The Brownfield City Council met on Thursday morning, which ended up being a short meeting, plus one of the last meetings for Mayor Tom Hesse. Main topic was quarterly reports from the Brownfield Fire & rescue Chief and Municipal Court Judge. After the the invocation, pledges, public comment (which there were none), and the approval of the previous meeting, the Council moved on to work the agenda.
BFRD Chief James Woolard was the first to give the quarterly reports. Chief Woolard told the Council that early resurfacing has reduced the number of vehicle accidents on US HWY 385 over the quarter. He did say, “We saw a slight increase in grass fires and are continuing active training to better accommodate continuing education and provide basic training to the new volunteers we have taken on during the quarter.”
Chief Woolard also explained that the department remains slightly understaffed through the first quarter. However, the city has allowed BFRD two part-time positions to assist, as needed, until it can fill vacant spots. According to Chief Woolard, they have hired two personnel full-time, one who has already started and one who will begin in May. This will leave BFRD with two spots to fill depending on expected departures in mid- or late May. Chief Woolard also added they carried out eight fire inspections and numerous pre-construction walk-throughs were conducted. Also, two plans reviews were initiated and are in varying states of progress. A mostly successful completion of the West Texas Regional Fire Control School February 23 – 25, 2024 proceeded and was better than expected with a turn-out of 89 students.
Chief Woolard was asked about BFRD’s volunteer side. He said, “We have four active volunteers and 15 volunteer spots filled after two resignations and 2 new personnel. However, Meadow FD and Wellman FD’s assistance has been extremely appreciated, as always.”
According to Chief Woolard, there were 42 callouts, 23 in the city and 19 in the county, between January 1, 2024, through March 31, 2024. 12 vehicle accidents, four smoke alarms, one structure fire, seven grass fires, 12 EMS support, one gas leak, one alarm, two vehicle fires, one trash fire, and one CO2 call-out. Chief Woolard was asked about the new fire/rescue truck. He said, “We are expecting the new E-ONE VM8 Rescue Pumper to be delivered this month, with no exact date given. Last I heard, the company was waiting for a hose reel to be added to the truck. So hopefully very soon.”
The Council moved on to hear and consider the Brownfield Municipal Court’s first quarter reports. Judge David Cox told the Council that things were running smoothly. Judge Cox went on to show from January 1, 2024, through March 31, 2024, that there were 289 new cases filed. There were 182 dispositions (subjects pleading guilty or no contest), 56 warrants issued, 47 capias pro-fines issued, 54 magistrate warnings, 11 juveniles handled, one mental health hearing, and 61 jail credit cases. Also, according to Judge Cox, total revenue for the first quarter reached $36,938, where the city will receive $23,033.00 and the state will receive $13,905.00.
Next, the Water/Waste Water Supervisor, James Nix, gave an update on the “south elevated storage tank”, also known as the south water tower off of Texas HWY 137. According to City Manager Jeff Davis, the City had received some calls about water hitting people’s windshields when driving by the south water tower. This led Nix to investigate the issue and found a crack in the tower stem to the tank. Nix stated, “A crack was detected on the south water tower… that is the water tower we had repaired two years ago and recoated. We had engineers climb the tower yesterday (Wednesday, May 1, 2024) from Parkhill. They had their pictures taken, and they haven’t finished finalizing that and given it back to me, but he believes the coating has failed and will be presenting an option or quote from their preferred tank repair company as well as a plan going forward to possibly re-coat the inside and outside of the tank”.
The Council took up item #6, which was to discuss and consider an interlocal agreement between the City of Brownfield and Terry County for the maintenance and management of parks within the City of Brownfield. According to Davis, when the City took over the park owned by the County, some property at Gillham Park and Coleman Park had been deeded to the City. A few months ago, Brownfield was awarded a $750K grant for the renovation of Gillham Park, and one of the stipulations to receive the grant is complete ownership of the property being renovated. The agreement that was approved by the Council will now go to the Terry County Commissioners Court to be approved.
The Council went into executive session and no action was taken. The meeting is slated for Monday, May 13, 2024 at 12-noon to canvass the votes for Mayor, Districts 2 & 3 City Council. It will be held at the City Hall.
