San Angelo City Council 4-18-22

[0:00:00] this monday after easter we hope everyone had a blessed and enjoyable easter sunday and easter weekend welcome to our city council meeting the meeting is officially called to order at 8 30 and we will start today with chaplain ralph dawkins leading us in prayer as well as the pledges may we all stand good morning everyone let's pray father thank you for the opportunity to invoke your word through prayer into this gathering of city officials and leaders and concerned citizens i pray that you would use these city leaders that you've given them the opportunity and responsibility to watch over our city and to keep it safe and to bring economic prosperity to produce jobs and revenue and help san angelo grow and progress lord you said in your word that if we acknowledge you in all of our ways that you would direct our paths you said that if we delight ourselves in you you would give us the desires of our hearts and so father i pray that you would give these servant leaders the knowledge the wisdom and the courage to deal with community issues families of facilities and businesses and any other problems and issues that face our city and its people and i pray that you would bless them to work together to tackle the agenda items on today i pray for the mayor her staff and assistants the city council members and all the city and the city managers and every person in department that is instrumental in leading and directing our city lastly i pray for the chief of police the entire police force the sheriff's department fire chief fire department and all first responders who serve and protect our city that they will continue to protect it and watch over it in jesus name amen let us

[0:02:04] pledge allegiance the united states of america happy monday everyone well we don't have a big audience out there today but we're thankful for all of you who are here today we have three proclamations and the first one today will be our proclamation of april 30th 2022 as beta sigma phi day were those in the audience for this proclamation please come forward come on up here okay so the camera can get the best the picture it's on the month of april is a fitting time to honor beta sigma phi the world's largest greek letter women's service cultural and social organization with six chapters in san angelo the badge of the organization signifies life learning and friendship by its greek symbols beta sigma phi today we recognize senatual beta sigma phi for the charitable work to our community these women have raised thousands of dollars and donated thousands of volunteer hours to local

[0:04:07] charitable organizations therefore i brenda gunter mayor of the city of san angelo texas on behalf of the city council do hereby proclaim april 30th 2022 as beta sigma phi day for their achievements and positive determination to make a difference in our community they need members and what else would you like to come right up here and state your name and hi uh thank you for letting us be here today i'm lana thompson uh i'm the president fixing to be ex-president of vada sigma phi city council our city council like brenda said we have six chapters and we are looking for new members our chapters we do community service projects and stuff for the community of san angelo so if you know of an organization that might need some help volunteer hours or anything let us know thank you [Applause]

[0:06:24] our next proclamation is april sexual assault awareness month with those in the audience to represent this organization please come forward if you would please april is sexual assault awareness month a time to draw attention to the prevalence of sexual assault and educate individuals and communities about how to prevent it sexual harassment abuse and assault are widespread problems in the united states alone nearly one in five women and one in 67 men have been raped at some time in their lives and one in four girls in one in 20 boys are sexually abused by the age of 17. sexual harassment abuse and assault can happen anywhere including online spaces now more than ever screens and technology connect us with others but for too long harassment cyber bullying and sexual abuse have been seen as unavoidable behaviors online each of us has the power to change that together we can make a difference to build inclusive safe and respectful communities that thrive online and offline 2022 marks the 25th anniversary of sam and the theme of this year's campaign is building safe online spaces together we can build online communities free from sexual harassment abuse and assault by practicing digital consent intervening when we see harmful behaviors and promoting online communities that value inclusion safety and respect now therefore i brenda gunter mayor of the city of san angelo texas on behalf of the city council do hereby proclaim the month of april 2022 as sexual assault month and joined advocates and communities across the country in proclaiming that we can build safe online spaces together thank you for having us my name is

[0:08:33] melissa hernandez i'm the victim services advocate at open arms rape crisis center and lgbt plus services we provide services to survivors of sexual violence doesn't matter when it happened in their lifetime we have we offer counseling for free we offer advocacy and we offer education to the community at no cost ours we do have a 24-hour hotline that is staffed here locally in san angelo and we also need volunteers [Applause] our last proclamation is for world autism acceptance month thank you for being here april is autism acceptance month and is an or an opportunity to recognize the contributions of individuals with autism and to get dedicate this time to the cause of better understanding and responding to autism autism affects an estimated 1 in 54 children and 1 in 48 adults early diagnosis and intervention tailored to individual needs can have lifelong benefits it is known that with proper education training and community living options individuals with autism can lead distinguished productive lives in their communities and strive to reach their fullest potential the abc center for children at children's center for autism with mhmr services concho valley is spearheading an awareness effort to educate parents

