Mayor Mary Jo Dylla

Councilmen Francisco Arevalo Justin Jones Dwayne Padalecki Walter Wyrwich Susann Baker

City Secretary Barbara Pawelek Minutes of the Regular Council Meeting

April 7, 2011

CALL MEETING TO ORDER

Mayor Mary Jo Dylla called the meeting to order at 7:29 pm.

ROLL CALL AND ESTABLISH A QUORUM

Roll call was taken. Members present were Councilman Frank Arevalo, Councilwoman Susann Baker, and Councilman Dwayne Padalecki. Councilman Justin Jones and Councilman Walter Wyrwich were absent. A quorum was established. Barbara Pawelek presided as City Secretary.

EXECUTIVE SESSION in accordance with the Texas Local Government Code

The City Council did not need to go into executive session at this time.

READING AND APPROVAL OF MINUTES

The minutes of the Regular City Council meeting for March 3, 2011 was looked over by council. Councilman Frank Arevalo moved to accept the minutes as written. Councilwoman Susann Baker seconded the motion. All were in favor; the minutes were approved.

APPROVAL OF FINANCIAL SUMMARY

There was no financial summary to approve this month. March will be approved next month.

REPORT FROM VFD

Fire Chief Larry Padalecki left a report for the fire department. In February, there were a total of 28 calls. There were 14 fire calls; 5 in the City and 9 in the County. There were 14 EMS calls; 8 in the City and 6 in the County.

1 For March, there were a total of 31 calls. There were 12 fire calls; 5 in the City and 7 in the County. There were 19 EMS calls; 12 in the City and 7 in the County.

REPORT FROM PLANNING AND ZONING

Kathy Palmer reported for the Planning and Zoning Commission. The next Planning and Zoning meeting will be on Thursday, April 21st, 2011 at 7:00 pm. They received the junk ordinance draft back from city attorney with their recommendations. She said there were very few since they are using other communities of our size ordinances as a guideline. It was decided to first bring a junk vehicle ordinance to council and then proceed according to council’s direction with the nuisance ordinance.

Mrs. Palmer reported at the first public hearing for the junk ordinance, only 3 citizens attended. We will be having another public hearing once the draft is accepted, most likely in the June timeframe. Depending on what comes out of that hearing will determine if we bring it to council or work on it more.

The subdivision ordinance has been put on hold until they are finished with the junk ordinance. We have the subdivision ordinance in place. It will just be amended to reflect changes to the zoning ordinance.

REPORT FROM CODE COMPLIANCE

Kathy Palmer reported for code compliance. Three building permits were issued in February; and in March there were 4. Mrs. Palmer said most her calls are from realtors and property owners regarding zoning questions.

The property on Graytown that has been complained about because of all the dogs in the front yard and junk, has moved to Arkansas and the property is vacant right now and under a law suit, so nothing can be done at this point; but the dogs are gone.

Debbie Stolowoski between Four Points and the city park has asked if her property could be rezoned as commercial. Kathy told her the process she would need to go through.

There was a call for a potential property owner on Mergele Road who wanted to use it for a group home for chemically dependent moms and their babies. Mrs. Palmer let her know that currently that property is residential and Ag use and it would probably have to be a rezoning request or special use request that would need to come before the BOA. She has heard nothing since.

a. 12593 LaVernia Rd-Leon McNeal –Discuss and take action

It was brought to our attention that the property owner of 12593 LaVernia Road has burned and needed to be cleaned up from the debris and junk and high weeds. Mrs. Palmer

2 sent them a certified letter explaining they had 180 days to clean it up. They chose not to and gave no response. Council said we need to let the city attorney write one now. In the ordinance it reads that a structure that has been burned 50% or more must be torn down, anything under that can be rebuilt.

CITIZENS TO BE HEARD

Barbara Harr on 12595 LaVernia Road, along with Doug Langford of 12591 LaVernia Rd are neighbors to this burnt home. She said this fire was in July 2008 and she has tried to work with the neighbor to clean it up and offered to even buy the property. They have been mowing the grass and brought photos of the property. She wanted to know what the City would do.

The Mayor told her that we sent a certified letter and gave them the 180 days. Now we will have the attorneys send a letter. The property is in our ETJ, so we need to find out from the attorney what we have the authority to do, if anything. Kathy Palmer will check with the attorney and inform Mrs. Harr and Mr. Langford.

They asked if there was anything they could do. Council explained that they could be annexed by the City if they wished if they had 100% agreement by all the citizens on LaVernia Rd to the old railroad tracks.

NEW BUSINESS

a. AUDIT REPORT BY ARMSTRONG, VAUGHAN & ASSOCIATES FOR 2009-2010

The Mayor moved them up on the agenda so they would not have to sit through the whole meeting. Phil Vaughan, with Armstrong, Vaughan and Associates reported for the fiscal year 2009-2010. Mr. Vaughan met with the Mayor and City Secretary last week and went over the audit in detail. He briefly went over the audit with city council at the meeting and said that the Mayor and City Secretary are very organized and do a good job with the day to day transactions. All they do is put the report together for the City. He said the City is in really great shape. He said he knows the City has more projects coming up this year but we have a healthy fund balance to cover those. The Mayor thanked him for the report.

