City Council

,'-\ City ofAlvord Caleb Caviness, Mayor MINUTES ALVORD CITY COUNCIL REGULAR SESSION November 21 si, 2024 6:00 p.m. The City Council of the City of Alvord, Texas met in regular session on Thursday, November 21 st, 2024, in the Council Chambers of City Hall. The meeting was called to order at 6:01 p.m. and a quorum was present. Mayor Caviness was present and presiding with Mayor Pro-Tern Sherwood, Council Member Hatzenbihler, Council Member Quintana, Council Member Ballinger, and Council Member White. Also in attendance were City Administrator Troy Gregg, Assistant City Administrator Martha Nivens, City Secretary Delise White, City Attorney Jim Shepherd, Alvord Fire Chief Heather Redder, and Public Works Director Jerry Anderson. There were 2 people in attendance from the public. Council Member Ballinger gave the invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag was recited. CITIZENS FORUM No one requested to speak during this time. OPEN PUBLIC HEARING a. Conduct a public hearing to receive comments for or against a request for a zoning change in order to re-zone property to Multiple Family Zoning on a property located at 111 Stadium Drive, a 1.77 acre tract of land out of the James Pinchback Survey, Abstract A-674, City of Alvord, Wise County, Texas. The property is currently zoned Single Family. The applicant is Cocan LLC Gabe Cocanougher answered questions for the Council. Cocan LLC wants to utilize the property for the city's needs and utilize the land. Mayor Caviness asked Troy if this meets the needs for city ordinances. Troy informed the Council that looking at the subdivision ordinance shows that there is not enough parking. They would need 37 parking spaces. An additional issue is that there needs to be two or more approaches to the thoroughfare. There is still concern about getting a fire truck in and out. Gabe said one lot sold and that there wouldn't be a loop anymore for two entry ways into the property. Gabe questioned if it still follows the subdivision ordinance since its multifamily. Jim states that it does need to follow all subdivision regulations. Gabe states that they aren' t trying to approve the supplied drawing just trying to get it re-zoned multifamily. Caleb wants to see a plan that is feasible before they approve anything. Jim states that zoning is the item at hand and that it's in Councils purview to see a plan that will be legal before approving zoning changes. Jim states that there needs to be more definition on which multi-family zoning they want it to be. Brian asks if there is a multi-family on the larger property north of this property but there is not. The Council also has concerns about more unnecessary traffic in an already congested area. Council Member Quintana made a motion to deny the application for zoning change. Council Member Ballinger seconded the motion. Council Member Hatzenbihler voted against the motion. All other votes were yes. The motion carried. NEW ITEMS FOR CONSIDERATION AND APPROPRIATE ACTION a. Discuss and take appropriate action in approving Vail & Park as the City of Alvord Auditors Martha stated that Troy signed digitally, and they have already started the auditing process. The item was removed. Alvord City Council Meeting November 21 , 2024  ,-i.\ City ofAlvord b. Discuss and take appropriate action in approving an interlocal agreement with Wise County for platting authority in the ETJ Troy informed the Council that we are currently the authority for the ETJ. Jim states with us having authority we can ask people to join the city. The County is happy to take over authority and other cities in the county have done the same. Mayor Caviness spoke with Judge Clark who said it is better for The County to have authority because everything functions better, and they will send all the documentation to the City for their records. Council Member Hatzenbihler asked Jim how he sees this working out if someone wants to annex in the ETJ but there being a property gap. Jim states that the properties must be contiguous and touching city limits. We only have plating authority in the ETJ and no other authority. Jim states that this won' t stop us from being able to ask people if they want to annex. Mayor Pro-Tern Sherwood made a motion to approve the interlocal agreement with Wise County for plating authority in the ETJ. Council Member Ballinger seconded the motion. All votes were yes. The motion carried. c. Discuss and take appropriate action on approval of project agreement with Wise County for various road repairs Troy states every year the county does our road work and this agreement is for the projects we have scheduled this year. He is not sure if all projects will be completed due to funds. It was asked if the city is responsible for feeder roads into a state road. Jim states if it is in their ROW they should be responsible. Looking at asphalt for Driskill and chipseal for all other roads. Troy will get with Monty to see what can be done. Council Member Ballinger made a motion to approve the project agreement. Council Member Quintana seconded the motion. All votes were yes. The motion carried. d. Discuss RFP and loan for Fire Department Forest Service Grant and take appropriate action Troy stated that the Fire Department put in for a grant and was approved. They need permission from the Council to put out an RFP for the vehicle and also to get a loan to cover the purchase. The loan will be paid back when we receive the funds from the grant. We will have to do a budget amendment because it wasn' t budgeted for. Troy states they have the money, but it will be tight. Heather wants to reiterate that $350,000.00 is to cover to make sure she doesn' t go over budget and is only looking at spending $330,000.00. They are looking for something similar to engine 2. If we get the engine the fire department is questioning selling an older engine we already have. Jim states that we need to get the loan in a fair amount of time. Mayor Pro-Tern