City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, welcome to the city council meeting. Uh it's 6 pm Tuesday, April 21st, uh 2026. And we do have a quorum. Um and let's go ahead and pray. Dear Lord, we ask for your presence tonight and we want to thank you for us all being together and uh making our making our giving our duty to the city and we just ask that you you just bless bless everybody's hearts and minds and get us on track to take care of city business. Um want to pray for first responder tonight and um thank you for everything in Jesus name. Amen. America nation All right, we're going to open the session with public comments. The city council welcomes citizen participation and comments at all council meeting. Citizens comments are limited to three minutes out of respect for everyone's time. The council is not permitted to respond to your comments. The Texas Open Meetings Act requires that the topics of discussion deliberation be posted on the agenda not less than three business days in advance of council meeting. If your comments relate to a topic that is on the agenda, the council will discuss the topics on the agenda at the time that topic is discussed or deliberated. Anybody that wants public comments? All right, we'll go and close those out. Moving on to the consent agenda. Uh

items on the consent agenda are approved through a single council motion which applies to all items listed. Consent agenda items are considered routine, not likely to require discussion or deliberation, and may be discussed prior to making a motion. There will be no separate discussion on the items unless a council member requests an item be removed and considered separately. Item number one, consider approval of April 7th, 2026 meeting minutes. Two, consider pay request number 18 for Wicker Construction for perfor work performed at the West Loop wastewater collection. Item number three, consider pay request number 35 for Drake Construction for work performed at the Southside Wastewater Treatment Plant. And item number four, consider ordinance 2026-11 repealing ordinance 2026-6 outdoor burning ban for the city of Mount Pleasant. A motion. A motion to approve the consent agenda items.

I second. Madam Secretary, can we get a vote, please? Yes. I I I All right. Consent agenda passed unanimously. We'll move on to uh item number five, a presentation on municipal solid waste management at the city of Mount Pleasant contractual obligation. And this is our attorney.

Good evening, mayor and council. Uh I was asked to provide a brief summary presentation uh for the council and also um so that the public is aware of certain aspects of its agreement with Republic. Um, but as uh as you know and it has been discussed at other meetings, um the city uh had an agreement with Republic originally, I believe in 1998. I'm not sure if there was one that preceded that, but there was certainly one in 1998. and then the city renewed that contract um with Republic in 2020. Uh the agreement provides for a sole and exclusive franchise and includes rolloff dumpsters and construction waste. Um cities are permitted to enter into these type of agreements. These exclusive agreements for handling solid waste disposal services. Uh this agreement with Republic does provide for a franchise fee that the city receives out of the rates that are paid under the agreement. Um so there's been some discussion about whether or not this is a legal agreement or whether that's permitted. The law in Texas uh has been interpreted and it does permit this type of agreement. It's possible that the law changes. It does happen. The legisle change the law or it could be changed by a court interpretation. And if that's the case, uh, at that time, the city would be in a position to consider some sort of amendment to the agreement with Republic. There's actually a provision under the contract that provides for change of the law.

So, one of the matters that was raised are rates um that have been charged to residences and businesses. So, since 2020 when this uh agreement was entered into, rates have gone up over time. U the contract provides that rates will increase annually based on CPI and that's the CPI for uh the consumer price index for Dallas Fort Worth areas. Uh and so it could go up as much as 5% uh without any kind of action. Basically a republic is required to provide you notice of that increase and then it takes effect. If it were 5% or more they the public would have to come and get your permission to increase. Um there's some other provisions that allow rate changes, but basically the rates in the from 2019 to 2022 for residential service, now there's lots of different rates under that agreement, but I'm just going to focus on the residential were $1641. that um now is $1944. And so that increase is basically about $3 a month since 2019 time frame. And that is an increase of 18.46% over those years. So that's over a period of time of of approximately six or seven years. If you went back a little bit further for about 10 years, they increase At that time they were $1562 for residential service. So that was an increase of about 24.46% over a 10year period.

So, um the contract that um Mount Pleasant has with Republic, it's a binding agreement, which means that if the city were to just ignore the terms that could be sued for violating the terms of that agreement, uh any number of things, right? It is a binding agreement. The agreement though expires in about four and a half years in 2030. And so, um, the agreement would automatically renew unless the parties provide notice of non-renewal, one of the parties provides notice of non-renewal at least 180 days prior to the expiration. And so, that's something for you all aware. Uh, so I'm just trying to make sure I've covered everything that was kind of put together. In terms of revenue, the city's uh, you know, franchise revenue was a little bit a million2 for the January 2025 through January 2026. The franchise revenue from 2018 to 2026 is $7.4 million. And so um this isn't a secret. It's not like uh something that I mean the public is aware. The way that the rates are structured show that. All right, I think that's all I have unless council has any questions.

So, Lee, what they voted on the last meeting, nothing has changed, right? I mean, no, nothing has changed about the agreement. The uh what you uh what you considered at the last meeting was basically some uh enforcement tools uh adding those to your ordinances um that really applied the roll off to the something that was already in place. So, All you were doing was finding and nothing had changed. That's great. You these are sort of like uh supplementing enforcement tools under your contract, right, that you need.

Okay. And I just want to let everybody know at the the meeting where Republic did come out, I told all the citizens of the city that if there was an issue with the contract or the ordinance to email me at at my mayor address and I gave the mayor address out and I did not get one email from from really from anybody but anybody inside the city. So hopefully we can put this to bed. Thank you, Lee. Y I appreciate it. I know I've been a pain over this. What?

Yeah. But I think it's so important and I appreciate you so much giving the facts, giving the information. And what people take from that is up to them. But it's so important that we're transparent. We tell what we did. We tell why we did it. And we let them know instead of somebody thinking, you know, I'm going to get a $20 a month increase. We put the facts out there. We put the truth out there. And that always helps. Thanks. Yes. Thank you. Going to go ahead and move on to item number six, monthly financial report for the month end of March 31st, 2026 with our interim finance director, Elliot.

