there a motion to approve? And Mr. Mayor, I recommend we uh approve consent items F1 through F3. Second. Motion made by Mr. Treadway, second by Mr. Hail. All those in favor say I. I. Any oppose? The motion carries. There is no public hearings or action for tonight. So we move to item H, action items. Item one, discussion and direction on the creation of a tax increment reinvestment zone in Copper Cove and creation of a local government corporation as an economic development tool. Ryan Haval, city manager.

Thank you, Mrs. Wilson. Mayor and council, you have taken action and provided direction for us to move forward with uh studying the feasibility of a tax increment reinvestment zone. You'll hear us throughout the evening call it a turd. Uh the official action you took was to approve an agreement in partnership with the economic development corporation uh to uh have a consultant Bill Calderon actually do that feasibility study. Uh Mr. Calderon has uh reviewed uh our community. He has communicated with our team, with the economic development corporation team um and prepared the report that is attached to the agenda item that is also handed out in front of you. Um and Mr. Calderon is actually going to present this evening and go through it. Here's the purpose of tonight's presentation. One, gain an understanding of the information that Mr. Calderon will be presenting to you. And then two, we're looking for direction from you. Those three direction points are, do we proceed with the creation of the presented TUR? Do we create a local government corporation to support the TUR? And then three, if you support both of those, provide direction for us to publish the public notice for the public hearing that is required in the creation of that tur. With that, I'll turn it over to Mr. Calron.

Here we go. Okay. Thank you, uh, mayor, uh, members of council. Uh, thank you for, uh, the opportunity to come before you again. Uh it's a pleasure to be here. Uh before I get into the meat, um uh a couple of things I wanted to share. First and foremost, my as I shared with the mayor and and your city manager earlier, my intention is to be as brief as possible to spare your your agenda time since um I know I ate up quite a bit of time last time I was here. Um I don't want to do that again. But uh um um that said, I'm I'm certainly here to pre and prepared to answer any and and every question that you might have as we go through this material briefly. Uh and before getting into the meat, I also wanted to u um acknowledge and um uh share uh both my appreciation and my respect for the amazing collaboration that I had with city staff throughout this entire process. both the city and the EDC uh were ready and available to help uh um through this process and we had multiple meetings uh shared many ideas and the map that you have before you and many of the in fact virtually all of the projects that we have in the budget uh save a couple that I added because I know that they're going to be necessary uh came from uh from Scott and your public works department but um u um your city manager Ryan Havlaw Scott Osborne, Bobby Lewis, Fred Welch, and Sean Stevens uh deserve a round of applause for all of the help that they gave me. So, thank you guys for for that. Um, is the the arrow buttons? Is that what I

Here we go. Okay. Uh, the um the the map that you have before you basically is is one that uh was put together over multiple meetings as I mentioned. Uh when we started this process, I think staff had a general idea of where uh redevelopment opportunities that this tax increment reinvestment zone uh would would benefit um uh and help catalyze. Uh and um we started and you'll note that uh the bulk of the uh of the parcels are along uh the commercial corridors uh which is which totally logical from my perspective given uh the nature of your city and the way it's laid out and uh uh but you'll also note that there are a couple of residential parcels that have been added to the mix. uh the short and the sweet on the uh on the map basics are at at the end of the day you've got just over uh uh 2250 acres of of land represented in all these parcels uh uh 20 semi contiguous parcels. Uh these days when you create a reinvestment zone they don't all have to be connected. You can have contiguous parcels. Uh, of of the 20, you have 14 that are designated commercial by your local CADs, uh, five that are designated uh, andor deemed residential. Um, and I'll explain that in a minute. And, uh, and then one that is industrial. The total value based on RG analysis of all of the, uh, all of the land within this proposed boundary is just over $68 million today. Uh on the issue of the um residential parcels, when we started this process, we didn't originally contemplate in their inclusion. This was really intended to be something that would help

uh not only catalyze and further the the the what was a hopeful VA facility project at that time. Congratulations, by the way, on that. That's it's wonderful news. Um but as as we looked at it and looked at the uh the longer term probability and viability of use of this tool, one of the things I recommended to staff and and as we talked about it uh I think there was consensus was that we include uh at least one if not multiple residential parcels of land in the uh in the reinvestment zone. Uh and I think I mentioned this to you all when I was here last. These are wonderful tools. They work very very well, but they have to have an economic engine to work. And while you might have a commercial project, and now that the VA is coming, um, uh, that's that's a good thing that's going to help with that economic engine concept, we knew we had one project for sure that was a done deal because you all were already working on the agreement, and that was the church area uh, residential project. uh and I suggested to staff that since there was not a demand on the city for uh uh resources uh to be reimbursed to them for infrastructure that perhaps it would be a good parcel to include. As we discussed the concept, uh staff thought it a good idea to uh to look at some of the other uh soon to develop residential parcels of land to be able to take advantage of that future incremental value to further the development along your commercial corridors and specifically in the downtown area where where we didn't have any uh uh any what I would call large projects that would generate a lot of money. And so with the residential complement to the commercial parcels, you had a mechanism that would work and it would work uh sooner than