[0:10:37] professionals and the public about autism highlighting the need for early intervention the city is honored to take part in the annual observance of autism month to address the diverse needs of individuals and families affected by autism therefore i brenda gunter mayor of the city of san angelo texas on behalf of the city council do hereby proclaim april 2022 as world autism acceptance month in san angelo texas and encourage all citizens to share the responsibility in promoting autism awareness great would you like to accept this yes morning i'm greg rome the ceo with mhmr and um the abc center for children is a program of mhmr and we're happy to be able to support families and children with a diagnosis of autism we often do that well often free of charge and we accept folks without insurance whereas there are quite a few other providers in town that are insurance based which we do really appreciate that they are available but what we try to do is support folks who have a great need but don't have a way to to fund that so what we work on is one-on-one therapy it's called applied behavior analysis and we have a certified staff that work with kids working on social skills working on communication how to interact with one another which improves behavior and the therapy we do is based on evidence backed research and actually the earlier a child receives this therapy the better they will do in school and in life so we work really hard try to train kids and transition over to work with parents and also in schools and in the community so we're very fortunate and we thank the city of san angelo all of our representatives the mayor for our support your support and for everything we are able to do and

[0:12:38] accomplish with abc center so thank you very much [Applause] we will now move into the public comment section of the agenda issues or concerns not on the regular agenda may be raised by the public at this time citizens should speak from the podium address all comments to the dias begin by stating their name and address or single member district number and limit their remarks to less than three minutes is there anyone in the audience today who would like to offer public comment would you speak a little get closer to the microphone bobby there we go that's much better okay not used to microphone we know turn it up a bit so you're speaking actually there you go that's great i just wanted to report that the property that we had with the city is now vacant and

[0:14:40] there's a few things that we have to do yet not nothing but put a fence but we've been to the city several times well two three times and they can't give us [Music] an okay yet because they can't get a quorum but once they get to quorum well we'll work with them on the fence is that the quorum on the city parks board i'm not sure which one they're going to but the defense has not been an issue for us i mean we'll work through it so the timing isn't it okay and i also just wanted to say that at some future date we would like to talk to the city about re-renting that property also maybe purchase part of it we've got a the part behind vogels is [Music] our access to the basement and the back part of vogels and so it's actually uh it's our way of getting into the basement part street not street but park i guess and so we need to see about getting that straight some at some point in time either through sales or through rent or just to be clear we cannot sell city property that's parks that parkland cannot be i understand that brendan but i would like to see where that is in oh that's you know if you could get your man to show me that it's in the deeds of the property yeah there's a provision in the local government code regarding sale of park property and it requires it to go to an election before you can do it so it's very difficult to do we couldn't just sell it

[0:16:42] outright but that is in the local well we'd like to approach that point too so um anyway we've we've got we've done what we said we'd do on [Music] the part the city wants right now and so i just wanted to report to you all that it was a hell of a deal thank you bobby anyway we think we're doing the city a good job so hopefully the store will continue to bring people down here anyway thank you thank you very much anybody else in the audience today who would like to offer public comment scene none we will now move into our consent agenda is i will ask each council member if there's any item on the consent agenda that they would like to pull at this point larry karen lucy no ma'am harry tom noam tommy no ma'am then may i have a motion for approval of the consent agenda some move by karen segment by lucy any public comment on any item in on the consent agenda scene none we will all take a vote all those in favor of approving the consent agenda please say aye aye hearing no are there any nays hearing no nays the consent agenda is passed seven to zero we will now move into the regular agenda items comments regarding items on the regular agenda may be made by the public when each item is discussed as outlined above applicants proponents and appellants are

[0:18:45] exempt from the time limit above and instead must limit their remarks to less than five minutes the first item is presentation of the 2021 city of san angelo development corporation annual report in the presentation will be made by economic development administrator nolan sosa nolan you're on good morning mayor council mr valenzuela nolan sosa economic development administrator today i am proud to present the 2021 development corporation annual report so a few years ago city council recognized that in order for san angelo to remain competitive and for all of us to achieve sustainable economic growth we needed to make strategic investments in our city's transportation infrastructure so when city council comes to the development corporation and lays out our priorities they were very clear and very simple and in fact mayor gunter summarizes them in just three words planes trains and automobiles starting with planes in 2021 we substantially completed the apron paving and storage building installation for the u.s customs and border protection air and marine operations center cbp amo previously the cbp amo operated out of temporary modules installed on temporary foundations they didn't have enough ramp space to maneuver those larger drone aircraft and they didn't have sufficient facilities to store those aircraft in support of their mission so the development corporation funded a 1.1 million dollar expansion project we improved the paved ramp area we installed a new storage building and we moved to permanent foundations for their radio and ground control systems so these improvements allowed us to retain the unmanned aerial vehicle mission at mathis field which attracts highly

