January 7th City Council Meeting and Budget Priority Workshop
Items include reviewing budget priorities from last year, how to fairly fund non-profits, and zoning issues. 👏
Below are important items for the council meeting and workshop on Tuesday, January 7th. The full agenda can be found here. My opinions are in italic. Any errors are my own and not that of the city.
Budget Priority Workshop at 4:00 PM
Council will discuss priorities for the 2024-2025 fiscal year. This allows Megan Antrim, the city manager, to center the budget on completing the items. The previous year’s (FY 23-24) council priorities can be found here. Progress was made on many of last year’s items, with some being wholly completed.
I’ll be creating a ‘Chat’ in the Substack app to discuss these priorities. I’d love to hear what you think are priorities. I’ll be sharing more information from the Substack app this year. If interested, download the app to receive notifications.
City Council Meeting at 5:30 PM
Discuss application process for non-profits to receive city funds [M. Antrim]. Three non-profits currently receive city funds, with the amount from last year listed in parentheses - the Alpine Public Library ($45,000), the Big Bend Family Crisis Center ($9,425), and the Children’s Advocacy Center of the Big Bend ($5,000). The city also donated funds to Alpine ISD to support the new day care. As there is no current policy on distributing funds, other non-profits have also requested funds. This is difficult because organizations receiving funds need the stability of knowing they will receive funding year over year. One idea could be bench-marking distributions to the amount of sales tax coming in. Sales tax typically goes up, meaning the amount should increase each year. This increase could cover inflation for current distributions, or be given to other non-profits. The city currently brings in approximately 2 million in sales tax, and distributes ~$60,000 annually to non-profits. This comes out to around 2.5-3% of sales tax receipts.
Discuss property owner concerns about zoning issues associated with the existing City of Alpine zoning map [R. Stephens]. Council members have received questions of conflicting zones for certain residents’ properties. The property owners believe their properties were zoned as one type in the past, but do not show that current zone per the approved zoning map. I don’t have further information on this item, but I’m looking forward to learning more at the meeting.
Approve Ordinance 2024-11-01, an ordinance authorizing the vacation, abandonment, and sale of the unimproved portions of the property below [M. Antrim]. Council will discuss selling the land in the highlighted red sections below. This property was to be used for infrastructure if the land was developed. The new owners would like the full section of land, so they are offering $30,000 to purchase the city owned sections. I believe the owners will be attending this meeting to go over their ideas for this property and to answer council questions.
Quick Notes on this Agenda
Council will discuss choosing the host for the Mountain Country Christmas Fair sponsorship application process for 2025-2026. I believe non-profits have asked to rotate the host of this event so that others can have access to the event for fundraising purposes.
The Dollar General on N Hwy 118, heading to Fort Davis, is renewing their malt beverage license. Council will be issuing a special use permit so they can move forward with the process.
Council will approve GoRail’s request for a letter of support to TxDOT. GoRail will work with TxDOT to expand railroad projects in Texas.