Good evening, mayor, mayor Pat, and council women. Thank you for allowing me to present your financials tonight. As you said, I'm Rebecca Elliot, a strategic government resources consultant, your interim finance director. We are at our March 2026 financial. This is our midyear report too. So in theory, in an ideal world, everything would be 50% as a straight line percentage um for your general fund. You have a year-to-day actual 10,55,476 compared to the budget of 15,874,400. So percentage year is higher than 50% deposit of 66.5%. And in comparison to this time last year, it was 59.3%. So healthy revenue for the general fund. The property tax that you're used to seeing, you can see the big spike in January. That is where your current property taxes come through. And you have received all of your current property taxes year to date at this point. Your year-to- date property tax revenue percentage is 92.5 versus last year this time at 90.4%. Um, you'll recall to Shirley came and presented the $20,000 check. You'll see that in your April finance.

Your sales tax for March is at 52.5% versus 46.1%. So another good trend. We move on to general fund expenditures. You have actual year to date of 8,169,463 in comparison to a budget of 15,888,447. That is a 48.6 and under 50% for your expenditures. We look at our utility funds. We have a year-to- date revenue of 10 million $29,230 in comparison to a budget of 20,432. So, you're right on target at 50% for your utility fund revenue. Looking at utility fund expenditures, you have year-to- date actual $9,2612 I'm sorry9,2612 $261,248 so numbers are obviously even harder for reasons and that's in comparison to a budget of 19,5487,991 for below 50% target we're at 47.4% % and under the midyear. So overall those two funds look healthy. We already know what our April sales tax collections will be and we had an actual um year to date of 900 I mean $494,91. You'll note though in this chart it's $430,87. The reason for that is we did a year-to- date true up of your refuge sales tax

that we pay to the state. And so we did a reconciliation. You have not just myself as new staff, but also another new staff, a member of CPN who hired. And so we just did an adjustment. Um it's not uncommon to look at that at year end, but since we're new, we're trying to screw up everything at this point. It's less than 1.5% not material but I wanted to bring that to your attention and are there any questions? So

we can move on and move on to item number seven. We have quarterly investment report end March 31st. I do not have a PowerPoint for you. You have a report of the investments in your packet. Um, this is a requirement of state statute, the public funds investment act. You are currently in compliance. Even though Jill is no longer here, I am certified um with the act myself. So, between Candace and myself, we're in compliance. We've certified the report. Um we do not currently use out sourcing or external um professional service work for our investments. It's done in house. Um that's okay. It may be something that down the road we want to maybe look at. Um but you are currently invested in three products that are good quality products in my opinion. You have tech logic and Texas range for your investment. all very safe, all in compliance with your public funds investment act. Today's rate, um, technical is at a 3.66 interest rate on a 44day weighted average. Logic was at a 3.78 with a 54-day weighted average. And Texas Range was at 3.66. They didn't have a weighted average, but theirs is on a 60-day maturity. So, if you'll recall last December, the Federal Reserve lowered a quarter basis points to try to um look at inflation, and they'll do that periodically to try to target interest rate. They had a target of 3.5 to 3.75%. All of your interest rates are in that range and healthier than the minimum 3.5 with um logic of Hilltop Product also exceeding at 3.78. I feel like your rates are still good for the current situation of the economy.

Are there any questions? Thank you for your time tonight. Thank you. All right, we'll go ahead and move on to item number eight. discuss and consider authorizing the city of Mount Pleasant to solicit requests for proposals for grant administrative services and request for qualifications for engineering services for the water supply infrastructure grant program administered by Texas Water Development Board. And this is our utilities director.

Mayor, before we go to that item, can you have a vote to accept the quarterly report, please? Have a motion. I make a motion that we accept the quarterly investment report ended March the 31st, 2026. I second. Madam Secretary, we get a vote, please.

I I Yes. Good evening. I'm just going to introduce John with Grant Works and he should be able to give you a little bit more information. Thanks, Mayor Council. Uh Texas Water Development Board water supply infrastructure grant program been introduced. It's the grant program for city to take advantage of very healthy grant dollars. work on water. A couple weeks ago, I met with city manager Vine and Aaron to discuss if the city had any needs for water and they do a big water line project that qualifies. The city qualifies and the city is competitive. The good news is it's free. There's no match component to this. This is very important. Large grant dollars that have large match components with them are sometimes impossible to do. There's no match component to this. As a matter of fact, there's no expense at all other than what Candace would run a couple newspaper ads. Told city manager Von I would bring him grant opportunities like this when they come along. Want to take advantage of very good opportunity. Uh applications are due at the end of July. My company will assist Candace with the uh procurement process to hire an administrator whether it's us or somebody else. help her get that done. She knows how to do it, but we'll give her some and then you'll pick an administrator and we'll apply for it. Tonight, we'd ask that you authorize u the issuance of the RFPs and RF got hire administrator and

we appreciate it. How much is the grant amount for? Is it 1.5 up to $5 million? And once it's once you make application in July, what's an average that you might hear back?

This is the first time for this program. It's kind of hard for me to answer that, but most water development board projects be announced today within a year. This is a recurring grant that's going to happen over the next 20 years. The grant amount is a little over a billion dollars per year. So there's there's going to be some funding available. Um there are three different categories. Large, city, they're going to take a lot of it. medium cities which is where you're at and then there's small cities that are under a thousand that's the smallest going to be a healthy amount of money. Can we get a vote? Thank you.

I make a motion to authorize the city of Mount Pleasant to solicit requests for proposals for grant administrative services and requests for qualifications for engineering services for the water supply and infrastructure grant program administrated by the Texas Water Development Board. I second the motion. All right, Madam Secretary, can we get a vote, please? Yes. I I Motion passed unanimously. We will move on to item number nine. Discuss and consider ordinance 2026-12 adopting property path exemption for qualifying child care facilities. And this is our city.

That's all right, Paul. No worries.

All right. I'm actually uh doing a little cover here for um uh your city management since he was unable to be here tonight. So um this is the matter that was discussed I believe at the last meeting uh in which the city may adopt an ordinance for a property tax exemption for qualifying child care facilities. Uh the ordinance has actually been drafted and I'm not it's not in your packet, but it basically um it it it meets the requirements for one of these type exemptions. And so uh last week or last meeting, you heard that if you're going to do it, you have to do it now. And but the amount has not been specified. uh if you're going. So, it's really up to council whether or not you grant it or not. Um, but it is uh allowed under the uh under uh the Texas constitutional provisions that were changed and also under uh chapter 51 of the Texas local government code. And so, the question really for you is whether you want to pass it. Um it would it would only be for qualifying uh facility. And so those facilities are under the Texas Rising Star, uh, uh, program. And so, um, the question is whether you would like to grant that. And if so, it could be, it has to be at least 50% of an exemption, but it could be up to 100%. Do we set that?

