He started the City Council meeting by giving the councilmen a three-inch high notebook of the Municipal Code to read over the holidays in preparation for the next scheduled meeting on Jan. 27. However, he was not as hard on his fellow city officials as he was on Thomas Aguillion, the Time Warner representative.
Without preamble, Ramirez looked at Aguillion and said, “The citizens of George West have made it clear there is a problem with their HD channels and other transmission problems. The problems have been going on for a while.”
Becky Allen, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce, took the cue and said, “The cable service that you offer is limited; we don’t get HD. The local networks are even worse now that the networks are digital. The channels are off more times than they are on. It is a shame that is not up to par with others in nearby communities.”
Ramirez stepped in again and referenced the contract the city has with Time Warner. “First of all, we need to find out how the citizens can contact you.” City Councilman Jim McGee concurred, “Yes, can you give us a [telephone] number? The number we have is from El Paso and they don’t know anything.”
Aguillion said, “I can give you an 800 number, but, your system is a ‘stand alone’; it’s a bandwidth issue. We would love to give you HD but it is not feasible as there are few subscribers here. However we have talked to engineers and improvements are going to be made. We acknowledge there is an issue, but we are not in violation of our franchise agreement.
“Well, we would have a higher subscriber rate if the basic channels worked,” Allen said. “The repair service doesn’t show outages in the area and tells us it must be a local channel problem. You are passing the buck back and forth,” Allen continued.
Aguillion retorted, “We will address the issue; there is a long-term plan in place.” Ramirez summed up by letting Aguillion know he would be sending Time Warner an official letter outlining the problems the citizens are having with their cable service.
The council further gave Ramirez the authority to come up with an annexation plan to help the City of George West grow. “Basically, for any city to grow it has to go through annexation. I propose to adopt by city state code home rule. If we haven’t incorporated in three years we can increase by 30% rather than 10%. I am developing a plan to grow, where we plan to move, where we are going to annex. In exchange, incorporated areas will have more fire protection, police protection and utilities. However, the State of Texas requires I get permission from the council first and that is what I am asking,” said Ramirez.
Councilman Jim McGee said, “It sounds good to me. We want to grow our tax base and with proposed I-69 we need that. All I ask is that we give the city manager a time limit. I want to know what is the best approach to talk to landowners and let them know what they will acquire by doing this.”
Allen said the Planning and Zoning Committee met earlier on Dec. 21 to discuss a demolished home. Allen said they were advised by Chris Carter, the code enforcement officer, that a proposed HUD manufactured home will not pass code because it cannot meet the setback requirements. In other planing and zoning news, Ann Hinton retired; another will be appointed in her place.
Ordinance No. 72 was repealed and the first reading of Ordinance No. 72-A was approved, entitled as Property, Environmental and Safety Ordinance. The original ordinance (No. 72) was adopted in 1967 and was limited as to what it can and cannot do. “It doesn’t have ‘any teeth’ to it,” said Ramirez. “The new ordinance gives an officer more power to enforce new codes.”
The agenda item to consider and take action to authorize the city staff to solicit for the city’s depository from Jan. 1, 2010, through Dec. 31, 2013, requires a special meeting (set for Dec. 30) to award the contract, said City Secretary Jacquelyn Harborth. The contract for the collection of delinquent municipal court fines and fees and delinquent utility charges with McCreary, Veselka, Bragg & Allen law firm was approved as well as allowing Ramirez to sign the contract.
Consent was granted to the city manager to enter into a grant with USDA in order to promote growth. “The USDA grant will help with work on the infrastructure of George West. There is newer technology that doesn’t require breaking the street,” said Ramirez.
Mayor Steele asked, “Can the project remove buildings?” Ramirez answered, “Right now we want to concentrate on using funds to strengthen the city and bring it up to date.”
Allen gave the Chamber of Commerce report. She began by saying, “Right now there is not a lot to report. I want to thank you for the help with ‘Christmas with the Chamber’. The weather was not the best that evening so Santa moved into the Buck West House. We ended up with extra candy canes so we gave them to the Boys and Girls Club. We got new banners and they are bright and cheery. The hunting contest is going well; there are lots of hunters in town and they will be here for the next two weeks. I also want to add our office will be closed on Tuesday, Dec. 22, and open Jan 4.”
City officials voted to purchase RC250 from Valero Materials for $2,387.79. RC250 is a petroleum product to patch streets, McGee explained.
Councilmen voted to change their fiscal year to coincide with that of the State of Texas (Oct. 1-Sept 30). “As there will be an overlap in the year, we have scheduled an audit for the later part of January. Then the software firm will come in and reset all the calendars for new fiscal year. We will keep you updated and please rest assured we are keeping within the budget you already adopted,” Ramirez said.
Asked if he had anything else he wanted to relate to the citizens of George West, Ramirez said, “Please let everyone know that the construction on U.S. 59 will be going on for the next two years.”
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