City Council - Regular Meeting

I will go ahead and call to order our January 22nd, 2026 city council meeting for the city of Long View. I want to welcome everybody that is here in chambers tonight. Glad to see you out. Uh first, we will start with our prayer and pledge that will be led by Hello Sydney. Thank you for joining us. Uh that will be led by Trinity. He's been here. Okay. All right. Uh will be led by Trinity School of Texas students Ruby Martin, Jace Elder, and Caroline Wilkinson. If you guys will approach the podium, and everyone else will please stand for our prayer and pledge. Okay. Thank you, Lord, for a brand new day, a day to love and serve and play. Bless our teachers, Lord, we ask. in every hard or simple task. Help us Lord each day to be more and more your family. Almighty God, our heavenly father, please send down upon those who hold office in our great city of Long View, the spirit of wisdom, charity, and justice, that with steadfast purpose they may faithfully serve in their offices to promote the well-being of all people through Jesus Christ our Lord. Heavenly Father, in your word, you have given us a vision of that holy city to which the nations of the world bring their glory. Behold and visit, we pray, the cities of the earth. Renew the tides of mutual regard which form our civic life. Send us honest and able leaders. enable us to eliminate poverty, prejudice, and oppression. That peace may prevail with righteousness and justice with order. And that men and women from different cultures and with differing deferring talents may find with one another the fulfillment of

their humanity through Christ Jesus through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Amen. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, for liberty and justice for all.

Thank you guys. Great job. Uh next on our to a lot of the women that we serve to a lot of the women that we serve. So we are excited about the planning, the talking and the future doing. All right. So, we set some goals for the transportation task force for Long View, Texas, some recommendations for change to current transportation systems to improve accessibility for all users, recommendations for increased usage for large employers, recommendations for other transportation options that we'll discuss. So, the 2023 annual agency profile for the city of Long View Transit tells us this. Long View serves 44 square miles and over 80,000 residents. They offer six fixed routes and are a flag stop system. Although for safety reasons, over a 100 benches, shelter, and sign pickups locations are preferred. Recommendations for changes to the current transportation system. One, an increase of hours of operation. Conversations with other nonprofits and business owners and current ridship indicate that many would use local transit if it were available when they needed it. North Long View expan expansion based on current growth in the area and predicted growth in our future. extend or add an additional route to include the north end of highway 5259 across George Richie and the north end of Gilmer Road Highway 300. There are going to be some hindrances with that. Several years of data collection is needed to support any change to current fixed routes. It is then we would take several years to implement any changes made to the current fixed routes. Any additional routes or extensions of a route would result in the loss of reduction in service of another existing route. So recommendations for increased usage

for large employers. Several large employers including Eastman Cisco sit outside the city limits. Gap in the Dollar General warehouse while sitting inside the limits are located on a current fixed route. recommendations for additional transportation options. Ondemand microtransit using smaller vehicles such as vans and shuttles that operate dynamically via an app picking up multiple passengers heading in similar directions. Considerations of this all of the VIA microtransit options that were researched in Texas had hours that began earlier and ended later than our current fixed routes. Most examples of microransit found were funded, even if partially by the city through federal grant funds and partnerships with large employers who employ individuals that would benefit from this service daily. Smart bike lanes and pedestrian zones. Investing in safe, well-lit, connected bike paths and pedestrianon zones in key areas. directions replacing fixed bus routes in less dense areas. So considerations for these the amount of outline areas that would require proper inf infrastructure for safety and accessibility the lack of affordability accessibility to the bikes for the people relying on this type of service. So some shortterm suggestions most definitely education is key on opportunities to improve current system. The adopt a shelter program is a volunteer opportunity to adopt a local bus shelter and help the city regularly maintain by removing trash, keeping the

area clean. Volunteers also alert the transit staff if there are any special maintenance is needed. Report any graffiti or vandalism and then also make sure any suspicious activity is reported to local law enforcement and transit staff. When you adopt a shelter, your group will have its decal with the adopter's name and your logo on the shelter. This information will be featured on the Long View Transit website and Facebook page. So add a shelter to the existing routes. Business owners and residents can donate $10,000 to a new shelter built concrete pad, bench, and a shelter cover in front of or near their house or business. And I believe we could probably do a couple of those this year. So implement some creative transportation options. Transportation access programs such as Lyft, Enterprise, and other rid share apps that partner with nonprofit organizations and government agencies to provide free or reduced cost transportation for low-income families, seniors, and others in need of rides to work and essential trips to the grocery store and medical appointments. Ride shares facilitated by large employers to coordinate rides for employees from designated pickup locations. We have amazing wonderful large employers in Long View, Texas and I think they would participate if we continually just educated them more and we have talked about their HR people doing surveys and so that is something that some of the task force has offered to help with as well. So private solutions so lack of fund funds and government oversight indicates that private transportation solution is likely going to be the quickest and easiest resolution. So suggestions for

that is setting up a meeting for those interested in bringing the VIA or OTG to Long View, starting a campaign to go present to our larger employers not on routes and encourage them to fund a bus stop that is well lit with a cover for their employees. We need to continue to increase well-lit sidewalks for bike travel. Thank you, city of Long View, for continuing this and continuing to do this. We need to schedule regular meetings with well-rounded stakeholders for the purpose of updating, educating, and engaging and encouraging them on all things transportation and current needs of the writers from all facets of our society. So, schedule regular continual educational city meetings open to the public on the importance of completing the census. We need to present real life examples of how the census money provides resources and tools for our city specifically for our families, for our friends, and for our community. We want to thank the city of Long View for this opportunity to participate in this task force. Again, it is near and dear to heart and we have a long way to go, but let us not discount Long View has come a long way as well. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Eevee. Yeah, you can clap for good job. Are there any questions? Can we ask questions? You can ask a question. This is more related to city management. What is the procedure that we excuse me that we go through to add change a bus route to add another routes or change a bus route? What is the normal procedure?

