ccspecwksp 02-11-1998
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CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL WORKSHOP SESSION
FEBRUARY 11, 1998
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The Schertz City Council convened in Special Workshop Session on Wednesday,
February 11, 1998 at 7:00 p.m. in the Conference Room of the Municipal
Complex, 1400 Schertz Parkway, Schertz, Texas. The following members were
present: Mayor Pro Tem Tim Swinney presiding; Council members Ken
Greenwald; Charles McDonald and Norman Agee, Sr. Members absent:
Councilmember Joe Potempa. Staff present: City Manager Kerry Sweatt; Chief
Johnny Woodward, Chief Jerry Smith, Juan Guerrero; Mark Marquez and Deputy
City Secretary Dolores Butler.
#1 HEARING OF RESIDENTS: No one had signed up to speak.
#2 Discuss final reading of Ordinance changing school zone hours.
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Mr. Sweatt noted Council is discussing the final reading of the Ordinance that
makes the change as was initially requested by the School District pertaining to
the High School hours. Previous to this action, the school zones were set at 7:00
to 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. each day. The City was asked to consider
extending the hours as relates to the High School to provide higher traffic control
because of the final dismissal bell at 3:43 p.m. After the police and public works
departments reviewed this matter, they felt the time should be extended to 4:30
p.m. basically to deal with any last minute flurries and drivers anticipation of every
half-hour arrangements. After looking at the existing school hours, the Council
asked us to extend those same 4:30 hours to all the local school zones with the
exception of the area on Randolph Boulevard where we are suggesting the
afternoon hours be set from 2:30 until 4:30 p.m. This new time would be
consistent with 4:30 p.m. ending but would be 3:00 at all other times except that
one school zone. With those changes, we would recommend the Council consider
adopting this Ordinance on second and final reading at the next meeting.
#3 Discuss Tax Abatement request for AER Corporation.
Mr. Sweatt noted a memorandum in the packet and a letter from AER describing
the facility. Mr. Marquez introduced Chris Mantzuranis, Vice President and Chief
Financial Officer and Johnny Birdsong, local warehouse manager of AER.
Between the letter and memorandum and an analysis by the staff, the tax
abatement request by AER Manufacturing was considered by the Economic
Development Commission (EDC) at its last meeting. After reviewing the request
and proposed business and activity, the EDC voted to recommend to City Council
an abatement for 53.11 % abatement on capital improvements for a five (5) year
period.
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Mr. Mantzuranis stated his company is looking forward to coming to Schertz. The
warehouse in San Antonio is an 8,000 ft structure and, expecting growth in
business, are building a 20,000 ft structure in Schertz. The home office is in
Carrolton, outside of Dallas with five (5) manufacturing facilities in Dallas which
manufactures automobile engines and marine engines and sell to companies such
as Ford, General Motors, Nissan, Mercury Marine, etc. The company also does
components such as alternators and starters and distribute things such as
transmissions - all automobile related components. From the warehouse here,
will have driver/salesmen who run route trucks and haul for Lincoln-Mercury
dealers throughout this part of the state; and they have customers like Jordan Ford
who is two (2) miles down the road who will come out and pick up parts. The
company is excited about coming to Schertz and is impressed with the industrial
park where they have room to grow.
Mr. Sweatt said one of the interesting things he noted is that AER deals with the
after-market product and asked how far after the market, what years will you
actually be.
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Mr. Mantzuranis said most of the sales go back no more than 20 years. The
company has a number of different product lines in that we have as customers
four Lincoln-Mercury dealers but also have Ford Motor Company, Nissan and GM
as customers. The company actually build more recent applications. If you have
a Crown Victoria that is two (2) years old and the engine has a problem, it would
be replaced under warranty. The large original equipment exactors found that in
the old days they would stock pile and their estimates were always wrong. The
company has been around since the mid-'40's - Henry Ford actually started the
concept of re-manufacturing automobile parts during World War II when there was
a shortage of product. Rather than throwing away scrap metal, it was recycled
and used. AER started in the back of a dealership in Dallas and is the largest of a
dozen engine manufacturers with a lot of state of the art equipment, computer
controlled, nice, air conditioned facilities and uniforms for employees. The
company is primarily owned by one gentleman, Bob McGraw who has been
chairman for about 25 years and prior to him, his father was. The distribution area
from this warehouse will be primarily down through South Texas and down to
Corpus Christi, to the Valley and as far north as Temple, Belton, Kileen and San
Angelo.
