Wednesday's Internet Edition, August 27, 2008.
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In their regular monthly meeting Thursday, the Hamil-ton City Council agreed on a proposed tax rate to be voted on during a September meeting and set two public hearings on the rate.
During the meeting, the council also agreed to pave the alley running between North Brown and Bouldin streets, approved a Community Devel-opment Grant application to provide water system im-provements in northwest Ham-ilton, approved the second reading of a resolution allowing the Hamilton EDC to provide $50,000 in funding to the Ham-ilton County Livestock Asso-ciation to help build a new live-stock barn at Fair Park and voted to receive bids for the property where the current city work barn is located on High-way 22.
Mayor Roy Rumsey pre-sided over the meeting and all council members were present, Mike Collett, Betty Jenkins, Bradley Haile, Helen Town-send and Grant Lengefeld.
The tax rate that the council will be voting on at a called meeting on Monday, Sept. 18 is .4598. That is actually slightly lower than last year’s rate of .4827, but because of an in-crease in property values, it represents an effective increase of about five percent.
The average house in Hamil-ton was on the tax rolls last year at $60,300. This year the value of the average house has risen to $65,650. However, not every individual’s property value went up, and if your property value did not go up, you will actually play slightly less in city taxes this year.
The council set two required public hearings on the rate for Thursday, Sept. 4 at 5:30 p.m. and for Tuesday, Sept. 9 at noon. They will then have a public hearing on the budget on Thursday, Sept 11 during their regular monthly meeting and vote on adopting the budget during their regular meeting. The following Thursday, Sept. 18, they will hold a meeting at 5:30 p.m. to adopt the tax rate.
Prior to agreeing on the tax rate necessary to fund the pro-posed budget during this month’s meeting, City Admin-istrator Bill Funderburk brought up a few items for dis-cussion that had either changed or come to his attention since the last budget workshop.
He said that the City of Hamilton has been paying $350 per month for utility cost to the Hamilton Senior Center. This had not been included in the proposed budget for next year.
Funderburk told the council that Hamilton County pays for the utilities for the front half of the Multi-Purpose Center where the Neighbors to Neighbors and Drivers License offices are located, but the City has been contributing $350 to pay for the back half of the building where the Senior Cen-ter area is located.
Funderburk asked, “Do we want to continue to pay this?”
Jenkins quickly responded, “I certainly think we do.”
The council was all in sup-port of continuing the funding and Funderburk was instructed to put $4,200 back in the pro-posed budget for this.
Funderburk then told the council that Municipal Judge Ray Sparks had contacted him requesting his salary be changed to $20 per hour. Fun-derburk said Sparks proposed that amount as a comparison to what a county justice of the peace makes.
Haile said, “I thought we al-ready settled this. As far as I’m concerned he can wait until next year.”
Haile pointed out that the council had changed Sparks’ salary to what he requested during the June meeting. At that time the salary was set at $250 per month, plus $15 an hour for anything over 10 hours.
“That’s what he wanted,” said Haile.
Collett said, “I feel like Bradley; I thought we settled this.”
Rumsey said, “What if he says he doesn’t want to do it anymore? Who are you going to get qualified?”
“There are always backup options,” replied Funderburk.
Collett said, “I thought we came to a fair and equitable agreement (in June). Let’s stick to it.”
The council agreed and the proposed budget was not al-tered to meet Spark’s request.
Funderburk also asked the council about $6,000 that has been budgeted in the past for the Neighbors to Neighbors program. The council unani-mously agreed that they wanted to continue the funding for that program.
Several residents living east of the Hamilton General Hospi-tal attended last month’s meet-ing stating concerns about in-creased traffic in the alley run-ning behind the new Wellness Center between North Brown and North Bouldin streets. They expressed concerns about safety and the dust the traffic created.
After that meeting, the city sent letters to all the property owners adjacent to the alley asking whether they would prefer the alley closed or paved. Funderburk said that four prop-erty owners had responded that they did not want to see the alley closed. He also said that the alley cannot legally be closed without the consent of all the property owners.
Funderburk reported that he proposes to pave the alley with a single course penetration. He also said that Hospital Admin-istrator Jim Shafer said that the hospital might be able to help with the cost of the paving, at least on the portion of the alley adjacent to its property.
Funderburk said that the cost of paving the alley will be about $1,000, but that it will not likely be done until paving crews are in Hamilton next spring working on other streets.
“We are not going to get anyone to come here to pave a single alley,” explained Fun-derburk.
One of the property owners, Murlin Bottlinger, addressed the council, stating that he thought paving would be great. He also requested that when the paving is done, that two speed bumps be put in.
“I think that would satisfy everyone,” said Bottlinger.
Funderburk said the speed bumps could be added.
Funderburk also said that if dust is a problem before the paving can be performed, a coat of water and oil can be applied.
Another property owner from the area, Paula Riker, told the council that she appreciated their action.
The council unanimously approved the paving project.
The council considered a pe-tition from William and Doris Sohm to have their property in west Hamilton disannexed.
Funderburk said the Sohms’ property is on the edge of town, but that there is one house west of them that is also in the city limits. He said that property in the city limits must abut.
Doris was at the council meeting and told the council that the only city service they use is trash pickup.
However, water and sewer service is available.
Regarding the problem of keeping the property in the city limits contiguous, Sohms said she wouldn’t mind if the house remained in the city limits, but suggested that the land they farm behind the house be dean-nexed.
Funderburk told the council that the Sohms’ property was included in the original town of Hamilton survey.
“It’s always been in the City of Hamilton,” said Funderburk.
City Attorney Connie White said that if the Sohms wanted to just have the farmland consid-ered for deannexation, it would have to be a separate petition from the one presented. She also said a survey would have to be done. She added, “I still would not recommend dean-nexation.”
