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Minutes TC 03/16/1999MINUTES OF THE REGULAR TOWN COUNCIL MEETING/ FOR THE TOWN OF TROPHY CLUB MARCH 16, 1999 STATE OF TEXAS § COUNTY OF DENTON § The Town Council of the Town of Trophy Club met in regular session on Tuesday, March 16, 1999. The meeting was held within the boundaries of the Town and was open to the public. COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Marshall Engelbeck Mayor Pro Tem Kay Pratt Council Member Kevin Carr Council Member Ben Brewster Council Member COUNCIL MEMBERS ABSENT: Susan H. McCabe Council Member STAFF AND GUEST(S) PRESENT: Donna Welsh Town Manager Diane Cockrell Town Secretary Cathy Morgas Planning Director Bill LeGrand Director of Public Works David Miller Chief, DPS CALL TO ORDER. Mayor Pro Tem Engelbeck called the meeting to order at 7:03 p.m., noting that a quorum was present. INVOCATION. Pearl Ford, President, Community Improvement Association, gave the invocation. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE AMERICAN FLAG AND TEXAS FLAG. Bill LeGrand, Director of Public Works, led the pledges. PAGE 2 Town Council/Regular Session March 16, 1999 CITIZEN PRESENTATIONS: THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR CITIZENS TO ADDRESS THE COUNCIL ON ANY MATTER WHETHER OR NOT IT IS POSTED ON THE AGENDA. THE COUNCIL IS NOT PERMITTED TO TAKE ACTION ONANY PRESENTA TION MADE TO THE COUNCIL AT THIS TIME CONCERNING ANITEM NOT LISTED ON THE AGENDA. THE COUNCIL WILL HEAR PRESENTATION ON SPECIFIC AGENDA ITEMS PRIOR TO THE COUNCIL ADDRESSING THOSE ITEMS. No citizen presentations were made at this time. TOWN COUNCIL TO DISCUSS AND ADOPT AN ORDINANCE OF THE TOWN OF TROPHY CLUB, TEXAS FINDING, AFTER REASONABLE NOTICE AND HEARING, THAT LONE STAR GAS COMPANY'S RATES AND CHARGES WITHIN THE TOWN SHOULD BE CHANGED; DETERMINING JUST AND REASONABLE RATES; REJECTING ALL PROPOSED AUTOMATIC ADJUSTMENT CLAUSES; PROVIDING FOR RECOVERY OF RATE CASE EXPENSES; ADOPTING A MOST FAVORED NATIONS CLAUSE; PRESERVING REGULATORY RIGHTS OF THE TOWN; ORDERING THAT THIS ORDINANCE BE SERVED ON LONE STAR GAS COMPANY; PROVIDING FOR REPEAL OF CONFLICTING ORDINANCES. James Johnson of Lone Star Gas asked for this item to be tabled until after a meeting on Thursday, March 18, 1999. Interim Town Attorney Pam Liston is in agreement with tabling this item and return it to the April 6, 1999 Council meeting. Council Member Carr made the motion to table. Council Member Pratt seconded; motion unanimously passed. TOWN COUNCIL TO DISCUSS AND ADOPT A RESOLUTION OF THE TOWN OF TROPHY CLUB, TEXAS, REQUESTING THE TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION TO EXPEDITE ITS PLAN FOR THE WIDENING OF STATE HIGHWAY 114 FROM INTERSTATE 35W TO HIGHWAY 287; PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE. Diane Cockrell, Town Secretary, read a fax that Commissioner Carter sent the Town Council: "I am delighted to see you are considering a Resolution supporting the accelerated plan for improvements to State Highway 114 west of Interstate 35W on tonight's agenda. I would like to be there to support passage of the Resolution, but I will be attending the Area Soccer play-offs in support of Northwest's Districts Championship Team. I am passing along a copy of TxDot - S.H. 114 Future Construction Projects for your information. I hope this will be helpful to you." After discussion, Council Member Brewster made the motion to approve the resolution. Council Member Carr seconded; motion passed unanimously. TOWN COUNCIL TO DISCUSS AND TAKE APPROPRIATE ACTION REGARDING THE APPOINTMENT OF DARIN S. DAVIS TO THE PUBLIC RELATIONS COMMITTEE. Council Member Brewster mentioned that Mr. Davis lives in the Lakes; he started raising funds to rebuild the west entrance. Mr. Davis presented a check for $8,000 to the Public Relations Committee for this project. Council Member Brewster would also like to give some press to Texas National Bank, and the vice president that is responsible for that branch, Mr. Badgewell, for to signing that check and presenting Mr. Davis to give to the Public Relations Committee. It is an outstanding first contribution. Perhaps an article and picture of Mr. Badgewell presenting the check could be placed in the City's newsletter. PAGE 3 Town Council/Regular Session March 16, 1999 Council Member Brewster made the motion to appoint Darin Davis to the Public Relations Committee. Council Member Pratt seconded; motion passed unanimously. STAFF AND COMMITTEE REPORTS. Bill LeGrand, Director of Public Works, reported they are working on the budget. The Highway Department will replace the removed trees with red oaks along highway 114. One side of town is giving glowing reports on Marcus Cable, and the other side of town is still not happy. Overall 60% of the people are not happy. David Miller, Police Chief, wanted to remind everyone that race weekend is coming up and will be March 26-28. We do not anticipate any problems. We do not anticipate closing any intersections and will have extra officers on duty. Cathy Morgas, Planning Director, reported on the Corp Property Task Force. She has a list of names that she is calling to decide what our needs are and what the cost for our needs are. We would like to have the approximate costs by March 31, 1999. She also reported the Franchise Task Force still has only one applicant. They would like to have applicants with experience, but would welcome anyone that would like to be on that task force. The budget will be discussed at the next P&Z meeting. Most of their budget is dependent on whatever the developer is doing, such as developing a program based on both the Vision 2008 and the comprehensive plan. Ms. Morgans also reported the landscaping is being developed at the Lakes and it looks great. We still need to work with the Methodist Church. The Bank will be getting their landscaping done by the end of March. One thing Ms. Morgas would like to suggest, is either through the Public Relations