Email from my Mom about Monday Night's Meeting

I usually write my own blog entries, but I have not had time to write a well thought out entry for a good while so I decided to share the following with you. I received it just a few minutes ago and it bears repeating.
Karl

---

From: ecarrol@aol.com [mailto:ecarrol@aol.com]
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2008 12:07 PM
To: auctioneer@door.net
Subject: observations

This is how I felt about the meeting...I didn't want to put it on the Anton site till you saw it. If you want it on there....you are welcome to use it. I just had the desire to put it on paper
Love ya
Mom

As I watched the people at the Anton meeting on the 15^th of September, 2008, I observed so many angry people. Everyone that spoke had a gripe but most had no solutions. It was all about me, myself and I. The town I grew up in was a neat, sweet little town. I would like to see it that way again. I want to believe it is still a sweet, (but not too neat) town, and in an emergency or disaster I think we would all pull together, but at the meeting I saw groups together that had their minds made up before they arrived….without facts I might add, or with distorted facts…I realize there isn’t much revenue flowing into town now, so what is the solution? I for one do not like the entitlement doctrine. There are always those that think the world owes them everything, but not our town….surely not….. If it takes a raise in the water bill….so be it. It wouldn’t amount to a lot out of each pocket, and if there are some that can’t (now I said “can’t”…not “don’t want to”) afford the raise…then go to the leaders of our town and each case can be decided. Pull together is what I am saying, don’t keep blaming everything on the other guy. You live in our town, too, so part of the problem must be you. Come up with an idea…and if it isn’t accepted….look at it again, and you decide….maybe it was a solution for your group….but not for the town as a whole. Be honest with yourself, don’t organize a lynch mob. Come up with another idea!

This has always been a Christian based community. Is the serpent starting to slither in??

I pray not.

Carrol Campbell

Town Hall Meeting Comments

Sorry this is a bit late but it has been a non-stop week!

We had a great Town Hall meeting last Friday at the Senior Citizen's Center. I appreciate Carol and crew at the center for giving us a place to meet and for providing the great cookies.

A lot of what was shared at the meeting was about cleaning up the town and the utility bill changes (water increase and $2.25 ambulance availability charge.)

Since it was determined that the roll-off dumpster area at the city barn is an illegal dump station, we can no longer accept trash there. At present, we are exploring the possibility of putting in a dump for certain types of non-household garbage. This dump could take furniture, limbs, building materials, etc.

The cost to build a dump (not including the land) is about $100,000. This includes engineering fees, excavation, permits, etc. There is another option - a citizen's collection point which would cost around $50,000 less the land. We could place furniture, limbs, etc. Either option would require us to charge something for the service and would require us to add on someone to run the site.

For the time being, you can take your alley trash (couches, building scraps, etc.) to the Littlefield or Lubbock County (Abernathy) land fill. The cost is approximately $24.00 per thousand pounds dumped.

Here are some of the questions that were not asked but instead placed on cards at the end of the meeting.

Q. How can we stop overlooking the drug traffic in the town?
A. As the former Marshal, I can tell you that when law enforcement gets good information, busts are usually made. The problem is a lack of information - without credible information, it is impossible to get the probable cause that is necessary to make an arrest. It is easy to say that there is a problem but it is much more difficult to get informants in to make purchases under police supervision.
If you have information that will help us clean this problem up, it will be greatly appreciated. Information that will help more than anything is traffic patterns. Date and time with license plate number, how long did the vehicle stay at the suspect house, etc. will be greatly appreciated. The information should span a few days or a week to build up evidence of drug trafficking activity. Call the Marshal or the sheriff or email the information to me at mayor@cityofanton.org.
Please understand that the people who are doing this have perfected their craft over time and they have a lot of safe guards in place to keep from being caught. If you have questions or concerns, please drop me a line or give me a call.

Q. What about Animal Control in Town?
A. Animal control takes money for the person to catch the animals and it takes money to dispose of the strays or wild animals (skunks, coyotes, etc.) It is difficult to provide services when the revenue is not there to support it.

Q What about Noise Control?
A. I am sharing the following information with you because to control the noise beyond what is already the law, an ordinance is required. To do this, you need to call City Council members and let them know how important the noise is to them. The Texas Penal Code states the following about Disorderly Conduct:
§ 42.01 a noise is presumed to be unreasonable if the noise exceeds a decibel level of 85 after the person making the noise receives notice from a magistrate or peace officer that the noise is a public nuisance.

