[0:08] Notice is hereby given for a meeting of the City Council of the City of Cuero to be
[0:12] held on August 10th, 2026 at 5:00 PM, located at City Hall Council
[0:18] Chambers for the purpose of considering the following agenda items.
[0:23] The City Council of the City of Cuero will meet, consider, deliberate, and may take
[0:29] action on all agenda items. I now call this meeting to order and go
[0:34] into roll call. District One, Mr. Henson?
[0:39] Here.
[0:39] District Two, Mr. Glover?
[0:41] Here.
[0:41] District Three, Mr. Allen?
[0:43] Here.
[0:44] District Four, Mr. Adams?
[0:47] Here.
[0:47] At large, Mr. Arroyo?
[0:49] Here.
[0:49] And at large, Mr. Townley?
[0:51] Here.
[0:51] All right. Thank you. We have a full council, and I now announce a quorum.
[0:57] Before we get into the body of the meeting, we are going to have an invocation led
[1:02] by James K. Crain III, and the pledge of allegiance to the American flag and the
[1:08] Texas flag, led by Terry Glover. Please stand.
[1:13] Let us all pray. Dear wise and loving Father, we thank you on behalf of all who
[1:18] have gathered here today. Thank you for your blessings.
[1:21] Thank you for the ability to be involved in useful work, for the honor of bearing
[1:25] appropriate responsibilities. We pray for our mayor and these council members, that
[1:29] you grant them the knowledge and the wisdom and the understanding of the needs of
[1:34] our community. We pray, dear Lord, for the agenda you have set before us today.
[1:38] Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
[1:40] Amen.
[1:44] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the
[1:49] Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
[1:55] justice for all.
[1:57] I honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God,
[2:04] one and indivisible.
[2:11] Moving on to section 2, public comment.
[2:16] This is an opportunity for the public to address council on concerns not on the
[2:21] agenda. It is limited to two minutes per House Bill 3636.
[2:28] Is there anyone who's got any green cards? No. All right.
[2:32] Moving on to section 3, presentation and recognitions.
[2:38] 3.1, introduction of new police officer, Officer Mark Torres. Chief?
[2:46] Mayor, Council, I want to introduce our newest officer. This is Mark Torres.
[2:52] Mark spent some time with College Station PD and in Webb County, correct?
[2:58] And wanted to get back closer to home, so he is now officially a Cuero resident
[3:03] and has been with us since the 20th. So, he brings a lot of experience with him.
[3:09] So we're glad to have him on board. With him today is his family and who do you
[3:14] have, Kenny?
[3:15] My fiancée.
[3:16] His fiancée. So come up here.
[3:19] Okay, I understand mom and dad is here too?
[3:21] Yes.
[3:21] Yeah. Have them either get up, we can all acknowledge you. Yeah.
[3:27] That is awesome.
[3:28] All right. So if you go right out here. All right. You can stay up if you want.
[3:35] Don't stick them too...
[3:36] Yeah. Don't hurt them too bad.
[3:37] Here's your chance.
[3:38] Yeah.
[3:49] All right. Y'all get a photo together and then we'll get the rest of the family up
[3:53] here as well.
[3:55] Yes, come on up. Mom, Dad.
[4:08] She's excited.
[4:11] Cheese. Cheese.
[4:23] Thank you.
[4:24] Okay. Thank you all.
[4:34] Thanks, Chief. All right. Moving on to Section 4, the consent agenda.
[4:41] Does anyone wish to pull an item from the consent agenda for discussion?
[4:48] All right. Seeing no discussion, is there any action by
[4:54] council on the consent agenda?
[4:59] Mr. Glover?
[5:00] I make a motion that we accept the consent agenda.
[5:04] All right. Mr. Glover has made a motion that we accept the consent agenda as
[5:09] presented.
[5:10] Second.
[5:10] Mr. Allen has seconded the motion. All in favor say aye. Aye. All right.
[5:16] Consent agenda is approved as written and presented. All right.
[5:22] Moving on to Section 5, resolutions.
[5:27] 5.1, consider, discuss, and take possible action on Resolution Number
[5:33] 2026-30, approving and awarding the bid for the City of
[5:39] Cuero Stockdale Avenue waterline replacement. Mr. Crain?
[5:45] Resolution Number 2026-30, a resolution of the City Council/City of Cuero, Texas
[5:50] approving, accepting, and awarding the bid for the City of Cuero Stockdale Avenue
[5:54] waterline replacement to Mercer Construction.
[5:59] All right. Mr. Berger?
[6:02] Mayor, Council, on July 15th at 2:00 PM, we received closed seal bids, two bids for
[6:08] this project, one from Mercer Construction and one from JR Contracting Services.
[6:13] The total base bid,
[6:16] we did receive a recommendation from our engineer, Urban, to award the total base
[6:21] bid to Mercer Construction, who was the low bid.
[6:24] The total base bid is just the bore underneath the railroad tracks only.
[6:28] There was also an alternate bid one,
[6:32] plus the bid number one, I didn't do the math here, but for about another
[6:37] $54,000,
[6:40] they would extend after the bore and connect to Main Street.
[6:44] I've talked to Ronnie, the water wastewater supervisor, and they want to just do
[6:49] the bore itself, for $123,220, and then in-house they will finish out the waterline
[6:55] and connect it on Main Street. And they can do that project right around $5,000 or
[7:01] $6,000 in-house and save that money for other projects.
[7:04] This will take place, if you recall, it's in next year's budget, so the work will
[7:08] not take place until after the weekend of Turkey Fest, at some point afterwards, so
[7:13] we don't have anything torn up down here near Main Street during that time.
[7:18] All right. Thank you, Mr. Berger. Is there any discussion, any questions for Mr.
[7:22] Berger concerning Resolution Number 2026-30?
[7:29] Hearing no discussion, is there any action from council on Resolution Number
[7:34] 2026-30?
[7:36] Make a motion that we go ahead and accept Resolution 2026-30 and award the bid to
[7:41] the City of Cuero Stockdale Avenue waterline replacement to Mercer Construction.
[7:46] Mr. Townley has made a motion that we accept Resolution Number
[7:50] 2026-30.
[7:53] Second.
[7:54] Mr. Allen has seconded the motion. All in favor say aye. Aye.
[7:59] All opposed respond with nay.
[8:02] Ayes have it. Resolution Number 2026-30 is hereby
[8:08] approved unanimously. Moving on to 5.2, consider,
[8:14] discuss, and take possible action on Resolution Number
[8:18] 2026-31 for environmental assessment services
[8:24] under the
[8:25] TXCDBG-Street Sewer
[8:31] and Storm Sewer Improvements, which is grant
[8:35] CDV25-0178. Mr. Crain?
[8:41] Resolution Number 2026-31. Resolution of City Council/City of Cuero, Texas
[8:47] awarding a contract between the City of Cuero and Public Management Services in the
[8:52] amount of $9,500 to provide administrative services environmental
[8:58] assessment for the 2025 TXCDBG Street Sewer and
[9:04] Storm Sewer Improvement Grant, CDV25-0178, and
[9:10] authorizing the execution of said agreement by the city manager.
[9:14] Hey, Miss Stephanie.
[9:16] Thank you, Mayor and Council. This is going to be our new contract with the Texas
[9:21] Department of Agriculture, a $750,000 project that the city is matching with
[9:27] $75,000 of funds for the work on West Morgan from Esplanade to
[9:32] Douglas Street. I will in-house administer the entire project except
[9:38] for the environmental, because they take about a good three months of intense work,
[9:43] so we're going to hire a consultant to do just the environmental assessment on this
[9:48] so as to free up my time to do other things.
[9:52] Awesome. And you said how much was the grant? $750,000.
[9:55] The grant is $750,000. And the $9,500 is in the grant to-
[9:59] Okay
[10:00] ... pay for that service.
[10:01] Okay.
[10:03] This is the project that's going to take place on West Morgan from Esplanade to
[10:07] Douglas.
[10:08] Correct.
[10:08] It's going to have some
[10:10] sewer improvements, curb and gutter, and some drainage improvements in there.
[10:15] Yes.
[10:15] And then rehab the street.
[10:16] Rehab the street, yes.
[10:18] Okay. Is there any discussions or any questions from Council concerning resolution
[10:24] number 2026-31?
[10:28] Is this going on?
[10:33] So by the time we get to them, it'll be next year's.
[10:37] And the grant funds, it's a kind of an in and out. Nothing... Yeah.
[10:44] But it's there.
[10:45] Yeah, it is. The $75,000 of the city funds would actually be next year as well,
[10:50] because we have to do the environmental first before we can bid out the project,
[10:54] and it'll be a year from now.
[10:56] I'd say hopefully this time next year we'll actually be going out for bids.
[10:59] We'll be under construction. Yeah.
[10:59] Right.
[10:59] Yeah.
[11:00] Getting ready for construction.
[11:01] Cool. All right. Any more questions on
[11:05] 2026-31?
[11:09] Is there any action from Council on resolution number 2026-31? Mr. Allen.
[11:14] Motion to adopt the resolution
[11:18] 2026-31. Mr. Allen has made a motion that we adopt resolution number 2026-31. Mr.
