City Council - Regular Meeting

I don't know where my mind. Yeah. Hey, now they said you were going to loan the city the 2.4 million max double that. There you go. We got all kinds.

We can call whoever we need to during the deal, right? Like to walk. If we can do that, then I can get I think I get everything done while we're sitting here. Yes. Yes. Please do your training. I need a milk. Okay. Next to the last day.

All right. 6 o'clock we'll start. Okay. So, uh if we use our time or 30 or 25 minutes very wisely, we can get through all this and put it all on consent. So, uh I'm sure nobody has any issues on the meeting minutes. So we'll move right on to number eight is the renewing of the catalytic converter grant program also known as flock cab. Anybody got any issue with that? Just move on from that. Just carrying it over to the next fiscal year.

All right. Uh the next one's not too hard either. It's the uh voting on a new ordinance to create a consolidated municipal court security and technology bond. Um I like the way Craig explains these better than me. So go ahead. So right now the court technology and the court security fund are two separate funds. Money is accounted for separately. Separate bank accounts. I saw Karen back there somewhere. Um been a change in state law. allows us to consolidate those into one fund. And I guess we can use the money for either, right?

So we don't have to because what'll happen is sometimes one fund will get a large fund balance and the other one won't have quite enough for what we want to do. So this way it can all be consolidated into one use. We've never had them separate. They're only separate because the law required separate but so that requires two separate accountings, two separate funds are set up. Personally, we never needed. No, no, it was just well because again one could be used for one thing and one could be for the other. But I think so many cities like us you you have it but you don't always have what you need. So they I guess they finally it's one of those things they finally did

listen to somebody and said it only makes sense to let cities consolidate it. So So this just ordinance just allows us to do that going forward and then with the next budget we'll create consolidated fund. All right. Am I good? No, I'm not going in order because I'm gonna do the water things all together at the end. Uh, the next one is to authorize Craig to sign a letter to the Federal Highway Administration for 2.418 million in matching funds, which is 20% of the SS4A grant for the systematic roadway safety project, which was one that was done. Then everybody started

stalling on the grants and now it's back on the books. Yeah, this was actually awarded in August of 24 and we started going through the process to negotiate with the Federal Highway Administration, everything. And then we had a change in administrations and the new administration came in and slammed on the brakes and every time we'd get a contact, we wouldn't hear. We'd reach out and they were like, "Well, they don't work here anymore." And so they cut their staffing in half and reduced everything. So, we're now just finally at the point where they're letting me start moving forward again. And what is that fund for?

So, it it's it's a grant for improving specifically highway or roadway safety. And so, ours has three parts. as one for us to um we're actually working with the no to do an inventory of all our street signs and allow us to update all of our street signs, make sure we have proper reflectivity, we have the proper traffic control devices where they need to be and that kind of thing. Another one is to improve street lighting citywide, okay?

Like intersections, neighborhoods, and things like that. And then the third one is a highway delineation, allowing us to do things. Some of our intersections with the suicide lane would create situations where oncoming traffic, you're going to turn left and cars are coming at you oncoming because they want to turn into something on the other side. Um so we don't have the specifics yet because part of the grant is to do the study to figure out what's the most effective way to do it address those. So what it does um this total grants 12 I think it's 12 million 911,000. It does require 20% match. It is a reimburse type grant where

you spend the money they're reimbured. So we don't spend money. We don't it's not like we have to set this money aside today. We're just committing five years. Yeah. It's fiveyear it's fiveyear grant period. Um probably 40% of this money is for street lighting. at the time the grant was applied for was probably high because we talked to Encore and unless we want specialized lighting, Encore will actually cover the cost of installing the poles and the light fixtures. And so we could probably use this money to just cover the annual cost per light for the first five years. So we'd have to spend the 12 in five years to get reimbured for 10.

