Let's get this show started.
I'm going to go ahead and call to order
this Kerrville city council workshop for August 25, 2026.
Do we have anybody signed up to speak.
No, sir.
Thank you ma'am.
Let's go ahead and start with item, a Mr. Paxton.
Good afternoon, Mayor and council.
I'm actually going to let our animal
control officer, Mr. James Lee, present this to you guys.
All right.
Thank you.
All right Mr. mayor council, how are you.
Good to see you.
I hope to be brief, informative, and if I'm lucky,
I might stumble on being entertaining.
All right.
Shall we.
All right, so this is a Line, an update of our animal ordinance,
which is section 18 of the ordinance.
Our purpose is to make sure that all of our animal ordinances
are in line with the Texas Health and Safety Code,
chapter 821, which is the Texas State animal laws.
Further expanding definitions to avoid
legal ambiguities or loopholes that we
may have had in the past.
Turn it on.
And to better define the rules pertaining
to feral cats and the guidelines for registered feral cat
caregivers.
Here we go.
Sorry technical difficulties up here.
No worries.
So you used to have everything done.
So the cover topics will be amended
definitions, ones that we're just changing a little bit.
Anything that we've added additional definitions.
Ordinance expansions, things that were ordering ordinance
that maybe were adding something to give
it a little bit more depth.
Terminology terminology changes as well as the feral cat
ordinance updates and the feral cat colony contract,
which we'll get to at the end.
All right.
So some of the definitions that we've amended is abandonment.
We added a fourth subsection to it
that covers abandonment of an animal at a residence
due to a non occupation.
So basically someone moves out of their house
and leaves the animal behind.
We now have something to cover that which we didn't before.
We have updated the definition of at large
to add more details to it, covering what an animal is
considered at large.
By the way, in the Manila Oaks next to you guys,
you'll find a copy of all the animal ordinance updates,
as well as a copy of the CAT contract
for the feral CAT contract.
Cat we.
Under the definition of cat, we've
added eight new subsections of defining terminology like you're
tipping feral cat, just ones that we didn't have defined
in there, clearly, but now they're subsections under cat
dangerous dog.
We added subsection 3, which ties it to the state definition.
That's pretty simple.
Requirements for owner of dangerous dog.
We did an Amendment to the insurance policy amount, upping
it from 100,000 to 500,000.
Owner we vastly expanded the definition of owner
because ours was kind of woefully
under defined compared to other cities.
So we've expanded that one quite a bit.
It now covers a larger definition of what ownership can
be, since there's a lot of different ways
that somebody can own an animal commercially
for show emancipated minors, you name it,
it's covered in there now.
Restraint we've covered that better.
It better defines the parameters of what constitutes
the restraint of an animal.
And under tethering.
We've added some verbiage pertaining to property limits
because with tethering there's some distance and length
things due to state law.
But if those distance and lengths allow the animal to go
past property limits, we've now added language which covers
that, saying that they can't.
The tether should not let them leave the property line.
Oh, you jumped and jumped back.
There we go.
Additional definitions.
Animal dealer.
We didn't have one for that.
We now have that defined in there.
Animal establishment.
That's for pet stores things like that.
We now have that in there.
Animal exhibition think circus or some type
show where you can have a trained
animals that's now in there.
Animal services facility.
For some reason, we didn't have that.
But now we do assistance animal.
We now have that clearly defined in there
and the term pet animal, which so somebody declares it a pet.
We now have a definition of what that means.
And then the definition for quarantine, which of course,
would be tied to a zoonotic disease or rabies
containment type thing.
Ordinance expansions like that little guy's belly there.
So we have 1831, which is nuisances originally.
We are now making it public nuisances.
We've added a couple of subsections to that.
Adding some new clarifications under there of different things
that could be considered nuisances.
Giving us a little bit more enforcement
opportunity on situations that we didn't
have in the past if we need it.
1832 feral cat management.
We've clarified some new rules in there that
will tie to the feral CAT contract,
as well as removing the term community.
There are now feral cats, not community cats.
Legal ambiguity there because community cats assumes that
the community owns these cats.
We do not.
They're feral.
1855 requirements for owner of a dangerous dog.
We've expanded that one a little bit too.
Again, that goes back to that insurance policy update.
18 six I'm sorry, 76 animals left in vehicles.
We've updated to that.
We added to the end of it some definitions of what enforcement
officers are now that the city has an animal control officer as
well as oh, we lost our screen there as well
as a bit of definition at the end of it,
clarifying that if you leave an animal in a hot car in a parking
lot and an enforcement officer has to break the window,
in the case of getting the animal out to rescue it,
that it is the responsibility of the owner to deal
with the damage, not the city.
Let me interrupt real quick on that.
Sure you see it too often in town.
Animals left and dogs left in the vehicle with the windows
down or Windows up, and the car running with the owner
in a store somewhere.
Sure at what point.
I mean, obviously, if there's an animal in the vehicle
and it's not running and there's no AC going.
That's obviously a phone call to somebody.
Yep but also, I think I'm not a police officer.
I'm not a lawyer.
But also I think that it says I might
know somebody who was a police officer at one time, but.
If you leave your vehicle running and you're not in it,
that's not really legal either.
Correct I'm unclear or unaware of any law in Texas
that says that you're unable to leave your vehicle
running with you, not in it.
I'm not aware of any law.
I was a police officer for 10 years.
But out in California, not here.
But as far as I in Texas, it's not illegal to do that.
I know a lot of people do that.
They leave their cars on with their air conditioners running.
That's fine.
Remote start, I understand, but anyway,
at what point does that become something
that needs to be a concern of a citizen or anybody sees it.
Even if the windows are up in the car's running right.
So you don't know if the AC is actually on or not.
Sure, we do have defined actually
in that subsection certain temperature degrees.
So 75 degrees or higher within the car
starts to become a concern.
Now the animal obviously isn't going
to be distressed right away.
However, over time at anything above that temperature,
it will be within a danger zone.
And so that's why we carry or at least
I carry a thermal thermometer in my vehicle.
So if I get a call saying, hey, there's a dog over here,
I can shoot a temperature inside that car
immediately, know what temperature it is,
and then I can look at the condition of the dog
based on my training and say, OK, I'm seeing
signs of health concern or not.
That will then tell me, OK, how much time do I have
to work with this situation.
Is it a break the window, get the animal out right away
for its care.
Or is it OK.
Now we can go inside the store and make an announcement
and try and get an owner out here and deal with this.
So we use those kind of informed sections of script
to follow to say, OK, this is what we're going to do based
on the amount of time we have and the temperature and the
condition of the animal.
Does that answer your question.
Yes, sir.
OK thank you.
1877 animals and trucks and trailers.
So that again talks to a bit of that as well.
If we added some stuff in there, just again
to clarify those languages.
And when they can be in trucks and trailers
and how they can be in the backs of trucks or trailers
or can't be and how they have to be secured,
all those types of things.
1891 covers foul that section for the chickens we
allow in the city kind of was.
It was under-defined as how to keep the chickens.
So we've added sections to the back of that to make sure
that the chickens are secured.
They're not just running out in the street,
which you will commonly see in the Doyle district area,
that those things have to be kept in the back yard, not
the front yard.
