Home Departments Administration City Manager City Manager Blog
April 28, 2021, 9:08 A. M.
Dear Citizens,
Kind regards,
Erik
GA-34 takes effect on Wednesday, March 10th.
GA-34 provides the following:
1. A full opening of Texas businesses, without capacity limitations, except in areas in areas of Texas where COVID-19 hospitalization cases exceed 15 percent of the area’s hospital census (more on this below).
2. Removes the statewide mask mandate.
3. Local government officials may not issue orders mandating masks unless the 15 percent hospitalization threshold is reached.
4. Prohibits a local government official from issuing orders restricting business capacity, unless the 15 percent hospitalization threshold is reached.
Areas of Texas where COVID-19 hospitalization cases exceed 15 percent of the area’s hospital census:
Under GA-34, in areas of Texas where COVID-19 hospitalization cases exceed 15 percent of the area’s hospital census, the county judge may issue a local emergency order restricting meeting space, restaurants, bars, retail areas, pools, and gym capacity to 50 percent maximum occupancy.
Additionally, the county judge in areas of high hospitalization may require individuals to wear a face covering, but the county may not impose a penalty for failure to do so.
Currently, only the El Paso area is an area of high hospitalization.
GA-34 allows businesses to enact and enforce its own policies related to mitigating COVID-19.
January 4, 2021, 2:15 P.M.
Dear Citizens,
- Personnel Policy Refresh taking the best of the 2016 policy and 2018 policy and combining into a new policy that works for the employees and community
- 36 Employees left City employment in FY18-19, 21 Employees left City employment in FY19-20 --- 41.7% reduction
- Continued progress with Leadership Training for our department heads, managers and supervisors with a focus on goal setting
- Renewed focus on visibility in community through: patrols, community activities like Red Ribbon week, and the Chat with the Chief series
- Implemented new pay structure plan to reward employees for advancements and help reduce our officer and dispatcher turnover
- Continued work and demonstrated professionalism through challenges with BCSO and former City Attorney
- Working with Council on Ordinances related to law enforcement: noise, traffic speed, coin-operated businesses
- Improved performance on Case file preparation and cross work with other agencies
- Provided training and improved performance on cash handling across all City departments
- Developed Grant program and added new P/T employee to help manage the opportunities for City (good year-end readout of accomplishments at Dec 1st City Council meeting)
- Managed Utility Billing through Covid-19 to provide balance between citizens being current on bills and cut-offs. Good communication back to Council and Community.
- Worked across all departments to coordinate RFP process and ensure City stays in compliance with government standards - this had been a gap
- 102 City Streets sealcoated (100+ to be completed in 2021)
- 6 Streets, Multiple Parking lots and 6 Alleys rebuilt with HotMix by Jarret Dirt Works (40 street blocks to be completed in 2021)
- Managed through several quarantine situations with staff and continued to keep up with Park work and Street work
- Implemented a Recreation Program with four seasonal employees to offset the pool closure due to Covid concerns. Program ran for six weeks before the first wave of Covid impacted CoA.
- Kept parks open and in good shape for citizens to participate in outside activities as a response to Covid-19
- Implemented Code Enforcement program in March 2020 and began issuing citations (which had not been routinely given in 1.5 years)
- Implemented permitting program with new forms and additional staff member to help facilitate timeliness of transactions
- Work with AISD on reviews and approvals for the new High School build. A project like this would typically take a full-time employee. We are completing with existing building official who is also performing all other inspections in community for build projects.
- Wastewater treatment plant improvements (clarifier, belt press, aerator in process). Currently, all operational violations have been remediated. Only outlier is an Administrative violation with the operator licensing need.
- Built field staff to match needs on: tap installations, routine work tickets, meter reading, daily residual reads necessary to fullfill TCEQ requirements. No operational violations on Nov 2020 inspection by TCEQ on the public water system.
- Rebuilt SCADA system for better visibility of water across the City and in an effort to mitigate the waste of water by overflows.
- Met our DIMP numbers with our Gas Utility and continue to work on infrastructure improvements monthly.
- Worked effectively with Humane Society and local veterinarians on a TNR program to help decrease the number of feral cats in the community
- Implementing a Euthenasia program (alongside TNR program) to help decrease the need to euthanize any animals.
- Another record year with Municipal Solid Waste aversion to our landfill by having a highly functioning Recycle Center. 515 tons of MSW averted through November 2020. This lengthens the lifespan of our landfill
- Working with SRSU and local environmental groups on plan to restore some natural vegetation and bird life through the Poets Grove, Creek and Kokernot Lodge properties. Project will also implement the usage of effluent water from our wastewater treatment plant.
- Two major projects approved and in final stages of engineering: Lighting Project and Sealcoat Project. The projects combined will invest another $1.5M into the Alpine Casparis Municipal Airport
- Hired a new Supervisor at the end of the year and anticipate this will give us greater insight into our fuel pricing, fly-in strategies and general advertising of our local airport
- Refresh of the Visitor Center occurred under Heather Yadon this year providing an inviting venue that has seen traffic increase two-fold.
- Implemented safe practices for tourists and employees during the pandemic
- Kicked off the Midweek Music and Mercantile this fall to promote an outdoor series of events to celebrate the community, vendors and musicians.
- Significant parking and alley improvements around the Center.
- Did not shut down offices due to Pandemic - facilitated remote work and safe workspaces (ie - installed walk-up window at Utility Billing/City Hall).
- Utilized the City website to distribute information relative to business, resident and community concerns through the pandemic. Continue to build content that is relevant and useful for the public.
- Police Chief worked diligently with business owners through early local Emergency Ordinances to help ensure understanding and answer questions as needed.
- City continued to look for ways to keep businesses open: outdoor venues (open sidewalk dining), mask wearing, signage, etc...
2020
May 13, 2020, 5:30 P.M.
Dear Citizens,
Dear Citizens,
Positive results: 137
Recovered: 37
Deaths: 1
Brewster County: 14.8 cases per 1000 people
Texas average: 5.5 cases per 1000 people
Total tests done: 2412
Negative results: 1422
June 24, 2020, 9:00 A.M.
Dear Citizens,
June 18, 2020, 9:30 A.M.
June 15, 2020, 11:30 A.M.
Dear Citizens,
June 12, 2020, 9:00 A.M.
May 29, 2020, 3:30 P.M.
Dear Citizens,
May 13, 2020, 5:30 P.M.
Dear Citizens,
Today marks 12 days since our restaurants and retail stores started re-opening. Judge Cano issued the following press release late yesterday (https://www.cityofalpine.com/Press%20Release-%20COVID-19%20Report%20&%20Attestation.pdf ) with the attestation to allow the restaurants and retail store to expand to 50% occupancy.
Across our community there has been concern raised to our Council and Staff relative to the probability of heightened Covid-19 cases as we begin to re-open. This is a repeated concern shared by many and our Council has worked hard to balance the needs of our businesses in the community and the health/safety needs of our citizens. The following article was shared with me this week ( https://www.erinbromage.com/post/the-risks-know-them-avoid-them ) and is one of several articles out there speaking to safe ways and methods to open businesses and other public venues.
We did get the rest of the results from the initial 180+ tests between Brewster and Presidio Counties with only one positive test. That person has since recovered. Overall, this is positive news for our Counties.
This past Sunday Ft. Davis (Sunday, May 10th) had 71 people tested. Presidio had another 17 people tested on Monday, May 11th). Marfa has testing coming up Thursday May 14th.
These series of tests will continue to help give us a better picture of the infection rates in the Tri-County area.
The Governor's Order (GA-18) and report to Open Texas on April 27th spelled out the desire by the Governor to prohibit any local orders superseding his plan. Our Mayor and Council have honored that wish by allowing the City Emergency Order to expire on April 30, 2020 and move to help businesses open safely as spelled out in the Open Texas Guide. Our City has also taken the position to help people in need with Shopping and also provide a good set of local guides (provided by our LHA Dr. Ekta Escovar) to continue to help flatten the curve. Our City took a positive position on wearing masks and how that helps lower disease transmission. We've also had many industrious individuals in Alpine making masks and sharing with others (thank you for that).
Instead of waiting for higher level political figures to tell us what to do, we've taken the approach of being mindful in our dealings with others and pulling together sets of best practices. These are actions we can implement daily to give others around us the lowest probability of getting sick if this virus does come to Alpine in a heightened fashion.
Our restaurants have done a lot of communicating with our staff on best practices and we are grateful to the thought and commitment they are putting into Alpine and their businesses. Our hoteliers and short-term-rental operators are focused on their cleaning and turnover protocols to help ensure their guests have a positive and safe experience. Our retail stores have been working on spreading out merchandise and keeping their patrons to the smaller minimum. We appreciate these efforts. Is everyone perfect...the answer is 'no'. Most importantly we appreciate the effort to make changes and the consistent communication back to Chief Martin and his staff.
The question I hear surfacing more and more now is; 'when will we get back to normal?'. Beyond that, we hear questioning on what a 'new normal' will look like.
The answer I continue to share with staff is: 1. do your part, don't go to work or out in public if you are sick 2. wear a mask when in a public setting and 3. be mindful in social gatherings (distance and preferably outdoors). The summer makes this much easier for us.
Hats off to Chief Martin and his staff. They are a great team and have really rallied around our citizens, businesses and their safety. Hats off to our Mayor and City Council for pushing us to show care and concern for the safety of our citizens, while trying to construct ways to re-open businesses. Many thanks to Dr. Ekta Escovar for her timely work through this pandemic. She has taken on the role of LHA and worked hard to find the best solutions for our County and City.
The people of Alpine are witty, innovative and supportive of each other. Yes, change is tough...but being amongst people that are thoughtful and tenacious gives us the best probability for success.
Kind regards,
Erik
May 6, 2020, 9:15 A.M
April 28, 2020, 6:45 P.M.
April 22, 2020, 2:00 P.M.
The best overall materials for DIY face masks
Based on a combination of breathability and filtration effectiveness, the study recommended denim, bed sheets (80-120 thread count), paper towels, canvas (0.4-0.5mm thick) and shop towels for homemade masks.
Keep in mind, however, that paper towels are not washable or reusable.
The 0.4-0.5mm thick canvas material ranked as being easier to breathe through than a surgical mask, while still performing fairly well at filtering particles. But if thick fabrics aren’t available to you, the study’s data showed that 100% cotton T-shirts, layered up, are also still effective options for homemade masks. (More on this below.)
In general, natural materials are a better option than synthetic ones. Because synthetic fibers (like polyester) tend to be smooth, they don’t filter out particles as well as the rougher texture of natural fibers (like 100% cotton).
Chris Ruggia is also working with our local businesses and citizens who are making masks for donation or sale. He will be posting that information on our visitalpinetx.com site along with our Facebook distribution.
Please remember, Level 3 of the Tiered Matrix, where Council placed us last evening, requires the use of masks in Public places. The copy of that Objective Statement and Tiered Matrix is also available on our City website.
Thank you to all the participants in last evening's City Council meeting.
April 20, 2020, 2:15 P.M.
April 15, 2020, 4:15 P.M.
April 15, 2020, 2:00 P.M.
Dear Citizens,
Tax Day usually drives a frenzy of final day filings and the Post Office would be hopping with traffic. With the COVID-19 pandemic, traffic patterns have changed and the activity at the Post Office is much lighter today. I am hearing that some folks are now starting to receive their individual stimulus checks, which is a good thing.
Chief Martin continues to respond to inquiries on the shopping activities around the community. More and more people are wearing masks, gloves and looking for less busy times of the day to go and get supplies. One item that is on our radar this week is addressing the needs for haircuts and the sort. We will queue that up at our CV-Team meeting tomorrow with Judge Cano and Dr. Escovar. If the Order for Shelter at Home were to be extended beyond April 30th, we appreciate many folks would need some assistance in organizing a haircut.
We continue to have dialogue relative to the golf course now being closed. The Texas AG rendered this opinion over the weekend: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/guidance-letter-about-golf-courses-regarding-ga-14
April 9, 2020, 5:00 P.M.
Thank you all who have been diligently keeping up with the City and the County meetings and postings on our websites. We are working hard to keep the information flowing to our citizens. A big thanks to Geo Calderon who is managing our City website and gets information from staff at all hours and repurposes it to the website in a very clear and concise format.
Chief Martin and I were able to jump on the radio this afternoon to discuss several items as we head into a longer holiday weekend. Please take time to listen to the replay on KVLF or on our City website. There is good information from our Chief on social distancing - specifically at retail stores.
April 6, 2020, 4:30 P.M.
Dear Citizens,
April 3, 2020, 3:00 P.M.
https://zoom.us/j/681174115?pwd=a0VxZVJVemJXS1lTeU50RlVRSGR3UT09
Meeting ID: 681 174 115 Password: 020531
April 1, 2020, 3:00 P.M.
Dear Citizens,
As we exited March yesterday, we experienced several changes and enhanced Executive Orders from our Governor and Brewster County Judge. We posted both those orders on our website and encourage everyone to take some time and read through them. Social distancing and minimizing human interaction over the next several weeks is key to helping control the spread of COVID-19.
Chief Martin was very busy with his staff late yesterday as there seemed to be some confusion with folks about the capacities and their abilities to grocery shop. There was a resurgence of folks at the grocery stores last evening. We want to make sure our citizens know that the grocery stores will continue to remain open and it's important to keep the volume of people down within the store and spread out the shopping to help maintain social distancing. Trae Dutchover from Porter's is working with Chief and our team on steps to help ensure we limit the amount of people in the store at any given time. Porter's has also sent out guidance on having one person per household come at a time (their guidance was shared on their Facebook page).
Jennifer Stewart (Animal Control Supervisor) will be on the radio tomorrow morning (9am) to discuss our Animal Control operation along with how she, her team, the Humane Society, and our volunteers are helping manage the pet population. Please tune in to KVLF for that morning 2nd Cup of Coffee with Jennifer.
Chris Ruggia and Marci Tuck continue to work through the communication plan to help people use the tools associated with the CARES Act. We encourage business owners to engage quickly on the petitioning of these funds as they typically are a 'first come, first served'.
The following 6 minute video from Mythbusters (https://www.dmarge.com/2020/03/mythbusters-contamination-experiment.html does a fantastic job at showing contamination and why social distancing is so important.
Thank you all for your patience and care of other community members.
Kind regards,
Erik
March 30, 2020, 5:00 P.M.
Dear Citizens,
A very busy day here in Alpine and I hope many of you were able to listen to the 3pm radio show on KVLF where Judge Cano and I gave an update on the progressions in Alpine and Brewster County. If you were not able to listen today, we are reposting the interview on our website. The Judge and I fielded discussions and questions on Shelter in Place, CARES Act, Social Distancing, Big Bend National Park, Retail stores, Restaurants and other topics. Thank you Big Bend Radio for making your studios available to us for the talk.
Big Bend Radio Interview with City Manager & Brewster County Judge, Part 1
Big Bend Radio Interview with City Manager & Brewster County Judge, Part 2
Chief Martin and I also made the rounds today speaking to several retail stores in town about further steps they are implementing to help with social distancing and controlling numbers of people in the stores at any one time. Many of the retailers have also ordered the checkout counter 'shields' and hope to have within the next two weeks. We are also asking our citizens to be mindful of keeping the shopping to small numbers. Shop at off-peak times and make it a point to 'come back later' if you drive up to the grocery store and the parking lot already has many cars. These are the little things we can do now to help minimize future problems.
March 27, 2020, 4:30 P.M.
Dear Citizens,
Thank you all again for your patience and continued communications during this ever-changing and trying time in our community and across the globe. We hear stories daily of challenges that people are working to overcome as well as the heroic efforts of medical professionals dealing with the COVID-19 virus along with their normal run of work.
With the CARES Act going through final signatories and then implementation, we wanted to get 'Cliff Notes' out to the public to share thoughts on how this impacts our citizens. A big 'thank you' to Chris Ruggia, Marci Tuck and Megan Antrim for reading through the legislation, briefs and compiling a list for you to review. Please take time to review the attachment.
