City Council - Regular Meeting

e this meeting of the calwell city council city of calwell Texas is now called to order today's date is Tuesday March the 19th a quum is present so we will proceed the indication tonight will be led by Rhonda Johnson of new tab Brethren Church first i' just like to say thank you and our mayor all is a good city it's a good place to raise children we raised our three boys here and our grandchildren come um when they come the things that you all do are the things that are in their memories andex we're so thankful pastored in seven other cities and cell is our place that we've lived in it's evident because we've been here 19 um but we love how we take care of each other as a community and we love how we support each other as a community and we have been recipients of that in our latest events with our church and we just are so thankful for this city we want you all to know city council and Madam mayor that your work here matters and what you do is important and appreciated and we want to say thank you on behalf of the clergy and the Pastors in the city Jesus spoke to Nicodemus who was a member of the San hedin who was a city council member in Jerusalem and he said to him what is

probably the most known scripture in all the world and it is John 3:16 he told Nicodemus for God so loved the world he gave his only son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life and your job here is very important cwell is considered a small town uh on a scale nationally but to those of us who live here it's the biggest town in the world and your job is big and important and we thank you so much my personal goal and dream is that every person in Callo would hear the gospel and I'm currently working on a plan to try to make that happen and I ask for your prayers in the coming days towards that goal but I'd like to pray and welcome and open city council now father I thank you Lord for your servants that are here on your business and on your behalf and I thank you Lord for the time that they spend for our city and I thank you Lord for the sacrifice for their families and I thank you for the good work that they're doing for us I ask for your wisdom and Lord I pray that you give them each just Direction in all of the decisions that they make and I pray Lord that you would touch them as they run for office I pray Lord that you would just bless their elections and their re-elections and I pray father that you would just minister to every need that our city and Community has and that you would bless our citizens with safety and with blessing of our crops blessing of our industry our Commerce we just pray these things in your pre holy name amen amen to the American flag to the flag of the United States of America and the for which it stands one nation under godice

allas indivisible all right good afternoon and welcome to any visitors we have today glad you made it out this evening um we have any citizens to speak on okay next next item on the agenda consists of the minutes from the last meeting some additional considerations are there any discussions about the consent agenda items any additions or corrections to the minutes if not the minutes St approved is presented we have a motion to accept the items on the cons agenda motion have a second um all in favor of accepting the items on the consent agenda raise your right hand none opposed motion passes next regular agenda items first one set back variant requests for in addition to a carport located at 100 South thas Street um so tonight is's requ for the setback to be married from the rear property line so right now there's an existing concrete slab that's for and it's got about well 12T from the property line and the carport that they were in the process of building was three Bay carport and it stopped from 12 back from where that ex SL is so they're to basically extend the remaining piece of that card out to the OT setb so instead of it

being partially not covered the concrete slab they cover the up to that that's a so this one was already existing so the new5 add 25 is I 25 set back is just it looks funny I pictures on my phone because it just sits so far off to the side of the driveway so I'd like to just add another 12T to that kind of balances [Music] it because my property third of my property in the [Music]

[Music] here's area that they build the park so that's going to the west of we showing the boat [Music] now okay and that's 20 the offset was 25 ft to begin with we're on and she's asking for it to be 10 fet is that what you're saying now you've done a long work today big Improvement it's had abandoned for a long time is that where the a frame is right now okay okay okay [Music] we have a second I'll second it okay all in favor of approving the set that VAR request for an addition to a car port located at 100 South Thomas Street raise your right hand none opposed motion passes next setb variance request for the proposed St Mary's rectory located at 403 West Old San Antonio Road so this is the existing Cas lot on so the church is going to be building an office directly where the parking lot

