City Council Regular Meeting

Minutes of Regular Meeting The City Council City of Richwood A Regular Meeting of the City Council of City of Richwood was held Monday, April 13, 2015, beginning at 6:00 PM in the Richwood City Hall, 1800 N. Brazosport Blvd. Richwood, Texas. I. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m. by Clint Kocurek, Mayor and presiding officer. II. INVOCATION The invocation was given by Glenn Patton, City Manager III. PLEDGES OF ALLEGIANCE The Pledge of Allegiance and the Texas Pledge of Allegiance were recited by those in attendance. IV. ROLL CALL OF COUNCIL MEMBERS Roll call showed the following members present: Clint Kocurek, Mayor and presiding officer Paul Raymond, Council, Position #1 and Mayor Pro Tem John Pitts, Council, Position #2 Jarrod Beaty, Council, Position #3 Sarah Harris, Council, Position #4 Chris Hardison, Council, Position #5 A quorum was declared. Others present included Glenn Patton, City Manager, Karen B. Schrom, City Secretary, Bryan Corb, Police Chief, Clif Custer, Interim Public Works Director, Melissa Blanks, KRB Chairman, Suzanne and Emerson Kocurek, Mark Guthrie, Fire Chief, and Gilbert Reyes. V. CONSENT AGENDA On motion by Councilman Beaty, seconded by Councilman Harris, with all members present voting aye, the items on the Consent Agenda were approved as presented.  A. Approval of Minutes of Previous Meetings B. Payment of bills C. Resolution No. 15-04 - Review and adopt the City's Investment Policy D. Appointment to Crime Control and Prevention District - Katherine Venegas VI. DISCUSSION AND ACTION ITEMS A. Report from KSA Engineering on Lift Station #4 Phillip Huseman of KSA Engineers explained that they had evaluated Lift Station #4. To rehabilitate the lift station would cost approximately $140,000 but to replace and enlarge it would be $621,000. His recommendation is to rehabilitate the lift station and work on inflow and infiltration problems upstream to extend the life of the lift station. B. Community Block Development Grant Projects and funding The City will receive $190,000 from the 2015 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program. This money must be used in low to moderate income neighborhoods. On motion by Councilman Raymond, seconded by Councilman Beaty, with all members present voting aye, it was duly adopted to use the Community Block Development Grant funding to rehabilitate Lift Station #4 and smoke test the older parts of town. C. Public Hearing - Variance request to fence the front yard at 101 Cottonwood Dr. The public hearing as opened at 6:33 p.m. With no one present wishing to speak, the public hearing was closed at 6:34 p.m. D. Variance request - front yard fencing at 101 Cottonwood Dr. On motion by Councilman Pitts, seconded by Councilman Raymond, with all members present voting aye, the variance request to fence the front yard at 101 Cottonwood Drive was approved as presented. E. Public Hearing - Variance Request - Conditional Use Permit for a communications tower at 1000 1/2 Brazosport Blvd. The public hearing was opened at 6:34 p.m.  Christine Lewis thanked the city staff for their responsiveness and getting this moved forward. She explained she represented the contractor who would be erecting the tower for Verizon. Mr. Guthrie asked if this will be equipped with a generator and Ms. Lewis stated yes, it will be a diesel generator. With no one else present wishing to speak, the public hearing was closed at 6:36 p.m. F. Variance Request - Conditional Use Permit for a communications tower at 1000 1/2 Brazosport Blvd. On motion by Councilman Hardison, seconded by Councilman Harris, with all members present voting aye, the conditional use permit for a communications tower at 1000 ½ Brazosport Blvd. was approved as presented. G. Amendment/Addendum to Cooperation Agreement - CDBG Entitlement Program Brazoria County is re-qualifying for the Community Development Block Grant Program which is a federal program and must be re-qualified for every three years. These are amendments to the previously executed agreement with Brazoria County and are required by the CPD Notice 14-07. On motion by Councilman Harris, seconded by Councilman Harris, with all members voting aye, the Amendment/Addendum to Cooperation Agreement- CDBG Entitlement Program was approved as presented. H. Public Hearing - Comprehensive Zoning Plan The public hearing was opened at 6:38 p.m. With no one present wishing to speak, the public hearing was closed at 6:39 p.m. I. Preliminary report - Ordinance No. 324-15, Comprehensive Zoning Plan The preliminary report is as follows: A. Does the amendment comport with the comprehensive plan? Yes  B. Why is the amendment necessary? To protect the property values and keep the City from looking like an industrial district C. How will the amendment benefit the affected areas and the overall city? Protect property values and overall look of the city and encourage development. D. Are there any possible or anticipated negative impacts of the amendment? None On motion by Councilman Hardison, seconded by Councilman Beaty, with all members present voting aye, it was duly adopted to approve the preliminary report as presented. J. Personnel Policy On motion by Councilman Raymond, seconded by Councilman Hardison, with all members present voting aye, the Personnel Policy was approved as presented. K. Award bid for Storm Debris Removal - Annual Contingency Contract 2015 STORM DEBRIS REMOVAL - ANNUAL CONTINGENCY CONTRACT Bidder/Contractor Per cubic Per cubic Comments yard yard loaded and hauled hauled only Crowder Gulf 8.00 4.00 BoMac 8.00 6.00 DRC Emergency Services 18.77 7.48 Bergeron Emergency 6.05 5.00 Services, Inc.  