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