[11:23] Henson has second the motion. All in favor say aye. Aye.
[11:27] All opposed, respond with a nay.
[11:31] You always have it. Resolution number 2026-31 is hereby approved
[11:37] unanimously. Thank you very much. All right. Moving on to 5.3.
[11:41] Discuss, consider, and possible action on Resolution 2026-32,
[11:47] authorizing the request for bids for the Fryer Ag Building expansion and
[11:53] improvement project. Mr. Crank. I need that resolution. It is not in my book.
[12:01] I don't have it. Is it on the screen? Is it on the screen?
[12:05] Right here.
[12:09] Oh,
[12:14] here.
[12:17] Okay.
[12:19] Yeah, that's all I got.
[12:21] I think this is the resolution we adopted
[12:24] as an action item.
[12:26] Yeah. It should've been a action.
[12:29] A resolution.
[12:30] Okay. This is not it.
[12:33] Yeah, it's just to authorize the city to move forward with going out with this.
[12:39] When you approve the bid, then you have to come back with a resolution authorizing
[12:44] the contract.
[12:46] Okay. So that would be an action item then?
[12:48] Still an action item.
[12:49] Right. But we don't have it listed as an action item. No, it's under resolutions.
[12:53] So we have to have a resolution in order to- Solution ... table it.
[12:58] I think, can we still have discussion on it?
[12:59] At this point, we're not ready to go out to bid tomorrow- Okay. Good question ...
[13:02] but we could have some individuals here.
[13:04] We can have a discussion and get ready to move forward. Okay. Thank you. Got it.
[13:06] Okay. We can do that.
[13:09] All right. Mr. Burger, then. You're on.
[13:12] Mayor, Council, as you recall,
[13:16] probably six, seven months ago, we hired TSG Architects to work with the City of
[13:20] Cuero and Cuero Livestock, Inc, with an addition, I believe around 8,500 square
[13:25] foot-
[13:26] It's 8,500.
[13:27] 8,500 to the rear, what I would call the west side-
[13:31] Yes, sir
[13:31] ... of the current Fryar Ag Center.
[13:33] As well as it looks like we're adding around an 1,800 square foot drive-through
[13:37] covered area.
[13:39] We've got to the point now where we've the plans, and you'll see in your packet
[13:44] some renderings of what they say. They do have a projected cost estimate right now,
[13:49] right around $1.4 million. This is a project that Cuero Livestock would like to
[13:55] see move forward and have completed by the stock show, which is at the end of
[13:59] February, beginning of March.
[14:01] Yeah, end of... Yes, sir. That should be about right. Yeah.
[14:03] So we do have-
[14:04] That would be our plan, if we can.
[14:06] We do have Mr. Greg Gossett here to give a little more detail about this project
[14:10] and answer any questions that y'all might have.
[14:12] Yeah, I think I can. Well, thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Council, for giving us
[14:16] a chance to come and speak to you. I would like to say before we start on that,
[14:20] that we had our rodeo this past weekend, and it was very successful.
[14:25] I want to thank the city for all their help.
[14:27] David Danis is always very helpful to us in getting ready for that, and Wayne and
[14:33] all the other staff. So the rodeo was very successful Friday and Saturday night,
[14:38] and
[14:40] real good attendance. But what we're trying to do, and as I mentioned when I was
[14:44] here before, and you can see the rendered drawings, is we're trying to add on about
[14:49] 8,500 square feet to the west end of the Ag Center.
[14:54] And the main purpose of that is to bring our commercial heifers up to the show and
[14:59] not house them at the auction barn.
[15:01] We've had to do that for several years because the number of pens that we had, we
[15:07] just could no longer house them there. So our goal is to try to do that.
[15:11] And with this add-on, it will give us enough square footage to
[15:17] probably have at least 100 pens, which should hold us for quite some time.
[15:24] We do have some money. We've had a couple of, or one particular nice
[15:32] donation by the Fryer Thomas Foundation for $300,000.
[15:37] We have some money. So at this point, we probably have about a half a million
[15:42] dollars, but we're also talking to some other people about that so that we can
[15:47] hopefully get close to that $1.4 million.
[15:51] I never would've thought when Tim made that estimate that this project would be
[15:56] that much, but everything is getting so high. But it will have water.
[16:02] It's all concrete, so it can be used for other events.
[16:06] I think that's what's cool about the whole thing is that you can open that up from,
[16:11] say, that office all the way to the back and someone else can use it for, if all
[16:16] the pens are removed, you could use it, Turkey Fest or anybody that would like
[16:22] to could get that facility. But we will have water, electricity, the big
[16:28] fans in it. But our goal is to try to finish this, and Tim has us on a schedule.
[16:35] Now if we can go out for bids, and if everything goes right, we'll be through
[16:40] before the stock show.
[16:44] When is the stock show?
[16:45] End of February, 1st of March. I can't remember the exact-
[16:48] Yeah.
[16:48] I remember the... Oh, I also have with me Mr.
[16:51] Greg Nemet, who is the FFA Ag teacher here at Cuero, and Mr.
[16:56] Ty Ludike, who's also a director.
[16:59] Thank you.
[16:59] Sorry, fellas, I should've introduced you at first.
[17:02] Does the board first start the 1st of March?
[17:04] 1st of March.
[17:05] 1st of March. Okay.
[17:07] I think we can do it if we... It just takes time.
[17:11] Yes, sir.
[17:13] Okay. Council, I do want to just remind you that the building is a city building.
[17:16] It is a city asset. Look on our sheet that we talked during budget workshops, and
[17:20] Mr. Gossett in the past, this is whenever we get ready to approve bids.
[17:25] Because it is our building, they're unable to go use it as collateral for loans.
[17:29] They are asking the city to help contribute as a loan and
[17:36] pay us back. At that time, we'll have a better idea of whenever we're ready to
[17:39] approve bids, what that number might be that it might be asking for.
[17:44] We do have money in the general fund of our revenue and do have enough to make some
[17:48] sort of agreement. We have checked with our auditors, and
[17:52] we should have no issues. Even if we choose to
[17:58] do a no-interest loan as part of our contribution to this project, they definitely
[18:04] recommend having an agreement drafted with the dollar amount as determined and
[18:08] include a proposed repayment schedule.
[18:10] So this is something that we can do, and auditors have signed off on.
[18:16] Also, just want to point out one other area in the back. This is also utilized.
[18:20] Billy, you might have something to say to this.
[18:22] During Hurricane Harvey, this area is utilized for
[18:26] animal center relocation area.
[18:30] Oh, yeah. It's utilized for the shelter, and then we've also just recently finished
[18:36] a reunification
[18:39] with the school.
[18:42] That's awesome. That's good. A place for them to take shelter in.
[18:45] It'll be nice when we get it done.
[18:48] Okay. And I apologize for the confusion.
[18:50] We'll get this
[18:52] fixed up. And like I said, we weren't ready to go out to bid tomorrow.
[18:54] We can still get our dates in order and get ready to move forward.
[18:58] Does anybody here have any questions-
[19:00] Questions
[19:00] ... in regards to this or concerns with this project moving forward?
[19:07] We have to have a special meeting for this one?
[19:08] Well, my recommendation is going to be to have a special meeting so we can get
[19:10] that, and also I was going to recommend that there's still some hot funds that me
[19:16] and Justin need to sit down and look at.
[19:17] We did receive some payments,
[19:19] and we need to finalize those in our final budget before we adopt the budget in
[19:24] September. So I was going to recommend a special meeting just for hot funds, and we
[19:28] can add this topic to it and get this moving forward.
[19:31] That'd be great.
[19:34] Thank you very much.
[19:35] Thank you, Mr. Gausset. Thanks for what you all do. All right.
[19:39] So seeing that
[19:42] we can't take any action on item 5.3 tonight, do I
[19:48] hear a motion that we postpone any action on 5.3 for the next
[19:53] scheduled
[19:56] council meeting?
[19:57] Table?
[19:59] Postpone would be-
[20:02] Postpone.
[20:04] Postpone. Okay.
[20:05] For the next scheduled meeting. All right. Mr.
[20:08] Kelly's made a motion that we table 5.3 or postpone 5.3 to the
[20:14] next scheduled meeting. Mr. Hansen has seconded the motion.
[20:19] All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed respond with a nay. Ayes have it.
[20:25] Item 5.3 is postponed till the next scheduled meeting. All right.
[20:31] Moving on to Section VI, Ordinances. 6.1, Emergency Reading.
[20:37] 6.1.1. Discuss, consider, and possible action on emergency reading
[20:43] of Ordinance 2026-14, authorizing and approving a right-of-way
[20:49] easement for electric distribution lines, fiber optic, and other communications
[20:55] equipment and facilities from the City of Cuero as grantor to
[21:00] Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative as grantee
[21:06] upon and over real property being across that certain
[21:11] 20.69 acre tract of land in the Jose Antonio Valdez and
[21:17] Gonzales League, Abstract 47 in DeWitt County, Texas, and authorizing the mayor's
[21:23] execution of said right of way and easement. Mr. Crane.
