Community News Briefs
City Council lifts lake lease moratorium
The Olney City Council lifted a nearly two-year moratorium to approve the first lease agreement for lots at Lake Olney and Lake Cooper since the city gutted and rewrote the ordinances governing the lake lots earlier this year. “We do want to open the lake leases up for non-permanent structures,” Mayor Rue Rogers asked the council. “The question is, do we want to lease to new tenants?” The city mailed out new lease agreements to about a dozen tenants who live in unpermitted structures at the lakes after passing a new ordinance that will prohibit the construction or expansion of any such structures on the city-owned land. At the Oct. 24 meeting, Cody Weekly asked to lease lots for some campers and a fishing barge he purchased at Lake Cooper, and City Secretary Tammy Hourigan said she had received other queries about lot leases. The Olney Police Department was in the process of surveying and staking out the lots, after which time the lots could be leased starting Jan. 1, Mayor Rogers said. The Council allowed Mr. Weekly to sign a pro-rated lease for November and December.
Update on baseball complex construction
Construction on the school district’s baseball complex took big strides toward completion in October and is on budget and on schedule to open for the spring 2023 playing season, school Superintendent Dr. Greg Roach told the Olney Independent School District board of trustees. The ballfield now has new sod, as well as new sprinkler and lighting systems, a new backstop and netting, Dr. Roach told the board. Next, the construction crew will rebuild the concession stand and install new fencing. The district also was having its electrical service reworked to serve the softball fields and a press box, and is planning for a new scoreboard and dugouts, he said. The Olney City Council considered at its Oct. 24 meeting whether to allow the school district to use reverse-osmosis water discharged by Tower Extrusions to irrigate the new ballfield. The council said it would rule on the matter at its next meeting on Nov. 14.
City Council eyes water bond spending
The city of Olney soon must decide how to spend quickly mounting interest from the $13 million in revenue bonds for the planned water treatment plant, City Secretary Tammy Hourigan told the City Council at its Oct. 24 meeting. The City faces regulatory scrutiny as interest rates rise and it earns a higher-than-expected rate of return on the invested tax-exempt revenue bonds - possibly as soon as the end of the year, Ms. Hourigan said. “Once we go into positive arbitrage, the money has to be used for water-related improvement projects,” she said. The city has earned about $150,500 since it received the funds in April, she said.
School board hears gifted, talented program
Children from Olney Elementary School’s Gifted and Talented program demonstrated a raised bed project at the school board’s Oct. 24 meeting. After the demonstration, the kids took questions from school board members.
School board approves new bus, arts funds
The OISD school board on Oct. 24 approved the purchase of the district’s second new school bus in a year. The district waited more than a year to take delivery of the first bus, ordered in August of 2021, because of COVID-related supply chain issues but found the second bus at a lot in the Metroplex, OISD Superintendent Dr. Greg Roach said. “We’ve got one bus that has an engine that’s … cratered. We have another bus in for repairs and another bus that reached end-of-life that we are going to auction,” he said. The school board also voted to accept more than $63,000 in unclaimed utility funds given to the district by Young County Commissioners for fine arts and literacy programs, Dr. Roach said. He has asked the district’s three principals to come up with plans for how to spend the funds.