[0:20:49] skilled workers to san angelo because it creates high-paying jobs in fact it creates about 60 high-paying jobs each of which pays on average above 100 000 a year so we're very proud of that mission and we want to do everything that we can do as a development corporation to support their efforts here in san angelo texas at mathis field is there any opportunity to increase their number the number of missions i will just say mayor that we are in some very serious discussions to make exactly that happen so there is more exciting things to come on that in 2022 so whether a company is holding a site visit here to bring their company to san angelo or a visitor is passing through san angelo for the first time the airport is an important gateway that casts a first impression of our city it's how we welcome people to san angelo and beforehand the open space right as you exit the airport road it was undeveloped it was unkempt and it was frankly an eyesore that cast a negative first impression on our city so the development corporation undertook a multi-phase improvement project to start beautifying that area in phase one we cleared brush and trees in phase two we graded the land seated it and installed fencing and then in the final phase we constructed a new welcome monument that proudly welcomes visitors into our city and just to borrow a phrase from diane bayes at our destination marketing organization it all starts with the visit and so we have to start looking at this airport as a gateway that welcomes people into our city and gives them an impression of how proud we are to be san angeloans so we were proud to participate in that effort many people have commented citizens on how great that gateway is thank you it's had a nice impact yes ma'am even though public investment has spurred positive economic growth at our

[0:22:52] airport of course our longer term objective at the development corporation is to encourage private investment and enterprise at our airport and in 2021 we took a very very important first step in that direction by partnering in a public private partnership with skyline aviation under the p3 as we call it skyline aviation has agreed to serve as a construction manager at risk to improve facilities at our airport they plan to rehabilitate the gte hangar construct two new parking lots that's rental car parking that we desperately need at our airport and more general parking for cars parking out at the airport making improvements to the commercial apron immediately adjacent to that hangar and constructing a new terminal lounge and conference space for a fixed base operator at our airport by participating in this initiative the development corporation is showing private enterprise approach us come talk to us we will partner with you and walk alongside you with our dollars to make development happen at our facilities so we're very proud of this project so trains before i move into a discussion about trains i do have to give a nod to michael looney and his efforts with the san angelo regional manufacturers alliance back in 2017 michael gathered our area manufacturers sat down with them and asked them what keeps you up at night what challenges are your businesses facing and how can we help you be successful and so from those meetings one of the key concerns that were raised was the high cost of freight to move goods in and out of san angelo and so our development corporation board and this city council recognized that we needed to make strategic investments in improving rail infrastructure to bite down on those shipping costs so how did we start

[0:24:54] we engaged a consultant and expert in the field roger horton from shea transportation consulting we asked him what do we do how do we develop rail infrastructure roger connected us with shad weissner from south plain la mesa railroad who operates two successful rail ports one in slayton texas and another in pueblo colorado in 2019 the development corporation purchased a vacant tract of land and have now partnered with south plain salimisa railroad to develop that land into a multimodal international transloading facility once completed this facility will strengthen our local economy and it will position san angelo very strategically as an international shipping point so i do want to thank chad roger and their teams for all the work that they've done to build a world-class facility here in san angelo texas so automobiles you have likely heard that san angelo is one of the largest cities in the united states without access to an interstate and that has changed decades ago both the development corporation and city council understood and appreciated that interstate access was critical for san angelo's long-term economic growth so we increased our advocacy by participating in ports to planes alliance transportation advocates of texas and the gulf coast strategic highway coalition our efforts have paid off with the united states congress officially designating san angelo as part of the proposed i-14 corridor so what does this mean a 1300 mile route will extend across five states and will connect several military bases this route is often called the port forts to ports corridor it connects military bases including goodfellow air force base across a five-state route what's next for us in the months and years ahead we will

