Over the years the City has installed new water towers, replacing water distribution lines, made improvements to Roanoke pump station, and installed numerous large water taps. These improvements were implemented with little to no hydraulic modeling to ensure the proposed improvements would be effective. The City currently has three large water issues that need to be addressed:
- the Southwest tank (located by 3M) is not being utilized because of the current condition of the existing booster station and water age issues that occur
- the Walnut tank has water aging issues that are ongoing
- the ongoing inaccuracy of the BCWID master meter.
City staff recommended the Water Hydraulic Model be completed to help prevent similar problems that are currently being experiencing. This model will assist engineers in making better recommendations on improvements such as eliminating the water age problems in the distribution lines, increasing flow to areas that have larger meters, determining if a meter can be installed in an area, improving the master meter readings, and in developing a strategy to correct the Southwest tank and Walnut tank deficiencies.
Also Tuesday, the council unanimously approved amendment to the Chapter 380 Agreement between the City of Brownwood and the Brownwood Municipal Development District to transfer $487,251 of old Brownwood Economic Development Corporation funds to the BMDD.
The funds were designated for projects located in the City’s Extraterritorial Jurisdiction (ETJ). With the recent passage of HB 1554, the BMDD is allowed to use their project funds in the ETJ. With this new law in place, there is currently no need for the City to reserve the old BEDC funds for projects. BMDD staff wanted to transfer the remaining funds in the Special Projects fund back to the BMDD for use in the multi-purpose event center project.
Also Tuesday, the council opted to pursue the recommendation of Fire Chief Eric Hicks regarding the establishment of a Fire Cost Recovery Program, who is recommending outsourcing this task to Fire Recovery USA for their services.
Most auto insurance policies contain language specifying coverage for automobile accident and emergency incident services. The program would be setup to only charge insurance, nothing comes out-of-pocket from Brownwood residents.
No action was taken, but further discussion and action is expected at a future meeting. if this program is implemented, a conservative estimate of additional revenue is approximately $10,000 to $20,000.
On the consent agenda, the council unanimously approved amending the Fair Housing Ordinance on second and third/final reading to comply with the federal Fair Housing Act for compliance with the Community Development Block Grant.
The City of Brownwood has a Fair Housing Ordinance, originally passed in 1979 and amended in 1981. A Fair Housing Ordinance is required in order to receive federal funding. The City’s current Ordinance is not up-to-date with federal requirements.
The City needed to amend the Fair Housing Policy Ordinance based on the requirements of the Fair Housing Act to include seven protected classes (race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, and national origin). This requirement is based on the $350,000 TxCDBG grant awarded to the City and any future federal grants.