Disaster grant costs more than expected

The Clarendon Board of Aldermen tried to sort through unexpected charges related to a 2002 disaster grant during a final public hearing last Tuesday.

Grant administrator Kay Howard, who was responsible for the Texas Office of Rural Community Affairs (ORCA) portion of the joint state-federal project which funded drainage and street improvements in southeast Clarendon, reviewed the scope of work done under the grant.

City officials had been told from the beginning that the US Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) would put up 75 percent of the funds and that the supplemental ORCA grant would provide the city’s 25 percent match. But with the project completed, the city has been charged by NRCS approximately $35,000 for certain “100 percent items” related to improvements on Thurman Avenue.

“I don’t know how, but there were documents presented to you with both 25 percent and 100 percent items, and you signed them,” Howard told Mayor Tex Selvidge during the hearing.

“Well where the hell did they come from?” Selvidge inquired, noting that he thought he had only signed agreements based on Howard’s recommendation.

“If I had created this problem, I would fess up and do what I need to do to clear this up, but I did not,” Howard said, maintaining that her responsibility rested solely in the ORCA portion of the project.

Howard agreed to work with City Administrator Sean Pate to attempt to negotiate with NRCS and attempt to lower the amount owed.

In other city business, aldermen met in regular session following the public hearing. Representatives of Invensys Metering Systems presented a proposal for installing new water meters throughout town that could be read by an automated system in just two hours. The total package to convert the entire city would cost $390,946. The board expressed no interest in doing this.

Tony Maxwell of Greenbelt Peanut Company said his company has to pay liability insurance of $14,000 annually because their trucks have to drive on a public street from their warehouse on US 287 three blocks north on Ayers Street to their sorting and grading facility. He asked if Greenbelt Peanut could lease three blocks of Ayers Street for four months for $4,000. Pate will consult with the city attorney about this.

Ron Lamberth asked the board to hire him as a building code enforcement officer for $800 per month and asked aldermen to consider changing building permit fees. The board agreed to continue having the city superintendent and the city administrator perform building inspections. No action was taken regarding permit fees.

A called meeting was set for August 31 to discuss the 2004-2005 municipal budget and to discuss bids for the 2004 street paving project.