It's hard to believe we are almost one-third of the way through 2021...time flies when you're having fun. We have a lot of great projects in motion for the City this year and we took a pause yesterday to speak about paving and street works. Thanks so much to Betse and Hector for facilitating such a great conversation that aired on KVLF. For those of you who weren't able to listen, click here and you'll be able to access the entire program.
Our Public Works Director Eddie Molinar also did a wonderful job with his staff update at the April 6, 2021 City Council meeting explaining what streets are being targeted this year. Please look at the video of the meeting or read the City Manager / Staff Update slides for more information.
Have a wonderful week...it's a great time to be in Alpine.
Kind regards, Erik
March 4, 2021, 10:30 A.M.
Tuesday, Governor Abbott released a new order affecting the opening of Texas. The March 2nd order, GA-34, allows ALL Texas businesses outside of areas of high COVID hospitalization to return to 100 percent occupancy. This includes increasing the maximum capacity of indoor meeting space to 100 percent, allowing standalone bars to operate at 100 percent capacity, and removing the state mandate on masks.
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.
As we close out 2020 and start out 2021, I wanted to give you a rundown of key accomplishments that the City achieved in 2020. We will also highlight a few of these at our City Council meeting on January 5, 2021.
Human Resources
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
Police
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
Finance
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
Public Works
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
Building Services
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.
Utilities
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.
Animal Control
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.
Environmental Services
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.
Airport
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
Tourism
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.
Covid-19
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...
The City Staff is excited about the prospects for 2021 and look forward to a great year helping build Alpine into the greatest small town in America.
Kind regards,
Erik
July 10, 2020, 4:45 P.M.
Dear Citizens,
Another busy week here in the City of Alpine. We continue to accomplish a lot of work on our City Streets and Utility Infrastructure. We appreciate the community's patience relative to the disruption in driving patterns, but know that you all will be pleased with the volume of work we have in motion for the year.
Covid-19 still is the most important topic across the community and we had good discussion at our City Council meeting on Tuesday evening. Thank you Dr. Escovar for help with the slides and the meeting video and presentations are uploaded on our website for anyone who missed it. The case counts have stabilized, but we have not had mass testing since June 18-23rd. We did get confirmation today that our next two days of testing will be July 17th-18th here in Alpine. The mobile test unit will then move to Marfa for testing on July 19th and 20th.
We mourn for the loss of our two family members taken by the virus and express our condolences to their families.
The daily statistics continue to be populated on the County Facebook page and we provide a hyperlink to that information on our website.
The City has been reaching out to the local restaurants to discover what options are available for additional outdoor dining. Our goal is to help the eateries expand outdoor seating on sidewalks and public rights-of-way where applicable. More to come as those options expand.
Big Bend National Park remains closed and we will keep you posted as we learn more about the reopening date from Superintendent Bob Krumenaker.
Stewart Ramser is moving the Viva Big Bend Music Festival to a Virtual Event this year - those details can be found on his website and Facebook page. We appreciate the work that Stewart has put into the Music scene over the years and his continued support of the Alpine community.
Stay safe, wear a mask when in public places and hopefully we will get some reprieve from the hot weather.
Kind regards,
Erik
July 1, 2020, 10:00 A.M.
Dear Citizens,
This week has started off with heightened concern in the community as our case rates continue to climb with Covid.
The official statistics from the County that were shared at our Emergency City Council meeting are as follows:
These statistics are as of the end of day Monday, June 29th for BREWSTER COUNTY (population 9,267). Positive results: 137 Recovered: 37 Deaths: 1 Brewster County: 14.8 cases per 1000 people Texas average: 5.5 cases per 1000 people
SRSU mass testing from June 18-20 resulted in 46 positive cases out of 759 tests (6% positivity rate)
Alpine MTTs on June 23rd found 61 positive cases out of 214 tests (28.5% positivity rate)
For the tri-county area (Presidio Co, Brewster Co, Jeff Davis Co): Total tests done: 2412 Negative results: 1422
We will continue to request updated results from the County and post on our website. Please note that there may be a delay in reporting on some of the websites (hence a slight difference in numbers).
