Loading...
1963 07 25 CC Minutes4&19- M r M MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN July 25, 1963 The City Council of the City of Baytown, Texas met in Regular Session on Thursday, July 25, 1%3 at 6:45 p.m. in the Council Room of the Baytown City Hall with the fol- lowing members in attendance: Seaborn Cravey Councilman Kenneth E. Badgett Councilman Velma J. Ansley Councilman T. E. Cook Councilman M. E. Lively Councilman J. C. Huron Councilman C. L. Liggett, M. D. Mayor J. B. LeFevre City Manager George Chandler City Attorney Nena Adams The Mayor called the meeting to order, the Invocation was offered, afterwhich the City Clerk was instructed to read the minutes of the July 11th meeting. Councilman Ansley moved to dispense with reading of the minutes; they be approved as submitted in written form with the exception of two corrections. Councilman Cravey seconded the motion. The vote follows: Ayes: Councilmen Cravey. Cook, Badgett, Ansley, Lively and Huron Mayor Liggett Nays: None MINUTES CORRECTIONS - improved - Extension of Water Mains -Garth Road and�Baker Road .....urging the extension of a 10 -inch main out Garth Road to Baker Road, east along Baker Road to tie -in to an existing 10 -inch. UNFINISHED BUSINESS A. Report of Percent of Residences With Wood Shingle Roofs City Manager J. B. LeFevre made a report on Wood Shingle Roofs. He stated that the Fire Department had been asked to make a survey to determine how many combustible roofs the City had, and arrive at a percentage figure since this had an effect on the City's insurance rate. The report follows: Total Buildings in the Residential Area Composition Shingles Wood Shingle Roofs 13,176 10,510 2,666 The report stated that we are being penalized $ .01 on our key rate for having over 1576 combustible roofs in residential areas. The figure on our new survey shows that we have .2022% combustible roofs. at the present time. We are advised that we will be penalized another $ .02 on our Key Rate if we reach 25% combustible roofs in residential areas. Councilman Cravey then made a comment about a point he felt the Council should be laerted to. He said, "For a number of years. wood shingles were not permitted on new construction in Baytown. And then, a couple of years ago, more or less, a group petitioned that this ordinance be changed and they be allowed to build houses with wood shingles, so apparently there were quite a lot of houses in Baytown with wood shingles in town; the real crucial point seems to me is that if we do pass this 25% total saturation of wood shingles then not just the people that have wood shingles have their fire insurance increased. but everyone in town, which means my house, if it has wood shingle roof, will cause your insurance rate to go up if your house does not have wood shingles." He then verified this with Mr. Lintleman and then suggested, "That now we arrive at some percentage and ask the Fire Department to keep a very close watch on this, and alert us when it reaches as close as we can come without getting in danger of stepping across the line and then when it gets to be 23 or 24 or as close as we can to this 25% saturation that we be alerted and then seriously consider the possibility of an ordinance to stop the consturction of houses with wood shingle roofs. If I were building a house, I would like to have wood shingles on it but I would'nt want to have wood shingles at 1920 the expense of everyone else in town being penalized on their fire insurance, so I suggest that we discuss and arrive at a percentage and when we get close to this per- centage that we hold off on building permits until we make a decision on it." After a short discussion among the Council and some Citizens, it was decided that Mr. LeFevre would write to the Fire Insurance Board and then the Council would go by his decision. B. Appoint Member To Baytown Pest Control Commission. Mr. LeFevre said that, "The Chief Sanitarian and the Fire Chief had met with a great many members in the Pest Control Business and discussed this ordinance with them and of course they could not take action because they were short the ,third member. But if you will recall, this is the ordinance that through some error here in the City Hall was not mailed out to the Pest Control Operators in time for ,them to study before it came up. So I would like to propose that these two members go ahead and meet with the Pest Control Operators, as they seem to have some amendments that they would like to make to the ordinance; let them come up with amendments to