[21:28] Ordinance number 2026-14 of the Ordinances of the City of Cuero, Texas,
[21:34] authorizing and approving a right-of-way easement for electric distribution lines,
[21:39] fiber optic, and other communications equipment and facilities from the City of
[21:44] Cuero as grantor to Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative as grantee upon and over
[21:50] real property being across that certain 20.69 acre tract of land in the Jose
[21:56] Antonio Valdez Gonzales League, Abstract 47 in DeWitt County, Texas, and
[22:01] authorizing the mayor's execution of said right-of-way easement and a declaring of
[22:05] emergency.
[22:06] Mr. Berger.
[22:07] Mayor, Council, this is the portion of the property, the five acres that we leased
[22:11] to Caprock about a year and a half, two years ago.
[22:13] They're moving forward with their battery project on our Cheatham property, and
[22:17] this is an easement. If you look at the map, Exhibit A, toward the back, it is
[22:22] only the small portion, Exhibit B .069 acres, 3,000 square feet.
[22:31] It looks like a much bigger, but that is the substation itself, and that is a
[22:34] separate easement that they are working on with LCRA.
[22:37] So this is just to allow the lines from the substation to come in and get to the
[22:41] batteries and to the transformers on our property.
[22:45] Okay. Is there any discussion or any questions for Mr.
[22:49] Berger on Ordinance
[22:53] 2026-14?
[22:56] Is there any action from Council on Ordinance
[23:01] 2026-14 Emergency Reading? Mr. Adams.
[23:07] I move that we approve Ordinance 2026-14.
[23:09] Mr. Adams has moved that we approve Ordinance
[23:13] 2026-14 Emergency Reading.
[23:17] Mr. Allen has seconded the motion. All in favor say aye. Aye.
[23:22] All opposed, respond with a nay. The ayes have it.
[23:26] Ordinance 2026-14 is hereby approved at emergency
[23:32] reading unanimously. Thank you very much.
[23:35] Moving on to 6.2, First Reading of an Ordinance.
[23:40] 6.2.1. Discuss, consider, and possible action on first
[23:46] reading of Ordinance 2026-09, Sewer and Wastewater
[23:52] Rate Adjustment Amendment. Mr. Crane.
[23:55] This is Ordinance number 2025-09, which should be
[24:01] 2026.
[24:04] 2026.
[24:05] Is that right?
[24:06] Yes, sir.
[24:06] Or no, 2026-09. The Ordinances of the City of Cuero, Texas, amending the
[24:12] Code of Ordinances of the City of Cuero, Appendix A, Fee Schedule.
[24:16] Article A6.000, Utility Rates and Charges,
[24:22] Division Four, Sewer Service, Wastewater.
[24:25] Section A6.091, Monthly Rates. A, inside city
[24:31] limits, and B, outside the city limits, making detailed findings related thereto,
[24:36] repealing all ordinances, parts, and clauses in conflict therewith, providing for a
[24:41] severability clause, and prescribing an effective date.
[24:43] This is the first reading of two.
[24:46] Mr. Berger.
[24:47] Mayor, Council, as discussed during our budget workshops, this is an increase on
[24:51] the wastewater rate. If you look at the very back of the-- You go through the
[24:56] ordinance, we have a '25, '26 comparison where you can actually see what the
[25:00] current rates are and what the proposed rate would be.
[25:03] The monthly base rate is currently $17.61. It would be moving to $19.
[25:09] The volumetric rate is $5.90 per thousand, moving to $6.20 per thousand.
[25:14] And then if you look down, you can see some industrial rates inside and outside the
[25:19] city limits. Put that in perspective,
[25:23] with the current rate of-- We base wastewater on your bills on winter averaging if
[25:28] you're residential. That is during the months of December, January, February, so it
[25:31] is based on your water usage during those three months.
[25:35] That way, in the summertime when individuals are watering or doing anything like
[25:38] that, it does not take and bill you sewer for what you're putting on your yard, is
[25:42] the thought process behind winter averaging.
[25:45] With this increase, if you use 10,000 gallons of water, was
[25:51] what your wastewater, your sewer bill was based on, your old rate would be $76.61.
[25:57] With the new rate, it would move your bill to $81. That's a $4.39 increase.
[26:03] So if you use 10,000 gallons, basically you're paying, at the new rate, $2.61
[26:09] per day, to have your wastewater treated.
[26:13] These would go into effect on October 1st.
[26:16] It would not be seen on any customer's bill until the bill they received in
[26:20] November for October's usage.
[26:25] All right. Is there any discussion or
[26:31] questions for Mr. Berger on first reading of Ordinance 2026-09?
[26:38] Is there any action from Council on the first reading of Ordinance 2026-09?
[26:44] Mr. Allen.
[26:46] Motion to adopt the ordinance
[26:52] 2026-09.
[26:52] 2026. Okay. Mr. Allen's made a motion that we adopt Ordinance
[26:56] 2026-09.
[27:04] Mr. Arroyo? Second the motion. All in favor, say aye.
[27:10] Aye. All opposed, respond with a nay.
[27:13] All right. Ordinance 2026-09 is adopted upon first reading.
[27:20] Thank you very much. All right. Moving on to 6.2.2,
[27:25] discuss, consider, and possible action on first reading of Ordinance
[27:30] 2026-10, Water and Bulk Water Rate Adjustment
[27:36] Amendment. Mr. Crane.
[27:37] Ordinance number 2026-10, Ordinance of the City Council of the City of Cuero,
[27:41] Texas, amending Appendix A, Fee Schedule, Article A6.000, Utility
[27:47] Rates and Charges, Division 5, Water Service, Section A6.121, Monthly Rates,
[27:54] A, inside city limits, and B, outside city limits, and Section
[28:00] A6.121 (c) , Bulk Water Rate, of the City of Cuero's Code of Ordinances, making
[28:06] detailed findings related thereto, repealing all ordinances or parts of ordinances
[28:10] in conflict therewith, providing for a severability clause, and prescribing an
[28:13] effective date.
[28:16] Mr. Berger.
[28:17] Mayor, Council, again, on this one, similar to the other one, if you go to the back
[28:21] of the ordinance, you have a comparison.
[28:24] Comparing on the residential 5/8 by 3/4 meter, which is what the majority of the
[28:30] residents have, you would be moving the base charge from $15 to $16.
[28:34] And then the volumetric rate, which we do in tiers, 0 to 10,000 would go from
[28:40] 250 to 262. 10,000 to 20,000 would go from 374 to 392.
[28:46] 20,000 to 50,000 gallons would go from 496 to 520.
[28:50] 50,000 gallons above would go from 742 to 779.
[28:55] We are also going up on the bulk water customers from $15.50 to $16 per
[29:00] thousand. That being said, if you have a residential meter and you use
[29:06] 10,000 gallons of water,
[29:09] the old rate you would be paying $40, the new rate you'd be paying $42.20 per
[29:14] month. And that would cost you roughly $1.36 per day, is what it averages out
[29:20] to for the full year.
[29:24] Okay. Is there any discussion, any questions from Council
[29:30] for Mr. Berger on Ordinance 2026-10?
[29:36] Hearing no discussion, is there any action by Council on Ordinance
[29:40] 2026-10 first reading?
[29:45] I make a motion to approve Ordinance 2026-10.
[29:47] All right. Mr. Connolly has made a motion that we approve Ordinance 2026-10 first
[29:52] reading. Mr. Glover has seconded the motion. All in favor say aye.
[29:57] Aye.
[29:58] All opposed, respond with a nay.
[30:01] The ayes have it. Ordinance 2026-10 is here approved
[30:07] first reading unanimously. Thank you very much.
[30:10] Moving on to 6.2.3, discuss, consider, and possible action
[30:16] on first reading of Ordinance 2026-11, Amend the Solid
[30:22] Waste Garbage Charge Rate Adjustment Amendment. Mr. Crane.
[30:28] Ordinance number 2026-11, Ordinance of the City Council of the City of Cuero,
[30:32] Texas, amending the Code of Ordinances of the City of Cuero, Appendix A, Fee
[30:37] Schedule, Article A6.000, Utility Rates and Charges, Division 3,
[30:43] Solid Waste Collection, Section A6.361 ,
[30:49] Rate Schedules, making detailed findings related thereto, repealing all ordinances
[30:54] or parts of ordinances in conflict therewith, providing for a severability clause,
[30:58] and prescribing an effective date.
[31:00] Mr. Berger.
[31:02] Mayor, Council, this is our TDS contract.
[31:04] It does have a 4%
[31:07] increase annually that we are going into year two of 10.
[31:11] Again, if you go to the back of the ordinance, we do have an additional page that
[31:15] shows you what the current rates are for each type of service and what the new
[31:19] rates are being proposed at, the same as it was presented during the workshop.
[31:24] Again, will not go into effect till October 1st, and won't be until the
[31:30] bills received in November. I'd also want to point out that after we do the second
[31:33] reading and final approval, that these will all be in the paper within 10 days of
[31:39] the final approval with the ordinance.
[31:42] Okay. Is there any discussion or any questions for Mr.