CARES ACT INFORMATION - CITY OF ALPINE
One disclaimer - this is a compilation of notes from our City team and not an exhaustive list of all the resources available. We simply wanted to help give our businesses and citizens a head-start.
We've also reached out to our County Judge Cano and EMC Stephanie Elmore to offer assistance for the available FEMA Public Assistance. Megan Antrim on our team worked with Tom Santry about a decade ago relative to the Assistance from the wildfires and has experience.
Next Tuesday (March 31, 2020) we will be hosting a Virtual Meeting with City Manager for our local hoteliers at 10am. We will use Zoom for that conference and Chris is getting the log-in information out. This conference will be designed to address questions and concerns from our local hotel and motel community. Later that day we will have a Virtual Coffee with the City Manager. The time on that will be 4pm-6pm on Tuesday 3-31-2020. Because we had to cancel last weeks Coffee with the City Manager at the Visitor Center, we wanted to add a forum back in for consistent communication in our community.
Login credentials for the Virtual Coffee with City Manager are:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/837541160?pwd=MFNJazkwQmRKWW13cUVlbzRZdnJFQT09
Password: 020772
One tap mobile
+13462487799,,837541160# US (Houston)
+16699006833,,837541160# US (San Jose)
Dial by your location
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 253 215 8782 US
+1 301 715 8592 US
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
Meeting ID: 837 541 160
Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/avWI1EUUX
March 26, 2020, 4:30 P.M.
Dear Citizens,
Thank you to everyone who attended (via Zoom) our Special City Council meeting last evening. We were able to review and accept the FY 2018-19 Audit, approved the 2nd Reading of the Ordinance Amending this years Budget and approved pushing our May City elections this year to the November 3, 2020 General Election. If you would like to review the documents or video from the meeting, they are here on our website.
The core team of the Judge, Sheriff, Mayor, Chief, Hospital, Schools and myself reconvened this morning to discuss impacts of the current Emergency Declarations in Alpine and Brewster County along with discussion on several of the Shelter in Place Emergency Ordinances/Directives passed in different Texas cities.
A copy of the Ft Stockton Ordinance can be found here: https://cityoffortstockton.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/ORDINANCE-NO-20-101.pdf
A copy of the City of Presidio Local Emergency Directive: https://presidiotx.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/CItyPresidioLocalEmergencyDirective.pdf
We have continued to contemplate whether a shelter in place or curfew is needed in Alpine and/or Brewster County. I have received several comments today that many citizens are pleased to see the overall compliance with the existing Emergency Ordinance in place. We will immediately call another Emergency Meeting when/if additional action is necessary.
We continue to receive a tremendous amount of feedback on tourism impacts to Alpine, Brewster County and the Big Bend region. Chris Ruggia continues to work diligently on communication of ideas and thoughts with our local hoteliers and tourism contacts. Chris manages our https://visitalpinetx.com/ page and it is a great repository of information. Chris is also doing a great job at pulling together information relative to the Stimulus relief packages, their applicability to tourism and small business. Our goal is to help kick-start the businesses as we pull through the pandemic.
Chief Martin and I are also working on a more comprehensive plan to address Fire, EMS and Law Enforcement resources in times of crisis to ensure we identify any resource gaps and fill them.
Please feel free to reach out to staff with additional questions and concerns. Thank you for choosing Alpine as your home and we appreciate our citizens patience during this trying time. We also love the fact that many people across the globe have picked Alpine and west Texas as a place to travel through the years. As our world and country exit this pandemic we look forward to great visits and fun activities in the Big Bend Region.
Kind regards
Erik
March 25, 2020, 11:30 A.M.
Dear Citizens,
Thank you all for using this forum for information gathering and the City team appreciates all the calls and questions we are receiving from our Citizens and others who care about Alpine. We are working diligently to get back with people as quickly as possible to help navigate through the questions.
We will be having a Special City Council meeting this evening (planned a couple of weeks ago) to go through the 2018-19 Audit readout along with three other items. The packet is online now for your perusal. We will be using Zoom for the meeting and the credentials are also on our website and below:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/817270216?pwd=bmVHNWFjR3NGaC9FcEdMdXNWc1R0Zz09
Meeting ID: 817 270 216
Password: 008726
One tap mobile
+13462487799,,817270216# US (Houston)
+16699006833,,817270216# US (San Jose)
Dial by your location
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 253 215 8782 US
+1 301 715 8592 US
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
Meeting ID: 817 270 216
Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/avWI1EUUX
We have received a few notices questioning compliance on the Emergency Ordinance passed by Council on Friday closing the Hotels, Motels and STR's (minus the exceptions listed in the Ordinance). We are addressing those compliance issues daily and appreciate the feedback to myself, Chief and his team.
City Officials and Staff continue to monitor the Shelter in Place and Shelter at Home rules passed by other cities in Texas, as well as other places around the country. The Mayor, Chief and myself will meet again tomorrow with the County Judge, Sheriff, EMC, Hospital and Schools to discuss further those implications to Alpine and Brewster County. Most specifically if we were to have a positive test case in Alpine or Brewster County.
Adelina Beall has posted the following Recycle Center Update. Please reach out to her with any questions ( environmental.services@ci.alpine.tx.us) as she is a wonderful source of information.
In driving through Alpine last evening, I saw many families out on walks, spending time getting fresh air and also being mindful of the generous spacing the outdoors provides. Reminded me of my youth here in Alpine and the good times riding your bike around town, laughing and enjoying the sunshine.
With the Federal Stimulus dollars being prepared for citizens and businesses, we will be working internally (Megan Antrim, Marci Tuck and Chris Ruggia) to understand the implications and availability for businesses and the City. Most of all, it's important we stay on top of how the stimulus dollars can be drawn in to help the community, it's businesses and residents. More to come on that piece.
On a final note, Dr. Escovar has shared with us that the virus does not like heat. The hot weather for the next several days is a good thing.
Kind regards,
Erik
March 24, 2020, 11:05 A.M.
Dear Citizens,
I wanted to start off today's post with thanking all of our medical providers and first responders in Alpine and Brewster County. It is your tireless efforts that are appreciated by all as we navigate through the worlds, nations, states and local communities responses to COVID-19. As Chief Martin reminded me yesterday, there was not a printed playbook for this pandemic and we are working to be mindful of the needs of our medical community as they deal with cases across the globe.
The County Commissioners Court re-convened yesterday afternoon to put more clarity around the hotel, motel, STR and RV language. A copy of their updated amendment can be found here: http://www.brewstercountytx.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Amended-Declaration-of-Local-State-of-Disaster-Due-to-Public-Health-Emergency-March-23-2020.pdf
Chief Martin and his team have also been putting out their sign trailers on the edges of town to help provide messaging to residents and those folks still trying to head out this way.
The City had our Department Head / Staff Meeting this morning (all conducted on Zoom Conference) to give critical updates to peers/counterparts on actions that each department is taking. Keeping our team abreast of each others activities at this time is important for the health of our City. Also, with many employees working from home, we are discussing different training modules staff are utilizing and sharing amongst departments.
Many of you have seen the different 'Shelter in Place' orders that some cities in Texas have enacted and some states have enacted. We are reviewing those now in case the Governor determines to enact something similar statewide. Understanding how we would implement is crucial to being able to effectively communicate with our citizens. As of this blog post we ARE NOT currently in a 'Shelter in Place' order, we are only researching and better understanding the implications for Alpine.
Stephanie L. (Billing Department Supervisor) has issued letters to our customers who are late with their March utility payment. We have pushed-out turn-offs, but need a written response if there is a hardship created by the COVID-19 pandemic and changes. We are also taking the same approach with our Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT) that are due April 20th. Chris Ruggia will be getting a letter out to our hoteliers, moteliers and short term rental businesses later this week.
Speaking of Chris Ruggia...he is very creative. Below you will see an Alpine Social Distancing Bingo sheet. We hope this provides a needed distraction for you and lightens your day.
March 23, 2020, 9:30 A.M.
Dear Citizens,
The weather was beautiful in Alpine this weekend and I hope you were able to rest and continue with information gathering. We are fortunate to have a variety of resources to review and gain insight with.
Chief Martin and I spoke several times over the weekend, primarily working with the hoteliers and their questions about acceptable occupants, etc.. based on the Oridinance the City passed Friday March 20, 2020. Chief has assigned Lieutenant Felipe Fierro on his team to meet with each hotelier daily and get their counts and nature of each guest. All the hoteliers have been amenable to this approach and we believe this will be the smoothest way to handle for our community. Chief and I also listened to the Governor's call yesterday regarding the transportation of goods/freight across Texas and the country. Based on the Governor's approach, and Union Pacific and Amtrak being labeled by Department of Homeland Security as critical infrastructure employees, we are working with them on the housing. We will revisit that point with Council on Wednesday to provide additional updates (if needed) to the Ordinance. With that said, we are very focused on the lists that Felipe is pulling for us daily and know that the data will help us immensely in the continued decision making.
Chief, Scott Perry and I also met with Andrew Pierce and Shea Roberts from West Texas Ambulance this morning to get a status on their preparedness and our EMS / Ambulance Services. They gave us a status update and will work back with Chief and myself on any needs that arise (or concerns). We asked them to also give updates to the community through their Facebook page and we will repurpose those updates on our City webpage. We appreciate the added information as it is important to our community.
Texas Disposal Systems may run a little later in the evening (to 8:15p - but no later than dark) to keep up with trash pickup. They are down one person and had requested to bring in someone from Austin to keep up. We asked them to handle with their current staff instead and picking up trash until dark would be acceptable.
Thanks again for all you do to help your neighbor during this time. We are blessed to have many elderly and a lot of retirees in our community. With that population comes wisdom. Ensuring we have great consistent medical services for them and all citizens is our priority.
March 20, 2020, 5:35 P.M.
Dear Citizens,
The Alpine City Council took action this afternoon to approve the Emergency Ordinance that was proposed and posted on our website. There was one amendment to the Ordinance allowing people that are permanent residents in the hotels/motels to remain.
The approved and signed Ordinance will also be posted on our website this evening. We are also posting the Zoom conference video at the written comments posed by a variety of people.
If you have any specific questions on the Ordinance, please email the Chief and myself.
Kind regards,
Erik
March 20, 2020, 11:15 A.M.
Dear Citizens,
Friday is finally upon us and we've certainly all experienced a busy week. Thanks for all the hard work by our Citizens researching the changes and developments relative to the COVID-19 pandemic and the opportunities we all have to fight this challenge.
Our Mayor has called an Emergency City Council meeting to contemplate and Emergency Ordinance related to this Public Health Emergency. The meeting will take place at 4pm today. Because of the health requirements not allowing gatherings of 10 or more people, we will also be using Zoom for conferencing purposes. Only nine people will be allowed into Council Chambers (most of those will be Mayor, Council and staff). The Zoom credentials for those who want to log-in online are:
https://zoom.us/j/658190254?pwd=MzkzTVh4Nk1PUkJETXM3Y3NOY2VrUT09
The primary item in the Ordinance being contemplated is closing our Hotels, Motels and Short Term Rentals (STR's) from noon Sunday March 22nd through noon Monday April 6th. Consideration will also be given to Military and Law Enforcement needs.
March 19, 2020
Dear Citizens,
I had the opportunity to sit in on the Commissioners Court meeting this morning as they listened to many public comments and poured over a decision to create additional restrictions to the County Judges Declaration of Local State of Disaster from yesterday.
During the Court meeting, there was an adjournment to listen to Governor Abbott's response and order: During his Thursday announcement Abbott issued an executive order that took a number of steps to combat the coronavirus:
- Limiting social gatherings to no more than 10 people
- Prohibiting eating and drinking at restaurants and bars
- Closing gyms
- Ban people from visiting nursing homes except for critical care
- Temporarily close schools
Abbott’s executive order goes into effect at midnight Friday.
March 19, 2020
Dear Citizens,
With the escalating concerns relative to Coronavirus (COVID-19) and continued advisement from our CDC, National, State and County governments, we are closing our lobby's at City offices effective immediately. This will be in effect through Friday March 27, 2020. We will still have limited employees working in our buildings.
Our goal is to help limit people to people interaction during this time of need and concern and use technology instead.
If you need to pay a bill, please use our dropbox outside of City Hall.
Our phone lines are open and please call with any questions. You can also email specific staff and email addresses are listed on our website.
David Hale (Building Official) and his team will still be doing field inspections. Call him or Tony if you need to arrange a permit.
Scott Perry and his Utility teams will still be working items in the field and ensuring we have healthy and safe utility deliveries.
Chief Martin will be highly visible with his team in our community.
Eddie Molinar and his team will still be out taking care of our streets and parks.
I encourage everyone to take some time to read over the national, state and local guidelines. Minimize your engagements with others to essential needs for the next week (ie, grocery shopping and groups of less than 10 people).
It's also a great time to spend reading all those books you have on the shelf and have been waiting to read. Learning is a lifelong sport.
Kind Regards,
March 18, 2020
Dear Citizens,
Thank you for continuing to look at the blog for updates at the City and current updates on the City's response related to COVID-19.
We hosted a meeting with other community leaders yesterday morning in an effort to have a combined PSA for the community and region. I am attaching a link to that release for your reading and consideration. Please view the PSA here:
NEWS RELEASE
Our City Council also met last evening and we discussed the COVID-19 epidemic. Notes from the City Manager report as well as the video from the meeting can be seen on our website.
As the responses continue to evolve and develop, and changes occur, we will put information on our website to help citizens get needed information. We also appreciate the Judge's willingness to help put out continued updates collectively from the rest of the community leaders. Please also take time to review the Sul Ross State University website (https://www.sulross.edu/) for their current information and the Alpine Independent School District website (https://www.alpine.esc18.net/) for their current information.
Directly related to the City of Alpine, we are:
1. Asking citizens who come to City Hall to pay a bill, drop it in the dropbox if they have the check with the exact amount. Our lobby will continue to be open for cash paying residents and new applicants.
2. Our Visitor Center door will remain locked for the time being. Information brochures are available on the front porch of the Visitor Center and we also ask you to go to the VisitAlpineTx.Com website.
3. Our team is updating restaurant hours and openings on the VisitAlpineTx.Com website, though please remember that is subject to change daily.
4. We continue to have heightened awareness of the need to provide healthy water, sanitation, gas and sewer services. Our field teams continue to treat this as our #1 PRIORITY!
5. Chief Martin and our Police team are working to be highly visible in town and ready to answer questions and assist people. This is also true of our Animal Control team.
6. We have asked any City employees who have the capability to work from home to do just that.
7. The City has a good sick policy and all employees who appear sick are sent home for healing.
8. We ask people to be responsible in their buying behaviours at our local stores and buy what you need, but please do not hord. There are many older residents in our community that need regular satiation of their diets to help them continue with their health. IF you bought a bunch of TP, find a friend or neighbor who needs some and please share - kindness matters. If you bought a bunch of food and are way overstocked, find a friend or neighbor and share. Thank you PORTERS for updating your hours and allowing our Senior Citizens to have the first hours of shopping daily to them.
9. The CDC has good information on behaviours and guidelines related to COVID-19. Please read and follow. Social distancing, hygiene and other key topics are mapped out well in their documents.
10. If you are having any issues paying bills related to COVID-19 and loss of work, please reach out to us at City Hall for help, advice and guidance. Our team is also looking at local businesses in town who need some short term help in stocking shelves, etc...
March 13, 2020
Dear Citizens,
We wanted to take a few moments to share with you our thoughts and concerns relative to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) as we continue to see more advanced measures and precautions being taken across communities in the US and the World.
Our hospital (Big Bend Regional Medical Center) under the leadership of Rick Flores hosted a workshop last Wednesday (March 4, 2020) in which all community leaders and law enforcement groups were invited. The workshop was led by Dr. Ekta Escovar and she shared information on the disease and the precautionary measures shared by the Center for Disease Control (CDC - https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html ). We had posted that information on our website after the workshop.