We had a robust Emergency City Council meeting last evening that resulted in modifying our Emergency Ordinance to include Section II of the County executive order on the wearing of face coverings. The updated Ordinance and video from the meeting can be found on our City Website.
There is continued discussion on the wearing of face coverings (implications, health data, civil liberties, etc...). I'll offer up the following articles for review.
The United States has spent over $100 Billion over the last ten years on Emergency Preparedness (up to and including how to treat and react to infectious diseases). Those 'experts' are finally rallying around the common message on effective disease prevention: face coverings, hand washing and social distance.
Yes, these are changes we all have to adjust towards. It is easy for some, tough for others. My sense is the next two years will be modifications towards plans and strategies that work to keep folks healthy, are schools educating and the economy flourishing. Finding that blend that works is super important.
Thank you for the continued engagement in our meetings and the emails and calls to your elected officials and City Hall.
Kind regards,
Erik
June 24, 2020, 9:00 A.M.
Dear Citizens,
Thank you all who joined our Emergency City Council Meeting last evening on Zoom. The Mayor and City Council engaged in good dialogue on the impacts of wearing masks and agreed upon a direction for Alpine in the short term. Thank you Rod Ponton for the added information in your City Attorney report (that report is posted on our website).
The Ordinance that was passed will be posted on our City Website shortly - once we tidy up the amendments and have the Mayor, City Attorney and City Secretary sign it.
In a nutshell, the City will be providing signage for the local businesses to post. It will be one of two signs that the business owner can choose from.
The first one will be in Green and state: "In order to minimize the spread of Covid-19, a condition of entrance into this building or on the premises requires wearing of a face mask that covers the nose and mouth"
The second one will be in Yellow and state: "Masks to minimize the spread of Covid-19, while recommended, are not a requirement for entrance into this building or on the premises."
There are no associated fines with the Ordinance, rather a push to gain awareness on the importance of wearing a mask and heightened visibility for residents before they enter a business premise.
Our latest results for Brewster County that Dr. Escovar shared with me last evening (10:19pm) after our Council meeting
Here is what we have as of Tuesday, June 23nd forBREWSTER COUNTY.
Positive results: 53
Recovered: 3
Active Cases: 50
Deaths: 0
For the tri-county area:
Total tests done: 1534
Tests pending results: 791
Negative results: 683
As many of you are aware, there is a delay between our Local Health Authority and Judge being notified, and DSHS getting the stats up on the State site and Worldmeter. We will continue to work to get out the information in as timely a manner as possible.
If you are wondering how our case count compares to the rest of Texas and the US.
Total Cases per 1Million Population:
USA : 7328
Texas : 4311
Alpine: 8833
We have more than doubled the cases per capita in Texas and are now higher than the average across the rest of the Country.
Please be safe in your community endeavors. We continue to advocate the health and safety guidelines as provided by the CDC and DSHS, plus will share added research and case studies on the effectiveness of wearing a mask.
Kind regards,
Erik
June 18, 2020, 9:30 A.M.
Dear Citizens,
As the week progresses, we continue to see more and more cases in Alpine, Marfa and the region. The state of Texas 7-day rolling average of new cases and hospitalizations continues to climb. Contact tracing is in full effect with the assistance of our regional and local health authorities.
With the work of Pete Gallego (SRSU President) and assistance of Luis Saenz (Governor Abbott's Chief of Staff), we have a Strike Force assembling in Alpine today to provide Covid-19 testing free of charge to the community. The testing will continue through Saturday. Adjoining communities residents are also welcome to come get testing. The flyer advertising the testing is posted on our website: https://www.cityofalpine.com/news_detail_T10_R128.php
I encourage everyone to go get tested (knowledge is important).
This article really gives good credibility to the positive impacts of wearing a mask to help minimize the spread of Covid-19.
Our attorney is researching the enforceability side of a new mask ordinance and will get back with Council on that research. This will help determine the next actions that Council will contemplate.