Sherwood made a motion to approve the Fire Department doing an RFP and loan for the grant. Council Member Ballinger seconded the motion. All votes were yes. The motion carried. e. Discuss and take appropriate action on approving recommendations from EDC on new EDC Members a. Angela Willett b. Ricky Gonzales Four applications were put in for the open positions. Council Member White mentioned to the rest ofthe Council that Ricky is an art director and involved with the schools and sports. He also did the banners for Snoop Dawgs Ice Cream Parlor. Everyone on the Council is familiar with Angela as she owns a local business and is involved with the Alvord Events Association. Mayor Pro-Tern Sherwood made a motion to approve the EDC recommendations for new board members. Council Member Quintana seconded the motion . All votes were yes. The motion carried. Alvord City Council Meeting November 21, 2024  ,, \ City of Alvord f. Consider and take appropriate action to approve the minutes from the meeting on October 17, 2024. Mayor Pro-Tern Sherwood made a motion to approve the minutes from the meeting on October 17, 2024. Council Member Ballinger seconded the motion. All votes were yes. The motion carried. STAFF REPORTS a. City Secretary Delise White Delise informed the Council that there was 1 bum permit, 1 garage sale permit, 4 single trade permits, 1 certificate of occupancy permit, 1 mobile food vendor permit, and I new build permit. b. Finance Director Martha Nivens Martha informed the Council that we are in progress with yearly audit with Vail & Park. They should be here mid-January to do an in-house audit. Tuesday we will close for a couple of hours for training. Shutoffs will be on Monday. Fundview is going well, and permit training, municipal court training, and code enforcement training have been completed. Having issues with general ledger but Martha is working closely with Fundview to resolve the issues. c. Public Works Director Jerry Anderson Jerry informed the Council the biggest issue is draining the 287-water tower again. Texas Tank has to go in and fix a seal at the access hatch. They will be in on Saturday to fix it. Troy stated he received a call that there was a leak there. Public Works checked it out and due to the seal, there was flooding in the tower. There will not have to be a boil water notice. To drain the tower, we will have to open fire hydrant under the tower. We had a 2-inch water main break. When the fire hydrant was open it removed all the pressure which caused a fire alert. Troy stated the issue with the water pressure is due to that tower being offline from being painted. Starting to get new boxes in the lift stations. Electrician was out today putting visual and audio alarms on the boxes which will attach to SCADA. Only complaint to 4-day work week makes for a long day. Tarps up at the truck bed park were added. Sewer plant is doing good d. Volunteer Fire Department-Heather Redder Heather informed the Council there were 27 calls. 12 in the city and 15 in the county. 12 major accidents, 5 medical, 2 road hazards, 1 fuel leak, 2 structure fires, 1 disturbance, 1 vehicle fire, 1 fire alarm at Intermediate school, 1 electrical power line down, and 1 water leak. The Fire Department is in the process of moving forward in creating ESD which will be including Alvord, Chico, Sandflat, and Crafton. Hoping to get all this on the ballot for May. Tuesday heather has last class for fire academy. Heather and Jordan Hodges are going to class next year. 2 people are in EMT school, and it is going well, and they haven' t started clinicals yet. Santa on the streets is scheduled for December 8-10th . e. EDC Staff Report - Dawn White Dawn informed the Council the Council ofthe 2 new members; EDC passed an item for Christmas lights at food truck park and downtown. EDC discussed events at food truck park including farmers market and dog days of summer and concerts. Trying to get them structured. The EDC talked about the playground at Elm Creek Park to improve it rather than tearing it down. f. City Administrator Troy Gregg Troy informed the Council that the implementation of Fundview is going well. Troy discussed the Boil water notice that was on the news. Christmas tree is up and will be lit on December 7th . Andrew is volunteering for Santa Alvord City Council Meeting November 21, 2024  • ,ii\ City ofAlvord Jerry and the guys have been working on drainage. There was an issue with the road going on side of intermediate school. Charles Mann said they would put a culvert on the new road. Sienna Dr. at Whispering Winds had a spot where water was pooling on the road, and they were contacted today Lot of work to do on Stadium Dr. Oncor contacted and stated our proximity to grassland puts us at high danger fire area and will be out after Thanksgiving to trim trees in the area. Meeting with Cary Mellema, looking at next year possible getting a Police Department but it's expensive. It's $40,000 a year on a resident deputy ifthey show up. The issue is we underpay them. Only have 1 resident deputy right now. Wanting him out on 287 due to all the accident and don't want us to be a speed trap but we have to get them slowed down. Sheriff proposal roughly ifwe pay $80,000.00 they can have a deputy here 40 hours a week. Troy doesn't think we can do it right now but wants to relook at it in April to see how we are doing on the budget. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS No future agenda items at this time. ADJOURN There being no further business, Council Member Quintana made a motion to adjourn the City Council meeting at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday November 21st, 2024. Council Member Ballinger seconded the motion. The Council voted four (5) in favor and none (0) opposed. The motion carried. These minutes were approved on the 19th day of December 2024. APPROVED: ATTEST: ~ Caleb Caviness, Mayor ~~ D~hite, City Secretary Alvord City Council Meeting November 21 , 2024