[0:26:57] plan and work with our partners to get funding for these projects to plan out the route more formally it will involve some careful coordination with u.s congress u.s department of transportation and all the state legislatures and transportation departments along that five-state corridor in a similar way like i said we participate in the ports to plains alliance and have been advocating very strongly to be a part of the i-27 route which came to fruition in march 2022 when congress designated san angelo as part of the future i-27 route we do expect both i-14 and i-27 will intersect right here in san angelo texas so we're gonna go from having no interstate to having two interstates in san angelo and that is due in large part to the dedication of all of the council members our mayor and our directors that have served on that ports to planes coalition these expansions of course will attract new interplay prize to san angelo we will create jobs it will offer additional trade opportunities and it will also draw significant tourist traffic here to san angelo texas our business retention and expansion program this when you hear about the development corporation giving brep incentives it's a program that helps individuals who are interested in expanding their business take that next step we help them make additional capital investments and we help them add personnel to their business or even a combination of those two rep incentives can take many forms whether those are direct monetary grants tax rebates or tax abatements or even non-monetary assistance like funding training initiatives we encourage job creation and business development and the brep is an important tool in an economic developer's tool chest because if a company is fielding the idea of leaving san angelo or

[0:28:59] cutting back their numbers maybe through layoffs or reorganization we pull out that brep program as an incentive to help them stay here and keep that business here and growing so we currently maintain 14 active agreements as small as 5975 dollars and some as large as over a million dollars so we are very proud of that program and will continue to focus our efforts on helping businesses grow here in san angelo texas our business and industrial park saw a lot of activity here in 2021 for those that don't know our business and industrial park is a master plan site that is designed to help facilitate business expansion here in san angelo we've received a lot of accolades for that park we've been designated as an aep quality site and as a super park by a site selection a consultant group all of that means that our park exceeds the strict requirements that site selectors look for when they're trying to decide where to place a company so we're very proud of that effort and really our goal in developing that industrial park was really simple we want to make it easy for these industrial companies to locate here in san angelo and we want to cut the red tape by having property that's already zoned developed and ready for them to start building a building and start moving dirt out there and i read uh consistently about a lot of small cities across the state of texas some pretty close to san angelo who are in fact getting lots of new manufacturing industrial development in their small cities yes ma'am and with this industrial park and the work that we're doing why san angelo not being what the names and angels not even on tips of their tongues in terms of a city that is a potential location for these businesses and when i say these businesses there's multiple ones but terrell texas just last week announced a

[0:31:02] big one multi-million dollar facility employing a hundred people taylor texas has gotten some significant ones abilene's gotten two significant projects in recent months and yet san angelo's not even a consideration by many of these people let's talk about that you're exactly right and you know one of the challenges that we face i talked to misty and abilene and adrian in the temple area and one of the things that we have that challenges us is the governor's office often puts out requests for information to see what sites could potentially house these larger companies these larger industrial developments we work very closely with michael looney at the chamber on these requests for information one of the biggest challenges is the disqualifying criteria interstate access and often do you have a rail served industrial park so you know we start looking at these requests and it's like we're not located within 20 minutes or 15 minutes of an interstate highway and these metroplex areas even small cities like taylor that you mentioned with the samsung acquisition their proximity to austin to draw those highly skilled tech workers into taylor texas was a major determining factor in taylor getting that investment in fact when i was at tedc the taylor economic development center president was there talking about how that selection process went and taylor was a prime candidate just because of the factors of their workforce so there's a lot of different elements that go into that and so we have to cut their workforce they're they're a city of 15 000 people so how would they have a workforce that would be greater than our workforce with a population of 15 000 their 15 000 population workforce isn't what site selectors really consider when they're bringing a company in fact they do a heat map mayor of who can reach the plant within a 15-minute commute a 30-minute commute

[0:33:06] and a 45-minute commute because we have to remember in san angelo texas we can get everywhere within 15 minutes in austin a 45-minute commute really is nothing to them so these highly skilled austin workers are able to commute to samsung for their daily job they have telecommuting arrangements that make it easy for a city like taylor that's just right there near austin to get a company like samsung and we being so remote face that challenge of access to workforce is really san angelo and tom green county yes ma'am before i move on to talk about phase one and phase two i do want to give a nod to bob schnaemann he is our economic development project manager but he is really the driving force behind everything that goes on at the industrial park so i do have to recognize bob for his knowledge and his expertise that he brings to the team you might recall that we sold several tracks of land over the past years we've sold land to principal led allen's transport fedex and countless other companies at our industrial park who have decided to locate there we did not sell property in 2021 and about 18 acres remains available for purchase with another seven under option right now we're already looking forward to phase two in 2019 we awarded the construction bid for phase two to reese albert phase 2.1 we we break it into two different parts phase 2.1 will be funded by us at the development corporation and phase 2.2 will be funded by a grant by the united states economic development administration we've already awarded the brush clearing bid and we'll begin that project in the next couple of weeks once it is complete another 118 acres will become available for development so there is still a lot of work a lot of activity going on at our industrial park and we're very very excited about that it'll just continue to make us more competitive as we work