OLD BUSINESS

A. ROADS

1. GENERAL ROAD MAINTENANCE

Councilman Justin Jones apologized for not being able to be here tonight. The Mayor said the tractor has finished the shredding and has been serviced and will be going to Ron Mills for spraying within the next couple of weeks.

3 Councilman Jones is in the process of getting bids on a couple of projects and will give more details at the next city council meeting.

B. CITY PARK

Councilman Padalecki said they started on two of the cabanas. He said they are made out of galvanized material so it will last forever. He wanted to personally thank Richard Dzierzanowski and Walter Wyrwich for helping on the cabanas.

They are currently waiting for the people who put their sprinkler system in to give us a bid to get water out to the north loop of our walking track so they can plant more trees.

He said council each has a floor plan of the rest rooms. He asked council to look it over and give and changes or ideas so we can make the changes and put it out to bid.

Councilwoman Baker asked if the next phase of the sidewalks will be done anytime soon? Councilman Padalecki said no because of funds. The septic tank for the rest rooms will take up much of the budgeted money. He said the doors will lock at a certain time and the lights will be motion so they won’t stay on. He said we want to do it very similar to the CYO and the ball park. Councilwoman Baker said we have two pads left and someone is interested in purchasing another bench. She said she may order both benches, one in honor of Sarah Wiatrek. She said when the next phase is poured; we need to do more pads for the benches.

NEW BUSINESS

B. ADOPT UDATED BUILDING CODES

Kathy Palmer said we have two building codes we need to adopt relative to the International Building Code. One is the International Residential Code, which is specifically one and two family homes and town homes under 3 stories, is what the code covers relative to the scope within the code itself. The International Building Code covers everything else. It could be commercial, multi families, non residential, just a variety of different things. The reason they are separated is so that way, the scope could be incorporated into the ordinances so there would be no question as to what they covered. They are the 2006 International Codes which what we have been using as a City through Bureau Veritas since 2005. Bureau Veritas strongly recommended that we incorporate the International Fire Codes, the International Plumbing Codes, the International Mechanical Codes and the National Electric Code. They did not recommend that we use the 2009 Residential Building Code because it requires that all new residences have a fire sprinkler system in them, which the 2006 does not.

The reason we need to repeal the 1999 Ordinance, which the verbage is included in this ordinance, is because the 1999 Ordinance reference codes are no longer in existence since the 2006 Ordinance has been adopted.

4 Councilman Dwayne Padalecki moved to adopt the Ordinances of the 2006 edition of the building codes. Ordinance 1102 adopts the 2006 Edition of the Residential Code; Ordinance 1103 adopts the International Building Code 2006 Edition. Councilwoman Susann Baker seconded the motion. All were in favor; the new codes were approved and adopted.

C. CANCEL CITY ELECTIONS

The Mayor read the Certification of Unopposed Candidates, and thereby read the Order of Cancellation for the City Election which would have been held on May 14, 2011. The following candidates have been certified as unopposed and are hereby elected as follows:

Dwayne Padalecki Council member Walter Wyrwich Council member Francisco Arevalo Council member

A copy of this order will be posted on Election Day at the St. Hedwig City Hall.

Councilwoman Susann Baker wanted to clarify that the positions as stated above for council seats were up for re-election and it was posted in the Wilson County News and on the website, as well as the post office and here at the city hall. No one signed up to run besides the incumbents; therefore we have to cancel the city election. This has nothing to do with the Bexar County elections; it is strictly for city council elections.

Councilwoman Susann Baker moved to cancel the City Elections, Ordinance 1101, which was to be held on Saturday, May 14, 2011. Councilman Frank Arevalo seconded the motion. All were in favor; the election was cancelled.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

 We want to thank MD Systems for the Spring Cleanup Day. Our maintenance man, Kenneth Mihalski said a lot of people showed up and they did another quality job cleaning up afterwards.  The Mayor wanted to thank Henry Cuellar’s office for donating a new flag for our flag pole!  Mayor Dylla and Councilman Padalecki attended the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for the new High School. Mr. Patterson wanted them to extend his thanks to all the citizens who helped pay for the bonds. The new school was built under budget. Councilman Padalecki wanted to congratulate Mr. Patterson for a job well done. He encouraged everyone to go by and tour the school. He said the facilities are very nice.

5 AGENDA FOR NEXT REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING May 5, 2011 at 7:30 PM

1. Call Meeting to Order 2. Swear in City Council Members 3. Roll call & Establish a Quorum 4. Reading and Approval of Minutes 5. Approval of Financial Summary 6. Report from VFD 7. Report from Planning & Zoning Commission 8. Report from Code Compliance a. 12593 LaVernia Road-Leon McNeal-abandoned structure and non compliance 9. Citizens to be Heard 10. Old Business a. Roads b. City Park 11. New Business 12. Announcements 13. Determine Agenda for next meeting 14. Adjournment

Councilwoman Susann Baker moved to adjourn the meeting. Councilman Frank Arevalo seconded the motion. All were in favor; the meeting was adjourned at 8:15 pm.

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