10/15/2018-CC-Minutes-RegularCITY OF SANGER, TEXAS
MINUTES: REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING
October 15th, 2018, 7:00 p.m.
502 Elm Street, Sanger, Texas
COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Thomas Muir, Mayor Pro Tem Bilyeu, Councilman
David Clark, Councilman Allen Chick, Councilman Lee Allison.
COUNCIL MEMBERS ABSENT: Councilman Bill Boutwell.
The Mayor and four Council Members were present constituting a quorum.
STAFF MEMBERS PRESENT: City Manager Alina Ciocan, City Secretary Cheryl Price,
Economic Development Director Shani Bradshaw.
1. Call Meeting to Order, Invocation, Pledge of Allegiance.
Mayor Muir called the Regular City Council Meeting to order on October 1st, 2018 at 7:02
p.m. Councilman Allison gave the Invocation and Councilman Clark led the Pledge of
Allegiance.
2. Citizens Input: (Citizens are allowed 3 minutes to speak. The City Council is unable to
respond or to discuss any issues brought up during this section).
Arthur Helton, 105 Colonial Heights was recognized. He stated he is before the Council to
talk about Sanger Electric’s proposed power line repair, due to loss of power to his
neighbor’s home located on Houston Street. On October 10 the City of Sanger Electric
placed a temporary power line across his back yard along the fence line. They told him that
the temporary line would be in his yard for a week and also that they may have to dig a
trench to bury the cable in his yard. In doing so it may destroy 20-year old trees in the back
yard. His home is diagonally behind the home that has lost power. The cost of removing
dead trees can cost from $500 to $1000 per tree and there are six trees along the proposed
powerline placement. This has become a major situation for his family. They have had
their house up for sale since July. A real estate agent Mike Morris of Mossy Oak Realty
told him that if the trees die it could potentially devalue his property in the range of $30,000.
He noted that potential harm to him would be about $37,000. The temporary power line as
of today is impeding the progress of selling the house because it is noticeably visible and
concerning to potential buyers. He is also concerned regarding the loose power cable on the
ground and the possibility of someone tripping or getting hurt by the power cable that he
would legally be liable because it is located on his property. He understands his neighbor
needs electric utility and requests that the city reconsider placement of this power line and
route it some other way and expedite the placement of the temporary power line. He
presented photos to Council. Mayor Muir noted that there are rules that keep the Council
from deliberating on issues that have just been brought before them because they must be
placed on the agenda to be able to deliberate on them. City Manager, Alina Ciocan took
down contact information and noted she would look into Mr. Helton’s concerns.
3. CONSENT AGENDA:
No items.
REGULAR AGENDA
4. Introduction of Economic Development Director, Shani Bradshaw.
Shani Bradshaw, Economic Development Director was recognized and gave a brief
background. She came from Justin and was there for 10-1/2 years and their executive
director and marketing director. She wore many hats. She noted how much she liked
Sanger and complemented the Sanger downtown area. She noted how excited she is to be
here and wanted provide the Council with an update of what she has done in the last month
that she has been here. She noted an event that is coming up and provided a flyer to the
Council for he ACE T.R.A.I.N. Event (Training and Resources Advancing Industry
Needs). She is partnering with the Library to hold this event in the city. It will be on
Thursday October 25th 10:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. at the Sanger Library. This event is brought to
us by the North Central Texas College Adult and Continuing Education program. They are
going to come out and set up a large trailer and provide small businesses free training
resources, business plans, loans, tax reductions and other items. They also offer skill
enhancement information and counseling for employees and everything they offer is all
free. She noted that she wanted to focus on marketing and networking for the City of
Sanger.. Her first trade show is going to be in January at the ICSCS (International Council
of Shopping Centers). She noted that she was planning on having a booth. She has met
with an advertising agency to see what it was going to cost for the banners, and marketing
material, demographics, etc. She noted the plan is to attend three or four of this type of
events for the 2018-19 fiscal year. She has met with the Sanger Chamber and wants to
work on bridging the gap of communication. She worked very closely with the Chamber in
Justin and seven other communities. She has been to a Chamber luncheon and a downtown
business meeting. She stressed the importance of networking and getting to know the
businesses in the City. She encouraged the Councilmembers who use social media to like
the Economic Development page and share it with colleagues because it is a free form of
advertisement for the City and we should take advantage of it. She noted that she has a
huge array of resources with Economic Developers in other cities. She has met with
CoServ and is working on marketing grant of about $15,000 to help pay for some of the
advertising resources. Site visits are important and it is one of her goals to go out and make
sure that she visits with our businesses on a regular basis, whether it is 5 or 10 a month and
find out what their needs and concerns are and follow up with them a few months later. If
they are not involved in the community she would encourage that and for them to get
involved with the Chamber and come to Council Meetings. Familiarizing herself with all
of the residential areas and all of the stakeholders is very important and she has started this
process. There are a lot of rooftops coming in. She hoped that this gives the Council an
idea of what she is working on and planning in the near future. Mayor Pro Tem Bilyeu and
Mayor Muir brought about discussion regarding getting a grocery store. There was a brief
