City Department report monthly stats
City departments made their monthly reports for April during the May 8 City Council meeting.
The Olney Police Department answered 128 calls for service in April, and made 14 arrests, Chief Dan Birbeck told the City Council at its May 8 meeting. OPD offices wrote 178 warnings during traffic stops and issued 42 citations, he said. K9 Bond and his handler, Cpl. Miranda Wright deployed three times on one detection and two patrol deployments, despite spending a week in Abilene at a K9 competition and a week on vacation, he said. The K9 team seized four items during those deployments. Cpl. Joe Logan took over his full-time code enforcement duties at the end of last month, Chief Birbeck said. He left eight door hangers detailing code violations, tagged 12 cars, issued 13 permits and made 32 calls for service to cease work orders and mailed out 25 warning letters about violations, he said. “We also had him go around and inspect all of the city-owned properties to make sure that we were in compliance before we start doing any enforcement on the public,” he said. Animal control picked up 13 loose animals and Olney EMS responded to 65 calls and the Olney Volunteer Fire Department went out on seven calls in April, he said.
City Secretary Tammy Hourigan reported that $13.5 million in revenue bonds, earmarked for a new water treatment plant, have earned $57,685.59 in interest as city officials wait for the state’s environmental agency to approve plans for the facility. Year-to-date, the bonds have earned $218, 737.17, she said.
She said surveys of the lots at Lake Olney are underway. “[The surveyor] is working on it. He did give us a verbal quote of about a thousand dollars for each lot, and we have at least 30.”
City Administrator Arpegea Pagsuberon reported that Olney’s Annual Clean-Up Day went “a little smoother” because the Public Works crews split into two teams to pick up large items from the north and south sides of town simultaneously. “For the most part, people set their stuff out by Monday, and that’s the way we’re doing it moving forward,” she said. “Set your stuff out by Monday at 8 o’clock and it takes them most of the week to get around town picking it up.”
City officials are still waiting for its engineers to resubmit plans for the water treatment plant to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, and were unsure what problems needed to be addressed, Mrs. Pagsuberon said.
“The action items coming out of that is we’ve got to get everything answered and then communicate, get that back to TCEQ as fast as possible because we’re playing this back-and-forth game and we’re waiting and we need to be moving,” Mayor Pro Tem Tom Parker said.
The Public Works Department mowed Restland and Pioneer cemeteries and Tommy Perkins and Tom Griffin parks four times in April, Public Works Director Michael Jacoba said. “We dedicated individuals to each of those locations, so that is what they do all the time unless we had something like the Clean-Up last week,” he said.
The elevation of Lake Cooper was 1132.5 feet - still below the level necessary to lift the Drought Contingency Phase 2 plan, he said. The lake caught about two inches of rain as of May 8, he said.
Public Works trucks will start spraying for mosquitos on Wednesday and Friday nights between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., he said. The trucks will spray the north side of town on Wednesdays and the south side on Fridays, he said.
The department also added a new property to its maintenance list last month - the Olney Savings and Loan building at 300 E. Main St., he said. The City is getting help from residents at the House of Mercy to clear brush and mow, he said.