The disease and precautionary measures are advancing daily and yesterday Sul Ross State University President Dr. Bill Kibler has also issued the following statement and guidance (https://www.sulross.edu/page/3273/emergency-alerts ).
At The City of Alpine we continue to communicate with our Hospital, Sul Ross, School District, plus other law enforcement and governing agencies to ensure we have a coordinated approach for our community.
Relative to the Utilities that the City of Alpine provides (Water, Wastewater, Gas, Trash) they are all operating under normal business hours and we communicate back with state governing agencies to ensure we are following the up-to-date safety protocols to best protect our citizens through this time. We have also asked our leadership team to ensure employees are following heightened health, safety and sanitary procedures. City Hall is scheduled to continue to be open.
The City of Alpine also has a robust sick leave policy and we are ensuring employees utilize their sick days to stay home, rest and recover as needed or as directed by their supervisor.
We will also have time on our City Council agenda March 17, 2020 to discuss COVID-19 with the most up to date information possible.
Please feel free to reach out to me at City Hall or email me with any additional thoughts, concerns or questions.
Kind regards,
Erik
March 3, 2020
Dear Citizens,
Welcome back to the City Manager Blog. It's been six months since I rejoined the City of Alpine and we have a lot of great things happening with our Community.
Our website continues to grow/develop and blossom as a great source of information for all things happening with the City of Alpine. Geo has added a great 'News' section and is also busy adding the different interviews that our Department Heads have been conducting with Big Bend Radio. Also keep an eye out on the calendars that have been added to give our citizens visibility to the reservations for the Civic Center, Kokernot Pavilion, Game Fields and much more.
I also wanted to shake the dust off the Vision Plan that the City developed in 2016-17. There are links here both for the flyover video and the Vision Plan itself. We will highlight some of that plan at this evenings City Council meeting.
This comprehensive vision plan has many great elements and opportunities for the City to consider. Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions about its content or you can come to our next Coffee with the City Manager on Wednesday March 18th (4:30pm) at our Visitor Center on Ave E and 3rd Street.
Kindest regards,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Dear Citizens,
March 3, 2020
Dear Citizens,
Welcome back to the City Manager Blog. It's been six months since I rejoined the City of Alpine and we have a lot of great things happening with our Community.
Our website continues to grow/develop and blossom as a great source of information for all things happening with the City of Alpine. Geo has added a great 'News' section and is also busy adding the different interviews that our Department Heads have been conducting with Big Bend Radio. Also keep an eye out on the calendars that have been added to give our citizens visibility to the reservations for the Civic Center, Kokernot Pavilion, Game Fields and much more.
I also wanted to shake the dust off the Vision Plan that the City developed in 2016-17. There are links here both for the flyover video and the Vision Plan itself. We will highlight some of that plan at this evenings City Council meeting.
This comprehensive vision plan has many great elements and opportunities for the City to consider. Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions about its content or you can come to our next Coffee with the City Manager on Wednesday March 18th (4:30pm) at our Visitor Center on Ave E and 3rd Street.
Kindest regards,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
2019
There are no blog posts for 2019.
2018
There are no blog posts for 2018.
2017
FY2017-18 Proposed Budget
August 9, 2017
Dear Citizens,
The Proposed Budget is now available on the website and a copy is available for viewing at City Hall.
You can find the digital copy on our homepage or by clicking HERE.
Please feel free to reach out to Erik Zimmer or Megan Antrim with any questions.
We will be having two public hearings on the tax rate and a public hearing on the proposed budget. The dates and times will be announced after next weeks City Council meeting.
Have a great rest of the week in Alpine,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
New City Secretary
August 4, 2017
For Immediate Release
City of Alpine – City Secretary
It is with great pleasure that the City Council for the City of Alpine announces the appointment of Cynthia Salas as the new City Secretary. She will assume her duties effective Monday August 7, 2017.
Better known as Councilor Salas, Cynthia has served the City of Alpine over the last three-plus years as the City Councilor representing Ward 2. In that capacity, she has served our community diligently and with great care. She has always been accessible to the Citizens and thoughtful about her approach to good governance.
The shift over to the City Secretary position will be a natural fit for Cynthia and the new challenges the role brings will be hit head-on. The City anticipates Cynthia will deliver the consistency and professional acumen that we all grew accustomed to with during the eleven years Molly Taylor was at the helm.
Please join us in welcoming Cynthia Salas to the role of City Secretary. She can be reached at City Hall or through the email – city.secretary@ci.alpine.tx.us.
For further information on Cynthia’s background, please click on the following link.
The City Charter requires our Council to appoint her replacement on the City Council as she is not able to serve in both capacities. They will contemplate the replacement at our upcoming meetings.
Thank you and have a wonderful weekend in Alpine.
Hotel Occupancy Tax – 2017/18 Application and Guidelines
August 4, 2017
Dear Citizens,
It’s that time of year again for our organizations looking to utilize the HOT fund to start preparing their applications. The packet can be downloaded from the front page of the City website or by clicking here.
The City will be proposing a greater revenue and expense budget this year due to the continued growth of tourism and hotel stays. We also have several new AirBnB’s and other short term rentals coming on line and contributing to the fund.
We are encouraging new events to start-up this year in an effort to fill in the gaps with less weekend activities.
Please feel free to reach out to Stewart, Chris or myself with any questions.
Have a fabulous weekend in Alpine.
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Paving Questions
July 21, 2017
Dear Citizens,
I’ve had a couple of questions relative to the paving schedule and how the City picks which streets to target each year. Let me work to explain the theory and decision making process in this post.
First and foremost, I encourage each citizen to read the paving presentation that was shared in early 2015. We presented at a City Council meeting early that year, have kept the article live on the website due to its continued relevance.
When we think about street exposure, those blocks coming off of Hancock HIll are the most exposed and attain the most erosion after rain. The more robust downfalls have a greater negative effect on the roads on the Hill. Hence, we targeted seal-coating the area in 2016 and rebuilding one of the key thoroughfares after that.
We also like to consider the streets that gain the heavy amounts of traffic. Fighting Buck Avenue is a gateway to Kokernot Park, the High School, golf course, etc…It handles a lot of traffic daily and needed to be rebuilt. Ave F. adjacent to the SRSU fields is another street that carried quite a bit of traffic and had some considerable drainage issues. Therefore, we had the streets rebuilt last year.
We are working towards revitalizing the downtown area streets and will soon have Jarrett Dirt Works rebuild several of the crossroads in the downtown district. Our businesses, citizens and tourists that traverse the area regularly have routinely communicated that need.
We also opted to get Carpenter Addition seal-coated this year. Hector and I have been wanting to complete that project since 2015 and believe we can extend the life of that set of roads into the foreseeable future.
We are now working towards finishing up some of the main Sul Ross Ave thoroughfare and will then migrate over to the 7th street area to follow behind our Gas Department work. We have also continued to try to resurface the streets around the Murphy Street Downtown area as we see more and more traffic on those streets. We are also hopeful to get finalization on our most recent TxCDBG grant to add more water lines and fire hydrants to the SE quadrant of town. We will have to come behind and seal-coat plus rebuild those areas when complete.
There are lots of positives happening with our projects and much more to complete in the future. The City’s liability for street maintenance is $1.2M a year and we need budgeting to stay the course and continue to implement. My sense is that by the end of 2023 or 2024 paving season, the City streets will have a renewed sense of character and life.
Thanks for your patience and support. As always, feel free to reach out to Hector, J or myself with any questions.
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
City Secretary Position Profile
July 19, 2017
Dear Community,
The City of Alpine is now accepting cover letters and resumes for the position of City Secretary.
We encourage all qualified and interested applicants to apply. Please click here for a more in depth view of the position and the process to show interest.
Have a great day,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Texas Highway Magazine – Saddle Club Article
July 18, 2017
Dear Citizens,
If you have not had a chance to pick up the latest edition of Texas Highway’s Travel Magazine, here’s a link to a great article this month.
Stephen Wood is a consummate professional and a friend to all in the community.
Enjoy the read and have a great day in Alpine.
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Press Release – 7-14-17
July 14, 2017
Dear Citizens and Media,
The City of Alpine has has historically participated in the collection and distribution of the Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT) funds. Hoteliers collect the funds when people stay in their establishments and then pay into the City HOT Fund either monthly or quarterly (depending on their size). The State of Texas has certain guidelines on how communities can distribute these funds.
The City is allowed to delegate the expenditure of these hotel taxes to another entity (for example, a Chamber to run a Visitor Center) as long as they follow the guidelines of the usage law and keep the hotel tax funds in a separate account. Tax code 351.101 does a nice job giving further explanation.
In 2015, the City Manager requested the Chamber to demonstrate to the City that these guidelines were being met and to submit regular sets of financial documents back to the City. In early 2016, the City Manager followed this request up in writing. After repeated delays from the Chamber, the documents were finally submitted in February 2017. Through an initial review of these documents, the City Manager deemed it necessary for the City to take back over running of the Visitor Center. At the March 21, 2017 City Council meeting, the City Council took action and authorized the City Manager to move forward with the City taking over management of the Visitor Center.
As part of the Cities financial process, we deemed it necessary to perform an audit of expenditures from the Visitor Center account back to January 2016. Through that audit, we found further peculiarities that caused the City to initiate a letter to the Chamber asking for further explanation from the fund. If the expenditures do not meet State requirements, the City will be asking for a refund of those questionable expenses.
The City is aware that the Chamber has gathered legal counsel and is working back with the Texas Ranger and law enforcement in general. We continue to keep apprised and ready for the Chamber’s feedback and are cooperating with law enforcement.
There is no wrong-doing on the City of Alpines part. We are simply working to uphold the law and ensure supporting entities do the same.
Please address any inquiries to our City Manager, Erik Zimmer.
432-837-3301 or erik.zimmer@ci.alpine.tx.us
Vision Plan Readout
June 14, 2017
Dear Citizens,
Councilor Rick Stephens and I have finally been able to establish a date for the community readout relative to the Vision Plan that the City worked with UTSA on during 2016.
A copy of the flyover and vision plan itself are available on our City website.
The readout will start at 5:30pm next Wednesday June 21, 2017 and will occur at our Civic Center. We encourage all citizens to come out and participate.
We did clear with the School Board to ensure this date does not conflict with their school board meeting. Their meeting is scheduled for the following week.
This comprehensive vision plan has many great elements and opportunities for the City to consider. Please feel free to reach out to me in the interim with any questions.
Kindest regards,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Gift to the City from TPP, LLC
June 12, 2017
City of Alpine Receives $400,000 Gift from Trans-Pecos Pipeline, LLC to Support City of Alpine’s Vision Plan and Alpine Volunteer Fire Department
ALPINE, Texas, June 12, 2017 – The City of Alpine today announced it has received a $400,000 gift from Trans-Pecos Pipeline, LLC that will be used to construct a scenic walking path as identified in the City’s Vision Plan, and to offset costs for new equipment and other needs of the City of Alpine Volunteer Fire Department.
“The construction of a scenic walking path along Alpine Creek has long been a part of our City Vision Plan to make use of this great linear space that runs right through the center of our city,” said Erik Zimmer, Alpine City Manager. “The 1.5 mile path will connect northern, central, and southern parts of Alpine, creating a unified pedestrian passageway that will be a beautiful, natural open space for our citizens and visitors to enjoy.”
The scenic walking path will cost approximately $215,000 to construct and will accommodate multiple types of recreational activity including jogging, walking, inline skating, and bicycling. Construction is anticipated to start by mid-August and be completed before the end of 2017.
The remaining amount of the gift, approximately $185,000 will go toward the City of Alpine Volunteer Fire Department for new equipment and vehicle upgrades. New equipment will include new safety gear, radios, and hose replacements.
“There is no doubt that many Alpine residents have expressed concerns about pipeline safety and the environment,” said Rick Stephens, City of Alpine Council Member. “This significant gift from Trans-Pecos Pipeline, LLC clearly demonstrates their commitment to safety and to the quality of life in the communities they construct and operate.
“The City appreciates the financial commitment from Energy Transfer Partners to help facilitate increased readiness of our local fire department and enhanced recreational opportunities for our residents and visitors.”
The Trans-Pecos Pipeline traverses 33 miles through Brewster County, Texas, and crosses just outside of Alpine city limits where additional safety measures were added to the pipeline. Trans-Pecos Pipeline, LLC and their primary vendor, Pumpco, have been operating in and around the City of Alpine since 2015, which has contributed to increased sales for many local businesses. Some of the employees’ families have been students and participants in Alpine schools and volunteer organizations.
Trans-Pecos Pipeline, LLC is a joint venture owned in part by an affiliate of Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), L.P.
City Manager Transition
June 8, 2017
Dear Citizens,
First and foremost, I want to communicate it has been a great pleasure serving as the City Manager for Alpine, TX.
When we started down this path in late 2013, the City was challenged with investigations and financial troubles. Over the last four years we have been able to navigate to a better place with a keen focus on financial health and restoration of City owned assets. We’ve encountered several bumps and challenges along the way, but successfully stayed the course and find ourselves in a much better position today.
My family and I have come to a time in life where we are ready to start a new chapter. Decisions are never easy, and there are always many factors to consider. At this juncture, we’ve determined that Albuquerque, NM is the right place for us to go. As many of you are aware, Dee Dee’s family roots are in NM and we have an abundance of family throughout that area.
The most important item that will queue up for the City relative to this transition centers around the recruitment and timing of a new City Manager. My commitment to our community is that I will work with the City on a robust transition plan that promotes continuity in the position and does not leave staff or the City in a precarious position. The new business I will be forming gives me the opportunity to progress in this manner. Simply stated, we’ve worked too hard to have a gap in leadership.
As always, my door is open and I enjoy questions and dialogue. Please feel free to ask questions directly to me.
Thank you,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
10 Most Beautiful Cities in Texas
June 7, 2017
Good Morning Alpine,
Here’s a link to a great article depicting the majestic appeal of our community.
Enjoy,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
2017 City Pool Hours and Rates
May 24, 2017
OPENS – Saturday, June 3, 2017
Hours – 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM
WEATHER AND STAFF PERMITTING
Admission Per Day: Children – $2.00
Adults – $ 3.00
Non-swimming adult – no charge
Yearly Pass – Family (up to 6 members) $55 – all family members must reside together
Individual – $35.00
Pool Party – Thursday, Friday, or Saturday 6pm – 8pm
$25.00 deposit
$40.00 an hour
Texas Tort Claims Act
May 18, 2017
Dear Citizens,
From time to time, my office receives request for consideration related to damages to personal property of citizens in the community. The City of Alpine utilizes the Texas Municipal League’s Insurance Risk Pool (TMLIRP) to handle these types of requests.
Many times a citizen may also be referred back to the Texas Tort Claims Act as part of handling the request. The Texas Legislature came out with the act in 1969 that waived some of what used to be ‘entire sovereign immunity’ for local governments.
Texas Municipal League also put out this article in February 2005 to help identify key pieces of the legislation. I’ve copied the article in it’s entirety for your reading pleasure:
What is the Texas Tort Claims Act?
The Texas Tort Claims Act (“The Act”) is a set of statutes that determine when a
governmental entity may be liable for tortious conduct under state law. Prior to the
adoption of the Act, individuals could not recover damages from state or local
governmental units for injuries resulting from the actions of a government employee or
officer in the performance of a governmental function.
Granting governmental units sovereign immunity serves several purposes. It protects
governmental time and resources from diminishment from private litigation and
encourages forthright action by public officials. It also protects the government from
fraudulent or frivolous suits that otherwise may arise because of the perceived “deep
pockets” of government entities.
In 1969, the Texas Legislature enacted the Texas Tort Claims Act. The Act waived
sovereign immunity for a governmental entity that was engaged in a governmental
function.