Yes, you do. So, you're you would be exempting the portion that goes to the city for these properties. And it can either be a property that is owned by the um child care facility or or one that is leased with certain restrictions. That kind of thing. I I I to be honest, I'm not certain what you have to do to meet the qualifications under the program, but um but but they would have to meet those qualifications to to be eligible for this program.

Explain to me about the percentage. How are those rates set? I'm not quite there yet. So, um so you would be granting as the uh you think you could put I think that would probably So it would be 50 to 100% of the appraised value of the property.

Well, um have to be for next year, right? Yeah. So you'd have to you would have to at this meeting so that it would be applicable for next year is my understanding.

I have a question. So I'm looking at the bottom of not number it's the memorandum. At the very bottom it said budget. You see it? So it says 100% property tax exemption for the three child care facilities would result in a decrease in the general fund by 3,826. If we did 75% that would be 2,869.88 and 50% exemption would result in a decrease in general fund of 9113.35. That is correct. So, my quick thinking on this is um I personally um think the 100% could be good. And the reason why I do that is because I'm thinking of how many uh women and men are working full-time and they have to rely on these daycarees to keep their kids. Uh by the more people working in Mount Pleasant, that's going to increase the sales tax. is going to increase people buying things and revenue coming in. So if all we're losing based on this projection, we probably by them being able to keep mamas and daddies working um that could be a benefit.

So tonight we can vote on it and and not recommend the percentage, right? No, you would need to adopt the percentage. Okay. So yeah, so it would, you know, minimum 50.

Well, I mean, yeah, it does say it doesn't I think I think that it's probably something good because we're probably going to have a couple of more child care schools or whatever it is coming in next year. So that'll be an incentive, I think. Yes. Sorry, Lee. We're just confused because on that last page it said that we could we could recommend it and that's what staff recommends, but we didn't recommend a percentage on that exemption.

Yeah. And um yeah, the u uh I I believe uh it's a policy level decision for you to make and so I think often the staff might make a recommendation on this but didn't make a recommendation on this one and left the percentage alone. Yeah. But they recommended it. I mean we don't have a vote but

I recommend 100% as well. So, it's as long as the ordinance is in existence. And so, if you did it for a time period and you decided that you wanted to cease doing it, you would then yeah, you would revoke the ordinance allowing. So, it's like a normal exemption. Yeah. Normal exemption. So I think there's the So you have the

Well, no. So it was the wording was a little bit confusing that the staff they recommend it, but they're not allowed to recommend the percentage. They're just not providing you a percentage, but you would need to adopt a percentage that your grant what I at 100% right now it's talking about less than $4,000 and it's going to be an incentive for people. So, how do we do that? We have two at 75 and two at 100.

You basically somebody makes a motion and you see if it passes then it doesn't then you could make another motion. Let me ask another question. So at some point can this change? Yes it could. You could I mean if you did it for 100% for year one and then you decided to go to 75% you could certainly adjust. You just need to be cognizant of the timing of the I make a motion that we accept this property tax exemption. Is it called certain child care facilities? No. What's the name?

It's an ordinance 2026-12 adopting the property tax exemption for qualifying childare. So, Kelly, can we make a motion first with 100% and then 75? She was 100 just for record is all well.

So I would like to make a motion that we that we uh consider the ordinance 2026-12 adopting a property tax exemption for qualifying child care facilities. Uh, and at 100% at 100%. All right. Can I get a second? I second. Madam Secretary, can we get a vote, please? No. I I motion pass three to one. Thank you.

Yeah, thanks Lee. Yeah, and just to let you all know, our city manager is out on schedule. So,

all right, let's move to item number 10, discuss and consider resolution 2026-12 authorizing the city manager to execute documents relating to improvements at the Mount Pleasant Regional Airport. And this is our airport director, Henderson. Mayor Council, sorry I was a little too quick a while ago. My resolution had the same number as as the ordinance and I and I heard that and so but anyway, sorry about that. Uh anyway, this resolution is for the the dirt work project. We're continuing at the airport. This is going to be phase two of it. And uh you say what is what will it accomplish? This will give us 10 more building sites for the larger hangers, the corporate size hangers. They can be private hangers too, but uh uh we we are making the the places to to to build them in the in the taxi ways going to include about a 800 foot taxi way extension. And uh you know, as Mount Pleasant grows, we airport needs to be able to grow too. And the good thing about this, the infrastructure grant money and the non-primary entitlement money we have is hopefully is going to finish all of this up for us. And so, but we we need to have the where the city manager can uh sign all the documentation stuff for.

Great. We appreciate it. We appreciate you thinking ahead, too, because I know I'm I'm with you, you know, and next year we're probably going to have some big planes flying. Yeah, we we've had planes. I've got to tell y'all about one we had last week. The It was a Gulfream 450. Not the biggest plane that's ever been into the airport with the one that bought the most fuel. We put 2,000 almost 2,700 gallons on that airplane. Wow. And was something over $17,000 fuel bill. We've never done anything like that before. Who would have thought that those kind of planes would be coming into Mount Pleasant, right? Mount Pleasant's growing. I mean, hey, and we need to That's the second time they stopped here, too, wasn't it?

Well, that particular plane was We've had a lot of them in here like that. That's awesome. That's great. Paul, I have a question. Yeah. Uh talking about all this air traffic controller and stuff. Yeah. So, here we are in Mount Pleasant. You got more people flying in, flying out. Have you had any close calls? Who does all that? Who's the one that says Who does all that?