later. And that was what we were what we were intent on accomplishing. And so you've got um as as I mentioned um five uh designated residential parcels. Uh uh the uh in addition to the church area, you have the uh two parcels uh along the big divide. Uh you also have the uh um the Mashburn parcel uh uh about be halfway between where 190 splits off uh and u uh and uh the uh 20 what is that 25? No, 20 2657. I can never remember that number. uh uh uh intersection. And then there's uh uh the parcel of land uh that uh im is immediately south of that uh that is actually outside your your um uh taxing boundary as we speak. Uh but um um we're recommending that they be included in this boundary because use of this tool will help uh uh not only catalyze their development more quickly uh but it also puts the city in a position of being able to negotiate with those residential developers for a myriad of things that they may not otherwise do. Uh enhanced landscaping, enhanced green spaces, public facilities. uh talked to Scott about the possibility of also negotiating to the extent that there uh trunk line extensions or things like that. You could get the developers to pay for that or at least co-share and then reimburse them from those future residential increments. And so it'll make things happen faster and that's that was what we were what we were intent on doing. Um the essential development strategy for the tourists basically is to use as I mentioned the future residential development to finance public projects identified in the tourist budget. Uh

offering the incentives to both the residential and commercial developers will enhance those developments and increase the quality and value of them. Um for the developers, uh you have no obligation to do anything. Uh if there if it's if it's ultimately the city's desire that they do their own thing, uh you can still use some of their their incremental revenues to do city initiated enhancements. But, uh, I think it one of the things that I learned in using this tool all over Texas is that to the extent that you're able to offer an incentive, uh, opportunity, it brings the city and the private sector together and and it puts the city really in a position to help define how those projects unfold. uh and you can really make a huge difference in the quality of of those kinds of developments by sitting down and and offering a collaboration. And that's really what we were intent on doing. And then of course using the capital through the tour mechanism itself uh as an incentive to lure private capital to come into the city by being able to say if you come in and you do your project on our commercial quarter, we'll sit down with you and figure out a way to collaborate with you. sweeten the pot for you and make it good for the city as well. And so that basically is the the essential essence of how you would use this tool to make your community look and feel and work a lot better. Um the uh this particular reinvestment zone has uh has the potential for multiple jurisdictional participation to fund these projects. uh you have in addition to the city uh obviously Corell County and Lamp Passes County. We have assumed their participation in this reinvestment zone

at this stage at 50% of their uh maintenance and operations tax rates. uh the uh you see on this on this slide that all combined uh uh at 50% for everybody you end up at 61 cents per $100 value which would be the incremental contribution to the tourist pot. Um what that means in essence is assuming that uh the conservative estimates of development over time and this is by by the way is proposed as a 30-year reinvestment zone uh you would see a probable tax base expansion by jurisdiction uh of 11.4 billion for the city 8.3 for corel and 3.1 for lamp passes. The incremental revenues also estimated in this plan that you have before you would total uh just over 623.9 um million dollars over over that 30-year period. That is and and and and again those numbers also reflect the the anticipated amount of benefit to your jurisdictional general fund at 50%. When we started, as I mentioned, we weren't sure that this was going to happen. Uh and now that it has um we uh and and I visited with uh with uh your city manager about the proposed uh agreement that uh has been negotiated uh to incent that development. Um we had already uh included that territory in the proposed reinvestment zone boundary. Um, I had not modeled in any revenue associated with that facility because I didn't know whether it was coming number one and I didn't know what the nature of

the negotiations were because there was there was um I guess a fair amount of secrecy associated with that and and uh and I understand that and it it it's it was probably best that it be kept that way. So when we started this process, we we just excluded it other than the territory in the event that it showed up. But now that it's here and understanding that there is an agreement in place to share uh some of their future revenues uh with them um uh what is what I had discussed with your city manager was that um once the city agreement for the veterans administration facility would would be approved by your council. Should you elect to create this reinvestment zone, we would at at some point probably after the creation of the local government corporation, look at an an assignment of that agreement to the local government corporation so that the future revenues that would fund that agreement would come from the tourist pot and it would still be on a 50-50 basis. 50% of whatever they generate would go back to them according to what you've agreed and the other half would come into your general fund. And so that's what's contemplated with respect to that facility. Um again, should you a uh decide to support the concept of forming this district, uh this is the short list of next steps. The creation process does require publication of a notice in a gen a paper of general circulation that has to be noticed at least 7 days prior to the conduct of the hearing. Uh and um uh so that notice would have to be published at uh at whatever time it makes sense. Um, I'd mentioned to uh the city manager in just uh minutes ago to your mayor that we'd also have to have some discussions with the counties uh to uh uh share with them this concept um

get feedback from them see if there's anything specific that they would want to include in this plan. So I do anticipate that there may be some adjustments to this preliminary plan as you have before you. Uh and then uh of course the conduct of the hearing uh it would be totally okay if it's not inappropriate from your local protocol perspective to have the creation ordinance on the agenda that same day. Uh and uh and then once a board of uh directors is appointed which is typically one or two meetings after although you could even do it that same day if you know who you'd like to have on the board. Uh we would schedule a meeting with that board. take this plan that you have before you which by the way is you know it will be it will serve as the preliminary plan as per the statute which is a required action that has to be taken for the creation process. We would finalize it submit it to the board have the board bless it and say we're deeming this final and then that plan would come back to council for council to approve and at that point it's considered final per the statute. Now being final does not mean that the city in collaboration with the TUR board and andor the jurisdictions couldn't amend that plan at a future date if it makes sense to do so either by adding territory adding projects adding dollars that weren't contemplated uh for specific things. Um there are um there you're never locked in concrete. you always have an an ability to use this tool as flexibly as possible. The one caveat to that I would I want to mention is to the extent we have say Corel County come and approve an interlocal agreement and and say we like this plan, we like the budget in the plan, uh we're in for everything that's on that budget at 50%. If the city were to come back