85 decibels is about the level of a rock or country concert and must be measured with a decibel meter for it to be enforceable.
From personal experience, I can tell you that the level of noise that we have in town is far below the 85 decibels required to be in violation of Texas law.

Q Are we going to have more town hall meetings?
A. I sure hope so. I will be glad to meet with groups both large and small. Carol at the Senior Center set this one up and promoted it. I have told several who were not able to make it to this one to get a group together, get the date on my planner and promote the event! I am not currently available on Tuesday evenings.

Q If the City has a 60' right of way and streets are 40' then 10' on each side of each street belongs to the city. Why are home owners required to maintain city property.
A. The city does not own the streets and alleys, they just control and maintain them. The property owner still 'owns' the right of way, but for all intents and purposes, the ownership is merely on paper.

According to the Law Dictionary (online) a right-of-way is an easement, a privilege to pass over the land of another, whereby the holder of the easement acquires only a reasonable and usual enjoyment of the property, and the owner of the land retains the benefits and privileges of ownership consistent with the easement. (benefits and privileges of ownership are limited by the wording of the easement.)

Sorry, the city is not going to mow your grass!

If I missed answering your question, please drop me an email and remind me of the topic. Thanks to all who came out and supported the meeting - I look forward to having more of them in the future!
Karl

Broken Water Main

At around 8:15 pm, a few minutes after I left the Town Hall Meeting on Friday evening (July 11) I saw our City Manager heading to the city barn to turn off the water. He slowed down and told me that we had a broken 6" water main at 5th and Igoe and that they should have it working shortly.

After stopping by Nana B's to have a quick meal, I headed over to the work-site to find Larry and Mike in about a five foot deep hole almost up to their knees in muddy water. They worked non-stop until the water came back on at around 11:00 pm with full pressure being achieved around midnight when they got the booster pump primed the same night.

I did receive a few phone calls about the lack of water, but I figure that to most in town, the water outage went unnoticed. A big thanks to Larry, Mike as well as their support team (Truman, Roger, Todd and others) for getting our water back on in short-order. Next time that you see them, tell them thank ou for a job well done!

I will be posting several questions that I received at te town hall meeting on Friday once things slow down a bit in th Campbell household!
Karl

Utility Bills and Taxes

A question that continues to be asked is, “how much, if any are we going to raise taxes and utility bills?” In all honesty, that is a difficult question to answer.

Before getting to numbers, I am going to explain how I see our situation. We have maintained the status quo for so long and the degradation has happened so slowly that it became easy to ignore the small problems until something happens and we wondered what happened. I believe that we are at that point as many ARE asking the question! To repair our infrastructure then keep it maintained is going to be expensive, but not cost prohibitive.

Revitalization costs/needs:

1. Fix our streets (currently $15,000 per 20’ Strip one mile long)
2. Remove trash from alleys
3. Replace missing and illegible signs ($20-$50 each)
4. Paint curb corners, fire plugs, etc.
5. Repair or replace fire equipment
1. Our Volunteer Fire Department recently received a grant for a new fire truck – the city is obligated to match a portion of the cost. ($10,000 to $25,000)
6. Purchase equipment

1. Backhoe has 6,500 hours and we must plan for a new one in the next 12-18 months. (used replacement investment $25,000 to $50,000)
2. Small Road Grader – to keep ditches cleaned out and dirt streets maintained (used replacement investment $25,000 to $50,000)

i. We have numerous dirt streets that have ditches full of dirt causing drainage problems which lead to higher mosquito populations.

ii. Though we have a tractor and box blade, we depend on the county for most of our grading needs such as major road work and ditch maintenance.

3. Asphalt maintenance equipment ($7,000 to $10,000)

i. Rather than wait two to four years to re-top our main streets, owning crack repair equipment will allow us to fix cracks as they appear.

ii. This will keep streets from degrading so quickly, saving money or allowing us to re-top a greater number of paved streets.

7. Rebuild sewer plant lift station (up to $250,000)
1. We currently are at the top of the list for a grant but we have been near the top for several years. (Match requirement 10 to 20%)
8. We must have a place for residents to take non-household-waste (large items that will not fit in the dumpster)

1. Costs

i. Labor

ii. Equipment (truck/trailer)

iii. Roll-Off Dumpster(average cost $450.00 each) or

iv. Fuel/labor to haul items to Abernathy or Littlefield land fill

2. Each time that we have allowed residents to dump in the roll-off dumpsters, we end up having to clean up bigger messes than we had to begin with!
8. Water system/well maintenance

1. We recently bailed two wells at a cost of around $8,000 each on average.
2. We have another well that has a high ground that will eventually mean the replacement of the pump motor. This could cost up to $20,000 in addition to the cost of bailing the well while the pipe and pump are pulled.

According to Triple C Waste (the company that empties our dumpsters,) many small cities that they service charge from $7 to $10 per month in addition to their normal utility bills to pay for services such as the above.

A number of residents that I have spoken with have asked why we do not receive or apply for more grants. After some research, I have found that because we cannot demonstrate need, we have little chance of being awarded grants. We are near the bottom of the rate scale for both utility and tax rates. Unless the grant issuing authorities at the state and federal level see that the City is taking every measure to take care of itself, they are not going to hand us money to repair things that they feel we have the means to repair ourselves!

Average rates for cities with population of 2,000 (small cities) and below based on the 2008 Texas Municipal League Wastewater Survey

	State Average	Anton Rate	Difference
Average fee for 5,000 gallons of water in small cities	$28.68	$13.00	-45%
Average wastewater fees in small cities	$19.36	$ 9.50	-49%
Total Average water and wastewater rates	$48.04	$22.50	-47%
These rates do NOT take trash, taxes, vector control, etc. into account

As you can see, we are nearly 50% lower than cities our size in Texas in for both water and sewer (wastewater) rates. In order to be considered for most infrastructure grants, our utility bills are going to have to be much closer if not higher than the state average.

The bottom line is that if we are to revitalize our community, we are going to have to receive more revenue. As a City, we only have a few means to raise revenue – taxes, utility rates, fines, fees, and grants. You can see the paradox – low fees, no grant money available; higher fees, take care of ourselves, and need fewer grant dollars. We have the means to do this, it is going to take investment and hard work from all of us.

Please email me your thoughts and concerns.

Karl
mayor@cityofanton.org

Thanks for the hard work!

I appreciate all of the hard work that everyone is doing in and around our Community despite the oven-like heat! In the end, it is each person's individual contribution that will make Anton shine!

We plan to bring the City's chipper shredder through our alleys in the first or second week of July to turn your limbs into mulch. Please place your limbs in the alley next to your alley fence or alley property line. Limbs can be up to 5" in diameter. If you have a limb that is more than 5" in diameter, please cut off all of the small branches and put the oversized limb in my side yard next to the piece of culvert north of my carport! These larger branches make good fire wood and I can use the exercise. :)

Email questions and comments to me at: mayor@cityofanton.org
Karl
PS If you have reported a problem or issue such potholes, etc., please drop me a line and let me know when you reported it. I will follow up on it for you.

If you were not at the Church of Christ Annex today between 10:00 and Noon you missed a great event. There were a lot of attendees learning about low interest housing loans/grants and handing out boxes of food.

The food boxes are purchased for $6.00 each and are purchased with monetary donations from individual members of the community, local Churches, and Anton's Ministerial Alliance This is a great program for those living on limited means email me for more information. There is an income test in all except extreme cases. If you know someone who might qualify or if you have questions about this program, please call Gayla Smith at 997-3232.

I will let you know when I post the information and photos to www.cityofanton.org .

I know that this sounds rather like a commercial but I must tell you that to see so many volunteers come out on such a challenging day weather-wise AND keep smiling is an awesome site! Watch our Community Activity Calendar for details of upcoming events!

I will post pictures of the event on a new page when time permits.
Karl

Senior Citizens

Carol at the Senior Center asked if I would mind coming to the center a few minutes before lunch. She said that there some members of the Center who wanted to ask me a few questions. I agreed and visited the Center this morning and we had a good Question and Answer session.

If you have not been to the Center in awhile, you should take time and pay them a visit. Carol and crew have the Center looking good, the food is great and the atmosphere is full of life and excitement!

The remainder of this post will outline our visit and the concerns of our Seniors.

Q. Why does the City not give an exemption on taxes for Senior Citizens age 65 and over like the school, county, and college?
A. I spoke with Larry (City Manager) about the history of the subject of the question above. Larry told me that it had been discussed in the past and that due to our large number of Senior Citizens (over age 65,) the City would only have to offset the loss of taxes with a large increase in utility billing.


Q. Under the Freedom of Information Act, will the City Statutes and Ordinances be available if requested?
A. All of the ordinances and statutes are available for the public to view. All that you must do is come to City Hall and ask Robyn.

Q. Are golf carts illegal on City streets? Do they have to be licensed?
A. The answer is no and maybe. I have not had this question posed to me before so I had not given much thought to it. Please remember that unlicensed drivers need to be supervised especially while operating any type of motorized equipment. That being said, it is my belief that if it is not drawing the attention of law enforcement, chances of getting noticed are pretty small. If it was mine, I would put a slow moving vehicle triangle on the back and stop at all stop signs!