Mr. Swinney asked about the sidewalk situation and Mr. Marquez said that would
be next. Mr. Sweatt noted that since it is not on the agenda for this meeting, it can
be placed on the next agenda and addressed with the formal action on the
abatement. Mr. Sweatt pointed out that the EDC reviewed the issue of recycling
and felt that the company's process is not germane immediately to the City of
Schertz.
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. Mayor Pro Tem Swinney welcomed AER to Schertz and thanked Mr. Mantzuranis
and Mr. Birdsong for their presentation.
#4 Discuss plans and recommendations for emergency service buildings.
Mr. Sweatt emphasized his pleasure in announcing we are on target with the
emergency services planning. Mr. Norris Fletcher, representative from BSA is
here tonight to present our recommendations to Council regarding the police, fire
and EMS buildings, the circulation and site plan of the property, along with the
reminder of what the project sign will look like the moment we close the
arrangements and can post the sign. Included in a packet that Norris will be
handing to you is a budget that is within our resources. Johnny, Jerry and Juan
are here to answer questions but this is primarily Mr. Fletcher's show to tell you
about the planning that has gone into this project, describe the project and hand
out some booklets and answer questions. Hopefully, at the conclusion of this
meeting, while no vote will be necessary, it is your consensus that we are to move
forward. If there are questions or situations that need to be resolved, we take
those and bring it back at another meeting.
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Mr. Fletcher stated that since being given the nod of approval shortly before
Christmas, things have been moving ahead with the help of the department heads
involved to define what was going to be in the buildings as far as space was
concerned. There were some gray areas from how the bond issue was
constructed but they were done with some fairly basic plans. The first thing was to
go back and very carefully define the spaces and square footages required to
meet the needs. The first program was the police department which was broken
down into the demarcations of space typical to police departments around the
country - i.e., administration, 2,817 sq. ft. (mostly office space), the uniform
operations (patrol section and new jail) 1,935 sq. ft.; criminal investigation 819 sq.
ft.; records area 384 sq. ft.; communications (dispatch) 272 sq. ft.; juvenile
services 668 sq. ft.; support (break room, locker room, exercise area) for a total
net building area of 11,369 sq. ft. After applying 35% factor for walls, mechanical
spaces, etc., it rounded out at 15,348 sq. ft.
The same process was applied to the fire station, breaking it down into its major
components - i.e., 2,655 sq. ft. for office space; 3,657 sq. ft. for living area
apparatus bays and support areas for a total of 13,158 sq. ft.
In the EMS facility there is 2,059 sq. ft.; the living area is 3,305 sq. ft.; vehicle area
is 4,063 sq. ft. for a total building area of 9,669 and that included adding a full bay.
Even with the additions, we are still within the budget.
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. Ingress and egress for public safety vehicles will be behind the facilities with a
separate breakaway entrance, leaving public ingress/egress and parking separate.
The current entrance to the drive through window at the municipal building will
remain; however, customer traffic will be routed behind the Community Center,
barricading the area between the municipal building and current S.A. F. E. S. barn.
Employee parking will be extended beyond the current parking area with ingress
and egress on the paved area between the current police station and vacant lot.
Customer parking for the emergency services will be in front.
Mr. Sweatt commented that we visualize, at some point, the old S.A.F.E.S.
building will be removed, but at least for the next several years it will remain in
place. Until we have more activity in the Community Center, we plan to use the
old S.A.F.E.S. building as storage for mass purchase of supplies. We will
probably use one office in the Community Center for Building Services supervisor.
With S.A.F.E.S. out, we need someone in the building during the day with people
coming and going.
Mr. Sweatt continued saying, we're excited about the concept. It is just such a
neat idea that we're a government center, we all right here - all the people are
convenient to each other and convenient to the public.
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Mr. Fletcher interjected that it gives us an opportunity to develop something pretty
nice in the way of landscaping that will really be an asset to the community as well
as make a very profound architectural statement. One of the things we kept
hearing at the outset was the desire to have the patrol cars shielded from the
public and by doing this screen wall around the entire piece of property, it does
that quite effectively. One thing we have talked about is bidding one portion of the
wall as an alternate bid item just to hedge our bets so that if we do have any
problems when bidding time comes, we've got some room to maneuver.
Mr. Sweatt said one issue concerns us a bit - we have a property owner
immediately behind us that is now going to be seeing more emergency vehicles
than they've ever seen before and this wall is going to be even more important as
time goes along. Norris is going to bid it as an alternate or optional item in the
event we're close on dollars.