So it's not an eyesore in the front.
All those types of things are now
to find that those cages are again
of adequate size for the animals so that they're
not being tortured by it.
Those types of things are all now included
and specified in there.
To make that a little bit clearer for chicken owners.
Rabbits 1891.
We added just a little bit of language
for both rabbits and ferrets pertaining
to the conditions or things that can come
out of the keeping of those.
That would make it some type of nuisance.
So if I look it up, I'm going to forget.
But it was stuff like water, dust, splashing smells, things
that could come from the keeping of those
that if they're not being maintained well,
would cause a nuisance and then allow us to then step in
and say, OK, you need to change what you're
doing here with your animals.
But it's pretty much the same for both rabbits
and ferrets and chicken.
It was added actually to all three.
So that's our expansions.
And then terminology changes.
So again, I kind of covered that earlier.
Community cats will now be feral cats due to
the legal terminology of that.
Not a real big deal.
And then of course, feral cat will change as well
and start a community cat caregiver.
Feral cat management ordinance update.
So we did change that section a bit.
It lacked refinement of measurable markers
to hold registered caregivers accountable for
the needed program standards.
The whole standard behind having feral cat colonies
is to stop the breeding of these animals, which means we need
to trap neuter these animals.
We need to get them vaccinated, we need to return them,
but they also need to be controlled
so that they're not in businesses,
they're not in the parking lots.
They're not being fed on someone else's property.
All those types of things, those things
have now been added to standards.
And then you can see down here addition
of several subsections clearly defined in the guidelines
of the colonies.
Also adds enforcement measures for us should
the compliance continually fail to meet
the standards that we set.
They also help us make sure that the management of this program
is successful because we want it to be successful.
We want to control the population of the feral cats,
but also we want to take care of the cats.
We don't want to be mean to them.
We don't want to have to euthanize them.
We want to be able to take care of those.
And especially for our caregivers
who spend a lot of their time to help these animals,
a lot of their money to get them spayed and neutered.
But we need to manage it carefully for the program
to be successful.
So that's what these new ordinances do,
is put tighter guidelines on that to make sure
that we can make sure it's successful
and that they're following those guidelines.
The feral cat colony contract.
So currently we had what we called the Community cat
registry, which is where anyone could just sign up and say,
I'm going to feed the cats because it
is against our ordinance to feed feral cats.
However, if somebody signed one of these,
they could just go to wherever these cats were living
and start feeding them.
That held them to no standards like the ones
I just talked about.
They could do it wherever the cats were,
or whether it was on someone else's property.
Someone's parking lot along the river, wherever it might be.
This turns it into a contract with the city.
And it specifies all the rules, regulations,
and measurable timelines needed to manage these colonies
correctly, as well as the oversight measurements
that I will have, to have enforcement measurements
so that if they are not following these guidelines,
if they're not meeting these deadlines,
if they're doing things they shouldn't in places
they shouldn't, we now have enforcement
standard to correct that.
These are community partners, of course, Kerrville
pets alive and the big fix.
They're instrumental in all of our pet stuff within the city.
They're great community partners.
I love working with them.
I was able to go over all these things with them ahead of time
and get their feedback, and it was
overwhelmingly pretty positive to get
their support, which was great.
They want these programs to work as well,
and I think that they understood pretty clearly that if we don't
manage it correctly using these new guidelines that it will
fail, and then the city and the state
would have no you, no option but to revert to old ways, which
was just euthanized en masse.
So they're pretty happy with that.
Some of them are here tonight.
Thank you guys for being here.
All right.
So next steps city council.
There we go.
So we have our if everything successful tonight we'll have
our readings in September their eighth and 22nd where
you guys can vote on that.
And then we'll pause here for questions.
Like I said I'll accidentally stumble into being entertaining.
It's not on purpose, I assure you.
Could you tell me your name.
Because I don't know that I've met you.
I don't think we have.
My name is James Lee, Officer James Lee.
And When it's time.
I'll have some questions.
Absolutely right now is the time.
Please OK.
So this is wonderful.
This makes me feel better.
I mean, it helps me sleep at night.
I love animals.
I have animals, I love the pets.
Pets alive organization.
I think they do wonderful things in our community.
But I do have a concern since we have the County who does.
I would say maybe something totally different
or not at all like this.
And I'm concerned that we're doing a part of things well,
but the big picture needs some attention.
Sure I would love your advice as to what would be my next step.
I plan to take a tour of the County animal shelter, which
I actually have not had yet, and just see how things work there.
But I was going to actually ask someone to chauffeur
me around and just not walk in.
But do you have any comments about that your relationship
with them, and has it been a good working relationship
or has it had some challenges.
Absolutely no.
Since day one.
I recognize coming into this position
that the partnerships with our community partners
like Kerrville, pets alive, big fix, as well as the County.
We're going to be absolutely important because none of us
are equipped manpowered none of us
have enough to do this on our own.
We have to work as a team or this won't work.
I am a state certified animal control officer.
I can do all the things that they can do.
However, my duties here have been focused more on the animal
ordinance side, which is actually worked out really
quite well with them, whereas they're focused
on the regular side of things.
And so we kind of team up and we will commonly go to calls
together to where I can hit things from the ordinance side,
and they can hit things from the criminal side if needed.
And we do that a lot.
I actually backed up an animal control officer for the County
today.
I was actually out doing code work,
follow up for the code enforcement department,
and I saw an animal officer out on a call,
and she was all alone, and she was out with two individuals.
One of them was holding a knife.
It was just a tree saw branch, but he wasn't
holding it to be threatening.
He just didn't realize he was still holding it, but I stopped,
I got out, I backed her up, I asked him to drop it and he did.
And then we were able to continue the call
and everything went just fine.
But she was very grateful for that.
So it's one of those situations where we're going to partner as
much as possible to create the best
animal situation in the County that we can for city or County.
I would say our relationships have been very, very strong.
The Constable who runs the program
over there, Reagan Gibbons, lives
right down the street from me.
We're actually friends, so that helps a lot, too.
My partnership with the police department has been very good.
Chief Gerald actually was the chief
in the city I used to live in at the same time
when I was a police officer there, but for a different city.
We didn't even realize it until we moved however many states
away and lived here and met.
So we have a great relationship now too.
So far all the partnerships have been extremely, extremely good.
Really good to hear.
Yeah thank you very much.
This is great.
Yes, sir Mr. yes.
So to echo what Dylan said, I think Kerrville,
pets alive and the big fix do.
Excellent work in our community.
But I think you have bad actors in the community who are not
necessarily giving them a bad name,
but are negating the work that they're doing.
So I just have some questions on the feeding and the areas
25 yards away from any parking lot or commercial building.
Is that whichever is furthest.
Yes the goal is to keep the animals away from the parking
lot for their own safety.
So don't get run over by cars, but also
to keep them away from the businesses and the people.
Obviously, if they're running food establishments,
let's say we don't want them there because there's
a health concern.
And it could be disruptive to the business
if they're begging or doing things that animals
do, those types of deals.
So all these rules again that you're
seeing they're in the contract, these
are rules to address things that are currently happening, to stop
them from happening and give US enforcement options
against groups, as you said, that are bad actors that aren't
following these guidelines.