is located to track parking lot and then Theory will be built to the east of that and it'll have a driveway off of TR and then it'll osr so the will be in front so all they're asking here is just 20 basally right okay the offet it what street is is the one where the 22 foot true okay I'm with you now okay AC cathol Church you have a second second okay all in favor of the approving the setb variance request for the proposed St Mary's rectory located at 403 osr raise your right hand post motion next amend a preliminary plat for white tail Run subdivision partiel IDs number 12243 and 12242 with an additional variance requested for the minimum link of a culdesac street so this item remember in October we brought for the pl there was a variance request for the easements around that subdivision this is going to be to amend

theary plant that that was already adopted um because the drainage study that they did for the project determined that they needed to have most of the drainage flow from Southside property towards the north side of the property so therefore they had originally included a through Street in the middle of the subdivision and they want to basically take that out put a so um the drainage will actually go back towards the North and then flow back into this detention Pond that they're going to build um and then the reason for the variance request in addition to theed for plot is uh because the link of the is beyond the 600 that's allowed by the ordinance would propos 720 750 and so therefore they need VAR request order to comply with stand here questions it doesn't interfere as you told earlier with any type of other codes like fire rescue or anything correct so the fire code says that you can't have more than 30 homes on one access so this still means that because they have 28 homes so they still are under that code requirement and as far as the other access property they have the two access off Main Street and then step out for the future access back toward Sun Street and then that was one of the concerns by everybody about the dra way me if this is going help I'm not engineer yeah they moved a lot of the

dra [Music] areaeast corner of the property whereas some of these Lots were proposed originally as a drainage area and then they also had this side drainage area was taking up a little more space on this side they were able toig that 55 by 120 might be few 15 or so but the most part for the guest if you don't know where that is that's going to be a a big subdivision behind Walmart and Brookshire brers big pasture area going to be [Music] developed any further discussion El okay do we have a motion to approve the amended preliminary plat for white tail r subdivision partial IDs 12243 and 12242 with an additional variance requested for the minimum length of a C Street have a motion you have a second I say all in favor raise your right hand I oppos next multiple variance request for the proposed West Southgate subdivision parcel ID number 10680 concept plan pertaining to lot sizes setbacks and pavement

width I have to question that um what was a lot because I remember that this was a lot what was a lot with on the first houses this request is like 45 yes make okay favor raise your right hand motion pass next resolution number 03202 4B Texas Department of Transportation reconstruction grant for Runway taxi way and electrical improvements to the Caldwell municipal airport so we wrot this last week last last did we need a resolution for so the talked about this and the amount going to bewhere from was it 575,000 to 700,000 but I just need it to be official with this resolution so unless there's any more discussion or questions on it that's what we're asking for motion to adopt motion to adopt a resolution for to uh T Department of Transportation

reconstruction Grant or Runway taxi way and electrical improvements to the airport all in favor raise your right hand none opposed motion passes next resolution number 03224 c submission of a postto savannah groundwater conservation grant for well Rehabilitation projects this will be the first of two resolutions that come well rehab project that we completed over last year we are eligible to do the changes to apply for this funding through Savannah so we are asking them to fund $450,000 or to reimburse us for $450,000 worth of work that we did that is 70% of the project we feel like we put together a really good application for that project and this is a part of that application we have a resolution from the council support is that for the three Wells that's for the three Wells that we re have [Music] yes we have a motion to accept resolution number 03224 c we have a second I second all in favor raise right hand and oppos motion passes next resolution for number 03224 D submission of a postto savannah groundwater conservation grant for advanced metering infrastructure projects as I said this would be the second one we kicked around the idea of