Mr. Swinney said he was very impressed with the thought that has gone into this.
One thing that surprised him a little is the lack of commonality of facilities such as
kitchens and training rooms, etc. which had been discussed as a means of saving
money and space.
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. Chief Woodward interjected that because of the varied shifts, it is necessary to
have separate kitchens for fire and EMS. It will be to our advantage having two
separate training rooms because we have continuing education programs going
on. We can have a classroom going on in one part of it and skills practice/training
in another.
Mr. Agee said the only concern that he sees on the police station is the size of
evidence storage room, also the dressing rooms, once showers and toilet facilities
are added.
Mr. Fletcher said the next drawings, after consultation with Johnny, Jerry and Juan
will show those kinds of details. As far as the evidence storage square footage,
Jerry can speak to that issue.
Chief Smith said he was a little uncomfortable with the size of the evidence room.
Other areas provided for growth are the arsenal and areas like that can also
accommodate weapons and things that take up space. The sally port has storage
space for bicycles, lawn mowers, etc. Hopefully, the 500 sq. ft. locker space won't
be as predominant as it shows once we get down to the nitty-gritty.
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Mr. Fletcher continued, the biggest cost on the site construction is going to be the
paved area to move and park vehicles. The building construction cost is
$3,567,000 broken down and this is the overall bond issue project budget and
includes things such as re-facing of the library and the remodeling of the municipal
building when the police department moves out. The professional services, fees,
reimbursable costs and surveys and reports and allowances in there for furniture
and equipment gets us to a grand total of $4,834,000.
Mr. Swinney asked what we are going to do with existing kitchen equipment and
furniture.
Mr. Sweatt said most of it is junk. As much as we can, we need to put in new
equipment because we are going to be outfitting for a 20 year program. Clearly,
there are going to have to be some expenditures out of the operating budget.
Mr. Swinney's question was, "if we are going to be replacing a refrigerator, can the
old one be donated to the Schertz Scout Hut?" Mr. Sweatt said clearly, anything
that is salvageable will be donated.
The good news is, we believe these are good, hard numbers. There is $874,000
in the bank today earning interest. By the time this project is complete we will
have gained some fairly significant interest. L.J. has been very attentive to the
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. investment pool activities and we're benefiting from that. We're not hampered by
the arbitrage provision as long as we stay under $5,000,000 and get it spent out in
the two-year period.
Mr. Fletcher noted the reprint of the schedule, stating at this point we feel we are
on schedule, somewhere between the beginning of schematics and the end of the
construction jockeying. We are comfortable that the preliminary work will be
finished by March 21st without any trouble and get the construction jockeying
completed by the middle of April. If anyone has any questions or comments, now
is the time to speak out.
Mr. Sweatt interjected the thermometer sign has a move-in date of 3/1/99 and that
is a real date.
Mr. Swinney commented that as distrustful as people are of government,
throughout the entire process he has felt that these gentlemen have treated this
project as if it was their own checkbook and that is appreciated.
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Mr. Greenwald suggested we might want to break the fence project into two
separate items to keep the headlights out of the neighbor's house if we can't do
the whole thing.
#5 CITY MANAGER'S REPORT: A. Announced a Alamo Area Council of
Government (AACOG) meeting here Wednesday, February 18th from 9:00 a.m.
until around 11 :30 a.m., in the Conference Room. Judge Sagebiel has asked
ACCOG to hold a series of meetings in the San Antonio suburban area dealing
with the closing of Kelly AFB and some economic effects and providing an
opportunity to have persons who are affected by the closing and some of the
ramifications to come in and discuss some assistance and things that might be
available through AACOG and others. If anyone has names and addresses of
persons you think might be interested in attending, let us know so they might
receive a copy of the agenda.
B. Requested emergency approval to spend $9,904.03 outside of the sealed
bidding process. We have lost Well #1 at the Naco Well field. We've been having
problems and had the well pulled to find the pump has failed. We've taken
telephone bids and the company that we've dealt with most often (who did the
pulling of the well) is the highest of the telephone bids; another company is middle
and the lowest price (Odessa Pump) is $9,904.03 for the complete work less the
pulling work. We think it is an emergency and we need to get that well back into
service. We're not in emergency today; but if we lose anything at Universal City
(U.C.), we could get by with the one well at Naco. If we lose the well at Naco, we
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. have the capability of reversing the flow from U.C. but it is a terrible process.