But hopefully moving forward as well.
Any new colonies and things will they'll
know these rules up front.
The public education will be there
through me because everything will have to roll through me.
So I will approve of these colonies based on those rules.
Is it this far from a business.
Is it on private land that you own or have permission to.
Is it.
We'll go through all that before the city
ever agrees to sign a contract with them,
allowing them to do this.
Is there a fine or not registering as a colony.
There isn't currently, no.
There's no existing fine other than they would be violating
the city ordinance of feeding feral cats
if it's within city limits.
In which case, yes, we could.
Then we have a process that we go through in the code
department, which is where animal control falls right now,
where there's a three Warning system.
They're warned once we check back in a week,
if they're still doing it, they're
warned again on the third one is a final Warning.
And then it's a citation.
That citation can be anywhere from $200 up to way to $2,000,
depending on the judge and the grievance of how many
times and what they're doing.
OK, so that would be the process we would currently
follow to punish somebody who's just refusing
to go along with the rules.
I would like to make a suggestion
on this contract that having had to deal with this myself.
Yes, anyone can sign this last page and say yes, I apologize.
That's all right.
Time to pick up my child from school.
So being that anyone can say, yes, this property
has allowed me to feed these cats.
I think the property owner should have somewhere on here
saying that they're allowing this person to do so.
And that's why this will filter through me now
as the sole manager of the program,
when they come to ask for one of these.
I am the one who will vet all that with them.
So then you're going to call the property owner.
Exactly OK.
They will have to provide that permission via phone call,
or I'll have to go out and look at it, whatever it might be.
That will all go through me to vet all that before they're
allowed to sign this.
And then I think 15 cats is too much.
Yeah having seen it in person.
Sure it's a lot.
And I know there's ones in the past.
Some of the ones that are grandfathered currently
have many, many more than that.
And so that was the thing is we didn't
really know where to draw the line,
what we went back and forth.
Do we make it a dozen, do we make it 15, do we make it this,
do we make it that.
So we came up with that number arbitrarily.
We thought, what could one person reasonably manage.
Like how many cats in an area 15 kind of
seemed like a reasonable number, like, OK,
that's a reasonable amount of cats to manage as far as one
person and maybe a backup because they are allowed to sign
a backup person on here in case they fall ill
or in the hospital, they can have a second signatory
here as a backup that we put on the sheet, the registration
sheet, so that if something happens to them,
the duties immediately fall to that next person.
So that's where we were at with the 15.
But it is arbitrary.
It can be changed.
It's not hard.
It's just what we came up with that we thought was reasonable.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
And thank you all Kerrville pets alive and the big
fix for all y'all to.
Go ahead.
Officer Lee on council member Smith's question.
I know of a colony, Brenda of the colony I'm talking about off
of rolling green and Birkdale.
It's not on somebody's property.
It's actually in a easement where camp meeting Creek is.
So it's basically state.
Waterway state.
How would you go.
I mean, it's established the cats are all clipped and snipped
and spayed and taken care of.
But how would you go.
Would you have to call the state to say, hey, there's a cat
colony on state property, or would
you just go the closest person that's taking care of them.
Yeah if it's uncontrolled land like that belongs to the state.
Yeah, we're probably not going to follow up on it.
Now if it's city property, we can obviously do that.
We're the city.
We can find out and say OK, do we
want to allow this here or not.
When it's state property.
We're probably not going to chase it
as long as it's not a problem.
As far as it's not near a business,
it's not disturbing a neighborhood nearby.
It's not if it's just some unrestricted area
and the cats are isolated to that, that's a part of the goal.
We don't want them in an area where they're going to disturb
the population in some way.
So if they're happy in that kind of open space
and it's not hurting anything in the area in any way ecologically
or anything like that, then yeah,
we're not going to chase it now if it becomes a problem.
For some reason, if a red flag is raised by a certain party,
then we can take those steps and dig into it, but otherwise
we probably wouldn't.
If it's just open land like that, they're happy
and everybody's happy with them.
So it's pretty much.
Yeah, yeah.
Anything else.
Anybody who came tonight would like to speak.
Come on up, please.
State your name and city for the record, please.
Good evening.
My name is Beth Patterson.
I'm the assistant coordinator for Kerrville pets alive.
I need your business cards in my pocket.
I need a lot of them.
This orange shirt is my ticket to wherever I go.
And my.
My partners in crime.
The big fix.
I hand out their business cards.
We work very hard together, and I constantly have people go,
you have to register a colony.
And this is so new.
And so I need a reference, I need them.
These are not people that necessarily get online.
So where are you.
They are Facebook kind of people.
Do you have information going out that I can tag.
Yes so AI can give you plenty of my business cards
to put out there.
We just finally got them.
So we can do that I'll give you online are old too.
So sure.
Also yeah.
So public education is a very big part of this new program.
I'm working with Martin.
We're trying to get a lot of things done,
we'll be at bark in the park.
We'll be at the New Kerrville pets alive grand opening
to answer questions and just let people know
in general that, hey, the city has this program now,
we're out there.
We're enforcing the ordinances.
I took two roosters from a guy the other day,
had roosters in the city.
He said, I've had them for years.
No one told me they weren't allowed here.
I says, well, they weren't allowed here.
He says.
They just never go to animal control it.
Yeah so I saw them.
Yes so.
So we are here now and we're enforcing these things.
So a lot of people just need to learn that we're here
and that we're doing these things now.
And so that will be a big public education push.
And we're working with all the partner agencies to do that.
OK myself and big fix and capa partners
are in capa in kick-ass every day.
And so we have partnerships with I've
been doing this for five years.
We have partnership personal relationships with every ACO
except for the new guys.
And so I personally will pick up the phone and say,
Daisy, there's a dog on so-and-so,
and it hasn't gotten on the radio or whatever.
I feel good about that.
But in the city, I'm a County resident, so I'm
anxious to see this progress.
I live off of upper turtle Creek,
and I want to make sure this happens.
I'm now connected on the emergency system.
I have a repeater on my property and so I'm
connected in that environment.
I want to make sure that everybody knows.
And if you want to come at some point
or get Reagan to come and explain
this from their perspective, that you're doing this together.
I have a colony that I am working with that
has been established and has been there
for over 20 or 30 years, and he definitely
has more than 15 cats.
So I'd like to see that 15 expand to the County
if it's ever possible.
I'll be real curious to see how far we go.
Yeah, so I am working with them, and a lot of the things
that we're establishing here within the city
are having the positive effect of bleeding over to the County,
even as far as how I have equipped myself
for this position, they've kind of
seen the benefits of defensive equipment and things
like that and protection like a vest.
I wear a vest when I'm out in the field
and they've seen that benefit for their officers,
so they're starting to do that as far as rules and the county's
ordinances and rules.
Yeah, I think we'll see some of that
happen as well, where when we establish certain rules,
they may follow.
They may not.
That's up to the County commissioners, of course.
And then Reagan, who's running that program.
But the positive relationship we've
had so far is kind of leaning towards let's do this together.
Let's work together.
Let's all get on the same page, operate the same way.
