Four of the seven Bee Development Authority board members reluctantly voted to turn down a request for $20,000 to go toward the administrative costs of the Beeville Main Street Program when they met Monday evening.

DBA Executive Director Joe B. Montez said the authority had helped to fund the program for the last three years. But he reminded board members that the BDA’s financial situation has been precarious in the last year because the return on the authority’s investments has severely declined.

Interests on those investments pay the bulk of the BDA’s operating costs.

The decision came after considerable discussion among the board members present. That discussion followed a presentation by new Main Street Manager Michelle Wright.

She outlined some of what the program had accomplished in the years before she took the job and gave board members an overview of what she hopes to accomplish in the future.

Wright reminded the board that with fall coming, she would be making preparations for events to coincide with the upcoming Go-Texan Bee County Western Week Celebration and the Christmas shopping season.

The manager said the administration budget for the coming year will be only $61,988. She was hoping to get $20,000 from the BDA, $20,000 from the Tax Increment Finance District, $20,000 in 4B sales tax funds from the City of Beeville and the rest of the budget could also come from city funds.

The Main Street Program operates as a part of the city and its manager is considered a city employee.

Montez defended the program. “I think that Michelle can do a really outstanding job with downtown,” he said.

Montez told the board that the program had recently been awarded a $150,000 grant from the state and that $10,000 of that could be used to pay for administration.

“I think this can be done in house,” Montez told the board. He reminded board members that Wright has grant administration experience and he assured them that between the two of them they could direct the spending of grant funds.

“I would like to see the program continue,” Montez said.

But the director also stressed the problems with the interest rates the BDA has been receiving on its bonds and other investments.

‘We’re going to be short this year because interest rates have fallen from 3-2 percent to 1 percent,” he said.

“I don’t see that within the next year or two that it’s going to get any better.”

Montez said the TIF board will meet next week and he hopes that board will be able to provide $20,000. He said he, personally, will encourage the funding of the Main Street Program.BDA Board President Laura Fischer expressed her concern over the BDA’s financial situation, saying that if it cannot provide the funds the program is requesting, she would at least like to see some of the board members provide some volunteer work.

BDA board member Elias Chapa, who also is a member of the Main Street Advisory Board, said he would not be voting on the request because of that connection. But he did speak for the program and said that Wright had gotten many more downtown business people involved in the program since she started three weeks ago.

New board member J.R. Castillo, who recently was appointed to the BDA board by Bee County, asked if it would be possible to provide as much as $10,000 to the program.

Montez said that was possible and he said the City of Beeville would have to pick up the cost of funding anything that is not funded by other entities.

Finally, board member John Galloway, attending his first meeting since being appointed by Coastal Bend College, made a motion that the BDA not provide the $20,000 this year. That was seconded by Fischer.

Coastal Bend College President John Baynum said, “It seems criminal to bring in a new director and then pull the rug out.”

At that point the board took a vote with Fischer, Galloway, Baynum and Board Treasurer Luis Alaniz voting in favor of the motion. Chapa, Castillo and board member John Brockman all abstained.

“I understand,” Wright said in response to the action. She said that she hoped to be able to find other funding sources. She told the board that she intended to seek grant funds in the near future.

In other business, the board voted to:

— Ask the BDA staff to prepare a memorandum the board could pass granting the Texas Department of Public Safety to use a portion of the Chase Field Industrial and Airport Complex as a staging area in the event of a future emergency situation, like a hurricane.

— Authorize the city to enter into an agreement with Bee County for the temporary use of a front-end loader to remove brush from areas near the main runway at the facility.

— Change the authority’s bylaws changing the board’s meeting dates to the second Thursday of each month.