We at the City advocate the use of masks, proper hygiene and good social distancing.
We have suspended our Recreation Program for the remainder of this week and will continue to address weekly.
Please continue to look to our website for additional information on all the activities in the community and preventative measure updates.
Kind regards,
Erik
June 15, 2020, 11:30 A.M.
Dear Citizens,
Last Friday I posted a blog discussing how we have had zero confirmed cases here in Alpine at that juncture. Fast forward through the weekend and we now have nine active cases in Alpine. Many of you have seen the updates through social media and the press releases by the County Judge and AISD Superintendent.
The City of Alpine has it's normally scheduled City Council meeting tomorrow (June 16, 2020) at 5:30pm. We encourage you all to join the Zoom conference to learn more about the City's response and the responses within the community.
I would like to encourage you all to re-read the article that Dr. Escovar shared with us back in late April preparing for the reopening of many retail and restaurants (https://www.cityofalpine.com/Employer%20Recommendations.pdf ). That article gives some sage advice on practices in the business settings to complement what was outlined in the Governor's plan to reopen Texas.
A second article I would like to direct you all to review is the CDC recommendation on mask-wearing (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/diy-cloth-face-coverings.html). As the topic of whether to wear masks became somewhat controversial in our community, I would ask everyone to rethink the guidance and engage in mask wearing when entering public stores, restaurants and businesses. If you are engaging in outdoor activities with people from different households, the guidance is to wear masks in those settings as well.
More information will be on the way as the results from the 61 people tested last Thursday continue to trickle in. If you are feeling ill, I would recommend you contact your Primary Care Physician (PCP) to discuss next steps.
Kind regards,
Erik
June 12, 2020, 9:00 A.M.
Dear Citizens,
It's hard to believe we are fast approaching the middle of June and before we know it 2020 will be 50% complete. What a busy first half of the year across the globe and also here in Alpine. Many changes have occurred, primarily in reaction to our response to the Covid-19 Pandemic.
Brewster County has only experienced one positive test case of Covid-19 and that was in the southern part of our County. There are 61 new tests performed at the mobile clinic yesterday for Alpine residents - we'll start seeing those results shortly. As most people are aware, Texas is the 7th worst state when it comes to testing per 1M in population - a number we certainly want to improve upon. Our Mayor was on a recent call with Senator John Cornyn urging support for greater levels of testing across the state. In Texas, we are used to being in the top quartile, not the bottom.
There is still a lot the physicians and scientists do not know about Covid-19 and it's longer term effects on the body. We urge our citizens to use precaution in your activities, up to and including good social distancing behaviours and wearing a mask, as our health care industry works on potential solutions (drugs, vaccines, etc...) to help the human body deal with the virus. The state of Texas is seeing a continuous rise in case counts and hospitalizations as a result of the Covid-19 virus. Many of our close proximity counties are also seeing that trend.
We have been discussing our Parks, Recreation and Pool program at the last several City Council Meetings. There have been several emails into City Hall urging the City to open the pool for the remainder of the summer. We will continue to discuss at each upcoming City Council meeting as we are working to balance the health of our staff and our community. We also have very limited lifeguards on staff and no one in the region is training/certifying additional people. Most importantly, we have started a Parks and Recreation program that is being well received by the attendees. Hat's off to our staff in their work to provide nice activities daily. Please check our website each Friday for the next week's list of activities.
Stewart Ramser announced that he will be hosting Viva Big Bend again this year. They will be smaller venue sizes, but he certainly wanted to provide the music and livelihood this event provides annually. The dates are July 23rd-26th and all the information can be found at: http://vivabigbend.com/
We want to welcome Pete P. Gallego as the 13th President of Sul Ross State University. Most of our residents know Pete well as he grew up in Alpine and is a graduate of SRSU. What a nice compliment to the University and 'Pete' that the community is moving forward with a 'local'. His father was the driver behind desegregation in our public schools and the importance of that work around human rights has presented itself again most recently in our nation. The City of Alpine welcomes President Gallego to Sul Ross as their leader and we know he will bring great enthusiasm and direction to the University as it pivots into a new chapter of existence. President Gallego will be at our Zoom City Council meeting this Tuesday June 16th to discuss some of the short and mid-range goals for the University, plus how the City can help and assist in that vision. The City of Alpine organized into a formal city over 100 years ago in an agreement with the State which paved the way for Sul Ross (Texas Normal College at the time) to be located in Alpine. We've always loved the University and are excited about new students and new programs.
