City Commission - Regular Meeting

Heat. Heat. Hi, I'm Mark Vega, general manager, Macallen Public Utility. Here's a quick update on our Brackish groundwater desalination plant. Macallen has commenced early planning and preliminary engineering efforts for a prospective brackish groundwater desalination facility. The facility would be located at the site of the existing northwest water treatment plant. The conceptual project would include multiple brackish groundwater wells along with the desalination facility. The project could potentially provide the city with an additional 6 to 10 million gallons a day of water to help supply existing and future customers. Early work has commenced which includes the installation of multiple test wells. The test wells will help obtain water quality and quantity data that is needed to advance design of the overall facility. Macallen Public Utility is working with both the Texas Water Development Board as well as the Bureau of Reclamation on funding assistance for this project. If you're a City of Macallen resident planning to build a carport, here's some information to keep in mind. Building permits are always required to build a carport. Minimum front yard setbacks on most single family homes are already at 25 ft. Minimum sideyard setbacks on single family homes are 6 ft unless the lot is in the corner where the side next

to the street has a setback of 10 ft. Should a resident want to build a carport within any setback, front, side, or rear, a special exception needs to be applied for with a non-refundable $350 application fee. And it's important to keep in mind that denial is most certainly possible. Notification to neighbors is always required. A public hearing on the requested carport is conducted where residents in opposition and support will be able to speak. And if a property is sold, the special exception needs to be reapplied or the structure removed. Carports approved for the special exception cannot be used for storage of items, cannot be enclosed, and cannot exceed 400 square ft in area. Carports that were built without a permit, no matter how long ago they were built or by whom, are subject to enforcement of the codes. The city of Macan planning staff is available to discuss options and specific lot restrictions with owners. You can contact them at 956-681-11250 for more information. Yeah, Sparky. So, fire prevention week is right around the corner. Whoa. What is going on here?

Sparky says do not leave a stove unattended while cooking and to keep hot pot handles in. Also, do not leave anything that can burn near the stove. Pay attention to fire prevention. And now we move into a workshop of the Macallen City Commission held in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act. All workshops are open to the public and serve as an opportunity for city staff to present detailed information, reports, and updates to the commission in preparation for future action or decisions. While no formal votes are taken during these sessions, workshops play an important role in the city's policymaking and decisionmaking process.

And good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to today's city commission. Any questions regarding our regular meeting today? None, mayor. Thank you, Mayor. Oh, if not, we'll proceed to item number three, street lights repairs.

All right. Uh good afternoon, mayor, city commissioners. Um this is an uh this presentation is an overview of street light repairs that the city of Macan traffic operations department conducts within the city. Uh we'll start off uh with uh street light repair requests. So 90% of the street lights within the city of Macallen limits belong either to A or Magic Valley uh electric. Um these are our two electric providers. The other 10% of lights either belong to the city of Macan and when that happens we maintain and repair make any repairs we need to make and then others are private property owners. So not all city not all lights within the city of Macan belong to um either a or magic valley. Uh typical repair times for these street lights are 3 to four business days uh depending on materials material availability and weather. So, for example, if there's a hurricane or a bad weather event, um they'll usually take longer. Um just before I go on to the next slide, if I just kind of want to point out how how enormous the A jurisdiction is. And so, a lot of the times when they're making repairs, we're uh competing with other cities and the work that workload that comes from them. There are several ways that city uh residents can make or even visitors can report street lights that they see out. They can be through the 311 app. Um they can also call the call center at 6813111. Um and they can also call the traffic department directly or email uh us at traffic.net. Probably the best way that we're able to get the um repair done in a timely manner and get the most information is through the call center. The call center um folks over uh there will ask questions on poll

number, location, and get a little bit better of a description so that we can make sure that when we report it, uh able to find that light. A typical request for street light repairs that we get is either if a light is out, if it's flickering, or if it's dim, or if a resident or anybody living along a street want to add additional lighting. Uh this next slide shows the 311 application uh numbers for this last year. You'll see from the slide that we had 384 repair requests uh just in 2025 and then we had an additional 97 upgrade request. Uh when we're talking about upgrade, it's not a light that it's out is typically the resident feels that it's too dim or maybe the trees are overgrown that the tree that the light isn't as bright as it was before. So they'll usually ask for an upgrade to LED or something else can be done. When you mention the LED, it's it's maybe where it's like the vapor amber light is switched over to an LED.

