10-10-1984
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SPECIAL MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL
OCTOBER 10, 1984
The Schertz City Council convened in Special Workshop Session,
Wednesday, October 10, 1984, at 7:00 P.M. in the Conference Room
of the Municipal Complex, 1400 Live Oak Road with the following
members present: Mayor Earl W. Sawyer, presiding; Mayor Pro Tern
Charles B. Sharpe; Hal Baldwin; Ross Hoover; Adolph Aquilar and
Ken Greenwald. Staff present were City Manager Jimmy G. Gilmore
and City Secretary June-G. Krause.
11 HEARING OF RESIDENTS: A. Mrs. Nancy Molinero of 121
Henry Ford asked Council if there was any way to appropriate more
money for the animal control. She stated there are animals
running loose in her neighborhood at night and other times than
the normal eight to five work day. She did not believe they
belong to anyone but are creating quite a nuisance. Mrs.
Molinero suggested obtaining dog traps would be a good idea.
On being questioned by Council, Mr. Gilmore said we could
possibly have patrols at other times of the 24 hour day; however,
first we will have to hire an Animal Control' Off icer. Our
present one turned in his resignation effective October 23rd.
Mrs. Molinero did say that her family has recently moved to
Schertz and she loves the neighborhood, especially her block.
B. Margaret Riley said she is trying to get some of the
residents in Lone Oak Subdivision interested in getting their
entrance sign replaced. She bad ~. sketches and approximate
costs. Although she is getting the subdivision residents to
commit to the costs, she did want Council approval of the
project. Mayor Sawyer said he thought it a good endeavor and
that he would donate toward the replacement sign. Council agreed
it was a worthy project and gave their blessings.
12 Discussion of Board of Adjustment hearing requests.
Mayor Sawyer stated that there are three appeals to be brought
before Council, acting as the Board of Adjustments, at the next
regular meeting.
(1) an appeal of the side yard building setback at 311 Church
Street by Angel Escalante. Mr. 'Escalante has requested
permission to put a carport on his property which would require a
variance to the sideyard setback. He stated that dust from the
adjacent cement plant blows onto his property damaging his car.
Planning and Zoning recommended approval. Council could see no
great problems with granting this request.
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(2) an appeal of the required lot size and side yard setback for
lots 39, 40, Block 25 Aviation Heights by Rick Saenz.
Mr. Gilmore said his first request was to buy the easement and
build a house on it but there were so many utility lines
underground that he changed his mind. He is now asking for a
variance to the lot size requirement for single family dwelling
for lots 39 and 40, block 25. P&Z recommends approval for
placement of one residential dwelling on these two lots with a
side yard of five feet on each side. They also recommend some
type of corrective action be taken about the hazard of vehicles
using the unpaved portion of Lindberg Avenue. Lindberg should be
closed at Aviation since it will never extend any further, and
vacate the right of way equally to adjoining property as a
utility easement. Council could permit the easement to be
fenced; however no structure could be built in this area.
Council concensus was to have Mr. Saenz' request on the next
agenda and instructed Mr. Gilmore to start proceedings to vacate
that portion of Lindberg from Avaition as soon as possible.
(3) an appeal of the restriction of mobile office building in a
General Business District at Northwesterly corner of E. Live Oak
Road and FM 3009 by Henry Gutierrez. Mr. Gutierrez is asking
permission to place a mobile off ice building on his property
r- while he is expanding his operation. Planning and Zoning
recommends approving the temporary office building until August
31, 1985. Council asked that this also be on the next agenda.
#3 Discussion of Specific Use Permit hearing. Guadalupe
Valley Electric Cooperative has asked for the specific use permit
to place a ninety-five foot tall self-supporting microwave tower
adjacent to their office building on Live Oak Road. Mr. Aguilar
said this will allow them to monitor where shortages are located.
Mr. Sawyer said it would be good for the customers but we want to
be sure they have insurance and that it would not cause any
problems.
#4 Discussion of Capital Recovery Fees. Mr. Gilmore said
that Converse had passed a similar ordinance to the one we had at
the first reading and they are now running into problems with
people who had started platting, etc.. Mr. Gilmore said that in
this revised ordinance, he has tried to work out more reasonable
costs plagiarizing from three other cities. We need to allow
certain amounts of time for those that have filed plats. This
will encourage subdividers to build out faster because of the
graduating costs - they pay as they build.
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Mr. Sharpe said this is a well thought out way for new customers
to pay for expansion. Mr. Aguilar said that if we pass this, we
should be able to maintain our water rates.
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There was discussion about maybe hindering building but Mr.