[0:35:08] on some of the things that the mayor has just pointed out education and workforce development so when the mikes as i call them mike looney and mike berry at the chamber of commerce are working to attract the company here to san angelo one of the first questions that any responsible site selector is going to ask is do you have the work force that's ready to sustain our operation in your city and so we recognize that the labor market is tightening and competition for workers is ramping up at a pace that we've never seen before and so talent development is critical and where does talent development start it starts with education in our schools and so that's why we have partnered with the san angelo independent school district the chamber of commerce and industry partners ethicon and principal led to fund the sme prime program at central and lakeview high schools it's a partnership with the society a manufacturing engineers that provides industry relevant training very specialized training i just want to recognize seisd here they are the second school district in the state and the first school district in west texas to get this program and when i talked to the representatives from sme prime they gave a nod to how special san angelo is you know they've deployed this program really around the state and again around the country and one of the things that they remarked is they have never seen a city that brought this level of public support and that engaged with businesses who just opened their checkbook wrote a check to support getting this program moving forward and they said that san angelo really is special for that and they attribute a lot of the success of this program to the support that our community has for educating our school children and our participation in this effort is really to reflect our commitment to developing a skilled workforce so we can attract these companies we want to make sure that we meet the employers hiring

[0:37:10] needs that we have here and we also want to make sure that san angelo stays competitive so we can bring those technical companies to our city the business plan competition is a collaboration between the development corporation the angelo state university small business development center and the asu norris vincent college of business we at the development corporation provide the prize monies we administer the prize agreements and we serve as a co-coordinator of the competition we kicked our 2021 competition off in may 2021 with 30 entries nine advance to phase two and five advance to that final judging phase where they get to present their business plan to our independent judging panel and i'm excited to announce that first place was cowboy up chocolates who received a forty thousand dollar award and medical arts pharmacy won third place and a ten thousand dollar award so we're already ready to kick off our 22 competition next month i do want to take a moment just a moment to recognize nora navares on our team for all of her work on making this competition so special her and the asu sbdc team along with the norris vincent college of business professors make this competition so successful as we move into year seven and the business factory is another nora effort along with the small business development center we manage the business resource center and the asu-sbdc helps market that incubator program to interested businesses and a lot of people ask us you know what is an incubator well if you think about it you've got a business that is in its infancy stages where it's really volatile you hear all these statistics all the time about x percent of businesses fail in the first x years well we're trying to make it easy for businesses to be successful in san

[0:39:12] angelo by providing affordable rent stepping that rent up over time and in the meantime we provide all the overhead the internet the utilities all the office accommodations because we want them to get in there and start building their business up without worrying about any of the other stuff that you might have to worry about in those first couple of years and it's also advantageous for them because think about who's just downstairs you've got small business advisors to provide training and business advising and you've got the development corporation there to help get you connected with all those city and governmental processes that you might be a little afraid or intimidated to access we can help facilitate those conversations and we often do and we're proud to do that and so over time we step that rent rate up until they finally graduate into a facility that they either build buy or lease and that's exactly what happened in 2021 with centurion planning and design they graduated in june and um we have two offices currently occupied of our seven we are actively marketing the other five offices i do want to thank dave erickson and his team for all of the work that they do to help market our business factory and i will just say this in closing 2021 was an extremely busy and extremely successful year for the development corporation i want to take this opportunity to thank mayor gunter and this city council for their continued support of our efforts i want to recognize max puyo our board president and our board of directors for their guidance and their leadership along with guy andrews our director and you heard me acknowledge a lot of our partners today and that's really important because economic development doesn't happen in a vacuum it takes an entire village every day i get to come to work with a very dynamic village of people who are committed to making san angelo grow and improve that's the chamber the sbdc and all of our partners we we could not do what we do without them and so we're very proud to build on the success of 2021 in 2022

[0:41:18] and there are certainly certainly more exciting things to come so thank you all any questions for yes please okay so no number one excellent job number two i've got some questions that get you know given to me quite often so i'm just going to flip them over to you so that way i can say oh nolan said this instead of my first wonderful absolutely when do you think the rail port will be complete under construction and we're not going to hold you to it is this a two year three year down the line yeah i answered that for you either one we anticipate it'll be complete uh fairly shortly i mean we would anticipate sometime at least in the next 12 to 18 months and that's a pretty generous estimate but it all depends on on different factors you know one of the things that we struggle with at the rail port is that the demand for what we're going to build out there and how we're going to construct this depends on the people that are buying up the land in that area for instance if company x requires a large footprint then we've got to kind of pivot and adjust our construction around that so the biggest answer is we hope soon but it's an asterisk because we're actively negotiating with different parties to sell land at that rail port and it can get difficult at times to give that type of estimate guy andrew's director let me just expand further on that is that we are actually open for business and we you should see the first trains in there uh probably within the next month well one of the things we're waiting on was a locomotive because you have to have that to do switching that's in place the first two tracks are in place and so uh we do have a customer that's uh taking that first 19 acres in that park that would be great uh bringing aggregate material out of the alpine area and placing it on that a scale commercial scale is installed out there