Yes, that's what you're talking about. Yes. That's categorized under the upgrade. Upgrade. Yes. And those usually take a longer time than a repair. or repair is a quick turnaround, but the upgrade a will have to look at it and see if it needs you know additional materials uh additional uh resources like you know and and usually it doesn't but they usually take a little longer because design is involved if it's an upgrade to an LED the city in terms of materials are we funding the materials

we do not provide any materials for the fixtures themselves but if there's boring or any kind of construction construction related to that street light that needs to be done, then at that time we will uh go in there and assist mostly to save a time for repair. Thank you. You're welcome. Is the replacement a regular replacement? Will they get a yellow light, not an LED? Yes, that's a good question. Uh actually I don't remember in what year but some time back a made um or agreed that anytime they would go in and repair a street light they would replace it automatically with an LED. Yes. So they're still doing that. Doing it.

They're still doing that. Yes. Quick light. Best example. Intersection of Nana and 23rd. Oh wow. It's like you got stadium lights now. Yes. Very very well lit. Yes. We did that in response one year to the parade that that was part of the area where people were coming south to go to the stadium. So, uh, you need to do that on on Trenton and 10th Street and all around all s all south and a little to the north but to the south. Look into that.

Yes. And we're actually going to be doing that with phase two of the street lightss by district. And we're actually working on it now. Um but I'll give a not that I'll say that for another presentation. Very good. No problem.

A recent example uh that is worth sharing that shows AP and the city of Macan p uh partnering to prioritize street light repairs is u the downtown area. We got a request from a business owner letting us know that there was a couple of street lights out. So what we did is we looked at the entire area and we found that there was a total of 57 lights out within that area. A fixed those lights within 10 business days. So they know how important downtown is to us and they knew that if we're reporting them out for just this one particular area that you know it was something that they needed to prioritize and they did.

Is there was wonderful. Is there a a position or part-time of a position that drives the city and looks to see what um what needs to be repaired? Uh not on a day-to-day.

Uh but that brings me to my next slide. Uh the additional efforts that are made by the traffic department to improve street lighting is we do a fall and a spring street light survey. And you know, of course, this is done twice a year. And the city, all traffic staff, they stay behind and they drive every single street and they identify which ones are out. Even if they're flickering or dim, they'll tag them, get all the information. Then we go back to the office and then we organize all the information submitted to AP and we're following up every month. Okay. Last last when we submitted you had 300 lights. Uh this next month, how many have you been able to repair? And so we're making sure that we follow up on those repairs. And uh we've been able to capture data since 2020. And it's shown here in the this graph. So, you'll see that we started off with um 406 lights back in spring of 2020 when I first started with the traffic department and started capturing uh data. Mainly what I did it or the reason that I did it for was because I wanted to see if there was any trends. Was this going to help us or was this going to hurt us? I don't think that it would hurt us, but uh I wanted to see if there was any improvement me. And sure enough, you're you're we were able to see that every year it was less amount of street lights out every year. Uh and our next spring our next street light survey is a this spring we'll do it right before the time changes and we'll do the same thing. We'll tag all the lights, report them to a uh to Magic Valley as well.

So you think you could do it on a quarterly basis? A quarterly? Sure. I think it Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. No, definitely uh we can do that and um be more probably more effective as well. Got to give credit to Marlin. She's developed a fantastic relationship with A and Magic Valley and uh they are very responsive to her calls. So, huge congratulations to the effort she's made here. Well done, Martin.

Thank you. And then uh if you'll notice from uh this picture, this is a picture we got from a resident that the they requested an an upgrade and they took a picture and they said, "Thank you so much for uh helping us out with the Yeah. And it makes a big difference. I'm not really sure. I can't see from the location. Um but I I can get that for you and let you know that wouldn't be 41st night and go, would it?" Uh, I don't know, but I know that we did add some street lights recently to Flamingo Avenue. In fact, some residents called us and told them they were they were too bright. So, we're working on trying to

But they were too bright. They were too bright. Yeah, we also have that. I I I get those every once in a while saying that they were too bright. We We like the ambiance of the other one. Well, until you get hit with something that you wanted more lighting. Yeah. I mean, it's it's most of it is very positive. Send them over to the soft. That's right. Looks like Cynthia. Thank you. Any other questions for Marlin? Thank you so much. That looks like Cynthia.

Okay. Okay. Mayor, if you're ready, we have uh greatest golf pro in this Rio Grand Valley here with uh conversation to have with you about season golf course.