A governmental unit in the state is liable for:
(1) property damage, personal injury, and death proximately
caused by the wrongful act or omission or the negligence of
an employee acting within his scope of employment if:
(A) the property damage, personal injury, or death arises
from the operation or use of a motor-driven vehicle or
motor-driven equipment; and
(B) the employee would be personally liable to the
claimant according to Texas law; and
(2) personal injury and death so caused by a condition or use of
tangible personal or real property if the governmental unit
would, were it a private person, be liable to the claimant
according to Texas law.
Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 101.021.
What are the liability limits for governmental units under the Act?
Liability of a municipality under the Act is limited to money damages in a
maximum amount of $250,000 for each person and $500,000 for each single
occurrence for bodily injury or death and $100,000 for each single occurrence
for injury to or destruction of property.
What type of actions are not covered by the Act?
The Act does not limit the liability of a city for damages that result from the
city’s performance of proprietary functions. Even prior to the passage of the Act,
a city could be held liable for the negligent performance of proprietary
functions. Proprietary functions are those functions that a municipality may, in
its discretion, perform in the interest of the inhabitants of the municipality.
Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 101.0215 (b).
Section 101.0215 of the Act specifically lists three activities that are considered
proprietary and 36 activities that are considered governmental functions. The
proprietary functions listed in the statute include the operation and maintenance
of a public utility; the operation of amusements that are owned and operated by
the municipality; and any activity that is abnormally dangerous or “ultrahazardous”.
Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 101.0215 (b). It is important to note
that the list of 36 governmental functions is exclusive, while the list of
proprietary functions is not. This means that, for the purposes of the Act, only
these 36 specifically enumerated activities are considered governmental
functions. Conversely, even though the statute lists three activities as
“proprietary functions”, the reality is that, for the purposes of the Act, any
activity that the city engages in that is not listed as a governmental function is
considered proprietary in nature. If a proprietary function is involved and
liability is established, there is no limit to the amount of damages that may be
awarded.
I’m still not clear on the difference between “governmental” functions and
“proprietary” functions.
Governmental functions are those functions that are imposed on a city by law
and are given to the city by the state, as part of the state’s sovereignty, to be
exercised by the city in the interest of the general public. Governmental
functions involve providing for the health, safety, and welfare of the general
public. Examples of governmental functions include police and fire protection,
health and sanitation services, parks and zoos, zoning and animal control. Tex.
Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code, §101.0215(a).
Proprietary functions are those functions that a city may perform in its
discretion, and the functions are performed to serve the interests of the
inhabitants of the city. Examples of proprietary functions include operation and
maintenance of a public utility or amusements owned and operated by a city.
Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code, §101.0215(b). Under state law, the distinction
between governmental and proprietary functions is significant because the city’s
liability for governmental functions exists only to the extent that it has been
waived under the Act. However, for proprietary functions, the city is liable to
the same extent as a private entity or individual.
Does the Act provide immunity for individual public officials?
No. The Act does not provide immunity for individual public officials. The Act
addresses immunity only for the governmental entity itself. There are other legal
doctrines that come into play with regard to official immunity. Texas courts
have adopted a doctrine of limited official immunity. In certain cases, it absolves
a public officer or employee from personal liability for acts within the scope of
the officer’s or employee’s governmental authority.
Texas case law provides either absolute immunity or qualified immunity to a
public servant depending on the type of authority retained by that individual. For
example, judges are generally entitled to the defense of absolute or complete
immunity in the exercise of judicial functions. Turner v. Pruitt, 342 S.W.2d 422
(Tex. 1961).
The majority of Texas public servants, however, may only assert a defense of
qualified immunity from liability. Qualified immunity provides protection from
liability for discretionary actions taken in good faith within the scope of the
officer’s or employee’s authority. Determination of whether an action was taken
in good faith is a fact issue and a discretionary action involves the exercise of
discretion or judgment.
There is no qualified immunity for ministerial (i.e. mandatory) actions for which
the public servant has no choice. Worsham v. Votgsberger, 129 S.W. 157
(Civ.App. 1919, no writ). For example, the duties of jailers and sheriffs in
receiving and caring for prisoners are usually held to be ministerial, as are those
of animal pound directors. The line between a discretionary duty and a
ministerial one is difficult to draw and competent legal advice should be sought
when liability is at issue.
To what extent are cities liable for the actions of volunteers?
The Texas Tort Claims Act waives sovereign immunity for certain actions of
governmental employees. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Ann. § 101.021 (1)
(Vernon 2001). The Act defines an employee as “a person, including an officer
or agent, who is in the paid service of a governmental unit.” Id. § 101.001(1). In
Harris County v. Dillard, the Texas Supreme Court concluded that an unpaid
“volunteer” is not an “employee” for whose acts the governmental unit can be
held liable. 883 S.W.2d 166, 167 (Tex. 1994).
Are cities liable for injuries sustained by volunteers?
To the extent authorized by the Act, cities may be liable to persons, including
volunteers, for property damage, personal injury, and death proximately caused
by the wrongful act, omission or negligence of a city employee, or the condition
or use of personal or real property. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Ann. §101.021
(Vernon 2001). Consequently, cities may want to limit their liability for
negligence by obtaining workers’ compensation coverage for their volunteers.
Cities can opt to cover volunteer fire fighters, police officers, emergency
medical personnel, and “other volunteers” who are named under the cities’
workers compensations coverage. Tex. Lab. Code Ann. §504.012 (Vernon
2001). With limited exceptions, the recovery of workers’ compensation benefits
is the exclusive remedy for the death or work-related injuries of covered
individuals. Id. § 408.001.
Also, many liability policies have a standard exclusion provision denying
coverage for claims arising from injuries to volunteers if the city has purchased
workers’ compensation coverage for employees but not for volunteers. Thus,
cities should consider obtaining workers’ compensation coverage for volunteers.
For more details, please contact the TML Intergovernmental Risk Pool.
Thank you for taking the time to read the article and I also included a hot-link to the actual statue at the beginning of the blog. Information is powerful and certainly helps us all with decision making.
If you have further questions, please reach out to me personally or your elected official.
Have a great day in Alpine,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Water Billing Update
April 27, 2017
Dear Citizens,
I’ve had a few additional comments trickle into my office regarding the water bills, billing cycle, etc… With respect to those items, I thought it would be helpful to lay out how the City of Alpine Water/Wastewater/Sanitation billing transpires on a monthly basis.
We do have a meter reader (Charles M.) who reads the meters throughout our community every month. Each day, his results are shared with our billing clerk (Melissa C.) who verifies and works to ensure accuracy on the inputs. She also handles the re-read requests and any sort of billing questions. Three days prior to the end of the month, our billing clerk runs a series of reports for final verification – and makes any updates that are required. At that point, our billing clerk initiates an e-print of the customers bills.
Our software partner (Asyst) will then take the e-print file and convert that to our postcard format that is hard-printed and handed off to the USPS in Dallas. From there, the USPS transports to their El Paso region center, and then distributed to the recipients.
I hope this explanation gives further detail to our process and procedure. We did convert from the Dearing Billing software to Asyst for our Water/Sewer/Sanitation billing in January of 2016. The reason for the conversion was multi-faceted. First and foremost, the old Dearing software had no maintenance support and put our data at risk of being lost due to a system/hardware malfunction. We also wanted to move forward with implementing the software that our Gas Department utilized (which has been Asyst) in order to help with our overall employee readiness and cross-training.
The majority of last months bills were lost by the USPS in the transition between Dallas and El Paso. We apologize that happened, but it is not uncommon. As I’ve shared with staff, I typically have 3-4 bills from various vendors not make it to my mailbox on an annual basis. It’s also been a nice opportunity for me to remind my recently turned adult son that there will be times he does not get a bill from a creditor or vendor, and he still needs to take the initiative to pay them timely.
Moving forward, we will have the next set of bills going out by the end of the month (as described in the process above). My hope is that the USPS does not happen to find the lost ones from last month and deliver both at the same time. If they do, I’m sure we will all handle it.
We also are working on our e-Bill and e-Payment initiatives to further enhance citizens abilities to view and handle their water, sewer, sanitation and gas bills. As we roll out, we anticipate many of the requestor’s of this type of functionality will be happy.
As always, feel free to call Melissa or Cora with any questions on your Water billing. They are eager and willing to help. My only request is that we keep the conversations professional and data driven. If you have questions they can not answer, Megan, J or myself will be glad to get involved in the dialogue.
Thank you and have a great rest of the week in Alpine,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
April 2017 Water Bills
April 11, 2017
Dear Citizens,
The City of Alpine is aware that a large percentage of residents have not received their water bill this month. We have confirmed through our billing vendor that they did deliver all the bills to the United States Postal Service on March 29, 2017. The USPS is trying to locate the remainder of the bills for delivery. Residents can come into City Hall or call and speak to Melissa or Cora, to get their total bill amount. Please remit your monthly bill payment as soon as possible.
Thank you for your inquiries and patience,
City of Alpine Staff
How Cities Work
April 7, 2017
Dear Citizens,
Texas Municipal League puts out a host of information annually for the benefit of cities and their citizens. Recently, they’ve shared a great article on How Cities Work.
The article is extremely informative and gives insight to many of the piece-parts Texas cities deal with throughout the year. Click HERE for a copy of the article.
Thanks to our new City Secretary, Kalea Cotton, for sharing this article.
Have a great weekend and enjoy Alpine,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
2016 Audit
March 31, 2017
Dear Citizens,
During this Wednesday’s Special City Council meeting, our independent auditor (Gibson Rudduck Patterson LLC) gave the results pertaining to last years fiscal audit. Staff was pleased with the output (Zero Findings and $1.39M improvement in Net Position, among other points).
I would like to congratulate Megan Antrim, our Department Heads and our Finance team on their hard work on behalf of our citizens and community this past year.
Please click HERE for a downloadable copy of the audit. You can also watch the video from Wednesday night’s meeting by clicking on this link. Don’t forget to subscribe to our channel and you will have access to all the City Council meetings live.
Thank you and enjoy your weekend in Alpine,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
2017 Industry Cluster Analysis Report – SBDC
March 21, 2017
Dear Citizens,
Patricia Long with our Small Business Development Center has shared the following REPORT depicting much of the networks strategic planning efforts alongside local SBDC market decisions.
Please have a review and feel free to reach out to Patricia or myself with any questions.
We continue to be very fortunate to house one of the Regional SBDC’s as they provide great assistance to many of our community members.
Thank you and have a great day in Alpine,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Annual Racial Profiling Report
March 8, 2017
Dear Citizens,
At last evenings regularly scheduled City Council meeting, we reviewed our Alpine Police Departments 2016 Annual Racial Profiling Report. We committed to post the report in its entirety on our City website.
Please click here for a downloadable copy.
Please feel free to reach out to me or Chief Scown with any questions.
Thank you and have a wonderful day here in Alpine.
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Top Ten Things To Do In Alpine
March 7, 2017
Dear Citizens,
Here’s an article from a couple years ago that was published in the Texas Monthly magazine. With Spring Break right around the corner, we look forward to many tourists enjoying Alpine and the Big Bend Region.
Number 8 continues to be one of my all-time favorites!
Enjoy your day and week in Alpine.
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Thank You To Our SRSU Lobo Football Team
February 28, 2017
Lobos Cleanup Brush Piles Around Community!
The Sul Ross State University football team lent a hand cleaning up brush in alleyways this past Thursday, February 23, 2017. Keep Alpine Beautiful coordinator, Patsy McWilliams, reached out to the team after receiving citizens’ complaints regarding brush piles in their adjacent alleyways. Brush is not only a visual nuisance, but is also a health and safety hazard.
The City of Alpine strives to make Alpine a more place for all its residents. As per City Ordinance (82-56), it is unlawful to place any sort of litter or trash including, brush, yard trimmings, bulky items, or tires. next to a dumpster, in an alleyway, or on any public property.
Coach John Pearce, SRSU head football coach, was up for the task. He encourages his team to not only do their best on the field and in school, but also in the community. On Thursday afternoon, the 41-man team was split in to two groups and headed to two alleys where brush piles were especially bad. McWilliams and Alpine High School student volunteer, Bobbie Roberts, led one group and Brian Hartman with the City of Alpine Public Works department led the other. Each group gathered two trailer loads of brush, couches, fencing materials, and lumber. All items were taken to the Hal Flanders Recycling Center where the brush will be mulched, the metal fencing will be recycled, and the lumber and couches will be properly disposed.
This was not the first time the Lobos helped Keep Alpine Beautiful. Coach Pearce and the Lobos have helped recycle illegally dumped tires by loading a 40’ Conex container for shipment each year since 2014. The Lobos have hand-loaded every tire amassing 65,000 pounds of tires recycled! Keep Alpine Beautiful is grateful for their help! The team makes light work of these monster tasks.
Once again thanks to our partners at Sul Ross State University! Go Lobos!
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Skyway Gardens LTD – Property Development
February 17, 2017
Dear Citizens,
One of the items our City Council will be contemplating at the upcoming City Council meeting will be a proposal by Investment Builders, Inc out of El Paso to build a development near the Centennial School. IBI will be looking for a resolution of support by our City Council as they need the support to apply for the Texas Department of Housing Tax Credit program.
A copy of the presentation can be obtained by clicking on this LINK. We will also have a few copies available to view at City Hall. Please feel free to reach out to me individually if you would like to discuss in more detail.
Thank you and have a great weekend in Alpine.
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
January 13, 2017
Prescribed by Secretary of State
Section 141.040, Texas Election Code
NOTICE OF DEADLINE TO FILE APPLICATIONS FOR PLACE ON THE BALLOT FOR COUNCILMEMBERS WARD ONE,
WARD 3 AND WARD 5(AVISO DE FECHA LÍMITE PARA PRESENTAR SOLICITUDES PARA UN LUGAR EN LA BOLETA)
Notice is hereby given that applications for a place on the May 6, 2017 City of
Alpine City Council Regular Election ballot may be filed during the following time:
(Se da aviso por la presente que las solicitudes para un lugar en la boleta de la Elección
Regular, 6 de Mayo, 2017, City of Alpine, se pueden presentar durante el siguiente horario:)
Filing Dates and Times:
(Fechas y Horario para Entregar Solicitudes)
Start Date January 18, 2017
(Fecha Inicio)
End Date February 17, 2017
Fecha Límite)
Office Hours:8:00 A.M. to Noon and 1:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M. Monday through Friday
(Horario de la Oficina)
Physical address for filing applications in person for place on the ballot: City Hall,
100 N. 13th Street, Alpine, Texas 79830
(Dirección a física para presentar as solicitudes en persona para un lugar en la boleta) -
City Hall, 100 N. 13th Street, Alpine, Texas 79830
Address to mail applications for place on the ballot (if filing by mail): City Secretary,
City of Alpine, 100 N. 13th Street, Alpine, Texas 79830
(Dirección a donde enviar las solicitudes para un lugar en la boleta (en caso de presentar
por correo)) - City Secretary, City of Alpine, 100 N. 13th Street, Alpine, Texas 79830
Volunteer Fire Department Application
January 13, 2017
Dear Citizens,
We’ve received some inquiries recently on the process to become a volunteer fire fighter. Here is a LINK to the application one needs to fill out. Please feel free to bring the completed application to the Emergency Operations Center or to City Hall.
Rural cities and counties across America depend on their community members to volunteer for a large assortment of activities that are important to the vitality of the area. We certainly appreciate the many volunteers in Alpine that: work on parks, are firefighters, host community visitor events, serve as ambassadors to the community, plus a whole host of other activities.
Have a wonderful weekend in our community.
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
2016
State and Regional Water Plans
December 7, 2016
Dear Citizens,
Some of you participated in the regional forum here in Alpine in early June to offer comments for our State and Regional Water plans.
Texas Water Development Board posted the following to their website recently.
Please take some time to review and gain a better understanding of the water strategy in the state and region.
Click HERE to access the website and reports.
