In a regularly scheduled Brownfield City Council Meeting that took place today the main focus of discussion was the water conservation and the drought contingency plans. After the normal items of
The Council heard from Brownfield Water Department Supervisor James Nix about the water conservation and drought contingency plans. Every five years the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TECQ) requires water entities to update their water conservation and drought plans and Brownfield’s is due this month and was presented before the city
Nix began with the importance of how water is to our daily lives. The biggest issue that Nix spoke about was the need for the community to reduce water consumption. Water that is wasted is usually done by open fire hydrants so that the pipes can be maintained properly. Water is also used for the street sweeper.
However, most waste is done from home and businesses. For example when a resident whether it’s at a house or business, allows their water to runoff when watering their yard. That is considered wasted water. Other wasted water comes from leaks at the residence.
In the drought contingency plan if the city begins to have over 114 million gallons a day used, then the city would go into stage one on the drought contingency plan. This will force the community from using water on lawns on certain days and keep them from filling up personal swimming pools. With this plan, it would substantially reduce water usage. Nix was asked how they go about getting the community to know and he mentioned social media plus mail-outs. Also if the city was to implement a stage one water restriction, then the Brownfield Police Dept and Code Enforcement would get involved.
Item #9 on the agenda was for information only about TxDOT adding sidewalks and ADA ramps on both sides of Tahoka Road and also on the north side of Main Street from 1st to 7th Streets. Assistant City Manager Jeff Davis was asked if he knew the time frame of when the work will begin, and he said, “I don’t remember the exact dates, it’s pretty quick, I know it’s suppose to let out pretty quick.” TownTalk reached out to TxDOT for comment, however, TxDOT has not commented back.
Moving to the quarterly reports the Brownfield Fire Cheif was the first to explain his reports. Chief Dennis Rowe mentioned that the fire department from January 1st, 2019 to March 31, 2019 had 32 calls that ran on which all included and logged 5 false calls, 8 vehicle calls, 2 EMS calls, 8 grass fires, 1 trash call, 2 smoke scares, 2 house fires, 1 gas meter issue, 2 car accidents, and 1 cotton/burs fire.
Code Enforcement Officer Ramon Soliz gave the code enforcement reports for January to March 2019. There were a total of 377 inspections, 18 junked vehicles recorded, 62 public nuisances recorded, 85 weeds and grass recorded, 3 views obstructed recorded, 2 substandard structures reported, 1 substandard structure abated recorded, 240 contacts with property owners, 4 door notices, 8 complaints to Municipal Court, and 23 work orders. Of the 823 recorded and reported code enforcement
Brownfield Police Chief Tony Serbantez spoke about the PD’s quarterly reports. There were 3,623 calls for service, 12 assaults, 47 burglaries, 40 thefts, 7 motor vehicle thefts, 101 civil matters/stand by’s, 23 K-9 searches, and 520 Animal Control issues. According to the incident log, there were 169 citations, 170 arrest and charges, 42 city warrants served, 25 county warrants served, and 14 other depts. warrants served. Accidents in the city and with the DPS there were 75.
Chief Serbantez noted that the police department participated in the evacuation drill for all BISD campuses, they assisted with the Shattered Dreams Project and the department assisted the FBI with a child pornography case.
Board
