81st Year No. 34 • 817-246-2473 • 7820 Wyatt Drive, White Settlement, Texas 76108 • suburban-newspapers.com • August 26 , 2021 Benbrook City Council Action Council Approves Interlocal Agreement with BWA by John English The Benbrook city council meeting on Aug. 19 was conducted in mously. person. Mayor Jerry Dittrich called the meeting to order. An invoca - The next item was to conduct the first public hearing to consider tion was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. adoption of an ordinance continuing a curfew for minors. In 1994, Time was allowed for citizen comments, but there were none. the City of Benbrook enacted a curfew for residents under the age of The minutes from the council meeting held on Aug. 5 were then 17. The curfew is 11 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, and 12:01 a.m. on approved. Friday and Saturday. State law requires that the curfew be reviewed The first item was a proclamation for Vincent Hancock, a ever three years to determine if the law should be continued, abol - Benbrook resident who was the 2020 Tokyo Olympic gold medal ished or modified. It requires two public hearings, the first of which winner in the Men’s Skeet Event. This was Hancock's third Olympic took place on Aug. 19 and the second of which will take place at the gold medal. Sept. 2 meeting. Mayor Dittrich proclaimed Aug. 19, 2021 to be forever known as “The Benbrook Police Department believes that the curfew ordi - Vincent Hancock Day in the City of Benbrook. nance has assisted the department in late-night crime prevention,” Hancock received a standing ovation from the council members Police Chief David Babcock said. and then said a few words about the amount of training that went The meeting was then opened to a public hearing, but there were into preparing for the Olympics and the difficulties of competing in no comments. spite of COVID. The next item of the evening was a proposal to approve an “This is my third gold medal, and I will be going for a fourth in Interlocal Agreement with the Benbrook Water Authority for a Paris in just a few years,” Hancock said. “Hopefully I can stand back sewer line relocation project and acquisition of 0.45 acres of right- in here in front of you, and maybe just maybe, we can have another of-way and slope easement located near the corner of U.S. 377 Vincent Hancock Day...thank you all so much. This more than I ever (Benbrook Blvd.) and Old Benbrook Road. Staff proposed approval deserved.” of the project to be funded by the Benbrook Economic Development The next item of the evening was to accept the finance report for Corporation for $70,000. The motion passed unanimously. the period ending on July 31. The general fund had fiscal year-to- Next up was a public hearing on a property tax rate for date for revenues of $20,607,253 with expenditures of $15,937,744. 2021/2022. The No-New-Revenue tax rate for this year is The finance report was accepted unanimously. $0.610617, the voter-approval tax rate is $0.660771 and the pro - Next up was a proposal to adopt a resolution approving the nego - posed tax rate is $0.617500. Mayor Dittrich opened up a public tiated settlement between the Atmos Cities Steering Committee hearing, but there were no comments. (ACSC) and the Atmos Energy Corporation Mid-Tex Division Next was the first public hearing on a proposed budget for fiscal regarding the 2021 Rate Mechanism filing. The Rate Review year 2021/2022. The current tax rate for this year is $0.62250 and Mechanism (RRM) tariff was adopted by the ACSC in 2007 as an the proposed tax rate for next year is $0.61750. The revenues and alternative to the Gas Reliability Infrastructure Program (GRIP), the transfers in for the general fund were $21,354,964, debt service fund statutory provision that allows Atmos to bypass the City of were $1,924,494 and the total operating funds were $23,279,458. Benbrook's rate regulatory authority to increase its rates annually to Mayor Dittrich opened up a public hearing, but there were no com - recover capital investments. Since 2007, the original RRM tariff has ments. been modified several times and in April 2021, Atmos filed a request The final item was a proposal to adopt and ordinance fixing and for $43.4 million in additional revenues on a system-wide basis. levying an Ad Valorem tax for 2021/2022. Staff recommended that Following negotiations, the ACSC's Executive Committee City Council adopt the ad valorem tax rate of $0.6175 per $100 val - agreed to recommend a rate increase of $22.78 million. The monthly uation for fiscal year 2021-22. The motion passed unanimously. impact per residential customer is estimated to be $1.28 or 2.2 per - Time was then allowed for citizen, council member and staff cent, and per commercial customer is $4.03 or 1.61 percent. The comments, and the meeting was adjourned. effective date would be Dec. 1, 2021. The motion passed unani - Suburban Newspapers, Inc. August 26, 2021, PAGE 2 From the Sports Desk with John English Benbrook MHS and Western Hills HS Football Preview As the dog days of summer draw to a close and the school year expect that we will be better this season. We need to play like a team starts back up, local sports fans are gearing up for Friday night foot - that has a lot of experience coming back.” ball and two potentially-good seasons. Expect Kennedale, Benbrook and Dunbar to be the Cougars Both Western Hills and Benbrook reached the post-season in toughest district opponents this season. 2020, and there is reason to believe that both teams could repeat Over at Benbrook, the Bobcats also reached the playoffs in 2020, upon last season's success. and coach Cody Slater said he is encouraged by how his team is practicing, as well as a Herculean effort Benbrook gave against the defending district champions in 2020. “We are excited about how things are shaping up,” Slater said. “We are very young on both sides of the ball. On offense, we return four starters and on defense we return six starters. We finished the season as the district runner up taking the district champion Kennedale Wildcats to overtime. We ended up losing 16-13.” Offensively, Roderick Hodge (WR/RB), Ralon Anderson (guard), Keith Lamb (guard) and Jackson Littlepage (tight end) will lead the way and defensively, Jaydon Montalvo (defensive end), Littlepage-(defensive end), Jeremiah Gardner (nose guard), Harry Gonzales (linebacker), Gage Toberny (linebacker), and Roderick Hodge (safety) will set the tone. Slater said the objectives for 2021 are three-fold for the Bobcats. “One of our goals to gauge a successful season is to always make the playoffs,” Slater said. “We want to set our self-up to be playing photo by Cindy Quillen Kennedale on Nov. 6 for the district championship. We are also The Cougars reached the playoffs for the first time in 10 years shooting for our first ever playoff victory in the history of the last season, and coach Blake Moilan said he was pleased with the school.” way his team competed. Expect Kennedale, Western Hills and Dunbar to be the Cougars “We felt like we played well, and the team worked hard to get toughest district opponents this season. better as the season went on,” Moilan said. “We have several returning players on both sides of the field. We had a pretty good off- season and we are happy with the numbers Suburban we have seen so far this season.” Key returners for Western Hills include Newspapers, Inc. quarterback Keyon Butler, running backs Jason Green and Tyreke Lewis, receivers ~ Veteran Owned ~ Johnavon Polk, Maji Francis, and DK Mcgriff and linemen Rj Moilan, Angel Ortiz, Jacorie Williams, Keshawn Brookins. Publishers of the All four linemen are returning starters for the Cougars. Benbrook News, River Oaks News and Defensively, linemen D Shun Hawkins, Kenton Johnson, linebackers Cristian Soto, White Settlement Bomber News Caleb Clark, Donte Parker Garrett and defen - Publisher: Boyden Underwood, [email protected] sive backs Aaron Martin, Aneas Funches Editor: Emily Moxley, [email protected] should lead the way for Western Hills. Classifieds: Vee Horn, [email protected] The Cougars return a total of 16 starters (nine offensive, seven defensive) and Moilan said he is optimistic about his team's chances 7820 Wyatt Drive, Fort Worth, TX 76108 in 2021. “A successful season is building on last 817-246-2473 season and continuing to improve in both http://www.suburban-newspapers.com statistics and wins,” Moilan said. “We Suburban Newspapers, Inc. 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