Well, no. As we spend it, they'll reimburse us, but they only for every dollar we spend, they reimburse us 80 cents. So as we spend it, we just we would submit our believe it's monthly or or quarterly, we would submit for reimbursement. There's one other caveat, too, didn't it? It also had a ser Oh, yeah. There's also 400,000 allocated for a safe routes school to kind of evaluate our difficult traffic pattern issues around our schools, which is something I've been really interested in because we heard that when Walmart was being built, how that intersection is going to so this study could help confirm or identify problems that

Yeah. Well, I think it's more going to be geared at the traffic flows around the schools during the morning and the afternoon when students come and you know like the issue we have with the intermediate school and then around the primary and the elementary and all that. So, it's just it's kind of you know we have such rightway limitations on all those streets is how can we come up with something to make that traffic flow better, be safer. Okay, everybody good?

Okay, now we're going to go to the three water related. Uh first one is uh we have a proposal from Walker partners for all the engineering related to the preparation needed to apply for the land application of water treatment residuals and this has to do with Waco not taking our come on that is correct and the way we've disposed of the sludge in the past was take it to the W Mars plant and they have closed the door on that option. So, we're looking at other ways and we decided that we get some of our own property registered as a disposal site is the way we need to move forward.

That way, we can float our own boat, not have to count on anybody else. Anybody have any questions for Craig? How much do we how much year do we produce? Oh, they probably haul off 60,000 gallons. That's more we start running the plant, that number is going to increase. So this is basically like drying beds. Okay. So you're just going to put it out there, let it dry, put it in the truck, call it to Well, just pump it out and put it on the side and spread and it'll stay there if as long as we get the site registered as a legal disposal site. But if if it fills up over time, then you have to clean it out. Yeah. But we should get a big enough area that it'll take a few years for that. We have to worry about that.

It'll be after if you retire. I see how he did that. That was pretty smooth. A couple acres. Make sure But yeah, if it has to be cleaned off, then it could be put in rolloffs and take it to a proper landfill. Okay. Anybody have any questions to that? Everybody good there? Okay. The next is we have a proposal from Walker Partners for the engineering related to drilling a new water well.

Yeah, I think it's to our benefit to pursue that option. uh we've got some water allotted to us through the groundwater district that we don't have the means to get it out of the ground and it would also provide us a backup source when we have other facilities that may be out of service from whale motor being down or whatever it may be that Walmart coming on online we've got that load now we've got to have the resources to deal with so so as I've read your deal in there it looks so of the 462 million gallons we can take right Now, all we can get is about 300 and something million of that.

That's correct. And it would be set up where you wouldn't take that 462 million and divide it by 12. And this is what you take a month. You're going to peak off those wells from June to September. So, you may take 50 million gallons a month there. And then the remainder eight months, you may go down to 20 25 million. So, you make sure you don't go over what's allotted to you. But main thing is to have that water available during the summer when everybody's needing. questions, anybody? Pretty self-explanatory. Yeah, just with the growth and stuff, our margins are narrowing. So, if we have like the plant goes down or well goes down or two wells go down, we're we're getting pretty tight.

And in today's the water is pretty much you guys do everything you can to get all the water you can when you do. That is great. Um, okay. The last uh part of the water deal is the uh contract for the water treatment yard piping project. You want to tell us how that went?

Sure. We uh got with the engineers several years ago. We developed a scope of work that needed to be done in order to get the capacity up at the treatment plant. And currently we've got that divided into three different projects. The first one was that reservoir project we recently completed. And this is project two working for that same goal. The next phase will be actually trying to expand the treatment plant itself. But we got to have all the implements in place to give the water to the plant to treat it. So

and and this is this will allow us more flexibility in using both halves of the reservoir, 1 A and 1B. The ability to move water back and forth, which right we haven't had that in the past. We've only been able to gravity flow from one to the other. It'll also put valves in situation where we can actually access them. They're not We got some extremely deep piping there

deep in the ground. And it also makes improvements to the intake structure that were taken out when it was built. Right now, we don't when we intake from the river, we don't have any capability of flushing it to get the silt and stuff that flows in while we're doing it. So, this will make improvements there. But this is all things that need to be a lot of these are things that should have been done when the plant was built but it was cut out because the budget was too tight. But it before we upgrade the plant these things need to be there so that we can more efficiently operate.