So, usually that's analyzed by the transit manager, the group that we have managing that. There are some constraints with the federal dollars that we receive, which is what she was referring to. When, you know, people think about George Richie Road and 259 and and State Highway 300, that being a major corridor. The problem is with the grant funds we're awarded from the federal government, we we can't actually drive those buses outside the city limits. So, that makes routes difficult to adjust. And those are some of the problems that she referenced. So, uh, it's analyzed due to ridership as well as adjusted for sites where they try and do that. Uh, they're very sensitive to timing to make sure that all of the buses run and arrive at the same beginning location and end location at the set time. So, there's there's a number of constraints on adjusting those routes. I just I remember years back I was on city council previously and they put in the uh oh my and they put in the new Walmart South Walmart out there and people that lived in South Lawn at that South Long View at that time were still having to get on bus transfer and go to the north Walmart and we changed that route to where it would accommodate people going to the south long View Walmart. So I can't we do that again?

Sure. To accommodate specific purposes. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Evie, what do you think a um a private group that came together to look at private options, what does that look like and who is at that meeting? Well, if we're all going to use them, we all need to be there. Just have open forums if possible because it's going to take a while. Not it's not going to be a full house the first few times. It's going to be continual education and engagement and just we all have friends or family or people that we get to do life with that needs this. And so I think that the more that we talk about it, the more people are going to go, you know what, my neighbor needs it. She's a single mom with three little girls, you know, or my senior citizen neighbor needs this as well. And so it it opens our eyes. We are like horses in our own lane so often. And so this kind of continual education will remind us to kind of look around at our neighbor. We do an amazing job of that, but this in the transportation area will be able pinpoint people that can use this. And I think we'll all step up.

Okay. I think Jody, you had a question. I had a question in regards to that area that's outside the city limits that you were talking about. What about a partnership with other companies that are able to operate within the county and working out a schedule maybe to hit that avenue? Is that an option that can be looked at?

Certainly look into that and see if that's a possibility. Sure. Okay. Did you are there any constraints as far as it being on seven days a week versus not you know it's not on Sunday right now and then the time that our constraints on that the main constraints are just the funding availability that's that's that's what dictates the amount of service that we provide right now so we get a small share from the federal government they're lion share but there's contributions that we get annually and I think Longview Economic Development Corporation supplements that so we have our match match, but it's truly just a funding.

So, is it possible with the funding now for it to do Sunday, seven days a week? Not with our current funding levels. It is not. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you, Evie. I um we'll uh get together, city staff will get together and we'll make a response to the task force recommendations with kind of our plan and um hopefully move forward with a lot of that.

Let us know what we can do to help. Thank you. Thanks, guys. Uh thank you and thank you to the task force. I know some of them are here tonight. So, I want to say thank you guys for serving and taking time to bring back important recommendations. Next up is presentation of recommendations from the community engagement task force from the task force chair Jennifer Wear.

Hi, good evening and actually I will let you do my slide if you don't mind. Um well, first I would like to start by uh some compliments corners. So, first thank you uh for putting these together. I think this was a really great opportunity and way for people to share some thoughts and give feedback. Uh, second, I want to be sure and thank uh, city staff Richard, who's back there. Thank you, Richard. Um, he was a tremendous help in keeping us organized and finding spaces to meet and answering our um, multitude of questions. So, really appreciate that and his team for helping us put together the presentation. And then finally, just want to thank our fellow task force members if you were here tonight. Um, a lot of good discussion, good engagement. So, really appreciate them lending their time and energy and talent to this. So, um, we'll just dive right in. I'll hit the highlights. Happy to answer questions. There's a bit more detail in the full document that I think has already been made available to you guys, but really think it's important to just start by recognizing some of the key strengths really. Um, and then a few of the challenges. So, uh, one, the city of W is really making significant strides already in community engagement and doing a lot of good work. um social media platform uh not only informative uh but frequently entertaining as well. So five stars on that uh lot of great work and engagement there. Um the city website is fantastic. I think prior to this I considered myself already familiar with it and then you know learned 20 new things and exploring. So um it's really a great resource. Um there's a lot of information there. So kudos to that. Uh and then finally the city send app um really just is a phenomenal tool that I wish uh more folks knew about. I remember preity send days and the roll out of that. So um really makes it a lot easier to share concerns and request services. So again well done on that. Um really the biggest challenge the city faces from communication engagement is just its complexity. you know, when you think of