[31:46] Berger in regards to the first reading of Ordinance 2026-11?
[31:53] Hearing no discussion, is there any action from Council on the first reading of
[31:57] Ordinance 2026-11? Mr. Allen.
[32:02] Motion to adopt Ordinance 2026-11.
[32:02] Okay. Mr. Allen has made a motion we adopt the Ordinance
[32:07] 2026-11 on its first reading. Mr. Connolly has seconded the motion.
[32:12] All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, respond with a nay.
[32:17] The ayes have it. Ordinance 2026-11 is hereby adopted on first reading
[32:23] unanimously. Thank you very much. All right.
[32:26] Moving on to 6.2.4, discuss, consider, and possible action on first reading
[32:32] of Ordinance 2026-12, Amend Electric Rates. Mr.
[32:38] Crane.
[32:39] This is Ordinance number 2026-12, an ordinance of the City Council of the City of
[32:44] Cuero amending the Code of Ordinances of the City of Cuero, Texas, Chapter 12,
[32:48] Utilities, Article 12.03, Electrical Service, Section
[32:52] 12.03.001, Schedule of Rates, by adopting and approving an
[32:58] amended schedule of electric rates, amending the schedule of electric rates to
[33:02] Appendix A, Fee Schedule, Article A6, Utility Rates and Charges, Division
[33:08] 2, Electric Service, designated as Code Section
[33:12] A6.034, Schedule of Electric Rates, making detailed findings related thereto,
[33:19] repealing all ordinances or parts of ordinances in conflict therewith, providing
[33:23] for a severability clause, and prescribing an effective date.
[33:26] Mr. Berger.
[33:27] Mayor, Council, this is going up $1 on the base charge on the
[33:32] residential, and then $5 on small, medium, and large
[33:38] commercial, and small and medium industrial, as well as on the
[33:43] small industrial going from a rate per kilowatt hours from rate from
[33:48] .01725 up to .0201.
[33:55] Whenever
[34:01] we do increases on electric, I compare ourselves to GVC and also just what it would
[34:05] cost increase per day. With this base increase,
[34:10] compared to GVC, if you use 1,500 kilowatt hours, we currently are
[34:16] $1.02 more than GVC. With this rate increase, it would put
[34:22] us at $2.77
[34:26] above GVC based on 1,500 kilowatt hours used per month.
[34:30] That being said, with that rate, it would cost you right around $6.16 per day to
[34:36] have electric provided to your household.
[34:41] Okay. Is there any discussion, any questions for Mr.
[34:46] Berger on the first reading of Ordinance 2026-12 from Council?
[34:52] Hearing no discussion or questions, is there any action from Council on the first
[34:57] reading of Ordinance 2026-12?
[35:02] Mr. Adams.
[35:04] I make a motion to approve Ordinance 2026-12.
[35:06] Mr. Adams has made a motion that we approve Ordinance 2026-12 first reading. Mr.
[35:12] Glover has seconded the motion. All in favor say aye. Aye.
[35:17] All opposed, respond with a nay.
[35:20] The ayes have it. Ordinance number 2026-12 is hereby approved first reading
[35:26] unanimously. Thank you very much.
[35:28] Moving on, 6.2.5, discuss, consider, and possible action on first
[35:34] reading of Ordinance 226-13, Hauled Waste Fee
[35:40] Rate Adjustment Amendment. Mr. Crane.
[35:43] Ordinance number 2026-13, ordinance of the City Council of the City of Cuero,
[35:48] Texas, amending the Code of Ordinances of the City of Cuero, Appendix A, Fee
[35:52] Schedule, Article A6.000, Utility Rates and Charges, Division 4,
[35:58] Sewer Service/Wastewater, Section A6.094, Trucked or
[36:03] Hauled Fee, making detailed findings related to repealing all ordinances or
[36:09] part of ordinances in conflict or with providing for a severability clause and
[36:13] describing an effective date.
[36:15] Mr. Burger.
[36:16] Mayor, Council, this is what we call hauled waste fee.
[36:21] It's mostly oil field waste, either from porta potties, which is delivered to our
[36:25] wastewater treatment plant directly, or if it's gray water, it goes out to our
[36:29] prison site, which is monitored by cameras.
[36:32] Currently, the rate is $105 per thousand.
[36:35] We're requesting to go up to $110 per thousand.
[36:39] Okay. Council, is there any discussion or
[36:45] questions for Mr. Burger on the first reading of Ordinance 2026-13?
[36:52] Hearing no discussion, is there any action from Council on the first reading of
[36:56] Ordinance 2026-13? Mr. Allen.
[37:01] Motion to adopt Ordinance 2026-13.
[37:04] Mr. Allen has made a motion that we adopt Ordinance 2026-13 first reading.
[37:14] Mr. Adams to second the motion. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye.
[37:19] All opposed, respond with a nay. The ayes have it.
[37:23] Ordinance 2026-13 is hereby approved on its first reading unanimously.
[37:28] Thank you very much. All right. Moving on to section number seven,
[37:34] council consideration and action items.
[37:37] For my colleagues, 7.1, just a quick, there will be a roll call
[37:43] vote. So we're going to discuss, consider, and possible action on accepting
[37:49] proposed tax rate for public hearing for fiscal year
[37:55] 2026-2027. Mr. Burger.
[37:59] Mayor, Council, Jess has been working with Ashley at the appraisal district.
[38:05] And if you look in your binder, you should have a
[38:10] paper that looks like this, that's final at the top.
[38:12] Our current tax rate is 0.30675. The no new
[38:18] revenue rate is 0.29702. Voter approval rate is 0.32305.
[38:24] The de minimis tax rate is 0.40983.
[38:28] We are required this year, due to our audit being late, to adopt the no-new revenue
[38:34] rate. So that would be a decrease of 0.00973.
[38:39] So then what I suggest we propose, because it's the highest we can go, is the
[38:45] no-new revenue rate of 0.29702. That would have the
[38:50] maintenance, M&O rate, would be 0.25570 of that total, and then
[38:57] I&S rate is 0.04132 to make the total of 0.29702.
[39:03] All right. Is there any discussion from Council
[39:08] on the accepting of the proposed tax rate for public hearing for fiscal year
[39:14] 2026-27?
[39:18] Hearing no discussion, is there any action from Council on
[39:23] accepting the proposed tax rate? Mr. Henson.
[39:27] I have a motion to approve the proposed tax rate of
[39:30] 0.29702. Okay. M&O at
[39:36] 2.25570, and I&S at 0.04132. All right. Mr.
[39:42] Henson has made a motion that we approve the proposed tax rate of
[39:47] 0.29702. M&O is
[39:53] 0.25570, and I&S is
[39:57] 0.04132. Mr. Townley has
[40:03] seconded the motion. All right, I will now go into roll call. Emil Garza, aye.
[40:09] Shannon Henson, District One.
[40:13] Here. Aye. Okay, that's fine. Terry Glover, District Two.
[40:18] Aye.
[40:20] Tony Allen, District Three.
[40:23] Aye.
[40:23] Mitch Adams, District Four.
[40:26] Aye. Charles Townley, at large.
[40:30] Aye.
[40:30] Adam Arroyo, at large.
[40:31] Aye.
[40:33] All right. The ayes have it.
[40:37] The approved tax rate of 0.29702
[40:43] is hereby adopted. Thank you very much. All right.
[40:48] Moving on to 7.2, discuss, consider, and possible action on setting the
[40:54] time and the place for the public hearing on the proposed tax rate for
[40:59] fiscal year 2026-27. Mr. Burger.
[41:04] Mayor, Council, we've spoken to Ashley at the appraisal district, and we don't need
[41:10] to have any special meetings. We can actually ask for this public hearing to be
[41:14] held at our next regular scheduled council meeting, September 14th at 5:00 PM, if
[41:19] that works for you all.
[41:21] All right.
[41:23] Mr.
[41:24] Burger has suggested that we set the time and the place for a public hearing for
[41:30] September the 14th, 2026, at 5:00 PM.
[41:35] Is there any action from Council on 7.2?
[41:38] Make a motion to accept the date 9/14/26, and set the time and place.
[41:43] Okay. Mr. Townley has made a motion that we set the time
[41:49] and place for a public hearing on the proposed tax rate for September 14th at 5:00
[41:54] PM.
[41:56] Second. Mr. Allen has seconded the motion. All in favor say aye. Aye.
[42:01] All opposed, respond with a nay. The ayes have it. 7.2 is hereby approved.
[42:07] 7.3, discuss, consider, and possible action on accepting the
[42:12] proposed budget for public hearing for fiscal year
[42:18] 2026-2027. Mr. Burger.
[42:22] Mayor, Council, you have a proposed budget in front of you.
[42:25] I do want to point out there's still going to be little tweaks to it throughout the
[42:28] next few weeks. Once we get the final exact numbers from getting the tax rate to
[42:33] Ashley, and we get those numbers back.
[42:35] Also with the hotel-motel funds, as I discussed earlier, I would like to have
[42:39] another special workshop so we can work on those once me and Jess get the numbers
[42:45] adjusted on that. It is currently a balanced budget of
[42:49] $9.655 million. That is an increase.
