The Ellis County Press: Council approves road construction; Mayor Pro Tem appointed

Council approves road construction; Mayor Pro Tem appointed
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Megan Gray on 06/09/2011 09:42:00


WILMER – Council appointed Hector Pena as Mayor Pro Tem during the first
council meeting of the newly appointed Wilmer City Council Thursday, June 2.
Mayor Jeff Steele was caught mid vote saying the motion had failed for Pena’s
appointment before being interrupted.
“I made a mistake and didn’t see the other hands, my apologies,” said
Steele.
Citizen Lorrie McDonald would not accept Steele made a mistake. After much back
and forth discussion, she was asked to leave by Police Chief Victor Kemp for
disturbing the council while in session.
McDonald refused to leave after Kemp requested her to several times.
After the disturbance, council was able to move on to local business discussing
the major need of street repairs within the city.
Councilman Robert Turner said the roads at Pecan and Cottonwood Valley need to
be looked at.
“When it rains, water was backed up four houses from the corner,” said
Turner.
Steele said his first thought is sewage and he wants to look into sewage
problems first.
Councilwoman Candy Madrigal claimed she had citizen complaints from the same
area as well.
Steele told council there was $92,000 worth of funds available from a Community
Development Block Grant to use on road projects this next year as well as house
demolition. “The house across from me has been vacant for 15 years and it’s
a hazard to our children,” said Turner.
“I would like to see that torn down.”
Pena asked about the possibility of relocating funds and Steele said federal
grant money is hard to relocate, including lots of red tape being involved.
Council agreed there was a bigger urgency to repair streets than demolishing
vacant homes and allocating 90 percent of the money to street repair and 10
percent to demolishing homes.
Streets being allocated for repairs for the 2011 fiscal year are: Blackwell,
Ferris Ave, Dogwood and Redbud.