[0:43:20] so that they will be able to then sell that so it comes in phases uh again just a reminder and it also applies to our industrial park that uh economic developments of marathon are punctuated at times by sprint we do have our industrial park and i i'll make a comparison to what i've seen in my career is that odessa had a business industrial park for 40 years they would sell maybe one or two parcels of property over that period of time when i got to odessa they had two hundred thousand dollars as a result of sales in there timing is everything and it depends on when the economy is ready to do that when i left there was 10 million dollars in the bank 30 parcels of property so we're ready for that type of development to take place well and he's moved forward without contracts from people to ensure that there's lots of flexibility so we're not waiting for people to designate what they need we're ready to open business and there are two big issues one's electricity and one is water electricity is up and running and water's being discussed all right so that was one of three when do you think you would see an i-14 i-27 confluence and it's all together i mean is this a 10-year projection i mean i have lots of people on the north side of town say this affects the way we see it on paper how it's coming what is that time frame certainly not i mean just the planning stages for large-scale capital projects and we have to remember i-27 is unique in that a lot of that planning can happen in txdot but it also requires coordination with the department of transportation i-14 like i said state legislators u.s congress you're looking at a planning stage that's going to take multiple

[0:45:22] years it's taken decades to get to this point so i would say at least 20 years before we really see dirt moving on a project of that scale what the plan is is the following and that is is that each individual city will use their mpos to start the work on projects that will ultimately unite all of the cities through that corridor for example our reliever route is in the planning stage and our commitment is to get the reliever route in place so that as we look to expand our current highway system that reliever route is the first project and that will happen as well in all the other cities whether it's sonora etc so the big challenge is there's been no work done on buying land there's we don't have land purchases done etc but each community is developing a game plan in terms of what they can do so that some time down the road whether certain segments are 10 years out some will be 15 some will be 20. but there will be work done on each of those segments by local communities and in our mpo meeting this past thursday we discussed the work on the reliever route in the north which is out by howard college and it's we get lots of questions and i know when we were talking our campaign it was like flames trains automobiles but the thing to make sure san angelo is here for the next 100 years in the capacity we are greater is this some people thought this was like a four-year window and all sudden everything's going to hit and they just need to understand these things take time the last question i have for you on the brep programs how many people actually want at the final stage of it actually come through and take the redemption i mean finish up and make a claim on the prep i mean i know we we dedicate lots of time and money to it and in some of those discussions i think a lot of these people once they're successful they go through it do they actually come back

[0:47:23] and get the incentives we give or do they forfeit some of those you know most of the time we have a pretty high success rate i can only think of less than a handful of companies that we've awarded a brep agreement to that haven't either taken advantage of the entire amount or some who have reached a certain point in their business where they don't feel comfortable taking the incentive anymore and return it back to the development corporation of the 14 i anticipate all 14 will liquidate that entire amount and use the entire agreement to support their business and that's what we want them to do so we're excited for that nice job you had to get these questions in because you only get me in front of you about one time a year don't you you don't let these opportunities you by all right what other questions i just wanted to make a statement and thank you noah thank you very much for all your information and your hard work and it really impressed me how many people you did acknowledge that y'all are actually really a big team to be honest and we love it thank you all so much thank you item b consider awarding by board contract number 613-20 municipal pool filtration system replacement to progressive commercial aquatics incorporated in the amount of turn sixty two thousand forty five dollars utilizing the general fund balance and authorizing the city manager to get to negotiate and execute all related documents brent euron thank you good morning good morning daniel council members i am brent casey a recreation manager for almost seven years maybe the first to be seven years um the municipal poll first time i walked in there i didn't know what to think the current filtration system is a filtrex filtration system it was purchased from an individual in new jersey his name was ken within three weeks of me being on this job i called cannon said you're coming down here he had to come down here and train myself my staff and teach us some different things about that filter system so which he did he was here for two days um we've had many issues with it we've had to replace numerous things on it and it's a very complex piece of equipment but it's it's really not if you get into the nuts and bolts and understand how it

