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HomeMy WebLinkAbout01/24/1972 - Regular Minutes City CouncilMEMBERS PRESENT: MEMBERS ABSENT: VISITORS PRESENT: MINUTES CITY COUNCIL MEETING January 24, 1972 7:00 P.M. Mayor J. B. Hervey; Councilmen Fred Brison, Homer Adams, Don Dale, Dr. J. D. Lindsay, Dr. R. D Radeleff, and C. A. Bonnen; City Manager Ran Boswell; City Planner George Eby; and Administrative Secretary Nancy Reeves None See Guest Register The meeting was called to order by Mayor J. B. Hervey at 7:00 P.M. On motion by Councilman C. A. Bonnen, seconded by Councilman J. D. Lindsay, the minutes of the December 17, 1971 meeting were unanimously approved. Mr. Phillip Noe, of 1501 Gunsmith, presented a petition to the Council for the purchase of parkland along the A. Holick Tract south of Holleman Drive. The Petition is as follows: *********************************************************************************** PETITION TO THE COLI,F. GE STATION CITY COUNCIL "We, the undersigned property owners and/or registered voters of the City of College Station, Brazos County, Texas, do hereby petition the City Council of said municipality to purchase parkland in that part of the A. Holick tract indicated by the crosshatched area on the attached map. A coarse description of this property is the eastern quarter of the A. Holick tract bounded by the proposed extension of Haines Drive on the northwest and Dexter Drive on the southwest (reference attached map and Joe Orr Engineering Survey). We further petition the City of College Station to use the above described property to construct and adequately maintain a neighborhood park containing childrens' playground equipment, a shallow concrete wading pool, a stocked pond, picnic tables, trees and shrubbery. One or more open areas should also be regularly maintained for sandlot softball and football activities." *********************************************************************************** Mr. Noe stated that he had performed a survey of property owners in this area and only ten had refused to sign this petition. Mr. Noe also stated that the money for this project could be obtained by an addition to the bond issue for the new swimming pool. Councilman Dale asked Mr. Noe if he had contacted the owners of this land and he replied that he had not contacted the actual owners, but had consulted with Mr. Bill Fitch, of Area Progress Corporation, who has the land for development and Mr. Fitch was in support of the project and had planned to dedicate two to three acres out of the southern area of this tract for a park. Minutes City Council Meeting January 24, 1972 7:00 P.M. Page 2 Mayor Hervey requested that City Manager Ran Boswell present this petition to the Parks and Recreation Committee for their study and consideration and ask them to bring their findings and recommendations back to the Council. Mr. Bruce Clay, a student from Texas A&M University, presented two resolutions for the Council's review and action. Mr. Clay stated that both resolutions were passed unanimously by the Student Senate Executive Committee and will be presented to the entire Student Senate Body later this week for their consideration. One of the resolutions is as follows: *********************************************************************************** RESOLUTION WHEREAS, Texas A&M students now have the right to vote in College Station e le ctions, and WHEREAS, Texas A&M students have shown an increased concern in community activities, and WHEREAS, Members of the City Council may not be aware of the problems of students in College Station, and WHEREAS, Students may not understand the functioning of City Council, and WHEREAS, City Council may not understand the functioning of the Student Senate, therefore BE 1T RESOLVED, That the City Council of College Station and the Executive Committee of the Texas A&M Student Senate meet in conference to exchange ideas and discuss problems in an effort to establish and increase communications between the students of Texas A&M and the community of College Station. ************************************************************************************ On motion by Councilman Brison, seconded by Councilman Dale, the Council unanimously approved the above resolution with the condition that the Student Senate Body concurs also. The second resolution is as follows: ************************************************************************************* RESOLUTION WHEREAS, College Station Spring General Elections are to be held on April 4, 1972, and WHEREAS, Texas A&M students will bern Spring Break from March 29, 1972 through April 5, 1972, and Minutes City Council Meeting January 24, 1972 7.00 P.M. Page 3 WHEREAS, Over 2,000 Texas A&M students have registered to vote in College Station elections and this is a large portion of the voting public, and WHE~AS, The City Charter of College Station states that the election must be held on the first Tuesday of April (this year on April 4, 1972) thereby making a change of election date nearly impossible, and WHEREAS, The purpose of an election is to collect as many votes as possible in the most facilitated manner, therefore BE 1T RESOLVED, That an absentee poll for absentee voting for the Spring General Election for April 4, 1972 be placed on the Texas A&M University campus to enable student