other organizations and businesses, you know, we're kind of really focused on one area of core business, but the city is really like 10 of them rolled into one, you know, between police and fire, municipal services. It's a lot. Um, so it really poses the risk of sort of fragmented communications um just because things are kind of happening in these different areas. Um, so we really wanted to recognize the potential benefit of considering a more um, unified communications team to help make sure there aren't inconsistencies and that there's really better communication within the communicators, right? Um, so just make sure that there aren't missed opportunities due to lack of coordination. So uh, next slide. So, uh, we too developed a few, uh, really three big, uh, focus areas and some goals and recommendations to support that. So, first up, communication of city resources. Um, the goal is pretty straightforward, just ensure that residents are aware of the services, programs, and opportunities through clear, consistent, and accessible communication. Um, so some recommendations within that, developing a comprehensive, strategic communications plan, using that to like set your benchmark, set some metrics, share that with the community, right? and then share how you did on it. Um so that would really be first and foremost. Um again referencing my previous comments about different kind of segments of communication. Um really find a way or a tool to aggregate and consolidate some of that. You know an example on the website you can subscribe to like different updates. But I'll speak for myself. I'm not going to go subscribe to 10 things, but if you could hit me with the highlights reel, right? Like that's probably a little more likely to keep some folks engaged. So, um, continue, uh, utilize a variety of communication channels. Um, oh, I did want to give a disclaimer. Some of these things are already happening. So, please don't take any of this is none of this is in place. Um, this is really just us highlighting some additional things, some areas that are maybe happening

already that could use a little bit of strengthening. Um, so I did want to give that important disclaimer. Um, yeah. So, plain language policy, ensuring, uh, we're really writing with diverse audiences in mind. um or as I like to call that no element of peace. You know, we get in our own world and start speaking in acronyms and we're comfortable with the language that we use every day. So, just making sure that when um communicating back and asking for feedback too, right, we're doing that in a way that everybody not might not be, you know, in our brain, in our lane. So, um related to that accessibility standard, so adding an accessibility button to the website for things like text resizing and screen reader compatibility. Um and then consider a subscribe campaign. So just again really encouraging citizens to subscribe to update so that you know it takes two to talk right. So making sure not only are we pushing information out but that people are out there actively looking for and receptive of that information. Next slide. Excuse me. Number two, reaching underengaged audiences. So the goal here really just identifying hard-to-reach groups within our community and then developing tailored communication strategies to foster stronger connections and participation. So we identified a few of those key audiences here. Uh so consider neighborhood specific town halls. I know we do some of that popup events perhaps in apartment complexes. Um partnering perhaps with property managers to distribute information through their existing channels and updates. Um, consistently, this this is a big one, consistently translate all city collateral into Spanish. Um, and we already shared a great resource we use for that. So, I hope that helps. Um, and then continuing to leverage and maybe deepen relationships with the Spanish language media outlets. Um, again, just looking at ways to reach diverse audiences. Um, I think we already do this, but ensuring public meetings and events are of course ADA compliant and accessible. And then consider creating an advisory group of differently aabled residents to share and give feedback. Um, and then kids and parents, uh, we

have fantastic school districts. Um, if anyone would like to nerd out with me, the LID like communications page is fantastic. Um, so we've got like some really great partners in the community already. So just how do we formalize whether that's through, you know, also like formalizing some agreements, but how do we leverage those existing networks, right? So it's not the city has to go build all these things, but hey, how are people already in front of audiences? is how are they already with these groups? What are they sending out that you can tag on to to help them spread that message for us? Um some additional strategies, connect with champions for target audiences. Um again, accessibility, make sure that surveys when we're looking for feedback, um that it's offered in multiple languages and formats and platforms. Um this too is really kind of universal, but going beyond textonly communication, you know, we all learn and receive and process information in different ways. I'm a reader. I like to read but you know a lot of people really want to see the video version of that right so encouraging um as we're developing communication putting it out we're thinking of all the different ways in which people might prefer to like take that in so um and then again formalizing partnerships with community partners um to again just make that a established process for how they can share and participate uh with the city. So next slide. Okay. Um, finally here, updating the community on important taxpayer taxpayer funded priorities. So, um, really just a big bucket for making sure that we're making informations and updates about those big projects. Um, the city budget process, uh, bond projects, comprehensive plan, mark, all these great things we have in place, right, that stretch out multiple years. um really just making those updates transparent, user friendly, easy to understand and frequent, right? So that people feel like they have a sense of how those things are going and how do

we connect that to how does that actually impact or benefit me, right? Um so budget especially create uh budget demystified videos to really explain that process. Um we looked at a lot of other cities websites to see like what were some good examples out there. There are several. Um, one that was cool is more like an interactive budget tool. So, like you could go on and like try to make the budget yourself, but just a way to help um kind of remove some of that mystery, right? And help people um feel a little more engaged in that process. Um, oh, uh, yeah, regular project updates. Again, utilizing video and multimedia for that. Um, and then considering like community education campaigns, again, partnering with schools, library, um, other groups. Um, and not just, you know, also making sure people know how to reach out to get information. Um, I think I've known most of you a long time. I feel very confident and I know who to call and where to go, but not everybody does, right? So, um, I think it would be good to remind folks how who to call, how to get in touch with you, to be like, "Hey, can you come to our Rotary? Can you come to our group meeting?" Um, and just making sure people are aware that you're here and you're available. Um, so finally, uh, again, really a lot of strong work. Feel good about, um, the job so far. Room to improve always. Communications is never done. Um, but really again, just thank you, uh, to the city staff, Richard in particular, and for the opportunity to put this together and share our feedback. So, happy to answer any questions. Awesome. Any questions, comments?

So, I have a a few questions. is uh did y'all look at AI at all an impact in that? So for instance going on AI like um if you're searching for Long View AI has a hard time a lot of times distinguishing between Long View Washington and Long View Texas and so did y'all explore any of that or how we can get communication out that way?

We did not. Um I will so in the task force no I will tell you as a communications professional that's going to be u um something Richard's very familiar with you know it used to be SEO your search engine optimizations what keywords are you using now it's geogenerative engine optimizations so um I think that's an ever moving target that's something that um again I've known Richard and worked with him a long time you're in good hands um but that's that is a constantly evolving um and continual ual uh task.