Thank you, mayor, city commissioners. Good afternoon. Um, as you may recall, uh, during the retreat of, uh, about a year ago at the convention center, fees was one of the topics of that presentation. And so today, we just want to give you an update on where those fees are at today. And, uh, obviously, uh, the most important thing is looking at them, if they need adjustment or or updating, that we go ahead and do that for more than anything sustainability purposes. So um dur during the past 26 years the golf course has operated with three main objectives. Number one uh we wanted to be the leading golf facility in the Rio Grand Valley. Number two we wanted to continue making sure that every year the golf course pays for all of its operating expenses from the revenues that it generates. And number three, continue to fund and manage the equipment and uh depreciation funds. Um during the last few years, new and improved events have led to record setting number of rounds played with the last two years reaching almost 67,000 rounds. New partnerships, capital improvement projects have also propelled the success of Champion Lakes Golf Course to a point that uh we have been able to continue paying all of our uh expenses and uh including some of the capital expenditure projects from the revenues we generate and without the need to have increases in order to uh continue success. I believe that the most important thing is that we continue meeting those operating objectives and

in order to do that it is necessary to update some of the fees at Champion Lakes Golf Course. So um the uh green fee and car fee at Champion Lakes Golf Course have been updated only one time since fiscal year and we looked at the fees of it. They're listed there and that's sufficient to help you do what you need to do for the future and for how long? Correct. For how long though? Moving forward, this will sustain you for 5 years, seven years. Yeah, I I think we if if we if we adjust I know I know we have the best golf course around and I also know that we need to pick up fees because of everything.

Is there anything specific? I mean, is that are those fees sufficient? Yes, sir. I think we can definitely go at least five years with those fees. And uh we've gone basically what is it since 2011 with only one increase of $2. That was about four years ago. So the let's have a a brief conversation for us about some of the uh maintenance um projects that you take on including

um the need for analysis of soils to make sure that we're maintaining the turf and uh I know you've got and they're of capital capital capital in nature um but you've got some areas of the golf course that do need some repair uh and this will help you make sure that you've got enough cushion in your budget to take on some of those projects. Let's talk about some of the items, the ongoing maintenance that you deal with out there.

Yeah. So the so our biggest challenge is always managing the salt and and that we get in our soul through the daily irrigation cycles. Uh not only that the uh age of the system has become a challenge also. And so one of the things for example that we started doing uh three months ago was inject acid injections into the into our irrigation system to treat the water and avoid some of those challenges. We explored uh different options and the first one started like at a million dollars and then we had another option that was well we just had more manpower that was going to cost us about 160,000. So, we ended up settling at one uh that I believe is working and is going to cost us about 50,000, but it is an additional cost. But the the biggest impact that we're seeing out there comes just from the uh increase in cost of maintenance equipment way more

and that's the biggest concern I have. As long as you have what you need and and these uh this increases and fees, which I think are probably uh should have been done maybe sooner. So, we thank you for what you've done with what you have. I've seen the fees and I'm okay with it. Does anybody have any questions? I'm curious what they almost beg the question on the driving range fees. You kept everything the same except the junior monthly fee.

Yes. Uh, one of the things that uh that that has been in effect that same fee since uh single member district started. That's I remember paying for that same bucket whatever. Yeah. Yes. That one has not changed. The the other range. It's the same price. Yes, sir. The uh other range fees uh were updated three years ago. Oh, I see. That's one. And then the other one was and Pepe, Commissioner Pepe just explained it to me why you would increase $2 on the private car trail fee. Yes.

But you did the same for the our rental on the half cart by almost 92 cents. Yes. Overall, it's about about a 10 uh 10% increase across the board. Uh with certain fees a little bit less and uh where there was a need to leave them alone. I mean, no need to increase. We didn't. So, the driving range fees, I'm sorry. It's okay. Small basket, medium basket, all that. It stays the same just to be competitive. Um, we updated them about three years ago and I feel like they're about where they need to be.

Now, I'm sorry, you responded to the question that the city manager asked. In terms of the fee increase, you project this these this fee schedule to be good for how long again? At least five years. Five years. I'm comfortable with that. Thank you again. Thank you. And if you need to come back earlier, we'll come back because I understand a lot of the time. No, a lot of times we know the cost going up. And the the biggest complaint I hear about the golf course is that it's kind of hard to get in because so many people want to go in. That's a complaint. But everybody that I talk about loves it. They think it's the coolest golf course around. So So thank you.

Go get my driver and give you a Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, commissioners.

Mayor, there are many items eligible to be discussed in recess into executive session. This concludes the workshop of the Macallen City Commission. Workshops are held on the second and fourth Monday of each month at 400 p.m. in the City Commission Chamber located on the third floor of Macallen City Hall. The public is always welcome to attend or view online. Thank you for staying informed and engaged with the city of Macauen. ation. It is always a great day when we come together and celebrate what makes Macallen such a special place. And for me, that begins with this vision. The vision of a city where people feel welcomed, supported, and proud to call this community home. That vision isn't just written on paper.