Preview of the 5/18/2010 Meeting

You can find the agenda for the meeting here: Agenda for 5/18 Waco City Council Meetings

Remember that I LOVE comments....any kind of comments....anonymous comments are accepted and welcomed. If they are just plain mean for no constructive purpose, I will delete them.

Since this is the first council meeting after the election, the schedule is changed. The work session will be at 3:00 pm. They will go into executive session at 3:30 pm. The business session starts at 4:30 pm. All of these meetings will be at the Operations Center at 1415 N. 4th St.

At 5:30 pm in the Phoenix Ballroom at 401 S. 3rd St., there will be an election ceremony.

In the work session they will discuss the process filling the District V vacancy created when Jim Bush was elected mayor.

In the business session, there are several public hearings about changing the Comprehensive Plan land use designations.

RES-265: The contract for the MLK Drive Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation project is being raised by $186,840.25 so that the total amount will be $1.761,011.15.

RES-266: The contract for construction of the Runway Safety Area and Runways 1-19 and 14-32 Rehabilitation Projects at Waco Regional Airport will be increased by $116,306.47.

RES-267: Amends a contract with SCS Engineers for engineering work and compliance assistance at the 1419 Landfill which is now closed. They will provide contruction phase services and materials testing. The amendment will be for $28,340 bringing the contract total to $88,340.

RES-268: This will extend the contract with Krishna Ram, Inc. for the Staybridge Suites Hotel Construction Project for a maximum of 3 years. This is at the 700 block of South 5th and 6th Streets.

The next two items are about assigning residential tax abatement rights. I do not understand this yet. It will definitely require more research. If anyone knows what this means, please educate me or direct me to a resource that can explain it.

RES-269: Will approve the assignment of residential tax abatement rights of Edanbra Development, L.C. to Eddy and Sylvia Gomez.

RES-270: Will approve the assignment of residential tax abatement rights of Edanbra Development, L.C. to Terry Ridge and Melissa Washington.

The next three involve supplying the police department.

RES-271: This will allow the City Manager to submit an application to the US Dept of Justice for reimbursement of up to half the cost of purchasing bullet-proof vests.

RES-272: Authorized the purchase of ammunition under an existing contract for $64,123 for FY2009-10.

RES-273: Approves awarding a 12-month contract for supply of police uniforms with an option to renew for two additional 12-month terms. The amount is not to exceed $46,500 during FY2009-10.

RES-274: Authorized the purchase of a breathing air refill station for $52,460. I would guess this is for the fire department and other public safety uses. I can see how it would be better to have an onsite refill station rather than sending bottles out for refill. I do not know what the city is currently doing.

RES-275: Allows the City Manager to accept bids for services to process refuse derived fuel (RDF). From what I could gather quickly on Wikipedia, this is AWESOME! Maybe it's only awesome to people who like to take trash and make it into something useful (i.e. me). I don't take Wikipedia as a primary source, but I do use it to give me the basic idea and as a jumping-off point for further research. Non-combustible materials like glass and metal are removed. The remaining material is treated to remove heavy metals and pollutants. What remains can be shaped into pellets, bricks, or logs that can be used in coal power plants to produce electricity. This article states that RDF is a new concept so the financial advantage cannot be known.

Is this related to RES-267 about the engineering services for the landfill?

Link to the Wikipedia article about Refuse Derived Fuel: Refuse Derived Fuel on Wikipedia

RES-276 and RES-277: Nominates Owens-Brockway Glass Container, Inc. and Mars Chocolate North America as Enterprise Projects and submitting the Enterprise Zone application to the Office of the Governor Economic Development and Tourism's Texas Economic Development Bank for improvements to their respective properties.

RES-278: Authorizes the sale of a tax foreclosed property to a citizen.

RES-279: Invites and requests the Bellmead Development Corporation (BDC) to participate in the Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative (BRIC) Project and grants permission for BDC to act in support of BRIC. This permission is required since the BRIC Project is within the city limits of Waco.

I wonder if this is related to the action taken a few weeks ago by the Bellmead City Council to change the status of their Economic Development Corporation. This is an example of why it is helpful to keep up with the activities of all the cities in the area. They often work together and the action of one body may have influence on another.

Since this is the first meeting after the election, a committee to canvass the results of the election will be appointed. After a short recess, the committee will report its results.

At the Election Ceremony, the oath of office will be administered to the new mayor and they will elect a Mayor Pro Tem. There were will be presentations by several groups including the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce, The Cen-Tex Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and the Cen-Tex African American Chamber of Commerce. A reception will follow.