two or three years later and say we want to add a sports complex and it's going to be another hund00 million by the way um the county that Corell County does not have to play uh they you know in fact the agreements generally that I strike with uh that I put together for uh uh jurisdictional approvals on both sides have a specific clause that says we're in for this but if you add something we're not until you come and get our consent. And so anything that would change would require that it would open that door for that renegotiation. And sometimes um that negotiation can bring things that you didn't contemplate to the table too. So just heads up. Um and um uh of course there would be uh in addition to the approval of those interlocal agreements, Ryan mentioned the creation of a local government corporation. Um uh we recommend those because to the extent that there is uh any contemplated debt that might be issued uh with a a pledge of future incremental revenues to amortize bonds or or or a borrowing facility. Uh if you do it through a local government corporation, it preserves the city's debt capacity completely. Uh that you would fund either through general fund or through enterprise funds because it only those bonds or or borrowings would only be funded by a pledge of the incremental revenues and and it's just better managed as a separate debt issuance. But even though it is separate uh because you create or you consent to the creation of the local government corporation those debt uh debts whether they be private placements andor um uh uh bonds would be taxexempt. Uh so you still offer that benefit. Uh and then of course uh there once the uh uh the local government corporation is created uh which would by the way in uh require a

consent resolution be adopted by council before the application to do so is filed with the secretary of state. So we'll bring would bring the package to you and you see everything that's there. uh then there would be uh the last thing would be the approval of an agreement to empower that local government corporation to act on behalf of the city to implement the tours on the city's behalf. Uh I I use those words carefully, but it's it's not them and you. It's really like this always uh because you appoint the board. Uh city staff is going to be monitoring what's going on and it it has to be a collaboration to work well. Uh I mentioned earlier in my opening comments that the budget uh and I I'd like to point it out to you. I believe it's on page um a second. Um you'll note that there are quite a number of capital projects. Um, when I visited with uh Scott about this and asked for his help, I suggested that he look at um not only existing projects on your capital list, but anything that had already been studied and or was even contemplated to be used to populate this list. Uh and uh there are uh in there are broad categories uh um that um were worded intentionally in this budget uh so that you would have the flexibility using this tool to either fund a city CIP or to to work with a developer and do a you know a a street or an underground utility. you have the C uh you're not locked into uh specific projects as they're specified here. I listed them so that you would

know where the numbers were coming from. When we finalize this budget, it's going to it's going to be a less detail and broader category line item very intentionally to add the maximum flexibility to the use of the tool so that you're not locked into one specific project. Um, but you'll note there's uh $419 million worth of capital uh that could be expended uh and um um uh the vast majority of it is uh as setup right now would contemplate using this tool effectively to partner with the city and help build some of the city infrastructure even though it's uh uh with a separate pot of money. to that to that extent, you could almost consider this like a a sister enterprise fund to your public works enterprise fund for for purposes of funding capital improvements. Thanks again, Scott, for for your help with this. Um, that's all I have. I'm happy to take any questions.

Jack, you have a question? Yes. Yes, sir. Mr. Mayor, uh, I know that you mentioned that the city council would appoint the TUR board, but if Corel and Lamp passes County are participating, how many do they appoint and how many do we appoint?

What I had contemplated was that this would be a seven member board, uh, making it five from the city, one each from the counties. Um, we may have to revisit that. Uh Fred mentioned to me uh just a couple of days ago that there was a possibility that um uh your community college may also be willing to come in and participate. I had not contemplated that although they are in multiple zones that I've created in other cities. So, um, conceivably you could peel one back from the city and add one make one available for them or add two more make one available for them and one more for the city.

And you suggest I think but we're going to decide how that

Well, I I think there's probably some state law that that regulates it or is there a state law that regulates the members of the board? How many are appointed by the county and how many by the city? Uh there is there is a state law that regulates how this tool is used. It's chapter 311 of the Texas Tax Code. Uh it's not terribly long. Uh I'd be happy to send you the link if if you need to see it. Uh that statute says that you can have a maximum of 15 board members. Um their composition is uh pretty much up to the creating entity. Um but it's in it's uh the statute does reference that participating jurisdictions can have representation. It doesn't mandate the number.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Seven's probably a good number. 15 becomes very unwieldy. Yes. With seven you can conduct business with four people and that's that's the critical thing because quorums can be a challenge sometimes. Okay. Anybody on this side have any questions? Okay. Right. Mayor and council. Uh first, Mr. Calderon, thank you very much. Uh very informative presentation. It's been my pleasure. Thank you.

And a great report. Uh so, Mayor and Council, uh we're we're looking for those directions. Uh and I think first one is will you would you provide direction for us to continue with the creation of the TUR support

Mr. I kind I personally think it's uh too large and and too many properties are included in it myself. Uh you know, we have properties that are already scheduled for development and already approved for development that are in here. And that's basically it's going to take 50% away from the operating budget of the city and go to a board that's not even created yet. So, some of these properties I think maybe need to have to be looked at. U I think it's too many and and too much property.