Committee or the Beautification Committee, that possibly contact all of the commercial properties in town to let them know that the Kaleidoscope of Homes is coning in and whatever they could do to make their property look good would be really helpful. The fencing along Indian Creek will be discussed at the next P&Z meeting. Mr. Hamper feels that the fences belong to the property owners. More discussion is needed in this area. Marcus Cable will be here on March 29 to demonstrate their program from 6-9 p.m. and to answer any questions. On Monday night, April 5, 1999, Direct TV will be here to demonstrate their programs. Marcus Cable will put a permanent cable in the Council room since they will be needing cable that evening. Diane Cockrell, Town Secretary, asked the Council if it would be sufficient to receive project reports once a month to keep you up-to-date, or would you prefer twice a month reports. Projects reports will continue to given to the Council twice a month. Interviews have been schedules for six Attorney firms; five will be given on March 31 st and the other will be scheduled at a later date. Filings for Town Council are: Mayor: Larry Hutto and Marshall Engelbeck; Council Member: Scott Smith, Kevin Carr, Billy Hughes, Jon Livers, Barb Tweedie, and Neil Twomey. PAGE 4 Town Council/Regular Session March 16, 1999 Dave Robison, Finance Committee, reported that the finance committee meets tomorrow night, March 17, 1999 and is working on a method to finance the loop road without increasing taxes. They should have a report ready that will outline how this will be. Barb Tweedie, Public Relations Committee, reported that the Committee will be meeting tomorrow night, March 17, 1999 and the are trying to contact every business in Trophy Club to let them know about the Kaleidoscope and why we are doing our beautification. We are taking out an ad in the Kaleidoscope Magazine and we are working on a video and anyone who would like to come to the meeting tomorrow night is welcome. We should have reports on every project we have going to date. Pam Liston, Interim Town Attorney, is looking forward to coming to the interview and she is honored to be asked back and is looking forward to seeing everyone there. Pearl Ford, Zoning Board of Adjustment, gave names to Cathy Morgas for this committee. This board has had a hard time having a meeting because they have a hard time gettng a quorum. Donna Welsh, Town Manager, reported that TxDot decided to discontinue our wall that they had promised to do around the west end of Trophy Club. Senator Jane Nelson sent a letter to the District Engineer that this was important to all three communities and was a commitment on TxDot's part and they need to continue the wall or do something for us. Senator Nelson's office has turned this over to the environmental department and State RepresentativeMary Denny is really committed to making TxDot follow through. Town Manager Welsh also reported in regards to the budget, Jim Buxton is sending budget calendars to the committees. Negotiations are going very positively with Westlake and the Board designated for this agreement will start meeting in a joint meeting in April. We did get the paper work in for the matching grant for one of our parks areas and it has been turned over to our parks and recreation. PRESENTATIONS BY COUNCIL. Council Member Pratt reported on a meeting with the parks and the schools. It was a very cooperative meeting. Council Member Carr wanted to discuss the beautification of the town. The Methodist Church has a dumpster that is very visible and we need to pursue this. They may be violation of the fence ordinance by having a picket fence behind their church. We need to pursue this. Please have John Harbin correct the sign where the word "Frustration" is misspelled on the race weekend burma-shave signs posted on Highway 114. PAGE 5 Town Council/Regular Session March 16, 1999 Mayor Pro Tem Engelbeck asked Cathy about the homeowners association and CIA confusion. Jim Brisco is going to get with the residents. She has also given information to the CIA regarding this. Council Member Brewster stated that they are now a full converter box installation household. They have survived it and it's installed, and you can't go into any room in his house, point the handheld device and not turn on the converter box. He just wanted to point out a couple of pluses. This system seems to be solid; it stays on and you can complete programs if you want to watch them. With this system, you get a script of the shows that are showing regardless if you turn to a commercial. He feels there are a lot of features yet to be explored, but it is stable and he feels it is looking good. It's a superior service to what we used to have. Related to that, he wants to know the status of an upgraded character generator for the public channel. We have a lot of neat stuff to get out to the public. He would like to see some kind of date for this change by the next meeting. Council Member Brewster stated that Millenium approached our town last year regarding their franchise. This is a one-stop shop effort. His question to the Mayor and Town Manager can we have the Council do some research for us so that we understand who we have to let the franchise agreement especially where it is a startup with no track record, for example, background check, balance sheet and income sheet, installations, servicing accounts, what kind of references and how long the references have been in line. If we can't get that basic information, he feels it is inappropriate to allow any franchiser to come to us and request the use of our right-of-ways. Also, what legal tools do we have to make request of them. Donna Welsh and Cathy Morgas are investigating performance in other towns. ADJOURN REGULAR SESSION. Council Member Brewster made the motion to adjourn at 8:42 p.m. Council Member Carr seconded; motion passed unanimously. Mayor Pro Tem (Seal) Town Secretary A31699DC