Meet and greet…

Again, thank you to all those who came out to make the volunteer fire fighters feel welcome in their new home. I enjoyed getting to meet and chat with many of you in attendance and look forward to seeing you at future events.

Fiscal Year 2020-2021 Budget…

The Council directed staff to develop the budget with a tax rate not to exceed the current years $0.30 per $100 valuation while also directing staff to complete significant road repairs and reconstruction. In order to accomplish this, the City will be reducing at least one position at City Hall, negotiated lower rates from our professional service providers (legal, planning, financial advisors, etc.) and reallocated resources from these savings as well as reduced other “buckets” of budgeted dollars to meet this goal.

With the completion of the audits, the City is preparing for the debt issue, reaching out to our current Financial Advisor as well as others, to negotiate the best possible fees so that we can stretch these dollars as far as possible. The City has received a proposal that could potentially save the City tens-of-thousands of dollars on a debt issuance.

This will be presented again during the September 14th meeting and adopted during the September 28th meeting. Please feel free to come to City Hall for the meeting or join our virtual meeting.

Pavement Management Program…

In the last 30 days, we have collected data on the condition of the roads using an industry standard objective measurement methodology, developed maps, and are now completing the Pavement Management Program which will combine all the previous work to create a document that will drive our plan for street repairs and reconstruction throughout the City. Once finalized and approved by the City Council, we will begin to work with our City Engineer on plans for the roads.

Small Parks Grant Application…

The Texas Parks & Wildlife offers a variety of matching grants that communities can apply for. The City has engaged a consultant, who is paid from the proceeds of a successful grant application, to help prepare the application. This includes a community survey of what we would like to see at the City Park on Stewart Street.

Transportation in the region…

Southeast Wise County is very rural and the road conditions on many, if not most, are in need of some type of maintenance and/or repair. Local streets are our responsibility and we have a plan of action in place to take care of them but FM 407, South County Line Road, SH 287, and FM 2264 are all part of the TxDOT network and are outside of our scope and ability to control. Staff is recommending to the Council that we engage Innovative Transportation Solutions, Inc., to provide liaison services with local, state, and federal transportation authorities. They have been very successful in developing innovative partnerships and obtaining millions of dollars for road improvements in the DFW region.

Staff has been working with the developers to put in place a professional services reimbursement agreement, where the majority, of the cost associated is reimbursed to the City. We have asked for their help in potentially extending the lane expansion of FM 407, reviewing SH 287 and introducing additional entrance and exit locations, and expansion of South County Line Road.