The meeting audio recording is posted here.
Mayor Bill Weber opened the meeting promptly at 5:30 pm, and the invocation was done by myself (with about 15 seconds notice).
The first agenda item was to hear from visitors. There were two tonight.
First came Bonnie Finstead to remind the Council of the unsightly trash problem at the apartments on Shadow Wood. She felt strongly that the trash cans should be kept behind a fence. I went by after the meeting and took a photo (below).
City Manager Yost Zakhary said that discussions had taken place, and that the owner was going to get a dumpster and erect a fence around it. No further details were available. This was Ms. Finstead's second visit to the Council on this issue.
Next came William Jackson, a neighbor of mine on Cherry Creek Dr. He came to present a hardship caused by the recent change in parking rules for campers, RVs and boats. His boat sits in a driveway behind the front edge of his house. However, as his home is adjacent to Estates Drive, his boat is exposed to Estates on that side. He has been asked by the City to erect a fence to screen his boat, or else move it into the backyard. This is both a financial hardship and an inconvenience, since he was wounded in the Vietnam war and has some difficulty walking. He was hoping some exception might be made. This led Mayor Weber to ask whether or not there can ever be exceptions to ordinances. Yost responded with a clear "no", then went on to explain that the granting of exceptions can easily get out of control and render ordinances useless; and that Hewitt has the same ordinance and enforces it. Council member Jane Kittner said that storage facilities were available across the Hwy 6 twin bridges at low cost (~ $25/month), as she knows from personal experience.
Item 2 was the "consent agenda", which consists of "non-controversial, routine and budgeted items which require no public hearing".
Item 2A was approval of the last meeting's minutes.
Item 2B was consideration of the single bid received for Arboretum landscaping, which was rejected so that additional bids could be solicited.
Item 2C was renewal of a Special Use Permit for Home Occupation for very limited childcare at a home on Forest Ridge.
There was a little discussion of the last two items, followed by unanimous approval of the consent agenda (the approval was itself item 3 on the agenda).
Item 4 was the City Manager's report. There were two items discussed.
The first was an update on the Hwy 84 well rehabilitation. This well has had several problems, recently failing to pass TCEQ*-mandated coliform bacterial tests. A little later it passed the required coliform bacterial tests but was found to contain other potentially harmful bacteria (for example, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, arguably the most abundant microbe on Earth) , testing for which is not mandated by the TCEQ. The final disposition of all this remains to be decided, but in my estimation it promises to be problematic.
(*Texas Commission on Environmental Quality)
The second item was good news, an announcement of the completion of hike and bike trails at Woodway Park. This has been a project of the Woodway Parks & Recreation Commission, and there will be an inaugural celebration on Monday May 16th at 6:00 pm, at the park I believe. With the help of Martin Kemper (a P&R member) and Eagle Scouts Troop 308, trails have been cleaned up and a concrete bridge across Cherry Creek has been built (no easy feat). The trails total about 4.5 miles. Living right next to this park, I can tell you that these are really nice trails (but don't go very soon after a rain!).
The meeting adjourned about 6:20 or so, one of the shortest meetings in the past year.
