City abandons old plan, explores new project

A 30-block seal coat plan by the City of Clarendon has been put on indefinite hold following last Tuesday’s Board of Aldermen meeting, in which city officials discussed exploring a larger, more extensive paving project.

Aldermen voted unanimously to accept Gene Barber’s final engineering report for the seal coat plan and to explore other options for paving.

Seal coating existing streets was originally referred to as Phase I of a future paving project, but board consultant Colby Waters said the expense of engineering Phase I wasn’t wasted.

“After viewing Phase I, we realized that it was not going to help us,” Waters said. “We could have spent $500,000 on seal coating and not really been any better off. It showed us that we need a more comprehensive plan.”

Alderman Janice Knorpp said the consensus of the board is to definitely get something done about the streets but to do it right.

“We are going to do this properly,” Knorpp said. “We want to look at curb and gutter and hot mix. We need curb and gutter to control the water flow and to help maintain the streets.”

The new plan is still in the early stages as the city explores what it would take to pave and curb streets throughout Clarendon and how such a project might be financed.

In other city business last week, the aldermen discussed the possibility of hiring a city administrator.

“We’re just running in circles,” Knorpp said, referring to the city’s goals and projects. “We need to do this [hire an administrator].”

Alderman Michael Tibbets raised concerns regarding how to pay for an administrator and expressed his desire to maintain the city’s reserve funds. Currently the city has enough money in reserve to operate for three months with no income.

“I would be against going below three months,” Tibbets said. “In fact, I’m not sure three months is enough, but we should never go below that level.”

Alderman Mark White answered Tibbets with a question: “So we never better ourselves?”

Mayor Tex Selvidge pointed out that the city had actually budgeted for a city administrator salary for the last couple of years, although that line item was removed from the current budget. He said the money the city usually puts into reserve could be used to cover an administrator.

The board also discussed ways an administrator could pay for himself through grant writing, increasing efficiency, and identifying cost savings.

Mayor Selvidge directed city officials to identify money in this year’s budget which might pay for an administrator and asked aldermen to bring all their questions about the position to the January board meeting for further discussion.

Also on the city’s agenda last week, Brent Wheeler of GreenLight Gas addressed the board regarding the regulation of natural gas rates in the city. He said the city currently governs those rates but could by ordinance release that authority to the Texas Railroad Commission. The aldermen voted to retain their authority.

A pole attachment agreement with AEP-West Texas Utilities was discussed. For the first time ever, the electric company is going to charge the city for the electricity used by the Christmas decorations on the streetlights downtown. The cost will be more than $200 for the season. Aldermen expressed their outrage at the meeting but had no choice but to accept the agreement.

The budget for 2002-2003 was amended to consider employee pay raises.