ccswks 11-15-1989
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SPECIAL MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL
NOVEMBER 15, 1989
The Schertz City Council convened in Special Workshop Session,
Wednesday, November 15, 1989, at 7:00 p.m. in the Conference Room
of the Municipal Complex, 1400 Schertz Parkway, Schertz, Texas.
The following members were present: Mayor Earl W. Sawyer,
presiding i Hal Baldwin; Barbara Stanhope; Mary Marsh and Ken
Greenwald. Absent: Ear I Hartzog. Staff present were City
Manager Kerry Sweatt and City Secretary June Krause.
# 1 HEARING OF RESIDENTS: Mr. Shr i ver advised that the
people nominated to the Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors
were elected and that he was elected treasurer.
#2 Discussion of the final consideration of an ordinance
approving a Boundary Adjustment Agreement between the city of
Schertz and the City of San Antonio.
Mr. Sweatt advised that when Schertz originally annexed
Schirmerville area, it was thought that what is now Scenic
Drive was disannexed by the City of San Antonio, but it was
Now they have agreed to disannex so we can annex this road.
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Mr. Baldwin asked if it had been mentioned to San Antonio about
us wanting to annex the area East of FM 1518.
Mr. Sweatt said that when the time is right, we feel we should
solicit the support of the property owners in that area.
13 Discussion of Landscape Committee recommendation
regarding signs.
Mr. Sweatt explained the Landscape Committee is continuing to
receive donations, in fact, Wal-Mart just made a donation of
trees and plants worth approximatelY $900.
The Committee is now recommending, for immediate attention of
Council, that the sign in front of the Municipal Complex be
relocated. It is suggested it be placed in front of the large
Christmas Tree and perpendicular to the street and be repainted,
using the City logo as part of the design. This would be at an
estimated cost of $590. We believe this would not only enhance
the appearance but people corning from either direction could read
the sign. There is money in the budget accounts to cover this.
Mr. Greenwald asked if it would be accomplished by the December
7th Tree Lighting and was told they hoped to have it done by
then.
Council discussed the colors best suited for readability and
Council agreed to go with yellow background with blue letters.
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Mr. Sweatt said that in connection with the discussion of signs,
the. Committee al so recommended that the Council consider
acquiring a bulletin board type sign. One could be acquired for
$3900 complete with 100 letters and changing device. They
suggested it be placed at FM 78 and FM 3009 or Schertz Parkway
and FM 78. Mr. Sweatt said that, realizing there is not money
in our current budget for this, staff bel ieves there could be
available private support for this - either by selling lines on
the board or sponsorship. Council agreed to have staff proceed
and see if they could gain the financial support for one of these
signs.
14 Discussion of Christmas Committee activities.
Mr. Sweatt said this Committee is really going great. Council
put money in the budget for this and the Committee has already
purchased garlands and lights for this buildingi 30x60" banners
for Schertz Parkway; and Mr. Neller is making decorations for the
flag brackets on Main Street. Mr. Joe Potempa is working on
large boxes decorated as Christmas packages for under our tree.
They have also planned a large Christmas Card to be signed by
Council, Boards, Committees and staff. The committee plans to add
to the decorations each year.
Another project is their home lighting and decorating contest.
The judging to take place on December 16th with people encouraged
to have decorations up by December 7th if possible.
Mr. Simonson added that a lot of people have offered donations of
time and money to these projects. He said they believe in the
community and when people see what is being done, they are going
to corne forward and help even more. Jim Shriver has an article
going into the papers and there will be an article in the
newsletter.
Mr. Greenwald said one of the things Council needs to look at is
asking citizens to round off their water billing to help pay for
some of this. Mr. Sweatt said they felt it would be more
appropriate to ask this after we show what we can do.
15 Report on Texas Department of Hiqhways and Public
Transportation right-of-way requirements for FM 3009.
Mr. Sweatt related that the previous week staff met with
representatives of the Highway Department. We have received the
right-of-way maps that describe 16 parcels of land to be acquired
for traffic safety and for drainage improvements. The basic
street right-of-way is in place. He said because it is a
State/City project, the State pays the full cost of improvements
for the five-lane thoroughfare curbed and guttered, including
drainage structures, and the City will fund the right-of-way and
take care of util i ty adjustments. The util i ty adjustments are
minimal. We are required to acquire the right-of-way under the
Uniform Property Acquisition Act. After an initial contact of
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request of donation, there is a very formal process in which we
are required to secure an appraisal and make sure the property
owner is aware that they are entitled to full market value for
the property. We are developing the costs of what these rights-
of-way will be; but it does not appear at this stage that we have
all the funds available to purchase all of the right-of-way I
assuming we are not offered donations. Mr. Torn Dovey will be our
initial right-of-way contact person. With Council approval, our
next step will be to write letters to theses 16 parcel owners
soliciting donations. The Highway Department will furnish their
engineering staff to meet with us and the owners to make sure
that the property is properlY identified. If we do not receive
the bulk of the property in donations, we will have to look for
funding sources - bonds, Certificates of Obligation, defer part
of the project until next fiscal year, etc.. We have funding for
the cost of doing the appraisals. What we want to try to convey
to the property owners is that the quicker this takes place, the
quicker the project will get under way and the quicker we will
get the road. We would be looking at a two-year construction
time once we acquire the property, which will probably not be
before mid 1991.
