City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. The regular council meeting for the city of Copper's Cove, held May 19, 2026, is called to order at 6.14 PM. Please rise for the invocation by Ms. Hart, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

Please stand with me and bow your head in prayer for me, please. Dear Heavenly Father, we just glorify your name. We just say thank you for all that you do for us and our families, Father. Just watch over the decisions that we make here as a council and guide the conversations. We ask for cover and protection over our public safety, our entities, and our families. We ask for peace and comfort for those who are suffering today. And we just want to thank you, Lord, for all of your blessings. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Please be seated.

Madam Secretary, please call the roll.

Mary Yancey.

Here.

Christina Strophus. Here. Rita Hogan. Here. Howard Hawk.

Here.

John Hale.

Here.

Dale Treadway.

Here.

Vanya Hart. Here. Jack Smith.

Here.

All right.

Everyone is here tonight. We move... Two announcements. Ms. Strophus?

None for me, Mr. Mayor. None for me, sir.

None, Mr. Mayor.

Ryan? Yes, sir. Few. We are in the middle of primary runoff elections for Coryell County. Early election dates are May 18th through the 22nd. And you can vote in Copper Scope at 809 South Main Street at the Copper Scope Early Voting Center. center uh congratulations to our 2026 graduates of the coppers cove independent school district as well as the land passes independent school district coppers cove is holding graduations on may 21st at 6 p.m for crossroads high school in the lee ledger auditorium and then coppers cove high school is holding graduation on may 22nd at 7 30 p.m at the cadence bank center in belton This Saturday on May 23rd from nine until three at the Clean Civic and Conference Center is the Spring Stand Down and Community Triage. Let's see. Transportation from Copper's Cove can be arranged at the Copper's Cove Public Library, 501 South Main Street, or the Windows Park parking lot at 2740 East Business 190 for those who need a ride to the event. On Monday, May 25th, city offices will be closed in observance of Memorial Day, and then register for the Governor's Small Business Summit on July, which will be at the, see the city's Facebook page and the Economic Development Corporation's Facebook page for registration details. Thank you. All right.

John?

I have nothing, sir. Thank you. Nothing, Mr. Mayor. Bunyan?

Yes, I would just like to say thank you to the Chamber of Commerce for this past weekend's Rabbit Fest. Really great time and just a fantastic event. Thank you.

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 of the Texas Open Meetings Act, Any deliberation or discussion 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 subsequent meeting.

All right, is there anyone to speak during Citizens Forum? Anyone to speak during Citizens Forum? All right, we'll close that section. We'll move to item, to section F, consent agenda.

All matters listed under this item are considered to be routine by city council and will be enacted by one motion. There will not be separate discussion on these items. If discussion is desired, that item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered separately. F1, consideration and action on approval of city council workshop meeting minutes for May 5th, 2026, Lisa Wilson, city secretary. F2, consideration and action on approval of city council meeting, city council regular meeting minutes for May 5th, 2026, Lisa Wilson, city secretary. F3, consideration and action on authorizing the city manager to execute a professional service agreement with Exxon Enterprise Incorporate. For the purchase and maintenance of Exxon products for the police department, Gabriel Cardona, police captain, F4, consideration and action on adopting resolution number 2026-16, authorizing the city manager to execute a local on-system improvement project agreement with TxDOT prior to the construction of roadway improvements on FM 116 as part of the city's solid waste complex improvement project Phase one, Scott Osborne, Assistant City Manager, Director of Public Works. F5, consideration and action on awarding a bid and authorizing the city manager to execute a contract with Puris Service LLC for the award of bid PW2026-4-83, Lift Station Rehabilitation Improvement Project. Scott Osburn, Assistant City Manager, Director of Public Works. F6, consideration and action on resolution number 2026-17, accepting the quarterly investment report as presented for the quarter ending March 31st, 2026 per the investment policy. Stephanie Poppin, Assistant Finance Director. F7, consideration and action on granting Councilmember Vanya Hart an excused absence. Vanya Hart, place six.

All right, Council, is there any items on the consent agenda you wish to pull and consider separately? If not, is there a motion to approve?

Mr. Mayor?

Yes.

I'd like to make a motion to approve consent agenda items F1 through F7.

I second. Motion made by Ms. Hogan, seconded by Mr. Haught. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. There are no public hearings for tonight, so we move to item H, action items.

H1, consideration and action to appoint one member to the Library Advisory Board, Jeff Davis, Director of Human Resources.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, council, and city manager.

Before I start this agenda item, it gives me great pleasure to announce the arrival of our brand new library director, Jessica McCart, who is here in the audience with us tonight. She's made it through her second day, so we're really pleased.

All right. And she made it through a budget presentation.

And a budget presentation for us.

and didn't leave from that either. The agenda item before us tonight is again with the Library Advisory Board. We have nine members, three of those which rotate out every year as their terms end. We elected one person or accepted one person last council meeting and we have had another application since then. City staff's recommendation is for you to review the submitted application and appoint Ms. Saucier to the Library Advisory Board.

All right, council, what is your pleasure?

Mr. Mayor?

Yes.

I motion that the submitted application for Lou M. Sasser fill the vacant position for the library advisory board. I'll second.

Motion by Ms. Strophus, second by Ms. Hogan. Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion carries.

Thank you, sirs and ladies.

Thank you. We move to item H2.

Consideration and action to declare city-owned personal property as surplus and donation of the equipment to the Central Bell County Volunteer Fire Department. Douglas Mathejitz, Fire Chief.

Good evening, mayor, council, um, Doug Matthew Jets, fire chief looking to, uh, donate some personal property or that's our MSA air packs that have met their end of life. Uh, these were swapped out about five years ago in 2021, and they've been sitting in our station, just taking up space and moving, moving it from one place to the other to, um, just kind of get it out of the way. Nothing's been done with them. And we did reach out to Gatesville Fire Department, who have MSA air packs, but they've already updated all of theirs, so they didn't have any use for it. We were contacted by Central Bell County Volunteer Fire Department, who uses these MSA air packs. They still use that older model, and they're trying to piecemeal theirs altogether, so they're looking for parts and pieces. We're looking at just donating what we have to them so they can use in their community there in their fire department to assist them. So as y'all well know, and y'all voted on this in the past, obviously, when we had to buy all new air packs, they do get expensive. them out by donating these old end-of-life air packs that we have that are just taking up space for us. I'd like for you to consider letting us donate that to them.

All right, council. Questions for the fire chief?

Mr. Mayor? Yes. I make a motion to declare the personal property items as surplus and authorize city staff to donate the MSA air packs, bottles, and equipment to the Central Bell County Volunteer Fire Department.

Second.

Motion by Mr. Treadway. Second by Mr. Hall. Any other discussion? All right. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. We move to item H3.

Presentation by the Copper's Cove 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 second quarter of fiscal year 2025 and 2026. Beth Galick Carney, President of the Copper's Cove Chamber of Commerce.

Mayor and Council, Ms. Gaelic-Carney notified staff that she would not be able to attend tonight's meeting and specifically requested that this item be removed from the agenda and put onto the next agenda. In discussions with Mayor Yancey, this is really kind of a routine item and not tremendous. However, if City Council has any questions at all, I would recommend that you actually take a motion to postpone this. to June 2nd, and if Council doesn't have any questions, I would be happy to kind of give a summary of the letter that Ms. Gail at Kearney provided, and then Council can take action on it. It's really up to you as Council on how you'd like to proceed with this item.

Council, are you okay with proceeding? Okay. Yes.

The visitors bureau is a component of the Copper's Cove Chamber of Commerce. Specifically, over this last quarter, the new visitors guide has been completed and is in the distribution process across the state. They are also working on a tourism trifold as well as a mural tour guide. brochure which will further enhance and highlight the amenities in our community. The visitors bureau and chamber have been working on the 46th annual Rabbit Fest which occurred this past weekend. I personally attended Saturday and there were lots of people everywhere. It was really good to see a lot of joy and a lot of people eating food of all kinds out there enjoying the carnival and the other vendors that were out there selling products. They did have a new Rabbit Fest music series that occurred over the weekend, which appeared to be well attended by those who were interested in each of the music different genres. They held a rabbit show that was on Sunday. And this is the first rabbit show in many years for Rabbit Fest. And so thank you to Muddy Boots 4-H, who actually helped coordinate that and host it. Also, Ms. Gay-Cartney wanted to report on the Chris Kendall Mart, which occurred in December. Approximately 15,000 visitors were in the downtown area when Chris Kendall Mart occurred, over 3,200 attendees on the parade route, and represents a 32% increase compared to the last Chris Kendall Mart, which was held in City Park two years prior to that. And with that, as long as you don't have any questions for me, that's their report, and council can take action to approve the requested amount of $34,153.88 for tourism-related activities and expenses.

Council, anyone to make that motion?

Mr. Mayor?

Yes.

I make a motion that we... approve the eligible payment amount not to exceed $34,153.88 and authorize the payment to the Chamber of Commerce. I'll second.

Motion by Mr. Dolphins, seconded by Ms. Hogan. Is that right? OK. Any other discussion? All right. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion carries. That is all of the action items for this evening. We go to section I, reports from staff, outside entities, advisory committees, and boards.

I1, city manager's report. Ryan Haverlaw, city manager.

Thank you, Mrs. Osborne.

I apologize. It's your fault, Scott.

Mayor and Council, I'm going to give my report. As I do, I will be going through this rather quickly. By all means, just interrupt me and stop me if you want to talk about a particular topic. On capital projects, looking at roadway projects, we have done a number of small repair jobs throughout the community. Those repair jobs are actually looking really good. Our team members are doing really great work, but we are working on a master plan for the next several years to fully utilize and demonstrate the use of the street maintenance utility fee revenue. And this summer we should actually see those documents finalized and then bidding out those projects. Numerous public works projects are in motion right now. We have so many projects. Mr. Osborn and his team have done a really good job of streamlining their effort to design, bid out, and then manage the construction piece of all these projects. A lot of activity occurring. Parks and recreation projects, if you went out to Rabbit Fest, I just wanna say that just standing around the main pond, what we call the duck pond, and having the hashtag cove sign out there, it was really phenomenal just to see people just sitting around that pond, enjoying the music, enjoying the environment of a festival, watching the fireworks, watching the softball tournament that was occurring. People really enjoyed the work that has been done out at City Park. And our Parks and Rec team did a great job of working with the Chamber to keep the park clean during the entire event. It's amazing how much trash is generated from festivals like this and our team did their absolute best to keep up with it and keep the park as clean as it was. Departmental operations, really what I want to talk to you on that is executive director of the EDC, Fred Welch, and I attended the Association of Defense Communities summit this past week. And in that meeting, or that conference, the summit, we met with many communities across the country that have installations as a partner to their city, to their counties, And one of the greatest things that I took from that is Copper's Cove, specifically Copper's Cove, but the entire Central Texas region that surrounds Fort Hood has one of the greatest communication relationships with Fort Hood officials. And we accomplish so much. Things that other communities are dealing with, we've already dealt with and we've dealt with them over the past years. And we're accomplishing and trying to work on other innovative challenges and issues that other communities have not even gotten to yet. And so, Mr. Welch, thank you for your work in working with Fort Hood and being part of the Association of Difficult Defense Communities. He is the primary person at that. My attendance was based on our relationship with the Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation. That office is the organization that not only helped stand ADC up many, many years ago, and that was celebrating their 50 years this year, but they also granted almost $11 million to this community in order to put in the ramps on State Highway 9. to Tank Destroyer and Old Georgetown Road and to fund the rail study that you received a report on and presentation on at your last council meeting. They are interested in the partnership that we had and continuing to help fund those initiatives. which has already started the process of coordinating with OLDC for that next effort, which potentially will be grant funded, something that you as a council will need to help support moving forward as well. Killeen Temple Metropolitan Planning Organization, we are a member of that organization, and we are in just the initial process of a project call, and city council has provided us direction to hold town halls, excuse me, a town hall on the business 190 projects moving forward from phase two to phase four, which do include adding sidewalks, enclosing the drainage, along business 190 into culverts and potentially adding medians along some of those sections. So we will schedule and hold that town hall, bring that information to council as we look at other projects for council to prioritize prior to that call of projects as well. Central Texas Water Alliance continues to meet their, I would say probably aggressively, trying to provide the greatest benefit to our region from a water resiliency and future looking standpoint. Many other communities are dealing with severe water shortages or a very near water supply concern. Copper's Cove is not in that position yet, but we don't wanna be in that position. That's why we continue to work with CTWA. Council member Treadway is the primary representative and was sworn in, was it last week? Last Thursday. Last Thursday. The tax increment reinvestment zone, or the TERS, right now, I still need to work with our consultant on preparing the ordinance, the public notice, get that out in the paper before city council adopts that. We have had discussions with Coryell County. had a discussion with Lampasas County as well. Both of the counties are interested in it. I would like us to move forward because they would like to see activity before they join, which is fine because then once city council establishes the TERS, then we would come back with an agreement between the city and the counties on how that TERS is staffed or appointed in terms of the board represented. and how we move forward. So there is interest in CTW, CTC, excuse me, Central Texas College is also interested in actually joining where we had not presented that before. So that's a great progress. Again, thank you to Mr. Welch on his assistance with that. The strategic marketing and communication plan is moving forward. I believe we have a meeting on June 2nd. Thank you. June 2nd. Thank you, Mr. Stevens. June 2nd before the council meeting. It's in the afternoon, which it will be a joint meeting with the Economic Development Corporation Board. And then we will have a town hall as well to receive comments from our residents and businesses on the strategic marketing and the communication plan. Sports facility, sports complex feasibility study. Originally we planned to have that discussion with you during the workshop tonight. It was not ready. We're working on that. So we are trying to make sure that we can have that discussion with you on June 2nd. So that's our current planned presentation. And then the parkland dedication ordinance. The subdivision technical advisory committee and the quality of life committee have worked through the plan trying to come to a consensus on a recommendation to city council. It's not done yet, but they're still working on it. And I can positively say that they're not far apart. They just need to eventually meet together and say we agree with that and to recommend to council what their recommendation is. Grant statuses. I don't have anything different to report on any of those unless you have any questions. That concludes my report, Mayor. I'll take any questions.