That way we can work hand in hand
and there's no hang UPS. I worked on college campuses
for 13 years, and so I know day to day to day for everything
that you need, like grant writing
and all that kind of stuff.
So I'll be excited to see that information.
Thank you for being here.
We greatly appreciate it.
You're very welcome.
I have one more.
Sure yes.
I'd like to piggyback on council member
Smith's suggestion about getting written permission
to be on the property.
I think it's fine to check, but people's memory and people can
I think having it in writing, it's absolutely simple enough
to add that to the contract and just have a second signatory
for the property owner.
If it's somebody different, we can absolutely do that.
No problem.
Anybody else.
Anybody else from either of the groups.
All right.
It's odd that someone is not taking a chance to speak to us.
I can get up there and say what a wonderful job
he's doing, but come on up.
Please step to the mic and say your name.
Thank you for your presentation.
You're very welcome.
I have one small typo.
I'll show you after.
Oh, sure.
Thank you.
All right.
Anything else on this item.
Let's move on then to the next item, which
I don't have in front of me.
Item 2B Mr. Mayor and council.
I'm excited to follow that.
I haven't gotten a chance to spend
too much time with Officer Lee yet, so that was a pleasant.
That was nice to see.
Well done.
OK, so we're going to talk a little bit about flood
in a couple of different phases.
So I'll do some overview stuff.
And then Kelly Hagemeyer from Kerr
together no longer the city of Kerrville AI is here tonight.
And she's going to talk a little bit about Kerr Together's
process and what they're doing.
And then the following item is kind of a continuation of that.
And David and Julie will talk about the debris pickup.
So without further ado.
So immediate response is over.
So it's recovery at this point.
This seems like old hat for us, and I'm sorry about that.
But we kind of know where this is headed.
Our city services are operating as they normally do.
We have some hiccups.
We do have some temporary issues that we're working through.
But I think with the exception of James Avery campus
out on Harper, everybody's water and sewer
connections are as they are.
Staff is in the process of temporarily fixing that water
line extension to James Avery, so they'll be back up
and running.
They won't notice the difference.
It's still a temporary fix on our end.
And so that's the disruption I think
we see in the utility side.
A lot of work left in the creeks,
a lot of work left on the Riverside,
and a lot of future projects coming our way.
From an infrastructure standpoint,
state continues to be here.
I think they're operating a lot of their activity
on last year's flooding.
They have been a guidance for us during this time.
But the presence is different this year
than it was last year, right.
You can feel that you can see it.
Federal assistance.
We're still waiting.
I think the process is.
Compiling all of the damage assessments
for all the counties that were affected in Texas,
and putting those all together as one package
to go to President's desk.
I think that is what's happening.
And so we're continuing to push.
Mayor was at a meeting last Friday,
I believe, with reps from Congressman Roy's office
or Congressman Roy was there, I believe to keep pushing.
And so I think that's what we can do at this point
is continue to advocate for ourselves,
talk to our neighbors, continue to advocate for themselves
as well.
The state is pushing.
I see we have that conversation.
Not daily, but almost daily.
Where we're at.
You get tired of asking, but you keep asking.
Yes do things like what happened in Hawaii and the flooding
in Indiana and other natural disasters that are happening
now after July 16 affect that.
It's hard to speculate on it, but I think it does.
I think there's severity levels.
I think when you have I think when
you have loss of human life, I think
the responses are different.
I think they are faster.
And then it scales because when they're looking at it,
if they're seeing this week there's something
here the next week, something here
the next week, something here.
And, you get all of those requests simultaneously.
I'm not sure I'm not sure the process, the methodology
approved or disapproved.
But you have 50 states and all the territories,
all asking for federal dollars.
Pocketbooks to be opened up.
So it is a complicated process.
Now, what I do understand is that while we see this
as a delay in a federal response,
because last year we had such an immediate turnaround,
it does take a while to get those declarations.
So I think two of the biggest facets of it
are we talk about it all the time as individual assistance
and public assistance.
So if FEMA opens up those two tranches of funding,
that opens up different avenues for both families,
and community members living in town, as well as for us
and what's available for us.
We do have a significant philanthropic community.
The dollars that came through for this flood,
I think a lot of their donation fatigue is a real thing.
$150 million plus was donated in last year's flood.
I believe part of that money is that's going
to this year's flood.
One of the weird kind of not weird IRS regulation stipulation
is that Community Foundation has to get approval
from those donors to utilize that money from last year
to this year, which is another step.
And I think they had more than 100,000
or more than 100,000 donors.
So a lot of people to reach out to.
But they've gotten some money out thus far,
and some of those programs are operating and getting
assistance out to people.
We're going to keep working with Kerr
together other as kind of our official
long term recovery group.
And so we meet with them on a weekly basis,
talk to them all the time about what's available,
how can we help.
And they reciprocate and ask me, when are
we going to handle the debris.
And so both of our answers have been we're working on it.
And so what you'll see tonight is
that we are implementing not just working on it
again TMM and DPs are operating.
There will be another barge.
There will be another crane there putting that stuff
back out there as we speak.
Those things are in place.
And so those operations continue.
Our water and wastewater again, our systems
are operational, although not as we want them to be.
The crews that work worked for David Barrera.
Our magicians.
And they will make these things work.
And they will duct tape a thing, the officially duct tape
with a clamp and all approved.
But they can I mean to say they can work magic.
Repairs on town Creek are going well
for the water and wastewater.
The repairs on the road is a significantly different
conversation, although they have done a lot of work
and the streets crews are here today sitting right there,
and they are rock stars, all of them.
There are still some issues with access and a few crossings.
We know about those.
Arcadia loop bridge, big one town
Creek has some crossing issues.
Obviously there's major damage throughout that.
We have a large transmission line,
a few that cross at the water treatment
plant that are transmit water from the treatment plant
into town.
Those were, oh, I don't five to 10 feet below the bed
of the river when they were built.
And that water has been scoured a little bit
and they are no longer that deep.
And so it came to light when the barge went over the river,
as they were pulling some of their material back out,
scoured one of the lines, which happens then.
That was fine.
We were able to fix it, but it highlighted this larger project
that will be a future public, probably a future FEMA project
is what we are planning for, but we
don't want to have that line so close
to the surface of the water, not to the surface of the water,
but to the bed.
And so I think those are a couple of our biggest projects
that we're looking at, obviously,
are the bridge, that transmission
line, town Creek, river trail.
Big components.
Talk about those.
Knapp and Cypress are returning to public use.
The river trail does remain closed,
although we've had a huge volunteer outpouring from folks
with heavy equipment who came out and did a lot of work
over the last few weeks.
And I know Jay will get mad when I say this,
but the river trail is closed.
But we see people out there walking,
so if you're amongst those who are trespassing,
let's say there has been a lot of work
and I think you'll be able to see the work that has been done.
There's a significant amount of movement in that river rock.
Every time you drive over the bridge
and you look down at Louise Hays park,
you'll see a lot of that right there.
And that's all up and down the river.
So in that we have areas that we still
need to fix, a lot of cavitations, a lot of areas
where the drop offs are as high as this desk,
sometimes as high as the dais there.
And so we can't open that up until we
mitigate that because it's just too much it's too dangerous.