We're an uncontrolled airport. And what does that mean? It means that we can give them advisories. We can tell them what the wind direction is and there's somebody holding short on runway 17 and that sort of thing, but we can't tell them where to go or what, you know, that sort of thing like a controller. And you say, "Well, don't we need a controller? We don't have that many planes in there." And they talk to one another. They'll be 15 miles out. They'll call in and give their position and and say they're inbound landing runway 17 Mount Pleasant. Anybody else is around, they want to talk to them and they will, you know, and which they just talk to one another and and the system works really good. It does. And the FAA monitors that and regulate. I mean, they make sure

well, you know, if they were higher up, like 2,000 foot or up, you know, they're on radar there and or center can control them and direct them, you know, and and but once they get lower than that, they can't reach them with the radio, but they can talk to us. Okay. Yeah. We get a motion. Make a motion we approve resol resolution 2026-12 authorizing the city manager to execute documents relating to the improvements at the Mount Pleasant Regional Airport. I second the motion. Madam Secretary, you can get a vote, please. I I

I Yes. Pass unanimously. Thank you. Go ahead and move on to item number 11. Uh, want the music to start? That's right. Discuss and consider the performance agreement between Mount Pleasant Economic Development Corporation and East Texas Lift Truck, Inc. BBA LTS material handling.

Good evening, uh, Mayor Council. Thanks for letting me be here today or tonight. And I appreciate Paul trying to hurry because I knew I was after him. So I do want to give Paul a shout out. We've had some folks that have come into town to look at Mount Pleasant and we've sent them out to the airport to look and he's been gracious enough to host them and so we're very lucky to have the airport that we have and the ability what it does. Tonight we're here to uh discuss, consider, and hopefully possibly take action on a an incentive agreement between uh the Mount Pleasant EDC and lift truck systems uh material handling. They are presently located in our business park in this building and they are considering an expansion. The EDC board voted on this last week uh to give them uh $70,000 uh provided they employ at least four new uh positions. Um they're going to use that money uh to build a fence around the back side of the property. Um, with this expansion, they'll become a full-fledged dealership, which means they will, um, sell forklifts, lease forklifts, um, repair, maintenance, the whole operation out of this location. They've been in the business part for two years ago. So, they're they're their headquarters are in Tyler, um, familyowned, uh, and operated. They've been in business since 1982. They have uh uh plan on building a an awning out the backside um for the delivery service and

with that um Toyota forklift is which is what they provide um requires them to have that fenced in to have that delivery area fenced in and covered. So they're going to pay for the covering. Um what this uh performance agreement would do would be allow them to build the fence. Um we would pay them the 70,00 going to contractor um provided that's a local contractor part of the agreement as well. Um with that they're also granting us about a third of an acre um to build a road um that you guys have already you as a body have already approved. Um they've actually already staked that road off and they should start construction on that road in the next week or so provided it dries up. I certainly would answer any questions um as it relates to this project. Let me kind of show you on the map where the road is. Um these jobs um are going to be a minimum of $25 an hour. Their estimate is those are going to be somewhere around $28 an hour. Um and they're looking at providing up to eight or nine. We're going to require the four full time. Um they have to have those employed for a minimum of uh three years. Um if they do not have those for the three-year period, then they would have to pay back a portion or all of the money that we're going to give them as an assistant. So they're supposed to start that expansion in the next 10 days. Um and we expect it to be um done in the next um six months. But in the agreement, they have to have it done by March 31st.

Kevin, currently they're not selling forklifts there, correct? Yeah, they're just servicing. So, but there's a ton load of forklifts in this county. And so, this will be their second dealership. They do have locations in Temple, Texar, Canana, uh, but those are not full-fledged dealerships. So they've picked Mount Pleasant as their second uh location for that just because of the volume that they have in county. It's just going to help us on our sales tax. So it's a that is correct. This is an easy decision. I think I do have a question. So of people that they're going to hire, do you know what requirements they are looking for? Will it be salesmen? Will it be more mechanics? Will it be

It's going to be service technicians is the the main. They are going to have a couple of folks here. Um I think it's like two sales, four service text, and I don't remember what the other two folks are going to be, but mainly in the backside, but there I think they are going to put two sales people here. Yeah. And I know people have been asking how do you make sure that that's enforced and y'all are gathering reports from each of these people that you're working with every year, right?

That's correct. So, we do uh compliance uh reporting um They have to have um all of our performance agreements require that they um submit um TWWC um reports for the last quarter of the year by February 1st and then we check that compliance and we've completed all our compliance checks for this year and everybody was in compliance or actually above compliance. Um but yes, we will check um this for the next um three years. We will check their compliance to make sure that they have that. We want to make sure that uh we are judicious with the taxpayers money. Absolutely. Thank you. A motion.

I'll make a motion to approve performance agreement between Mount Pleasant Economic Bel Corporation East Texas Lift Truck Inc. DBA LTS material handling. I second. Madam Secretary can get a vote, please. I I I Yes. Pass you. Thanks. Thank you, Mayor. Appreciate it. Thank you, council.

Item number 12, uh 12, presentation and discussion of certain proposed changes to code development requirements in chapter 95, 98, and 155. This is our development director, Barry L. Good evening, mayor and council. So, um, you're kind of off the hook for me tonight because this is a presentation and a discussion. No action needed. So, you can kind of take it a little slow. Um, this if if I could illustrate with a kind of iconic illustration, it would be the tip of the iceberg because we have a lot of code that is old and outdated. Um, some of it it it needs it's solid, but it needs refurbishing. And so rather than pay a lot of money to consultant or bring in things that are not appropriate for our uh locality, we're proposing to do it bit by bit. So this is the very first presentation on what we're wanting to do um that is practical. um has uh we picked some of the things that we actually touch as a department dayto-day that would help us um particularly in code enforcement but overall actually in various development areas that are what I would call lowhanging fruit. So let's dive in. There are only six of them. So um just as an introduction um we need code changes to keep pace with our property maintenance and our health and safety and any kind of use changes in our code. So, we're only doing six of them tonight that I'm going to talk about and I do want input either tonight or in the next couple weeks as to whether you like them, you don't want them um so that we

can move forward with all the legal lease that um and list these help because there are three different ordinances and various sections in the ordinances that these touch, but it's a lot of work to change them. So, I wanted to kind of gauge your um input. So, kind of a refresher, why do we have city codes? Um, of course, Debbie already knows all this, but they basically exist to protect our citizens health and safety, and that's why they're here. They foster orderly development in our city, for example, and they ought to enhance economic vitality for everyone. But what they don't do is just to kind of also put it into perspective, they're not beautifification tools necessarily. that's not their purpose. Um, they work for that, but that's not what their primary purpose. They have to have a public purpose. They can't be specific to help one group over another. They're not a substitute for any kind of subdivision standards or HOAs that would be privately administered to make things look great. That's the whole that doesn't have anything to do with the city. And of course, they do apply to everybody. So you can't do code changes for one group and not for another, you know, so they have to be equal and then so tonight these are the six and I'll talk a little bit about them and then each one has its own uh slide or set of slides. So fencing material specifications currently we do not have them. um residential building screen material. What that means is certain residential properties uh attempt to screen areas that that may be less um that are code issues and they use materials that are themselves code issues. U but we have no current language to address them.