bringing Ami into into the again I think we have a really good application for this I'd like to see both them get funed from postto not sure where it will be this one we're asking for $300,000 the water portion of the Ami project I believe was going to come in right at about a million dollars so that would leave the city funding 70% of that one of the reasons I chose that amount score a little bit higher on the Grant application so um that's where this is at right now I know we haven't we've got an RFP out for this project but the deadline for this uh Grant submitt is Friday of this week so we wanted to get this in front of council so we can get it submitted I'm not sure f or not but we certainly wanted to try so any questions on that happy to answer how' you get the no less than 67624 I'm glad you asked that question so what I've done is I went through a quote that we had gotten just it was kind of a bbo quote and I tried to pick off those things that were water related you know I'm not going to Elric money from from this group one of the things that I want to see if you decid to approve this motion I mean help the language but I'm going to fine tune it I've got from the same quote just have them pull out just the water infrastructure and I think it'll end up being a million dollars or a little bit above okay so I'd like to be able to amend this resolution to have those better numbers when I get them um that way for for every percentage point that we match or fund it's another point on the so if I can if we turn this 70% into 80% that's 10 more points for us in the scoring rubric so like make sure we get as much as [Music]

we this res do have a second hang what's the language that you would need so because you uh we need to just you you move to approve the resolution uh with an amendment that the pledge amount or pledge matching funds must not be less than 70% so that gives him in the event that we go up to 80% okay that's my motion okay do we have a second okay all in favor raise your hand n opposed motion passes thank you Melissa next resolution number p224 e an investment program through Texas class to achieve goals set forth in the city of cwell investment policy so Council remember it's been probably a year since we brought the investment policy in front of council for approval one of the strategies that we wanted to do money out of just sitting in the bank drawing very little interest into some investment tools to where we hopefully especially right now under a lot more interest so um Tex class or Texas class is one of the groups that we met with and feel like they'd be a good partner for the city so this is essentially a a money market account that we're going to get paid right now we're earning 1.65 today they're paying about 5 and a qu% so in terms of Revenue and what we intend to move we're looking to move probably about $10 million over into this fund and hopefully bring in4 to $500,000 in interest per year so this will really help you to go a long way talk more about that in the next item

but um this is just if approved this will allow us to begin to a relationship with Texas class it's a good deal guys okay do we have a motion to adopt resolution number 0322 4 I should say before this we did met with that investment committee and kind of inform them of it and their Direction was to move forward with it a okay all in favor raise your right hand none opposed motion passes and next Fleet Management for the Caldwell volunteer fire department all right you go so third time a charm on this I think we had brought a couple of different vehicle aot couple different apparatuses here um first one didn't quite work out I had miscalculated or misheard or something the mileage and it was more money than I wanted to spend for a truck with 80,000 miles on it second one we brought a little bit lower price tag but then kind of had some concerns about how we grow with a single cap truck and then what I was really looking for because we put very little miles on our trucks we average about a th000 miles a year so right now we've got a 96 model truck sitting over there with about 20,000 miles so when we go and we invest 800,000 to a million dollars in a in a fire pumper keep it for 20 years and it's probably worth $20,000 right and we can look at it as that's kind of the cost of doing business but I kind of wanted to look at it a different way so one of the things I've been looking for is basically a lease program where we could have a long-term lease and then

either give that thing back or the company that we buy it from they buy it back for from us um safe Industries came by last week and we we looked at a brand new truck Spartan was a 2024 Spartan truck couple of guys from the from the apartment looked at it out fit it it's ready to go right now they might make a couple updates if they need come things upgraded so can stop me if you got questions the the price of the truck itself is $689,500 now they've offered a a package that ends up costing 769 300 with that package they will warranty that truck basically bumper to bumper for seven or eight years depending on the term that we choose they will also come out and do the pump tests on it annually they have to be annually pump tested they will also come out and do annual PMS so all that's included in the extra money I know it seems like a lot but I know we looked at pump tests already and the PMs and the warranty it's it's a good deal have to remember that we have volunteers that are you know operating these things they get full-time jobs so you know it's not always the best option to kind of rely on them or expect them to come in and do PMS outside work that they're already doing course so with that depending on the term we were to choose let's say we have 7 years this company we would own the truck outright in seven years this company safe Industries is willing to they're going to write up a full contract they would buy the truck back from us at the end of seven years for $365,000 or they could we could do an eight-year term and they would buy it back for $330,000