Is this something we had talked about before in that 8 million in that infrastructure we were talking about. Is is this included in that part of it? Yeah, this this was um I think more work partner made a presentation says the council Jed was here I believe and kind of outlined there was like three phases. The first was the reservoir, the second was this project and then the third is the actual plan. So this is the part two on the I didn't I read the bids and looked at all the bids but is there a time frame they gave you on the bid too? How long it take? Um, just a general question.

It was that was not part of the bid. I mean, it's part of the contract and so there is a there is a construction schedule or a contract time. I just don't know what that is. I can get that. That's just more curiosity then. Yeah, I do not know that off the top of my the phase. Sir,

I got to check that. I stumped you. The first phase will be to getting everything in 1B finished because if you've been by there, you know, there's like a concrete structure. Well, that's where the piping will go in and everything. It'll get put in operation. Then 1 A will be taken down. We'll be draining 1A and they'll be making improvements to that and then they'll get the other as part of the project, but it has to be phased. So, first we'll be getting 1B up and operational so we can take 1A down. But in the future, we'll have that flexibility where we can take one down if we need to for maintenance. We've not had that since the plan open.

Yeah. We get off into summer. We basically been able to top off that reservoir and those four months I'm talking about that you're really moving a lot of water. You just try to get to the end of those because you can't divert from the river and operate at the same time. And this will give us that operational flexibility that we've always needed. Other questions? Anybody? Okay, everybody good with that? Okay. Have I missed anything?

I think that covered everything. Okay, so I'm going to move everything to the consent agenda. Um the one thing I was if y'all didn't notice we talked about today remember um there were some there were folks that were talking about you know the road where you're coming from like chewies you go over 35 and you have the crazy people coming around the off of the access road and then you got people coming down sick you got people coming access road I saw that and it was two lanes and we asked that they do something to help maybe turn it in so they actually text did that finished the project. So the two on the access road, two lanes go to one. So now each has their own lane

and they can all do 80 miles hour. Yes, they can they can blow through. As long as they stay in their own lane as longast they don't last night they slipped in behind him. Even a good plane goes all right eastbound and then you got the service road six coming down and then you have Hey, that's a perfect place to set up. before they've taken that two lane down in the middle. You're going to see a call from my wife leaving Walmart. We turned on a guy was way back there.

He came up on us like he was going to hit us in the rear. Then he came up beside me and just went right to it. And if I hadn't swerved probably hit like you talking about dangerous. Anybody else have anything? Ways in one. But I called it in, brother. So all right. Uh 6:15. We're adjourned until 6:30. That's crazy.

He's taking your All right, 6:30 we will call our meeting to order. And uh we do have a quorum. So to begin with, we will call our good friend Jerry Freriedman, our resident prayer warrior up to open up prayer. I'm so happy to pray.

Father, it's the big things that we tend to remember. uh astronauts circling the moon, uh our nation at war, even big things like Easter that we just came through. Father, it's in the small things that I pray that you will draw our attention to those moments, those moments that become so precious to us. Those moments of being able to reach out a hand to someone in need. Those moments, Father, of being able to serve someone else. And so, Father, tonight as this council comes together, my prayer for them is that they will remember those small things and all that they do. I pray, Father, that you will help them not to overlook anything, but to look at everything and to notice that all of it is really necessary and important. No matter how big it might look, no matter how small it might it might appear, it's all necessary. And so, Father, help them. give them the wisdom that they need as they go forward. Father, I pray for our community. I ask, Lord, your blessing upon it. I pray, Father, for our first responders. I ask your protection over them. I pray, Father, for our students and teachers. Use them. Help them in every way, Father. And may all of us remember that you call us to come together to look to you, to walk with you. Help us. I pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Amen. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Roll call. here. Here

