turned into a monster document – I hope that you find it informative!
KarlHere it is June again and I though thatit would be timely to give everyone an update on the “State of the City.” Therehas been much speculation about what we are doing and why we are doing it – Iwill answer those and a few other questions here. If I do not answer yours,feel free to call me (763-3010 cel, 997-4611 home, mayor@cityofanton.org)
Grants - We received a solid-waste grant for approximately $40,000 in May. With this grant, we purchased a one-ton pickup and an 18’ dump trailer. After purchasing the pickup and trailer, we had enough money to pay for our part-time summer help. The trailer is available to
be placed on your property on a short-term basis for you to place your large items, clean up lots, etc. There is a nominal fee for the use of the trailer – we ask that you pay the dump fees (around $28.00 per ton) and a small mileage fee to cover the City’s fuel. Call Larry for details. In the three weeks that we have been able to use the trailer, we have hauled five loads to the Olton landfill. The list for the trailer is growing; you might want to throw your hat in the ring if you need to clean up around your property as it is loaned on a
first-come, first-served basis.
We are waiting on approval for a Law Enforcement grant for $23,000. With this grant, we are purchasing a new radio,in-vehicle repeater, computers, software, and other equipment that has been unobtainable until this point due to a lack of funds. The old radio will be donated to the Volunteer Fire Department (VFD) for a truck with no radio and we will be purchasing at least a
portion of the VFD’s repeater and we will add a second channel to allow both departments to communicate simultaneously through the current repeater.
While talking about grants, we were once again ‘out of the money’ for the grant for the fourth year in a row to rebuild the sewer facility. We have identified another grant through SPAG and
will be sending in our request for inclusion by the end of June. This grant will be used to rebuild our waste water plant, purchase generators for the wastewater and water booster pumps and to build a new water tower. These items have all been identified by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) as violations and must be repaired whether we use grants or pay out of our budget. The cost for all of these items is approximately $350,000.
The grant in question has a requirement or local volunteer effort to complete some of the work and save the government money. If you or someone that you know can do dirt work, inspections, etc.please have them call Robyn at City Hall to get placed on the list. Winners ofthe grant will be those cities can muster up the most community support to helpdefray the cost of construction. The more we can so that we can save, the moremoney we qualify. Don’t you just love the way our Federal government does math!
Fiscal Responsibility - The Nation’s current buzz phrase is currently “fiscal responsibility.” I recently had a discussion on this topic with a life-long resident of Anton. It seems that some equate low taxes/water/sewer rates with fiscal responsibility. Everyone wants lower taxes and lower prices on most everything consumed but there is a difference in being fiscally responsible and being overly conservative to the point that infrastructure suffers. There is not a piece of equipment, street, road, house, or anything that gets regular used that does not
require regular maintenance. Regular maintenance costs money and a fiscally responsible organization must have the means to regularly maintain their assets, not sit with their hand out and expect higher levels of government to provide for them!
New equipment – In order to Take Care of Ourselves”, the City Council approved a five year lease of a backhoe and motor grader. At the end of five years, the equipment will belong to the City with no residuals. We have been nursing our current back hoe for thepast several years and we are not sure that it would have lasted another yearwithout extensive expense; we found out last Summer how much we depend on the backhoe; cannot afford to be without one for more than a few days. We also purchased a motor grader in order to get our dirt streets and ditches in shape.
We have approximately seven miles of dirt streets and well over 21 miles of ditches to maintain. The impending rehabilitation will take place over the next 18 to 24 months unless we can obtain grant money to hire a temporary work-force to put on the project
full-time.
The most concise definition that Ifound for fiscal responsibility is that it is “the most effective use of available resources committed to priority objectives and subject to ongoing evaluation.” (www.city.watterloo.on.ca) Resources consist of people, equipment, tools, parts, infrastructure, as well as proper pricing of the products that we provide (water, sewer, ambulance and other services.) The Texas Attorney General issued an opinion relating to municipal utility rates in Opinion Number JC-294 – in this opinion, he stated that municipalities may make a reasonable profit on utilities provided and that profit may be transferred to the general fund and may be used for the operation of the municipality in general. In order for the City to provide services such as roads/street maintenance, water, sewer services, etc. it must properly price the utilities and set tax rates and increases of both must be prudently applied in order to continue to provide the services that the Citizens expect.