the ordinance as we can not put it in effect anyway in the next two weeks until we have a third member appointed. At the same time they may have some amendments to recommend to the Council on the ordinance and appoint the Commission at that time." Mr. LeFevre also told the Council that one of the recommendations which these Pest Control Operators had was to have more members on the Commission, perhaps five members. The Mayor asked the Council to give Kenneth Badgett, Councilman, permission to appoint whom ever he wanted to and come back to the Council with his recommendations. Mr. Badgett stated that before the next Council meeting he would have Mr. Muennink and Mr. Lintleman contact him and he would work with them and get with the Pest Control men throughout the City of Baytown and try to make the additional amendments or obolish this ordinance and re -draft the additional ordinance. COMMITTEE REPORTS A. Traffic Committee Report Mr. Huron made a report on the Traffic Committee. He showed the Council a diagram of the proposed traffic control system at the Baytown Junior High School intersection. He said, "We have been experiencing some complaints, you might say, I think the Council is familiar with this intersection and this is a proposed con- trol system. If you remember I sent a letter to you stating that we would like to see this intersection revised here before school starts, if it is agreeable with the Council, but now we certainly want to talk about dollars and cents before we get too far into this. The lighting system will cost the City $3,493.00 and of course the City is to install this, so we would use our people but there is some indication that if the City Council is agreeable and they feel that this is what we need. We would like to get it started before school starts; we will have to contract it which will cost an additional $3,000. So in rounding off these figures we estimate it will cost around $7,000 for this control system. Now we are not asking that you make your decision tonight because we are hitting you cold with something that you need to study and it is the Traffic Committee's.recommendation that we install this system. We have been studying it and we have had these experts out here to give us a diagram and cost figures as to how much this is going to cost, and we are giving you a detailed report to study and if you feel like that this is not what.you want we are open for suggestions and the City Manager has informed us that we do have the funds." He asked that the Council try to have a decision by the next Council meeting. The Traffic Committee then recommended that the Council change the section of Felton Street where it inters K -Mart. Mr. Huron reported that the committee had talked with the K -Mart Store Manager and he had agreed to pay for a curb where you would have to stop and then turn either left or right rather than flash through the parking lot with the hazard of on- comming traffic. He explained that this would allow people to enter K -Mart parking lot without having to make an offset back to Pruett Street, enter back into heavy traffic, get back into the heavy traffic then if they wanted to go into K -Mart, they would have to stop and let on comming traffic and delay some traffic in order to get into K -Mart. Mr. Cravey then moved that this recommendation be passed and Mrs. Ansley seconded the motion. The vote follows: 1921 Ayes: Councilmen Cravey, Badgett, Ansley, Huron, Lively, Cook and Mayor Liggett Nays: None B. Park Committee Report Mrs. Ansley mentioned a letter from Mr. Watts,-a professional swimming Pool man, concerning the swimming pool at Roseland with the cost figures of what he would recommedn be done. The total amount was $664.00. 7 Mr. LeFevre recommended that the amount for the swimming pool work be included in the next years budget and that they try to do it after the pool closed this year. Mr. Robert Sharp was removed from the Park Committee list. Mrs. Ansley reported that the draft of the letter to the Churches was ready and shw would mail them as soon as she got a discriptive paragraph of the sign from Mr. Davis. Also she told the Council about the people of the Craigmont Civic Association wanting to build a volly ball park out there; they have all the equipment and will do all the work themselves. Mayor Liggett read a letter from a citizen saying, "I wish to join the drive, so please note a vacant house on 1000 block of Hunnicutt. The Shach could stand a face lifting or better yet be torned down, the yard needs cleaning up, your immediate