Employees would have to go on about a 24 hour basis, monitor all the emergency
blow-out valves - it's extremely difficult to reverse the flow in the upper pressure
zone. We'd like to move on this. PMI and Peerless were the other two (2) bidders
and the were both over $12,000.
Mr. Swinney asked if the new pump will be under warranty and Mr. Sweatt said he
didn't even ask but is sure they are standard, having to meet the same pump
curve. We will be taking bids as we have a problem at the U.C. pump #3 but it is
not an emergency and can go through the written bidding process for that. With
council approval, we need to get this taken care of! Mr. Swinney inquired how
long it would take to get the well pumping again and Mr. Sweatt said he thinks they
are talking about a week-and-one-half to two weeks.
Mr. McDonald asked where the money would come from and Mr. Sweatt said he
believes it will end up coming out of Water Contingency very likely.
After discussion, Council authorized city manager Sweatt to accept the bid of
Odessa Pump and proceed with repair to Well #1.
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C. Informed Council there are two (2) rezoning issues that will be coming
before Council (scheduled for public hearing before the Planning & Zoning
Commission (P&Z) on the 10th of March) on March 1th. The request by the
applicant, Mike Lancaster on the 40 acre tract of the Kermit Harborth property has
filed a revised zoning application proposing to rezone a portion of the R-1 property
to R-2. The original application was for R-2 and R-6 (gated community) and that
was what you turned down.
The other rezoning request at the same time is adjacent property; a 77 acre tract
of land (pointed out on the map) currently zoned R-5 and Office and R-4. P & Z
has heard some concern by abutting property owners and has seen the concern
expressed by Oak Forest and other owners, and have, on their own volition,
suggested this be re-examined and see if that should go back to R-1 or R-2 zoning
categories and are calling a public hearing on their own on the issue of rezoning it
to R-1 or R-2 and that will be coming to you likely at the same time as the Harborth
property. The property is owned by the Besch family.
#6 ITEMS BY COUNCIL: Mr. Greenwald: A. Reported that he went to
Canyon Regional Monday night and there was a lot of teeth gnashing. Apparently
some of the chemicals that were not to be used in potable water had been used to
kill hydrilla in Lake McQueeny. The big problem is the sonar and some of the
other chemicals they do not have to have a license for, the GBRA and Texas
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. Parks and Wildlife are encouraging people to go get it and help themselves. They
seem to think there are other ways to control it - they're going to meet with
Edmund (Kuempel) and couple of people from Texas Parks and Wildlife see if they
can't get it changed. Some of the hydrilla growth is coming from the nutrients
coming supplied by the New Braunfels out-fall line; also the septic tanks around
the McQueeny area.
They are plugging along with their water line planning - looking at somewhere
around $30,000,000 bond issue. Mr. Greenwald asked the status of the report
from Crockett Camp, to which Mr. Sweatt stated he was hoping by the next
workshop we'll be prepared for a briefing on the report. The chemical analysis
was done on the other sites and the bottom line was the quality is worse even
though it is a closer well field - by the time it is treated to make it more compatible
with ours your back up to almost the same cost and it is his feeling they are going
to be recommending the earlier site. The city of Seguin is getting much more
interested in talking about a joint project. If we can get one (1) partner, this is just
more possible.
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Mr. Greenwald interjected that CRWA lines specifically excludes Converse, Kirby,
Universal City, Live Oak, Selma and Garden Ridge. Mr. Sweatt said SARA is the
only river authority in the state of Texas that doesn't have any river water to sell,
yet they want to build an empire, brokering water to the excluded cities.
Mr. McDonald: A. Stated he is getting the typical complaints about the speeding
on FM 3009, particularly the trucks to which Mr. Sweatt responded the police
department is getting complaints about their truckers getting tickets. The presence
of patrol officers is more of a control than issuing tickets.
Mr. Aaee: A. Commented he would still like to see the state put some stripes on
certain areas on the continuous left-turn lane. Drivers enter the turn lane long
before they need to. Mr. Sweatt said we asked the state to look at placing more
turtles in there to discourage longer driving in that lane but there is some sort of
uniform traffic control manual policy that says they can only be so many feet from
the intersection.
#7 ITEMS BY MAYOR: None, other than to adjourn the workshop session at
9: 15 p. m. to go into executive session.
#8 EXECUTIVE SESSION: Called under Chapter 551, Texas Government
Code, ~ 551.071 - Pending or Contemplated Litigation.
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