at the you know once the is up if we decide that we want to keep the truck we own the truck we can just keep it if we're at that point but if we want to look at kind of Fleet Management going forward we've got to find a way to I guess not keep losing so much money on I just feel like this might be a better way for us to tackle Fleet Management and make sure that we keep the guys that are protecting us the that are protecting us um you know and inip that is going to you know it's going to perform when they need it to so with that any questions there is this new or is it used this is a brand new TR okay I just want to make sure because we talked about some new ones being a million dollars or so and so this one they they've done some different things on this it's not it's not going to be I don't know how How would [Music] it's mostly manual controls one we got now is elects we issues with that this one is ready to goit different than 80,000 [Music] it's I contract if something major takes place

with the warranty they would take it and it a good discuss are we paying interest on this or so yeah I want to answer a question Sor and then I'll address the finan so any other questions or comment I mean on on the warranty or You' rather see I mean I think the package is the right way to go I think that's going to make sure that we protect our investment and then their investment if they do buy back does that include the maintenance yes that includes that's what you told correct so the maintenance on it all the PMS all the pump testing you know any warranty I don't we won't burn through tires but still I mean your PMS they're going to do so the manual controls versus electric is okay we can set our own it's issues were sometimes with the electronic is if you're not familiar with that you hit the button we got like RPMs and pressure you can somebody else everything with volunteers it's like Department you got man Le on the truck volunteers you can actually have two and one to run it

and Tru also call C so you can ride at least four people on this so if if we decide to move in in the future that we would actually have a staff or a hybrid Department we'll have room for everybody to roll the truck so I mean that was another kind of factor that we looked at so you have a couple things to think about I left it as Fleet Management for for our volunteer fire department so basically step one I want to know if this sounds good or this is something youall want to look at and then or do we want to look at the use trucks I've also learned in this process that National Fire Protection Agency Association recommend we replace these things after 20 years so you know that's something that we're going to have to look at every 20 years or you know we I just feel like we need to start managing our Fleet so as we think let me the terms of the deal yes we will be paying interest so there's there's three ways to to pay for this thing one is pay cash today you know second would be the seven-year term and the interest is 5.77% um the payment for that over 7 years is 129,290 [Music] 76 now you look at it that last year from year seven to year eight the cost of operation on that thing dropped significantly we're only losing $35,000 on what I'll call the resale value so I mean to me I think it kind of makes sense to keep it for the eight years but I'm definitely open to to comments and questions um on that any of it

discussion if if we do the 8-year ter they buy back for $330,000 or we we keep it so your cost of operation is going to be 50 55,000 a year mean it's just something to deal with we're have to look at replacing other P within the next three to five we've got it the shop right now just kind of we we've got a good three to five years left on that one but we'll have to start looking we replace those what are we going to do with we'll sell it for whatever we can get it going to be the 96 model that would be replaced like I said after this you might get1 15,000 for it yes what about the city budget would we be able to pay for it without straining our other Fleet management of the city yeah so the fire department has a completely different Capital Improvement funding you know Capital replacement fund so sitting we got about a million dollars sitting there right now one of the things that we discussed in our investment committee was you know if we invest that we're making five and a quarter percent we're losing about a half percent interest you know if we decide to finance something out and I'm comfortable doing that to give us the flexibility because like I said we're going to have to make other Investments they actually offered to sell me two trucks you know and that was I think the range for that was like 276,000 so basically double a little bit more than double what we have right now um so it anyway so it's more beneficial to the city operation wise if we do pay