Have a great week,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Old Friendships
December 6, 2016
I was excited to hear from an old friend Don Cohen this week. Don was the Executive Director at the Eagle County Economic Development Council while we lived in the Eagle Valley. Don was (and still is) a dynamic leader who helped our Board through many important decisions.
Don and his wife Terry have since moved ‘down the hill’ to Denver and are enjoying many of the neat aspects associated with Denver’s downtown revitalization. He is also working part time for Winnebago (blogging for them). Little did I know that Don and his wife traveled to the Big Bend Region in 2015 and were able to experience the Cowboy Poetry Gathering.
Take a look at his blog article here!
Thanks Don for sharing your perspective on our little piece of paradise.
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Comment Period – Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy
December 1, 2016
Dear Citizens,
Our Rio Grande Council of Governments has developed a committee focused on economic development in the region. The committee has a draft document prepared (click here) for review by the people in the region. Please take the time to read the strategy and offer comments (if you so choose) to the Annette Gutierrez – Executive Director at the COG.
This is not the same plan as our City of Alpine Vision Plan, rather focused on the entire region.
Thank you and have a wonderful day in Alpine,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy
Chemical Spill – Sul Ross Avenue
November 29, 2016
Dear Citizens,
Several folks have contacted their City elected official or my office regarding the chemical spill on Sul Ross Avenue (just west of Phelps Ave). The chemical’s formal name is AE-P Primer MSDS and is a common substance the City and/or it’s vendors utilize on street repair and maintenance.
First and foremost, I would like to apologize to our citizens for the concern and worry this has caused. J Horry (our new ACM over Outside Services) and myself are working back with TCEQ and the vendor responsible for the spill on clean-up. We anticipate starting the remediation later today. TCEQ has outlined a couple of expectations with J and he will be providing the oversight to the clean-up and subsequent re-vegetation.
Please feel free to reach out to myself or J with any concerns (erik.zimmer@ci.alpine.tx.us and j.horry@ci.alpine.tx.us).
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
November 16, 2016
Dear Citizens,
Don’t forget to come out and enjoy Artwalk again this year. Keri and Team have done a wonderful job in preparation for this years event and we sincerely hope all citizens, guests and vendors have a fabulous time here in Alpine.
The Arts and appreciation of local artists has been an integral part of Alpine’s history. Enjoy the weekend and celebrate part of what is great in our community.
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Texas Pacifico – Strategic Plan
November 2, 2016
Dear Citizens,
At last evenings City Council meeting, I gave a brief presentation regarding a meeting I attended with TxDOT and Texas Pacifico in San Angelo last week. One of the components of the meeting was to discuss the updated Strategic Plan that Texas Pacifico is working towards.
I have included a link to that plan HERE for your review.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate in reaching out to me for further discussion.
Thanks and have a great day here in Alpine.
Erik
TML Resolutions Committee
October 21, 2016
Dear Citizens,
Councilor Jim ‘Fitz’ Fitzgerald and City Attorney Mick McKamie are both part of the Texas Municipal League (TML) Resolutions Committee that met prior to this years Annual Conference. The purpose of the Resolutions Committee is to look at upcoming legislative matters and other elements that impact cities in Texas and determine TML’s stance on the topic(s).
A list of this years ‘Resolutions’ can be found on this link.
Fitz can also be contacted if you would like to hear his perspective on the meeting.
Thank you and have a great day in Alpine.
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
TML 2016 Resolutions Committee Output
Thank You For The Help
October 17, 2016
Dear Community,
I wanted to take a few moments to thank all those who have helped with the search for Ms. Zuzu Verk. There were many volunteers out walking/searching through Alpine and the surrounding areas. It’s a real tribute to the caring sense of our community. My thoughts and prayers go out to her parents, family and friends.
Special thanks to our local Police Department, Sheriff’s Department, EOC team, and Fire Department for their work and efforts through the past week.
If anyone has additional information on the case, please call 432.837.3486.
Kindest Regards,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
New Complaint-Contact Form
September 28, 2016
Dear Citizens,
As we shared at one of our recent Council Meetings, our staff was developing a ‘Complaint-Contact’ Form for ease of use for our Citizens. The form is designed to help citizens voice a concern using our website and also help Staff and Council keep a consolidated record data-base of the submissions.
I think you will find the form easy to use with helpful dropdowns – there is even an option to add an image.
We sincerely hope you find the form useful and we appreciate any comments on the enhancement of the design.
We will have a direct link to the form on the front page of our City website or you can click here for access.
Thank you and have a wonderful day here in Alpine,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Thank You To Many Local Businesses
September 12, 2016
Dear Citizens,
Last Thursday was a difficult day for our community and one that will resonate for all those involved and impacted. As our law enforcement was working through the incidents at the high school, we had other threats posing danger at our University and Hospital.
The City was able to open the Civic Center and provide a place for our University Students to go that lived on campus and were stranded from their dorms. Many local businesses and individuals reached out to provide food and items of comfort for the students.
We’d like to thank: Ben E. Keith, True Value (Bob Ward), Porters (both Stores and Employees), The Triangle, Frito Lay (David Pallenez), Quality Inn, McDonald’s, City of Presidio EMS, Subway, American Red Cross, McCoys, Aramark and countless others offering places to stay for students. If I have forgotten to mention anyone, I sincerely apologize.
I am personally grateful to all of our Law Enforcement for their quick responsiveness and decisive actions. Please support our parents, teachers, administrators and school district as they navigate through the healing process with our children.
Erik M. Zimmer, City Manager
Vision Plan
September 7, 2016
Dear Citizens,
At last evenings City Council meeting, Councilor Stephens and I discussed the progress that has been made towards the creation of the Vision Plan for our community.
Click HERE to download a full copy of the Vision Plan.
In the upcoming days we will be also adding a video presentation to the website showing the vision 3D.
Many thanks go to our partners as the Small Business Development Center and the Individuals involved from UTSA.
We plan on having a town hall meeting / open forum to review the materials in the upcoming month and seek community participation in the implementation phases.
Thank you for all you do for our community.
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
High Grass, Weeds & Vegetation – pt 2
September 7, 2016
Dear Citizens,
Last July I published a blog related to high weeds and vegetation to address several calls and comments we had been receiving at City Hall. This year we have again been blessed with quite a bit of moisture which has caused our grasses and vegetation to flourish. I’ve been asked to re-publish the blog in an effort to help keep this top-of-mind with our community.
Citizens of Alpine,
Our community has been blessed this year with tremendous rainfall. In fact, we have received a little over 11.71 inches of precipitation in 2015. The area typically averages 15.4 inches of precipitation annually, so we are well on a pace to exceed the average.
Along with the increased levels of moisture come more aggressive growth of vegetation and weeds. One of the challenges our Code Enforcement officer continues to face is the communication back to property owners to help keep their weeds down and yards maintained. Not only does this help present a better aesthetic appeal, it also helps cut down on wild animal and reptile nesting, plus assists with fire prevention.
One of the common questions that presents itself at City Hall is the responsibility of the parkways and roadways adjacent to homes and businesses. The specific Ordinance that Alpine has adopted is 54-203 and can be found on our City Website (http://cityofalpine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Chapter-54-HEALTH-AND-SANITATION.pdf). Within that section, our governing body has outlined that: ‘A person has committed an offense if the person owns, occupies, or controls any real property and fails to maintain the parkway adjacent to the property free of weeds and grass that exceed an average of 12 inches in height.” The City does not maintain a staff that mows parkways adjacent to personal and commercial property, rather has enacted ordinance and tax structure to allow for property owners to maintain their own and keep the tax levels down.
We ask that all property owners and citizens take the time to review the ordinance and help to improve the aesthetics and safety in the community by adhering to the adopted law.
Thank you and please feel free to reach out to City staff or your elected representative for further dialogue on this topic.
Have a great rest of the week,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Hometown Hero
August 26, 2016
Dear Citizens,
As football seasons opens today for the Alpine High School Fighting Bucks, it’s fun to think about the Bake Turner days of yesteryear. Texas Music Magazine had a wonderful article about him in this summer’s issue prior to Viva Big Bend. I’ve attached a copy of the article for those who have not seen it.
Bake is one of the good guys. For those of us who get to interact with him, he’s such a great community steward and Alpine advocate.
Go Bucks! We hope the season and prosperous and injury-free.
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Viva Big Bend
August 17, 2016
Dear Citizens,
We’ve had another great year with Viva Big Bend here in Alpine, Marfa, Ft. Davis and Marathon. Over 3000 people descended upon the communities for the long weekend filled with great music and events.
Stewart Ramser, the Event Coordinator and Alpine Tourism Director, should be commended for the wonderful job he has done in building this event up over the last five years. He presented the following set of slides at last nights City Council meeting. There are a couple of embedded videos in the slides, so don’t forget to click on those links.
Thanks again to all those who participated – whether you were a business, vendor or patron. We appreciate the community involvement.
Have a great week!
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Proposed Budget – Fiscal Year 2016-17
August 11, 2016
Dear Citizens,
A copy of this years proposed budget is available on our City website or by clicking here. Once on the website, there are other supporting articles and notices for you to peruse/review.
If you have any questions on the budget, please be sure to reach out to City Hall and ask for me or Megan.
We’ve had much better attendance at this year’s budget workshops and continue to welcome input and the discussions through the annual budgeting process.
There is never enough money to accomplish all the tasks, but we certainly believe the focus on the conditions of our City streets and paying down our debt are critical.
Thank you for your support, involvement and appreciation for our community!
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT) Funding Applications
August 10, 2016
Dear Citizens,
Our annual applications for the HOT Funding has been posted on the front page of our website or by clicking on this link. Please download if you are planning on applying this year or pass this note on to someone else who is considering.
We continue to have a thriving tourism program in Alpine and have welcomed many visitors this year. The HOT fund allows us to expand our reach through aggressive advertising programs and incubation of new and upgraded events attracting new people to our community.
Included in the packet is our cover letter, the application itself and the state guidelines we follow. Stuart and Chris will also host another meeting this fall outlining how our general tourism advertising program can be utilized to create a greater sense of energy and enthusiasm regarding all of our events.
Have a super rest of the week in Alpine. I hope you are enjoying the rain as much as I am.
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Trash and Treasure Hunt
August 2, 2016
Dear Citizens,
Do you want to help keep Alpine clean and beautiful while winning some great prizes in the process? Patsy McWilliams and Keep Alpine Beautiful invites you to the Don’t Mess With Texas Trash and Treasure Hunt on Saturday, August 6th! There will be games, food, and prizes from both local and state sponsors. Registration and games will start at 8:30a at Arbolitos Park, in front of the train depot. Participants will need to return to the starting point at 11:30a for prize distribution. The event will END at 12:00p. All winners MUST be present to claim their prize! For more information call Patsy at ((432)-294-3183.
Alpine is one of 25 locations across Texas and is the only town selected from the El Paso TxDoT district. http://www.dontmesswithtexas.org/get-involved/trash-and-treasure-hunt/
All scout and youth organization participants will receive a special 30th anniversay patch.
Locally sponsored by:
The City of Alpine, Alpine Chamber of Commerce, Morrison True Value, Oasis Tire, McCoys, Porter’s Thriftway, Sonic Drive-In, Johnson Feed and Western Wear, ShopKo, L&F Distributors, Dairy Queen
Thanks to all our generous local sponsors. We hope to see many participants this weekend.
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
July 22, 2016
Kokernot Swing - New 2016
Dear Citizens,
Thanks to the fundraising efforts of the Friends of Big Bend Parks, the older set of swings at Kokernot Park has been replaced. The new swingset has a beautiful shade structure and will be enjoyed for years to come.
I was at the park earlier today and all the seats were being used and the parents welcomed the shade while watching their children swing.
The City is very fortunate to have a kind and caring group like the ‘Friends’ who have raised over $100K in order to update and improve the equipment at our parks.
Special thanks to our Parks Staff and their efforts in assembly and implementation.
Have a great weekend and enjoy our community!
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Paving Article
July 20, 2016
Dear Citizens,
Chris Weber from our Local TxDOT office shared an article with me yesterday reflecting efforts of other communities across the nation. I thought it would be a good one to share with our readers. Alpine continues to be focused on our paving restoration measures and not ‘giving up’. Enjoy the read and have a great day in Alpine.
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Cash-Strapped Towns Are Un-Paving Roads They Can’t Afford to Fix
Wired 7/12/16 7/12/16 By Aarian Marshall
When Montpelier decided to rip up a pothole-riddled asphalt road and replace it with gravel in 2009, it didn’t see itself at the forefront of a growing trend in public works. It was simply responding to a citizen complaint.
City Hall received a hollering from a couple living on Bliss Road in the Vermont capital who wanted to sell their home, but feared the horrifying pavement in front of the house would scare away buyers. They had reason to be pissed off: The city of 8,000 people ranks pavement on an index of one to 100. Bliss Road scored a one.
Repaving roads is expensive, so Montpelier instead used its diminishing public works budget to take a step back in time and un-pave the road. Workers hauled out a machine called a “reclaimer” and pulverized the damaged asphalt and smoothed out the road’s exterior. They filled the space between Vermont’s cruddy soil and hardier dirt and gravel up top with a “geotextile”, a hardy fabric that helps with erosion, stability and drainage.
In an era of dismal infrastructure spending, where the American Society of Civil Engineers gives the country’s roads a D grade, rural areas all over the country are embracing this kind of strategic retreat. Transportation agencies in at least 27 states have unpaved roads, according to a new report from the National Highway Cooperative Highway Research program. They’ve done the bulk of that work in the past five years.
“We didn’t know how prevalent this was,” says Laura Fay, an environmental science researcher with Montana State University’s Western Transportation Institute, who helped compile the report. But there’s clear reason for it. The Congressional Budget Office finds that the while public spending on transportation and water infrastructure has actually increased since 2003, the costs of asphalt, concrete, and cement have jumped even faster. With those extra expenses factored in, public expenditures on transportation infrastructure relative to cost fell by nine percent between 2003 and 2014.
Like many towns facing this recession, Montpelier has slashed its road budget. Meanwhile, several local bridges and retaining walls needed serious, urgent updates. “Asphalt’s pretty expensive,” says Tom McArdle, the city’s head of public works. By un-paving instead of repaving, Montpelier saved about $120,000—a big chunk for a city whose annual budget for street building and repairs was $1.3 million in 2009.
Not the Worst Idea?
Driving the nation’s 1.6 million miles of unpaved roads isn’t any fun and can cost consumers money, says Amy Mattinat, who owns the car maintenance shop Auto Craftsmen in Montpelier. Gravel and dirt are rough on tires, axels, suspensions, and wheel bearings, not to mention the extra work of keeping cars clean.
There are unintended consequences, too. “A lot of people in Vermont drive Priuses,” Mattinat says. “But when, after about a year or two, their Priuses just gets totally beat up, there’s a lot of people who turn in their Priuses and go back to an SUV.” Then there’s the dust. Once kicked airborne, especially silty soils can spread, and pose risks to “human, plant, animal and aquatic health,” according to the NHCRP report.
But de-paved roads aren’t ripped up willy-nilly. There are serious engineers and scientists—entire academic institutes, even—who study how to un-pave in smart ways. Crews can even tamp down dust problems by regularly applying water-absorbing calcium chloride, organic petroleum, and vegetable oils and animal fats.
In fact, most of the community leaders interviewed by the report’s authors said their residents approved of de-paving, especially if agencies kept them informed about the process. At least their substandard roads are getting attention. (Of course, you should be sure to tell residents when you’re planning to rip up their roads. In Sonoma, at least one man returned from a two-week vacation to discover his road had been turned to gravel in his absence. He was displeased.)
Driving on well-maintained dirt and gravel can be healthier for a car than crashing through pothole that makes side streets look like World War I battlefields. “It’s probably better,” says Mattinat. “We love our dirt roads, in kind of a weird way. Everyone’s got a mud road story.”