Uh the only comment I'd say is and and I think Mr. Calderon provided a explanation for this previously is that uh including those properties is it doesn't just take away uh funding from the the general fund because a number of the projects that can be funded through this are those general fund type projects. Uh the the other piece of that is uh the revenue stream from the TUR and Mr. Calderon, correct me if I'm wrong, uh will then be used as a catalyst for future development to occur faster, which thereby is actually growing our tax base at a faster rate than we have previously seen um in the not the the year years that don't include the uh effects of COVID and um the the increases in values that that just shot really fast. Uh because prior to that, our annual growth rate was just over 1% a year. Uh and we're beginning to see a slowdown in that growth rate in our property tax values. And when we uh talk with you next week, uh you'll see some of that discussion that uh we've slowed down uh tremendously, not down to 1%, but uh it it definitely has slowed down.

Mr. Calderon, did you have anything to add to that? Uh yes. Uh just one additional thought. um uh the budget issue and the budget impact is is it's it's it's a significant issue and and um one of the things that I I typically don't mention at this stage because it doesn't come up in in this fashion but it's an it's important and relevant to your concern is that um because there is a tremendous amount of flexibility in how you use this tool there uh there are always ways ways that the tool can be adjusted and massaged and manipulated to address a specific concern that might not be contemplated today or an issue or uh a funding uh shortfall that might not might not be um uh understandable today because the information is just not available. Uh we've on on more than one occasion uh also taken advantage of a specific element that uh myself and several colleagues helped put in the statute uh uh and one of multiple amends that I've worked on over the years uh to provide for what are called municipal services agreements. Um, this was done very specifically to address u Houston concerns because of the number of reinvestment zones that were in play at one point in time. There's over 28 of them now. And so there's a huge drain, if you will, of revenue from the from the general fund to the various tourist funds to fund all these projects. Um what we had done uh uh in adding that language to the statute is create the capacity to take and tap the reinvestment zone plot to redirect revenues into the general fund uh to cover any myriad of either service

issues, maintenance issues, things like that that might otherwise come from your general fund uh from surplus revenues that would be generated and sitting in the tur pot. So there's a way basically by agreement if it makes sense and and it's and the revenues are available and unpledged to be a to tap to tap them and move them back into the general fund to mitigate those costs concerns.

All right. Thank you. I was just worried that we would run out of money to pay the firefighters and police by taking 50% of it and putting in a fund to help future development and I just didn't want to see that happen. So if we can move it back into maintenance and operations then then that's fine. It it is possible. It it does require uh agreements uh that would be amended from time to time but we did that very specifically so that we would have that capacity to have that flexibility. Right. Okay. Can we write it in the original ordinance? We write that language to remove well

and and again the the ordinance is going to be in a partnership in an agreement with L passes and Corell County.

So they they would have to agree to that as well which in essence could put them on more of a hook for the funding of things unless we also write it in that if we ever change our percentage then it changes their percentage. Um, but that also impacts the ability to uh provide contractual uh promises to developers that hey, we're going to do this because this is our ordinance and we have the ability to do this without without causing a a significant risk by future councils. uh just simply taking an action without going through the process to amend the those agreements. That's my perspective. I don't know if Mr. Kelly

I would recommend against that um very bluntly uh simply because it it uh it locks you in. It's better to leave u the ordinance that creates this reinvestment zone specific to that action alone and allow you to deal with the issues as they come up as you need to that we don't even know about at this point. Exactly. Yeah. So from a directional standpoint want to continue. Yes sir. Jack you're on board. I'm okay to move forward if we can move money back into the maintenance and operation fund. Yes.

Okay. So, we we'll do that. We'll begin our discussions with Corolasis officials on getting gaining their support uh for the TUR as well. Um does city council support the creation of a local government corporation as well as described by Mr. Calder? Yes. I think that that works well for gives us a lot of flexibility. Great. And so after we work through those processes with the county council would be supportive of us posting that public notice for the future public hearing and adoption of the TUR. Okay. All good. Okay. Very good. That's all the direction we need. Mr. Calderon, is was there anything else we needed? No.

All right. Mr. Welch, was there anything else? No. Great. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you.

All right, we move on to item H2. Presentation by the Copper Scope Chamber of Commerce detailing quarterly activities and expenditures related to the visitors bureau and consideration and action on approval of payments for qualifying expenses related to the first quarter of fiscal year 202526. Beth Gay Carney, president of the Copper Scope Chamber of Commerce. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, City Council, and Mr. City Manager Ryan. How are you guys this evening? Good.

I am here to request reimbursement for our operations and advertising for the first quarter of 2526. I'll give you a quick summary of what we accomplished in that quarter. While that document is being brought up on the screen, our main event for that quarter, of course, was Chris Kindle Market. It was our second year holding Chris Kendall Market back downtown. Um, we had an attendance of 14,750 people, which was a 30% increase from two years prior when it was at the city park. We also had an additional 3,200 people just along the parade route on Saturday night. We generated approximately 83 hotel night stays for that event. Um, and we were very excited to see such a huge attendance in the downtown area to support those businesses down there. Outside of our events, our primary focus was on destination marketing. Um, we did a commercial, um, Copper Scope prom promotional commercial that we promoted during the Thanksgiving and Christmas movie time and synergy cinemas across the state of Texas, not just in Coppers Cove. We also um did some print publication in some regional newcomers guides and um we started working on our visitors guide which is now in print and we should have it in the next couple weeks. Right now, we're also developing a tourism brochure that we plan to um continue with our partner of Techtop. We send our community maps and tourism brochures out to various rest stops in Texas and they display those for us and we do also ship those out to um participating visitors bureaus in the state. Um and we'll be doing that once that's finished as well. Looking ahead, we just plan to

concentrate on digital advertising efforts, increase reach, and attract more out of market visitors. And of course, right now, we're working on Rabbitfest. Um, so we're hoping to generate some additional hotel stays there.