Have a great weekend!
Kind regards,
Erik
May 29, 2020, 3:30 P.M.
Dear Citizens,
As the month of May is coming to a close, we are seeing more and more activity emerging in the community and region. Big Bend National Park offered guidance on their re-opening plan this week ( https://www.nps.gov/bibe/learn/news/big-bend-national-park-begins-to-re-open.htm ) and we understand that will drive traffic to the area. Our local restaurants, retail and bars have opened (to limited capacity) and we are generally seeing more foot-traffic through Alpine.
In reviewing the Covid-19 statistics this morning, Texas experienced 1669 new cases yesterday (pushing up our rolling 7-day average). Drilling down on that number I noticed Pecos County had 29 new cases yesterday (more than doubling their total cases from 27 to 56). Val Verde County also had 5 new cases yesterday. That prompted an email and call to our Local Health Authority - Dr. Ekta Escovar.
Dr. Escovar shared with me that contact tracing is still happening (and just started) so we don't have a ton more information. Pecos County's two areas of vulnerability and outbreaks are Ft. Stockton's long-term care facility and their jail. Both were tested thoroughly this past week. All the nursing home tests returned negative, but they have quite a few tests pending from their jail, so they are assuming that is the common denominator. Contact tracing will give more solid data. Of course, employees in both the nursing home AND jail still visit restaurants, families, neighbors, and grocery stores in town, so there is a high chance that others around them are also exposed/infected. She expects more COVID-19 tests to be done in this coming week.
The county will be releasing the information, as it becomes available, as press releases and to the Fort Stockton Pioneer so the recommendation is to keep an eye out for additional information there (the paper has a FB page that can be followed). https://www.fortstocktonpioneer.com/
Dr. Escovar still strongly recommends that folks in our community avoid going to Fort Stockton, if at all possible. Furthermore, anyone who has recently traveled to Fort Stockton should do a strict 14-day self-quarantine period upon their return to see if they begin to show symptoms consistent with COVID-19.
She also stressed that COVID-19 testing in Mexico is not free, so although there are 11 COVID-19 lab-confirmed cases in Ojinaga, there are more presumed COVID-19+ cases in individuals who could not afford the test but had the right constellation of symptoms. Due to the constant traffic between Ojinaga and Presidio, they should be treated as one entity and both moved to our list of high-risk locations to avoid at this time (along with Fort Stockton).
She will continue to keep the governing authorities apprised of activities in our neighboring Counties.
The City of Alpine will have our regularly scheduled City Council meeting on Tuesday evening June 2nd at 5:30pm. That meeting will be on Zoom and further updates will be available.
We are starting our recreation program with our Parks this next week. We are posting that schedule today on our website. This is something new for our team and we appreciate the participation and feedback.
Please reach out with any questions and/or concerns,
Kind regards,
Erik
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
Current Test Results as of Tuesday May 5th:
Alpine: 41 tests resulted, 11 still pending results
Terlingua: 24 tests resulted, 3 pending results
Presidio: 32 tests resulted, 10 pending results
Marfa: 56 tests resulted, 7 pending results
There are MTTs set up in Ft. Davis and Presidio this coming weekend, so we will continue the testing in the Tri-County region.
April 28, 2020, 6:45 P.M.
Dear Citizens,
Governor Abbott issued a series of Executive Orders yesterday and a Plan to gradually open up business here in Texas. GA-18, GA-19 and GA-20 are posted on our website along with that 64 page plan (https://www.cityofalpine.com/news_detail_T10_R94.php). I would recommend taking some time to read that plan if you've not already done so.