Yes. Yeah. Awesome. And then the uh community community community education campaign. I just want to highlight like the in view program that was started would be part of that. Yeah. Deal as well which um is amazing and great job done by Richard and everybody that was involved in the NVE program too. Yeah. And that's a great program. And then we also um again it comes to available resources but I know like when we rolled out city send I remember there was a lot of communication and um you know these things cycle through people forget about it new people move here so even just um reminding people of what's already out there and kind of having some dedicated focus on those as refreshers I think would be important.

The uh plain language you mentioned too is good. I I actually felt uh victim to that recently when I told somebody to meet me somewhere on Highway 80. Well, the address is Marshall and this person just like I don't know where to go. And so like you can easily just do it just simple like we know Eastman and 259. We know it's any of those kind of roads you can find yourself not using the U address the way they would look for it. Um and so that's also a great point. And then on the communication too, even with the the transit part, um like we do the ride hail where you can just raise your hand and they'll pick you up, but a lot of people don't know about that. Now,

I know that that's an amazing thing. Yeah. So, there's a lot of that going on. It is like you're saying, it's a constant evolving target with a bunch of things competing for attention and uh then just people also uh naturally just forget because they don't use it as often or whatever the case may be. So, I appreciate everything y'all brought on that. Thank you.

I have a question that I'm not sure you addressed, but I'd be curious your opinion. If we did a subscribe campaign, would that be subscribed to Citizen or would that be subscribed to something different that would combine all of the like potential places you could get notified now? Because you're right, you go into calendars and you have to sign up for like all of them.

Um, I don't know. I'd probably start at looking is what like what is the city send capability like? Can you I don't know. That's probably a good Richard question. Like can you add news and updates to that? So you're really I think anything that you can do my kind of rule of thumb is to create a single source of truth the better off you are right if people have to hunt to try to find information you know um they're not going to do it I'm certainly you know I'm not scrolling past the first page on Google right so um I think the most you can do to whatever that subscribe is to simplify that as much as possible the the better results you'll have

anybody else no thank you so much I appreciate your time and all of our committee members that are here. Thank you guys for your time. We appreciate y'all very much. Uh moving on to consent agenda. Are there any items that council would like to pull off for further discussion or questions? Uh can we pull off a

Yes. Ray's got one? Yes. M and Sydney's got one. It was M. Same one. Okay. Anybody else? Just a general question about grants. Okay. Uh we'll start with a that is Robert Ray.

Yes ma'am. I just want a further explanation so that the city can understand what's going on with SWEPCO. Sure. So you'll remember that SWEPCO recently filed a general rate case and this is a completely different filing. They filed a new rate case uh with something they're calling the large load contract tariff. So, it appears to be that they're they're trying to anticipate uh the possible creation of new uh very large demand customers like these uh data centers we all hear about so much. And so, they're trying to get uh rates approved in advance for that. But, um there are several issues that this raises for the city. Um, one, normally rates are considered as part of an overall package where you look at everything the company's doing and it with this it seems like they're kind of separating this out peace meal. Um, and so it it it makes it difficult to kind of see, you know, how much of this should other customers be bearing? How much of this costs? Because they're going to have to build additional infrastructure to serve these potential loads. And it brings up issues like well what if they build the infrastructure uh and and they don't come you know different from field of dreams they don't show up then the customers may be left uh footing the bill the residential customers for example or other existing customers could be left footing the bill uh for that. So, it raises a bunch of issues and we're trying to to be sure that we're in there to have our voice heard to analyze these issues and and uh address them and make sure the costs are borne in a in a fair way by the the people that are going to use this additional infrastructure.

Thank you. Yeah. Can I follow up on that? So, after we uh if we consider this resolution denying it, what happens after that? Um then um as as always happens uh SWEPCO will immediately appeal our denial to the public utility commission of Texas and uh that's where the the real work will be done. Then there'll be more filings and our uh attorneys will hire engage experts to help analyze the thousands of pages that will be filed and and you know figure out if we have differences with the way they've divided up the cost between customers and that sort of thing. We'll go through that process

and ultimately the decision will rest on the public utility commission to whether approve or correct and in fact swept codes has already filed a case with them for outside of the city limits. So, um, that's one reason we want to get in on this as quickly as possible because if they decide that, if the PUC decides that case first, then they're unlikely to give a very different decision to our case.

Do we know how many cities and counties is included in this uh proposed rate increase? Um I I believe in our coalition there are and it will be up to cities to join or not but there roughly 40 cities I believe uh in the area that will be served.

That's and that's pretty much is that all of them? That's that is I believe that's all is 40ome. Now, a few of them have um have waved jurisdiction permanently, so won't so it'll just go directly to the PUC and they won't even go through this process that we're going through there. Awesome. Thank you, Robert.

And then S. Oh, sorry. Oh, my question I think was same with John, the area, is this a a geographical area? I mean, they serve East Texas. They don't go into the metrop. Is this a a a geographical area they're looking at that we're included in it?

Correct. It's it's the area served uh in Texas by SWEPCO. This north extreme northeast Texas area. Okay. Thank you. Go ahead, Derek. Yeah, I appreciate Robert your um being proactive on this and the city. Um is there any way to estimate like the average residential customer how much this increase would affect

their monthly rate, monthly bill? We don't have an estimate right now uh that I'm aware of because that's that's part of what we're going to be looking at in this um PUC case is um how that how that cost gets divided up and and who bears the cost if if not all of the large load customers appear and that sort of thing.

