The Levelland City Council held a regular meeting Monday with new City Manager James Fisher leading a full council.
Kicking off the meeting would be Levelland citizen Pete Cunningham, who voiced his concerns about a few problems he felt the people of Levelland are facing. Cunnighams’ comments focused on the increase of drug abuse and property damage in the area. Additionally, Cunningham expressed his desire to see council members be more present within their districts, and ask the council to speak with their constituents more to better represent their interests and needs. Cunningham also encouraged the council to speak more and develop better relationships with their workers and staff, as he claims some issues brought to the council are dismissed.
Moving toward the slated agenda items for the meeting, Fisher led a staff update on the ongoing control and investigations into the Red Flour Beetle problem in the Kauffman Addition and surrounding areas. Fisher detailed a report on the number of beetles being seen through traps set up in the Rail Park, also suggesting that new numbers would be coming in by the end of the week.
The abatement process seem to be working effectively as those numbers of beetles has drastically decreased since the process began. Fisher cautioned council and citizens that roughly five rail cars of almond hulls would be brought into town in the next month, as Penny Newman has contractual obligations to that site until September 2024. Fisher explained that this may bring more concerns from citizens, but insisted the hulls will be trucked out shortly after arrival.
It was also explained that city staff have had meetings with ADM staff to help craft new regulations and address community concerns. Penny Newman was also reached out to, and the city is awaiting a response from the company. Fisher reported that work is moving quickly, and a first draft should be available for review within a week’s time concerning the issue. This regulations would amend Chapter 6 of the Code of Ordinances, which deals with Health and Sanitation, and will be reviewed by staff to be discussed in the November 6th meeting next month.
Moving forward in the agenda, the council considered Resolution 2023-34 requesting membership in the Lubbock Metropolitan Planning Organization. The Lubbock MPO had approached council to show what services they could provide should they join. Mostly involved in transportation matters, the group had gathered information on the travel habits, commuters, and freight traffic from surrounding areas.
According to their research, from Hockley County, in terms of trips made by commuters and freight traffic, there are 10,300 daily trips made. This impacts highways and other infrastructure in the area, which the MPO performs analysis on. Levelland specifically falls into a category of population growth that shows them to be “urbanized” in the next 20 years, and joining this group would allow for the future planning for more commuters, freight and more as both Levelland and Lubbock continue to expand.
The LMPO is a federally mandated organization developed to coordinate the highway, transit and land use planning process in order to receive federal funds for highway and transit improvements. The organization is made up of various stakeholders including the City of Lubbock, the City of Wolforth, Lubbock County, the Texas Department of Transportation’s Lubbock District Office and Citibus with the guidance of the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration.
It was explained that the LMPO is in the process of completing a procedure to expand the planning area boundary for the Lubbock MPO. The Transportation Policy Committee, the governing board has directed LMPO staff to seek the combined statistical area boundary configuration which is allowed by law. The combined area includes the metropolitan area of Crosby, Lubbock and Lynn Counties and the micropolitan area of Hale and Hockley Counties. Moving forward, the boundary configuration must be approved by the Governor.
Once approved, the LMPO would preform additional transportation analysis to the work that TxDOT already does for all counties within their 17county jurisdiction. LMPO would not be taking over for TxDOT but rather combining their workforce to add additional analysis. The most important aspect of the enhanced planning opportunity would be that Hockley County would be included in the MPO’s 20-year long range plan activities and the shorter 10-year plan required by the Texas Administrative Code. It was explained that the involvement process does not have any cost befall the City of Levelland. The council unanimously voted to join the group.
Moving to the next topic of discussion, research has been completed into the possibility of a leasing program for police vehicles as action was ready to be taken to give staff the green light on procurement. This contract with the American National Leasing Company originally made way for a three to five year leasing period before a buyout on a vehicle, however the current terms are not quite set in stone as city staff await the company’s finishing touches.
This item was brought forward to council to approve, with the either the mayor or mayor pro-tem reviewing the contract before final approval, so as not to be caught unaware. Fisher explained that with the economy in its current state, the
CITY COUNCIL, page 2 Auto Worker’s Strike, as well as global issues possibly impacting supply lines, it was imperative to be prepared, so as not to get caught in any possible backlogs. The council approved of this item with limited discussion.
The Main Street Organization has several events planned for the end of the year and came before the council for approval.
Ladies Night Out, a highly anticipated event in downtown Levelland needed two approvals from council. One for the closing of streets to ensure the safety of shoppers, which easily passed. The second, however would see familiar, if not minor opposition due to the presence of alcohol in the event.
While Main Street and the City of Levelland itself is not providing alcohol for such an event, Ladies Night Out is largely led by downtown merchants, some of which wish to serve a glass of wine or other beverage for the duration of the event. This approval from council was needed simply so that shoppers could walk the square with their drinks.
However, Councilman Jim Myatt voiced his concerns with allowing alcohol as he has done in prior instances regarding events in the downtown area such as Sip N’ Swirl. His dissenting vote was ultimately overpowered in a 3-1 split.
An additional event was slated for discussion, Christmas on the Square as the event needed similar approval for street closures. Main Street Director Tania Moody informed everyone the theme for the event this year would be a “Country Christmas”. She also took time to walk through the partnership with SPC, that worked very well for the event last year.
The event will start with the lighting of the trees on SPC campus and a parade will lead citizens downtown to see the decorated storefronts. This event was unanimously approved.