With these new Orders being passed effective Friday May 1, 2020, the Previous Order will expire on Thursday April 30, 2020. The Governor spelled out techniques and expectations to help open Texas in a way he felt would be safe for our citizens. Many of the same sheltering techniques were spelled out. Not all the businesses are allowed to open on May 1st, and those given permission will be in a limited fashion.
The most prevalent items to Alpine are the opening of restaurants for dining in and retail store establishments serving non-essential products. Restaurants and Retail are allowed to open to 25% capacity.
Bars, Gyms, Personal Service establishments and others will be addressed in an upcoming Order.
Those counties that have 5 or less Covid-19 cases can petition the Department of State Health Services to allow their restaurants and retail stores to open to 50% capacity. Judge Cano would need to go through an Attestation of eight key items that the DSHS would review. Those items are listed on page 44 of the Governor's plan. When the Judge is ready to go through that petition process, I anticipate he will share those eight certifications with the public.
Hotel Occupancy has also been an important item for Alpine. With the expiration of the Governor's Shelter at Home Order, that allows for discretionary travel again. Travelers outside of Essential Services will start coming to Alpine and the Big Bend Region again.
The Governor stressed several times, no business is required to open. That is still a decision each business owner will need to make on their own.
A larger concern that continues to be relevant is how to protect our older population as the state and country begin to open back up. There have been several local groups helping with the shopping for the elderly and we want to see that continue. Our team is also working on some great health and hygiene posters to take around town to our local businesses. We are also putting together information for the Sunshine House and Food Pantry to distribute. It's super important we stay vigilant in our utilization of the CDC practices and those recommendations of our healthcare providers.
The Governor also spoke to the fact that he did not want orders in the future to supersede the plan he's laid out for the State.
We've continued with our website advancements and work to keep the site a great repository for local information on Covid-19. Geo, Chris and others are developing new information daily and we appreciate their energy and efforts.
As an aside, I was disappointed to see some of the scare messaging last week that went out discussing people's fear of being arrested for not following the Governor's or Local Executive Orders. Our local Police Chief and team have done a fantastic job at being visible and easily reachable during the pandemic. They have issued one citation for non-compliance and that's it. Citizens and business owners have done a wonderful job at communicating with our team and I thought the suggestions otherwise were not grounded on factual information. With that said, we continue to push information out on our website regularly and our teams are working diligently to have factual data and information on how to open back up effectively while keeping the health of our population in mind.
We will have our Special City Council meeting this week (Wednesday April 29th at 5:30pm). It will be on Zoom and the login credentials are posted on our website. We hope you can attend.
Thank you for your continued efforts in keeping Alpine a safe and wonderful place to live.
Erik
April 22, 2020, 2:00 P.M.
Thank you for all the questions that have been coming in since last night's City Council meeting. One of the big items that was contemplated in our Tiered Matrix Response to COVID-19 was the use of masks in public. The Asian communities have effectively used masks to help prevent disease transmission to the point where wearing a mask is more socially acceptable than not.
There have been many other home-based solutions that are easily sourced on the internet with regards to making masks. Dr. Escovar also shared some wisdom last evening on how to test the effectiveness of your homemade mask (by holding up a lit candle one foot away and trying to blow out through your homemade mask - if you can't blow out, that's a good thing).
Here is another article on fabric types that makes a lot of sense:
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).
When you turn that old pair of jeans into shorts, you now have another use for that leg material.
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.
Kind regards,
Erik
April 20, 2020, 2:15 P.M.
Dear Citizens,
Thank you for the continued interest in the blog and we hope it's a medium that helps convey methodology and mindset here at the City of Alpine. Our employees continue to give it their all daily and we appreciate the support of our citizens.
The Governor's address this past Friday (April 17th) speaks to some loosening of restrictions relative to the COVID-19 pandemic. Today we saw most of the State Parks reopen. There is also strategy for retail to-go, some elective medical procedures and an expected announcement of Monday April 27th with further easing of restrictions. The Governor is also looking for guidance from the Counties and Cities to help manage their specific needs relative to their communities.
