City Council briefs
The Olney City Council met on Aug. 14 in a regular meeting and discussed the following business. All members were present.
Water
Olney Public Works Director Michael Jacoba said the City experienced a loss of water pressure as the OVFD pulled water from fire station hydrants to fight the Campbell Ranch fire. For four days in August, water tankers lined up to fill up from the hydrants in order to supply the fire trucks at the frontlines of the 8000acre fire.
“When y’all are going to fight fires close to town and y’all are pulling water from our system, could y’all please let me know so I can make sure everything stays filled up and we don’t run the town out of water?” Mr. Jacoba asked Chief Pulliam. “I don’t care how much water you use, I just want to make sure everybody else has got water while you’re pulling, and I don’t want to get in any trouble with the State for water pressure being low. That way I can get over to the plant and start kicking pumps on.”
Mr. Jacoba said the City showed a 2.5 million gallon discrepancy between water usage and billing for water in July. “The discrepancy was a little higher this month but that’s when they started fighting more fires so some of that water was unaccounted for,” he said.
Mayor Pro Tem Tom Parker and City Administrator Arpegea Pagsuberon discussed instituting a system for accounting for water drawn from the system for firefighting.
“From our perspective, we do need it because every year Michael has to submit a water audit to the state, and if we have a huge discrepancy it looks bad on our end,” Mrs. Pagsuberon said. “So we do have to have some kind of log sheet.”
Update on Elm Street construction
The scope of a planned $350,000 construction project slated for Elm Street was expanded to include parts of Western Avenue after engineers discovered the project would be simpler than planned, City Administrator Arpegea Pagsuberon told the City Council. The grant-funded project to repave Elm Street was expanded after planners learned that the water and sewer lines were located in the alley and inside the curbs, and not under the street, Mrs. Pagsuberon said. The City’s engineers, Corlett, Probst & Boyd will hire an engineer after the plans are finalized, she said. “We are not there yet because we had to go through a scope change,” she said. “It set us back a couple of months.”
ARPA grant update
The City is looking for additional vendors to bid on several purchases that it plans to make with American Rescue Plan Act funds left over from the COVID pandemic. The City is looking to buy a dump trailer, an asphalt roller, a Dodge Durango SUV, a clamp bucket, and a radar feedback sign, City Administrator Arpegea Pagsuberon said. “We currently have two quotes for the dump trailer [for the person who picks up limbs], one for the asphalt roller, one for the Dodge Durango … the clamp bucket and radar feedback sign. I also have two quotes, and need a third vendor for both of those,” she said. The City also is preparing a request for purchase for a backhoe loader and a four-by-four backhoe, she said.
Shipping containers
The City Council approved an ordinance to allow residents to use shipping containers as storage sheds but stripped a provision that would have let residents run water and sewer lines to the structures.
The proposed ordinance allows the shipping containers to be placed in R2 and R3 zones for single-family homes but restricts them in the R1 single-family zone, which includes higher-value properties in the Country Club area.
Although the draft ordinance prohibits using the shipping container as a residence, Mayor Pro Tem Tom Parker pointed out that allowing water lines could create headaches for the code enforcement officer. “Because you allow water you have to have a sewer. It now becomes an enforcement issue that somebody’s not living in the thing. Because you’ve set them up to be able to do that,” he said.
Councilmember Tommy Kimbro, who said he planned to install a shipping container on his property, agreed to limit utility services to electricity only.
Mr. Parker also pointed out that people leasing property at Lake Olney could, in theory, place shipping containers on their lots and run water, sewer, and electric lines to them under the draft ordinance.
The Council removed the word “plumbing” from the draft ordinance and unanimously passed the amended version of the ordinance, setting a $500 fine for each violation.
New lots for sale
The City put a list of 10 foreclosed lots up for bid on the Texas Communities Group website, texascg. com. The lots include: 409 E. Elm St., zoned B3 Central Business District, for a minimum bid of $2,064.14; 707 N. Grand Ave., zoned R3 Residential (single family, duplex, triplex, quadplex, manufactured home), for a minimum bid of $1,537.29; 103 E. Church St., zoned R3 Residential, for a minimum bid of $4,099; 605 N. Ave. E, zoned R3 Residential, for a minimum bid of $2,096.86; 611 S. Ave. B, zoned R3 Residential, for a minimum bid of $2,018.33; 609 S. Ave. B, zoned R3 Residential, for a minimum bid of $2,018.33; 504 W. Main St., zoned B3 Central Business District for a minimum bid of $11,692.68 709 S. Ave. C, zoned R3 Residential, for a minimum bid of $2,380.43 106 S. Ave. H, zoned R3 Residential, for a minimum bid of $3,248.50 411 E. Elm St., zoned B3 Residential, for a minimum bid of $4,933.13 City publicizes help for overdue water, wastewater bills The City of Olney is urging low-income residents who are having trouble paying their water and wastewater bills to apply to a state program that will pay overdue water and wastewater bills and chip in $85 per month per approved household through Dec. 31.
If the resident is approved for the program, Texas Utility Help will automatically send payments to the applicant’s water and wastewater provider – the City of Olney, the program’s website, TexasUtilityHelp. com, said.
Olney households have seen their water bills increase by at least $35 per month since last November because of a per-meter surcharge to help defray the cost of the city’s new water treatment plant. The City issued $13.5 million in revenue bonds last year to build the new plant to replace the 102-year-old existing utility. City Administrator Arpegea Pagsuberon said citizens may call or come by City Hall for help with the online application.
To qualify for the Texas Utility Help program, applicants must be homeowners or renters living in Texas, with household incomes at or below 150 percent of Federal Poverty Income Guidelines (chart is available on the website). At least one occupant in the household must be a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, or qualified alien, the website said.
For additional information about the program, please visit TexasUtilityHelp.com, and click the ‘Apply Now’ button to start the application. For questions, call toll-free: 1-855-566-2057, Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-6 p.m.