All right. Thank you. Do you think I mean this is just a general question really um with SWEPO being the only um provider source for here in Long View and I mean like cuz they're monopolizing you know so they can kind of do what they want it's not really competitive so for us I think the citizens of Long View and the other areas that only use SWECO it's kind of like why are we stuck with just Sepo? So they are a monopoly which is um which is how utilities all all used to be many years ago everywhere. Uh and so we that's why we have this regulation process that tries to allow them to make a reasonable profit but at the same time not um not take advantage of their monopoly power and and and make an exorbitant profit. Um, if you look at the areas of Texas that do have um um competition, the the so-called Urkott areas, um the cost for electricity there is significantly more um than it than it is here. And and as someone with family members in the DFW area, I can tell you it it it they pay more for smaller apartments than I pay for my house here typically.

Thank you. Okay, I'm moving on to M. That is a drainage project with Mr. Keith Bonds. Who's I don't remember whose question that was. The question. Go ahead. Uh, M. Oh, I just uh could you give us a uh idea of the location and um a more defined purpose that what we're looking to do uh with spending this money. It's at 212 MLK. And it's been a longterm policy for the city to purchase homes that experience flooding where the cost of the infrastructure to prevent the flooding far exceeds the value of the home. So that's what we're doing here.

Is this a excuse me, is this a personal residence at this time? Single family home. I guess you've talked with the occupants that there. I have not, but it's been my exper my understanding that's been on the list a long time. It's part of the 2425 CIP

that council approved. No. Yeah. It's been an issue for a long time and I've spoken with the occupants before. Okay. Um but directly right next door to it though is a vacant lot. Mhm. That's for sale right now as well. Are you familiar with that?

No, I'm not. Okay. That household has had flooding and issues for years there. That's my understanding. Ever since long been on the council, it's been an issue. Yes. Good. Thank you. Good. Okay. Good.

Thank you for taking care of it. Uh any other questions on consent agenda or can I have a motion to approve? I just have another question. I was just going to ask a general question like on the grants. I see we have a lot of grants on here. How many of these grants are um first time first time for us applying on this specific list? None. We've all we've done these before. Thank you.

Good. I just make a comment. I appreciate it. Looks like Laura Hill. It's been really busy. Working hard. I count 10 grants with cheap funds. So, thank you guys for we got your your endeavors to create some opportunities for funding. Thank you.

That's right. Not just Richard gets kudos. Laura, you too. Good job. Okay, I need a motion to approve. Motion to approve. I have a motion. I have a second for Jody. All in favor, please say I. Any opposed? Consent agenda is approved. Thank you so much. We'll move on to action items. Consider an ordinance amending the budget for fiscal year 2526 to allocate fund balance in the amount of 1,175 to for a fuel station project. I will turn that over to Mr. McY.

Yes. Uh, mayor and city council. So, we've we've talked about this. It's it was about six weeks ago that we originally talked about it and the cost was a little bit lower, but some of the feedback that we heard from council was that we wanted to make sure we were doing this on property that we owned, not having to purchase other property. So, actually with uh Keith and Zach Shainer and Dwayne, they all worked together to engineer. We actually the city engineer had hired a new engineer on staff that had designed fuel stations before and so that was great because that's not expertise that all of us in municipal engineering have. So he helped us lay that out and create the cost estimate. So I appreciate that work that's been that that took them every bit of five weeks to get done. And the strategic location is right outside the public works service center as you can see here. And the the red line is fencing that we'll have to remove and the purple is where the fencing will have to replace it because this is the main entrance for the public works fleet as they enter into it. And so the costs are detailed before you. There are two 12,000galon storage tanks and it it's going to take somewhere between 12 and 18 months. I'd sent most of this information prior to the council meeting just to make sure everyone had a clear understanding. The financial impact and the return on the investment is really about $340,000 a year. So the payback is between three and a half and four years. And uh a key point that I think's often overlooked is that we don't have a fueling station with generator power to keep our fleet running. So when events like this that are coming up, we sure hope, you know, we have some contingency plans in place to keep those fueled, but this would give a fuel station that we would have access in these storm events where maybe

we'd have a little bit quicker access to fuel. So with that, if you have detailed questions, uh I'm understand the bits and pieces I've been educated on, but Dwayne Archer, it's something that I know Dwayne Archer for years as the fleet manager and sanitation manager has wanted to do. He he wanted to do that even when Keith was director previously. So, this is a long-term thing that this was an opportunity that we get payback from here on out in savings on our annual budget.

Yeah. Good. Go ahead, Derek. Yeah. I said, I know you mentioned we could it pays for itself and you said three to four years. Can you kind the discount for having this our own fuel? What is you you I think you mentioned this when I talked to you last week, but what was the how much percentage discount are we getting on on the fuel?

There's there's a 75 cents per diesel. Yeah. if if if you can go to the slide that shows the savings that we'll see. Um I think it's that is there it's not there. Oh, excuse me. Okay. I thought we had that.

There it is. There it is. There you go. Yeah. So So just just for unleted um we use mainly we use some of the larger facilities in the the city to be able to fuel our big trucks and some of our smaller vehicles. And so we compared those to actually what we would get wholesale as far as pricing. And those were the differences. 75 cents for unled 96 cents for diesel. It adds up very quickly when you start figuring out the amount of fuel that we purchase every year. And so when we talk about that savings of 338. Yeah. I mean it's real it's real money that we'll see. And I you know rateayers and and and taxpayers will see that fairly quickly. And so how will it be monitored like as far as like when like we're getting aware of the uh gas cards, right? And so will they be given codes? How will you know which department? Cuz I know public works is mainly the use of it, but other you said other departments can use it as well, correct?