Our healthcare professionals have been fantastic at communicating and working with our citizens on understanding the health implications of COVID-19. Hats off to Dr. Ekta Escovar, Linda Molinar, Rick Flores and a host of other people providing healthcare and overseeing our medical facilities. This continued guidance will be important to help us reopen Alpine in a way that balances healthcare concerns with the needs of our businesses.
Most of our businesses in Alpine are suffering financially. The loss of business has come in several forms (reduced student population at SRSU, no tourism, closed non-essential businesses, just to name a few). The Governor mapped out a new strategy for the non-essential retail service providers where they can begin with curbside and delivery sales starting this Friday. Our Council will address this topic at their meeting tomorrow in an effort to help enhance the City of Alpine Emergency Order.
Our Council will address the existing Emergency Order by outlining key objectives of the strategy and building a matrix that outlines a phased approach to re-opening. I appreciate the efforts of Chris Ruggia, several of our hoteliers, retail store owners, Marci Tuck and some of our elected and appointed officials in giving feedback to the plan. We have worked diligently to incorporate those suggestions into a plan that provides balance to our community.
The Alpine Golf Course has also been a topic this past week. The Governor and Attorney General came out with written outlines on expectations that need to be met in order for golf courses to be used. Chief Martin has been working with our County Club and waiting on a formal document from them indicating what the club would do to manage to the orders by the Governor. One critical item they are having to navigate through is the use of alcohol on the property and what TABC allows for. Once we have the plan from the Country Club, Chief Martin and I can review.
Tomorrow's City Council Meeting will be on Zoom. We have posted the credentials on our City website and believe the attendance will be robust. If you have statements for the Public Comments section, please email your name ahead of time to our City Secretary. If you have questions related to particular topics on the agenda, please email them to the City Secretary and we will get them queued up prior to the meeting. You are also able to communicate via the CHAT function during the meeting.
Thanks again to all of our citizens in making Alpine a special place to be.
Kind regards,
Erik
April 15, 2020, 4:15 P.M.
Dear Citizens,
I thought it would be productive to get material out that was non-COVID-19. Certainly the pandemic has been top-of-mind and incorporated into our daily thinking, but we also have other activities to share related to the City of Alpine.
We are currently in the middle of the bulky trash pickup. Section 82-47 (https://library.municode.com/tx/alpine/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=COOR_CH82SOWA_ARTIICODI_DIV1GE_S82-47BUWADI) of our Code of Ordinances contemplates the Bulky Waste program and regulations. We are starting to see several items around town that are not part of the program. Adelina Bealle (Environmental Services Coordinator) will be on the radio tomorrow morning talking about our recycling and waste programs. Please take some time to listen to her and we will have the replay on our website at the staff interviews section.
Our building permit fee schedule is in the process of being updated. We had our first reading of the Ordinance this past Council meeting and have the Public Hearing and second reading of the Ordinance scheduled for the next Council meeting on April 21st. Please reach out with questions and thoughts on the matter.
Our paving work is progressing this month and we anticipate starting on the alleyway between the one-ways next week. Eddie Molinar and team are also prepping streets here in Alpine for our first batch of sealcoats (17 street blocks to be completed in April). We appreciate all the coordination from the businesses and residences. We know the traffic flow is disrupted during the work, but the end product makes it all worthwhile.
As Sul Ross continues their search for a new President, the City is excited about the prospects of working with our University on their short-range and long-term goals. The formation of the 'Normal College' over 100 years ago was predicated on the City providing good streets, sidewalks, sewer, trash and water services. It is what launched Alpine into the formation of a City. We appreciate the presence and impact that SRSU has on our community and look for that relationship to flourish in years to come.
Please feel free to reach out to our staff through email or phone with questions, ideas and concerns.
Kind regards,
Erik
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 have our normal scheduled City Council Meeting next week (Tuesday April 21st). We will have a wide array of topics to cover, along with a contemplation on next steps with the City Emergency Ordinance. The meeting will be live on Zoom with a replay available on our website afterwards.