Gilmore said the only people it will keep from building or those 0
that could not build anyway. The appeal process would be to
allow them to break payments down in three or more payments.
Mr. Sharpe said there has been a lot of discussion on growth and
he is for growth; but maybe we do need to slow it down. If they
are going to build, they will just turn up their time table. He
said he did not see this as a primary purpose of slowing growth.
#5 EXECUTIVE SESSION: None was needed.
#6 CITY MANAGER'S REPORT: A. Bids on a utility truck
should be on the next agenda. We mailed out eight requests for
bids and advertised. Only two bids were received and one was
without utility bed. The bid received meets all specifications
and is less than anticipated.
B. Received a letter from Harvey Hardy, Attorney for the City of
Cibolo stating that the Council is of the unanimous opinion that
the amendment to the contract for water between the two cities is
unsatisfactory. The Council wants to continue with the original
contract. Mayor Sawyer stated that in past minutes we can find
where discussions were held concerning the connection at Dobie
School but we cannot find any signed agreement for this
connection.
Council discussed this at length saying that we have given them 0
plenty of chances to discuss the water contract with us to no
avail. Concensus was for the City Manager to send the letter and
contract, plus proposed amendment, to Richard Harris saying that
we need an answer by next Tuesday's meeting, where this will be
discussed in executive session.
C. We have the third phase of our computer system ready for
approval. Tom Yarling has come back and offered us two fairly
good deals. We don't have the cash available yet; however he has
said that he would let us have the equipment on a three months
lease. There was some discussion about whether to purchase a
self contained unit or add memory to the existing unit.
Concensus was to have Mr. Yarling at the next workshop to discuss
our needs.
D. There was another meeting with Green Valley Water District
people in which Mr. Sharpe and I presented what we thought we
could live with. Mr. Sharpe briefed Council on the meeting
saying Green Valley has two wells but also buys water from New
Braunfels and Solms or Spring Valley. Our lifeline is
expansion - we talked about not getting into irreversible things
that we could not get out of in the future. You never really
know how development is going to take place. We discussed their
original intent of serving rural areas where no one else could
serve. We only have about 3 percent of the connections in their 0
entire system in our ETJ. They do not want any overlapping
jurisdictions because if so, they could not get any more loans to
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expand. They indicated that they are thinking of changing from
rural to privately owned company. They want a five-year contract
that we would let them have an area in our ETJ and they would
make improvements. If they move out, we would pay them for any
improvements they made, which could cost us millions of dollars.
They are not set up to serve large development. Our engineer
tells us that their system is overburdened now.
Mr. Gilmore said that our attornies have to prepare for a Hearing
on Merits for November 27th. Our attornies recommend that we
meet with then one or two more times and arrive at a settlement
or say that we can no longer negotiate. The longer we negotiate,
the less time the attornies have to prepare for the hearing. Our
attorney says we could win at the PUC but there would be more
problems if it went to the Federal court. Council concensus was
to maintain our city limits and stay with our ETJ.
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#7 ITEMS BY COUNCIL: Mr. Aguilar asked how we purchase our
police vehicles. Mr. Gilmore said from the State. They let us
know when they will have some available. Each of our officers is
assigned a vehicle, we do not run them 24 hours a day. When they
are no longer usable, they go to auction. The criteria for
change is when it becomes more costly to maintain a vehicle than
to buy a new one.
Mr. Sharpe said that at the last CCMA meeting, Mr. Weaver asked
if the Council would like for him to give a briefing. Council
concensus was to ask Mr. Weaver to the next workshop on October
31st.
Mr. Hoover said the grand opening of the Animal Shelter was a
gr im occas ion. The Humane Society had a good spread but the
shelter looked terrible. He also asked about the disposition of
animal tickets and if Council could get a record of the court
dockets showing disposition of tickets so they would know what
they are talking about.
Mr. Baldwin said he would like to know what the Council is going
to do about the shelter - we should either raise the priority or
close it down. Everything we have done in town is a show place
except the shelter. Mr. Gilmore said he felt the entire
operation of the shelter should be discussed as well as the
facilities. Mr. Sharpe agreed that you cannot separate the
facilities from operations. Council discussed ways of correcting
some of the problems at the shelter, saying we have a golden
opportunity now with both employees quitting - we can start
fresh. After the discussion, Mayor Sawyer got a favorable
concensus to expend the funds to fix the sewer and some type of
ground cover to get out of the mud, don't expand but fix up the
runs now in existence and tear down the ones not usable.
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Mr. Greenwald presented a problem BVYA is having with the light
bills. When they took over the building at 401 Oak Street, they 0
agreed to pay the light bill for the building. It has been
escallating and on examination, found they are paying 'for- the
security lights, restrooms etc. adjacent t-o the building. Mr.