We don't want somebody to go out there and trip and fall.
Again, the volunteers this time around,
I think that's going to be a big delta for us this year,
is that we don't have the disaster declaration.
We still have to get all this stuff done.
Our teams are working hard at getting the things that we can
do done, but the volunteers are seeing a gap
and they're filling that gap.
So with heavy equipment, with just volunteers
coming to pick up trash, I know Lisa and Saladin and a bunch
of her friends have been out cleaning up town
Creek just every couple of days they're
out there picking stuff out.
And so lots of groups are out there helping us out.
One of the things that we are looking at now is.
How do we rebuild.
Where do we rebuild.
What is a place like town.
Creek is a perfect example.
I spoke to you all at that budget hearing
and said $57 million to fix the thing, that area,
and I'm sorry I said it.
I didn't want to say it.
It's a horribly large number and it's not a realistic number.
That's a number that we provide to FEMA
to say to bring it back to those preexisting conditions.
This is what that looks like.
And that's just never what we'll do.
But we have to supply that to FEMA.
But we're looking at this from a functionality standpoint.
Who needs access.
Where do they need access.
And how can we most efficiently make that happen.
And the town Creek that I think we all knew
is always going to be different.
More to follow on that.
In that endeavor we will work towards grants,
philanthropic funding where we can
and then keep kind of pushing that volunteer effort because I
think we're going to have to do a lot of this ourselves
to get it done.
So the next phase is David will talk about debris
removal here in a little bit.
We're going to keep working on FEMA
and tdem documentation for anything that we're going to do.
We're going to do all of our work compliant
with those regulations.
So that way, if and when the time
comes for us to get reimbursed, we have done it in accordance
with their rules so we can get the maximum reimbursement
for it.
Keep advocating for that.
Priorities for what we can fix is next.
Because I think we have somewhere between 65 million
and $100 million worth of damage,
and there's not going to be enough funding
to cover all that.
So what are the priorities.
So we will get that list to you and triage that and then
start working on those permanent fixes for all of our projects.
So that's the big picture for me.
Kelly has a lot more detail about what curr
together has been doing, so she's
going to step up and take over.
I'll answer any questions you have now, or if y'all want
to wait until she's finished.
Questions for Mr. Horn's.
OK thank you MS Hagemeyer.
Good afternoon.
Council thank you for having me here.
My name is Kelly Hagemeyer.
I am the program manager for curr together.
And this is our one month recovery
report for the 26th July 2026.
Severe weather event.
So, assessing the istat data, we have 966 residents that were
verified as being affected.
223 of those were major or destroyed, the majority
of that damage being in the Kerrville city limits
with 190 homes, severe sustaining, major
or destroyed, major damage or destroyed.
And so I also put up the 2025 comparisons.
So while there were less affected,
obviously the proportion of major and damage was longer.
However, as I mentioned, this damage was more centralized
than the Kerrville city limits.
We also put up there the number of businesses
that were affected.
That was something from 2025.
We were well aware that we needed to keep in mind,
even though that there weren't a lot of resources
and it wasn't something that Tedham
necessarily kept track of.
But we felt that was really important for our community.
And then this year, we had a much larger number of businesses
that were affected and especially majorly destroyed
and damaged, with 20 of those businesses being
destroyed within the Kerrville city limits.
So then from the Tedham verified, then we
have the other list of people who have been coming in
since then, or maybe didn't make it to the I-stat or got
lost somewhere in the system.
Just as council member Harris and I were talking about,
lots of people are still coming in just
now submitting their damages.
And so this is an assessment that occurred together
has as we collect various lists that
are coming from other organizations
throughout the County.
We're trying to cross-reference, see
if we've doubled up anywhere.
So that 1,200 number might go down.
But given that Tatum had verified almost 1,000 people
were thinking that a near 1,200 is
much more accurate of how many people were actually affected.
So as we go through with the residents of what their needs
are right now, there are still residents
that need muck and gut.
And so as we're hearing about those people,
we are putting them on a list and trying
to get them with a vote.
As Mr. mentioned, we have not quite as many resources,
which also means volunteers.
So a lot of those video ads, those volunteer organizations
active in disaster.
They have already left.
Many of them are still monitoring what needs.
There still are, but it's a little less organized
or consistent at this time.
And we're kind of having to reach out
and we're having to meet some sort of threshold
in their mind to be able to collect whether it's
50, hundreds, 200 volunteers for the weekend
throughout the whole state to come
and finding a place for them to stay
and all of those things for them to come
in to continue to do those response
efforts, debris removal.
My staff is very grateful that the city and the County
have a mitigation plan right now,
that it was one of the main questions
that we were receiving is when how are
we getting rid of this stuff off of our property.
So we're grateful to David and his crew
for working very quickly to come up with a solution.
Financial assistance.
Light on the Hill is currently distributing
emergency financial assistance.
So a lot of people losing their house or not being able to be
in their house, trying to live in a house
that they probably shouldn't.
Maybe they lost work.
They lost their car.
I saw a report today that 95 households
have said that their car was affected in some way.
Probably lost completely.
And some of those that was just households.
So some of those they lost both cars.
And then temporary housing is something else.
These people who probably shouldn't be living
in their home trying to better understand
what those solutions are with such little funding
available at this time.
Kelly, can I ask a question on that last slide.
Oh, yes.
Of course.
Financial assistance light on the Hill.
So if they come to y'all and say, hey, we need this.
Are they going to light on the Hill.
Is that going through, y'all.
And light on the Hill or is that a totally different.
So right now.
So yes, if someone comes and they have not light on the Hill
is getting their lists through rebuild Kerr.
So if someone comes to us and says,
I haven't received financial assistance and I was affected,
we can get them into the system.
We do have a disaster.
Case manager threw light on the Hill
that is at 98 Coronato 9 to four.
We have someone there and they can double check
if they are in the system.
We just haven't gotten they haven't just gotten to them yet.
They are.
Beth Palmer, there she is.
Her goal is to write checks to 200 households every week.
So that is 200 people, 200 households that they're needing
to talk to every week to comb through to verify,
because they have their own checks and balances too.
But they have done an amazing job to get through that.
And so her goal was to get all of that money
out within six weeks.
Yes, ma'am.
Some of the first people that came in that first week,
I know we were up and running as far as input
and taking their case.
So are they being called now that there
is this light on the Hill.
Financial assistance.
Yes we're going back through our list and data
sharing and giving them and double
checking with the disaster case managers
to make sure that as people come in or if we think that maybe
someone got lost through the cracks
to make sure that they are in their system,
could have been one of the intakes I did.
So you might want to double check those.
We will double check.
Not my skill set.
You did a wonderful job.
Thank you for coming.
You're so welcome.
So one of the acronym soups that we got to learn very early
on last year was voadores.
So those volunteer organizations active in disasters and occur
together is a collaboration of local, regional,
and national partners.
And these ads are part of that.
These four are the ones that we worked most closely with.
They weren't the only ones who were in town.
They were just the most consistent
with checking in with us.
And they also gave me closeout packets, which always makes
it easier to collect data.
And so Samaritan's Purse, all hands and hearts,
Texans on mission and Team Rubicon.
And so we're very grateful for them.
