What’s Happening in Town

House of Mercy to keep mowing contract

The House of Mercy will keep its contract to mow city properties for $20 per lot, the city council voted May 9. The city began contracting House of Mercy to mow in 2020, Interim City Administrator Arpegea Pagsuberon said. The contract included a $40 fee for new, overgrown lots, she said. The new contract is essentially the same, but the city has created a mowing schedule and will ask Animal Control Officer Hollie Hawkins to monitor when the lots are mowed, Pagsuberon said. The mowing has revealed a couple of houses previously hidden by tall grasses and debris, Mayor Pro Tem Tom Parker said.

OISD hires two new basketball coaches

The OISD board of trustees approved contracts May 10 for two new coaches who faced off against each other in nine State championships when both coached in New Mexico. The board hired Rhyan Daugherty from Idalou as its new girls’ coordinator and head girls’ basketball coach, and his erstwhile rival Caleb King from Melrose, New Mexico, as assistant girls’ basketball coach. Daugherty told the board that he convinced King to come to Olney, even though King had bested him at State. Daugherty brought his 16-year-old daughter Aubrey to the board meeting and said his four other children and wife would be joining him in Olney. King and his wife expect their first child later this year, he told the board.

City extends cleanup

The city has extended its Spring Cleanup Week until crews busy with water pipe breaks last week can pick up discarded items still sitting on residents’ curbs, said Interim City Administrator Arpegea Pagsuberon. The broken pipes “took almost three whole days out, so they had to jump on [pickups] Wednesday, and then they worked on it part of Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, but they couldn’t get it all,” she said. Crews will continue picking up items already set out on curbs until they complete the cleanup. “Just because we extended it doesn’t mean we are extending the time for [residents] to set stuff out,” Pagsuberon said. “We are extending it so that our people will have time to pick up what got left out. It’s not like Friday came and we didn’t get to you, you’re out of luck. A couple of things take precedence like water infrastructure.”

City uses FEMA funds for new generators

The City Council OK’d matching a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant to allow the City of Olney to purchase seven new generators, including four portable generators. The City would pay for 10 percent of the purchase price of the generators, which are “surprisingly hard to find,” Interim City Administrator Arpegea Pagsuberon told the Council May 9.

She said that the two largest generators are needed at the water treatment plant, with portable generators slated for Lake Kickapoo Reservoir, water intake, two wastewater lift stations, and a water pump station. TCEQ required the City to submit an Emergency Preparedness Plan for the Water Treatment Plant with power source protection by March 1, 2022, with a year for implementation.