[0:49:26] works so it's all ran by air compressed air it's got a air tank over there air compressor rather large one and it shuts down different things opens different things and when everything works perfectly it works very well but the issues we've had tons of them since day one but then they began to get even worse from the freeze of last year of 2021 so once that happened you know my pool in my backyard had lots of issues because of that too everything that was visible we had people come in and it was fixed every pipe that was busted everything like that it was done on the outside of the pool for over by the slides from everything in the mechanical room everything was good until the electricity went out so we all remembered that but once the electricity went out we had tons of issues but everything was fixed at that point in time to get back up and running again so we were able to get up and running for last year um postseason but then in june and again in july the system was hit by two strikes two different strikes of lightning one in june one in july so we had to close the pool on july the third which everyone knows that's pops concert day so we have a big event at the pool that evening to go along with that so july 3rd the pool was shut down we were there all day working on it we got an electrician to come in he got it up and running for us and we were had to do everything manual so from that point in time the air tank and everything like that it would work but we had to close off this valve what was done automatically before we had to go manually because our systems were basically fried so the two brains that talk to each other sorry were basically done because of the lightning strikes so the rest of the season we went manual with everything which is hard on myself part of my staff and when there's issues they call us we come in day and night whatever but we were able to keep the pool going from that time we've been working on the pool we've been replacing different parts we didn't just shut it off and leave it in september we've been talking to people we've been doing research we've been trying to get things going correctly with the pool we had a the inter insurance risk brought out an engineer he said that he could not prove that the uh every the damage that we currently have was caused by either storm but he did agree that the lightning strikes were

[0:51:29] part of that damage that so those things will be paid for which comes out to about seven thousand dollars to replace basically what is to make it simple the brains of the pull system um there is a thing on the filtration system which called is called a three-way valve it connects the air compressor to everything that it goes to and if any water gets in there then you have to replace it once it gets water in it it's done we've replaced that so many times in the past seven years but especially in the past couple months we've replaced it twice so we finally brought in other people and said what is the problem so we got the people that we bought the air compressor from who was here local they came down and checked it out they told us there's water in the in the air compressor so it's normal to get some water in there condensation from the air and everything like that but there was so much water in there the huge tank was about three quarters of the way full so we drained it put a new one on we got the system to bump one time great it was great news everything was going um the system has to bump just to sorry trying to explain it here but there's like two donut things on top of this huge filtration system and what it does is it filters the water and then to clean itself it bumps and it basically shakes the whole thing and all the particles in there drain everything down then it releases the dirty water fills back up the water starts again so the clean water keeps going through obviously but that bumping mechanism without that the whole filtration system is no good so we've worked with filtrex we've exhausted pretty much everything that we can possibly do to replace different parts talk to them on the phone go through everything we've had many different people come in and look at it but basically what we've come up with is that bumping mechanism will not work it is done after it one time it did not work again we went back the next day tried to bump it again it was finished so there is no way to replace that is what we're being told there is no way to work on that it's the two donut things on the top and it's not designed to be taken apart and fixed or anything like that it's not designed to have anything go wrong with it the only

[0:53:31] explanation i have is something happened during the storms the lightning strike or something like that to the thing um i'm exhausted i am exhausted i think he is i think he is too uh the filter exhibition system is not something that is common in the state of texas so when we call progressive aquatics who has installed everything except for that filter um they come in and they can work on everything except that filter so we normally just call new jersey the individual that we normally talk to his name is ken he's the one that we had come down here seven years ago he recently passed away at home so that's not good for us either but basically it's done the filtration system is done so without the funding we will not have a pull this summer we are requesting recommending the total replacement of the filtration system with progressive commercial aquatics uh progressive is on by board and the hubble total amount for everything comes out to two hundred sixty two thousand forty five dollars why didn't we use them to begin with it was designed by a company who did the renovations and stuff and so at that time that was the system that was recommended and the one council approved they know about this other company i have no idea that's the one that was bid with the bid when it was designed so i don't know anything about this company except now and doing research they are one in texas that's heavily used and this group agrees that's who should we should go with they've got asu i think they do and whoever who else here in town bentwood um yes no i'm sorry not been one angelo state uses them there's lots of other ones austin is going completely to the new system that we're requesting to get for every single pool austin the city of austin has there are two going in at round rock isd right now we got pictures of them talked to them about that and they explained kind of what was going on so we got to see what the new filter would look like and everything through photos um i'm sorry some other west texas cities but in defense of the existing system it

