Hello Friends!
Happy Easter! I hope that everyone has a wonderful Easter. Many people look for a church to attend at Easter time. We just want to share our church, the Avenue, for you to attend in person or if you're unable to make it in person, they are really good about streaming their services. You can access their live-streams on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/liketheavenue or you can stream their services straight from their website here: https://theavenuechurch.com/ondemand/ .
The only public city meetings scheduled so far for this coming week are the Council briefing and meeting on Monday. Please always refer back to the city's calendar on the website which you can find here: https://www.waxahachie.com/calendar.php
Also, just wanted to give y'all a head's up that there should be a Council "retreat" (it's not really relaxing like one would expect on a retreat but actually jam-packed with information about pretty much everything going on with the city lol) on Monday and Tuesday, April 25th & 26th at the Civic Center. I'll provide more details once they are available and put them in my newsletter next week. It will be incredibly informative and will be the first time Council will see the proposed budget that will be adopted in August/September. If you're able to come and sit in on those meetings, you'll be glad you did. Unfortunately, I do not believe there are any plans to live-stream this 2 day meeting at this time.
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Monday, April 18, 2022
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6:30 PM - City Council Briefing Session
Council Conference Room, City Hall
401 S. Rogers St.
This briefing session is being held to discuss items for the 7:00 PM regular Council meeting. Residents are both welcome and encouraged to attend the briefing session, if possible. It is not live-streamed.
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7:00 PM - City Council Regular Meeting
Council Chamber, City Hall
401 S. Rogers
Agenda Packet: https://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/document-uploads-001/uploads/video/agenda_file/157922/4-4-22_City_Council_Agenda_Packet.pdf
The first 3 items are on the consent agenda portion of the agenda and usually all get approved as they are deemed routine. I just wanted to point them out so folks know what areas are in the works to be redone. We have so many streets throughout the city that need to be repaired or replaced and appreciate the patience that y'all have shown us as we try to get each one taken care of!
5d - Waxahachie Arts Council Board Member Appointment. The memorandum states that staff recommend David Hudgins as a director of the Waxahachie Arts Council board to create a succession plan... Let me begin with this - I really like former fire chief, Mr. Hudgins (hence why I call him Chief); however, I am confused as to 1) How appointing someone creates a succession PLAN. I associate a plan as something like establishing criteria for selecting the next director or other things like that. 2) What do members of the Arts Council think of this nominee and why don't they elect their own director? I'm sure there are reasons for these two things, but will be questions I ask at the briefing session.
5e - Consider approval of the professional services agreement with Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc. for design and construction engineering services associated with the reconstruction of Wilmington Avenue from Richmond Lane to Monticello Drive. The scope of this project also includes the portion of Chiles Dr. between Wilmington Avenue and Cumberland Road and funding for this project is available in the FY 2022 Operating Budget and the Streets Capital Fund. We're working on you, Bellevue! Hang in there. It takes a long time to get these streets done, but we're getting there, street by street.
5f - Consider approval of the professional services agreement with Binkley and Barfield, Inc. for the design and construction engineering services associated with reconstruction of University Avenue from W. Marvin Avenue to Sycamore Street. The total amount of the professional engineering services agreement is $257,150. Funding for this project is available from the FY 2020-2021 Bond Funds. Keep in mind that this is just the engineering for the project, BUT that means that it is in the queue and we are getting closer to having that street redone.
8 - Consider proposed ordinance re-establishing classified positions under Civil Service for the Police Department while 2 officers are gone on deployment, anticipated to be a year or more for each of them. The addition of these positions now will be subtracted from those requested in the FY23 budget. As the city grows, the demand for our first responders continues to grow and our PD needs to fill those vacancies now. There should be no financial impact to the city due to the fact that we have already budgeted for those two positions but are not paying their salaries due to the deployment. Upon return, the officers will return to their previously-assigned duties and the positions added now will be subtracted from the number requested in the new budget year.
9 & 10 - Discuss consider and act to authorize the Mayor to execute the North Grove Public Improvement District (PID) Area #3 Reimbursement Agreement with GRBK Edgewood LLC. This resolution would call for a public hearing set for May 16, 2022 to consider an ordinance levying assessments on property located within the improvement Area #3 of the North Grove PID. We have PIDs in Waxahachie and it's basically a tool that developers use to help pay for items in a subdivision. Each one I've dealt with so far has been on unimproved land (vs. adding this fee to an area once house area already on it and folks have their mortgage payments pretty much set). I will ask at the briefing session if this is also the case here, but I strongly expect that to be the case. We normally see a map of the area in question as well, but I'm sure that will be presented in the public hearing at the 5/16 meeting.
*** For those interested in learning more about PIDs, the Texas Municipal League (TML) has a great document that explains them pretty well. The link to that is: https://www.tml.org/DocumentCenter/View/234/Assessments---2015-11-PDF ***
That's it for this meeting. It should actually be a pretty short one. If you're unable to come to the meeting in person, it will be live-streamed for your convenience at the following link: https://www.waxahachie.com/government/city_council/city_council_meeting_live_stream.php
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*** Please remember that this is election season and some people say/do things that just don't sound right or may straight up make unfair representations of the other party. Unfortunately, I'm seeing this in my race. So, please know that you're ALWAYS welcome to contact me!! If you prefer email, please use my Council email for city business only. That is: molson@waxahachie.com If there is any issue/question about me personally or about my campaign, please use olsonfortexas@gmailcom. My cell phone (text or call) is 817-507-5162. I'm here to serve you and I'm happy to do it! ***
Have a wonderful week ahead!
Your Friendly Councilmember,
Melissa Olson, CMO
(contact info above) :)
