V. Hugh Lewis II
Jefferson Jimpecute
Several young events are back on track in Jefferson after Council approved payments from the Tourism Board’s Discretionary Funds to help get the events going.
Ward 3/1 Alderman Richard Turner had initially pulled the payment requests by the Tourism Board so Council could discuss them.
Turner said he apologized for the delay and confusion on approving the payments as he did not understand that the funds were budgeted expenses and that the Board had vetted the applications prior to submitting the payment request. Turner did note however, that in future budgets, a policy or procedure should be in place to reimburse applications for expenses instead of issuing them a check in advance.
The Marion County Chamber of Commerce had made an application to the Board for $1,000 in funding to assist with promoting the 2nd Balloon Glow, scheduled for June 4 at the Cypress Valley Airport off FM 134.
In their April meeting, the Board had approved the request based on it’s success last year, and that there was a proposed in-town element to the event. The Chamber has added tethered balloon rides in one of the city’s parks to help draw people out to the event.
Prior to approving the funding request, Council had conditionally approved the event providing the Chamber received approval from the Collins Foundation to allow the in-town tethered rides to take place in the waterfront park downtown.
Collins Foundation member Shirley Reiman reminded Council, during their break, that per their agreement to manage the park, no event that charges a fee can be held in the park. The rides are scheduled to cost $20. The location of the tethered rides had not been determined as of press time.
The Opera House Theatre Players Pioneer Days event may not feature their signature performance by the Sons of the Pioneers, after OHTP president Marcia Thomas discovered the group had doubled their performance price from last year.
Council tabled OHTP’s request until the group could determine if the event was to happen. The group was meeting later in the week to discuss the situation.
The Chamber had also submitted a request for $1,000 to offset the production costs of the new downtown maps they’ve produced. The Jimplecute supplied the printing services for the maps, but production was done by a Waxahachie firm. This request was also approved 5-0-1 with Alderman Ward 1 Hollis Shadden abstaining as he is a member of the Chamber Board.
Lastly, Council approved reimbursing Ellen and Preston Taylor for $173 in fuel expenses to travel to Conroe to attend a Home and Garden Show and represent the City.
Tourism board members were unable to attend the event and the Taylor’s volunteered with the promise of reimbursement for fuel. If the Taylor’s had not attended the event, it would have cost Tourism $600 to have the City’s brochures at the event.
Turner questioned the Board and City’s ability to reimburse non-members expenses, even if they were attending something on behalf of the City. Currently the Bylaws of the Tourism Board do not prohibit any such reimbursement. The request was approved 6-0.
Lastly, Council approved the creation of a committee of Ward 2/3 Alderman Robin Moore, Ward 2 Alderman Will Thomas, and City Secretary Melissa Boyd, to represent the City in a series of virtual meetings with TAMU’s Texas Target Community group in planning for the upcoming Comprehensive Strategic Plan project.
Lastly, the lights on Jefferson’s Howe Trestle Bridge will be repaired at a cost of $936 to Longview Lighting, who installed them 3-4 years ago. However, moving the control box closer to Dallas Street for $2,200 will be delayed while alternative bids are investigated and received.
Tourism Board president Colleen Taylor said the lights were partially out when the $936 bid was received but now they are completely non-functional. She also indicated “someone” had been in the control box and that may or may not have caused them to fail. Moving the box, she indicated, would allow for better security and programing of the lights in the future.
In other business Council extended the review period by one month for City Secretary Melissa Boyd to allow existing and previous members the opportunity to fill out a review sheet.
Boyd had also made a request for Council to consider hiring some form of assistant to help with getting the increased duties accomplished since the elimination of the City Administrator position.
Discussion on the subject centered on whether an additional person was needed or not.
Alderman Ward 2 Will Thomas asked if the other existing staff members duties could be expanded, and Ward 3 Alderman April Taylor Johnson said Council should consider hiring an additional person if the duties could not be expanded on existing personnel.
“We’ve got an issue,” said Mayor Rob Baker, indicating that Boyd was being required to spend a lot of time outside of normal hours to get everything accomplished.
“I should be spending 80-90% of my time on finances,” said Boyd, “but I’m actually only able to put put in 10-20%. I can utilize Amy more so than Laurie as Laurie is on a strict schedule [with accounts payable and payroll]. It would help if you’d consider allowing them to get the Open Records and Open Meetings provider training so they could assist with some of those requests.”
Council tabled the request until the June 4 meeting so they could review supplied bullet points and start coming up with job descriptions and options.