It's a supplemental service. Well, I don't Are you Are you getting rid of the fuel cards completely? No. Well, there's there's there are there are fire stations that it's not going to be convenient for them to come over there. there's police that's not going to be convenient. So, so we're trying to make sure that it is convenient and those that use that will have a card much like they do anywhere else and they'll go in it'll ask questions like what's your mileage and they'll enter that information so that we can have that we base our maintenance on the mileage of the vehicle. So, we want to make sure that we're retaining that number and getting it stored into our system. So, a big part of this cost is making sure that we have the dispensing system and the software to be able to pull that data when we need.

Yeah. That's what I was trying to see if we were going be able to look at the comparison and seeing how much gas we're using, what department it's coming from. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, that's extremely important just for our operation to know because we we end up even though uh we may buy buy that fuel, we're going to have to bill that out to the departments and so that's how we'll do that.

Okay. Thank you. I got you. Great. Yeah, I'm excited about this Dwayne. I appreciate the the work and bringing that. I mean this is a three and a half year return is almost a 30% annual return on the money. If you have any more of these ideas definitely bring them forward certainly. So appreciate your hard work on it and I think this is a great uh great investment for the city of Long View. So thank you.

Well, thank you. Thank you. Good day. Mr. Archer, uh you know this is significant. I had no idea that it would be that much of a discount on savings per gallon. Now, will we do annual contracts for the purchase of the gasoline and gas and diesel or how will we do that when we actually go out for to buy?

We'll do it much like we do most things. We'll put a competitive bid out there, let people bid on that um and then award it to the low bid if it meets the specifications. Okay. Yeah, I think it's will that will that run along with market market pricing throughout? A lot of times you do that when you talk about fuel is based on a number and then that that fluctuates throughout the month. Yeah.

And I appreciate the fact, you know, I know what we originally talked about in trying to acquire a piece of property and but being able to bring it over here and do it on our own property without adding more expense to it. U I really appreciate that. And that fuel savings that'll get Eevee uh maybe a private vehicle running back and forth. I know she's left, but I'm telling you, you got to look for those funds somewhere.

That's right. Y, good job. You're right about there. Thank you. Okay, I need a motion. Move to approve. And a second. Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? Item is approved. Good job, team. Uh, moving on to action item B. Consider an ordinance amending the budget for fiscal year 2526 to allocate fund balance in the amount of 530,000 for the development services, building, flooring, and remodel update. That's you again, Mr. McY.

Yes. And so I'll introduce this. I will I want to once again thank Zach Shainer and Keith and the engineering team for working with Michael Shirley to brainstorm what does this remodel look like because I heard from our last time that we talked about it council said we're going to put new flooring in great but you've already told us the building needs work and we're going to have to rip out some of the flooring to do the work and so I heard that and I appreciate the opportunity to go back and look at things that we've been trying to do to that facility to make a better first impression by the people that invest in Long View. And so we we came up with a floor plan that Michael can walk through here in a minute if just to tell you what his thought process was behind it. But the total cost is $530,000. We have the interior flooring and the finishes for $275,000. Doors and windows sounds like an awful lot, but they're they're the doors are in disrepair. They're large. They're very large windows. They're very large door aluminum storefront. Those are expensive to replace and fix. We've got electrical work when we tear out some of the walls and mill work. And then the mobilization as well as the allowance for things we didn't foresee to come up with $530,000 estimate. And there's a layout of the new style of how he has that, but I'm not going to be able to talk to you about it because I have not gone through it with him. That's this was put together again the very last thing that we put together in in preparation for this. We've been kind of occupied today with with weather. So

fair. Any questions for Mr. Charlie? Would you give us a uh just looking at the U floor plan here, it's hard to really tell. Give us just a summary of the u changes you see in the in the building itself and how it'll be more functional. Yeah. So, the the main thing is going to be, you know, obviously the flooring. Um adding a lot of windows and natural light uh to open the space up. Um if if you've been to that building, the only windows that we have are at the storefront doors. We did uh a number of years ago add some windows around the storefront, but didn't didn't make a huge impact. Uh but as far as the flow of the space, that's I think one of the things that makes our our facility function well is the openness of the front area. And so some of the walls that we have up front that are kind of pony half walls or quarter walls, we're going to be removing to give us more flexibility to spread out, give a little bit more room, have a little bit more separation between our people so that when they are visiting with people, um it's not as loud, it's not obtrusive to other areas, gives us uh the ability to to better uh use the space. Also some safety improvements with some other doors because with it being so open and being such a big building. We have to be open for our bathrooms. We don't want to have to, you know, walk people to the bathroom that lets them go but not be able to kind of come around and uh come into the back of the areas over on the on the area that was our community services. uh taking out some walls over there so we can have more flexibility for um moving moving our code compliance division over there with our cubicles with mostly our field staff where they'll still have you know cubicles but they'll have more flexibility and security but still being connected to our main front area through that that doorway that's there. Most people don't realize there's a door. There's kind of an office there now that kind of but