put my glasses on. Can't see. Uh, it's time for citizen comments. The city council invites citizens to address the council on any matter, including items on the agenda, except public hearings that are included. Comments related to the public hearings will be heard when the public hearing starts. Please limit your comments to 3 minutes. The council is not permitted to take any action or discuss any item that is not listed on the agenda. When called to speak, please state your name and your address and what you're speaking about before you begin your comments. Uh with that, I have three cards. Uh Bubby, do you want to start?

You I don't care who wants to start. Okay. Come on, CG. Oh, I see you. One, two, three. Never mind. Somebody has to give me some help. CG. All right, CG. Come on.

I'm CG Weslick. I'm one of the moderators for Lost Pets of Robinson Facebook group. Our group is over 10 years old with 5,000 members, and that number is just shy of what the city of Robinson Facebook group has. Our group has been the catalyst for reuniting lost pets with their owners. And over a 10-year period, we estimate over 3,000. This is due to our volunteers working 247, 365 with our loyal members. We have built an extensive network with other community Facebook groups, fosters, and rescues. We have never asked the city for any resources and never expected any recognition. We held our own chipping event here in the community three years ago and chipped 80 dogs with donated chips. And thanks to Bill Bailey, we found a place in Robinson for the straw hall, which protected both domestic and farm animals during the ice storm. Had it not been for us, Robinson would have been the only town and community that did not have a location. Our group has been successful working hand in hand in a true partnership with RPD and the acco. Robinson has always been the envy of every other community and been the standard which others wanted to achieve. This all changed on February 1st when the new acco was hired. I want to be clear here guys. This is not her fault. None of this that we're going to talk about is her fault. I'd like to read you a message I received on February 5th regarding the new changes. It'll give me just a minute. This was from Kaden on February 5th. Okay. We are working on a solution to get me access to social media, but it will look a little different. I will

likely still be able to interact on Los Vitzer Robinson, but we're going to get some parameters together to keep it appropriate and professional. Keep doing y'all's thing in the meantime, and I'm going to work with you how I can. Hopefully, we'll have a firm answer next week. As of this moment, no new page has been set up where the acco can interact with our group. There's a page, but it's locked down. Numerous dogs have been taken to the shelter and because she is not allowed to communicate with us, we have no disposition on any of them. It's disheartening to see Robinson's new direction when Huitt, Woodway, and Belme all have ACOs that interact with the public. If this is the direction the city now wants to go, please be respectful of all of the work we have done and let us know. I'd like to leave you with this thought, and it's confusing to me to even try to explain, so bear with me. I have clarified twice. the chief and the acco group. No matter how many times we tell people, call RPD. Here's the number. Some people simply will not call the police department. They don't want to. Our group is a safe place. So, if an aggressive dog was posted in our group that is running around at the primary school and the acco and the chief who we've been told can see our group, they see it in our group. They still will not dispatch her. If any of this is confusing, couple of y'all know how to reach me and I'll be glad to clarify further.

Thank you. Thank you. All right. Uh, let's see. Wait a minute. I got my numbers right. Okay. Now, Bubby, it says you're number two. Yeah, I'm gonna pass out something talk about in a minute. You can go ahead and give it to everybody if you want to. Go ahead and start. Yes, you can go start. Okay. I'm Bobby. Yeah, we'll just pass.

