Sundown City Council had their regular meeting on Tuesday evening to cover a wide range of city business. Councilman Lonnie Geisler was absent, leaving the quorum at 5 for the meeting.
In an update from the City Library, Librarian A’ndrea McAdams stated staff had been hard at work applying for various grant funding, with two more currently in the works. She estimates the number of grants applied for this year to be around a dozen already, and that many of them can be capitalized on in May, should their organization be chosen. The DOS and FMH Foundations grants are currently being pursued, and McAdams requested general contractors to be contacted so estimates for various projects could be obtained.
John Hoffman and Brian Woodring from USG Water Solutions were present to give a presentation on their services and what they could provide for the City in the ways of Water tank treatment. A Tank Asset Management company, USG boasts more than 4k clients in municipal and industrial sectors, with more than 8k managed assets in their portfolio. The City hopes to utilize them to keep maintenance up to date on their water tanks in town on a regular basis with preventative maintenance rather than wait for a malfunction. This would consist of an initial restoration of the tanks to bring them back to manufactured standards, as well as bi-yearly cleaning and maintenance and yearly inspections. Rather than contacting numerous different contractors for various portions of work needing to be done, USG provides a one-stop model in which all outside assistance would be procured by them. The initial restoration of the tanks in spread out over a bill for the first few years, making the price approx. $50K until the price settles.
The issue of Trailer Homes or Manufactured Homes has been brought before this council, and has recently been their focus point for crafting a new City Ordinance. City Manager Billy Hernandez had compiled a list of various other similar ordinances from other communities to give the Council an idea of how this issue impacts other groups. These ordinances covered a wide range of issues from the age of the home, to the legality of hooking up a camper to City utilities, and after a brief bit of discussion it was ultimately tabled, giving staff a chance to collaborate with the City Attorney for further advising.
Much like the City of Levelland, Sundown City Council had not received any challengers for their upcoming election seats. This meant that Councilmen Ron Holson and Doug Barry could keep their seat without need of an election. Councilman Jeremy Neill has decided not to re-run for his position, and Dr. Fryar has stepped up to take that position after the May elections.
Several Months ago City Council began to search for land on which Police Chief Jeff Foster could build a house on to complete his relocation to the community. They repeatedly had run into the same problem: an oil company, Sabinol owns much of the property around town. Though they’d previously been unwilling to part with any of their territory, in recent months they had shown themselves willing to negotiate. This led Council towards the idea of buying a large portion of the land Sabinol would part with, with hopes of constructing additional housing for the town to attract new businesses and residents.
Finally, Hernandez gave an update on the progress of the Waste Water Treatment plant, which is fully operational according to city staff. It was stated that it will take approximately 2 months to fill. This ended business as of this meeting for City Council.
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