'6 Discussion of City votes regarding Guadalupe County
Appraisal District Board of Directors.
Mayor Sawyer reminded Council that the City has 166 votes and
that will not do much toward electing someone to the board. He
said he was pretty sure the School Board will put Mr. Sharpe on
the Board and the County will put Mr. Little on. He related that
Mr. Brehm had assured him their extra votes will go to Mildred
Powers. He said Selma has cast their votes for Mr. Sharpe so he
does not need any more votes. Mayor Sawyer suggested our votes go
to Mildred Powers also.
#7 CITY MANAGER'S REPORT:
A. Announced the Chamber of Commerce Mixer on November 21st,
which is our regular meeting night. It will be from 5 to 7 p.m
at the Schertz Branch Bank in Kirby.
B. If Council has no objection, he will place on the next agenda
Bexar County 9-1-1 Metro District budget. He said for the first
time we are being asked to vote on their budget. We have
reviewed the budget and find no problems with it.
C. Planning & Zoning is planning and recommending to Council
that we begin one of our first concurrent zoning hearings with
the tracts of land that are involved in our proposed annexations.
We believe this will be an expedient way of handling the zoning
on these tracts.
D. On November 17th, Council is invited to go with staff to the
Commissioner's Court and support a planned request by the
Juvenile Probation office and the County Tax Assessor/Collectors
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office to locate a sub-office in Schertz. They have found a site
and plan to open the office the first of the year, if approved.
We believe this would be a good service to our community to have
both of those functions manned by County employees on a full-time
basis here in our city.
E. For Council information, we have begun a project that is in
the budget, by authorizing Ford Engineering to begin plans and
specifications for painting the Nacogdoches and Deer Haven water
storage facilities. We expect the plans will be completed in
late December so that we can solicit bids early in the year.
F. Mark your calendars - December 15th, a Friday night, is the
City's Employee Awards Dinner. Happy hour will commence at 6:30
p.m. - this will be the second annual dinner.
#8 ITEMS BY COUNCIL: Mrs. Marsh: A. With the heavy
Christmas schedule, are we having meetings between Christmas and
New Year? Mayor Sawyer suggested leaving that to the discretion
of the City Manager.
B. Suggested that the speed limits on both Schertz Parkway and
East Live Oak Road should be compatible. She would like to see
if East Live Oak could be 40 miles per hours except at the
intersections. Mayor Sawyer asked that staff have the police
look into this and give Council their recommendations.
C. A matter of interest and participation by the community -
everyone Mrs. Marsh has talked with had rather the Library/
Humane Society function in February be at the VFW rather than the
Community Center. She said she was interested in having someone
approach the Library Board to see if they would be willing to
change to the VFW on a Sunday afternoon.
Mrs. Tereletsky said that seven years ago when it was first set
up, the Library Board was to take care of the place, food,
decorations and the band and the Humane Society would take care
of sol ici ting donations and running the auction. She said she
thought having it at the VFW would be better and that she would
talk with the Library Board about this.
D. Is there any possibility of getting all the businesses that
put up large signs to put the City logo on them? Mr. Sweatt said
staff is talking with a company that owns a billboard sign on the
Interstate to see if they will let us use it to advertise the
City of Schertz.
E. Has any thought been given to a city float. Mr. Sweatt said
he has assigned a staff member to head this up and have asked the
Business Club to join in on this. Our big problem now is where
to store a float, we do not have a storage area now.
Mrs. Stanhope: A. Reminder of the Humane Society Arts and Craft
show, Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Pat's Unique
Collections on FM 78.
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B. The Humane Society members have been presenting programs at
the Library about how to take care of pets.
C. Has any additional thought been given to sponsoring the
Senior Citizen thing next year? We need to decide if we are
going to be part of this by furnishing judges and three prizes.
Mrs. stanhope suggested setting up, by resolution, that the
council liaison to the Housing Authority be responsible for
this.
MR. HARTZOG ARRIVED AT 8:30 P.M.
Mr. Baldwin: A. Asked about the mobile home recentlY moved onto
the Cathol ic Church property. Mrs. Stanhope said she had this
all checked out and it is all legal, zoning and everything.
B. Mr. Baldwin mentioned that there are some major cracks
developing in the pavement on Schertz Parkway as you go up the
hill.
Mr. Greenwald: planning & Zoning had first meeting with the
Impact Fee consultants and it was very interesting. Mr.
Anderson, our ETJ representative, was present.
#9 ITEMS BY MAYOR: A. One of the things discussed at the
TML workshop was priorities and the top priority was ordinances
on drug use and drug testing. storage is another item, if we
could buy that old Coach Building, we would have more storage
than we will need.
B. Mentioned the letter given Council by Jim Shriver concerning
building permits and bonding. Mayor Sawyer said this does seem
to be something that needs to be looked at. After some
discussion by Council, Mr. Sweatt explained the difference in
the performance and surety bonds, saying he would have an article
in the next newsletter on this.
Mr. Sweatt announced the next meeting of the committee on the
combined tax collection would be December 6.
# 10 ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business, the
meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m. by Mayor Sawyer.
ATTEST: