The Levelland City Council held a regular meeting Monday evening which included an additional Red Flour Beetle and a handful of resolutions. Breann Buxkemper.
In regard to the Red Flour Beetle update, Interim City Manager Joe Cavazos reported that Penny Newman was finishing the process of removing their almond hulls, and cotton seed from their site at the rail park, and that pesticide application would begin shortly thereafter.
Despite some citizens’ decrying Penny Newman for the length of time it took to remove the hulls, the process should come to a close this week. Originally, Penny Newman had asked for a 10-12 day period to removed the afflicted hulls from their site, but missed that deadline; however the situation is nearing completion, as Cavazos explained that Hockley County Emergency Management Coordinator Cole Kirkland would no longer be giving updates at every council meeting moving forward.
Continuing the meeting, Cavazos explained that the next topic of discussion would be the annual services agreement with the City of Levelland and the Chamber of Commerce.
The service agreement is renewed yearly, and the services in the agreement include assistance with reviewing applications and administering Hotel Occupancy Funds, event marketing and coordination, general service administration and the operation of Keep Levelland Beautiful Program.
This agreement was extended unanimously by the council.
Cavazos also brought to councils attention Ordinance No. 1076 setting the Sewer Improvement Fee Rates which was the second and final reading.
Discussed during the budget process, in September of 2022, council agreed to raise the monthly sewer improvement fee by $18 to be able to service the bond debt incurred by building the new wastewater treatment plant. In consideration of the citizens, council opted to raise the fee by $6 for the following next three years.
This current proposed increase is for the second fiscal year and the final increase will need to be done again for the 2024-2025 budget year.
The current rate and the rate after adoption of the ordinance sets the customer current rate at $9.62 and the customer rate after ordinance at $15.62.
Slated for October 31, the Lion’s Club in partnership with the Main Street Program are putting on their annual “Trunk or Treat” on the square.
The event provides a safe environment for kids to collect candy for Halloween. In order to hold the event, the city ant TxDOT will need to temporarily close several streets.
When events are typically held downtown, city streets such as Houston and Avenue H are closed. Those two roadways fall under TxDOT’s view as they are considered state highways. As a result, for those two roads to be closed for a handful of hours the state requires the city approve an agreement for the temporary closure.
The event review committee consists of several individuals which includes the mayor and county judge. Both individuals met this week to approve the event contingent on the council and TxDOT approving the appropriate road closures. Following a brief discussion, the council unanimously approved the resolution.
The council briefly touched the topic of Resolution No. 202329 reviewing and approving the City of Levelland Investment Policy.
To be in accordance with the State of Texas Public Funds Investment Act, council must review and adopt by resolution its investment policy on an annual basis. The city’s investment policy provides the expectations and guidance as to how the city investments are to be determined. There were no proposed changes to the investment policy from the prior year and the resolution received a resounding approval from the group.
The council shifted their focus toward Resolution No. 2023-31 to submit nominations for the Hockley County Appraisal District Board of Directors.
Every two years the terms of the directors of the Hockley County Appraisal District expire and new elections are held.
The current board is as follows: President Larry Carter, Vice-President Buddy Moore, Secretary DeEtte Edens, Mathew Buxkemper and ty Gregory.
Council has the option to nominate one to five individuals, Nominations and votes are accepted from all taxing entities except the water districts. It was also noted that the city nominated Moore in 2019 and 2021.
It was explained to council that Moore was approached and asked if he would be willing to serve again should the council wish to reappoint him and he shared his excitement to serve again if chosen.
The council moved forward with adopting the resolution with Moore as their nomination for the board.
After recent laws came down from the state legislature, a uniformed officer must be present on every school campus in the district. Levelland ISD some months ago did file for a variance that allowed them to be exempt this rule due to the presence of their GUARDIAN Program, but this was only due to the September 1st deadline the law had in place.
LISD Administration agreed that having a uniformed officer on each campus would be the best way to ensure students are safe within the district, and set aside funding for that purpose. With two SRO’s are already on staff, the district made room to request three more officers to staff all their campuses.
The city had anticipated this request from talks with various administrators and Police Chief Albert Garcia, and agreed to make room in their budget for such a request as well.
The council unanimously approved the updated agreement in which LISD will have five SRO’s in total.
Wrapping up the meeting, the council took action regarding board appointments to the Construction Advisory and Appeals Board.
Council considered board appointments in August, but one board remained for consideration pending an inquiry into whether or not that board could have a member who did not live inside the city limits of Levelland.
The Construction Advisory and Appeals Board is a specialized board that was formed in 2006 by Ordinance No. 899. Its purpose is to provide advise and recommendations to city staff and the council regarding land use and construction related issues. The board also hears appeals from the construction trades regarding decisions made by the city building official.
The six-member board is appointed by the council for three-year terms and includes professionals and craftsmen from the various building trades. The last meeting between the board was in February 2019. Additionally, Ordinance No. 899 does not stipulate residency requirements for its members.
Current members include Levelland Fire Marshal Jay McKay, Donny Barry whose expertise is in electrical, Roger Lindsey whose expertise is building contracting. Both Barry and Lindsey’s terms expire in 2025.
Before a vote was held, it was determined that the topic would need to be tabled for another meeting.