Denver City’s City Council Met yesterday Jan 21.

by Eric

The Denver City City Council met in regular session on Monday, January 21, where they addressed their regular agenda.

After the Invocation was led by Council member Ronald Weir a few announcements were made. Councilman Clinton Bowman noted the city has a new police officer and asked Police Chief David Hennigan to bring the new officer to the next Council meeting so everyone could welcome her to the police department. Hennigan said he would bring her and Wes Moore who will be joining the department soon.

Councilman Mark Sherman also noted new homes were being constructed at the site of the former elementary building. EDC Executive Director Heath Haines was in attendance and informed the Council that three new homes will also be added to the area. He also said people who are interested in building a new home at that site could go on line to see the floor plans.

After some confusion over the minutes from the January 7 meeting a motion was made to approve the correct minutes.

Moving into the agenda Chief Hennigan requested permission to add a full time dispatcher to his department. He informed the Council he had hired a part time dispatcher 11 weeks ago who was still in training and a new part time dispatcher early on Monday. He said two applicants had responded to the ad that has been running in the paper.

City Manager Stan David noted the city currently budgets for a communication supervisor, four full time dispatchers, and one or two part time dispatchers. Hennigan stressed the fact that any dispatcher, full time or part time, has a very important job communicating with an officer on duty. He said the department needed more applicants to choose from. After listening to his presentation the Council unanimously approved Hennigan to hire one more qualified and certified full time dispatcher.

Hennigan also requested permission to purchase “stop-sticks” that could be used in place of spikes to help in stopping a speeding offender. He said this product is much more efficient in stopping a fast moving vehicle over the spikes. The total price for the purchase would be $4.709.00. This would include eight 12” Stop Stick Rack kits and one training kit. A motion was made and unanimously approved.

The Council once again discussed plans for the possible demolition of the former D Mac building and the beauty shop next to it. The city had purchased this building with the idea of tearing it down to make room for a new city hall and police department building. It was suggested to find out the cost for the abatement and removal of possible asbestos and then make decisions after that. It was the general consensus of the Council they would much rather see an empty lot instead of the current buildings until funds were available for the new facility.

In the next item the Council had a discussion concerning sealcoat work on North Main. The areas needing the work include Broadway to 4th, 4th to 8th street, and 8th to 15th. These areas alone would cost approximately $192,000. The Council had budgeted $150,000 for street repairs during 2018-19. A motion was made and unanimously approved to proceed with the work and use funds from fund balance to make up the difference. The work will be done by WTA out of Andrews.

An election calendar was also approved. A person has until February 15 to file to run for a Council position or Mayor’s position. Early voting is from April 22 to April 30 and election day is May 4. City Council incumbents Joan Breith, Ronald Weir, and Robert Hanneman along with Mayor Tommy Hicks have all filed to run for another term of office.

City Manager Stan David went over the Denver City Investment report from October 1 through December 31, 2018. He noted the two investment pools had total funds of $5,589,667, the checking account at West Texas National Bank has $466,453, and the one Certificate of Deposit, which matures on February 25, has $247,665 for a total of $6,303,785 in total funds. The interest rates varied from 2.42% to 1.80%.

And in the last item on the agenda the Council unanimously approved the payment of $205,174.60 in manual checks and $84,032.55 in regular bills.

Councilmembers Joan Breith, Ronald Weir, Robert Hanneman, Clinton Bowman, Mark Sherman, and Keith Mensch along with Mayor Tommy Hicks were present. The next meeting will be on February 4, 2019 at 7pm in the City Hall chambers.

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