We stay in constant contact with them.
Because they're wanting to come back into the community
whenever they find funding or whenever
we have a large enough work order for them.
This weekend, actually, the Latter day Saints
are coming into town, and so I'm coordinating with them with
that church group right now.
Global empowerment mission has been a wonderful partner
to curd together.
They are able to help us not only just with individuals
but also businesses.
And they also manage the warehouse,
which was very important from last year Mr. horns can tell you
plenty of nightmare stories about the warehouse
from last year.
And so this year it was much more organized.
We had everyone in place.
And in the weeks following the disaster,
gem was able to distribute and deliver supplies to residents
and other voids and curd together is very excited we are
working towards our 501(c)3, our non-profit status,
and so we are just waiting on our IRS determination letter.
And so right now gem is curd together
financial fiscal sponsor as we mature as a nonprofit.
As I said from last year, we really
learned how important it was.
Kurt together and Kurt EDC were well
aware of the economic damages from disasters
and the high number of businesses that don't survive.
And so that became a really high priority.
And one of our great partners during this time
has been lift fund.
So lift fund.
From the 2025 fund, flood was able to distribute nearly $20
million in grants and loans.
And then whenever the 26 flood occurred,
they shifted some additional loan money
that they had that they had just started distributing,
and they shifted that to grants.
And those were $10,000 grants at the time.
And then we were blessed by the Community
Foundation, who granted another 5 million to be towards grants.
And so those grants are a maximum of 50,000 that.
That application closed, I believe either Thursday.
It closed last week.
And so there were 103 applicants.
And so that money should be distributed
as soon as next week.
So the remaining critical needs at this point.
So we continue to connect with the various
with various funding sources to secure votes,
secure vote activity.
Light on the Hill is still funding
emergency financial assistance public assistance.
So we are still working with the city and County
on what infrastructure needs they have,
as Mr. Horn has laid out.
Temporary housing.
We are collaborating with emergency
housing funds and other temporary housing solutions.
We're getting creative.
We're looking into some RVs.
I had a conversation with Drew just
clarifying where RVs could and could
not be within the city limits.
And so we're also working with the Parks Department
to see what that would look like.
If we need someone to be in an RV for a longer stay,
and if that would be possible at Ksp and what
those funding requirements would be.
Some more creative underlining concerns.
Agriculture there is not many resources for agriculture.
We kind of knew this last year from the disaster
between Agrilife and the Texas Department of agriculture.
Those are your only two sources, and it is not quick
and it's a little cumbersome.
So we're still working through a lot of fences down
and stuff like that.
Mold remediation.
We're working to collaborate with some workshops
with some of the voids.
The free options I have are not quick and the now options
are expensive.
So y'all know how that works.
Private roads.
We are still assessing private roads
and trying to understand what that looks like.
Between finding the equipment, a license
operator material and fuel.
Putting all those four together takes some time.
And then the key things that occur together needs
to try to officially transition into recovery
is connecting with all the individuals
and understanding their needs.
Continuing our collaboration with city, city and County
staff on infrastructure.
Continuing to engage with our ads.
And lastly, FEMA individual assistance.
So I think as city council and the County commissioners
and our Governmental Affairs and everyone
for collaborating with our state and federal representatives
and really pushing for this declaration.
And with that, any questions.
I'll just.
Sorry you're fine.
I just want to thank you, Kelly, because I had.
I'm just going to claim I can't see what's going on.
You were nice enough to let me come in,
because what happens is on the street when
you go visit these neighborhoods again, they have more questions.
Different questions and misinformation.
So I'm really anytime I think y'all needed to go visit with
Kelly or someone I try to make it convenient for you because I
know you're extremely busy, but it really helped me that day
to get even some of this information you're giving us
now, so that we can relay that to the public and start to give
them some hope and some confidence that,
yes, you're on the radar, that we're working on this debris.
We're working on all of these things as best we can,
as fast as we can.
And the money coming in helped.
I mean, getting those numbers to was a boost in the confidence
that we're going to get through this.
So thank you very much.
Thank you crystal.
No, thank you for all your very thorough updates.
No you're welcome.
Work that you're doing.
Thanks yeah I agree.
Thanks very much.
It's still amazing that Kirk is doing such a great job,
and it's a little comforting in a way.
We've got another disaster, but we're up and running already,
so appreciate all the hard work and the coordination
that you're getting accomplished.
Thank you.
Yeah I hate to be this guy.
No that's OK.
Can you go back a couple of slides to the left.
Which one.
Talking about the lift fund and the amount of money.
And keep going right there.
So I understand the grants.
Grants don't get paid back.
Let's talk about this center section here that says loans.
$11,883,539 in loans.
I have been asked numerous times by people in the community,
was that their money from the get go.
Did they have that.
Is that what they're loaning, or did they
get that from other places and they're making loans off of it.
And are they charging interest.
Are they basically getting $12 million
in New business because of a disaster.
I am not bashing the fund.
I am so glad they're here.
They stood up and talked about the grants,
but this came up last year in the very beginning when
the foundation was giving out grants and people were saying,
oh, it's loans, it's loans, and they got to pay it back.
That is not the case with the foundation.
But right here, it says loans and Kelly,
I'm not trying to bash anything.
I'm just people ask I need to ask
a question for the citizens of Kerrville
about why it says loans.
Yeah and how is the money.
Are they loaning only to Kerr County and comfort
to make sure it stays here.
And when that money comes back in, it gets paid off.
Are they loaning that money back out to people of Kerr,
Kerrville and comfort area.
So I can probably answer some of your questions, not all of them.
And I can definitely get you more information from the lift
fund to answer those questions, because those
really are valid questions because we
have worked through that also.
And so the majority of their loans
have been in Kerr County and comfort
just at this time because we've been working with them.
But they are a national company who does help during disasters.
Lift fund also can be utilized not in disaster.
So actually Curry DC has is looking
at also partnering with them to help businesses to understand
business plans and just becoming more financially secure
and thinking about different ways to set up your business
and just being ready and better prepared financially.
The majority of those loans, I believe,
were actually the interest.
There were 0 interest loans, so the money
that was donated to the fund was to buy down that interest so
that whenever people were paying back,
it was just the principal, not the interest.
I did not do well in finance class,
but that is how I understand it in the best layman's term.
It's just one of those questions that's being asked,
and it's a sore subject that the perception, I guess,
is they have a disaster and there's a company that comes in
to help on one side, but then they're
loaning on the other side to be paid back.
So yes.
And we had the same conversations
with some of the banks too.
And so there were many that were encouraged to talk to your bank
first, see what type of loan options and what percentage
they can give you and even lift.
One was very honest about that.
Talk to your bank first.
See what if they can maybe work with you.
But some companies did find that the loan option just because
of that 0% interest, because that funding that was given
was specifically to buy down the interest of the loans just
work better for them.
But I'll work with Adrian and I'll get some more
definite answers for you.
Any other comments or questions.
Thank you ma'am.
Thank you.
To see MS Behrens.
All right.
Good afternoon, Mayor.
Council I'll keep it kind of brief on this,
but we'll do a quick rundown on our curbside collection update.
As we've been talking about earlier from day one,
we start looking at flood debris management.