attention to this matter will be greatly appreciated." The Mayor then instructed Mr. LeFevre to see what could be done about this type of problem. An announcement was made by the Mayor about a letter which he received from Steve Mathews of the Texas Municipal League that they were having a Seminar on August 5 to which the Councilmen were invited. Mayor Liggett reported on the Goose Creek Stream Committee on which action had been taken since the last meeting. He explained that the reason that this had all come up was that the Navigation District had had this business of the Goose Creek Development on their Agenda and they were fixing to take it off but first they contacted the Chamber of Commerce and asked them would they like to have us discuss this thing before they took it off the agenda and we answered a very profound "yes" so a group had a session at the Chamber of Commerce Building. He reported that Mr. Pruett was to take the Committee and Albert Thomas and several other citizens on a trip of the stream so as to study the situation. This is to be discussed further later. The Mayor asked the Council to give some thought to the idea of putting out a brouchure. He stated that he thought this was an excellent idea. This is to be discussed at a later date. C. Airport Committee Councilman Huron reported on the Airport Committee. He said that they had met and had a 2 -hour discussion on formualation of a proposed contract at one of the local airports which they felt was necessary before they could finish the investiga- tion to bring to the Council.a finished report and proposal for them to study. Request for Preliminary Approval of New Subdivision - Mr. Gene Hazelwood City Manager J. B. LeFevre explained that at the present time there is an 8" line that picks up property over in the lower end of Lakewood and extends across property to a lift station, and that this 8" line would not be sufficient to take care of the Lakewood area plus the new development, should it be completed. So it was proposed that Mr. Hazelwood would extend a 10" line to go around the subdivision and come back in at a shown vicinity. He said that if this was done, it would eliminate the 8" line altogether. The estimated cost for re- routing this sewer line was $1475.00. this is based - on the assumption that Mr. Hazelwood would do the trenching and dig the hole for the lift station. After a lengthy discussion of this proposal it was decided that this was the best way to handle this matter of the 8" line not being sufficient. Mr. Cravey moved to accept the preliminary approval and Mrs. Ansley seconded the motion. The vote follows: 1922 Ayes: Councilmen Cook, Badgett, Lively, Cravey. Ansley and Huron Mayor Liggett Nays: None Mr. Cravey then moved to accept the proposition of re- routing the sewer line and Mrs. Ansley seconded the motion. The vote follows: Ayes: Councilmen Cook, Badgett, Lively, Cravey, Ansley and Huron Mayor Liggett Nays: None Resolutions - Transfer Funds Mr. LeFgvre introduced and read two proposed reDlutions for transfer of funds. He explained each in detail. afterwhich Mrs. Ansley moved to accept Resolution'No. 25 -7 -63 and Mr. Badgett seconded the motion. The vote follows: Ayes: Councilmen Cook, Badgett, Cravey, Ansley, Ansley, Lively, and Huron Mayor Liggett Nays: None Mr. Huron then moved to accept Resolution No. 26 -7 -63 and Mr. Cook seconded the motion. The vote follows: Ayes: Councilmen Cook, Lively, Huron, Ansley, Badgett and Cravey Mayor Liggett Nays: None The caption of the resolutions passed are as follows: RESOLUTION NO. 25 -7 -63 A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN, TEXAS, AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO TRANSFER THREE THOUSAND AND NO /100 ($3,000.00) DOLLARS FROM BUDGET CLASSIFICATION 1005, WATER CONTINGENCY FUND, TO BUDGET CLASSIFICATIONS NOS. 1002 -10 -10 AND 1002 -5 -10. RESOLUTION NO. 26 -7 -63 A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN, TEXAS, AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO TRANSFER, WITHIN THE GENERAL FUND BUDGET, CERTAIN FUNDS FROM ONE CLASSIFICATION TO ANOTHER CLASSIFI- CATION. Item Number 6 of July 25.1963 Agenda - Discussion of Property Tax Evaluation The Mayor said, "It is my* understanding that we are to omit Item number 6 on the agenda." Mr. LeFevre said he believed so, unless someone had a comment. Mr. Cook then spoke and said, 'I would like to say merely for the benefit of the people here, that there was certainly no intend on the part of any member of the Council, myself included, to in any