Meanwhile, Montpelier’s public works budget has climbed in recent years. The best part about a real good gravel or dirt road? It can be re-paved with asphalt when the big bucks come in.
https://www.wired.com/2016/07/cash-strapped-towns-un-paving-roads-cant-afford-fix
July 8, 2016
Dear Citizens,
We are hosting two budget workshops this year in preparation of our 2016-17 Fiscal Year Budget. The first one will be held this next Monday (July 11th) at 3pm in Council Chambers. The second one will be held in early August (8-4-16).
We welcome citizen involvement through the process. If you are unable to attend, please reach out to myself or your respective City Councilor with any questions or thoughts you have.
Thank you and have a wonderful weekend here in Alpine.
Kindest Regards,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Community Recognition
June 22, 2016
Dear Citizens,
For those of you who were unable to attend last night’s City Council meeting (or watch on TV), we handed out some very nice recognition to several special people in our community.
The local Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts were recognized for their work in helping keeping our creeks clean of trash during our Keep Texas Beautiful day in April.
Mr. Zeke Contreras was recognized by the City or his award from Keep Texas Beautiful for encouraging and demonstrating efforts to promote the KTB mission through environmental education.
And our local High School Fighting Buck Baseball squad and their coaches were recognized for their accomplishments during the playoffs this year. They were one series away from advancing to the State Final Four and did that with a relatively young squad.
It’s so nice to see the recognition of our community members who work so hard to make our City great. Have a super week and remember to congratulate these folks on their contribution to our community.
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Free Mulch
June 9, 2016
Dear Citizens,
We’ve had some recent questions regarding brush/limb drop-off and acquisition of free mulch from our Hal Flanders Recycle Center.
Here are some bullet points to help answer those questions:
The City has recently received a $9221 grant from our Rio Grande Council of Government Solid Waste Advisory Committee (SWAC Grant) to pick up brush around the City and mulch the materials for City resident usage.
The City has hired a vendor to pick up the brush adjacent to dumpsters and parkways throughout the City. They will be picking up that brush through next Friday (June 17th).
We have re-opened the Recycle Center for resident brush and limb drop off. The hours that we are open for drop off are 8a-12p Tuesday through Saturday.
We currently have a lot of mulch already at the Recycle Center and you can pick that up between 8a-12p Tuesday through Saturday. That mulch was made last year and is still available at no charge.
Between June 20th and July 15th, we will have a ‘tub-grinder’ mobilized to Alpine and mulch all the new brush and limbs at the Recycle Center. This is part of the SWAC Grant.
After completion of the mulching, we will have even more for folks to utilize across the City. I do anticipate Patsy McWilliams and our Keep Alpine Beautiful Team to come up with some sort of contest on mulching usage in the City.
Thank you for the questions. If I was unable to answer them all, or you have additional questions, please call me at City Hall.
Thank you and have a wonderful day in Alpine,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Texas-Pacifico City Council Presentation
June 8, 2016
Dear Citizens,
At last evenings City Council meeting we had Elizabeth Grindstaff from Texas-Pacifico present to the Council and Community the recent activity and usage of their rail line traversing through Alpine.
Here is a copy of their presentation along with her contact information. We appreciate Liz and Fernan making the trip to Alpine to share this important messaging. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate in calling my office or reaching out to them directly.
Have a great day!
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Back By Popular Demand
May 20, 2016
Dear Citizens,
As we’ve transitioned to the new billing software in our Water Department, the new bill format resembled that of our Gas Department bills. Several citizens voiced a desire to go back to the postcard type billing as it was easy to identify in the mail.
Effective with our June billing, Megan and her team have been able to convert back to a postcard type billing. The postcard will not be all blue in color, but will have lots of blue identifiers so it’s easy to see. A copy of what the new bill and late bill is posted below.
Thank you for your patience and support through the transition. The new billing system gives the City more data on consumption/usage and also gives us a more reliable system and support for the future.
Have a great weekend,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Alpine Listed Top 20 Best Small Towns
May 16, 2016
Dear Citizens,
Exciting distinction for Alpine according to the Smithsonian. We have been ranked one of their top 20 small towns in America!
Click here for the link to the article.
Congratulations to our community and the citizens. Have a great week!
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Keep Alpine Beautiful
April 18, 2016
Dear Citizens,
Our Keep Alpine Beautiful Committee has been very busy this past month with the Electronics Recycling, Bulky Trash pick-up, Texas Trash Off and the upcoming Earth Day celebration. Many thanks go to Patsy McWilliams for her leadership and coordination of these critical functions. We’ll discuss some of the results at tomorrow nights City Council, but I wanted to share two letters Patsy wrote.
First letter regarding Electronics Recycling:
Keep Alpine Beautiful had another successful Electronics Recycling Event. Participation spanned the tri-county area with separate events held in both Terlingua and Ft. Davis. E-waste was brought from as far away as Big Bend National Park and as close as across the street from the Old Fire Station. Together we recycled 21,528 pounds of electronics! Again, big humpbacked televisions made up the largest quantity of items, but printers, fax machines, microwaves, computers, and even modern LCD monitors and tvs contributed to the full truckload. ECS Refining of Mesquite, TX hauled off the electronics for recycling. All hard drives were immediately shredded so that no data was recoverable.
In Alpine, we had an abundance of help this go-around! Due to the event being held over spring break, several youth from Alpine Independent School District stepped in to help: Nick Miller, Roarke Zimmer, Logan Duschatco, Bobbie Roberts, Mary-Anna Roberts, and Colleen Roberts contributed collectively 105 hours to the event. Keep Alpine Beautiful committee members, Martha Latta, Mike Latta, and Abby Garza added another collective 16 hours. Other volunteers include Aaron Curlee and Rafael Azuaje. Special thanks go to Ft. Davis and Terlingua volunteers for putting together events in their communities: Rosemary Dennis, who worked tirelessly for 3 days, used her own truck and trailer to bring items to Alpine, and helped unload it all, and Ruth Jansyn, who worked the event in South Brewster County.
We will continue to hold the Electronics Recycling Events bi-annually as there seems to be no shortage of outdated e-waste. In the interim, please call 294-3183 if you have large electronic items to dispose of. Thank you all for your commitment to recycling and Keeping Alpine and the Big Bend Beautiful.
Sincerely,
Patsy McWilliams
Second Letter Regarding the Texas Trash Off:
Once again, the people of Alpine have gone above and beyond the call of duty for the Don’t Mess with Texas Trash-off. Keep Alpine Beautiful volunteers collected litter along roadways, parks, neighborhoods, and Alpine Creek on Saturday, April 9, 2016 as part of the Don’t Mess with Texas Trash-Off which is Texas’ largest single-day litter cleanup program.
To jump start the DMWT Trash-off, on April 6, Sul Ross State University Lobo Football Team loaded 11,000 pounds of truck tires to be shipped out for recycling. These tires, the result of years of illegal dumping, were no match for the approximately 50 college football players led by Coach John Pierce. This is the third time the Lobos have loaded tires at the Hal Flanders Recycling Center.
This year, all activities started at Kokernot Park. Volunteers gathered at 9 am on Saturday to receive instruction, bags, vests, and gloves. After a quick run through, the groups were off to their locations and spent most of the morning picking up litter.
For the past five years, Cub Scout Den #141 has cleaned up the entire of length of Alpine Creek. They start at the dip in the road on Fighting Buck Avenue and pop back out at Medina Park. This year, 37 scouts including their families, picked up 46 bags of trash and recyclables in our City Creek.
Other youth groups, Daisy Scout Troop 28113, Brownie Scout Troop 28212, and Brewster County Twin Peaks 4-H, concentrated their clean up in Medina, Baines, and Kokernot Parks, respectively. Additionally, both the AISD National Honor Society and National Junior Honor Society were represented cleaning Alpine High School grounds and areas surrounding Buck Stadium. Students from High Frontier spent all morning picking up trash, pulling weeds, and trimming shrubs at the Alpine Animal Shelter. And not to be outdone, several groups gathered trash along our city’s roadways: LDS Church (Loop Road), Junior and Cadette Scout Troops 28222 and 28333 (Murphy Street), Mack Family Farm (Mosley Loop), and Big Bend Regional Medical Center (the area where East Highway 90 comes together).
Every year the Texas Department of Transportation awards one person across the state with a prize for finding the most unusual item. This year, Christian Teague of the Brewster County Twin Peaks 4H Club found a paintball mask in the far reaches of Kokernot Park. This was Alpine’s weirdest item and Christian will be entered in the TxDoT constest.
We also had several individual volunteers cleaning up illegal dump sites and throughout town. Hiram and Liza Sibley and Tom and Susan Curry worked on cleaning up illegally dumped brush and trash in the alley behind Historic Murphy Street. Martha Latta cleaned up both Loop Drive and the Alpine Chamber of Commerce grounds.
Also, special thanks to Kiowa Gallery and Framing, Tierra Grande Master Naturalists, Plaine Coffee, Alpine Montessori School, Alpine VFW Post 7207, Tri-Beta Honor Society/SRSU Biology Club, Kiwanis Club, Big Bend Telephone, Knights of Columbus Council 5096, and Sierra La Rana for taking care of their section of Adopt-A-Highway.
Martha Latta was also on scene at all locations to take lots of photos! At noon, all Volunteer groups met back at Kokernot Park for lunch. Thanks to the Rotary Club International of Alpine for serving a hotdog lunch (provided by Porter’s Thriftway on 2nd Street) to all volunteers. Big Bend Regional Medical Center donated re-usable water bottles for everyone to take home. After a full morning of work, the kids threw Frisbees, played at the playground, and seemed to really enjoy hanging at the park. One National Junior Honor Society volunteer, Nayeli Soto, said “This is the most fun I’ve had in a long time.”
All in all, there were over 200 volunteers—the best year yet! Tires, trash, and recyclables collected amassed more than 36, 360 pounds of waste that is now where it belongs. Great job, Alpine! Patsy McWilliams, Keep Alpine Beautiful coordinator said, “This event continues to grow. The youth groups are the backbone of the Trash-off, setting a great example that even our adult citizens could learn from. I can’t wait till next year!”
The City of Alpine truly appreciates the efforts of all of our Volunteers. It’s one reason we have such a thriving and wonderful community to call home.
Have a great week,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Airport Advisory Board Meeting – April 20, 2016
April 14, 2016
Dear Citizens,
Our monthly Airport Advisory Board meeting is approaching next week. One of the key topics being discussed this month is flight patterns of the helicopters housed at the Alpine Casparis Muncipal Airport. We have 32+ citizens in the City/County area interested in the flight patterns.
One of the recent reports our FSDO shared with me was a December 2004 Report to Congress. That report (Nonmilitary Helicopter Urban Noise Study) can be accessed here.
Thank you for your continued support of our local airport. We’ve just completed our crack-seal project re-mediating the cracks on our Apron and Taxiway A-D. We look forward to completing our formal restoration project of those two areas in 2018.
Have a great rest of the week,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
2015 Audit Now Online
March 30, 2016
Dear Citizens,
The 2015 Audit performed by Gibson, Ruddock, Patterson LLC on behalf of the City of Alpine is now available on our website. Please click here or use the Information drop-down menu to locate.
The City continues to improve in its overall operations and the results from this year’s audit represent the positive work by staff and employees. Our Department heads and employees have challenged themselves to work diligently in 2016 to build on that momentum and improve their execution plans.
This years budget preparation, workshops and communications will be vital to our asset restoral plans and abilities to put more dollars towards our streets and utility infrastructures. We welcome Citizen involvement and communications through that process.
As you review the audit, please feel free to reach out to our Finance Director, Megan Antrim, or myself with any questions.
Thank you,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Civic Center Grand Re-Opening
March 24, 2016
Dear Citizens,
Please join us next week (Thursday March 31st) at the Civic Center Grand Re-Opening. We will have live music and refreshments. We appreciate the patience from our citizens through the remodel process and anticipate the changes will make the Center more functional for large and small events.
Please check the front page of our webpage for all the details.
Thank you and have a Happy Easter weekend,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
City Council Meetings now available via the internet
March 16, 2016
Dear Citizens,
Our City Staff has been working diligently on providing access to our City Council meetings via the internet. We are using Google Hangouts and broadcast our first meeting on the internet yesterday. After the meeting, a YouTube video is created for later viewing.
If you missed the Council Meeting and want to catch up on what you missed, now you will have more immediate access.
Here is the link for last evenings meeting.
Please keep an eye on our website for further enhancements to this process.
Thank you and have a wonderful day in Alpine,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Alpine Visit – Iraan Pre-K Children
March 8, 2016
The City of Alpine was happy to host the children from Iraan’s Pre-K program last week. They were studying transportation and were able to view several parts of our City. Highlighting the trip was getting the chance to see an Amtrak train and explore a Helicopter (pictured) at our local Alpine Casparis Municipal Airport.
A big thanks to our CBP team and Kyp Angel (pictured – who is also on our Airport Advisory Board) for their help in making the day a great one for the kids.
Have a super week,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
2016 – Annual Racial Profiling Report
February 18, 2016
Dear Citizens of Alpine,
Each year, our local Police Department submits a Racial Profiling Report – per SB1074. We reviewed the report with our elected officials at last evenings City Council meeting and wanted to make the report available to the public.
The report can be accessed by clicking on the highlighted area above or on the right side of our Police Department page on this website.
Please feel free to reach out to Chief Scown or myself with any questions.
Thank you and have a great rest of the week.
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Parks Survey
February 12, 2016
Dear Citizens,
We’ve recently added a survey to our website regarding the parks and recreational areas in the City. Please take some time to fill out the survey and give us your feedback.
Our Parks Board appreciates the responses and will utilize the information to make recommendations back to our City Council.
Thank you and have a wonderful weekend,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Fire Hydrants
February 5, 2016
Dear Citizens,
There has been much discussion in recent weeks about the status and condition of Fire Hydrants in the City of Alpine and adjacent areas within the County. For those of you who were unable to attend Tuesday’s City Council meeting, I thought it would be appropriate to speak to the history of the inspection program and understand where we are currently in the remediation process.
During last years Budget preparations, City Staff recommended we budget $5K towards Fire Hydrant repair and possible implementation of new hydrants as needed. This amount was passed by City Council through the normal budget approval process. Councilor Fitzgerald approached me during the fall to request we start the process as soon as we could during this fiscal year. Department Captain Mark Scudder was subsequently instructed to go through the testing during their weekly Wednesday meetings. This process had not been completed previously since the 2011 time-frame and we were anxious to get back on the process of yearly testing.
The testing took place Wednesday evenings through the fall season with output to the Council at our 2nd meeting in January. There are a couple of things to consider with the output: 1. We at the City wanted to see the issues that we out there and 2. The majority of the non-functional hydrants were due to the Fire Department not being able to open the hydrants using normal force. It’s important to also understand that if the Fire Department was responding to a fire and could not open a hydrant, they would go to the next closest one.
The next step of the process we had mapped out was to have our Public Works department address the hard to open Fire Hydrants and the Water department to address the hydrants with water flow issues. I detailed out a listing of those exact hydrants at the last City Council meeting and that report can be viewed on the City Manager Report link on this website.
Our Public Works department has been working through their list and finding that most of their hydrants can be opened with a little extra force. Hector has taken a video of one of those hydrants and shared with us: click on the following link to see the video.
We are very committed to resolving all the outstanding issues and our Fire Department will do a final check after remediation to ensure they are comfortable with the operation during an emergency operation. We will report out quarterly at the City Council meetings.
Finally, our Fire Department will be testing all the hydrants annually/regularly each fall.
Thank you for your questions and concerns. Safety is important in the City of Alpine. If you have further questions, please feel free reaching out to me at City Hall.
Kindest Regards,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
PS – As an aside: We currently have approximately 19 volunteers on our Volunteer Fire Department and would like to get that number back up to 35. We are interested in residents of the City and County who have always wanted to participate in the local department and welcome new Volunteers.