So we start looking at how we can
develop systems for public input through surveys,
emails, phone calls.
I want to recognize Stephanie Daley and Angela North, who's
on the other side of the wall, who they've been
the frontline folks of taking hundreds
of calls and guiding people in the right direction for that.
So that's critical in any kind of management process.
Also evaluate our existing resources.
What do we have in place.
We do have a solid waste program.
We're able to utilize that.
Volunteers were here already on the ground coordinating that
with Kelly and her team out there
offering guidance on placement of items at the curb.
Doesn't matter if we're going to pick it up,
a third party is going to pick it up.
There's guidelines on putting stuff out at the curb,
and those were the initial questions that we were getting.
So we got to have that information available.
Also evaluate the options for expanded collections
when that becomes available.
And then last but not least is secure funding.
How do we manage the cost.
So we've already looking at those on the back end.
And then so our initial debris management initiatives,
we issued over 750 vouchers since July 16.
We typically issue about 150 to 200 vouchers a month.
So we've issued 750.
And those all go through Stephanie and Angela.
So they've been pretty busy with just that aspect of it.
We were able to obtain 14 dumpsters
that I was able to place in high volume areas.
Those were donated and provided quick response on deliveries.
That made it challenging because everybody wanted a dumpster,
but I had to make sure I place a dumpster
where I can have several homes or properties utilize
that dumpster.
We coordinated with curr together
for assistance with volunteers.
I can place dumpsters at the curb.
Who's going to load them up.
And I didn't want the people that just went
through, what with the flood, to have to load their own stuff up.
So we've had many volunteers as Kelly mentioned
in her slide, Team Rubicon.
All hands and hearts.
We had Texans on a mission.
We also had private companies assisting with equipment.
Have folks from creative solutions
that helped load up three or four dumpsters already.
I talked to them when I was out surveying
and I said, do you mind helping me out.
And they said, yes, I'll help you out.
So they were able to get some equipment out there and load
up those dumpsters for us.
We were able to remove 420yd which is a little over 30 tons,
is what we did with that initial program
with the roll-off dumpsters.
Also, our city crew removed debris
from 18 right of way sites.
We did that kind of a little pilot program
ahead of what we just started yesterday, right.
So this is all it's been done before our official Citywide
curbside collection, all that.
It's running parallel with us obtaining the data.
Well, I'm obtaining data, the surveys,
verifying all that stuff.
We're out doing this right initially.
So we have been putting some work out there.
So implementing the curbside collection program,
we communicated with Cheatham for guidance.
Julie and I met with them looking at third party
operations and timelines.
What does that look like to get a third party to come in here.
There's a lot of boxes that need to be checked.
It's a lengthy process in order to follow FEMA guidelines.
So we also looked at our operational transition
from emergency operations in public works.
Now that things are stabilized, what are our resources
look like.
What can we do now to pivot from that
and assist with this collection program
with these gentlemen here in streets and figured out, OK,
are we going to be able to handle this.
And keep in mind, we had already been surveying the whole city
on what's out there.
So we had a good idea of what's out there and it was manageable.
We felt that we can handle that on our own.
So we established a systematic process
to identify, document, verify and map
out areas throughout town.
That survey right there on the right hand
side that was available online.
I want to thank Josh and giz coordinated.
Help out with that and get that online so folks can submit stuff
because that's important for us to be
able to gauge what's out there.
So the community feedback.
So we did obtain several surveys over 100.
We got that data.
And then we created our work orders
to identify certain areas throughout town,
as you can see right there.
So you'll see looking for clusters high volume areas.
Any safety concerns allowed us and our staff and Daniel, Chris
and other folks were out taking pictures
and verifying loads and coming up with this kind of a heat map,
if you will.
And also, we were looking at removing any duplicates or piles
that were no longer at the curb and then at the end,
results create efficient routes.
So this is all important as we start our curbside program.
And then we followed up with our strategic city crew collection.
We decided for us to handle this.
We evaluated the equipment, resources.
Spoke to these guys here and said,
let's get a specialized team to focus on this mission.
That way it's a core group, and that's
what they're going to be doing for the next couple of weeks.
We also had equipment available from Parks and rec.
Jay still here.
Thanks for letting us borrow that.
That grappler unit work together, helping each other out
through various departments.
So that was very beneficial.
We do have an additional unit coming in.
It's here.
It's here today.
So it's here.
So we're able to duplicate our efforts
and hopefully move things a little bit quicker.
Also again develop the collection
routes based on the submissions that we've received.
We also are conducting daily recaps.
I know yesterday we kicked off our collection,
we were able to pick up 7 loads.
About 2 and 1/2 tons is what we collected yesterday.
I know it doesn't sound 6.9 at the end of today,
so we're making progress.
So we'll continue to have those daily recaps
to make sure that things are running efficiently out there.
We're running into any concerns, anything
out there that we need to be aware of.
So we can alter our operations.
But so far things are going great.
And you'll see on the right side just a quick snapshot
of the data that we're collecting so that we
can operate efficiently.
So the initial sweep began yesterday began
on the West West Side of town.
We'll be heading East.
As we mentioned, press releases and different messages as we're
collecting flood related debris.
We want to emphasize that to everybody
that it's flood related debris.
Household items, construction debris, things like that.
Now we're not collecting brush or household hazardous items.
Brush is going to be conducted at a different phase.
So I'll touch on what Republic is doing.
Costume Republic.
That's our solid waste program.
That's utilizing one of our resources.
So as our crews are moving from West to East picking up
this debris, Republic will start their brush collection
second week in September.
And then once then we'll follow back after them.
They're going to pick up what's allowed per our contract.
So that's helping us get some of this debris picked up by them.
And then we'll follow along pick up any remaining.
So that's how this phase is going to work for this brush.
And again we'll stay on Route during this phase.
And staff will be confirming cleared streets.
That way.
We don't have any folks that say, our stuff was out there,
so we'll have initial route inspections.
Then they collect the stuff.
I'm sorry, I have a question.
Sorry the green things.
Are there different actual shapes to.
Yeah they vary.
Some of them are they dumpsters or those
are all the work orders.
Those are all the OK locations.
Got it.
So people submitted their surveys,
and then we transfer them over to our software that we use.
And that's how we're able to map out.
Thank you.
And so the next steps finalize the plan for vegetative debris.
I submitted an application today to the Texas Commission
on Environmental Quality for the processing site.
So we're also going to utilize our solid waste program,
as I mentioned earlier.
And then we'll develop those routes.
There's going to be new submissions.
They're going to be coming in.
So we're going to review them and verify them
just like we did in the past.
And then important thing here is for us to continue tracking
all operations and expenses.
Our work order software is it's actually coming in handy.
It's helping out with our routes.
We're having pictures document as much stuff as we can,
attach invoices.
I talked to Angel during our meeting
and he was impressed with what we already have.
He's like, oh, you guys are.
Yeah you have a good system already in place.
So also continued public education and update.
Update the public accordingly with what we've done
and what we're going to be doing in the future.
So we've done quite a bit, but there's still
a lot of work ahead of us.
But without our systems in place, the volunteers,
dedicated staff having a good system here,
I think that makes things possible.
So very proud of everybody who's helped out to this point
and at this time, take any questions you may have.
Well, I thought first questions, comments I do not thank
you for all your team is doing.
I'm seeing it.
Thank you.
Very impressed with what you've all
got coordinated and organized.
And so thanks for doing the good work.
You're welcome.
Thank you David.
First thank you Brandon.
Thank you Chris everybody.
Gentlemen, thank you all for.
The question's been asked.
Michael and I discussed it.
I know the answer, but it's just what took so long.
Who's paying for this.
I know the answer to what took so long.
Don't answer that.
I'm not asking.
But this is something the city is doing right now.
Because I'm just saying it for the public to hear.
But we don't have FEMA.
FEMA is not here.
They're not doing anything.
They even when they do sign the declarations
and we are still working on that.
And I know the mayor is pushing us.
That's 75% And Julie, if I'm stealing some of your thunder
here, but the city is still going
to be responsible for 25% of whatever
the total bill is from town Creek Road to turtle Creek.
With the infrastructural problems that
we had to debris cleanup.
The question was asked, why did it take so long.
Well we are.
One month and 9 days from our last disaster.
It doesn't just happen overnight.
Your crew.
All crews are out doing what they need to do.
Chris, I know you were mucking turtle Creek when the pipe broke
and everything that had to be brought in to fix
the sewer line that popped.
So what took so long is we're trying to get
our citizens utilities fixed.
And correct me if I'm wrong.
Please and I've been wrong before,
but that's what number one, we got
to take care of our citizens, get water back to them.
Thank goodness kpub was on top of it and got everything fixed.
But sewer.
That's what's taking so long.
Second thing is I'm going to quote council member McKinney.
We don't have the money, but we're doing it.
So please, just bear with us, bear with your staff,
and just know that we're trying everything that we can.
And I don't mean not to look on this side of the road
either, but.
But from Michael and Kim and Dalton
all the way down from everybody upstairs.
Thank y'all.
Because it's not an easy task.
It's not an easy thing to do.
And then when you're out there trying to do your absolute best
and help the citizens and you have people making comments,
it's just right.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
And I'll just make a quick point on that
is yes, our initial operations were to tend
to critical infrastructure.
Across the board in public works.
I mean we're hit pretty hard.
So folks are always going to start putting debris out.
Initially last year the state was
handling this debris cleanup.
And they jumped on it right away through their process.
Even back then, we still had our system in place
where we told the state we have our addresses ready last year.
So this year, it's on us.
We had looked at either a third party or if we can do it either
way, you have to do things the right way so you
can seek proper reimbursement.
So now we're able to pivot towards that.
And you don't want to initially have a debris cleanup
right away because you're going to run in circles all day long.
So I think now it's a systematic approach.
We're sweeping the city and folks are understanding
that we've talked to several people that are
they're very thankful for us.
They understand we've been busy doing other stuff.
And so yeah, they're cooperating and they're
understanding real quick.
I know I mentioned Stephanie and Angela,
but also Brandon Kelly, Isaac Rodriguez and Joel miners
with street.
So they've been just want to recognize them as well
for their efforts and being able to pivot
from all the other street stuff we've been doing.
This is mainly a solid waste task.
But we don't have a true solid waste division.
But these guys from streets have been able to pivot, into that.
So outside of this we're still tending to regular operations
that we have to.
So I just wanted to recognize them as well.
I guess one last thing.
I'm sorry.
Vouchers I know what they are.
We know what they're for.
But there's been a lot of comments.
And it's not the city of Kerrville
that runs the landfill.
That's where public waste services.
And if they say you can't bring drywall in on the vouchers,
we've got to respect what their rules are.
But is there any talk of leniency on that from Republic
for people that have vouchers or have debris that
needs because it happened again I mean, the mayor, we
all kind of walked around and saw neighborhoods that had three
foot of drywall that had to be cut out of the house with,
wet insulation.
And they don't take contracting debris on the vouchers,
is there.
So that is per our contract.
And that's something that we'll be looking at, I guess,
when we do an after action review.
But Republic has been very helpful in other aspects.
The voucher system, Republic's not set up to have that in place
during a disaster recovery.
It will eat into their numbers right.
The bottom line.
This voucher system is meant for just regular, stuff
that you can bring from the house.
There's other reasons why they don't allow construction debris.
Initially people abuse it.
There's been contractors that have been doing commercial work,
and they use a voucher from their home,
and they charge a customer to dispose it,
and then they come and get their voucher
and they take construction debris
and they don't pay for it.
So there's a lot of those instances that happen.
And I'm not saying just here just in general from there,
there are corporate companies.
So they have their rules to stand by.
But I was able to work with Republic on some of the piles
that go out there and say, OK, look,
they have construction debris.
They also have household items.
Can I use their voucher.
Leave the construction debris.
I'll take the other items.
That's the initial phase that I talked about earlier.
And they work with me on that.
Say, yes, I'll let your guys because I'm setting my eyes on I
said, I'm verifying I took pictures, I have documentation,
I have all the work orders.
Those were the initial, I think, 18 sites that we picked up.
I was able to utilize that.
So Republic they have been helping out
and then the remaining stuff is what we're picking up now
as part of our curbside program.
Thank you so much.
Yes, sir.
You're welcome.
Any other questions.
I want to echo.
Thank you.
All of you.
Thank you for all you've done, we'll
get to Julie in just a SEC.
But one thing that hasn't been mentioned today that should be
is the crews that cleared the way for the cemetery
on town Creek Road.
I know of two families that had to wait
to bury their loved ones because there was
no access to those cemeteries.
So thank you for helping those families get closure.
It meant a lot to them and they are really grateful.
So thank you very much.
Yeah and for I'll get you and for the picking up the stuff
and having a plan.
Not waiting for outside help.
Thank you for doing that too.
I really appreciate it.
Yes, ma'am.
OK sorry I wasn't pushing you, Brandon.
I remember you met me at 5:30 last
year in the morning to block a street
for the Water Street festival.
So that's the first time I met you.
And I remember thinking you were jolly at 5:30.
I was just very thankful for your help.
And of course, I need you again this year.
But thank you for what you're doing above and beyond your Call
of Duty.
The question I had was some of the folks I met
might not still be back in their home.
And if you were to go to their address, you wouldn't find them.
So if they don't have access to a computer
or what should I tell people.
Should they go to her together for debris
for to be put on the map or just for an understanding of what
they will get to put out.
And I know what it is, but how can they find that.
So Kelly and I had that conversation earlier,
and I think we want to continue that as a
go to communication route.
But folks can call our office here 830257 8,000.
And then just ask to speak to somebody in public works
and 9 times out of 10 10 times out of 10.
Stephanie will take that call, and then
she'll be able to direct them or even
take create a new work order.
And so yeah, we'll handle it that way.
Yeah Kelly or through us.
So either way is fine.
Thank you very much.
You're welcome.
Thank you.
All right.
Thank you.
Julie, are you up.
I have nothing.
Unless you have questions, you're listed on the agenda.
Wow I didn't know you could do that.
That's great.
I'm saving my voice.
All right.
If there's no further questions or comments,
there's no need to go to executive session.
I'm going to go ahead and close the workshop at 521.