[42:56] Last year's budget was around a little over $9.1 million.
[43:00] So it's an increase of $562,852, with the majority of the increase
[43:05] coming in the police department. It did have right around $300,000
[43:11] additional for three additional police units.
[43:15] But also,
[43:17] another big increase is the North Borough Watershed.
[43:21] Our contribution went from $10,000 to $25,000 in a transfer to the general fund
[43:27] CIP. If you recall, we were moving $350,000 over to the CIP
[43:33] fund for the Industrial Boulevard project by the school.
[43:38] And then there's also $284,000 of a contingency that's required to be in that
[43:44] budget, makes up part of that increase.
[43:47] Okay. Is there any discussion or any questions for Mr.
[43:51] Burger on the accepting of the proposed budget for a public
[43:56] hearing for fiscal year 2026-27? Any questions from Council?
[44:02] Any action from Council on 7.3?
[44:10] Are we accepting the proposed budget? Yes.
[44:14] Except for us to have a public hearing on, especially with-
[44:18] The public hearing will be a whole separate issue.
[44:20] Right.
[44:20] This is accepting the proposed budget as presented, and the CDC budget is part of
[44:25] this budget as well.
[44:26] I move to accept the proposed budget. Okay. Mr.
[44:31] Adams has made a motion that we accept the proposed budget for a public hearing for
[44:37] item 7.3.
[44:39] Mr. Henson has seconded the motion. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye.
[44:44] All opposed, respond with a nay. The ayes have it.
[44:47] 7.3 is hereby approved. Moving on to 7.4, discuss,
[44:53] consider, and possible action on setting a time and a place for a
[44:59] public hearing on the proposed budget fiscal year
[45:03] 2026-27. Mr. Burger.
[45:06] Mayor, Council, we can also set this public hearing at the regular September 14th
[45:11] meeting at 5:00 PM
[45:15] Next month. Any discussion from council on 7.4?
[45:20] Any action from council on 7.4, setting a time and a place for a public hearing
[45:26] on proposed budget for fiscal year 2026-27?
[45:33] Mr. Glover? Mr. Glover has made a motion that we set the time and place for public
[45:39] hearing on proposed budget fiscal year 2026-27 on September the
[45:44] 14th, 2026, at 5:00 PM in council chambers. All right. All in favor say...
[45:50] Oh, is there a second?
[45:52] Mr. Henson has seconded that motion. All in favor say aye. Aye.
[45:58] All opposed respond with a nay. The ayes have it.
[46:03] 7.4 is here approved. 7.5, discuss, consider, and
[46:09] possible action on golf fees updates 2026. Mr. Berger.
[46:16] Mayor, council, this is not putting it out ordinance, this is by action item.
[46:21] Worked with David Danish, I believe he's here today, too.
[46:26] You can currently see what the current rates are, what's being proposed for '26,
[46:32] '27. It is an increase for the nine-hole and 18-hole weekday and weekend
[46:38] of $2, and then up a dollar, only a dollar on the nine hole and
[46:44] 18 hole for seniors. And then $50 increase for the annual
[46:50] membership, $75 for the family membership increase, and then the big ones are
[46:56] an increase in
[46:58] $100, $50 on the old cart shed, and then $100 on the two newer golf cart sheds, and
[47:04] then leaving the rate at $700 where we just opened up the, what I would call the
[47:09] extra big new golf cart sheds for the oversized golf carts,
[47:13] have keeping those at $700.
[47:17] All right. Is there any questions, any discussion from council on
[47:23] 7.5 on golf fees updates?
[47:27] David, I don't know if you want to give any update on the golf course.
[47:31] I tell you all I hear good things all the way around,
[47:36] with the way the course looks, the way everything's handled.
[47:39] We do have some irrigation that needs to be addressed.
[47:42] That is in this year's budget of-
[47:44] Yeah
[47:44] ... right around $65,000 of additional heads in the fairway.
[47:48] We've got all this nice grass out there, but with the prevailing winds, it doesn't
[47:52] allow, it catches too much of it and doesn't get everything that needs to be
[47:57] irrigated in the fairway. So that is a bigger project in this next year's budget.
[48:01] Okay. Thank you, Mr. Danish.
[48:05] Is there
[48:07] any questions or discussion for Mr. Danish or Mr. Berger on 7.5?
[48:14] Hearing no discussion, is there any action from council on 7.5?
[48:25] Mr. Adams. Move we approve the recent
[48:30] golf cart golf. Okay. Mr. Adams has made a motion that we approve the
[48:37] golf fees, or 7.5. Is that Mr. Allen has seconded the motion?
[48:43] All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed respond with a nay.
[48:49] The ayes have it. 7.5 is hereby approved unanimously. Thank you very much.
[48:54] All right. Moving on to 7.6, discuss, consider, and possible
[49:00] action on a request for temporary closing of the Cuero Airport for the event
[49:06] Whamsley Performance Tarmac Takeover. Mr. Berger.
[49:11] Mayor, council,
[49:14] we have Jeremy and Allison Whamsley here.
[49:15] If you recall, they put on the event at the airport last year that
[49:21] had a very large turnout.
[49:24] They met with Mr. David Danish, Parks Superintendent, and they are requesting to
[49:28] have this event again on January 29th and 30th.
[49:32] But if I recall, looking at this, they were asking to actually close the airport
[49:37] down a little bit earlier. I don't... Do you recall the dates, David?
[49:43] I was going to say, in the application we've just put on there to start or to close
[49:48] it for the week.
[49:49] Yes, sir.
[49:49] Tuesday the 26th through Tuesday the 2nd.
[49:54] Yeah, February 2nd.
[49:56] Yes.
[49:56] So Tuesday, yes. So a full week. I think part of that is we did have an after
[50:01] action meeting last year after the event and discussed different things that the
[50:07] fire department, emergency management, myself, the mayor, I think David would want
[50:13] to see, and I think this allows us more time to install some extra...
[50:18] And add anything to this, and tell me if I'm wrong, but-
[50:20] You're doing good. Really
[50:21] ... install any extra equipment, barricades, different things like that that might
[50:26] be needed.
[50:26] Correct.
[50:26] All right. So
[50:28] mayor and council, first of all, I wanted to thank you guys again for letting us
[50:32] try this last year. Well, I guess it was this year.
[50:36] Had a huge turnout. Still, we were actually at another local business in
[50:41] Victoria two weeks ago. People are still asking, "Is this going to happen again?
[50:47] If so, can we do it twice a year?" Which we don't have the fiscal...
[50:51] We don't have it in us to do it twice a year.
[50:54] But we are here again to ask
[50:58] if we can do this again. Like I said, we had a great turnout.
[51:01] The weather wasn't the greatest, and still we were blown away at both the
[51:06] spectators that showed up, the competitors that showed up.
[51:12] Within probably the first couple hours, we realized we were way outgunned.
[51:16] We didn't have near enough manpower to put on.
[51:18] Luckily, we had a lot of support from
[51:21] competitors, other local businesses, even some businesses from out of town, the
[51:24] guys who jumped in to give us a hand to run the event.
[51:27] We are going to try to make some changes this year.
[51:31] We won't need the pavilion this year.
[51:33] We're looking to scrap the Dino Day idea, move the whole thing over to-
[51:37] I was going to ask you about Dino.
[51:38] Yeah.
[51:39] For multiple reasons. Dino Day's always been great.
[51:43] It was a reason to bring people to Cuero that never really knew the place existed
[51:48] out outside of that.
[51:50] Right.
[51:50] The race is
[51:54] far more-
[51:55] The main event, right
[51:56] ... entertaining.
[51:58] Lots of people from
[52:01] towns around, counties around, hadn't seen something like...
[52:04] States around that haven't seen something like this put on in a,
[52:09] I guess, in such a rural community.
[52:11] I can't tell you how many times we've been asked, "How in the world did you make
[52:14] this happen?" And of course, most of it fell on y'all's shoulders.
[52:21] So we're going to scrap the Dino Day.
[52:23] We're looking to move it all to the airstrip, make it a two-day race event.
[52:29] And yes, if we can
[52:32] close it longer, it allows us a longer setup time, so that we can add
[52:38] more barricades to it. We can add more crowd control to it.
[52:42] We can make it flow the way, I guess, in a much safer manner.
[52:47] We had difficult time controlling the crowd, A, because we weren't expecting the
[52:51] crowd that we had.
[52:54] And so luckily the weather wasn't that great, because I can't imagine if it
[52:58] would've been a nice warm, sunny day. I can't imagine what we would've done.
[53:04] And so I'm sure, I think you guys have a map that
[53:09] Allie put together for you. She can talk and explain some of the changes that we're
[53:13] looking to make.
[53:14] Right. So on the map, that is also the same one that we had looked at at the
[53:19] post-event meeting, and took in consideration some of the
[53:23] advice that y'all had for it. But really, the biggest thing for
[53:29] me, the changes would be crowd control and keeping people where they need to be,
[53:34] because I've learned that if there's a sign, they don't read it.
[53:38] The things that maneuver people in crowds are going to be your barricades,
[53:43] and also staff on our side to help with that.