we'll be taking that out to kind of open that area up. And then kind of over in the in the lower right hand corner right now there's um there's about six cubicles crammed back in that area where our code compliance division is now. We would move our building inspectors over there. We'd move four building inspectors over there. It's kind of show showing how um add some windows over there because like I said there are no windows in our building. Um that would give them an area to really uh collaborate better uh work together. Uh but it just gives us a a better opportunity for flooring is a big deal in that building. The flooring is is you know 15 years old is very very worn and dated. So we're looking at doing something that's a more durable surface especially with the kind of traffic that we have. Uh, so, you know, looking at carpet in the offices and the conference room, but also doing some mill work in that front conference room to make it a better showpiece. It it's pretty pretty bleak right now. And and like Rollins said, when we're uh bringing people in to to asking them to invest in Long View, you know, uh most of our property and sales tax is based on building and construction, and that's what we're in the business of helping to facilitate. So, uh, you know, we want to put our our best foot forward and be able to, you know, be inviting to people as well and and and not have them come in and feel like they're, you know, in a in a brick dungeon. So,

there questions, comments, discussion. Anything else? All right. Michael, Michael, you got to fix the dragging front doors. That's part of this. That is part of this that front door. Yes, sir. U how occupied is this building right now

in well uh so currently uh you know when community services moved out uh that area that has the green uh cubicles right now our environmental health is over there uh but we would be moving our code compliance who is crammed back in the corner we'd be moving building inspection who is at the top right corner uh moving them down, giving so we'd be expanding back out and and it would give us an opportunity for some storage. Right now, we have almost zero storage. Um we have boxes and stuff with paper in the back. Um we don't have any and and of course in this new technology, we're going to more scan, but we still have a lot of old plans and things that we have offsite that we need to bring onsite um and uh until we can get that stuff scanned. So it just gives us more flexibility.

Thank you. Any other questions, comments? If not, I will entertain a motion. Motion to approve. I have a motion from Derek and a second from Sydney. All in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? Item is approved. Good job, guys. Uh that concludes our action items tonight. We'll move on to items of community interest, starting with Mr. Connley.

So um community interest in Pine Tree ISD. First, we have an annual event that happens uh February 12th on a Thursday night from 6:00 to 8. It's anybody in Long View's invited to attend this. Uh so, more of a Pineree ISD open house. It's in Mod Cobb. Appreciate the mayor and the city manager uh joining me last year, but it's a it's a good opportunity to see great things that are happening in public education. It's all in one roof. There's also a job fair, free hot dogs, and so and student performances. So, it's a good night and if you can make it there and just pop in and out, love you guys to see what's going on there at Pine Tree ISD. And then also there's a fundraising opportunity. I talked about this last meeting. uh Pine Tree Education Foundation very strategic about the funding of how you know Pine Tree School District has about 75% of our kids are economic disadvantaged. There's been some kids that have received scholarships opportunities and then not have the resources to be able to uh have the uh you know the things they need to be successful in college. And that's one thing that I appreciate about the education foundation, how they target that that population of kids and give them a chance to be successful outside of uh uh Pine Tree and Long View. And so if you could be there, it's a uh there'll be there's a silent auction, a lot of it's a good community event. There's all all different people from Longville be there at Infinity Center, Event Center, and live music, uh food. So if you can be there, help out. Much appreciated for those kids in Pine Tree ISD. Thank you,

Miss Moore. Well, this past weekend we celebrated well, we started off kicked off Thursday with the MLK celebration and it was wellreceived by the community. I cannot tell y'all how many phone calls I got of how much they enjoyed each and every one of the events. Really, I want to thank Dietrich and his team, parks and their team, LPD, fire, everybody that was involved, all the volunteers. We everybody truly enjoyed it and it was wellreceived. I even got emails from people saying how much they enjoyed it. So here's a sneak peek of what we experienced. Even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. former slaves and the sons of former slave owners. Will they be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood? I have a dream.

And again, thank you to everybody who volunteered. Thank you to the citizens that came out. It was really a great weekend. Thanksgiving. That's all I have. Now, I'd just like to wish everyone um a safe weekend this weekend with the weather that's coming in with children getting to school. Parents, everyone please follow instructions and wish PD and FD luck this weekend with dealing with such. Thank you,

Mr. Yes. Come celebrate and congratulate our um Unity Honors recipients, Reverend Dr. Evan Doliv and Mr. Charles Taylor. The Unity Honors lunchon is going to be on February 25th, 2026, 11:30 to 1 at ModCob Convention Center. You can get more at long beachex.gov uh Unity Honors. This is a great um great event, so hope you come out and participate. Tickets are on sale and you can get the tickets at Unity Honors. Next is the Daddy Daughter Valentine's Dance. And so this is put on by the parks and recreation department. Um appreciate their uh putting this event on. It's Friday, February 13th, 6:00 to 8:00 PM. Uh there's refreshments, music, and of course dancing. It's at the Brotten Rec Center. Um which is an amazing rec center. If you have not been there, uh definitely uh check that out. It's a great place for that. It's $30 per couple and then $10 per added child. Long Beach.gov4196. And I've attended this and I'll tell you, uh dad's like, I cannot dance. There's video footage out there of me dancing and you can see it. Um, but your daughter don't care, right? And they'll remember that. So, definitely definitely take the time to u to take them on a date and enjoy them. So, appreciate parks and Rex for that. But get your tickets now for those events that's on there.