Funderburk said, “The city has to look 25-30 years down the road.”
Sohm drew a chuckle when she commented, “I won’t be here that long.”
Collett said that he was con-cerned that granting the dean-nexation request would set a precedent for other property owners around town.
Sohms said, “All I was do-ing was trying.”
The council voted unani-mously to deny the request.
Steve Kirbo from Kirbo and Associates presented the firm’s recommendation for a 2009-2010 Texas Community Devel-opment Program grant applica-tion. The City of Hamilton has been very successful in receiv-ing these biannual grants in the past with Kirbo serving as its representative.
The grants are for a maxi-mum of $250,000.
Kirbo told the council that although the applications may be made for any type of mu-nicipal project, only water and sewer system grants are ever awarded.
“There is no point in going after streets,” said Kirbo. “It won’t be approved.”
The grant application pro-posal prepared by Kirbo with the assistance of city staff, is to replace an existing four-inch water line from Ross to Gentry and from Howard to Taylor streets in northwest Hamilton with a six-inch line.
Kirbo said this is the line that feeds the standpipe at Fair Park and that that quarter of the city can benefit from increased water pressure.
Funderburk said this project would replace an old four-inch line that has continuing prob-lems and also provides in-creased fire protection for that part of the city.
If successful in securing the $250,000 grant, the City of Hamilton will have to commit $37,938 from its water system fund as a cash contribution to-ward the engineering and ad-ministrative costs of the pro-ject.
The council approved sub-mission of the application.
Hamilton Chamber of Commerce Manger Steve Alm-quist presented the quarterly hotel and motel occupancy tax report. According to Almquist, the tax raised $5,200.29 during the quarter. He also gave a brief review on how funds have been spent this year and stated that some of the funds will be spent this month to promote the Dove Festival.
Almquist said, “We will still easily be within the budget for the year. But we are trying to do some good with this reve-nue.”
Rumsey commented, “The hotel and motel occupancy tax has been a godsend for the chamber.”
He also noted that the funds are provided by people passing through Hamilton and not from local citizens.
Hamilton EDC executive di-rector Jane Crouch came before the council to request it ap-prove the second reading of a resolution allowing the EDC to donate $50,000 to the Hamilton County Livestock Association to build a new livestock barn at Fair Park. The funds will be provided in two installments of $25,000 each over two budget years.
The council unanimously approved the second reading, and Crouch said the first check would be written the following day.
The council voted to cancel an agreement with AARC En-vironmental for services at the municipal airport. Funderburk said the city had written a check to the firm in the amount of $1,637.50 in December, but that the firm had not fulfilled its obligations.
The company was to provide specified environmental moni-toring services, including checking rainfall runoff. Fun-derburk said the firm came rec-ommended by the TxDOT Aviation Department, but said that the company’s representa-tive the city began working with is no longer with the firm and that repeated phone calls to the company have not been returned.
The council agreed to cancel the agreement and to authorize White to take steps necessary for the city to receive a refund of the money paid.
The council reappointed Collett and Townsend to serve as the city’s representatives on the Law Enforcement Commit-tee. Other representatives on the board are appointed by the County Commissioners’ Court and the City of Hico.
Jenkins said, “I think you all have done a very good job. Would you agree to continue to serve?”
They agreed and were unanimously reappointed.
The council also voted to advertise for bids on the prop-erty where the city work barn is now located east of Hamilton on Highway 22.
Funderburk said as had been discussed during the budget workshop, he proposes moving the remainder of the public works facility to the water treatment plant at City Lake. He said that for the time being, the facility is large enough to accommodate the needs of the public works department. How-ever, he said that some time in the future, an additional barn may need to be constructed.
He also said that the outside wall of the current facility had separated from the foundation during heavy rains last spring. He proposed replacing the wall with a metal wall before seek-ing bids.
Asked what he thought the property might bring, Funder-burk said he didn’t know, but believes the city paid about $80,000 for it in 1995 or 1996.
He suggested that the coun-cil may want to spend a few hundred dollars to get a certi-fied appraisal on the property.
Jenkins made a motion to advertise and receive bids on the property and to get a certi-fied appraisal.
During the reports portion of the meeting, Sheriff Randy Murphee told the council that his officers had issued 23 cita-tions and 40 warnings during the previous month. He said that these numbers were con-siderably down because his department had been five offi-cers short during most of the month. However, he said that currently there are only two openings remaining and that two officers are in training.
“We are building back up,” said Murphree.
He also said that there had been two evading arrest charges during the month, one assault with a deadly weapon and sev-eral cases of identity theft.
He also said an arrest had been made of a juvenile, who has been charged with two cases of arson and of calling in several false reports of fires.
Public Works Director Ronnie Harris said that his de-partment continues to be busy with large numbers of connects and disconnects. However, he said that disconnects for non-payment have gone down in recent months.
In John Ratliff’s community development report, he said that it had been a good month for permits and that it continues to be a good year. He said that building revenue has dropped a little and is a little behind, but that it is also still a good year.
Parks Director Ryan Polster told the council that a ribbon cutting will be held at 12:45 p.m. on Aug. 30 at the front gate of the new Pecan Creek Recreational Park and that grand opening ceremonies with speakers will continue at 1 p.m. on the new soccer field.
He said that registration for fall sports continues until Aug. 23. He reported that the adult softball league was wrapping up, but had enjoyed a very good season. He said the swimming pool will close for the season on Aug. 17 and complimented Breanne Payne for the job she did during the summer as manager.
Funderburk told the council that during the extremely heavy rains last week, the ultra violet water purification system had been wiped out at the city wastewater treatment plant. However, he said that the firm that installed it will replace it at no charge with design changes that will hopefully prevent a similar occurrence in the future.