voters to cast their ballots. ************************************************************************************* Mayor Hervey informed Mr. Clay that the Council would consider this'situation and let him know their decision, but that it was questionable whether or not this would be legal Also it was pointed out that it might be giving preferential treatment to students by placing an absentee voting place on the campus and not in various other parts of the City. On motion by Councilman Radeleff, seconded by Councilman Bonnen, Ordinance No. 800, an ordinance rezoning a 13.2 acre tract of land located in the Crawford Burnett League from District No. 1, First Dwelling House District to District No. 4, First Business District, was unanimously passed and approved. On motion by Councilman Brison, seconded by Councilman Bonnen, Ordinance No. 801, an ordinance calling for a public hearing on the question of annexing a 12.17 acre tract of land located along Old Highway 6 and west of the Old City Hall, was unanimously passed and approved. When the City was incorporated in 1938, the boundaries of the city limits at that time were along the west side of the Boyett Addition and did not include Old Highway 6 and a part of the grade separation on University Drive. The City would like to annex this property in order to have control of traffic and maintenance of the old highway. A petition in favor of this was presented to the City Manager prior to the meeting by the Traffic and Safety Committee. On motion by Councilman Dale, seconded by Councilman Radeleff, the Council unanimously approved the building of a nursing home and a senior citizen's home on a 18.446 acre tract of land out of the Dobrovolny property and located along Holleman Drive. Consulting Engineer, Bill Wischmeyer, was present and presented a progress report stating that the design of the waste water treatment plant was approximately 90~c complete. The Council commended Mr. Wischmeyer on the excellent job he had done on this project. Mr. Wischmeyer stated that the plans for this project would be in the City Manager's office if anyone would like to look at them. o. a$o Minutes City Council Meeting January 24, 1972 7:00 P.M. Page 4 Mr. Wischmeyer recommended that the Council accept the bid of $25736.00 from S&H Plumbing Company of Bryan and the bid of $3730.00 from Asa Hunt, Inc., of Dallas, for a pump and other improvements at the water pump station. On motion by Councilman Dale, seconded by Councilman Brison, the Council unanimously accepted Mr. Wischmeyer's recommendations and authorized the awarding of the bids as such. On motion by Councilman Dale, seconded by Councilman Lindsay, the Council authorized the negotiation for the purchase of a 4.90 acre tract of land north of the present waste water plant property to be used for the new waste water plant. Mr. Tom Chaney, Chairman of the City Beautification Committee, presented a report to the Council, bringing them up-to-date on the plans of his committee. Mr. Chaney's report is as follows. Beautification Committee Report - 1971 I. Spring Clean-Up Campaign The spring clean-up campaign is scheduled for Saturday, March 25, 1972, starting at 8:00 a.m. and lasting until 5:00 p.m. the same day. A press conference is scheduled for 2-00 p.m. March 9th at the City Hall to release information to the press and seek their support to give adequate coverage. The City will be divided into areas, with an area chairman for each to supervise pick-up and handle any problems. The pick-up will be manned by volunteer help as well as City equipment and donated equipment. Headquarters will be the City Hall with coffee, donuts and soft drinks available for workers. A $100 budget is requested for the following- (1) Bumper sticker publicity - $50; (2) Signs to landfill area - $15; (3) Refreshments - $35. After completion of clean-up a summary of results will be issued to the press and letters of appreciation sent to volunteer agencies and area chairmen. II. City Landscaping (A) City Hall and Fire Station - The City has allocated the sum of $3000.00 from the contingency fund for 1972 for this project. Prices are being received and the plants for City Hall will cost in the range of $2700.00. The City will plant and make soil preparation. It has been recommended that the existing soil be removed to a depth of 9" and replaced with topsoil with peat moss filled in at the rate of I bale per 100 square feet. This planting is to be completed in the month of February. (B) Intersection of Texas Avenue and Walton Drive -The water line to the two triangles is complete and Mr. Bob Rucker of Texas A&M is in the process of re-designing Minutes City Council Meeting January 24, 1972 7.00 P.M. Page 5 the A&M side and has volunteered to design the College Station side also. These plans should be complete shortly. The A&M Garden Club is to landscape the triangles and plan to plant two large cedar trees for use at Christmas. III. Garbage Disposal A. Garbage Bag System The Beautification Committee discussion on the use of garbage bas has been as follows: (1) Select a street in College Station or which the citizens volunteer to try the use of bags for one month and then express their experiences, both pro and con. If the results are favorable, then extend on a volunteer basis to the entire city. (2) Bags could be bought by the City and