Gilmore recommended changing out the meter loop (isolating the-
building) and calling it even since BVYA owes the City $160 to
$180 overage on the ball park electricty that they have not paid.
Mr. Greenwald said it was brought up at P&Z meeting that
Neighborhood Crime Watch signs have been appearing in several
areas of the city. P&Z was concerned about the number of the
signs and if they have been -approved by the City. After
discussion, Mayor Sawyer said tha~t if they get to be a problem,
Council can act or if the signs are- obstructing traffic or are on
city property that would be different. How are the people to
know there is a Neighborhood Crime Watch if there are no signs
telling you so. Mr. Sawyer said he would like to ask P&Z what
they recommend doing with the Neighborhood Crime Watch- signs.
18 ITEMS BY MAYOR: As reqested previously, Mayor Sawyer
received the following list of proposed names for Live Oak Road:
Schertz Blvd., Buffalo Valley Road, Lupan Road, Cordova Road,
Sebastian Road, Millet Road, Progress Parkway, School Drive,
Valley View Drive, Valley View Lane, Buffalo Valley Drive,
Aguifer Trace, Mayors Road and Schertz Parkway. For FM 3009:
Cut Off Highway, Greenfield Road, Gateway Boulevard, Santa Crus 0
Boulevard, McCellan Boulevard, Jack Hays Boulevard, Green Haven
Drive, Green Belt Road, Cut Off Lane, Progress Parkway, Caverns
Road, Courtland Drive, and Forest Haven Drive. Additional names
for either were: Garden Ridge Road, Tri County Road, The
Boulevard, White Way Boulevard and Schertz Road. A list was to
be sent to each Councilmembe~ for-their consideration.
Mr. Sawyer said he had a discussion with Mr. Ehlers of the
Highway Department last Friday. Regarding Bast Live Oak Road,
they are planning on letting contract in January and starting
work in March. It seems like he did not know what our plans are
for Live Oak Road and suggested several -ways of informing his
office. Mr. Gilmore is preparing a letter t-o him-as to what we
perceive for Schertz to help their future plans as well. Weneed
to push Mr. Ehlers to do something with FM 78. It seems the only
thing we are ever goin9 to be able to do with FM 78 is come up
with the money to do it ourselves.'
We are planning on having a briefing on bonding for' street
improvements at the next workshop. We need to all get together
to decide what bonds you think you could get people t~ vote on.
Mr. Baldwin asked Mayor Sawyer if he thought to talk to Mr.
Ehlers about the possibility of rerouting FM 1518. Mr. Sawyer 0
said they would need 120 feet and if we can get the right of way,
he will talk about rerouting.
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#9 ADJOURNMENT: There being no further discussion, Mayor
Sawyer declared the meeting adjourned at 10:18 p.m.
ATTEST:
Secretary, City of Schertz
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REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL
OCTOBER 16, 1984
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The Schertz City Council convened in Regular Session, Tuesday,
October 16, 1984, at 7: 00 P.M. in the Council Chambers of the
Municipal Complex, 1400 Live Oak Road, Schertz, Texas. The
following members were present: Mayor Earl W. Sawyer, presiding;
Charles B. Sharpe; Hal Baldwin; Ross Hoover; Adolph Aguilar and
Ken Greenwald. Staff present were City Manager Jimmy G. Gilmore
and Deputy City Secretary Alice Austin.
Mayor Sawyer opened the meeting and introduced Mr. Kenny Newman,
candidate for the position of Guadalupe County Tax Assessor/Col-
lector.
JOINT PUBLIC HEARING: Mayor Sawyer explained that the
Joint Public Hearing was being held with the Planning and Zoning
Commission to receive input from the public on a request for a
specific use permit by Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative,
Inc. to place a ninety-five foot tall self-supporting microwave
tower adjacent to their office building in Schertz. Mayor Sawyer
then turned the meeting over to Mr. Thomas Yarling, Vice-Chairman
of the Planning and Zoning Commission.
Mr. Yar ling explained the proceedures under which the hear ing
would be conducted. He then introduced Mr. Steve Slaughter and
Alton Airholtzer of G.V.E.C.
Mr. Airholtzer explained that the tower would be 95 feet tall,
galvanized inside and out similar to the radio tower currently
located beside the Municipal Complex. The tower will be grounded
with a four foot dish mounted at the 40 foot level.
He advised that this tower would augment their current system, by
allowirig them to key in on certain volunteer households during
peek load periods. They will also be able to read meters using
the microwave transmissions. He advised that the licenses from
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