I will say that I have seen several golf carts licensed. Check with the TXDOT to see what it takes to make a golf cart 'street legal.'

The following sections are excerpts from the Texas Transportation Code Section 502

(7)  "Golf cart" means a motor vehicle designed by the manufacturer primarily for transporting persons on a golf course.

§ 502.0071  GOLF CARTS.  An owner of a golf cart is not required to register the golf cart if:
                       
(1)  the operation of the golf cart occurs in the  daytime, as defined by
Section 541.401;  and
 (2)  the operation:      
 (A)  does not exceed a distance of two miles from the point of origin to the destination if driven to
and from a golf course;
 (B)  occurs entirely within a master planned community
with a uniform set of restrictive covenants that has had a plat approved by a county or a municipality;  or
 (C)  occurs on a public or private beach.                                    
Added by Acts 2003, 78th Leg., ch. 1320, § 1, eff. Sept. 1, 2003.

Q.  Will we at some time in the future have a city constable instead  of calling county deputies?
A.  We have a City Marshal and he works 40 hours spread over seven days.  Having held  the position
for two years, I can tell you that sometimes, it is impossible to cover  the City 24 X 7 though that is sometimes
the expectation. . .   I am adding a part time officer to the budget, it will be up to the City Council to fund it and
make it a realty.

Q.  Do you have any plans for Town Hall Meetings?
A.  YES!!  I am working with Nana B's to find the right night to have a Town Hall meeting there.
You could make planning for space easier by telling your friends to email or call me if you or they would
attend a Town Hall meeting if we held one.

Any time that I meet with any group and questions are asked, I will post a Q & A of the
general interest questions with answers.

if you have questions or comments, please email Karl at mayor@cityofanton.org
806-997-2801

Equipment Needs List

The City is working on a wish list of items that will help us to better maintain our small town. These items do not come cheap and we have a plan to put money back so that we can afford them without having to dip into your pocket at this time. We will be applying collected money from delinquent taxes and water bills into an equipment fund. If we are able to collect enough, we will not have to raise utility bills and taxes for this purpose. We may still, however have to raise money to repair the streets!

I learned many years ago that being self-sufficient is a powerful position. To be self-sufficient, we must have the equipment, time, and money to maintain roads, streets, and insect control to name a few. I dislike depending on Hockley County for road and street maintenance. If we can take care of more of these needs, we can go to the County for help with more pressing issues when these issues present themselves.

We have a chipper shredder and will be chipping tree branches starting next week. Our backhoe is currently being diagnosed and we should be able to have it repaired much cheaper than the cost of purchasing a new one, at least for now.

Our equipment needs list is as follows:
1. Mosquito fogger. We should be able to purchase one from the Texas Boll Weevil Program this fall for pennies on the dollar rather than the $4,000 to $6,000 price tag. Having one this summer would be nice, but we do not have time to get someone licensed to operate the fogger until the season is almost over. Remember that if you have standing water, you probably have mosquitoes breeding there. Dump the water or find a way to drain it if it is standing in your yard or alley. If it is standing in the street, notify City Hall.

2. Small Maintainer. The County does not put a large priority on maintaining our streets and ditches. With maintainer, we could not only smooth our rough roads while there is moisture in the dirt, but we could work the ditches and keep them maintained and flowing water so that they are not breeding grounds for mosquitoes and other disease carrying rodents and insects. Having better drainage will also keep the asphalt from deteriorating where the water stands.

3. Backhoe. We are currently on the third transmission in our backhoe. Though we have rebuilt the engine and some of the hydraulics this piece of equipment has close to 6,500 hours on it and it is just tired and difficult to keep from breaking.

4. Security Cameras for City Barn. If we are to provide a place to dump large items such as couches and other items that will not fit in the dumpsters, we have to have positive control of the collection point. In just the past three weeks, we have had people dump items over the fence, pile items in front of the fence, and take large items in and place them in front of almost full dumpsters rather than communicating with the City to find out when they can dump. The City must have a way to maintain positive control on the collection point and have a way to prosecute those violate state dumping laws. In a perfect world, this would not be a problem, but.....

If you have ideas, I want to hear them. Getting our city in shape will take a team effort and I want everyone in the community on the team! Try to take care of yours and one more if possible.