discussion between Councilmembers and Shani Bradshaw regarding what they are looking
for and they understanding that some of these things can take time. She reinterated how
important marketing is if we want to get the development the City and Council wants . We
need to emphasize the unique features the City has such as being right off of I-35, the
downtown area, and the tourist attractions such as the lake. Providing monthly and/or
quarterly reports regarding the status of Economic Development to Council is one of the
goals she plans to pursue. She noted that there is some confidentiality requested sometimes
by developers regarding some of the prospects but that she could provide some information
in her reports and she could let them know about site visits and that someone is looking at a
particular piece of property. Mayor Pro Tem brought about discussion regarding obtaining
a grocery store. Mayor Muir noted the importance of rooftops and the importance of
obtaining smart growth and quality development for the future of Sanger. Councilman
Allison noted after she has been working with the city staff and planning that he would like
to hear what the City’s assetts are such as I-35 but the fact that nobody knows about the
right-of-way is a liability. He would like to hear what are our ob stacles and what are our
liabilities. He noted that he felt our Zoning Ordinance is an Economic Development
obstacle. City Manager Alina Ciocan noted that they have spoken about zoning and also
talked about natural gas availability especially along I-35 as we try to bring in
manufacturing and distribution centers. These are some challenges. Zoning we can fix, but
the gas, perhaps if we have deep pockets we can fix it as well. There was additional
discussion regarding utilities. Mayor Muir asked what challenges she faced in Justin that
she would like to avoid here or some really positive that she faced and how she may be
able to relate to them here in Sanger. Ms. Bradshaw noted she wore many hats in the City
of Justin and used each to promote the City with a positive, along with being a Rotary
member, she was also a volunteer firefighter and EMT and was extremely involved in the
community. She plans to be extremely involved in this community. To address the Mayors
question she noted that one of the challenges was the growth around the city pulling the
public to businesses outside of Justin such as the Tanger Outlet Mall and Buc-ees. She put
up billboards and did a lot of marketing to pull people in. They wanted a bigger grocery
store a hardware store and an auto store. She was able to get Ace Hardware to come in
with a $50,000 enhancement grant where they moved into a pre-existing building that
needed some renovation. Before she left she was working on O’Rileys to come in off of
156. To be honest, their Economic Development and the City Council did not work well
together and it was a big challenge and she worked hard to bridge the gap and get them t o
communicate better. Having the boards meet with the Council periodically so that they
each could communicate their goals helped some. Another challenge was expansion of 156.
Councilman Allison noted that he envisions a comprehensive plan and vision that everyone
is on board with. There is a lack of planning and vision effort with FM 455 and I-35
expanding.
Councilman Chick noted he would like to have her ideas and what her focus is as she gets
to know the Sanger area on what her vision is for the various pieces of property available in
Sanger and what they would look like in 5 or 10 years. And asked if she has looked at her
budget and if there was enough for her to do all of the things she needs to do.
Shani Bradshaw stated she would get a better idea as we start going through the
Comprehensive Plan which is on the agenda. It has not been updated since 2007. She
added that she has seen her budget and it is workable. There was additional discussion
regarding what the city has and
City Manager Alina Ciocan advised that the 4A was again on track with selling the
warehouse, that it was on hold. Ms. Bradshaw has met with the Board regarding
reinitiating the process and Council will see a re-zoning case coming up soon to rezone the
warehouse from I-2 to I-1 and the lumber yard from I-2 to B-3. She noted this has been
discussed in the past that the heavy industrial is not a good fit for downtown. They want to
get the zoning done prior to selling the property and it should be coming forward in the
next month or so. At that point it may be a good time to have a joint meeting. There was
discussion regarding cleaning up the zoning use charts and it was noted that staff is
working on it. Mayor Muir asked if there were any updates on Economic Development
Projects. Shani Bradshaw advised that she came prepared and provided a summary of the
current Economic Development projects. Mayor Muir and Councilmembers welcomed
Economic Development Director Shani Bradshaw to the City of Sanger and thanked her for
the introduction she provided.
5. INFORMATION ITEMS:
a. Monthly Financial Report – August 31, 2018.
b. All American Dogs Report – September 2018.
c. AP Disbursement Report – September 2018.
d. Atmos Energy Rider GCR – Rate Filing under Docket No. 10170.
e. Atmos Energy Tariff Revision.
f. Atmos Energy Notice Regarding Petition for DeNovo Review of the Statement of
Intent Filed by Atmos Energy Corporation Mid-Tex Division.
There was no discussion on information items.
6. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS: (The purpose of this item is to allow the Mayor and
members of Council to bring forward items they wish to discuss at a future meeting, A
Council Member may inquire about a subject for which notice has not been given. A
statement of specific factual information or the recitation of existing policy may be given.
Any deliberation shall be limited to a proposal to place the subject on an agenda for a
subsequent meeting. Items may be placed on a future meeting agenda with a consensus
of the Council or at the call of the Mayor).
7. ADJOURN.
There being no further discussion, Mayor Muir adjourned the meeting at 7:45 p.m.