Hugh Lewis/Jefferson Jimplecute
The temporary relocation of City Hall, the hiring of a building inspector, grants for sidewalks and trails, and a few building permits were under construction during Tuesday night’s Council meeting.
Recent structural concerns along the back of the main building and the old City Bathrooms and Jail, combined with long standing rumors of storage tanks underneath the front offices, caused Jefferson Mayor Rob Baker to decided to temporarily relocate the offices while structural engineers are called in to evaluate and make a recommendation.
“This is a temporary move,” Baker said, “while the city engineers, SPI, and two other engineering firms, are looking at the building and will recommend a course of action. Both the Jefferson VFD and County Judge Leward LaFleur have also been notified. We hope to have the offices back open on Polk Street as soon as possible.”
Two firms have reviewed the buildings and the third is coming on January 27. Baker said he’s asked the firms to come in, look, take pictures and write up an assessment.
“Between historical water leaks, walls shifting and the old tanks underneath possibly collapsing, there’s just a lot of unknowns at this point,” said Baker. “It’s just unsafe in my view. I will overreact in the form of safety for our employees and citizens every time. When you have box arcing to a pipe in an office and it’s not tripping the circuit breaker, that’s bad. For years now we’ve had water running down the walls when it rains from a certain angle. I think the best phrase is ‘enough’s enough.’ Everyone who’s been an elected official or spends enough time down at City Hall has said, ‘yeah, it’s been like this forever.’ I don’t think it’s safe or a good workplace for our staff. So, from a safety and common sense perspective we’ve moved into here. We don’t know if this is demo that and rebuild or simple foundation repairs.”
This last week City employees have split their duties between regular activities and getting the offices packed and moved.
According to City Secretary Melissa Boyd, she hopes the offices are fully relocated and operating at the Visitor’s Center at the start of this next week. She said telephones and computers are being moved now, but the drop-box and official notice boards will remain at the City Hall building on Polk Street.
“If we move the notice boards, then we have to notify the Secretary of State,” said Baker. “They consider the location of the boards as the location of City Hall.”
“The safety of our employees and residents, as well as a safe working environment, are my priority,” said Baker. “As such, this just made sense.”
Baker said those wishing to make water and sewer payments should utilize the drop box at 105 N. Polk street until further notice. If a balance is needed, residents should call City Hall and they can be provided a balance due amount.
The City also moved forward on hiring a building inspector to help ensure buildings being constructed or renovated in town are following all the appropriate ordinances.
The city budgeted $18,000 for the salary and $18,000 for the enforcement,” said Baker.
“There is a couple of things we have to address moving forward,” said JPD Chief Tino Perez. “One is enforcement of violations. The other is readjusting our current fee structure and see what the current rate is. Where we’re going to get pushback is contractors who’ve taken advantage of our lax system. But, as we are a small town, someone puts in an application, we can be out there in the next 2-3 days. In a big city you’re on the schedule three months away. I think this is a great direction we’re moving forward in.”
“I don’t think it addresses ordiance violations as much as it does building violations,” said Ward 2 Alderman Robin Moore. “And I think that needs to be a part of it. Would he/she be ordiance watching as well? Let’s say in the past we’ve had busses piled up on lots. Is this something we want our employee to see and possibly issue fines?”
Baker said possibly yes “has we get our ordinances updated. Yes it’s heavily on building, but opens itself up to ordinance enforcement. That’s why it’s tied to the Police Chief.”
“I think ordinances on the books need to be enforced,” said Moore. Baker and Perez both said ordinances are being enforced as they are seen and can be confirmed.
“This is primarily a building inspector,” said Baker. “The ordinances that are tied to buildings. Right now we have ordinances that are enforceable and some that cannot be enforced.”
Perez said there is a process to notify residents of ordinance violations and part of that requires the department being properly notified of the situation.
“I did put out an anonymous reporting system on our FaceBook page,” said Perez. “We’re focused on criminal violations, and maybe in the future we’ll have a code enforcement officer.”
Ward 2 Alderman April Taylor-Johnson moved to go forward with posting the notice of employment and see what applications are received and fine tune from there. Ward 3/1 Alderman Richard Turner seconded the motion. It was approved 6-0.
The city should be posting the position in the near future.
Baker also sought Council’s OK to submit applications to TxDOT for grants related to the construction of sidewalks between schools, and other sidewalk improvements.
Baker said there are three potential grants the City can pursue, two of which are with TxDOT and one with TPWD for trails and possible renovation of the trestle bridge downtown.
“This year there is $32 million in available grants and they’re focused on small towns,” said Baker. “Jeremy [Traylor] has submitted these in the past, but the pool was a lot smaller. This time he just has to update the numbers and resubmit.”
The trestle bridge better fits into a Texas Parks and Wildlife grant and they’ve already indicated that the City stands a good chance of being approved, according to Baker.
“I want to thank Bubba Haggard for calling TxDOT on this grant availability, and Gary [Endlsy at Collins Academy] for bringing the parks and wildlife grant to our attention,” said Baker.
Council approved submitting the grants 6-0.
In other building business, Council approved building permits for O’Reilly Auto Parts on Walcott Street, Roxann Reed’s home at 1103 S. Main Street, and for Jeffrey Sofich at 409 W. Camp Street.
Reed’s permit was at a request of council for additional work on a home she had approval to move onto the lot. The previous permit was to move and renovations on the home. This permit was to add porches to the structure.