Okay. Mayor and council, just just so you're aware, uh we are having internet connectivity issues. Um and it is with the uh internet service provider that we have and so apologize that you're not able to pull up this agenda item or the presentation.

Anybody else got paper copy like me? I'm old school. All right. Beth, did that conclude your presentation? Yes. Okay. Questions? Good. Okay. Anybody? Okay. I'll go ahead and make a motion um make a motion to for the city council to approve the payments for qualifying expenses related to the first quarter of fiscal year 2025 to 2026. I second. Did you recite an amount? We don't have that. We don't have the information. Yeah. $31,741.71.

Hold on. Can you repeat that, Mr. Mayor, again? $31,741.71. See, there's something to be said for old school. Okay. Okay. I would like to actually um I could remove my motion from the table and recite. Okay. I'll go ahead um would like to make a motion of the city council to approve the payment of $31,741.71. These are qualifying expenses related to the first quarter of fiscal year 2025 through 2026.

Is there a second? A second. Okay. Motion made by Miss Hart, second by Mr. Hawk. Any other questions? All right, hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. Any oppose? Motion carries. Thank you, Beth. Thank you. All right. We move to item H3. Consideration and action on authorizing the city manager to execute an agreement with Edgeofyour Seat Consulting to perform services for the capital campaign for the Roadie Park project. Jeff Stoddard, director of parks and recreation.

Thank you, Lisa. Good evening, mayor, council, city manager. If you remember back in February, um city staff brought to you during the retreat uh an update on Roie Park. And at that time, we uh expressed that staff had reached its limits on its ability to to move this project forward. And we were requesting to bring in an outside consultant uh to come and and assist us with moving this project forward. uh council gave us a direction to include it on the proposed budget for the following year which was done uh on January 22nd 2026 RFQ 2026154 was advertised and the city staff received one submission that was from edge of your seat consulting uh staff scored the submission we reached out to the consultant and requested a proposal which was received the proposal includes feasibility study readiness assessment systems and infrastructure design, messaging and case development, uh stakeholder alignment and leadership engagement. Um and also identifying uh an identification and donor strategy. The cost of these services are for $100,000. City staff recommends that the city council authorizes city manager enter into agreement with Edge of Your Seat Consulting to design, launch, and guide a comprehensive capital campaign for Roadie Park in the amount of $100,000. And I know Miss Pam Owens here from Ed Edge Your Seat Consulting is in the audience and so I'm sure she'd be happy to answer any questions you might have.

Council, any questions? Mr. Mayor, I just got one question. I just want to verify any of the U ideas we've come up with or proposals. If they're good, we'll continue using them. Correct.

Pam, you want to address that? You can do that better than I can. Um the answer to that is yes. We are going to use and look at anything that's already been done to help inform us moving forward on this project and we will continue to do that. Um our firm has always been community- based. So we don't like surprises unless it's a vacation to Tahiti. And so with that said, we will absolutely involve the community the whole way. We don't move until we feel like we really understand um the community needs and the community wants and the ideas. So all ideas in and we will continue to do that from the beginning of the project to the last dollar is raised.

Okay. Thank you ma'am. Thank you. Oh, anybody else? Any other questions? All right. action be taken on this item.

Mr. Mayor, yes. Make sure I get this right. Uh, I make a motion authorize city manager to execute an agreement with edge of your youth seek consulting to perform services for the capital campaign for the roadie park project in amount of $100,000. Second. Motion made by Mr. Troy, second by Miss Trophus. Right. Okay. Any other questions? All right, hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. Any oppose? Motion carries. Thank you, mayor. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Oh, okay.

I would have swore that was Howard saying that. All right, we move to item H4. Consideration and action on approving resolution number 2026-10 responding to the application of Atmos Energy Corporation Midex Division to increase rates under the gas re reliability infrastructure program suspending the effective date of this rate application for 45 days and authorizing the city to continue to participate in a coalition of cities known as the Atmas Texas Municipalities. Ryan Havala, city manager.

