Brownfield City Council Met Today, New Fire Station “Move In Ready”

The Brownfield City Council met in regularly scheduled meeting this morning. After the preliminary items of business the Council began the other items

Beginning with Item #5, the Council appointed election judges and alternate judges for the city/municipal election that is to be held on May 4th, 2019. The elections judges that were nominates were Kathy Granger for Election Judge, Cynthia Jacquez as Alternate Election Judge, Sharon Miller for Voting Ballot Judge, and Faye Newsom as Alternate Voting Ballot Judge. The Council unanimously approved the judges.

The next item of business was the consideration of the Terry County Heritage Museum to receive Hotel Occupancy Tax revenue for the period of January 1st, 2019 to December 31st, 2019. TCHM requested $5000 and was approved unanimously.

Moving on to item #7 was to hear a briefing from Parkhill, Smith, and Cooper Inc. on the status of the Brownfield Fire Department construction. Bill Noonan with PSC addressed the Council, “Happy to report that we are finished with the construction of the station, minus a couple of items that are long lead items from the punch list, which are some panels that lead to the police station and got some cabinet doors that are in fabrication right now that we will replace with some that did not stain real well.” Councilman Chuck Nave asked about a shower in the new station that was draining into the hallway and not the drain. Noonan told Nave that he was not aware of that. Noonan did state, “that’s certainly something we can address with the contractor.” Also a concern of Councilman Nave was the floors that had stain and paint on them two weeks ago when they did a walk through. Noonan explained that last Friday the concrete polishers came back out to the fire station and fixed the problem. Noonan also went on to tell the Council that they will do formal walk through. Councilman Ray McFarland asked Fire Chief Dennis Rowe, “How about the shower drain Dennis?” Chief Rowe replied, “I believe that’s been corrected.” According to Noonan, the fire station is move in ready. TownTalk spoke with one of the fire fighters, and he was pleased that they get to move in very soon. Right they have been busy putting furniture together.

Item #8 was to hear a presentation from a few Brownfield High School student about the upcoming Shattered Dreams Project which will be on March 21st and 22nd, 2019. The Students representing the project were Cassidy Cooper, Jeffrey Davis, and Abigail Ontiveros. Cooper explained to the Council the importance of the Shattered Dreams Project and how it can impact the students and the community. Mayor Geronimo Gonzales asked Cooper if they are raising more funds. Cooper replied that they are not asking the city for monetary donations because of all the help they have received from the police, fire, and EMS departments. Cooper did asked the Council if they can make a proclamation to make the week of March 17th through March 23rd, 2019 as “Distracted Drivers Awareness Week”. Councilman Nave made the motion to make the week of March 17th through March 23rd, 2019 as “Distracted Drivers Awareness Week”, with Ricky Rocha seconding the motion and it unanimously approved.

Next up is item #9 where the Council considered funding from HOT funds for the advertisement through the travel host of West Texas Visitors Guide. Brownfield Chamber of Commerce Director, Lorena Valencia showed the Council what advertisment will be in the West Texas Visitors Guide, and the Council was impressed and unanimously approved the funds for the advertisement to be placed in the West Texas Visitors Guide.

The Council dismissed the chambers because the next two items of business the Council were to go into executive session and the council did not act on any item for the executive session.

Council member not present at the meeting were Councilman Leon Pope and Councilwoman Judy Besler. The next city council meeting is planned for February 21st, 2019 at 7:30 AM at the City Hall in the Council Chambers.