Project changes at the parks, Sensory Parks. Quality of Life January 9, 2020

Project changes at the parks, Sensory Parks. Quality of Life January 9, 2020

QOL Board members:
Adam Redmond-Present
Billie Pederson-Present
Cheryl Keilman-Present
Robert Sizemore-Present
Craig Foster-Present
Shawn Alzona-Present
Rachel Baker-Present
Amy Williams-Absent

Council Liaison:
Fred Chavez-Present

Meeting Agenda link

This is the Quality of Life Board meeting that was held on January 9, 2020. They started off by reviewing and then approving the meeting minutes for December 2020. There were no speakers during Citizens Forum.

Action Items:
1. The was a discussion on the Friends of the Park proposal. Jeff Stoddard said there was only one person that responded to it last month. Councilman Chavez proposed it to the Quality of Life in December. If it goes forward into action, it would be organized like the Friends of the Library. The goal is to enhance all the parks image through personal volunteerism and donations where the city isn't able to participate. The board tabled the discussion until next month so the Parks and Rec can post another message about it.

2. Parks and Golf CIP updates.
    A. Golf Cart path paving will begin on January 15 (depending on weather). It will start at Hole 18 and work back toward 9. Some of the pathway will be wider in areas in order to accommodate carts passing each other. City employees were involved in the planning process.
   B. Jeff Stoddard explained to the board why the bid for the bathrooms were cancelled. There was $378,000 for the bathrooms at the parks. The current plan would bring it over $100,000 over budget. Stoddard he wants to bring it to a Design Build Phase vendor. This would be to save money and get the same results. He will be bringing to council on January 21 to terminate the agreement with MRB. He said he has found that the same job can be done by his department with a phone call and without the engineer firm expense. At the same council meeting he will also recommend going to the Design Build vendor program. For the bathrooms it would be 4 weeks to design and 90 days to build.

Jeff Stoddard said that in regards to CIP that we need fix what we have before we build something else. He will be doing a park by park walk through with board members to see what needs to be done. TTAB Baseball and TTAS Softball will be coming back. Adult Softball will be back at City Park soon. He also announced that Caycee Hauck was promoted to Superintendent.

3. There was a discussion on Capital Improvements. Stoddard said that priorities need to be assessed for each park. One example he suggested was whether we needed walking trails at all three major parks. Robert Sizemore told him the deferred maintenance doesn't work!

4. There was an recommendation that the By Laws be amended to have board members perform volunteer work for the Parks. While highly encouraged, the board said that requiring board members to perform volunteer hours would discourage future board members from participating. The Board voted 7-0 to not amend the By Laws.

5. The agenda item died because of item 4.

Staff Reports:
The Parks Master Plan is almost complete and will go to council in February. MRB is being terminated because of cost effectiveness and the Director can do almost all of the work in-house. Ogletree Gap will have two ramps with the south one being ADA compliant.

The Parks Department is looking at converting Rhode Park from a Community Park and into a Special Needs Park. It would have adaptive equipment with a sensory playground and smaller sports fields. Rhode Park is located off of Big Divide Rd in Skyline Flats Subdivision. The closest such park in the area is in Round Rock. 

B190 Info, Park Restrooms, and the Chamber during City Council 7 Jan 2020

B190 Info, Park Restrooms, and the Chamber during City Council 7 Jan 2020

The Council:
Mayor Diaz-Present
Joann Courtland-Present
Fred Chavez-Present
Dan Yancey-Present
Jay Manning-Present
Dianne Campbell-Present
Marc Payne-Present
Jack Smith-Absent

Workshop Agenda

Business 190 Median Project Status Video

Road Map Video

The main subject of the workshop this evening was about the upcoming Business 190 Median Project. It will span the area from Constitution to Avenue D or 1.3 miles. When finished it will have three lanes of traffic on each side, the median, a bicycle lane and a sidewalk on the south side of the road. The price for the road project, to include design,  is just over 11 million dollars. Copperas Cove paid for the design and is only responsible for anything over 10 million dollar construction budget. 

When the medians are built, each one will have a 4 foot safe haven at the end for pedestrian safety and paver stones after that. The distance between will be TxDOT standard for vehicle U-Turns. All Business entrances will have a TxDOT approved entrance widths at their locations, the map doesn't specify the measurements. The MLK intersection will be redesigned and be striped. The order for the project is the sidewalk, then the median, and then a complete overlay.

TxDOT recommends 20 MPH but the city is recommending 30 MPH. 

City Council Agenda

Citizens Forum:
Ashley Wilson- She want to make the public aware about the 20th Annual Polar Bear Plunge and 5K on January 25, She also invite members of the council to participate.
Rachel Pierce- She wanted to recommend that the council look at adding Civil Defense/Tornado sirens to the Copperas Cove area. Her residence was in the path of the EF-2 tornado that struck Copperas Cove on June 9, 2019. She did not receive a Cove Red notification until after the storm had passed.
Siggi Loe- She wanted more transparency from the city in the following areas; the planning of the under/overpass proposals at the railroad crossings with traffic congestion, how would an overpass even work, she heard about a mentioned overpass at the HWY 9/N116 intersection, speed limit of 55MPH is to fast on N116 and should be no higher than 40MPH.

Consent Agenda:
All seven items on the Consent Agenda passed unanimously.
The first five were for meeting minutes approval.
Item 6 was for granting Jack Smith an excused absence from the current meeting. It did not specify the sickness or emergency reason for missing the council meeting.
Item 7 was for authorizing the City Manager to execute acceptance of a General Warranty Deed conveying property to the City as necessary for the Southwest Water Improvement Project and the future development of the Valley at Great Hills Subdivision.