Thank you, Mrs. Wilson. Mayor and Council ATMAS has once again submitted a rate request uh change. Um it is under the grip program. Uh that grip program allows uh basically Atmas to consider infrastructure cost and pass those costs on to rate payers. Uh Coppers Cove is an original jurisdiction city which means you as the governing body are allowed to take action on their rate request. Uh we, you and me and the rest of the city staff, we do not have the expertise to delve into the gas industry's uh business models and uh their rate requests and how their rate requests are supported through uh their financial positions and projects. And so we have become many many decades ago a member of Texas uh Atmas Texas municipalities um Texas Atmas municipalities excuse me. Uh and um as a member of that coalition uh we then bring our resources together so that we can uh actually bring on an expert to analyze these rate requests. And the recommendation at this point is for city council to suspend the effective date. What that does is that allows our team, our coalition to evaluate those rate requests and then go to the state regulators and say we don't agree with these rate requests, these specific amounts. work with Atmas and the state to reduce whatever rate uh changes are included or proposed and then eventually the state will approve whatever rate requests uh are authorized for ATMs. So at this point staff's recommendation is that you approve the

attached resolution. It's resolution 2026-10 which suspends the effective date of the rate request from Atmas council. Any questions for Mr. Havlot? Okay. Is there a motion to be made? Mr. Mayor? Yes. Make a motion that we adopt a resolution 2026-10 suspending the effective date of Atmos proposed increase in rates. Second. Motion made by Mr. Hail, seconded by Mr. Treadway. Any other discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I.

Any oppose? Motion carries. Right. I believe that concludes all our action items for tonight. Uh we have no reports from staff. Well, we do. I take that back. Uh item I reports from staff, outside entities, advisory committees, and boards. Mayor, we are waiting for Mr. Sled to email his presentation to Ashley so that we can get it pulled up real quick. I'll go ahead and read the item. Well, he'll

we can swap that order because he's gonna have plenty of time because Ryan give a city manager report. So, let's go to two. Is your screen up? Yes. Okay. Okay. Why don't we go ahead go on to item I2 city manager's report. Ryan Havl, city manager.

Thank you, Mrs. Wilson. Mayor and council, I'm going to go through my report pretty quickly. Um, and if there are any topics you want to stop me to discuss, please do. So, we're going to start with capital projects. Animal control facility is open operational. We are anticipating and planning for a ribbon cutting and open house in April, the very first part of April. So, be on the lookout for those notices. Senior center facility was officially opened yesterday. We had a ribbon cutting. Uh I would say that we had a record crowd at that facility to celebrate its opening. a number of partners really helped us to make sure that happened. HCCA did a great job of uh continuing the services for our seniors in the community and I want to say a huge thanks to Jeff Stoddard and James Neely or they already left um for uh the actual construction work that was done. uh municipal court renovation. Uh as of today, court operations are back at municipal court. Uh staff is back in the front office, but it doesn't mean the project's done. Uh we've now moved over to the other side of the building uh to begin uh the continuation of that renovation work on the other side. So, basically the the non-public areas is where we're doing that renovation work. Now, uh, fire station number three, um, I failed to get an update on that, but I will get an update and, uh, provide that to city council. Uh, I I just know that we're almost done with that, right, Chief Mataggets? Oh, yeah. See, got a thumbs up. Um, roadway projects. Uh, we we've actually talked quite a bit about uh, roadway projects and, uh, if you, well, all of you were at the state of the city, so you heard an update on where we're at with that. uh in public works projects. Well, you just got that update during the workshop, the first

part of it. Uh come back next week for part two. Uh city uh events and activities and operations. Uh I've I've shared quite a bit about uh some of the events that are coming up in the next future weeks. Um and uh I I should have uh additional updates uh for you on different other operations that uh currently I can't share yet because we're still in those processes making sure that we're on track and and accomplishing all that we need to in in some of those other departments. Uh in grant status uh for the most part all of those are moving forward. Uh we are very focused on our EDA grant. Uh we have a timeline to complete the project uh with economic development corporation and uh we need to make sure that we get that done. Uh that project uh we we just had a conversation with uh Mr. Welch and Mr. Osbborne uh about how we're proceeding with that. Uh but again that is a construction project and uh we we need to make sure that we are following all the grant uh timelines. uh office of local defense community cooperation. Uh again, Mr. Welch is uh kind of key and point on that. Uh that study of the truck rail facility is complete. We're waiting for the very final documentation on it and and for the very final uh grant reporting submissions and uh then we'll be able to share that with city council and kind of go through that report as well. uh defense community infrastructure program just ongoing at this point. Um key tempo nothing new to report. Uh well I guess the the new thing is that we will be working on project submissions again later this year. We shared that with you when we talked about the business 190 project and uh the direction that you provided to hold the town hall uh in the coming months on the business 190

project. uh DAG. Um we're just waiting for uh approval of the project uh at the uh Fort Hood and core level. And then the railroad crossing elimination grant, you approved our consultant to begin that process. Uh we have a kickoff meeting scheduled uh in the coming weeks and we will begin uh studying those railroad crossings. Mayor, that completes my report. Council, any questions for Ryan? Okay, we'll back up now to item I1,

quarterly activity report for the heart of Texas Defense Alliance. Keith Sled, executive director of the Heart of Texas Defense Alliance.

Good evening, mayor, city council, city staff. Technology is a wonderful thing when it works. We've all had that problem, I think. First, congratulations on the VA facility being located in Coffer Cove. It's a great asset and great benefit to the city, I think, plus the citizens. So, uh, this list of things we're working on, mayor, I'm not sure which or which DAG project Ryan was talking about. Monday, we should find out if we got the FY26 DAG grant selected. Uh, TPC's quarterly meeting is on the 23rd. They'll they've got 13 or 17, I'm sorry, 17 projects submitted. They have about 15 plus million dollars to award. We'll see what they do. Uh, it will put the Walker for recovery and storage system. do the first of the 10 wells on to Fort Hood and the system to operate it. So hopefully we'll get funded and we'll see. We'll know though after Monday.