way influence the Tax Equalization Board. I think I fully realize and have been advised by the City Attorney and others, what the Charter limitations are as to the role that a Councilman might play in so far as the City Taxation is concerned and there was no violation of this in any manner whatsoever. This was merely a proposed meeting in order for us to be ad- vised as to what the policy is at the present time and I would like to have people realize that there was*no clandestine meeting proposed or carried out for any dire purposes at all. This was strictly aboveboard and for the benefit of the entire citizens of Baytown, and I think that is the only way that anybody on this Council conducts their business." Reguest For Permission to Proceed With Development of Lincoln Cedars Subdivision Mr. Bill Broyles representing Mr. Morrow, introduced the plans for furhter 1923 development of Lincoln Cedars Subdivision of colored homes in Chambers County, and asked for Preliminary Approval. After a long study of the situation, Mr.-Cravey moved that the Council grant approval on all of it conditionally that if sections B..C, D and E are not completed within a three year period that the.approval can be approved or cancelled. Mr. Badgett seconded the motion and the vote follows: Ayes: Councilmen Cook, Lively. Badgett, Cravey. Huron, and Ansley Mayor Liggett 7 Nays: None CITY MANAGER'S REPORT New Police Chief Mr. LeFevre recommended to the Council to hire Mr. Robert L. Forche' for the position of Chief of Police of Baytown. Mr. Forche' is presently Chief of Police of Mission. Texas. Mr. Cook moved that the Council accept the recommendation and Mrs. Ansley seconded the motion.. The vote follows: Ayes: Councilmen Huron, Cravey. Lively, Badgett, Ansley and Cook Mayor Liggett Nays: None Letter to Former Water District 98 Mr. LeFevre told the Councilmen and Mayor about a letter which was being sent out to the people of former Water District Number 8. This letter asked for the people to vote as to whether they would want City garbage Collections or if they preferred to continue with the arrangements they had had in the past. Bids - Reconstruction of New Jersey Street Mr. LeFevre read a proposed ordinance on the reconstruction of New Jersey Street. This ordinance determines the necessity and orders that New Jersey Street shall be improved. Mrs. Ansley made the motion that the ordinance be adopted as read and Mr. Badgett seconded the motion. The vote follows: Ayes: Councilmen Cook..Badgett, Cravey, Ansley. Huron, and Lively Mayor Liggett Nays: None The caption of the Ordinance follows: ORDINANCE NO. 692 AN ORDINANCE DETERMINING THE NECESSITY FOR AND ORDERING THAT NEW JERSEY STREET FROM THE NORTH RIG11T OF WAY LINE OF MISSOURI STREET TO THE SOUTH RIGHT OF WAY LINE OF KENTUCKY STREET, IN THE CITY OF BAYTOWN, SHALL BE IMPROVED; ADOPTING AND APPROVING PLANS AND SPECIFICATIONS FOR SUCH IMPROVEMENT; DIRECTING THE CITY ENGINEER TO PREPARE AN ESTIMATE OF THE COST OF SUCH IMPROVEMENT AND A WRITTEN STATEMENT OF THE NAMES OF THE OWNERS OF THE PROPERTY ABUT - TING ON SAID STREET; PROVIDING THAT A PART OF THE COST THEREOF SHALL BE PAID BY THE CITY AND A PART OF THE COST THEREOF SHALL BE PAID BY AND ASSESSED AGAINST THE ABUTTING PROPERTY AND THE OWNERS THEREOF, AND FOR INCIDENTAL MATTERS; DECLARING THAT THIS ORDINANCE AND ALL FURTHER PROCEEDINGS RELATED TO SUCH IMPROVEMENTS ARE BY VIRTUE OF ARTICLE 1105 -b, DIRECTING THE CITY CLERK TO FILE A CERTAIN NOTICE WITH THE COUNTY CLERK AND TO ADVERTISE FOR BIDS; AND PROVIDING FOR THE EFFECTIVE DATE THEREOF. 1929 Decker Drive The City Manager reported that there had been a meeting with Mr. Clark, the Superintendent for Mr. Ramsey in this area.. He said that the topping was not sat- isfactory in a small area and Mr.,Cla rk had agreed to go in and take it out and re- do it. He said they had agreed to go two more lanes, in the area where they now have about six lines of highway. He said that the City would furnish the materials for the additional two lanes in that area. Street Department Mr. LeFevre reported on activities of the Street Department which included work on several streets and some work which was underway at the Public Works Building and some cutting of weeds. He also reported that the water and sewer facilities were ready at the Craigmont Swimming Pool but no date was yet set for the opening. ADJOURNMENT Councilman Ansley moved for the meeting to adjourn., Mr. Cravey seconded the motion. The ayes were unanimous and the Mayor declared the meeting adjourned.at 9:05 P.M. Secretary