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Director of Water Operations Craig Vaughn delivers his maintenance report to the Como City Council and gathered audience during its regular March meeting Tuesday evening. See more about his report in Saturday's edition of the paper. Staff photo by Todd Kleiboer
Members of the Como city council discussed their budgeting process and sewer repairs, among other items of business at the regular March meeting on Tuesday.
After opening the meeting at 5:30 p.m. with a prayer, the council unanimously approved the previous month’s meeting minutes.
FINANCIALS
Mayor Darla Henry then presented city bank accounts. The fire department account contained $7,249, maintenance and operation contained $50,350, deposits contained $36,628, grants contained $9003, savings $244,741 for a total of approximately $347,900. Henry sought the council’s attention on the city’s energy bill, which was nearly double the normal amount.
“In the last month they never received our payment, so for this month it was double,” she explained. “Mary [city secretary Mary Doss] did cut the check, I signed it, it just got lost in the mail. So we’ve done a stop check.”
Henry also drew the council’s attention to a $16,000 expenditure for contracting, which accounted for construction on McBride Street. Council member Jerry Radney requested that from now on full business names appear on the expense spreadsheet to make it easier to read, and Doss said she would do so.
The council unanimously approved March financials.
Henry then updated the council on the progress of purchasing a trailer for a jetter, which had been discussed at both January and February council meetings. Henry stated she had a steel trailer sitting in her backyard she intended to sell for $200 if the city would be interested in purchasing it for the jetter.
“There’s nothing wrong with it,” Henry said. “I don’t use it and don’t need it and it’s just sitting back there.”
Director of Water Operations Craig Vaughn stated he believed Henry’s trailer was “better than anything we’ve got.”
“For transparency, if y’all want to buy it, I’ve got two or three others inter ested but I wanted to give City first go and if not that’s fine too,” Henry stated.
The council moved unanimously to purchase the trailer. Henry instructed members of water and sewer to pick up the trailer from her backyard whenever they were available and it was not raining, “but if it sits back there awhile I don’t mind, because it is wet.”
The council then moved on to the fiscal year 2020 budget. Henry noted she made changes to the budget per council member request from last month’s meeting. Henry particularly wanted to discuss with council member Radney the city’s street grant application, which she said “the Lord has breathed some life into.”
“This is through Ark-Tex [Council of Governments], they’re taking it and running with it, but they’ve found us another grant,” Henry stated. “They are knee-deep in it, and hopefully we’ll have some info in a month or two, but I just wanted y’all to know.”
Henry informed the council she had added any grants into a “contingency” area of the budget as monies from grants are not certain.
Radney stated he believed at least 17 streets were in a dire situation and wanted to start repairing them as soon as possible, and Henry agreed.
Henry also informed the council she had removed public safety director Andy Lowen’s salary from general city staff excel sheet and put his position into a police department excel sheet, “so we can start to consider the police department its own little thing.” The council agreed this was a good idea.
With no further discussion, the council voted unanimously to approve the final iteration of the budget. The budget will go into effect April 1, 2020.
SEWER
Vaughn then gave the maintenance update.
“As you know we had an issue a few weeks ago down around the pool on Taylor Street, and when we broke that loose it relieved everything on Jefferson and McBride,” Vaughn told the council. “We were hopeful that took care of the major part of the problem… but as we got the problem fixed at the pool… other problems re-developed during the first of the month.”
Vaughn said the problem stemmed from several line blockages that had sewer lines running, at most, at three-quarters capacity. Finding the scope of water and sewer problems too complicated to fix with the tools they had, the city contacted an outside contractor, Vaughn said. Cleaning out a large amount of blockages accounts for the $16,000 charge the council previously approved, he said.
“It was a lifesaver,” Vaughn said. “They found five or six problems and corrected them, and it took those type of tools we didn’t have.”
Vaughn said the city is also looking into receiving a bid from the company for running a line from State Highway 11 to McBride Street.
Citizens Melissa Harrison and Becky Wicks appeared during citizen comments to discuss sewer problems in the 200 block of Bright Street. Harrison stated she had made “multiple calls to the city regarding the sewage that runs under the house and down the street.”
“Our main concern is the damage all the standing/ running sewage is doing to the pier foundation, not to mention the mold growth,” Harrison said. Harrison stated she was aware the city had self-reported to TCEQ, but questioned what would be done additionally.
“We have intentions on fixing it up, but we have to wait,” Harrison said. “We had to put in a lift station that we maintain… and now it’s just running back underneath the house. Our concern is about our investment.”
City maintenance supervisor Ted Joiner noted that the city had put out lime. Henry noted she was concerned about the recent amount of rain mixing with sewer overflow making the ground “soggy.”
“You’ve got rain, you’ve got sewer overflow, that’s a lot more than rainwater,” Harrison said. “I’m not saying our renter is the best maintenance man. I understand y’all are trying to remedy the problem, but we want it on record we have a concern.”
“We know there’s an issue that’s been going on,” Radney said. “That’s been going on even when I was mayor. There were open holes in the sewer line where rainwater got in.”
All parties resolved to reapproach the situation once the weather was drier, and all agreed that the problem did not entirely stem from the disorder of the property itself. Henry directed maintenance worker Darris Cross to return to the property to spread lime and do a visual inspection of the state of the sewer, and to take Lowen in case “things get out of hand” with the tenant.
PUBLIC SAFETY
Lowen provided an update on public safety. He stated he was applying for two different grants, but as he had never applied for grants before, “there is a learning curve.” He was also under the impression, he said, that he did not have to do a racial profiling report, but had later received an email from the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement stating it was required.
Lowen delivered to the council the Como Police Department’s racial profiling report: “I have no report to give because I haven’t stopped anybody. Racial profiling has to do with motor vehicle stops and pedestrian stops.”
According to Lowen, before the police department was operational last year he did respond to one call.
“I was dispatched last year to shots fired, which was a total misunderstanding. They thought their back porch was a shooting range and it was not, and that was called in by Darris [Cross, city maintenance worker],” Lowen stated. “Obviously there was no damage done.”
Lowen also stated he believed some tires needed to be replaced on fire vehicles as their age ranged from two to four years.
Radney suggested the fire department test out the jetter and its new trailer on cleaning out culverts, and Lowen stated he thought that would be a good idea “when the rain quits.” Lowen also updated the council that fire volunteers had done a deep clean on the station and rec center, but might need to hire a company to clean the floors.
“I just want to say as a citizen I feel safer, I feel proud to be a citizen of the city. I see our police department, fire department and public works working together to make sure we are taken care of. In the past I didn’t always feel that way,” Radney said. “People notice and they mention it to me, and I want to let you know we are proud of you guys.”
With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 6:28 p.m.