Alpine Police Department Receives Awards
February 5, 2016
Congratulations to our local Police Department for receiving two awards from TxDOT this week based on their participation in safety and awareness programs last year. You can see the write up from TxDOT here and also pay attention to next weeks Alpine Avalanche for a larger report from Jim Street.
Captain Losoya received recognition on behalf of the department from Mayor Rangra at Tuesday nights City Council meeting.
The $6000 received by our PD from the two awards will be used for laptop and technology needs within the department.
Once again, congratulations to our entire Police Department,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Signage Around Town
January 15, 2016
Dear Citizens,
City Hall has received numerous questions recently about the volume of ‘A’ frame type signs popping up around downtown as well as other posters depicting garage sales, etc…
I’m attaching our current Sign Ordinance to this posting (Ch 78 Signs) that depicts the current expectations our Elected Officials have outlined. It’s good to have people review the Ordinance before posting signs or hiring someone to make signs for your business. The City is certainly sensitive to our residents First Amendment Rights and our administration of the Ordinance keeps that in mind.
With regards to the ‘A’ frame type signs – it’s important that they are not put in the middle of a public right-of-way (ie…sidewalk or street). Most owners put them on their own property and that is okay. With regards to the paper signs attached to the light-poles, that is restricted and we need people to refrain from hanging them.
As always, please feel free to call City Hall or our Code Enforcement Officer (Mr. Robert Polanco) if you have any questions.
Have a great weekend,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Water Supply Documents
January 7, 2016
Citizens of Alpine,
We have recently added two new documents to our website related to Water supply for both Alpine and Far West Texas.
The first document is the Far West Texas Water Plan which is a 5-year plan document and recently updated effective January 2016.
The second document is the LB Guyton Phase II Report from 2007. This is a wonderful document with maps related to our well site locations and great background information on all our active wells.
If you’re interested in water and our water supply, I encourage you to get familiar with these documents. You can click on the hotlinks embedded in this article or go to our Environmental Advisory Board page on our website.
Have a great day!
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Barking Dogs
January 6, 2016
Alpine Citizens,
Through the course of this past year, one of the questions we fielded quite often at City Hall was regarding barking dogs. Several residents have asked, ‘What do I do if my neighbor has dogs that bark during the night and keep me up?’
Jennifer Stewart (Animal Control Supervisor) has put together this handy guide that we have posted on our Police Department page under Helpful Links. Click Here to access.
We hope you find this information useful and please feel free to reach out to my office with any questions or concerns. Animals are an important part of our community and we have a strong Humane Society here in Alpine as well. They can also be a great resource for remedies and methodologies to help calm pets.
Have a great day.
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
2016 Street Paving – Targeted Areas
January 4, 2016
Dear Citizens,
Happy New Year! During mid-December, I shared with our Mayor and City Council the areas that our Public Works team will be targeting for paving during the 2016 season. The City will primarily focus on seal-coating streets versus full-rebuilds. We believe we have many roads across the City that can be saved with some minor repair and a full new coat (seal-coat) put on top of the existing road. In order for a road to survive for 28-30 years, we need to seal-coat it every 7 years. I outlined this process in the presentation shared with Council early in 2015 and posted on our website.
We will be reviewing the schedule shared with our elected officials at our January 5, 2016 City Council meeting. If you are unable to attend the meeting, please feel free to view the files here on our website.
Make it a great 2016
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
2015
New Glass Crusher Functioning
December 15, 2015
Dear Citizens,
Patsy McWilliams shared some great news with me today…our new glass crusher is fully assembled and functioning. Karen will begin crushing glass tomorrow and work to get caught up on the backlog.
We will start accepting glass again at the Recycling Center around January 4, 2016.
Thank you for your patience and we look forward to using the more powerful and productive machine.
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Parks Meeting – Wednesday December 16th
December 10, 2015
Dear Citizens,
We have our next Parks Board meeting this upcoming week and I invite all of you to attend. We are reviewing all parks that the City maintains, plus open spaces owned and maintained by Sul Ross, the County and AISD. We will also be reviewing any covenants regarding use of these spaces.
The Boards next step will be to survey the residents about needs, uses and future ideas/wants. We anticipate having that survey out by the end of December.
One final note: on the radio today it was mentioned by Mr. Oscar Cobos that I recommended closing some parks (naming Baines and Medina Parks in particular). Point of clarity, I have never mentioned nor considered closing Baines or Medina Parks. I have recommended that the City look at all open spaces that we maintain and the Board make a recommendation back to Council on which parks are most important to the Citizens and how we will financially maintain these parks. For those who attended the Parks Board meeting in November heard that message.
Thank you and please feel free to reach out to me with any questions. Being actively engaged in our local boards and our annual budget process by our citizens is critical to our communities long term health.
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Food Day – Saturday October 24th
October 22, 2015
Come celebrate at the Farmers’ Market on Historic Murphy street this Saturday. The event will run from 9am-noon and feature everything from:
- Food sampling
- Native treat tasting
- Healthy Halloween snacks
- Information on health eating
- Plus a whole lot more
Download the flyer HERE and share with your friends and family.
Have a great rest of the week,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Municipal Court – Code Enforcement Presentation
October 21, 2015
At our most recent City Council meeting, our Municipal Court Judge (Judge Trook) and Code Enforcement Officer (Robert Polanco) presented the process flow for Criminal Violations through our local Municipal Court.
Click HERE to view the presentation.
The City fields calls weekly on regarding different ordinance violations across town. We felt it was important to take time during one of our Council Meetings to discuss the process flow of the Cases and how our Judge, Prosecuting Attorney and Code Enforcement officer handle the violations.
Our number one goal as a City is compliance and helping our citizens and property owners achieve that objective.
If you have questions, please reach out to Judge Eve Trook or Mr. Robert Polanco.
Thank you and have a great day,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Daytripper
October 20, 2015
The ‘Daytripper’ with Chet Garner recently stopped here in Alpine for the filming of one of his episodes.
Click HERE to link to his blog/website for a preview featuring our community.
Have a great week!
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Wastewater Treatment Plant Projects
October 7, 2015
Dear Citizens,
At last evening’s regular City Council meeting, our Utilities Director Lawrence Cutrone took us through a presentation reviewing two important projects we are targeting for our WWTP. The City is working through an Enforcement case with TCEQ and are presenting these projects to them as options for our C-SEP project.
Please feel free to reach out to Lawrence or myself with any questions and we will gladly respond.
Have a great day!
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Click HERE to view presentation.
Positive Train Control
September 25, 2015
Click HERE for the latest presentation from Union Pacific on their efforts with Positive Train Control.
Please contact me here at City Hall or your elected official to have more dialogue on the impacts associated with the pending deadline for implementation of December 31, 2015.
Thank you ,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
FY 2015-16 Budget Schedule
August 4, 2015
Dear Citizens,
I wanted to share with the community our target dates for budget hearings, approvals, etc…
We do have our second budget hearing later this afternoon and the remainder of target dates are as follows:
August 18th – Public Hearing #1 on Tax Rate and Budget Hearing (during regular City Council Meeting)
August 25th – 5:30p – Public Hearing #2 on Tax Rate (this would be a Special Meeting)
September 1st – 5p – Approval of Tax Revenue (Special Meeting) – Adjourn 5:30p – Adoption of Tax rate, establishment of I&S dollars and Budget Approval at Regular City Council meeting.
These dates are subject to change, but we want to get the information out in order to allow as many people to attend as have interest.
We have also posted the Proposed Budget on the front page of our website.
Thank you and have a wonderful day here in Alpine!
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
July 31, 2015
Dear Citizens,
The City Staff posted the FY2015-16 Proposed Budget yesterday and have scheduled a second budget workshop to be held next Tuesday August 4th at 3:30pm in Council Chambers.
Parallel to this process, we wanted to post the applications for HOT fund requests for FY2015-16. We are requesting that all applications be filled out and submitted by August 31, 2015. Our review committee will be assimilating those requests and providing a recommendation to Council for HOT fund usage during the month of September.
Please feel free to call our offices with any questions or needed dialogue.
Cheers and have a great weekend!
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
July 14, 2015
Citizens of Alpine,
Our community has been blessed this year with tremendous rainfall. In fact, we have received a little over 11.71 inches of precipitation in 2015. The area typically averages 15.4 inches of precipitation annually, so we are well on a pace to exceed the average.
Along with the increased levels of moisture come more aggressive growth of vegetation and weeds. One of the challenges our Code Enforcement officer continues to face is the communication back to property owners to help keep their weeds down and yards maintained. Not only does this help present a better aesthetic appeal, it also helps cut down on wild animal and reptile nesting, plus assists with fire prevention.
One of the common questions that presents itself at City Hall is the responsibility of the parkways and roadways adjacent to homes and businesses. The specific Ordinance that Alpine has adopted is 54-203 and can be found on our City Website (http://cityofalpine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Chapter-54-HEALTH-AND-SANITATION.pdf). Within that section, our governing body has outlined that: ‘A person has committed an offense if the person owns, occupies, or controls any real property and fails to maintain the parkway adjacent to the property free of weeds and grass that exceed an average of 12 inches in height.” The City does not maintain a staff that mows parkways adjacent to personal and commercial property, rather has enacted ordinance and tax structure to allow for property owners to maintain their own and keep the tax levels down.
We ask that all property owners and citizens take the time to review the ordinance and help to improve the aesthetics and safety in the community by adhering to the adopted law.
Thank you and please feel free to reach out to City staff or your elected representative for further dialogue on this topic.
Have a great rest of the week,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
May 1, 2015
Citizens of Alpine,
Our City is currently holding their annual city elections. This year, the elected Council positions for Wards 1, 3 and 5 are up for consideration. During even numbered years, the Mayor position and Ward 2 and 4 Council positions are contemplated.
Early voting started this week, Monday April 27th and will run through Tuesday May 5th. The general date of election will be next Saturday, May 9th.
I have the opportunity to work with all the elected officials on a weekly basis and find the vocation of City Manager to be very rewarding. It is through engagement in the community that one can begin to make difference in shaping the future. National and State politics can feel distanced from ones perspective, but it is at the local level that you begin to feel empowered and capable of creating redirection.
Eric Liu gave a talk on Tedx Talks last August that inspired me and helped better articulate why citizens should get engaged at the local level. I’ve attached the video for easy access.
If you live in Ward’s 1 or 3, I encourage you to come out and vote this cycle (Ward 5 is not being contested). Early voting continues today through 5pm and on Monday (8a-5p) and Tuesday (until 7p). The general election date is next Saturday May 9th from 7am to 7pm.
Shortly after the new Council is in place, selection and re-selection of Boards and Commissions supporting the City will commence. If you have 8-10 hours a month to volunteer to our community, I encourage you to reach out to your Council person and express an interest.
Thank you all for your commitment to our community and support of Alpine and Brewster County. We certainly have momentum on our side and an inspiring backdrop for action.
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Recognition Of Our City’s Students
April 10, 2015
Dear Residents,
This past City Council meeting (April 7, 2015) gave our City the chance to recognize the students in Alpine Independent School District that qualified for state level competition in: Science, History and Robotics. It’s extremely important for our community to congratulate the youth on their academic accomplishments.
For those of you who were not able to attend, here’s a recap of the honorees:
High School History Fair
Senior Individual Documentary
Marco Mata: Blais-ing Through the Principles of Physics: Leadership and Legacy of Blaise Pascal – Alpine High School
Senior Individual Exhibit
Grace Jahn: Samuel Colt: Firing a Mark on History – Alpine High School
Sammy Villarreal: Stan Lee: Comics Through the Ages – Alpine High School
Middle School History Fair
Individual Exhibit
Dalee Sullivan: Caligula: 2,400 Days of Terror
Group Documentary
Italia Anaya and Skye Valenzuela: The Queen that Betrayed her Country: Marie Anttoinete
Amelia Zimmer, Brady Crump, Danni Akers and Blake Billings: George Washington: Leading the Revolutionary War
Group Interpretive Website
Kaleb Crump, Tristin Zimmer, Isayah Martinez: Why People Come to Alpine, TX
Gabby Garcia, Katelyn Lilley, and Marie Muniz: The Legacies of a Few Government Officials
Individual Historical Paper
Macy Moslbee: General L. Bulis: Whirlwind of the West
Riley Spencer: From Island…To Dreaded Island
Middle School Robotics
Group Invention
Angeline De Guia, Cheyenne Rondeaux, Dominic Smith, and Hunter Ynostrosa: CycleBot: Making everyday Recycling Easier
Middle School Science
Individual Project Entry
Tristin Zimmer: Riding On The Sky – Hovercraft
Nayeli Soto: Burn Food Burn
Sydney Anderson: Doggy Oral Hygiene
The City appreciates the hard work displayed by all the students and the support that comes from their parents, teachers and administrators.
Have a great weekend,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
City of Alpine Streets
April 2, 2015
Dear City of Alpine,
As we all are keenly aware, many of the roads in Alpine have seen their better days. Driving through town, one can not help but notice the condition of the roads and the many potholes that have developed.
It’s easy to blame the recent run of bad weather (continuous rain, ice, etc…) and that certainly plays a part in the breakdown of our roads. Asphalt, whether a hot-mix or a chip seal, does not like water to get beneath it.
We also have numerous repairs to our water, sewer and gas infrastructure that require us to cut through the asphalt and create disruption and heightened opportunities for potholes.
The critical piece of the puzzle that city staff has been compiling recently is a thorough understanding of: the lifespan of roads, rehabilitation intervals, maintenance intervals, equipment needed, staff needed and pothole remediation. I will have an agenda item at this upcoming City Council meeting to discuss the findings and hopefully encourage some robust dialogue on remediation planning. I encourage our citizens to attend and listen/participate as you feel inclined.
We will also post the presentation to this very important topic on our City of Alpine website after the meeting.
Roads and Buildings are two of our most important assets that the City owns. How we invest in and maintain them over a period of time is critical. Because Alpine is such a ‘walkable’ town, we also want to ensure the avenues are in good function for vehicle, foot and bike traffic.
Thanks for the continued comments and calls in to City Hall. We look forward to seeing some of you at our April 7th City Council meeting.
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
February 26, 2015
City of Alpine,
Lots has happened since the turn of the calendar year with the City of Alpine. The inclement weather has provided quite a bit of extra work for our teams and helped further identify some needs throughout the City.
We’ve also been working diligently with TxDOT Aviation to identify and gain visibility to much needed taxiway and apron improvements for the City’s asset. Some of you have been out there and seen the widening cracks along one of our taxiways as well as the main apron area for visiting aircraft. We’ve received a lot of feedback from our local pilots, hanger owners and visitors to the area.
The group of employees from TxDOT Aviation assigned to our airport have made multiple visits to Alpine and are working through a short term plan to fill the cracks (for safety reasons), then come back in two years to fully redo the taxiway and apron.
We have also been reviewing some respondents to an RFP for FBO (Fixed Based Operator) services for our airport. Alpine has utilized a FBO in the past (several years ago) and we are working with a couple of respondents to better understand if they would be the right fit for Alpine in the future.
As always, feel free to reach out to City Staff with any questions or concerns. We appreciate and welcome the dialogue.
Warmest Regards,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
2014
Board of Adjustment
November 6, 2014
Dear Residents,
We’ve had recent agenda items and conversation surrounding the creation of a Board of Adjustments for the City of Alpine. The nature of this conversation centers around hearing variances related to our current Zoning Ordinances.
I’d like to utilize this blog post to share some of the city ordinances, state statutes and Attorney General opinion letters on the topic. Hopefully that will give you an opportunity to do some further research.
City of Alpine Ordinances – Appendix C Zoning – Section 11:
“Section 11 Duties of administrative official, city council and courts on matters of appeal.
It is the intent of this ordinance that all questions of interpretation and enforcement shall be first
presented to the administrative official, and that recourse from the decisions of the administrative official
shall be to the courts as provided by the laws of the State of Texas.
It is further the intent of this ordinance that the duties of the city council in connection with the
ordinance shall not include hearing and deciding questions of interpretation and enforcement that may
arise. The procedure for deciding such questions shall be as stated in this section and this ordinance.