[53:49] But now that we have a better idea of what to expect, I think that
[53:54] this year, or this next year, would be a lot more beneficial.
[54:00] And so, Jeremy is wanting to keep it in that timeframe, the
[54:05] January 29th and 30th. Really, the big thing is for other
[54:11] events in our industry is that this would be the only one in the-
[54:17] ... that in January. And then whenever spring kicks off, we're also going to be
[54:22] battling weather. We had a really wet spring this year, and then
[54:28] also the sports complex and things like that.
[54:31] I have reached out to the scheduling lady with the
[54:37] Fire X Center, and she is going to be getting with,
[54:43] I guess, the directors and everything on seeing about if we are able to rent that
[54:49] out, so less traffic through that. We don't have to worry about it.
[54:52] That's one of the things I think is very important. We were fortunate last year.
[54:55] There was nothing going on at the rodeo or at the Fire X Center.
[54:58] We were able to put barricades up right there across the roadway and force
[55:03] everybody into the airport, not let spectators get down there in the middle, walk
[55:06] around the fencing.
[55:07] Right. And so I believe she had told me that there wasn't anybody on the schedule,
[55:12] but they were trying to come up with a price for me because it's going to sit
[55:17] empty. We're not going to be in it, use it, nothing. I don't even need keys to it.
[55:22] I just need that road closed off for crowd control and everything.
[55:27] So we are working on that as well.
[55:29] Check on the rodeo arena.
[55:31] Okay.
[55:31] I do know, on the Homeland Center, I got in touch with Shirley-
[55:35] Okay
[55:35] ... a couple of weeks ago.
[55:37] Okay.
[55:37] And I asked her today, and she still has not had a conversation with their board
[55:43] yet on closing it.
[55:45] Mm-hmm.
[55:46] Giving y'all a certain fee for it.
[55:48] Right.
[55:49] Hopefully she'll have more coming up this month later on.
[55:59] Building it or getting it out there, getting the news and stuff out there.
[56:03] How are we doing? How are we doing that? How are we doing?
[56:05] So-
[56:06] As far as hotels, y'all going to go two days?
[56:09] Yes.
[56:09] Just for this event? So are we anticipating a crowd coming in and-
[56:14] And a lot of your No Prep guys come in from quite a ways away.
[56:17] Right.
[56:17] And so a two-day event means they're going to be getting hotels.
[56:21] Well, a lot of them are coming in Thursday.
[56:22] Mm-hmm.
[56:23] So they'll get hotels Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
[56:25] And so there again, like this last year, the racers just came in for Saturday.
[56:31] So a lot of them got hotels-
[56:32] Right
[56:32] ... for Friday and Saturday.
[56:33] Yep.
[56:33] And so we're going to add another day to that if they intend to compete both days.
[56:39] And so, as this event grows,
[56:43] this year we had in the ballpark of about 4,000 people there.
[56:46] That's spectators, contestants, those of us running the show.
[56:53] And if the weather permits, it wouldn't shock me if we double that.
[56:58] It really wouldn't. We've had so much...
[57:01] Like I said, even now, six months down the road, seven months down the road, we
[57:03] still got people asking us about it.
[57:06] That's not something that we have had in years past with just the dyno day.
[57:10] Typically,
[57:13] after the event passes, we don't hear anything again until about September or
[57:17] October when people start like, "Hey, is this going to happen?
[57:20] If so, what's the date?" It's died off a little bit, but we still hear
[57:25] people call, ask. We run into people. We're getting asked about it every week.
[57:29] Mm-hmm.
[57:30] And so-
[57:31] I have vendors and also people that are interested in sponsoring already reaching
[57:35] out to me. And so-
[57:37] We had a porta potty company out of Luling send us an email yesterday or Friday.
[57:41] Mm-hmm.
[57:42] Like, "Hey, we were at your event. We rent porta potties.
[57:44] We'd love to rent porta potties to your event."
[57:46] Wow.
[57:47] And so if it's reaching out that far on a vendor scale-
[57:52] Yeah
[57:52] ...
[57:53] I think just both the spectator and the competitor, I think it'll continue to grow.
[57:58] And one thing I was going to mention as well is, there were a lot of people that
[58:03] made videos about the event.
[58:05] Yes.
[58:05] And so if you go on YouTube and just type it in and everything, there's at least 10
[58:11] that'll pop up that people, spectators-
[58:13] Some very cool footage.
[58:13] Yeah.
[58:14] Very cool.
[58:14] And so there's some, I know there's one gentleman in particular that he was
[58:19] videoing his truck in the hotel parking lot, and he did a span of the parking lot
[58:25] and the trucks that were there for the event.
[58:27] And so, I know that there were a lot that came in for out of town and stayed in
[58:33] hotels, even for that event that was kind of two-day, but two separate
[58:39] events. So.
[58:40] Mayor and Council, I do want to point out, I don't know the message got relayed to
[58:43] y'all during the hot funds presentations, but they do have a request in for $15,000
[58:49] for hot funds toward this hot event.
[58:52] For advertising and marketing uses.
[58:54] Yes.
[58:55] Yes.
[58:55] For advertising and the lot.
[58:57] Yeah. I did some pricing on banners and signs and things like that.
[59:02] Yes.
[59:02] And it's quite expensive.
[59:04] Oh, yeah. It's not cheap.
[59:06] No, not at all.
[59:07] Well, and we're also looking, the signs, the banners that y'all have for Turkey
[59:12] Fest and the ones that we saw up for the rodeo and stuff where they have the
[59:15] removable date. The banner stays the same, you can just change the date.
[59:19] We're looking into doing those. If we're going to continue to do this, on a yearly
[59:23] basis, we're wasting a lot of money making new banners every year.
[59:28] Yeah.
[59:28] And so, we're looking at doing basically reusable banners, which are expensive the
[59:34] first time you buy them. But then, of course, every year you're able to use them
[59:38] and just change the date.
[59:40] And then, of course, with the hot funds, y'all will keep track of the heads and
[59:42] beds in the hotels and how many rooms y'all have. So.
[59:48] But we did reach out again, just like last year, to TML.
[59:51] David and Lori talked to TML today. I know James asked to do that again.
[59:56] And David, do you want to share?
[1:00:03] Yeah, we explained what was going to be taking place, and the gentleman at
[1:00:09] TML said, what we did last year was perfect.
[1:00:13] And having the city, as an additional insured, he said that was the way to go, and
[1:00:17] he said it's not a problem at all.
[1:00:20] Mm.
[1:00:20] So what we did last year was perfect, and keep that up.
[1:00:24] And I know we had a lot of back and forth trying to get the insurance stuff lined
[1:00:27] out and, I guess, get the verbiage right.
[1:00:30] We shouldn't have those problems this year.
[1:00:32] No.
[1:00:32] If we need to change any of the values, that shouldn't be difficult.
[1:00:35] But a lot of the back and forth that we had to do to get it worded properly,
[1:00:42] it should be a simple copy and paste from last year.
[1:00:45] With it being a two-day race, no dyno, we're going to have to change some of that.
[1:00:51] I'm sure the insurance will change with wanting to close the airport for a longer
[1:00:56] duration. But hopefully we don't have the back and forth issues where everybody's
[1:01:01] getting frustrated trying to get what they need.
[1:01:05] So I think we were down to one more edit from the insurance company, and they were
[1:01:07] out.
[1:01:08] I believe all the work is done.
[1:01:10] Yeah.
[1:01:10] I'll just copy that.
[1:01:12] Okay.
[1:01:12] Also, when this event was going on, myself and Mr.
[1:01:16] Danish
[1:01:19] figured out that we also, this year, have one more hoop to jump through-
[1:01:22] Yeah
[1:01:22] ... with TexDot Aviation. We do need to receive a, not only issuing the closure, a
[1:01:28] NOTAM closure, but also getting a temporary closure for non-aeronautical special
[1:01:34] event request form. So if y'all approve going forward with this-
[1:01:39] I will start on that tomorrow
[1:01:39] ... ASAP, we will be submitting this to TexDot Aviation to get that processed.
[1:01:44] Because it takes months for them to give you a yes or no.
[1:01:48] So the sooner we get started, the better we are.
[1:01:51] It's a minimum 45-day notice to initiate the evaluation.
[1:01:54] Yes.
[1:01:54] But any prior, you know-
[1:01:55] That's to kick it in, and then a couple more months to finalize it, but it
[1:02:01] could happen sooner.
[1:02:03] And that's something too, the good thing about going through the paces of this is
[1:02:07] we figure out, both you guys and us figure out the hoops that we have to go
[1:02:11] through. And I think you guys have been approached by a couple other people about
[1:02:14] possibly closing the airport. I think one was for a car show or something like
[1:02:18] that. And so I guess once we get this polished up and figure out this is what it
[1:02:23] takes to do, it kind of opens another avenue of, I guess, other events that
[1:02:29] can come to the area. Because it worked great for us.
[1:02:34] Yeah. And just keep this in mind, Jeremy.
[1:02:36] One of the things that really sold me was the capability you guys
[1:02:42] had. Just, God forbid, some light plane needs to land, how fast
[1:02:48] you guys could clear the runway to make sure that that would happen.
