Brownwood News – The Brownwood City Council met on Tuesday morning, April 14, via video conference hosted on ZOOM. Highlights from the meeting:
- The Council approved, on First Reading, an update to an Ordinance which prohibits dogs in the Bert V. Massey Sports Complex while league sanctioned baseball games, softball games and tournaments are being played.
- City staff gave reports on COVID-19 related operations and response.
- City Finance Director, Walter Middleton, reported that a decrease in sales tax collections will impact the city budget by an estimated $600,000 to $1.2 million.
- The city’s cash position as of March 31 was $8,153,000 which is 82 days of operations. That is actually $1,759,000 higher than the city’s position at this point last year.
- The city is well situated to weather the COVID-19 storm this fiscal year but putting together a budget for next fiscal year will be a challenge, Middleton said.
- Water sales are up by 17% because base fees were increased for this fiscal year which may partially offset some of the loss of sales tax revenue.
- Customers who are having financial issues due to loss of job, who are having trouble paying their utility bill, are urged to contact Brownwood City Hall and make an effort to work out a plan to pay.
- The City has put a hold on seasonal hiring.
- The City has put a hold on any new Capital Improvement Projects, simply completing projects already underway.
- The City has put a hold on training and travel unless the training can be done online.
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In other business, the Council accepted the donation of a Wheelchair Swing from Tim Schoen of GreenGo Feeders at 3100 Stephen F. Austin Drive. The wheelchair swing is all steel construction, any size wheelchair will fit on it (children and adult), has a 600 pound capacity, no pinch points and is portable so that it may be moved to different city parks. The Council thanked Mr. Schoen for his donation.
The Council approved termination of the Fabis Park agriculture lease as a result of a fence being in poor condition and beyond repair on the property. Lessee is not requesting a refund on money he has paid to the city the past two years, just a termination of the contract.
The Council approved the appointment of Minessa Mesic, Brownwood resident, to the Board of Directors of the Corinne T. Smith Animal Shelter.