non-residential parking paving requirements. Those uh we actually um it's twofold. One, we want to make it easier for businesses, but also add a health and safety piece. Um the fourth one is to uh propose that we have a street standard that's only concrete for new city streets because of money saved long term. Um the fifth one is the many storage parking requirements. you may remember um was brought up as a common sense item several uh months ago. Um the sixth one is uh related to an additional discussion on revitalization that we will have specifically but that is to allow upper and lower duplex units which uh building code allows. Um, other cities use them because they allow you to revitalize property and go up instead of out for duplexes. Um, but for whatever reason, I could not find why our code prohibits them. So, we want to revise our codes because the standards are sometimes outdated and they change. regulations, the laws change over time. And we also have a whole slate of those um that also are going to need some housekeeping. Um changing conditions because we have advancement in tech technologies and we don't have some uses that are called out like many stores doesn't have a use in our code right now. Um changing citizen expectations so they put pressure on on y'all. And then the last one is your decision maker desire for improvement. All those come into play. So each one of these will have an illustration that shows kind of why we want them. Um so we propose to change the code to allow only fence pipes that

would be designed for being fencing. That sounds common sense, but we don't have that. Um so we would prohibit uh things like what you're seeing. um uh material that's discarded a pallet's old tin um just tarps in various state. This one's actually not in bad shape. You should see what happens after a year or two. So the benefit to that would be a code of compliance and neighborhood vitality. And to to kind of go more into it, the code itself would specifically allow these materials. so that you wouldn't be trying to guess what is an allowed material. Well, here they are. Um there really are no um and nothing's left out. So if it's been designed for a fence, it's on this list. And so but it does and so the citizen could look at it and say, "Oh, okay, Mike, I can have this for a fence or that for a fence." But a pallet fence, no. Um, so there are a few prohibitions we're going to put into the code. For example, um, specifically calling out anything that's not made for fencing, which would would be like old railroad types or full pieces of lattice work, um, that are designed for plants but not necessarily fencing, corated steel from old buildings or old pin whether it's rusty or not. but they don't they're not specifically made for fencing and they also don't hold up. Um we would allow electric fencing but only in future development um for animals where people wouldn't interact with the fence and it would not and know if they have to get a permit for all these of course. So when they came in for a permit we would judge

if it was next door to your house Kelly we would say no. Um, so, uh, we would allow barbed wire in those zoning districts for, again, animals or for security. Um, but not because you didn't like your neighbors. Uh, a same thing with the reservoir. There's a place in, you know, time and a place for that. That will be specifically woven into the language that we um would allow it and it would have to have be at least six feet tall. So, people could be injured. The next one is residential screening, which um we don't have anything in our code currently that does not allow it. However, um there are certain areas of town where it there you'll see a lot of these. Um, this is one from uh one of our areas that is hiding material that uh has previously been called out as um code enforcement issue for any kind of junk, trash, discarded furniture, um any kind of items out that don't belong out outdoors and in cardboards that are open. Um so they're visible, but they also are uh accessible to vermin animals and that sort of thing. So there is again and there's the code compliant benefit. Each one of these has its own benefit. Um so these types of screens would be allowed as a permitted construction material um for uh for the area and only with the permit. So if you wanted then to screen your carport, you would get a building permit, put up um permitted construction materials, which would be wood or tin or some building

type material and not tarps that rip and tear and um you can as you can see see a lot of that stuff behind there. It's not allowed. Um so we don't uh it's a to keep people from hiding things that shouldn't be outside in the first place. Um the second piece is also that the those items are not secured or safe and they're just kind of popped up there. Um and they're on sight and for construction and could be a safety hazard as well. Again, neighborhood vitality. It helps the whole uh neighborhood. Third one um is a non-residential parking lot piece and this would not mean that people's parking lots in the city would ever change. This only would uh happen if they were expanded from remodels or new uses or somebody came in and wanted a permit. So asphalt would be allowed with permission. Currently um and several years ago it changed and concrete is the only allowed material for parking lots in our city. um that causes some uh financial hardship particularly for somebody who wants to refurbish and redo. And so my interpretation has been letting people redo with what they had if it's last fall and it's a light use. This would only happen with permission from myself and the building um official because with heavy use industrial use trucks that turn it tears asphalt up and turns it basically into gravel um in our Texas heat. So there's some uses that wouldn't be appropriate. So they would have to get a permit obviously to put paving down and if they wanted asphalt we would tell them yes or no. But you know,

somebody's business uh normal cars and uh pickup trucks, it would be it would be with standards for the application of it. We would just let people put it down. There are standards for how asphalt should be in a parking lot. That would be part of the rules that make before you leave that I have I have two. One is that you have on here for remodeling Now, if I own a commercial building and I'm just remodeling the inside, in my opinion, that should not activate the need for new.

It it doesn't as long as the use isn't changed and you're not adding. Sometimes people will add stuff when they remodel. And that's what I'm talking about. But if you're going in and building a bathroom or something like that and you've got an existing parking lot, no. Okay. Are you looking at adding a percentage requirement? Like when certain buildings have a fire and there's a fire code, if it's over 25%, they have to meet certain

requirements. Right now, they have to meet it anyway. We're actually allowing them to ask for asphalt instead of concrete, but yes, I I see what you're saying. We could add 25% or to to quantify the expansion and remodel piece if you'd like. This is actually more intended to loosen the requirements than particularly if somebody comes along behind me and takes our codes. What it says right now is do you have to comp put concrete down? Yeah. And I've been pretty lenient about allowing that especially because of the impact on business. Now, sometimes concrete's cheaper when when um fuel prices go up, but it to give them a choice where it makes sense. Um the other piece is the concrete approach. When said improvements are made or to put asphalt down, we um a an approach that is 20 ft between the pavement and onto their property that bridges that uh rideway would be uh required to be concrete so that you didn't wash. You see, if you see the picture on the right hand side, what happens? It ends up in the roadway and it can be a hazard. it causes issues with rocks flying up and it can also cause people to lose control on curb. So is having a concrete approach is a requirement. Our code is not there. Um again if somebody wants to put pavement down or if they're required to do so but typically we're not really doing a lot of requiring to do so so much as I'm trying to expand it so they don't have to put concrete. In my opinion, the only thing I would say is if a guy's going to add an awning onto his business or patio, I would hate to see him have to go and resurface or have that kick in. So, that would be the only thing I would

ask you to look at is that we look at some small percentage. It has to exceed a 20% increase or whatever before that kicks in.