Okay.

Uh the rest of the stuff just if you have questions I'll go over it. The updates we've talked about the small modular reactor I think in the past I'd mentioned it. Uh there are nine installations you'll see up there that the army designated that were candidates for this. Uh the project call sheet is up there if anybody wants to go read it. There's about eight industry firms that have been selected to be participating and compete in this. Uh, in fact, three of them are now in Utah testing at DoD facility up there. Um, you may have seen, you probably don't get the same news feeds I get. Two weeks ago, they flew eight of the reactors for the third company up there via C17 for testing. So, they they're small enough they can put two per aircraft. Uh, so we'll see how that goes. It's a great asset. Navy has operated modular reactors since 1952 when they built a USS Nautilus first nuclear submarine and hundreds of them since then if not thousands. I just don't know how many they've done over the years. So it it's not a new concept. It's just new technologies are using for example liquid sodium reactors. Liquid sodium is the most heat efficient source for transfer of energy between the reactor and the water. Uh and that's why they they've been looking at some of those. One of them uses pellets. It's called a H A L EU pellet. highly assayed. I remember what the L stands for. Enrich uranium pellet. It consumes the pellet and then once it's done, you just pull the module out, ship it back to manufacturer and drop a new module in. So there's all kinds of opportunities with this. It does provide there's no nuclear waste that comes out of these types of reactors. It's just when it's done, you send it back and they they re-engineer it and bring another one in. So it does have the potential to help the community in that if Ford had backup power. If you think back to when we had winter storm Yuri, the hospitals in Fort Hood had power because they're on the prime power locations. If Fort Hood had power some or something like this to provide power to it, the energy that went to Fort Hood could have been diverted to off off installation requirements to help benefit other people. So that's one of

the the assets uh project or benefits of the project. though it is depend on the long term what type of reactor they would put in. If it has more capacity than Ford needs at a particular point in time. If there was a power shortage and the rules are modified for with UROT, you could potentially export that power to the to the grid to provide power locally as well. And the state is looking at that uh there's some other assets they're going to have to do a similar agreement with if they put those in. Uh so they're going to modify the rules. This would just be one of the other things that the state would use. Data centers could potentially use these as well as they came in versus taking power from local industries. So, it's a great opportunity. The governor did do a letter of support for Fort Hood and provided it on 18th December. Uh we got a letter of support from the Texas Advanced Nuclear Engineering Office as well. And then about three weeks ago, Congressman Carter, Congressman Fluger, Senator Corn, and Senator Cruz did a joint letter and sent it to Department of Defense uh supporting forit. So, I do think for it has a good chance of being selected as one of the first ones first sites. The FY26 budget, as we know, has been passed except for one bill, the DHS bill, which is still up in the air. We'll see where it goes. Uh, but all the other bills have passed. They're working on the FY27 authorization act now, National Face Authorization Act. Uh, I have submitted mil requests uh to three of the offices and I got the fourth one today. I'll submit it uh in the next week. Uh I do expect we'll have another continuing resolution though when the year starts on one October. Hopefully the NDA will pass before then. They're making progress but it is an election year and that kind of throws everything a little differently. Uh so we will see where the government goes. Uh trans updates the army transformation I skipped a slide. Nope, I didn't. Okay. The army transformation update as you have heard army transformation and training command is now in Austin. that replaced Army Futures Command and combined it with the training and

doctrine command that was located at Fort Monroe. Uh there is another one the formerly forcecom forces command headquarters that was at Fort Bragg has been changed into the western hemisphere command and it will combine with army north and army south in San Antonio to form that command. Uh that caused some other alignments within the army. So three core now works for us army Europe and Africa. The garrison works for Installation Management Command Europe. The 18th urban core works for Western Hemisphere Command and IICOR now works for US Army Pacific. So it's interesting dynamic. It's going to cause some new pathways to be built for training readiness authority because forces command traditionally provided all training readiness authority for forces in the continental United States. I mean from ammo to training requirements to frequency of iterations of training events. So there'll be some growing pains. This is where there are with any new change. But uh they've already for Fort Hood has already been to Europe and visited with the headquarters. The headquarters have already been here to visit Fort Hood a couple of times actually in both ways. So it'll be a continuing relationship that evolves and they align these based on where they thought those forces will be most likely to be employed. It doesn't mean you can't go to one of the theaters. It just means that's the most likely one. So DoD transformation is ongoing as well but not finalized. Uh there are multiple options for it. uh there you have talked about combining some of the joint commands into one command. You'll see the first one that they really talked about was central command which covers Middle East, European command and Africa command becoming one command called international command. Uh establishing America's command become combining northern command and southern command. Uh and then you see some other ones up there that are all options. They have not finalized anything. And as with all government decisions, sometimes they start out really high and fast and then they slow down as they go forward. So, we'll see. And this is all part of trying to reduce staffs and senior billets to put forces back into the or

