February City Council Meeting

City Council meetings are opened with prayer and pledges to the American Flag and the Texas Flag.

The Employee of the Month was awarded to Electric Department employee Kyle Anderson. You can read about that presentation in last week's edition or on our website, www.sansabanews. com and search for: Kyle Anderson dubbed “Mr. Dependable” at City Council Meeting.

After the Employee of the Month presentation, the City Council continued with other on the agenda items including approving the consent agenda items:

• Minutes from the January 9th 2024 council meeting

• Payment of bills

• Approved joint election agreement with SSISD

• Approved calling and giving notice of joint school and city election

• Approved order of election The following discussion/ action items were discussed and considered.

The City Council approved Ordinance Number 2024-01 for the provision of uniform standards for the storage and use of recreational vehicles and recreational equipment. This Ordinance states that you can't live in an RV in town unless you are in an RV park. This also includes ATVs and boats.

Aaron Johnson and Michael Brand addressed the Council on the next item. They spoke of the importance of a sports field here in town. Many are going out of town, such as Lampasas or Brady, for their kids to participate in soccer, basketball, flag football, etc., and those out of town locations are benefiting from that plan economically.

One of their reasons and wanting this lease agreement is so the city of San Saba can enjoy the economic boost from having events here. That way people will be spending their money here for lunch and supplies and snacks for the games and practices. The city council thank Aaron Johnson and Michael brand for their time and work in this endeavor.

The Lease Agreement by and between the San Saba Youth Sports and RecreationAssociation was approved.

City council approved resolutions requesting to apply for a criminal justice Grant to purchase bullet-resistant shields.

They also approved applying for grants for rifle resistant body armor and body worn cameras. These two grants were funded by the last legislative session by the governor of Texas.

City Council voted to enter into an agreement with San Saba ISD for a 2023-2024 demographic study prepared by Metro study Inc DBA Zonda intelligence, a Delaware LLC.

San Saba ISD superintendent Keith Owen was introduced at the meeting. The Council considered the areas of the demographic study and agreed to help fund two items on the study. They stated these two items will help the City meet the needs of the community and do what is truly beneficial.

The council thanked superintendent Keith Owens for attending the meeting and for his work in San Saba ISD.

City Council has talked in earlier meetings about naming the splash pad located in Mill Pond Park in memory of Stan Weik. They approved in proceeding with getting a sign to make it official. They approved going ahead with the sign project. Joanne Weik was present in the meeting, able to see the City Council honoring her late husband.

Following are some updates from City Manager Scott Edmonson to the Council: Splash pad, wet zone is poured. Now the outer four feet and the pump room is moving along fast. Because cost had gone up so much since the approval, some features had to be cut, but new features can be added every year. Because of the kind of system that was approved, it's very easy to add features and even move the features around.

Downtown revitalization project - updated the Council on sidewalks in front of Bagley

Pecan, Deeds, Visitation Center now in ADA compliance.

Civic center is very hot every summer, and there have been lots of calls about it. Steps are being taken for that to improve that.

LCRA'Steps Forward' will be here April 12th after the eclipse. This will help clean up after the expected tourist surge.

Mr. Edmonson updated the Council on Chase Pecan. The poles are in there waiting for transformers to get in with water and wastewater.

Parks Department has two new employees.

Sheepdog Trials will be February 28th through March 3rd. You bring your own dogs.

Total Solar Eclipse Meeting March 4th at the Civic Center 6-7:30 p.m. An expert on the eclipse from Hill CountryAlliance will be the guest speaker. City Manager Edmonson also gave him updates on steps the city is taking to help things be more safe during the eclipse and the expected tourism numbers.

LCRA Hondo Powell has been helping with ideas on raising money for the Show Barn. Other reports Scott Glaze: water leak on Wallace today because the lines were rotten. Working on that at the time of this meeting. TxDOT has plans to replace the lines years ago but that has not happened yet.

Mr. Glaze also gave updates on Park improvements.

City Council meetings are open to the public. You are welcome and encouraged to attend.

The next City Council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, March 12th, at City Hall.