Um, and u 25% is used as a kind of a a bell weather and and I'm I'm fine with that. Um but but if somebody wants to redo their parking lot, we want to allow them to have asphalt. Right now we can't. You know, if we do Okay. Yes, we'll put a 25%. Thank you for that. Anybody else? Um at the end, I'm going to have my email on the so that if you think of something in the middle of the night, you can send me. I I didn't think that you'd come up with your answers right now. But again, it's customer savings and street safety is why we're doing this. So, the fourth one um was the city manager's uh suggestion based on some of the input that he'd had and his experience in other cities. Um many cities require that city streets be concrete only and Mount Pleasant. I don't know when it was redone or if it was redone. This when I say city streets, we're not talking about text. we're talking about ours um that new streets for a developer who's putting in a subdivision or for whatever reason we want to do a street. Um although we pretty much are not bound by the same rules as everybody else but that we would require concrete instead of asphalt because we have in certain particularly certain areas of town we have shifting all kinds of shifting soil. it causes them to break and it causes uh a lot of um maintenance issues down the road. Costs a lot of money and so concrete does not have that. Um Garrett was very supportive of this and this is something Rob had thought would be of benefit and it's I know it's a call your call but that we put it in

because again we're talking budgetary savings down the road long after y'all leave um when the new street would asphalt feet street would fail the concrete one would keep right on going. So um the fifth one is mini storage parking previously discussed. Um of course it's not a use that was ever mentioned self storage mini storage all we had was warehouses. It did make sense um because there's no people the the model for mini storage now there's no people on site. There's no nobody there. Um and the people who go to the mini stores do not drive up to be a customer. So they go straight to their mini storage which we do require they be p pay paid for that reason. So the the comparable standard would be one space for every 50 units and then one for every onsite employee which my knowledge zero but potentially could happen. Um again there's such a thing as overp parking um in the planning world. We our our code isn't bad about it. Uh luckily some codes are but you know it's one of those things you don't want to be over parked either. And the sixth one is one that came to me recently. Um I wasn't aware that our our local code does not allow a duplexes one on top of the other. Now building code does. So, in order to get a building permit, you have to abide by the international residential code, which addresses any of the safety code issues that would fire hazards, stairs, all those. That's all addressed. Um why that we I don't know but it is it has a it's a revitalization tool that is used in a lot of cities where you want to add additional residential um enhancements but you don't have very

big lots. So it it actually they go up instead of out and they actually blend into the residential character better than district having duplex after duplex. So that would be an enhanced revitalization choice but that would only kick in where duplexes as a use or allowed now which is in a two family or multif family zoning district. I'm not proposing to go over, but that if someone wants to build one or remodel one, which is the case in the one you're looking at right now, um they are out able to and currently our code says no. So, um I guess a additional development option for the housing. So, this is just for discussion and I want your feedback. Um she's already given me some if you want to do that later and these three chapters will have um you will be getting the legal ease a section of this a section of that and uh there are some we had some fencing we found some fencing sections in the street that didn't even belong in the street section of code. So we're going to kind of amass all that. But please email, text or call me with any questions or ideas. Um so we're we're not finished to tip the iceberg. So additional ordinance changes that'll be presented um in upcoming meetings. I want to do this regularly small pieces at a time um sometimes one at a time if it's big enough. And these are our future discussions that we have coming up in no particular order. the new downtown district. I I'm going to try and bring at least a discussion of what the actual district needs to look like,

not the full presentation because you need to kind have some idea whether we want to expand it or not. That's the first one. Noise regulations. We don't have noise regulations. I mean, you can't disturb the piece. What does that mean? What happens if a data center wants to come in? Did you know how loud they are? They're really loud and they are loud and so we don't have any real okay how many decibels at the property line in this zoning district or that zoning district is allowed and how do you measure them? We don't have that in our code. We um probably need those. Um the accessory vehicle um question about front yard parking for accessory vehicles and also um for uh um service vehicles for those people that do um uh engine repair, small engine repair. How many vehicles can they store on a lot um in the front and not behind? and to put things that are stored in the front and not behind what those regulations look like. That's going to come probably all by itself. Um industrial screening improvements. So if we have corridors um part of the folks that want to talk about downtown, they want to propose not with the downtown code, but they want a um beautifification corridor coming into downtown. Well, we could probably use some industrial screening improvements for changes of use and new um on strategic corridors coming into our city. And it would also give Kevin and company a tool to say, okay, existing business, you aren't required to do anything, but we can throw X number of money and grant if you come up to the

city code. But right now we don't really have anything. It's not common sense at all for particularly landscape buffers, things like that. Um and then our inoperable vehicle code, i.e. junk cars. Um there are law changes for that that you know um would like to bring um anytime and there are various other things. So our for example food trucks are not going to be licensed by the city anymore. the state's taking it over. That's still in our, you know, in our requirements. So, we'll bring some of those little housekeeping things forward. That's me. Um, reach out if you have any ideas quick and you just take a note. Um, so if I had a business and my business had asphalt and I needed to then resurface with concrete, that would probably uh scare me away because of the price of going to concrete.

Well, technically if you weren't doing anything to the business and all you wanted to do was reach the surface, I would let you resurface. But it's nice to have that codified because right now it says an approved surface for the city and the only approved surface material we have is concrete. Concrete only. There are no asphalt requirements in our code that say you need, you know, x number of inches of of asphalt to, you know, do a proper parking lot. We don't even have those. I don't know whether they were ever there or they were taken out or whatever. So, in order to allow it, I I wouldn't ever make it.