into the the operating force. Uh there has been no other than when I got these first announcements about the DoD transformation, there has been no other traffic on it since then. So, and there's also a lot of interest from foreign uh entities as well as congressional entities on what kind of changes are going to happen in their districts. Uh potential data center there is uh and this is if you lanize that spot next to the airfield that is the proposed multimotal sites or one of the two proposed multimotal sites. The army asked the for all installations and DoD asked all other in service installations to identify potential enhanced use lease sites. Ford had identified five. This is just one of them. Uh the army on its own back in December around the 15th of December issued RFP for Fort Hood and some other installations to be considered for a data center and enhance use lease. Uh they've done two industry days, one in early January on the 5th and one again in early February. Uh Fred was at the or Fred Wear Cove EDC was at the one in February. Uh there's been about a total of 13 companies that have expressed interest in this and attended one of the two industry days. Some of those are working together though, so it's not necessarily 13 independent entities. The their responses were due on the 23rd of February. The Department of Army has them and they're evaluating them now. We'll see where it goes and where it comes. I think there were some surprises. The Army is not going to provide security, will not provide any assets to them. All it is is a simple lease of the land. And based on some of the discussion, I'm not sure some of those industries weren't expecting more uh in that respect. So whether that makes it less attractive or more attractive will depend on where the money goes with this. Uh I don't think we'll know for a couple of months, maybe even longer of what their decision is going to be on this. And the same thing with the the pilot project for the reactors. Those are supposed to be made in the next couple of months. But as any US government decision can go, it will get delayed at some point potentially. So we'll see where this goes. Uh it it is

unknown. We don't know what the proposals look like. We don't know what the sizes look like. So, we don't know what the requirements are. If it's a closed loop reactor, it could consume up to a million gallons of water when you first put it in. And then it theoretically doesn't lose any water. Although, there are been reports that over 85 degrees Fahrenheit operational environment. They do lose a little bit of water. It just requires replenishment. I say that because you're the closest source of water for that plant based on this location. Uh, so it' be something and they may have already talked to you all about it. I'm not sure if they have or not. Uh, about what you could do or not do for them with these assets. So, just another potential project coming in. I won't say whether it's good or bad. I don't know. The Ford Fast facts are out. I do want to point out one thing. This is now two months in a row, so I won't count it as a trend yet, but it appears to be hopefully sustainable. If you'll notice that the current assigned strength is higher than authorized strength. It was higher in January. It's a little bit higher again this month. That's the first time in about two plus years that it has been that way. So that part that's a reflection of the increase in recruiting and the forces coming in and not running short. There's been some authorization changes to it for hood, but there's going to be additional ones that are going to bring it back. Uh if you remember me talking to you about a military intelligence brigade that flies aircraft uh I think two or three time presentations back their brigade commander will actually arrive here in the area in April May time frame. He'll be here for about 30 days. He will change command and the new commander will then be here permanently. So they're already starting to move the personnel. The aircraft are being built now. I think the first three are under construction. There's four prototypes that don't count in the final numbers. Uh and so we'll see. There eventually there'll be a battalion from Fort Bliss, a battalion from Hunter Army Airfield in Georgia, a battalion from Fort Gordon, Georgia, and then a brigade headquarters of Fort Wall relocate to Fort Hood. If

it's at if they go to the full in strength, it'll be about 12- 1500 soldiers and then again probably anywhere from 1500 to 2,000 family members. So they're the aircraft or jets, the current aircraft or prop engine. So it's a bombader chassis at B. It's a Bombader 6500 airframe. And then L3 Harris will come in and build intelligence suites inside those aircraft. So there could be some other companies come looking for operational area within the in this area to support those aircraft because it's heavily contractor supported. So it could be a good thing though and it's be some increased growth on the installation. You can see the deployment numbers went up a little bit about 1% from last month. A little over 4,000 now. Uh you will have third cavalry regiment which will head to Korea uh a little later this year. and then one of the other brigades in first calav will deploy to Europe uh this early late spring early summer to replace the brigade that is there then that brigade will come home so just the normal rotation of forces to Europe any questions you have that's all I've got

council have any questions for Keith where where will that aviation brigade be working out of west okay good they will have some elements will be on main post, but the aircraft will be on West Fort Hood. Okay, thank you. Uh it's requires some additional construction of the facilities, but they'll it occupies some existing hangers. Anybody else? Thank you, Keith. Thank you. Y'all have a great day. All right, we move to item I. Items for future agendas. Nothing for me, Mr. Mayor. Nothing for me, sir. No, Mr. Mayor. I have nothing, sir.

Nothing, Mr. Mayor. I have nothing, sir. I don't have anything either. All right. We have four items for executive session.

Item one, pursuant to section 551.072 072 of the Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code. City Council will meet in executive session to deliberate on the current lease agreement or value of real property for cell tower site number 374490 located at 1203 Craig Street, Coverers Cove, Texas. Item two, pursuant to section 551.072 072 of the open meetings act, te Texas government code. The city council will meet in executive session to deliberate on the current lease agreement or value of real property for cell tower FA1000780009 lease ID 75121 located at 715 Maryland Drive, Copper Scope, Texas. Item three, pursuant to section 551.087 087 of the Texas government code. City Council will meet in executive session for deliberation regarding the offer of a financial or other incentive to a business prospect referenced as project hometown hero. And number four, discussion of personnel matters pursuant to chapter 551.074 of the Texas government code regarding the appointment, employment, evaluation, reassignment, duties, discipline, or dismissal of a public officer or employee. City Manager Ryan Havlaw. All right, the time is 71 7:12. We adjourn to executive session. The time is 7:39. We reconvene into open

session for any possible action resulting from any items posted and legally discussed in executive session. There is no action to be taken. So at 7:39, we stand adjourned.