[1:02:52] Luckily, nothing-
[1:02:53] Yeah
[1:02:53] ... physically has to be on the runway.
[1:02:56] Right. And that's what I like about it.
[1:02:57] The barricades, the light towers, everything is actually set off the surface.
[1:03:02] Right.
[1:03:02] And so if something were to happen and they do have to make an emergency landing,
[1:03:05] within minutes we can have it cleared.
[1:03:06] Right. Yeah, that's what I liked about it.
[1:03:09] That's a plus.
[1:03:10] That you didn't have any permanent stuff on that runway.
[1:03:13] Just in case, like I said, God forbid, somebody needed to make an emergency
[1:03:16] landing, you guys could do that. So thank y'all for that.
[1:03:19] Keep that in mind as well this year if we approve it.
[1:03:22] So I know last year y'all did have a rain weekend or date.
[1:03:26] Do y'all have anything scheduled or?
[1:03:28] I don't have anything scheduled right now.
[1:03:31] I'm- I know with the closures and things like that, that's something that we're
[1:03:35] going to have to keep in mind.
[1:03:36] Yeah. True.
[1:03:38] So I don't have anything today to propose gate wise.
[1:03:45] Okay. Is there any other discussion from council for
[1:03:51] the Wamsleys or from David or anything?
[1:03:55] I was asking David.
[1:03:56] Yeah. For sure.
[1:03:58] We invite all of you out. We had a great time.
[1:04:00] Oh, no. That was great. Oh, we did VIP passes?
[1:04:02] Absolutely. If that's what it takes, I think it just so happened to know people
[1:04:06] that can make that happen.
[1:04:07] It was kind of funny because the airport sat empty, but-
[1:04:11] Yeah
[1:04:11] ... Mr. Berger actually had to kick two airplanes off of it for the weekend, and I
[1:04:15] was like, "What are the chances?"
[1:04:17] And did y'all have proposed time limit in the evenings?
[1:04:21] What time would y'all-
[1:04:22] It would be 10:00 PM.
[1:04:24] And nothing after 10:00.
[1:04:25] 10:00 PM.
[1:04:25] Yeah. And that's a good thing about having a two-day event, is anything Friday can
[1:04:30] be transferred over to Saturday. And then for the most part, everybody that's going
[1:04:35] to be racing Saturday is there Friday.
[1:04:38] So we'll already have a pretty good head count and know what time we're going to be
[1:04:41] finishing it up.
[1:04:46] Okay. Billy, did you have any?
[1:04:48] No.
[1:04:49] Okay. All right.
[1:04:50] Change of mind.
[1:04:50] All right. Sounds good. Thank you, guys.
[1:04:54] Is there any action from council on 7.6 on the
[1:04:59] request for a temporary closing of the Cuero Airport for the event Wamsley
[1:05:04] Performance Tarmac Takeover?
[1:05:09] Mr. Glover.
[1:05:13] I move
[1:05:15] for approval of the temporary closure of the Cuero Airport for the Wamsley
[1:05:18] Performance Tarmac Takeover.
[1:05:20] All right. Mr. Glover.
[1:05:22] James, do you want to also say pending Texdot approval?
[1:05:25] Pending Texdot approval, whatever other things is necessary to resolve it.
[1:05:31] Okay. Pending Texdot approval, and everything else he said.
[1:05:36] Okay.
[1:05:37] It's go time.
[1:05:39] Mr. Glover has made a motion that we approve the request for the temporary closing
[1:05:44] of Cuero Airport, R7.6. Mr. Allen has
[1:05:50] seconded the motion. All in favor say aye.
[1:05:54] Aye.
[1:05:54] All right. All opposed, respond with a nay. The ayes have it.
[1:05:58] 7.6 is hereby approved unanimously pending
[1:06:03] what Mr. Crain said. All right. Number eight, reports,
[1:06:09] 8.1, Building and Standards Commission report. Who's got that?
[1:06:14] We have Mr. Carl Finney here
[1:06:17] out of the Building Department. Y'all had a couple questions on building and
[1:06:20] standards during the budget workshop.
[1:06:22] And this is for, and I need to apologize, Carl, I did not realize when putting on
[1:06:26] the agenda that he was on vacation.
[1:06:28] I told him we can always-
[1:06:29] Oh, dang
[1:06:30] ... table this and go to next month, but he said, "I'm going to come in and address
[1:06:33] this."
[1:06:33] It's okay. Thank you, Carl.
[1:06:35] Thank you, Carl.
[1:06:38] Thanks. So want to start with questions?
[1:06:40] You want to-- I think one of the first questions is where are we at on building and
[1:06:43] standards, when's the last time we met, and
[1:06:48] some of the houses that you're proposing.
[1:06:49] Well, currently we have
[1:06:52] probably about between 15 and 20 on our shortlist.
[1:06:58] We have five that we're hoping to bring in front of Building and Standards within
[1:07:03] the next month and a half, two months, as soon as we can get them on there.
[1:07:07] One of the things that we did is we started the whole procedure all from scratch.
[1:07:11] Jamie had some stuff that he already had from historical issues, so we just started
[1:07:17] to send the notifications again and posted notifications on site.
[1:07:22] We did end up getting seven of them just torn down, period.
[1:07:25] They just went and did it on their own over the last, I think, six months or so.
[1:07:30] So that was pretty effective right there.
[1:07:33] I can tell you the ones that are on our short, short list are 315
[1:07:39] Stockdale, 905 Starker, 1018 West Church,
[1:07:45] and 407 Garrett. But the big one is going to be the nursing home, which is on
[1:07:51] 110 MacArthur.
[1:07:52] Yeah. 236.
[1:07:55] 236.
[1:07:55] That's what we found out.
[1:07:57] Yeah. Well, okay. He has it down as MacArthur.
[1:07:59] It is considered MacArthur.
[1:08:01] It's MacArthur. Yes, sir. But it's-
[1:08:02] So we
[1:08:06] moved Bridge out of the top priority because Herb Lancaster just
[1:08:12] got-- He's had some medical issues.
[1:08:15] Right.
[1:08:15] And that's kind of turned around for him.
[1:08:18] He's doing better, and he called me a couple of weeks ago and said that he's going
[1:08:24] to pull a permit to demo it. He's going to do it all himself.
[1:08:27] He doesn't need the city's help anymore because he's got it taken care of.
[1:08:32] So I'm giving him a little time. We'll just take care of these five at first.
[1:08:36] But whenever you get into-- I was just texting the state asbestos inspector.
[1:08:42] Whenever we get into stuff like the
[1:08:50] nursing home, that's probably going to have asbestos in it, and we're going to have
[1:08:54] to do surveys, and then we're going to have to do all that mess if we got to tear
[1:08:57] it down. So that's going to be a big pain.
[1:09:02] I don't think Bridge will have much in there.
[1:09:05] Bridge has some eight-by-tile that I know that will be asbestos, but it'll be a lot
[1:09:11] cheaper to handle than if we have to take on the nursing
[1:09:17] home. So that's going to be a pretty expensive project if we get into that one.
[1:09:22] The other stuff, as long as it's between-- We got to be more than
[1:09:27] 650 feet apart when we're demoing, then we don't have to deal with the asbestos
[1:09:31] part on the residential. So I think everything else on our list is residential, so
[1:09:36] we can avoid that cost. But
[1:09:40] what our goal is, is to do as many as need to be done.
[1:09:45] We want to get all of them taken care of.
[1:09:48] So I would say ones that we consider high danger are probably about 20 to
[1:09:54] 30, just a guess, and then we got a bunch of just ones that are just a
[1:10:00] mess that we need to take care of. Part of the problem is getting in touch with
[1:10:04] people.
[1:10:06] I don't think any of the staff was here last time that this process was done, and
[1:10:11] that's been a problem. So we're going into
[1:10:17] steps that we've never done before as a staff together in
[1:10:21] accordance with our ordinances and state law.
[1:10:26] But we're getting there.
[1:10:29] When we have the next BSC, which is we're hoping in
[1:10:35] two months, our plan is to do one every month after that,
[1:10:40] and slowly bring more and more until we run out of money to clean stuff up.
[1:10:49] In that nursing home, those folks just totally abandoned it?
[1:10:52] You guys got to-- Or y'all can't get a hold of anybody?
[1:10:54] They've communicated with us every now and then.
[1:10:59] Like the difference between, say, Mr. Lancaster, he's always communicated with us.
[1:11:02] Right. Yes, sir. Yeah.
[1:11:03] Doesn't really always do what he says, but the nursing home, they just don't even
[1:11:07] answer our call most of the time. Every now and then, they will, and they'll tell
[1:11:12] us they're going to get the grass cut, and we go over there, and the grass is not
[1:11:15] cut.
[1:11:17] We noticed that they're breaking windows over there again.
[1:11:22] Yep. And just in case anybody didn't know, during Winter Storm Uri, I walked up to
[1:11:28] that nursing home, there's a back door on the back L part of it, and then the side
[1:11:32] door, and water was coming out of it about that high.