either sold to the citizens or issued (specified number per month, quarter, etc.. ) and paid for out of garbage collection fees. (3) If issued on specified number basis, then additional bags could be purchased at City Hall, thus heavy users would help offset costs which they cause. (4) Paper bags were recommended because they will decompose in the landfill area. I am sure that the use of polythylene bags would be satisfactory if a spray-on-solution were available to facilitate decomposition of the plastic. (5) The bag system would best work if placed at the curb for more rapid pick-up. If labor time and costs were reduced it might be possible to supply the bags without increasing the garbage pick-up fees. (6) It is hoped that the bag system would be used to classify garbage thus: i bag containirg newspaper and recyclable paper (bags, etc.. ) i bag bottle s I bag cans i bag wet garbage. This item #6 gets quite complicated and is part of possible long range planning involving several areas of public works and citizen participation. Item #7 will try to explain. (7) Gargabe Disposals It might be possible that the City purchase in volume (on a pre-order basis) enough garbage disposals to put one in each home in the City. (A citizen might pay this out over a 4-6 month period with his utility bill). The reason is that all wet garbage would be transported through the sanitary sewer systems and reclaimed at the treatment plant and treated for re-sale as liquid fertilizer or heat-dried fertilizer. With wet garbage eliminated, the garbage pick-up could go to a mini-train system with the bags of paper in one trailer, bags of bottles in another and cans in the third. All could be re-cycled and vertually eliminate a landfill area. This is all long range planning but should be considered due to the problem of locating future landfill areas and also the problem of waiting long periods of time before building on former landfill areas, due to methane gas presence. (8) Brush Pick-up It might be feasible to purchase a hydraulic chain to be attached between the cab and bed of trash trucks in order to reduce manpower requirements and time of loading and disposing of brush and limbs. Minutes City Council Meeting January 24, 1972 7:00 P.M. Page 6 IV. Newcomers' Letter of Welcome The Beautification Committee would like the Newcomer's Letter to contain paragraphs on the following: (a) One to the effect that trash and brush will be removed by calling the City Hall at a charge of $1.00 per 12 cubic yard load, (b) One to the effect that newspapers are re-cycled if bundled and delivered to the city warehouses and its, address, (c) One to the effect that dogs must be chained or kept in a fenced area at all times. -- V. Non-Returnable Bottles The Beautification Committee recommends that the ordinance banning the sale of items in non-returnable bottles in the City not be adopted. The committee does ask that the Police Department be urged to actively pursue the arrest and prosecution of all in violation of these litter ordinances. VI. City Warehouse Fence: The Beautification Committee requests the City to install additional screening down the back fence of the city warehouses to screen the material storage yard. *********************************************************************************** The Council thanked Mr. Chaney and commended him for his report. Councilman Lindsay, Chairman of the Committee on the Use of Garbage Bags, stated that he had contacted various service organizations regarding this project and stated that they had been interested. Councilman Lindsay then asked Mr. Holland Winder, President of the Bryan-College Station Optimist Club to speak on behalf of this organization. Mr. Winder spoke to the Council in reference to this service club handling the sale of plastic garbage bags to the citizens. He stated that the Optimist Club would like to handle this project exclusively rather than in conjunction with other organizations. Mayor Hervey requested that Councilman Lindsay and Tom Chaney work with Mr. Winder on this project. City Manager Ran Boswell informed the Council that the College Station Kiwanis Club had donated four etching pencils for citizens to use to engrave an identification number onto any items which might be stolen. These pencils are available at the police station to be checked out by the citizens. Mayor Hervey recommended to the Council that Mr. Paul Pate, a local architect, be appointed to the Planning and Zoning Commission to fill the unsxpired term of Mr. Robert Evans, whose term expires April, 1972. On motion by Councilman Dale, seconded by Councilman Lindsay, the Council unanimously accepted Mayor Hervey's recommendation and appointed Mr. Pate to this position. City Council Meeting Minutes January 24, 1972 Page 2 Mayor Hervey appointed a Charter Revisions Committe consisting of: O. M. Holt, Chairman John Denison James Dozier John B. Longley Dorsey McCrory Joe Sawyer Robert White. Mayor Hervey then informed the Council and the public that the Bryan Library would sponsor a program by the A&M Singing Cadets at the Bryan Civic Auditorium on February 11, 1972 at 7.30 P.M. All citizens are attended to attend this program at no charge. On motion by Councilman Dale, seconded by Councilman Bonnen, the meeting was adjourned subject to call. APPROVED: ATTEST: Assistant City Secretary