One of the topics to discuss will be the re-opening of the facets of our economy that have been closed during the pandemic. At the Federal level, we are starting to see a second task force being formed. Governor Abbott is also planning on rolling out his plan this Friday for Texas. We encourage our citizens to read the contents of the state plan and work back with our office and your local elected officials on your ideas that 'make sense' for Alpine. Chris Ruggia is working with some of our local hoteliers and restaurant owners on a tiered approach that we can suggest to Council this next week. More to come on this topic.
We are reminded daily of the economic impacts as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. We appreciate the work that our SBDC does daily in helping business owners with the SBA loan applications. We recognize that as the economy starts to re-open, there will be a graduated level of spending and travel re-appearing. Much of this will be determined on how tourists and business travelers to the area begin to spend money again. The health and vibrancy of Sul Ross State University is also a highly impactful part of the equation. We look forward to working with their new President, past-President and Administration staff on the ramp-up of students back to the campus.
Thanks again for taking the time to read the blog. We appreciate our citizens, business owners and all those who care about Alpine.
Kind regards,
Erik
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.
Effective this afternoon, we have advised the golf course to close. This runs in parallel with Governor Abbott's clarification this week that golf is not considered an essential activity.
Our City Council Meeting Tuesday evening was very productive and informative. I appreciate the Mayor doing a fantastic job at running the meeting through Zoom. The technology advancements are allowing many people to participate and engage with our Council and Staff during the meetings. The presentations on our Communities response to COVID-19 from Dr. Escovar, Chris Ruggia, Jennifer Stewart, Chief Martin and Scott Perry were all very thorough and informative. Please take a look at the video of the meeting on our website if you did not have a chance to attend. The first hour was dedicated to the presentations and the second hour encapsulated the remainder of the City business.
Chris Ruggia continues to work with Liz Pena and her staff at the Small Business Development Center to get good information out to the community relative to the CARES Act and how to apply for funding. Liz's staff is working tirelessly to connect with local businesses and help them through the process. Great job to all of those helping our businesses and community members navigating the programs and which ones make most sense for their particular business. Chris and Geo posted some additional updates on our website and Facebook pages earlier today.
We are saddened at the loss of Traci Felsot this week. Traci was a tremendous asset to our community and region and her loss will be felt for quite some time. Our hearts are heavy for Mike Scudder and the family as they mourn her loss. I will miss Traci's lively smile, warm heart and kindful consideration of others. Thank you for the 20+ years of service Traci.
We appreciate our communities work towards adherence to the Governor's, County and City Orders relative to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Some of the mandates put in place have been tougher to follow than others. We appreciate the continued questions and dialogue with our citizens and fundamentally see the care and concern within Alpine.
Kind Regards,
Erik
April 6, 2020, 4:30 P.M.
Dear Citizens,
As we start another week, I wanted to say thank you to all the community who has reached out to Chief, Cynthia, Megan, Chris and many others on the City Staff with questions relative to the COVID-19 virus and City response. It's through the dialogue and discussion that better answers can be sourced as we are working to stay away from anecdotal comments and responses.
Three great questions to ask daily with your own family or those of whom you work with:
1. Are you ok?
2. Is your family ok?
3. Is anyone or any of your family members traveling?
With the first positive case of COVID-19 appearing in Ojinaga over the weekend, we are engaging in further discussions with the state and federal government on implications for border communities.
Tomorrow evening's City Council meeting agenda is packed with information on COVID-19 and the City of Alpine's response across all department levels. Please tune in to ZOOM if you are available at 5:30pm Tuesday evening.
Be safe, mask up, wash hands vigorously and spend some time with the more scientific based articles that are readily available on the internet.
Kind regards,
Erik
April 3, 2020, 3:00 P.M.
It certainly has been an eventful week and we wanted to share a few thoughts with everyone before this Friday came to a close.
We have our Regular Scheduled City Council Meeting on Tuesday April 7th at 5:30pm. You can tune into that with Zoom and the login credentials are:
The agenda for the meeting is posted on our website and the backup material will be posted by 5pm Monday. We will have several department heads speaking relative to the City's response to Coronavirus along with Council contemplating some changes/additions to the Emergency Ordinance.
