Council tables street closure requests

by V. Hugh Lewis II/Jefferson Jimplecute

Tuesday’s regular Jefferson City Council meeting ended on a sad note as Mayor Rob Baker announced the retirement and resignation of Ward 2 Alderman Chief Gary Amburn.

Amburn turned in his resignation just before the meeting started with an effective date of Wednesday, June 16, 2021.

“It is with heavy heart that I announce Chief Amburn’s retirement and resignation from Council,” said Baker. “We’ll support him in that decision and council will come back next month with options.”

Amburn was elected in November 2020 in the COVID-19 delayed May 2020 election. His seat is up for election next May. 

Overall Amburn has served the city for 16 years as full-time Chief of Police, and additional 15 months as a part-time Chief, and seven months on Council.

The majority of the rest of the meeting dealt with a request from Jim McIntosh for street closures along Austin Street from Vale to Walnut Streets, and then out Polk Street across the bridge headed south. 

McIntosh was requesting the temporary closure from 9 a.m. to noon on April 30, 2022. McIntosh’s event takes place April 29 and May 1 of 2022 for the Battle of Big Cypress Bayou.

Mary Keasler, speaking for the Jesse-Allen-Wise Garden Club opposed the request and urged council to deny the application.

“The majority of the Pilgrimage events take place Thursday through Sunday in the 200 block of West Austin in front of the Excelsior House Hotel,” said Keasler. “The 2022 Pilgrimage Parade will take place at 10 a.m. Saturday April 30. The Annual Pilgrimage Luncheon is held in the Excelsior House Hotel Dining Room and Ballroom from 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.we respectfully request you consider you consider the street needs of the 75th Annual Historic Jefferson Pilgrimage event and not approve Jim McIntosh’s street closure request which overlaps the long established Pilgrimage calendar of events.”

Francene Rainey encouraged everyone to work together and cooperate on event weekends so that events are not competing with each other.

“We are here to speak in favor of item 7b [McIntosh request],” said Rainey. ”We have had an overlap of re-enactors who want to participate in both events [Great Locomotive Chase and Battle of Big Cypress] so we moved our event to Memorial Day weekend so they could participate in both. Based on the survey responses to our event, 20% stayed in town in hotels, motels and BnB’s. 75% shopped or ate in Jefferson. Many stayed the full 10 days to attend both events with the average spending of $200-$1500 per person. Having two battles is a win-win for re-enactors and Jefferson businesses. We have all learned a lot about competing events on the same weekend and it’s really not fair to all involved. I’m sure Jim is more than willing to work with other events to ensure everyone has a great time and come back to Jefferson.”

McIntosh indicated to Council he was confused over the Garden Club’s request to deny the temporary closure.

“I’m excited to see everyone come in to provide feedback on what I view as a pretty important event here in our town and community,” said McIntosh. “Although we had some ‘mud in the road’ as one re-enactor put it, it was a pretty successful event. 

“Based on what [Keasler] said, I don’t necessarily see a problem with what we’re trying to accomplish here,” said McIntosh. “[The Garden Club] have done such a great job, that the re-enactors set their calendar for the first weekend in May. 

“My biggest concern with their objection is ‘They’ve done this before,’ “ he said. “Like they’ve had the street skirmish the same day in the same location. It’s not mutually exclusive and turns out great. They’ve had what they object to now. It’s just a different organization putting it on.

“For us asking for that time period, we’re able to be flexible. We seek to work with the folks that’ve done the hard work to get us to this point. Having the re-enactors there they can easily move from the skirmish to the Parade and enhance that experience,” he said.

Keasler later responded that they were willing to sit down and discuss the issues and come to an agreement. “As long as what we decide is what’s actually done,” she added. 

Ward 3 Alderman Richard Turner requested McIntosh resubmit the application with a map of what streets he wished to temporarily close as the application was not clear enough.

Ward 2 Alderman Tyrani Braddock asked McIntosh about the noise issues. McIntosh indicated they already had noise mitigation plan in progress for next year’s event. 

The plan involves a different orientation on the cannons so the noise is not directed towards town as it accidentally was this year. 

McIntosh also indicated they’d be moving up the Night Battle so it finished up earlier. He said they plan to start publishing notices three weeks before the next event so residents are given plenty of notice of it coming and can make appropriate accommodations for their pets, etc.

The Excelsior House Hotel is located in the 200 block of West Austin Street, and outside the area McIntosh requested to be temporarily closed. 

The Garden Club has not yet submitted their Special Event Application and associated temporary street closures for the 2022 Pilgrimage Weekend events.

Ultimately McIntosh withdrew the request, based upon indication from Keasler that the Garden Club would discuss the issues with him, and Council voted to take no action on the request.

Laura Ohmer, representing the Historic Jefferson Foundation said, “We are requesting your approval for a concept, not yet a plan. Current situation is we need a lighting update. There are four lights on the fountain and two of them are out. And it’s not just a bulb, it’s the unit that needs to be replaced. One of the four streets lights is out currently. We’ve discussed that when the lights are out there have been vehicles who’ve run into the bushes around the Stearne Fountain. So it is a safety concern as well as an asthetic one. We discussed a professional redesign for that area. The board asked me to get your approval for that.”

Baker informed Ohmer there are some minor brick work repair planned, but nothing at that intersection in the near term.”

“If you change the footprint of that area you’ll need Council approval,” said Alderman Ward 3 Ted Dickson. “I think it’s safe to say you can proceed in looking at options of what you’d like to do.”

“We appreciate your attention, but if you need to make a decision you need to get put on the agenda,” said City Attorney Mike Martin.

Council also approved selling a portion of South Willard Street to Frist National Bank of Trinity, Texas, which owns the adjacent property. This came before Council last month but was denied as Council said they’d agree if the utilities along the route remained in the street right-of-way. Some of the “old feed store” structures are built in the street right-of-way. 

FNB Trinity has a potential buyer for the property, the Jefferson Christian Academy, which plans to use the property as an extension of the school and to add storage units to the property. 

Baker provided his update on things ongoing in the City:

• Ward 2 is currently undergoing an election. Early Voting goes through Friday, and election next Tuesday, June 22

• JEDCO and Tourism nominations are delayed until after the election

• Mayor Pro Tem is tied to the election. Dickson currently is interim-Pro Tem

• George Washington Brown Home Historic Marker re-establishment request. It will officially come to council in July. The City has the marker and the placard.

• Big Cypress Bayou project that began in 2007. About three years the US Army came back to the City for a “true-up” of about $21,000. Now with penalties and interest it’s around $23,000. This will come back to council in July.

• The City has $962,000 in outstanding citations. $858,000 are one year old or more. The firm hired by the City has been working more current citations, but will be being pushed to start on the older ones.

• The TxDOT TA grant application has been postponed until the next grant cycle in 2023 as the engineering study on the trestle bridge is not adequate for the grant.

• 2021 Street Paving Campaign was supposed to start this week, however the contractor is waiting on materials delivery. Baker said he had city workers fill every pothole in Soda Street with gravel as of this afternoon so streets can travel Soda without damaging their vehicles.

Council also approved a Special Event Application for the Jefferson Salutes America event on July 4. 

Council held an executive session to consult with their attorney on current litigation against the city. No action was taken after executive session.