One of the admins of Los Pitzer Robinson. As you can see, I struggle to walk, struggle to go to work, struggle to get up here, but it was worth it. It's worth it. And the thing I won't do is struggle, keep struggling to be a volunteer for the city of Robinson to help lost pets. And we've been trying to figure out our place with animal control and the city and how we fit in. And right now, we're not fitting in. We can't communicate with Kaden. She can't communicate with us. and it's it's not being successful. We have a lot of networking people that we can contact. Kaden doesn't have those contacts yet. If she can't communicate with us, then it's it's making her job harder. So, the picture you're looking at is years ago, Tracy O' Conor chased that dog around the school. Finally caught him. The shelter was closed indefinitely. Carl was out with Brenda. Tracy didn't have anywhere to put him. He was just riding around in the back of his car. And so he called us. We contacted a bunch of our rescue friends and fosters and stuff. We found him a foster. We eventually found him a home. And we want Kaden to succeed. She's smart. She's young. She's energetic. But what's it's not working in my opinion. That's in my opinion.

We used to be able to Carl could comment on our page. Chris Lopez, Tracy O' Conor, uh Gabby, another uh dispatcher, they would all interact with us on our page. Now, they said the only person that can contact that can comment is the chief and it's just we've taken so many dogs to the shelter and we don't know the disposition. We don't know if they're with the rescue, if they got home, if they got euthanized. We have no idea what's happening to them. The only thing it's costing the taxpayer money and it's costing city money and we were told by Dilo that the job would be to keep animals out of the shelter and I think too many dogs have gone to the shelter and we just like Kaden to be able to do her job and interact with us and the community because the community is starting to ask questions why they don't ever see her interact on Los Robinson. So, just let her do her job and be successful. Thank you.

All right. And finally, Becca.

Hi, Becca Ker. 127 Darden. Y'all bear with me. my nerdy day job, nor this dog saving side quest that I do has me doing much public speaking, so it's not my forte. So, um, but my name is Becca Kiner. I'm the owner and operator of Bees Village Animal Rescue. And then we also provide Bee's Little Pet Pantry, which is a community pantry here in Robinson for people in need to come get pet supplies, pet food, things like that, free of charge. um something that the city itself has actually come and utilized for the city's sake. Um this is Hank. He's a beautiful three-legged golden retriever. And he is one of the nearly 200 dogs, cats, and occasional possum or raccoon that we've saved. And almost all of those have been off of the streets of Robinson. And because of us, um, they've never had to enter the shelter system. And they were rescued not because somebody called Robinson PD and made a report. They were made bec or they were rescued because of social media networking. But that's actually not what I want to talk about today. I want to talk about the thousands more that we have helped as a community by not just getting them off the streets, but be but by getting them back home to their families. um dogs that would have been in the shelter otherwise, but they never saw the shelter because they had a family. For years, we've been able to do that because we've had a strong cohesive partnership with Lost between Lost Pets of Robinson and City of Robinson Animal Control. It's been a really true team effort. Chip scanners going out at night and on weekends and holidays. Dedicated women working on the side, side by side with animal control to reunite families. people who know these animals and where

they belong due to years of experience and boots on the ground. A community that shows up networking, helping, sharing because truly nobody can do this alone. Nobody. Up until recently, Robinson has been idolized. Other cities have literally modeled themselves based off of what we have built here because it's worked for a long time. But the direction we're heading now, it's not only heartbreaking for the people that have poured their hearts into this, it's not only discouraging for the community, but it's a failure to every single lost pet that depends on this system. Since the city has changed the policy and cut off the working relationship between animal control and lost pets of Robinson, we were already seeing a huge impact. Thank you for your time. And I know it's limited, but I really want to ask you to take a little bit more time on your own to think about the impact that this is having, the short-term impact and the long-term impact that it's having before it's too late to heal the damage because the damage has already begun.

If the goal is success, we already had it. We had it, but we don't have it anymore. Please consider giving our new acco the same opportunity to have that same success by restoring the partnership between Lost Pets of Robinson and the city of Robinson.