[1:11:36] And we ended up having to break into the fire room, which is located on the outside
[1:11:40] of it, and cut the fire
[1:11:43] sprinkler system off because it had frozen and busted.
[1:11:50] Well, yeah, they were competing against the owners. Obviously the same issue.
[1:11:51] Well, that's what this would be.
[1:11:52] That's what this process-
[1:11:52] Now,
[1:11:54] I'm actually hoping that the owners will decide to sell it
[1:12:00] once they really get some pressure on them. Because I know they've had offers.
[1:12:05] I know some of the people around here have made some offers on that building.
[1:12:08] Yes, sir. Yeah.
[1:12:09] But they won't sell it. But if they find out, well, you're going to lose it all.
[1:12:14] We have to demo it anyway.
[1:12:15] Yeah.
[1:12:15] And if we demo it, we would put a lien against the property so if they do sell it
[1:12:19] afterwards,
[1:12:22] we have the ability to recoup it.
[1:12:26] And that 312 Stockdale, that's that two-story house that Mr.
[1:12:31] Mitchell owned
[1:12:33] Last time I talked to his family members,
[1:12:36] they said the bank was going to repossess that.
[1:12:38] Y'all been talking to family members of the bank because he still owed money on
[1:12:43] that.
[1:12:44] Well, we would send that to whoever's the legal owner at the time.
[1:12:50] I don't know if it would've been sent to the bank or-
[1:12:52] Okay
[1:12:52] ... but probably, it sounds to me like in either case, none of them would care what
[1:12:56] happened to it at that case.
[1:12:57] Yeah.
[1:12:59] I talked to his sisters to get rid of those vehicles that he had.
[1:13:03] They volunteered the vehicles to some veterans organizations for stuff.
[1:13:09] So yeah, they didn't want anything to do with it.
[1:13:11] They said they were going to let the bank do whatever they wanted to do with it.
[1:13:14] Yeah. We made sure all the electrical and all that was disconnected from the house
[1:13:17] and pulled up, so it cannot even have power turned back on to it.
[1:13:22] Wow. That's crazy.
[1:13:23] But that's our plan. We're definitely gotten a little more organized.
[1:13:27] We've gotten somewhat of a plan going to bring us into next year.
[1:13:32] That's our big thing, is to get organizationally set up to be able to handle this,
[1:13:37] not only on a one-time basis, but to keep the process going.
[1:13:41] Right.
[1:13:42] So.
[1:13:43] All right. Well, thank you, Carl.
[1:13:45] Mm-hmm.
[1:13:45] Yeah. Yes, Mr. Nichols?
[1:13:47] Is anybody living in there?
[1:13:49] Yes, sir.
[1:13:49] I've seen people in there.
[1:13:52] They're not supposed to be in there that I know of, in that two-story house.
[1:13:56] No, I'm talking about the nursing home.
[1:13:58] Oh, the nursing home.
[1:13:59] No.
[1:13:59] No, sir. No.
[1:14:00] Well, keep in mind, we're not planning on any houses that people are living on, and
[1:14:06] these would be-- I guess first phase would be just the ones that are-
[1:14:11] Abandoned
[1:14:11] ... totally abandoned, and everybody would agree that these things need to go.
[1:14:17] What about the pavements?
[1:14:18] Well, we can't.
[1:14:19] Yeah.
[1:14:19] Yeah.
[1:14:20] If you definitely see any movement in the nursing home area, make sure you reach
[1:14:24] out to the PD, and
[1:14:28] thank you.
[1:14:28] Yeah, let
[1:14:32] PD know, and actually, we would like to know that, too, because I would like to
[1:14:35] find out who's-- I know kids have been over there.
[1:14:38] Yeah.
[1:14:38] That's probably who it is, but yeah, so.
[1:14:42] Is it still open or no?
[1:14:44] It-
[1:14:44] No, it's not.
[1:14:46] They'll get in there.
[1:14:47] There's way too many access points to that.
[1:14:51] Yeah.
[1:14:51] There was one time they just-
[1:14:53] Yeah, there's windows broken, there's-
[1:14:55] Owner did come down, met with us, said they're going to meet with Carl, said we're
[1:14:58] going to board it up next weekend, and maybe they did a little bit here and there,
[1:15:02] but-
[1:15:02] They had a guy out go and measure windows, and then nothing showed up.
[1:15:07] Well, one thing that's going to help a little bit is that school's getting ready to
[1:15:11] start again. All this stuff happens is when these kids don't have anything to do,
[1:15:15] so that's what they'll do. Put some cameras at Dolay, and
[1:15:22] they
[1:15:23] threw the bird at the cameras. They know the cameras are there.
[1:15:27] So what can we do? It's one of those kind of things. So, okay.
[1:15:33] Hey, y'all got any council, y'all got any more questions for-- Thank you for taking
[1:15:37] your time. We didn't know if you were registered.
[1:15:38] Yeah, no problem. Glad to do it.
[1:15:39] All right, man, appreciate you and what you're doing. All right.
[1:15:44] Moving on to section number nine, items of community interest.
[1:15:48] 9.9 holiday schedule, September 7th, 2026. Mr. Berger.
[1:15:52] Yeah. In observance of Labor Day, September 7th, city offices will
[1:15:58] be closed and will reopen at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, September 8th.
[1:16:03] The sanitation schedule for residential and commercial, there will be no changes.
[1:16:06] It will remain the same. The collection and recycling center will also be closed
[1:16:11] Monday and will reopen Tuesday at 8:00 a.m., as well as the Cheatham site will be
[1:16:16] open for brush disposal.
[1:16:20] And then we also had another item.
[1:16:22] Oh, yeah. Skate park.
[1:16:23] Yes. I'd like to announce the grand opening and ribbon cutting on Wednesday, August
[1:16:29] 19th at 5:30 in the Crow Municipal Golf Course on MLK Drive, the skate
[1:16:35] park. So everybody grab your skateboards-
[1:16:37] Bring your skateboards
[1:16:37] ... and helmets and pads,
[1:16:41] and come out to this ribbon cutting.
[1:16:44] And also, if you haven't made it out to the park yet, they've already poured the
[1:16:50] two slabs for the pickleball courts. So they're already out there. They're waiting.
[1:16:55] It's going to be around-- They want to wait, I think David said it was around 25 or
[1:17:00] 30 days for the concrete to cure before they come in there and put the coating
[1:17:04] that's going to be on the court itself and the striping and all that.
[1:17:07] But he should be able to start moving forward with the fencing.
[1:17:10] It will be a 10-foot fence around there to keep balls from-
[1:17:13] From going all over
[1:17:14] ... all over the place.
[1:17:15] All right. Sounds good.
[1:17:17] One other quick thing on the skate park.
[1:17:19] We did announce that there's going to be some demonstrations there, so do please
[1:17:25] bring y'all's skateboards so y'all can show.
[1:17:28] Yeah, see some demonstrations.
[1:17:30] Are you-
[1:17:30] Don't mind if my boy had that real long when I-
[1:17:35] Are you inviting EMS as well?
[1:17:38] Yeah, we're inviting EMS.
[1:17:38] Emergency management.
[1:17:40] Yeah, that's probably what you're doing.
[1:17:41] Snuck out of here.
[1:17:42] Bring your skateboard, make sure you get out.
[1:17:44] We will have
[1:17:48] Justin Park and Molly there.
[1:17:48] That's awesome.
[1:17:48] James-
[1:17:49] Yes.
[1:17:50] He started the whole conversation.
[1:17:52] James will be there as well. We did invite the skate park, the woman that built the
[1:17:57] skate park, and
[1:17:58] we've had some
[1:18:00] other communities reach out to us, and I think they're going to be here as well.
[1:18:06] So we'll have some refreshments, and we will power to the stage in case
[1:18:11] anybody-
[1:18:13] Did you hear from the designer, and were they going to be able to make it?
[1:18:17] They're going to try,
[1:18:19] yes.
[1:18:19] They'll try.
[1:18:20] Yeah.
[1:18:20] Yeah.
[1:18:20] They should be able to make it.
[1:18:20] I think the only thing left there to do complete is this Wednesday.
[1:18:23] We'll be relocating the overhead.
[1:18:25] We have one fiber left going over it, that will be relocated underground.
[1:18:30] Actually, we already had it relocated, just need to splice it over, get the last
[1:18:33] pole removed, and then I think David has some touch-up on some signs.
[1:18:39] All right. And to my colleagues, thank you all so much for what y'all do.
[1:18:45] I know these last couple of months, man, being here for three and a half hours and
[1:18:49] stuff, but it's
[1:18:51] part of it. Yeah. It's part of what we do.
[1:18:55] So this is the time of the year where I dread, but it's a necessary evil and we
[1:19:00] have to do that. I think we got maybe one more special meeting, and we'll talk
[1:19:04] about it before-
[1:19:05] I don't look for that one to be a marathon.
[1:19:07] It's not going to be that long, I'll tell you. It's not going to be that long.
[1:19:11] So y'all just keep that in mind. All right.
[1:19:14] If there's no further business for tonight, we are adjourned.
[1:19:17] Thank you all.