Mr. Barill, um, first off, uh, the big blue brigade out at Spring Hill just competed in the area marching band contest and wanted to just kind of give a shout out to them. And at the same time, uh, their high school cheerleaders was just involved with the Texas, uh, spirit competition, uh, up in Fort Worth. And, uh, we didn't get to watch them good luck before they they went, but, uh, we're proud of their accomplishments. Um, also want to bring up, uh, free fishing day. Uh, maybe Rand will show up and you can bring your kids and they can out fish him, but this is uh, February 21st at Teague Park. It's gonna be from 10 to 2. It don't cost you anything to fish. Bring your kids out there. It'll be a good time. Uh this is uh Ricky Bordon Memorial and like I said from 10 to 2 there'll be some raffles and other things happen for your kids will come out and take advantage of it and it'll be freshly stocked I believe by the way. So uh great chance with trout. Yeah.

Trout. Uh again, what Bray was saying with the uh weather, you know, I'm I'm optimistic about everything and you know, there's truth to things and when you go through hard times, you always got to look for the silver lining. And we got bad weather coming right now. But let me tell you, there is a lot of people out there that shop in Long View this week to get ready for this weekend. So, if you're going to look for a silver lining, you can look at it that way. We love your tax dollars. Everybody be safe. We're praying that everybody, you know, we hold on to the electricity, we keep our roads right and like you guys that are out there from public works to our fire and police, uh, best of luck and I don't know what I can do, but if you need a hand, call me. I

I'll talk you through it because you probably don't want me on the road. So that's all, Mr. Allen. Okay. Thank you. For those of you daily who have to drive up and down our terrible Macan road, I you have my sympathy and I may have some good news. I understand from talking to Rin now this road is responsibility of the state highway department because it's a main thoroughare and it's their responsibility. Did you say we're going to let the bids for the repair and redo or I mean for the for Macan Road coming in I believe you said in February. If you'd expound on that.

Yes sir. Yes sir. We actually expressed last uh probably six months ago, five months ago, we called the Tyler district engineer and they had staff come out the next day inspect it. That's when all of the milling started to at least smooth off the patches and make it a consistent rough spot.

And so, u, one of the things that they said is it was the at the end of their fiscal year and they do like a lot of other governmental entities, they have to wait for their budget to get going and so they expedited that, which I know that sounds terrible that that's the quickest, but you can't pave in this kind of weather, in this kind of cold. So fortunately they bumped us up to the earliest bid date and they are planning on resurfacing that taking the bids in February and hopefully be starting in the in the spring to get it done. So it will happen quickly and it'll be we'll be thankful for it.

Well, thank you. I'm sure we'll all enjoy that because it's a it's not a good road at this point anyway. It's it's a we're looking forward to making it a nice smooth road. Yes, sir. Thank you. You bet. Anything? No, ma'am. Okay, I have a couple tonight. Um, first up is uh big techs. Ever wonder how stuff is made? Come learn and see how Kamasu builds the world's largest front-end loader, how Eastman and Vista and Westlake turn chemicals into products, how Merritt Preferred Components, manufactures aerospace and energy products, how Hulcat rebuilds industrial size engines, and all sorts of other cool technology. You can join us for Big Tech, the behindthe-scene tours of what makes East Texas work on Saturday, February 21st. On the following day, join Little Big Tex downtown for a hands-on showcase of science technology at our downtown Long View museums. That's very fun for them to do. Uh right now, we are accepting applications for our boards and commissions. This is a great way to be involved. Um like you heard the task force is reporting back. Please enter your application, ask to serve on a border commission and contribute to Long View. This is where we get our ideas from. They report back to city council. So, this is a great way for you to be involved. Um, I want to say a special thank you to our volunteers, our donors, um, our residents that came out and utilized homeless resource day today. That was a big success. Thank you to Laura and her team for that and everyone that participated in that as well as in our point in time count happening today as well. So, thank you to everyone involved in that. Our next meeting for city council will be February 26th. We will not have a February 12th meeting. Um, we have been making lots of big moves up here and so we wanted to give city staff a night off. We will not have a meeting February 12th. Uh, and we'll take the night off ourselves. So, good job everybody on all of your exciting updates. Um, next up, winter weather updates. Um, based on our updated information that comes from the state and our emergency response teams that monitor our area, um, we have made a lot of decisions today about the upcoming weather. Uh, we do expect that to impact

Long View and Tyler and so we want people to take that seriously. Um, please consider staying off the roads Saturday, Sunday, and Monday as we are anticipating freezing rain and ice. And that will help out our emergency response team so that they can be available for the real emergencies. Don't get out there and put yourself in an emergency. That takes away resources that need to be responding to those that are in real emergencies. Um, so office closures, non-critical city facilities will be closed beginning Saturday, January 24th through Monday, January 26th. This includes facilities that would traditionally be open during the weekend, such as the library, Brotten, and the animal care and adoption center. Non-critical city offices will also be closed on Monday, January 26th, and staff will be asked to work remotely. We will continue to monitor road conditions through the weekend and hope to resume full operations Tuesday, January 27th. So, city services are closed Monday. Your trash and sanitation, if you are collected Monday, will be bumped back a day. So, Monday collection will happen Tuesday. Wednesday will be your recycling day. Um, everybody else will be normal. uh warming station will be operated on behalf of the city of Long View at the Long View exhibit building uh at the convention complex there at Mod Cobb from 7 am to 7 pm Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. That facility will allow any residents that need it to find warmth and shelter during those hours. Also, please check our great social media posts on our other shelter partners that are available for overnight stays for those that need it. Water and sewer emergencies can be reported through our emergency hotline at 9032363030. Uh we want you guys to be safe out there by making educated and smart decisions to stay home during this time. Help your neighbors. Check on your neighbors. Love each other and make sure that everybody's okay. We love you guys and we will see you in a month.