Results of the March 14th meeting

Note: The audio of this meeting is available here.

The meeting opened at 5:30 exactly, with Mayor Bill Weber announcing "Welcome to daylight savings time". Councilman Don Baker gave the invocation, which included a rememberance of the sufferings of those recovering from the tragic earthquake in Japan.

The first agenda item was to hear from visitors. First up was Carl Bennett. He came to speak on several things, and did a remarkably good job despite the 3-minute limit. He stated (a) that he was glad the Council spent the money necessary to prove what he already knew, that the accusations against Yost Zakhary were groundless. He expressed his appreciation of Mr. Zakhary's past 30 years of service to the City, and despite two occasions where they were in opposition, he wished Yost another 30 years. (b) He thanked me for my piece in the latest Woodway Today (available here), referring (I believe) to the parts where I praised Mr. Zakhary. (c) He said (if I understood) that the baseball that goes on near City Hall should be moved to a park for safety reasons. (d) He deplored that the street gutters in places were clogged with dirt, with weeds and sometimes even trees growing in the debris. "This is Woodway, not East Waco." He even said he would bid on street cleaning if needed. (e) He has trouble getting his RV under some of the trees and even phone lines, including on Estates Drive. (f) He expressed frustration that he has been required by the RV/boat/camper parking ordinance (see here) to rent two sheds at a storage facility while a contractor across the street from City Hall has a commercial vehicle and fuel tank parked openly. (g) He stated his pride in the Woodway Public Safety Department, the Woodway firefighters and in the City Council, saying that he respects each and every one of the Council members.

That makes seven points, each eloquently stated, in only about 3 minutes. I don't believe I have heard a more efficient presentation since joining the Council! There followed a bit of discussion among the Council and Mr. Zakhary, the upshot being that these issues would be investigated.

Next was Bonnie Finstead, who came to tell the Council about the very unsightly trash at the apartments on Shadow Wood. She said that Hewitt has an ordinance about storing trash cans out of sight. Councilman Scott Giddings said that Marble Falls also had an ordinance. Some of the Council said they would go by to check it out, and Mayor Weber suggested that the Ordinance Committee would be asked to address this.

Agenda item 2 was a presentation by Carl Dorton, Executive Director of McLennan County 911. He gave information about the county 911 system. For example,

(a) the service is entirely paid by charges on telephone bills;

(b) in 2010, there were 4363 of 911 calls placed from Woodway, and 161,000 county-wide;

(c) the system has been able to identify the location of wireless calls since 2003, and is being upgraded to accept text, photo and video feeds from callers.

The Council voted to enter into an agreement to have 911 equipment placed in the Public Safety Department.

Agenda item 3 was about the Hwy 84 well. You'll recall from past posts that this well is being rehabilitated after a rather short operating lifetime. However, the process has been problematic at nearly every step. The latest problem is that the water is failing the "total coliform count" test, a measure of bacterial abundance. Background on this test can be found here. The Wallace Group (our consultants/contractors? on well-related matters and sometimes on major project bids like the renovation of the Public Safety Building) recommends that we have a lab in Ottowa, Kansas (not Canada!) do a detailed analysis of the bacterial content. The idea is that knowing what bacteria are there might indicate either the source of same, or perhaps that these are harmless bacteria. If the latter were the case, the City could apply for a waiver of the coliform count requirement imposed by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). Mr. Wallace is wondering if these are "iron reducing bacteria" (info on a similar bacteria here) that thrive in high-iron environments. Mayor Weber cleverly noted that "we keep coming back to the well", which has two meanings here. But the Council voted unanimously to approve funds (up to $6k) for the tests, the idea being the this is a tiny amount of money compared to the possible value of a functional well.

Item 4 was a discussion of budget matters, deferred until the end of the meeting.

Item 5 was the "consent agenda", items that are voted on as a group. These were (a) the minutes of last meeting; (b) appointment of Municipal Court judges; and (c) approval to seek an easement to optimize routing of pipelines associated with the Business Acres well.

Item 6 was a vote on Item 5, all approved unanimously. Incidentally, Woodway Municipal Court is held each Tuesday at 3:30 pm in the Public Safety building (moved elsewhere? see below), in case you'd like to watch the proceedings.

Item 7 was the City Manager's report. Renovation of the Public Safety building is now underway, and hopes to be completed in October. Meanwhile, people and communications have been dispersed among other City facilities.

We returned then to Item 4, discussion of the 2010 budget. Of interest: about 53% of the City budget goes to public safety, and 29% to Community Services (like road and other infrastructure maintenance). Sanitation (garbage service ) was contracted out to Eagle Disposal a couple of years ago, and service is much improved, especially in brush-pickup times.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:41 pm.