City Council Briefs

Council tables bids on foreclosed lots The Olney City Council asked City Administrator Simon Dwyer to gather more information about a Southlake, Texas company that bid on two city-owned lots.

At its July 22 meeting, the Council discussed whether to accept the bids on foreclosed lots at 609 S. Avenue B and 611 S, Avenue B from KMRE Investments.

The company met the minimum bid and indicated it planned to pull permits for single family homes within six months and to begin building six months after receiving the permits, City Secretary Tammy Hourigan told the Council.

KMRE recently purchased a foreclosed lot at 605 N. Avenue E where it planned to build affordable housing for families, she said.

The proposed sales of the lots at about $2,000 apiece “are a net loss now but will be a net gain when they get back on the tax rolls,” Mr. Dwyer said.

“We do need to encourage development on it - that’s positive but I would like to have some accountability,” Mayor Rue Rogers said.

The Council has struggled in recent years with how to ensure that buyers of the city-owned lots develop them quickly to meet an urgent need for housing.

The City has had a problem with out-oftown buyers snapping up the lots at cheap prices and sitting on them for years, or failing to maintain them and pay taxes on them.

The City is close to standing up a building department to oversee permitting and approving plans for homebuilders, Mayor Rogers said.

Water use rises

Public Works Director Michael Jacoba said Olneyites have turned up the spigots after the Council lifted the Phase 2 drought restrictions last month.

The City’s water plant is producing 650,000 gallons per day, up from about 500,000 gallons, he said.

The revenue from water sales, part of which will fund the new water treatment plant, should rise as a result, he said.

The lake level was at 1,139 feet or 86 percent, he said.

FY 2024-25 budget in the works

The City Council could vote on the new fiscal year budget as soon as Aug. 14, City Administrator Simon Dwyer said.

Mr. Dwyer also was working on presenting the new bid for the water treatment plant to the Council at their Aug. 15 meeting.