it out if we pay it out I think you know you can that I'm making about $50,000 in interest interest is going to go it's going to cut a chunk into that we normally transfer 20 to $50,000 a year from our operating budget and there so you're already close to your whole payment without really losing any money so maybe you're out an extra $330,000 a year out of that Capital replacement fund just to to buy this truck so so yes it is well I think the guarantee bu they're guaranteeing you a number so if we bought it out right we probably would not have that and plus we're going to have to pay for preventive maintenance and we're going to have to pay for the annual inspection yeah you'll have to all that we've looked at it I think these guys would say it's it's a good deal to do the maintenance program with the warranty and I think we can budget it we can't do it this year but we can budget it October we can does this truck have to be made so they brought it here they reserved I told them I was bringing it to council so they've reserved it for us if Council decides to move forward with this there are some little things that we wanted to add to make sure it was it was perfect for these guys so we could have this truck in about a month's time um they do have another one coming down the line that'll be ready in August that one's going to be this is just how the cost escalate so quickly on this that one's already $4,000 more than this just because of where it started in in the process where's the company this company there a I know the guy that came by here the

salesman he's down in Buffalo the companies companies Nationwide own [Music] sales yes he called me like every [Music] day that number saved any other questions I mean do y you think this is a good approach as far as Fleet Management over there it's really it's really hard because we don't put that many miles on but I feel with this we at least have a guaranteed buy back on the other day we can either take that or we can roll it into another truck you know so we'll have those those options when we get to that point on this I'm not a mathmatician like y'all are but so in other words we're in seven years we get half of the truck back basically but that's cheaper that's in between the the first used one and the second used one so that's in between you're buying a brand new truck that's what I'm saying those were 10 years old and we don't know what kind often is have you still have to do the pump test and everything else that goes along that's what I'm saying that's this sounds like this is what I was looking good deal had 1200 miles driving around and show everybody so we're buying the

[Music] demo on the surface if the need service how quick I mean are they they got [Music] so forward on we're call this the 2024 spark and pumper um we need to know with or without the maintenance plan and how you want to pay for it so that would be cash up front 7ear term or 8year term I think we need to years and there no interest is the same interest is the same seven eight okay you have a motion to authoriz Camden to purchas a 2024 Spartan pumper with a maintenance plan with an eight-year financing program do you have a second all in favor raise your right hand none opposed motion pass that's it no more [Music]

trucks department and Community reports anybody has any questions on any of those there reason Sal taxy decrease increase push 24 pushed it in October don't know I like it 25,000 lots of new homes still under construction in perit People Like Us them [Music] in any discussion guys no okay onward administrative and elected officials reports you want to start sure all right all right first thing I just want to thank Cy for all of the work so C is the one to put together both these applications prop Savannah we' beening striving driv crazy for probably at least two weeks trying to get this done multiple meetings so we really app appreciate all of your work um let's see our street sweeper is in that thing should be out on the streets next week so we're excited about that the uh

over at Santa Fe Park The Pavilion is down we're waiting a waiting one more bid to go back with just a regular Pavilion no restrooms or anything but at least something to be out there cover and put better what we had um the Noak field and and the osr field are really starting to take shape they're looking really good very happy that we had to support of the community for that our reservation system that we set up on our new website is live ready to go so we'll be ping some information out about that reservation for those fields all Fields what we're going to do is is you know at least the Little League fields and then David Creek Park little league right now course has priority on those F but the other two that can be utilized for several you know whatever will allow preservation had a couple of quotes on striping we're getting that rolling weeks so we'll be pulling that together I want to say was our last Mee we talked about the workshop Workshop we had a meeting the whole power de is done the same so the rate on that 575 talk about that um I've heard things I'm not on social media about the legal notice that we sent out as part of the uh yot transition just so youall are aware the timeline on that is not something that we created you know I think we've been

transparent a lot of folks we've done a lot of business you know leading up to this point um we've had a lot of discussion on it the timeline on that we had to wait for that notice to be approved by the Pu and that approval came the Friday before we sent it out on Tuesday we also had a deadline to get it out before that Friday so you know there's still that window up to yesterday I want say for folks to file their comments but that that wasn't my timeline that was a timeline that just given so if you have any other people approach you about it we've had several phone calls just kind of asking about what it is you know to the regular customer you're not going to see a difference until it comes to the reliability and things on the back so just want to cover that had a meeting today um with Engineering Group on our Wastewater master plan we picked off a great meeting you know I think it really helped to find finally comb in on our our scope for the major CIP projects so we're still continuing with those and I think we've come come up with a solution that's really good and it's kind of in between those two but I think it should buy us at least 10 years worth of grow so kind of what what we were trying to find I was trying to find that perfect scope that but I think it's getting there so we're continuing to work on that that's all I have that's ITC tonight status of the new city hall T City Hall they are moving on on on that

