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On Tuesday, September 1st, the Johnson City City Council met for their regularly scheduled meeting. The meeting began with a report from grant services representative Katrina Dittemore. She discussed the status of the city obtaining stimulus funding as well as other grant applications with the council. The council voted to pursue the possibility of obtaining a Safe Routes to Schools grant which would dramatically improve the cities sidewalk situation for JCISD students.

Following the discussion with Dittemore, the council heard from Johnson City Police Chief Glenn Dubois. Chief Dubois shared with the council that Officer Brian Geeslin has obtained his Master Peace Officer Certification. According to Chief Dubois “this is a real milestone within the law enforcement world and we’re very proud of Officer Geeslin.”

Chief Dubois also informed the council that Officer Geeslin is currently working on the local Neighborhood Watch and Crime Prevention Program. He stated that that the federal government required the police department to use a special internet connection rather than Momentum Wireless. This connection will allow the police department the ability to “email area business owners and Neighborhood Watch captains photographs of suspects” as well as other updates on crime activity.

According to Chief Dubois, Officer Geeslin is “going to set up meetings with businesses and homeowners associations…he’s also going to find out who wants to help reestablish Neighborhood Watch programs.” He went on to inform the council that Officer Geeslin has previous experience with the Hays County and the Marble Falls Police Department, and his experience combined with his certifications have combined to help prepare the Johnson City Police Department move forward in this direction. The Oak Forest Subdivision has approached Chief Dubois to establish a National Night Out, and the police department is also pursuing this opportunity.

Following the Chief’s presentation, Johnson City City Manager David Dockery spoke to the council about the statewide cell phone ban in school zones. According to Dockery, “I had a conversation with [Johnson City ISD] Superintendent David Shanley, and he wanted me to express to the city council that at this time, he did not see cell phone use as a real issue in the school zone… [Superintendent Shanley] understands the size of our local [police] department, and wants to share his appreciation with how pleased he is with [Chief Dubois] and the local police department… he does not see cell phone use as a real issue right now and just wants to continue to encourage the police department to focus on enforcing speed limits in school zones.

Dockery continued, saying “the city has the option to enforce the ban of cell phone use while in a car – however, we would have to install about twenty cell phone prohibited signs in the area.” According to Dockery, the signs would cost Johnson City approximately $50 a piece.

Following this discussion, Dockery gave a report to the council regarding pumping, billing and lab reports. There was also a brief discussion of water levels in the area and where Johnson City currently stands.

The council then considered setting a utility rate code and deposits for single apartment units. They voted unanimously in favor of this agenda item.

The next agenda item dealt with possibly taking action on supplying water outside the city limits to the Liberty Lighthouse Church. According to Dockery, Liberty Lighthouse Church is operating Little Lambs Christian School for approximately 60 children with an approved public water supply. Dockery informed the council that “their well is not constructed to public water supply standards… the well was not engineered or TCQ’d…” Once the church began providing services to these students, they did not realize supplying water to that many people regularly puts them in a new category of state mandates.

Dockery believes that “the best solution is for the city to provide them with their water services.” He went on to say “the only way we could do this is to supply them with water… until the city grows to the point that the church would be required to be annexed.”

“The one thing I would propose is that if the council agrees to supply [Liberty Lighthouse Church] water at a rate and a half – they must agree that whenever their property becomes contiguous with the city that they must be annexed.”

“The thing is that there are already kids there,” Dockery said. “The chicken’s already hatched so to speak.”

The conversation from the council members then turned to the financial impact that this could potentially cause. “If we do this for Liberty Light House, and then [other local residents] approach us and ask for the same favor – will they get the same treatment?” council member Rhonda Stell asked.

Dockery responded that “the church is only request ing for what they need for their point of use… they are willing to pay the tap fees, procure the easement, lay the water line, and maintain the easement,” Dockery said. He added, “the reason this even came up is because we have a great number of kids – and we don’t want them to get sick.”

In the end, Mayor Roeder stated that “in our ordinance – we have the capability of doing this exception… we have the option to agree to annex if they ever become contiguous.”

Council Member Ralph Moss stated that he’d “rather allow this exception than hear six months down the road that there are sick kids as a result of the [council] not allowing it.” He motioned for the approval, and the motion passed unanimously.

The council then heard from the Planning and Zoning Commission on their latest progress regarding the Johnson City Sign Ordinance. According to P & Z member, Porter Dunnaway, the commission had a “work session with [Dockery] and we made some changes.” Dunnaway informed the council that the new proposed sign ordinance would change the verbiage to include five sign “zones” in town. The businesses location in the zones would determine their signs restrictions.

Dunnaway informed the council that the various zones would be: Zone 1 - Hwy 281, Zone 2 - Hwy 290, Zone 3 would include businesses on the Spur, Zone 4 - businesses within the Historic Area, and Zone 5 - residential areas.

Council Member Stell thanked Dunnaway for his report and the council expressed their appreciation to the Planning and Zoning Commission for their progress.

The council then took care of other standard house keeping chores, such as paying the bills and what not before they heard petitions from the public.

During open forum, local resident Sonja Bean spoke to the council requesting that the local swimming pool hours be amended to be opened earlier, and stay open later. She stated, “I have three little kids and our family is a bunch of swimmers…we need more swim time.” Council member Stell informed Mrs. Bean that that when the school year starts, the city loses the majority of their lifeguards to school. Bean stated that “I feel like we can find people who would be happy to fill these jobs.”

Council Member Moss stated that “the pool is losing about 15k a year… if we open it for longer , we could lose as much as 25k a year.”

Bean made the point that “Super S is hiring college kids that go to ACC… and I certainly would think that it wouldn’t be difficult to find life guards…”

Dockery proposed presenting the council with a report of what changing the pool hours for the next pool season might look like, the cost of electricity and chemicals. According to Dockery, “the pool has always been something that we’ve lost money on… but we can certainly look at these hours to be earlier in the morning and later in the evening.”

Following this discussion the council adjourned for the evening.