Council, do you have any questions for Ryan? Okay. All right. Thank you, Ryan. We'll move to item J, items for future agendas. Yes.

Nothing for me, Mr. Mayor. Nothing for me, sir.

Nothing, Mr. Mayor.

Nothing, sir. Nothing, Mr. Mayor.

Update on our boards. You haven't had one in a while.

I'm sorry to say that again.

An update on the advisory boards.

The council appointments? Yes.

The advisory board's got it. Thank you.

Ryan asked to go back to the previous section and there was something he forgot in his city manager's report.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. One last thing, just recently I received information that is apparently circulating on social media, which states that the Texas Attorney General's Office has issued a letter to 130 cities stating that we are not in compliance with a Senate bill that passed in 2025, which requires an annual audit to be completed in order to adopt a tax rate greater than the no new revenue tax rate. While The adoption of the tax rates proceeded last year without any issues or problems. Very specifically, the city of Copper Shove has completed an audit and filed that audit every single year for as far back in history as I can look to see when audits have been completed. And in the last 15 years, we have not only completed that audit, but we have received recognition for the quality of that audit with all necessary information from the Government Finance Officers Association. Specifically relating to 130 cities, there is a press release from the Attorney General's Office that was released that lists 130 cities that the Attorney General's Office states they sent a letter to not being in compliance. and I will prepare information to send out to the council so you're aware of what cities are listed. Copper's Cove is not included on that list. So just wanted to make that really clear in the event that you are asked any question about that at all. And if anybody has any concerns about that, just have them contact the city. We'll be happy to sit down and talk with them or over the phone, whatever it might be. Thank you.

All right, thank you. Let's see, we went all the way through on the future agenda. Okay, we move to item K, executive session.

K-1, pursuant to Section 551.087 of the Texas Government Code, City Council will meet in Executive Session for a deliberation regarding the offer of a financial or other incentive to a business prospect referenced as Project Hometown Hero.

All right, the time is 6.43. We adjourn into Executive Session. The time is 6.57. We reconvene into open session for possible action taken resulting from any items posted and legally discussed in executive session. Here's your motion to be made.

Mr. Mayor? Yes. I make a motion that we authorize the city manager to execute a chapter 380 economic development agreement between the city of Copper's Cove, Texas and Cullinan Properties Copper's Cove MSOPCLLC.

Second.

Motion made by Mr. Hill, seconded by Mr. Treadway. Is that right? Okay. Any other discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. There is no other business to be discussed, so at 6.57 we stand adjourned.