um we did make a small change order to where we're going to do a couple more that it's not the ideal layout so what we're trying to do is put together as many Works spaces as we can so there were a couple of built-ins up to the front that we've removed and we're going to make two new offices in the front we've also found some other little nooks that we can add what I'm calling like a floating wall and then create two more workspaces so the change order that we put together is probably going to create about at least five more maybe six work areas that will allow you know people to kind of be out of the all the movement able to focus a little bit more so they they started demo on that they're be building walls but it's moving along I'm hoping mid April yeah that that was a Clos in buildings for safety security for a bank and uh just wanted mentioned the disc off yes thank U it's all the cages are in the muling has been done we've had nothing but positive feedback from the brassett valley Disc Off team some of them came 15 of them one day and then I think eight or nine on Saturday and they love the course uh they already have a tournament planned in June C's working up a contract with the Army golf to be able to hold the tournament and they're already talking 90 to 100 people will be in that tournament so that brings outside to cwell some of the comments the guy said

I'll put out even on Facebook but uh the the sen that will be in sometime in the next several weeks with the signage and once that happens I think you're going to see a a great interest in it because the people that came over from Brian disco said they can come to cwell quicker they can go to the course from A&M to their course that they played before so uh if we had three or four tournaments a year would be outstanding and there we're talking that they will have it Collegiate ready within two years so if that's the case then you could have people coming from all over so it's exciting it may fizzle I hope not but it it makes the back of the park also opens up more walking trails and everything that's all I have your turn I gave each of y'all May mayor and I are we are on the board of directors or on the board at Valley Council of government we're making a big push to help people understand exactly what the BB Cog does and how much in financial support they provide the Cy this one was what um they supported in Bur County now that's Caron County so that includes youville and cwell but we are the bigger town but that just kind of gives you a clue of how much financial support that they give through grants and stuff from from the government to the citizens within Bon County and it's very good lot of good programs so we're hoping to do this every year just

to update us and let us know how much they provideed to our communities sure that and that's all I have a big event is May the 10th so if the city has any um projects I was uh we need to let them know so they can kids can help and do whatever um picking up trash flower beds planting Park Civic Center Library all those things and then um publicly thank you guys for um um your help with the fire the house that bur down there were critical conditions that day with a high wind and it's it's just a blessing that only one and a half houses were lost so thank you for you literally risk your lives every time so we appreciate yall that's all [Music] I Jesse um pretty busy seon Clos on and responses have one more thing what is the status of the online citizen reporting thing so website um you look on the screen um [Music] the Discover tab it actually has ability for Citizens and Community organizations to post an event so um they can actually you know go on to the website submit an event to be posted and it'll be on the

community calendar so everybody can see it so that's a nice feature that we now have and so basically any event in the area you po on it we had somebody from uh the same CET they actually submitted request so now it's on our commun calendar so anybody can post it put like information about registration and all that so anybody interested in and goes my question okay thank you so the zoning ordinance is in process trying to get a draft together for the building and they haven't said but still on track so far for October yeah so be all what we have 2018 standard more thing the mitigation Grant they have released funds for that so we'll

be package and put that so it's a step forward we've been waiting on that one for a long time now that's just for remind that's the five million Grant that's going to improve full reconstruction on C Street Harvey LIF station and a lot of drainage work in this area good news anything else guys have a motion to adjourn second raise your hand opposed motion meeting adjourned thank you to the visitors for coming see you again