Ceres Environmental 8.87 8.87 Tipping fees will be negotiated at the time of the event and will be charged at cost to the City. T.F.R Enterprises 7.65 4.15 On motion by Councilman Hardison, seconded by Councilman Beaty, with all members present voting aye, it was duly adopted to award the contract to Bergeron, Emergency Services, the alternate contract to T.F.R Enterprises and the local contract to BoMac. L. Award bid for Debris Monitoring, Recovery and Other Related Services On motion by Councilman Beaty, seconded by Councilman Raymond, with all members present voting aye, it was duly adopted to award the bid for Debris Monitoring, Recovery and Other Related Services to Witt/O’Brien. M. Approve items removed from Consent Agenda There were none. VII. REPORTS A. Finance Reports Par for the period ending March 31, 2015 is 50%. B. Public Works - Update on Electronic Water Meters Mr. Custer reported that the work in the field on the new meters is going well, giving the system a rating of 8 out of a possible 10. We have discovered the meters do have a rare problem of locking up. Sensus has implemented a plan to fast track replacement of these meters. We are seeing a 6% increase in revenue. Mayor Kocurek asked for the costs on a customer portal so that residents can review their meter. C. Fire Department Mark Guthrie sated they had an organizational change and he is the new Fire  Chief. Danny Wiggs resigned due to personal reasons. They are reviewing their bylaws and operating procedures and working on closing gaps in the department. Currently safety is their #1 goal. For a department their size, they do have very good equipment. They currently have 12 members in the department and all are active and are getting training. They are working on their 5 year and 10 year plan and will be bringing it to Council soon. Their City pumper is almost 20 years old. Typically they can’t man 2 trucks but do need to keep a backup. Down the road, they will be looking at replacing the city pumper. VIII. CITY MANAGER’S REPORT Retail Coach is working on a project for the City similar to the one they did for the City of Fulshear. We are hoping that we will see the growth here as well. The City has received the plans for the new apartment complex and tree clearing has begun on the land. He should hear this week if they’ve gotten approval for the new complex. City staff is continuing to work on the SOPS and the inservice training is scheduled for April 23rd. IX. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS Engineering RFPs Customer Portal update City Secretary/Finance Director report X. COMMITTEE REPORTS Melissa Blanks, Chairperson of KRB and member of Parks and Recreation reported they had to cancel two events due to the weather recently. They are helping to fund landscaping and fencing for two lift stations and for City Hall. The items purchased for the Easter Egg hunt were donated to a local nursing home. The City Wide Clean up was cancelled due to the weather. It was not an easy choice. They had DOW volunteers who were going to repaint the gazebo. They still had about 7 people show up even though it was cancelled and they picked up litter around town. They are planning two additional work days which will include the gazebo. The Bobby Ford park playground equipment needs to be power washed and scrubbed. XI. COUNCIL MEMBER COMMENTS & REPORTS Councilman Hardison asked if they could get the Council packets released earlier. Mr. Patton stated starting with this meeting, the packets will now be released on Thursday.  XII. MAYOR’S REPORT Holiday Lakes is hosting BCCA and it will be at LaCasona in Angleton. XIII. COMMITTEE REPORTS Melissa Blanks, Chairperson of Keep Richwood Beautiful, thanked the city for giving her the opportunity to volunteer and work alongside other volunteers and city staff. Parks and Recreation activities in Richwood are organized by volunteer board members who give up their free time to make the events a success. She also thanked Linda Pace and Karen Schrom for their assistance and City Council for volunteering. Gilbert Reyes asked if Walnut could be monitored. There is a lot of traffic and speeders. XIV. ADJOURNMENT With no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned. APPROVED BY A MAJORITY VOTE OF COUNCIL ON MAY 11, 2015. _____________________________________ Clint Kocurek, Mayor ATTEST: _____________________________________ Karen B. Schrom, City Secretary