Tax rate and budgets
Tuesday Sept. 7, the Sulphur Springs City Council met to discuss items such as the street improvement plan (separate story), the city manager’s report (See Separate Story), the city tax rate, a master fee schedule, setting the water, sewer and sanitation rates, a rezoning request, approval of 380 agreements and the purchasing of playground equipment for Pacific Park.
After a presentation by Tory Niewiadomski regarding updates to the street improvement plan and the city manager’s report, the council then approved the consent agenda.
Council member Jay Julian requested an item, regarding a 380 request for a property located at 615 Lamar Street, from the consent agenda to be moved to the regular agenda.
This 380 agreement would be a three way agreement between the buyer, seller and the city and is for a property purchased by SM Family Holdings that was thought to be submitted with a previous agreement for property located at 613 Lamar Street.
Construction on the property is nearly complete and the seller, Tim Kelty is requesting reimbursement for liens that were paid after the property was sold.
“Does Kelty get his money back if we approve this 380,” Mayor John Sellers asked. “To clarify my question, why is the city the deciding factor in this matter?”
The property was reportedly sold in Oct. 2020 to SM Family Holdings and the previous house was demolished.
Julian also wanted a notation made on the record that he had recused himself from voting not abstained at the last city council meeting.
The council then discussed purchasing playground equipment for Pacific Park.
MHS Planning and Design consulting firm out of Tyler was contracted to provide the engineering and designing of the playground.
Progress was halted due to the pandemic but the city has received the go ahead to purchase the equipment without a contract from Whirlix Design Inc.
The council hear a second reading of Ordinance 2782, a request to rezone property located at 125 Weaver Drive by owner Paulino Reyes from heavy industrial to multi family.
The council approved the request without much discussion.
The council then held a public hearing regarding setting the city’s tax rate at $0.42692 per $100.
Since no members of the public came forward to express concerns, the tax rate was approved unanimously.
Finance Director Lesa Smith presented a master fee schedule for costs, fees and rates for permitting, utility services and other services provided by the city.
“This is normally in the back of the budget book but we have taken it out and made it it’s own ordinance, that way if any changes need to be made throughout the year, it’s easier to that then waiting for the budget cycle each year,” Finance Director Lesa Smith said.
The fee schedule included a list of proposed fee changes including the Grays Building rental fee and the Street Maintenance Fee.
“And then there are some other fees that you may consider updating, I didn’t know if you wanted to do anything with the Street maintenance fee, it’s currently five dollars and $30.00, and also the Grays Building is $50 a day and the deposit is $100 per rental,” Smith asked.
“So you’re saying that by doing this fee schedule separately that it’s not, I guess it’s still part of this,” Sellers said “But we can deal with this separately in an ordinance or if there’s anything to do with a rate, that we want to do a different time without changing the budget, per say?”
Sellers then asked if there were any other rentals in the area besides the Grays Building.
Smith shared that the only others are a pavilion at the park which is $25 for up to two hours, $50 for two to four hours and $75 for anything over four hours with a $100 deposit. The deposits are refundable as long at the pavilion and Grays Building are left in good shape.
“We definitely want this new facility used and to be affordable but we also want it to be respected as it is,” Sellers commented. “So I don’t know, maybe comparable, the only thing we have to compare it to is the pavilion, which the senior center is an older building that we are going to be replacing, I don’t know, do we want to put an hourly rate on that like the pavilion?”
Smith shared that the parks department has an employee that goes out and checks to make sure the pavilion and Grays Building to make sure they’re left in good condition and cleans it if it needs it.
“We used it Sunday and it was excellent,” Council Member Oscar Aguilar shared. “It was very nice, we swept it up real good and cleaned it up.”
Aguilar shared that when he rented the building, he was provided a cleaning check list that needed to be checked off on.
City Manager Marc Maxwell proposed the possibility of doubling the deposit as a cleaning fee if the building is not left clean.
A motion was made to change the deposit for the Grays Building from $100 to $200 and to raise the Street Maintenance Fee (see separate story) from $5 to $10 for single and multi family homes, $22.50 for commercial businesses and $50 for industrial.
Water and Sewer rates increased 2% and the sanitation rate increased 5% to reflect current contract provisions that are in place.
Retirement service credits were also approved without discussion.
The Asset Forfeiture Budget for the police department to purchase duty belts, body cams and other equipment valued at $20,000 was approved.
The Economic Development Corporation budget was approved with the administrative department hiring an intern to help with research and other duties.
Kris and Kason Childress submitted a request to rezone property located at 618 Oak Avenue from multi-family to light commercial which would match the current property use of the surrounding properties.
Council Member Gary Spraggins shared that in the past 50 years, the city council did not have the ‘gumption’ to raise fees or taxes for city infrastructure and he was pleased that the current council was doing all it could to maintain and repair the city streets due to ‘justified’ complaints of residents.
Doug Moore shared that he had also received complaints from residents that have had to deal with damage to their vehicles.
If the increases in fees are approved after a second reading then changes would take place in October with funds available in 2022.
The first reading of the estimated budget for 2022 were also approved contingent on approval of the changes.
The city approved an easement with Oncor Electric Delivery LLC at the Coleman Park Water Tower site to be built underground along Gossett Lane for an AT&T cell tower.
The city also approved an annual investment policy that requires re-adoption every year A bid for water materials for the College Street project with the contract being rewarded to Coburn Supply Co. for $82,250.
380 agreements for properties located at 219 Craig Street, 447 Houston Street and 410 Houston Street, Lots 3R and 1R were approved without discussion.