Several of our citizens have also noticed action that Ft. Stockton took earlier this week lowering their utility billing rates by 50% for the April billing. The City of Alpine will discuss that action Tuesday. One of the parts we do like to share is that our current Water billing rate is 65.2% of the state average for similar sized cities and our Sewer billing rate is 49.2% of the state average. We have historically worked to keep our rates in Alpine lower than our peer cities in Texas.
Chief Martin and I continue to get calls about compliance concerns with the current Emergency Ordinances enacted by the City and County. We ask our citizens to help us with sending in pictures along with the phone calls and emails. They help our police team as they move forward with the discussions and potential citations.
We've been asked about the Golf Course and why that remains open during the Shelter at Home Order from Brewster County. The golf course is a place where people go for exercise and the course has implemented new cart policies (two people are not allowed in the same cart unless they are from the same household) along with only one person in the pro-shop at a time. Players are encouraged to walk as well. The inside bar/eatery has been closed for renovations. Chief Martin and his team are at the club daily and the staff have worked hard at compliance.
The grocery stores are implementing a policy similar to what was seen in Midland (limiting to 10% of the approved Occupancy Rate). Trae Dutchover from Porters has shared with us this recommendation and we are helping support the implementation.
If you have additional concerns, please reach out with calls and emails. As shared earlier, please send pictures if available. Chief Martin and our Police team are focused on high visibility and quick resolve for any items that pop up.
We continue to see great information crop up on the internet (nationally and locally) on ways to deal with the stresses and challenges that this pandemic has presented. I want to give a special thanks to Chris and Geo for keeping information flowing from our City website and Visit Alpine website.
Congrats to Dr. Ekta Escovar on being positioned as the Health Authority for the County. On behalf of the City, your health care advocacy and common sense approach is recognized and appreciated. Thank you for your tireless efforts to support the City, County and Region.
Kind regards,
Erik
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'.
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.
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.
This is the streamlined loan application. We believe the important actions are to get this information out so that our small businesses can apply now. There is even an area that the business can check off getting $10,000 of cash immediately if they qualify.
Thank you for being a citizen of Alpine, Brewster County, part of our tourism community, or just someone who cares. We live in a special place on this earth.
Kind regards,
Erik
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.
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:
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
One final note, we were able to provide some work for a couple of local employees displaced by the pandemic. As we learn of others, we are working to help connect them with others who need short term or long term work to be done.
Kind regards,
Erik
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.
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:
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.
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.
Kind Regards,
Erik
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.
Kind regards,
Erik
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:
I would suggest you download Zoom ahead of time and try the application out so you have some level of familiarity with its operation.
You can also join by phone: 1 574-404-3387 PIN: 752 739 723#
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.
Please reach out to us at City Hall with any questions and we hope to see you 'virtually' at 4pm today.
Kind Regards,
Erik
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.
Commissioner's Court then reconvened and took action to follow the Governor's guidelines.
With that being said, we are working with our City Staff to ensure we follow the orders specific to local eateries, watering holes, gyms, parks, schools, etc... Becky McCutchen also immediately released a note adhering to the guidelines with AISD not opening until after April 3rd (please check with the school on any 'school-at-home' initiatives they are working towards).
At the City, we are also limiting staff at our offices and having as many work/train from home to provide more quarantine and self-isolation opportunities.
We also think heavily about our parks and ask our citizens to be cognizant of gatherings at the park. Please keep them below 10 people. Our parks are very big and can accommodate several groups of under 10 people scattered at different locations. No practicing of teams on the ballfields. Under 10 is a good number to follow.
We are continuing to keep plugged in to our local, state and national resources and enhance our messaging as additional information becomes available.
Thank you for your continued effort, patience and the help of our older persons in Alpine.
Kind regards,
Erik
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,
Erik
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:
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...
Kind regards,
Erik
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
2020
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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,
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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!
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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,
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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,
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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