Public Hearing:
1. Oak Cove Development wants the council to amend the Future Land Use Plan from Low Density Residential to Medium Density Residential at 111 Wolfe Rd. They want to build a duplex on the location. There were no speakers. It passed 6-0.

2. Oak Cove Development wants the council to rezone the property from R-1 Single Family to R-2 Multi-Family. There were no speakers. It passed 6-0.

3. The city needs two public hearing for public disclosure to reconcile the FY 2019 Budget that recently ended on September 30, 2019. It was an extensive list. Please review the attached link to review the list on the agenda. This is normal business and there were no speakers. No vote is scheduled until the next public hearing.

Action Items:
Councilman Dan Yancey was nominated for the third year in a row to be the Copperas Cove Mayor Pro Temp. The person filling this position fills in for the Mayor when he/she is not available. He was selected by a vote of 6-0.

Judge Bill Price's Annual evaluation came up for approval before the council. The council had three options. Reappoint for two years, remove from office, take no action and on the 91st day after December 2 would automatically be reappointed for two years. He has been the Municipal Judge since 1992. The vote was 6-0 to reappoint for two years.

Associate Judge Lisa Kabala's Annual evaluation came up for approval before the council. The council had three options. Reappoint for two years, remove from office, take no action and on the 91st day after December 15 would automatically be reappointed for two years. The vote was 6-0 to reappoint for two years.

The Economic Development Corporation needs to fill a vacancy on it's board. The seat runs through September 30, 2020. The following people applied for the seat: Charlotte Brown, Amy Williams, JC Stubbs, Edson Florexil, Darren Blair, Shawn Alzona. JC Stubbs is currently on the Copperas Cove Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors (as is the Mayor and Councilman Jack Smith; neither voted on the nomination). JC Stubbs was approved by a vote of 6-0.

The Planning and Zoning Commission needs to fill a vacancy on it's commission. The only applicant is Jerry Cantrell. He also serves on the Board of Adjustments for Copperas Cove.  Councilman Payne said he was not comfortable with Cantrell serving on both boards. Mr Cantrell was present and reassured everyone present that his military experience taught him to be open minded about the offices he is appointed. He was approved by a vote of 6-0.

The final plat for Heartwood III consisting of 147 lots on about 76 acres came before the city council this evening. The subdivision is located off of Courtney Lane by S.E. Lee Jr High School. WBW Land Investment brought the request. There were no questions from the council. It passed by a vote of 6-0.

The Chamber of Commerce came to council requesting the final payment of $12,600 for HOT funds for the Kris Kindl Markt, at City Park, from December 5-8, 2019. The total amount received would be $15,646. They said total attendance was approximately 15,902. Their largest unexpected expense was for lights costing $5721. To be honest the presentation was very hard to follow due to them jumping all around with groups of numbers for that weekend. We are including the expense report here for your review. It passed the council by a vote of 6-0. Payment Request link!

The council debated changing the policy for receiving Hotel Occupancy Tax funds. It would simplify the paperwork. Also, the city would like to stop enforcing the 25% rule which would mean that and organization could only receive 25% of their anticipated revenue in HOT support. For example, it the annual Art Guild Spring Fest revenue was $10,000 they would only be able to ask for $2,500 in HOT funds. Several council members wanted to raise the percentage so to help the smaller organizations. This was led by Councilman Payne, Manning, and Campbell. In the end the ordinance passed by a vote of 5-1 (Payne voted no). Councilman Chavez later request a future agenda item to rectify the percentage.

The city would like to amend the Personnel Improvement Plan for FY20-24 and the Position Listing for FY20. Please review the attached agenda for the complete list. It passed with a vote of 6-0.

In order to ensure compliance with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the City Manager must submit by January 15 the Revised Storm Water Management Plan for the City's MS4. The vote was 6-0 to authorize the City Manager to submit.

The Parks and Recreation Director recommends rejecting the bid for replacing the restrooms at City Park and South Park. If it went forward it would put the project $100,000 Dollars over budget. Jeff Stoddard said that only one bid was received and it was for $230,212 for prep work. His plan is to work a solution out and bring it back to council. The restrooms are part of Phase II of the five year parks renovation project. The restrooms were supposed to be ready by the start of baseball and softball season. There are Port A Johns at the parks now. The council voted 6-0 to accept his proposal.

Last year the engineering firm BSP merged with anther group to form MRB. Since the name changed the City Manager needs the authority to sign legal paperwork with the newly named engineering firm. The council authorized him to do so with a vote of 6-0.

The Mayor brought out the new Committee Assignments that council members act as liaisons for the council. The Mayor added to additional committees to the chart. Marc Payne will be on Keep Copperas Cove Beautiful and Dianne Campbell will be on the Library Advisory Board. Still, there are no council liaisons for the Planning and Zoning and the Board of Adjustments. The council approved this by a vote of 6-0.

Recycling Update

The City Manager wanted to let the citizens know that the legislation allowing recycling on post was passed in December. It is located in Sections 326 and 327 of the FY2020 NDAA that was signed by President Trump on December 20, 2019. Congressman Carter was very instrumental in getting this passed. This will result in substantial cost savings for the city. The City Manager will need to work out specific language with Fort Hood before it will begins.

Fathom Update

December 17, 2019 is the termination date of service with Fathom.
The transition is in progress.
The Utility building now needs an architect before going forward.
Before Fathom ceased operations the sent out city sections 5,6, and 7 statements showing a due date of January 6, 2020. This led to 1800 calls on January 6 to our CSRs.
The are no late fees or disconnects right now and service connections are being presently being manually logged.
Online payments will be returning soon.
The Finance Department is also taking payments.
The city will soon be sending a letter to all Copperas Cove Utility Customers.