As much as I hate to ask the City Council to do so, the fact is that there is no real choice but to raise our water and sewer rates again. While trying to figure a solution for this, I have conducted several hours of research into comparable cities our size and the following statistics are in large part where my decision making basis lies. These statistics are available for you to download in their entirety at http://www.tml.org/surveys.html. Surveys from 2009 back to 2002 are
available.
| | Water up to 5,000 Gallons | Sewer Usage | | Total Water and Sewer Rate Up to 5,000 |
| Current Anton Rates | $16.20 | $9.50 | | $25.70 |
| 2009 Average Rates– Cities in | $31.20 | $21.25 (up to 5,000 gallons) | | $52.45 |
Here are the immediate issues that we face:1. TCEQ Violation Sewer Ponds $100,000 to $150,000
2. TCEQ Violation Sewer Lift Station $100,000 to $150,000
3. TCEQ Violation Paint Water Tower* $100,000 to $150,000 (includes tear down of old tower)Total TCEQ Requirements: $300,000 to $450,000
Painting the water tower as required by the TCEQ citation will cost approximately of $35,000. The TCEQ compliance inspector told me that it will be only a matter of a few years before TCEQ mandates that we inspect and refurbish the inside of the tower; estimated cost $75,000 to $100,000. The high cost makes refurbishment of the old tower cost prohibitive. NOTE: When I asked the inspector for an extension to paint the tower, I was told that the painting issue for the water tower was annotated as a ‘non violation’ approximately five years ago – he was quite adamant about the fact that we should have started setting aside money for the maintenance of the water tower at that time.
We have been putting off repair of the sewer lift station and sewer ponds for several years in an attempt to obtain grant money. We were number 22 on the list released on May 28, 2009. There are at least two reasons that we were not closer to the top. First, our recent water system improvement grant caused us to loose 25 of 30 points – the more money that we receive, the longer that we must wait before we are competitive for another grant. Next, our utility rate increases.
We received zero out of 10 points for rate increases. This means that we did not have a water/sewer increase that qualified for points. Points are given for cities that are taking maximum efforts to help alleviate their own needs. As you can see from the rates above, we are not doing all that we can to take care of ourselves compared to cities in our same size category. (See rate table above in this document.)
With a substantial rate increase this year and withus being another year past our water line improvement grant, we could move closer to the top. There is no guarantee – if a city with an equal need but that has not recently received a grant applies next year, we could be knocked out of the money yet again. Grants are a great supplement but should not be the primary means of funding capital improvement of any type.
Though we do not have to “Keep up with the Joneses,” if we are going to be competitive for government assistance, we must show that we are at least attempting to take care of ourselves. Grants are becoming increasingly competitive for certain areas such as water and waste water infrastructure. If we are not competitive for grants, we will have to borrow money in order to make these mandatory repairs. If we do not make the repairs within a time-frame acceptable to TCEQ, we are subject to high fines and we will still be obligated to repair or rebuild these vital systems.
In the past, we have depended solely on the County to maintain our roads and ditches. After speaking at length with our Commissioner, Tommy Clevenger and visiting with the County Judge, Larry Sprowles, I am convinced that the county will never be able to provide the type of support that is desperately needed to rehabilitate our roads and clear the ditches to alleviate standing water which causes a myriad of problems. The County is not allowed, by law, to budget assets (money, equipment, personnel, etc.) to anincorporated city or sub-division.
In a letter from Commissioner Clevenger, we are assured to get what support and manpower when time and funds permit, but that “it would be prudent to consider [the] assistance as a
supplement to other means of maintenance to assure that the city streets and right of ways are maintained to the degree necessary to insure ease of travel, safety and longevity.” There is little room for interpretation here except that we must do what we can to take care of our own roads. I am assured by Commissioner Clevenger that they will continue to provide the equipment and
manpower to seal-coat our streets each year and that they will do some, but very
limited grading for us.
City Income: We have lived with very low water & sewer rates since the City started charging for these services in 1948. Water rate increases did not start until 1984 when the rate was doubled from $2.50 to $5.00, a substantial increase for 25 years ago! This increase, however, did not bring the City into line with the Computer Price Increase (CPI) back to 1948. The distance between the CPI and water as well as sewer rates has continued to climb until we are sitting at approximately 49% of the State average for cities under 2,000 population (http://www.tml.org/surveys.html#water2009). We are going to have to have a substantial raise in order to catch up so that we can take care of ourselves.
Currently - Larry and Mike are leading the summer-hires on an initiative to replace faded signs and clean up the city property. Other initiatives include lot mowing, brush chipping, large
item pick up from alleys and other city clean up tasks. If you want to see something spectacular – go take a look at what they guys have done with the City barn! We are replacing faded stop signs, school zone signs, etc. If you see these guys out and about this summer, tell them what a good job they are doing! We are also chipping brush in alleys and lots as well as removing dirt and mud from previous rains in an attempt to keep water from standing in intersections.
We will be grading roads, picking up large trash items and chipping branches throughout the summer. If you have items to be picked up or limbs that need to be chipped, please call Robyn at City Hall to be added to the growing list!
If you have comments or questions good or BAD – do not hesitate to call me. I am available at all reasonable hours and if my phone rings before 10:00 pm, I can guarantee that I will answer it if I hear it. Home(after 6:00 pm 806-997-4611, mobile 806-763-3010, email mayor@cityofanton.orgHave a super summer!
Karl