Thank you. All right. Um I don't have any other blue cards. We don't have any other Okay. So we'll move on and then we can talk about whether to add that at the end. Okay. Uh, next I get to read a lot. Let's do the proclamation for since we're talking about our animal control officer, we'll just bring her on up here because it's National Animal Care Control Appears. All right. Whereas the National Animal Care and Control Association has designated April 12th through 18th, 2026 as National Animal Care and Control Appreciation Week. and whereas various federal, state, and local government officials throughout the count country take this time to recognize, thank and commend all animal control officers for the dedicated service they provide to the citizens, public safety, domesticated animals, livestock, and wildlife across the nation. And whereas every day animal control officers put themselves in potential dangerous situations to protect the health and welfare of all kinds of animals and the public. And whereas the city of Robinson recognizes and commends the work done by the officer of the Robinson animal control on a daily basis for the citizens of our community and specifically recognized the following employee for hard work, animal control officer Kaden Phelp. And whereas the city of Robinson recognizes the animal control officer who answers calls for assistance capturing roaming and potentially dangerous animals, rescues animals in distress, investigates reports of animal cruelty and neglect, provide education for pet guardians about responsible pet care, and mediate disputes between neighbors regarding conflicts involving animals.

Now therefore, I Greg May, mayor of the city of Robinson, and on behalf of the entire city council, do hereby proclaim the week of April 12th through 18th, 2026 as National Animal Care and Control Appreciation Week in the city of Robinson, Texas, and encourage the citizens of Robinson to express their appreciation to the Robinson animal control officer, Kaden Feller, for her service and dedication in keeping our city and citizens safe. Thank you. All right, you're next.

All right, next is National Public Safety Telecommunications Week. What a fun job.

Oh, it's great. Whereas Congress and the President of the United States have established a second week of April as National Telecommunicators Week and whereas an emergency occurs, the prompt response of police officers, firefighters, and paramedics is critical to the protection of life and preservation of property. And the city of Robinson public safety telecommunicators are the single vital link between first responders and persons seeking immediate relief during an emergency. And whereas the work of these heroes behind the headset is invaluable in emergency situations. And whereas each dispatcher has exhibited compassion, understanding, and professionalism during the performance of their job in the past year. Now therefore, I, Greg May, mayor of the city of Robinson, and on behalf of the entire city council, do hereby proclaim the week of April 12th through 18th, 2026 as National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week in the city of Robinson, Texas, and encourage the citizens of Robinson to express their appreciation to the Robinson Public Safety Telecommunicators for their diligence and professionalism in keeping our city and citizens safe.

Thank you. All right. Thank you.

I think they should make those longer. You heard your last longer. Tell everybody. Okay. Uh our consent agenda will now uh consist of items 7 8 9 10 11 12 and 13. Since I just read all that, I'm going to let somebody else read it. So, who wants to make a motion on the consent agenda? Motion to approve consent agenda items 7, 8, 9, and 10 as written. and regular agenda items 11 12 13 as written second

Charlie all in favor any oppose okay that was quick uh anybody have anything for future agenda items other than what we just heard I I don't I we have a topic but I think I would discuss it internally That's what agenda. Okay. So, we will let uh we'll let there be some discussion before we talk about putting that on the Okay. Anybody have anything else they would like to bring to a future agenda that has not been discussed here? Charlie, you wanted to say something? I'm gonna let Charlie go. Thank you.

So, yeah, I just wanted to say thank you. Shout out to uh our waste management for doing a good job, at least in our neighborhood. We've got the guys that pick up the bulk when you have bulk. And this guy James McCoy, man, he's a doer. He's a get or done guy. Him and and Cherald Green, they're they're get or done guys. And I think they deserve recognition. You know, they go out of their way to my neighbors have come to get the stuff that's out there. They don't make excuses why they can't get it if it's a little bit bigger or whatever. just do it, you know. So, I'm I'm very pleased as a citizen, not from a council standpoint, but just as a citizen, very pleased effort and what they do and these two guys especially three guys. Anybody else?

Good. Well, make sure pass on the wasteland. Oh, yes. Yeah. All right. I can't see at 651. We're jerks.