Karl
mayor@cityofanton.org

Nepotism

A question arose today regarding nepotism which is basically the act of hiring relatives by elected officials of a public body such as the City Council. The following chapter of the Texas Municipal Code defines the term and sets out who can and cannot be hired based on their level of consanguinity or affinity. Click the link below and you will be directed to the statute. Right click and then select the link below and select one of the following: "open in new window" or "open in new tab" if you do not wish to leave this blog.
CHAPTER 573. DEGREES OF RELATIONSHIP; NEPOTISM PROHIBITIONS

I am posting this to ward off any potential issues arising about hiring policies at City hall relative to members of families of City employees for part-time summer work. Our City Manager has the authority as given by the City Council in approximately 1982 to hire and fire employees at his discretion. As long as the hiring decision is not required by law or statute to be made or approved by the Governing Body (mayor and council) there are no nepotism issues that arise.

If you have questions or concerns, please call me at 763-3010.
Karl

Replies

I have set the comments to moderated so that I can scan them for appropriateness before posting. I will approve all messages, positive and negative as long as they are not anonymous AND as long as they do not contain obscene or inappropriate language.
Karl

Rumors

After answering questions about runoffs, water meter charges, water rates, taxes and various and sundry other issues, I felt that I should address some of these concerns, so here goes.....

Q. When will we have the runoff election?
A. There is no reason to have a runoff election. Texas election law only requires a plurality (one vote more than any other candidate) unless another law states otherwise.
see Texas Election Code § 2.001

Q. I heard that the reason that there was not a recount was because the City shredded the ballots.
A. Following Texas election protocol, the ballots are locked in the ballot box by the election judge the night of the election. Once the recount window has passed, ballots remain in the ballot box where they will be kept until the next election, at which time they are destroyed.

Q. Why did XXXXX not have to pay the $250.00 tap charge to have their water meter installed?
A. Unfortunately, these types of rumors where "certain" people are not charged the same as the other citizens are part and parcel of small town living. As your Mayor, I have verified that everyone who gets new water service (new construction, no water meter on property, etc.) pays a $250.00 tap charge without exception.

Q. Someone said that water bills were going to go up to $60.00 per month!
A. Though the City will probably have to adjust water rates and there is the possibility that taxes will be raised, these changes will not be drastic or excessive. It's important that we all understand such increases are necessary in order for the City to be able to improve streets and roads and other maintenance and improvement projects that benefit the City and the surrounding area. Projects such as:

• Plans to have Santa Fe and Main Street to the City Hall hot topped. The cost of hot topping is approximately $15,000 per 20 foot wide section of street one mile long. We have approximately 8 miles of paved streets that need to be hot topped. The cost of that will be about $110,000 dollars to do it all at once. We must hot top in sections which will be a five to six year plan, depending on winters and damage to our main thoroughfares.
  
• The purchase of a small maintainer (used price $20,000 to $30,000) to allow the City to clean ditches and keep our dirt streets in decent shape. There will need to be culverts added to some properties allowing some people to access their driveways. Though the City is not obligated to purchase culverts, we will be glad to help install them. We are always on the look-out for used sections of culvert and will add you to the list if you will drop me an email.

Q. Why can the City not get a grocery store in Anton?
A. We have talked with several grocery chains and they all have the same concerns. There are not enough consumers in and around Anton to make a store a break-even venture, much less a profitable one.

• Once we start attracting people from Lubbock and outlying areas, our consumer base will grow. The revitalization process is a long, slow undertaking.
  
• We must first make the City an appealing place for people to chose as their home. Streets, pot holes, alleys, and yards are a great start but we must all look at other things such as trees and bushes blocking signs, hanging low over streets, junk cars, and other items that the City has little recourse but to cite, charge, and collect for, unfortunately.
  

As concerns and rumors pop up, I will answer the ones with mass appeal here and I will not mention names - only the basic situation. I am approachable, as most of you know - do not be afraid to ask me questions or send me questions via email.
Karl
mayor@cityofanton.org

Introduction and Thanks

Thanks to those who supported my bid for Mayor! Now that the election is behind us, I invite everyone in Anton and our extended community to join in the task of revitalizing our little town. The town that many of us grew up in and a place that we are proud to call home. Here, you will find updates, answers, and a forum to share your feelings about Anton. Where there are problems, there are solutions!

I know that there are issues that we must address to get things on track. , but I want to use this blog to provide information about successes and failures with the revitalization effort and to answer your questions. If you really feel the need to chew on me about something, please do so at mayor@cityofanton.org and I will respond to you as quickly as possible. I may not have the answers, but I will do my best to find the answers to your questions and provide honest answers and documentation when available.

I look forward to YOUR cares, concerns, and opinions!
Karl