Under this ordinance the city council shall have only the duties:
(1) Of considering and adopting or rejecting proposed amendments or the repeal of this ordinance,
as provided by law; and
(2) Of establishing a schedule of fees and charges as stated in Section 12, below.”
State of Texas – Local Government Code – 211.008 to 211.011
“Sec. 211.008. BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT. (a) The governing body of a municipality may provide for the appointment of a board of adjustment. In the regulations adopted under this subchapter, the governing body may authorize the board of adjustment, in appropriate cases and subject to appropriate conditions and safeguards, to make special exceptions to the terms of the zoning ordinance that are consistent with the general purpose and intent of the ordinance and in accordance with any applicable rules contained in the ordinance.
(b) A board of adjustment must consist of at least five members to be appointed for terms of two years. The governing body must provide the procedure for appointment. The governing body may authorize each member of the governing body, including the mayor, to appoint one member to the board. The appointing authority may remove a board member for cause, as found by the appointing authority, on a written charge after a public hearing. A vacancy on the board shall be filled for the unexpired term.
(c) The governing body, by charter or ordinance, may provide for the appointment of alternate board members to serve in the absence of one or more regular members when requested to do so by the mayor or city manager. An alternate member serves for the same period as a regular member and is subject to removal in the same manner as a regular member. A vacancy among the alternate members is filled in the same manner as a vacancy among the regular members.
(d) Each case before the board of adjustment must be heard by at least 75 percent of the members.
(e) The board by majority vote shall adopt rules in accordance with any ordinance adopted under this subchapter. Meetings of the board are held at the call of the presiding officer and at other times as determined by the board. The presiding officer or acting presiding officer may administer oaths and compel the attendance of witnesses. All meetings of the board shall be open to the public.
(f) The board shall keep minutes of its proceedings that indicate the vote of each member on each question or the fact that a member is absent or fails to vote. The board shall keep records of its examinations and other official actions. The minutes and records shall be filed immediately in the board’s office and are public records.
(g) The governing body of a Type A general-law municipality by ordinance may grant the members of the governing body the authority to act as a board of adjustment under this chapter.
Acts 1987, 70th Leg., ch. 149, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1987. Amended by Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 126, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1993; Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 724, Sec. 1, eff. Aug. 28, 1995; Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 363, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1997.
Sec. 211.009. AUTHORITY OF BOARD. (a) The board of adjustment may:
(1) hear and decide an appeal that alleges error in an order, requirement, decision, or determination made by an administrative official in the enforcement of this subchapter or an ordinance adopted under this subchapter;
(2) hear and decide special exceptions to the terms of a zoning ordinance when the ordinance requires the board to do so;
(3) authorize in specific cases a variance from the terms of a zoning ordinance if the variance is not contrary to the public interest and, due to special conditions, a literal enforcement of the ordinance would result in unnecessary hardship, and so that the spirit of the ordinance is observed and substantial justice is done; and
(4) hear and decide other matters authorized by an ordinance adopted under this subchapter.
(b) In exercising its authority under Subsection (a)(1), the board may reverse or affirm, in whole or in part, or modify the administrative official’s order, requirement, decision, or determination from which an appeal is taken and make the correct order, requirement, decision, or determination, and for that purpose the board has the same authority as the administrative official.
(c) The concurring vote of 75 percent of the members of the board is necessary to:
(1) reverse an order, requirement, decision, or determination of an administrative official;
(2) decide in favor of an applicant on a matter on which the board is required to pass under a zoning ordinance; or
(3) authorize a variation from the terms of a zoning ordinance.
Acts 1987, 70th Leg., ch. 149, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1987. Amended by Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 126, Sec. 2, eff. Sept. 1, 1993; Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 724, Sec. 2, eff. Aug. 28, 1995.
Sec. 211.010. APPEAL TO BOARD. (a) Except as provided by Subsection (e), any of the following persons may appeal to the board of adjustment a decision made by an administrative official:
(1) a person aggrieved by the decision; or
(2) any officer, department, board, or bureau of the municipality affected by the decision.
(b) The appellant must file with the board and the official from whom the appeal is taken a notice of appeal specifying the grounds for the appeal. The appeal must be filed within a reasonable time as determined by the rules of the board. On receiving the notice, the official from whom the appeal is taken shall immediately transmit to the board all the papers constituting the record of the action that is appealed.
(c) An appeal stays all proceedings in furtherance of the action that is appealed unless the official from whom the appeal is taken certifies in writing to the board facts supporting the official’s opinion that a stay would cause imminent peril to life or property. In that case, the proceedings may be stayed only by a restraining order granted by the board or a court of record on application, after notice to the official, if due cause is shown.
(d) The board shall set a reasonable time for the appeal hearing and shall give public notice of the hearing and due notice to the parties in interest. A party may appear at the appeal hearing in person or by agent or attorney. The board shall decide the appeal within a reasonable time.
(e) A member of the governing body of the municipality who serves on the board of adjustment under Section 211.008(g) may not bring an appeal under this section.
Acts 1987, 70th Leg., ch. 149, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1987. Amended by Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 363, Sec. 2, eff. Sept. 1, 1997.
Sec. 211.011. JUDICIAL REVIEW OF BOARD DECISION. (a) Any of the following persons may present to a district court, county court, or county court at law a verified petition stating that the decision of the board of adjustment is illegal in whole or in part and specifying the grounds of the illegality:
(1) a person aggrieved by a decision of the board;
(2) a taxpayer; or
(3) an officer, department, board, or bureau of the municipality.
(b) The petition must be presented within 10 days after the date the decision is filed in the board’s office.
(c) On the presentation of the petition, the court may grant a writ of certiorari directed to the board to review the board’s decision. The writ must indicate the time by which the board’s return must be made and served on the petitioner’s attorney, which must be after 10 days and may be extended by the court. Granting of the writ does not stay the proceedings on the decision under appeal, but on application and after notice to the board the court may grant a restraining order if due cause is shown.
(d) The board’s return must be verified and must concisely state any pertinent and material facts that show the grounds of the decision under appeal. The board is not required to return the original documents on which the board acted but may return certified or sworn copies of the documents or parts of the documents as required by the writ.
(e) If at the hearing the court determines that testimony is necessary for the proper disposition of the matter, it may take evidence or appoint a referee to take evidence as directed. The referee shall report the evidence to the court with the referee’s findings of fact and conclusions of law. The referee’s report constitutes a part of the proceedings on which the court shall make its decision.
(f) The court may reverse or affirm, in whole or in part, or modify the decision that is appealed. Costs may not be assessed against the board unless the court determines that the board acted with gross negligence, in bad faith, or with malice in making its decision.
(g) The court may not apply a different standard of review to a decision of a board of adjustment that is composed of members of the governing body of the municipality under Section 211.008(g) than is applied to a decision of a board of adjustment that does not contain members of the governing body of a municipality.
Acts 1987, 70th Leg., ch. 149, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1987. Amended by Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 363, Sec. 3, eff. Sept. 1, 1997; Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 646, Sec. 1, eff. Aug. 30, 1999.”
Attorney General Opinions and Ensuing Legislation
Op. Tex. Atty. Gen. JM-1069 (July 7, 1989)
Letter Opinion No. 92-56 (September 28, 1992) (applies to general law and home-rule cities)
Tex. Atty. Gen. Letter Op. 97-062 (July 7, 1997).
Legislation adopted in 1997 – Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 363, §§ 1–3, eff. Sept. 1, 1997.
I do hope this information is informative in its content. It is not meant to serve as a legal opinion, rather a presentation of the current written law and Attorney General opinions. Our City Attorney, Mick McKamie, and his staff are available for deeper dialogue and questions if residents need.
Have a great rest of the week,
Erik M. Zimmer, City Manager
Welcome new Utilities Director and City Executive Assistant
October 31, 2014
Dear Citizens,
I wanted to take a few minutes to welcome two new additions to our team: Lawrence Cutrone and Mary Carmen Nunez.
Lawrence Cutrone has joined the Alpine team as our Director of Utilities replacing Virgil Clark. Lawrence comes to us from the Upper Trinity Regional Water District in Lewisville, Texas. He has accomplished ‘B’ licensing in both Wastewater and Surface Water with the intent to test for his ‘A’ licensing in February of 2015. He has a Bachelor of Arts from Louisiana State University and a Masters of Public Administration from University of Texas at Arlington. Lawrence brings a hands on approach to leadership and has a history of bringing innovation to the workplace. We look forward to his input and corroboration with our existing staff and tackling the many challenges in front of our Utilities Department.
Mary Carmen Nunez has joined the City team as our Executive Assistant to the City Manager. In this role, Mary Carmen will help facilitate the timely completion of our 180-day plans, revitalization of our Airport operations and general overflow work from the CM role. Previously, Mary Carmen worked as the Administrative Assistant supporting Dr. Larry Guerrero at Sul Ross State University. She is a graduate of Alpine High School, has her Bachelors of Art from University of Incarnate Word and is currently working on her Masters in Education at SRSU.
I trust that both Lawrence and Mary Carmen will make positive contributions to our community over the next several years. I am excited to have them on our team supporting the citizens of our City.
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Virgil Clark – Thank You For Your Service to Alpine
October 24, 2014
I wanted to take a few moments to share our sincere appreciation to the work performed by both Virgil and Sharon Clark over the past year. Virgil came back to the City last October as the Director of Utilities in a time of great need. We were straddled with some ongoing violations tied to our Wastewater Treatment Plant and needed someone to step in and provide guidance to our Utility Department. Virgil (with the great help of Sharon) stepped in and help lead us through some upgrades and restoration at the WWTP. Virgil re-retired from the City at the end of September.
Virgil always gave credit to the team for their innovativeness and willingness to accept the challenge. Through that work, we helped build a better team of employees supporting the City.
Special thanks to Virgil for taking the time to think through some of the pre-Engineered projects and search for least costly solutions that still made sense for Alpine. Strategically, this helped us navigate through FY2013-14 and alleviate some of the needs for additional debt spending.
We look forward to continued interaction with Virgil and Sharon in the community.
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
National Night Out
October 2, 2014
National Night Out has been an ongoing event across the United States for the past 31 years. Here in Alpine, we participate annually in an effort to promote crime prevention and help our residents get to know our Police Department better.
I would ask all of you to support our Alpine Police Chief (Russell Scown) and his team with your attendance Tuesday October 7th. The event will be held at Kokernot Park and they will be serving hot dogs and have some different activities for the kids.
We all appreciate living in a ‘safer’ community and recognize that it’s through the support of our law enforcement and citizens that Alpine continues to be the best small town in America.
Thank you in advance for your support and participation.
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
September 19, 2014
Our students have been back at school for about a month now and it’s good to see all the fall activities in full swing. Sul Ross is higher in enrollment and Alpine Independent School District has a wonderful group of kids this year. We also have several thriving private schools in our community.
Learning is important because to achieve anything in life you need to know where to start, what to do and how it is going to affect you and the people around you. The institutions we have here in Alpine continue to work to meet these goals to build a better community.
I have been asked many times since we returned to Alpine – ‘how do the Alpine schools compare to other districts your children have attended?’. My response always resonates around three points:
Learning at the Secondary education level is a reflection of parental involvement. The more we are involved as parents, the better result our children will have.
We have kids coming out of Alpine going to Ivy League schools, the Naval Academy, all the top tier schools in Texas…enough said.
Most importantly, our teachers and administrators care about the children personally. In larger communities, you may get a handful of folks who care, but in Alpine, it’s cultural and helps set us apart. We are fortunate.
Sul Ross State University has done a wonderful job at being a pillar in our community for almost a century. Having a thriving university presents many additional opportunities for the youth and adults in Alpine. Dual enrollment for our high school, theater programs, countless seminars, and many other programs are some of the ways we see the university enrich the community.
I urge the community to support our youth in their learning endeavors. Participate, engage and continue to help in the process. Those efforts help shape Alpine.
And remember, learning is not limited to the young. As Henry Ford once said “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.”
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
Back to School
Code Enforcement – Building Permits
August 14, 2014
Earlier this week, our Code Enforcement Officer (Robert Polanco) and I had the opportunity to conduct an interview with Ray Hendryx at our local radio station. We felt it would be a great venue to share some thoughts on our local ordinances, permitting process, etc… in an effort to enhance our communication with the citizens of Alpine.
Ray and his family have been great ‘Advocates for Alpine’ through the years and we appreciate his willingness to invite us in for the discussion. Any opportunity the City has to summarize the key items that arise within our departments and share publicly will come as a benefit to our citizens.
We had candid discussion about illegal dumping, junk vehicles, when to get a permit, etc… Please take some time to listen to the interview and get some of your questions answered.
If you’re in doubt as to the requirements of an ordinance or the permitting process, please feel free to call Mr. Polanco or City Hall and ask for direction. We are here to serve the community and help facilitate the ordinances and laws that are in place.
Have a great day,
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
August 11, 2014
Fiscal Year 2013-14 is fast coming to a close and we have just released our proposed budget for FY2014-15 to City Council. This past year has provided many challenges to our Finance Team, and I am very pleased with their willingness to help reconstruct process/procedures to help the City of Alpine to operate with a greater sense of fiscal acumen.
Beyond putting the nuts and bolts in place for the enhanced processes, it also required greater training and coordination with our Department Heads and Finance Staff. Through this diligent work, we have been able to start the restoration process of confidence with our taxpayers.
Our city staff has been pragmatic in much of its spending this year, but did make a conscientious effort to spend money where it counts. Examples of this are the dollars invested at our wastewater treatment plant and the dollars spent with our street renovations. A big thanks to Hector Ramirez and Eddie Molinar for getting work done on: Brown St, Peach St and 14th St. They are planning to rehabilitate Sul Ross Ave (between 13th St and Tom’s Triangle) beginning tomorrow.
As always, we welcome questions, comments and feedback from our citizens here in Alpine. Please feel free to call City Hall at 432.837.3301 or email me directly at: erik.zimmer@ci.alpine.tx.us.
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
bus1
April 25, 2014
Our Public Works team has started the first paving project of the year. They are focused on reconstructing Brown St. between Fighting Buck Ave and Loop Rd.
Please excuse the dust and traffic re-routing through the duration of the project. The City is excited to get this project complete as Brown street hosts a lot of traffic for Alpine daily.
Please listen for updates weekly on the radio and feel free to call the City offices with any questions.
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
April 25, 2014
Saturday April 5, 2014 marked another great year for Alpine participating in The Texas Trash Off. When all was finished, we collected over 19 tons of trash from across the City. Ward 4 led the way with 30 truck/trailer loads of trash.
The City of Alpine ended up the winner with great volunteer efforts and participation from our community. Some of the groups participating were: Twin Peaks 4-H, Montessori School, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, Daisy Scouts Troop 28112, Alpine Ambassadors, Chamber of Commerce, Sierra La Rana, Rio Grande Research Center, Kiowa Gallery, Big Bend Telephone, City of Alpine employees and Plaine.
Thanks to everyone for your efforts. Our Keep Alpine Beautiful coordinator Patsy McWilliams was so inspired she wants to host another event this fall.
Erik Zimmer, City Manager
March 31, 2014
City of Alpine, welcome to our newly updated website. Earlier this year we opted to transition from the older website platform to one that is easier to manage and more interactive for our citizens.
Hats off to one of our employees, Glenn Losoya, for developing the site (with the help and input from many of our staff team). This has provided great benefit to the city: 1. it gives us more latitude in making updates and changes 2. it helps us keep our costs down by not having to outsource the building and modifications to the site.
We continue to embark on many changes within our operating parameters as a city and look forward to a more transparent approach with our citizens. We believe the newer website will be a part of realizing this goal. Part of the new site will be a City Manager’s blog. I intend to use the blog to share ideas and thoughts with the community.
Take a look at the site and enjoy. Please feel free to offer any suggestions or comments as you see fit.
Erik M. Zimmer