But the suggest I kind of thought um that it might be your department or it might be working with someone else that if we could get maybe some lowterest financing or work with the con uh concrete um people, you know, to kind of say, "Hey, if you're going to redo your streets or you're going to We're going to try to make this over a 10y year period of where they're redoing streets and you know maybe there's like a program that the city could work with some people to see if we could get some low interest financing maybe for them if if it is a small business or I don't know it's just a thought

instead are you proposing this instead of allowing asphalt parking lots or are you or are you talking about the streets? So, the streets are city requirements when new streets go in. Right now, it allow it's counterintuitive. Right now, you can build an asphalt street, but you can't build an put asphalt down for a parking lot. I'm just saying both. I mean, when I say both, the way you presented it was like we were going to go forward with with concrete streets and that was something that Garrett and

for longevity. But then I just remember a situation about a year or two ago where there was someone that bought an older building and they were trying to get in. They changed the um they changed the purpose of the building and it went from let's say an antique place to a sports facility. But they were told they had to reassalt and so um or concrete concrete concrete. So, I know that was kind of like a hair pull for a while, but if that if that I don't think they had to go through with that, but if they or did they? But they wouldn't have been able to do it. It's not a nonprofit. Yeah. They wouldn't have been able.

So, that's where I guess that's in the back of my mind that that one um that one group if they were going to have to concrete um we need to be able to make sure it can be affordable and maybe some low interest finance. I don't know that we would. I'm not an attorney, but I'm not sure how we would ever set up a mechanism because the city doesn't really in the affordable business. But um but to your point and to her point, so in order to kick into the new paving, so um if it's the one I'm thinking of, so it's broken up paving. And I actually found that they had material that was formerly asphalt and said that they could do asphalt and they wouldn't have to do concrete. Um but uh they didn't actually expand their building 25%. So if we put the 25% in that does help people even for the price of new concrete. However, when they do put in the asphalt, they also need to have that approach concrete because it helps um that safety aspect of what happens in that stuff from broken up concrete or if they wanted to One of the other things that comes up, somebody wants to expand and add some parking, they can as long as they add that parking be and if it matches the asphalt, they don't have to do the whole parking lot, but the concrete approach will keep from bringing all that stuff into the roadway, which is a safety hazard. and and at least with these discussions and getting the public information out there, people can be aware of this because I know he got caught totally unaware like some other people did recently. So, I think we're doing the right thing and we're doing it for the

right reason and we'll make sure everybody's educated as we go. Okay. And the one thing that I would say that I'm pretty sure Rob would agree is that as much discretionary choices you have to make the least amount would probably be the better. So in other words, if someone comes to you with like the parking thing for the which you did and I appreciate it, the parking thing for the mini storage and stuff like that that we actually turn this into an ordinance. So then it's not a decision you have to make and you have to get backlash on why you chose that or why you did that. So, anytime you get someone to come in, then we can just update the ordinance.

It also helps people who are looking at Mount Pleasant develop. Um, so over time, of course, I think you're everybody's aware that the city did spend $60,000 I think or 55 of the 60 on a reason a re on a zoning ordinance redo kind of got stopped because it's going to cost so much to just send out the notice on that. So, we're kind of backpedaling on trying to to do common sense pieces that aren't going to trigger that. Um, but one of the one of the things that we I'm trying to do is organize the material so that when somebody wants to a resident wants to build something or improve something or somebody from outside is used to looking at common sense ordinances that actually answer questions for where you might want to find things, they can find it and it's in code and they know, okay, it's a code. This is it. I don't I don't have to do but you know two parking spaces for my one person and my one parking for my 50 unit mini storage and they already know that they're not going to have lots of requirements or you know what I'm saying? So we're trying to to let everybody know by putting it in the code in the first place where find it.

All right, appreciate it. Thank you. All right, let's go ahead and move on to uh item number 13, presentation discussion concerning the rehabilitation of Tankersley Lake Dam. And this is our utilities director, Aaron Marshall. Hello again. So, y'all should have a packet that was put with that. It's pretty thick packet. I'm not going through the whole thing. Uh the top half is the

Oh, no. The top half is just the the PowerPoint. The back half is actually the uh inspection report from PPQ. They all have a copy that y'all can look at later. I did put some bullet points in my PowerPoint that kind of skims the main topics of the inspection. Most of it is just a history background check of it. It goes over um why it was rated, what it was rated. goes over the issues that they found and has pictures to go with it. So, it's pretty lengthy on just that alone. So, I didn't feel like going through every single part of it. Uh, but I will go over just the main bullet points with it would be great though. I'll try to be 30 minutes.

Thanks, set the bar really high for me. So, um, history of the dam, it was completed in 1957. It's had numerous inspections over the years that they average about every 5 years, no matter how TCP puts it, that they show up three years after, they just show up and then they put us back on the five year schedule. So, they just show up when they show up. U in 83 there was a partial failure to the dam. Um and in ' 84 repairs were done. Um this is actually a picture from the report y'all have. Um since 85 the dam itself has been rated in fair condition but during the same time the spillway has been rated in poor condition. The location of the dam makes it a high hazard rating. It's within I don't know how far that is from I30. Um but it's mainly because if there was a 100% failure of the dam, the flood area is so large that it makes the hot hatch. There's roughly 4100 square feet of water that's inside the inside uh tankers. That's roughly mathwise about 1.3 to 1.4 billion gallons of water that would be released. So, it would spread and I believe I put pictures of the flood area. Yes, it did. So, uh on y'all's printouts, you should be able to see uh a better look at the actual uh road sign. So, you can see we're at I30. Um, I can't read that at all,

but it's going all towards our sewer plant is the route the water would go. It would sooner or later make it all the way to the south side to where our sewer plant is, not pilgrim plant. I think it actually would flood the pilgrim plant. I believe that's it right there in the top of this. Right about there is the U pilgrim cereal plant. So it would be completely underwater. Um and then we just keep on going and I believe that's before this last picture right before you get to our sewer plant. Next are just pictures of these are current pictures of our actual dam. So the dam's been rated bare. Most of our panels look like they are like this right here. You have a few cracks that would have to be replaced and I think you have one or two that have settled that we would have to uh replace. And then you have a section of settlement that is built of itself in front of the dam that would have to be removed.

