08/06/1979-CC-Minutes-RegularMINUTES. City Council Meeting
August 6, 1979
PRESENT: Mayor Cole, Cooper, Hampton, Coker, Spindle, And Bridges
Others Present: Rosalie Shuffield, City Attorney, Lindon Carr, Tom
Perdue, Alford Talley,.Joe Olegar, Brook Brown, Don Innes, Billy
Barclay, Gene Hughes, Smith D. Murrin and Sidney George
1. Mayor Cole opened the sealed bids for the sign program. Price
"Barricade" - $1571.78, Barco Municipal Products, Inc.- $2,386.28
Custom Engraving-$2926.50, FSC Sales Co.-$2199.79 Decision on
accepting a bid was postponed until they gathered more information
on the.low bid.
2. Minutes of the four previous meetings were approved as printed
on a motion by Coker, seconded by Bridges. Voted unan.
3. Disbursements - Coker made the motion to pay disbursements in the
amount of $13,536.08. Spindle seconded. Boted unan.
4. Sanger Electric Capital Improvements for the amount of $6,213.96
were approved on a motion by Bridges. Spindle seconded. Boted unan.
5. Water and Sewer Rate Study was presented by Tom Perdue from Hunter
& Associates. He advised Council that we will definitely need to
increase our rates. The increase will provide for funds to meet
our emergency needs. The way the system is set up now it is not
paying for itself. Mayor Cole asked Bill to find out how much
it cost to produce a gallon of water before Council made a
decision on increasing the rate. Coker stated that we are
borrowing money to keep Sanger Electric in operation. Each year
it gets financially worse. We will need to increase something.
More discussion followed.
6. Amendment of Sub -division Ordinance requested by Planning & Zoning
was postponed until next meeting since Jack Armstrong was not at the
meeting to answer any questions Council might have.
7. Alford Talley, Brook Brown, Joe Olegar and Don Innes were answering
questions concerning Centels rate increase. Joe Olegar stated that
the Micro -wave network will be completed in September of this year.
This will hopefully eliminate any problem from incoming or outgoing
calls. Traffic studies are still being conducted on long distance
calls to find out if there is any blockage on the lines.
Mayor Cole asked Mr. Olegar if they -were adding 19 circuits altogether.
Mr. Olegar stated when the system is completed it will have 12 additional
circuits, 21 initially from Sanger to Decatur. Coker asked if it
will eliminate the problems of the lines being busy. Mr. Olegar tried
to explain that it depends on how many calls were made and the length
of time. On July's study 610 of calls in Sanger were completed and
13 out of 100 were given a busy signal.
This meets the standards for the Utility Commission. Hampton asked
if Sunday was a bad day of incoming calls. Answer no. Hampton said
several cities tried calling him on Sunday and could not get through
to him. Hampton, Bridges, and Coker agreed that the system is poorly
run today as it was a year ago.
Bridges mentioned the fact that he didn't understand how the
Utility Commission has agreed that Centel meets the requirement standards
to operate the system.
A lengthy discussion followed concerning the EAS service charge. Coker
quoted from Centel Telephone Rate-1959-2 which stated that "extended
area service shall be maintained in the -City of Sanger, attended by
resident telephone operators, on a 24 hour daily basis, working in said
central office in the City of Sanger, Texas, and-,further.-thattelephone
users in said City. of Sanger shall be able to dial directly telephone
users in Greenwood, Slidell, and Krum, -Texas, and telephone users -in
Greenwood, Slidell, and Krum, Texas and rural telephone users within
said areas, may dial directly telephone users in said City of Sanger,
Texas, without toll charges or other additional charges ab6ve the
established monthly rates."
.....0 .k: +.,
Mayor Cole stated that Centel was in violation of the franchise.
Brook Brown tried to explain that we must have had a misconception
that the EAS service was free. We were always charged for
this service but it had never been broken down before and stated on
out monthly bill. Mayor Cole further added that at one time we were
thinking of having EAS service to Denton but decided against it since
Denton was facing a rate increase, now Sanger is also facing a rate
increase. More discussion followed. Bridges made the motion to turn
franchise over to the City Attorney to abort franchise over EAS charge.
Hampton second. Voted unan.
John L. Sullivan stated that even though we are getting unsatisfactory
service we might not be entitled to this type of hearing. John L.
advised Council if we filed a direct law suit we might get some
relief from the Public Utility Commission but he was doubtful. The
franchise terminates in 1984. John L. will look into our
pole rental use contract agreement before he advises Council further
on the matter.
Lindon asked if Dentel provided weekend service. Mr. Talley said
since 12 years ago they started having someone on call 24 hours daily.
Spindle asked about the charge on the fire phones. He said in
the past the fireman had never been charged for the fire phones.
Mr. Talley said he would check on the matter and get back in touch
with the City on his findings.
8. CATV - Smith D.. Murrin, Vice President of CATV was there to
answer any questions concerning cable T.V. Coker and Spindle were
on a committee along with John L. to get information needed on the
cable service. John L. still has doubts about the system's
financial status. It was his recommendation that CATV provide us
with a financial statement. A charter must be presented in order
to see what financial backing they have. John L. advised Council
to postpone a decision until he had sufficient time to get more
information before City signed the 15 year franchise agreement.
Smith Murrin tried to clarify to John L. all doubts he had
about CATV. Mr. Murrin agreed to furnish a performance bond
and any necessary information the Council and John L. needed to
speed up their decision. Action delayed until Sept. 3.
9. Water Pressure - Billy Barclay stated to Council that he had all
valves checked and said there was no problem. There are still some
areas where there is low pressure. Bill said he would keep on checking
the valves. Cooper asked if he had fixed the leak at the slaughter
house. Answer: yes. The Shamrock leak could not be fixed since
it was under concrete pavement. Hampton asked about the leak at the
middle school in front of the two story house on 7th Street. Bill
advised that he has not been able to locate that particular leak but
will go back and do some more checking.
l0.Resolution designating a new representative to Grant C-48-1340-01
was made. Cooper made the motion that our new City Manager Lloyd
Henderson be made authorized representative to the Texas Water
Department of Water Resources. Hampton second. Unan.
11. Constitutionality of Sales Tax -Mayor Cole explain that we arrive
at the figure. we pay in by multiplying 5.005 by the amount of sales
tax we had last year which was $25,708.89. Mayor Cole calculated
$128.50. Bridges made the motion to.pay it. Hampton seconded. Unan.
12. Contract between Gene Hughes and Billy Jack Hollingsworth was
not signed for the reason that the Council and John L. felt that
the City should not intervene in a situation like this.
13. Preliminary Plat, Block A. Section IV Bucklew Freese for George
Clements was. approved on a motion by Spindle. Bridges Second. Unan.
14, Other Matters:
a. Bennie Bridges told Council that Mrs. Ida Richie expressed
her thanks in getting her water problem straighten out.
b. Lone Star Gas is wanting to increase "City Gate Rate" from
2.0027 to 2.2100 which reflects a cost of their operation.
They filed with the Railroad Commission on July 20, 1979.
Bridges made the suggestion that we investigate this matter further.
Meeting adjourned.
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ATTEST:
MAYOR