[0:55:34] it sort of has reached its age it's not uncommon at this point for the system to start going down the system's more complicated we think than it should be and this new system will will do that it has been a good filtration system it's not that it didn't work it's just when will the pool open this summer when when well if this is approved then it will take six to ten weeks unless they happen to have one of these filters already on the shelf if it's on the shelf we'll get it faster than that but six to ten weeks to manufacture that filter so then after it's built six to ten weeks then it will be delivered and a commercial uh progressive commercial aquatics will be here when it gets here to take out the old one unload that one and put it right in so that's the agreement that we've worked out but we do not know the exact date yet but if there's not one sitting on a shelf then it will be six to ten weeks before it even is made what we need to be concerned about is the radio ad that is talking about please call us and book your summer parties your birthday parties we're opening memorial day weekend come book your pool parties so if we're not going to have be open for memorial day weekend we need to get rid of that come book your party now i'm not sure where they got that because i did not put that anywhere okay i will call every radio station and figure that one out but we'll also clarify on that and we'll check into that i think carl was was discussed last week but in addition to that they have not been taking bookings at the pool when people call so they've been telling anyone who calls so i don't think you currently have any any current bookings that are available so they have been working on that and we'll look into the other we normally start taking them the week the monday after spring break in march i pushed that back because we were waiting on the the sheep from the engineer that came at that point in time so i appreciate it i just know i heard it yesterday on the radio again so i know it's out there being publicized that it's open for booking parties of eight you know i think it says memorial day weekend but it might be sooner than that i don't know yes lucy okay so you're saying four to six weeks or it's what what just give us a ballpark month end of

[0:57:38] june the best i mean it could be the first of july but that's the better maybe by the pops concert and this filtration for 262 000 what's the life line spanned of it does have a warranty that covers everything for the first year and then certain parts go longer than that the warranty is just good for one year i'm sorry warranty is only good for one year for to cover everything on that filtration system yes it gets two lightning strikes again well hopefully for rain however does insurance not pay for that they paid for a portion and risk would have to cover that on some of the initial freeze and those kind of things and then over time as i understand it the deductibles have changed all of that gibberish that goes with insurance any other questions or comments yes go ahead tom when this is the pool dry right now no sir we it has to keep water in it because of the plaster is there anything we need to do while there's a period of non-use that would be handy to do right now before we i mean it seems to me like once a year we're always doing repairing something of concrete or whatever are we in a good shape that all we need is this system to be 100 go i know so everything and everything with the pool is good except for lots of cleaning but yeah that's something we deal with every every year at this time but the concrete and everything is good there is one small rock that's down but it's it's a minor minor fix i remember i think was last year y'all did a lot of work as far as cleaning the slides or bright color now they had a lot of plaster work so they did a ton and and just to give them a little praise they are not pool operator experts and they have learned a lot he and john henry i swear i heard so he had a pool i mean there's a smaller one he's getting rid of it he said he just hadn't said that out loud yet fixing to have a skateboard park so we're fixing hands will let me mayor i'd move approval as presented

[0:59:40] thank you drive a second second by lucy any public comment on this item seeing none we will take a vote all in favor say aye are there any nays with no nays motion passes seven to zero we will now move into the closed session executive session on the provision of government code title v open government ethics subtitle a open government chapter 551 open meeting sub chapter d exceptions to requirement that meetings be open under the fine sections a section 551.2 deliberations about real property regarding 17.583 acres lot 90 block 2 section 9a red arroyo hills edition we will go into closed session at this point session at 9 51 a.m and during the closed session we agreed to authorize a sale of 17.58 acres known as lot 9d block 2 section 9a rhetoria hills edition for 1 million dollars to e and b bryant properties llc and authorizing the city manager to negotiate and execute all necessary documents may i have a motion for approval of that so moved by tom second by lucy any public comment scene none we'll all take a vote those in favor say aye any opposed with none opposed motion passes 7-0 follow-up in administrative issues uh on item b consideration of approving various board nominations animal shelter advisory committee chris carpenter smd three to first term construction board of adjustment and appeals michael spencer smd-1 to a first term ending february 2024 public arts commission ryan

[1:01:43] delgish smd 2 and susannah valenzuelas and b3 both to the third term ending april 2024. may i have a motion for approval of those board appointments proved by a motion by karen second by lucy any uh public comment on those board nominations is that chris carpenter from dispatch pd dispatch yes it is that board requires one public servant so with that we'll take a vote all in favor say aye aye any oppose hearing none those nominations are approved seven to zero announcements and consideration of future agenda items are there any scene none may have a motion for adjournment second second motion by tommy second by lucy all in favor say aye aye the meeting is adjourned at 9 53 a.m

Captured 2026-07-26 · source: youtube.com/watch?v=RwcrvUNaTCo