You're saying would have we would have to have it actually dug off of it and not not be there. TCQ thing. It's just violation. I mean it's there's pretty much a TCQ violation on this is a dog with no teeth. Okay. So, they're going to bark, but there's no violation paperwork really. It just says recommended. This is what needs to be done. If you don't do it, all liabilities on you now. Okay.

So, it's not it's not that they're, you know, punishing us or finding us or anything. It's just they're making sure we they that we know that they're not going to take any responsibility for any part of this failure. This is the actual spillway. You will see that there's been sections that have broken off or separated. Um the trees are started to grow in. Um when it comes to a tree on the dam, if it's over 4 in thick, we cannot touch it. It has to wait till it dies. Trees don't die when they're 4 in. They just keep growing. So that's the issue. This have to if they were big they have to be removed and the void has to be reset cemented back in. Same concept another broken panel right beside the edge of a tree where you can see it's pushing itself w uh the gap of open water. This is the construction. Um, it would have to happen during a summer, not this summer. I don't think we can get it all pushed together because we still have to go through discussions and drawings, but it have to go during a summer. So, you have less rain to deal with. Um, project time, if we don't have hardly any rain to deal with, it's on the three-month range. If it's a a wet summer, you're looking more at the thick. Estimated cost between 900,000 and 1.3 million. Just depends also on the rain season. Um now the downfall which will upset people, the water level would have

to be lowered to at least bottom of the panels that have to be pulled out so you don't have water going underneath. And during construction, it would have to be a noway plate. We couldn't have the waves going into it. Uh, and this is the part that would be under construction. That that red area right there, all that would be pulled apart and replaced with new. And these are pictures from the 80 um, believe 84 construction of what it looked like when they lowered the water. It might not get that extreme because you can see the bottom of the panels, but part of tankers would look like that. So, I just it's more of discussion of letting people know if this went through you would see portions of this and anyone has been out. So, there's no beach. So this is a clear difference. That's all I had on.

You can still fish, right? Have there been any estimates from those last two inspections that we got that had a dollar amount that was attached to it? The reason I asked that is because I understand there were

I was told about that estimate. I don't know where that number came from because all the ones I've had, we've had this designed in 2009, 2011, 2014, 2019. I think the last one was in 2021 was redesigned, but they've always been around a million at the most. It just depends on how far extreme you want to go with this. So the lower range is to lower the water because you're just releasing water. The higher range is if you're trying to be nice and you would be creating a dam in front of the dam. So you could leave leave your water level higher. It would cost you quite a bit more and then you would have to pump any water that made it through the dam non-stop. So but it's even in 2009 I believe I think it was like 300,000. So, it's it's slowly going up, but it's not the numbers that Rob had told me. The only thing I can think of that that number might have came up if we did all three dams at one time and it was just a combined number because we just did the one at the country club not too long ago. So,

So, have y'all talked to Grant Works or Atcog about this to see if we can get any grants? Downfall with a dam. There's not many people that do grants for that. one FEMA and we just got two grants from them, but they're famously running out of money if everyone remembers all that story a while back. So, um, but it also took us six years to even get those prints. So, it's matter of timing. We it you don't really want to wait another six years and just bring this all back up just to find out you waited for nothing. They said we couldn't get it,

right? So, and I believe um the River Development Board, I believe it is. I can't remember the real name for it. They do, but they don't give large grants for it. It's just maybe two or 3% what actually would cost to do this. And the cheaper and least expensive and probably safer thing to do is to drain that lake down door you were talking about, right? It would lower probably three or four foot. Yeah. But the the lake is shallow so it would be noticeable. Yeah. All right. Any questions?

If the lake is drained because, you know, everyone in Mount Pleasant has heard how shallow it is and we've all heard how at the bottom of the lake there pipes and there's there's all kinds of things at the bottom of the lake when it's lowered. Is there a way that um we might go in and try to clean some of that up? We weren't going to try to lower it that much. We literally were just trying to get to the bottom of the panels. So, it wouldn't look as deep as as bad as it did in the 80s. They actually had to replace part of a section of it. So, you had to dig down below the panels to replace that. So, that water was hopefully should be a little bit higher than than what those pictures were. There would be sections you could still see a beach though. When you're doing the dam, do you have any prices on what it cost to dredge the lake out?

I have not looked at any of that part of it. That's what it really needs. I mean, it's there's so much sediment in that lake. Yes. I'm sure that's very expensive.

I have not looked right now. We were just looking at trying to see exactly what could at least get us in compliance with that just because everyone's wants the uh the hazard rating taken off of it because we can't do pretty much anything. with it until that writing comes out. Be something to think about with all the development out there because I bet you that going to be people visiting it more than what they do right now. All right. Thanks, Aaron. I was going to say that, but thank you. Appreciate it. All right. So, Candace, do you have the city manager report?

No, sir. I don't know. I will just say um in Rob's absence that um early voting has started and it'll run until the 28th. Um the 27th and 28th they will be open from 7 a.m. until 700 p.m. and election day is May the 2nd at the Civic Center from 7 a.m. to

Now I wanted to talk about our library. I need to start doing this more. They've got their newsletter out there. Um they I hear people talking about what can their kids do around Mount Pleasant. There are tons of programs that they have here on a daily basis. Uh so it's something to check out. Just another resource for for you to do with your kids. So all right, we're going to go ahead. We're going to move into executive session pursuant to Open Meetings Act, chapter 551, Texas Code. Uh, Texas Government Code. The city council will recess into executive session to discuss the following consultation with attorney Texas Government Code 551.071 and personal matters. Texas Government Code 551.074 to consider the ethics complaint filed against council uh, council member Melanie Knight Poya and the status of the investigation consultation with attorney uh, Texas government code 551.071 071 concerning city of Mount Pleasant versus Ginger Lou Redern McDonald. Cause number 43310, Titus County, Texas 551.087, economic development negotiations and consultation with attorney um code 551.071 071 concerning proposed development incentives and performance agreement between the city of Mount Pleasant and the business prospect. Anybody in the EDC? Are they still here?

That's a city matter. Okay.

All right. Cool. All right. Uh we'll go ahead and uh convene into executive session. It is 7:29. Thank you.

I don't understand. David said, "You don't ever see Byebye.

All right, we are resuming regular session and can I get a motion to adjourn? Do we need a motion to I make a motion we I'm watching too many other meetings. All right, adjourn.

Oh, no action. What's that? Are we