CITY CORNER by Mayor Brent Hinckley

     With hurricanes and national politics in the news, and school starting and Friday night football locally, some of the activities at the City seem to get lost in the shuffle.  We are actively working on gathering the materials to rebuild the entrance to the Ft Mason City Park that is partially knocked down.  We hope to have that reconstructed and enhanced in the next few weeks with a special bronc rider metal sculpture.  We are also working on the completion of the annual budget and setting the City property taxes for the coming year, with no intention of increasing the tax rate or any other utility rates for this budget.  Next Monday the City Commission will be meeting at 5:30 at the Civic Center and this issue as well as some other concerns will be addressed and decisions will be made.  If you are interested in how your town is run or have concerns that need City attention, please join us next Monday to help continue the progressive course we have charted for the past several years.

      Another major project that we are working on in the City office is not really seen outside of City Hall, but I would like to share some of the progress with you.  As I have written about many times, the City is working to provide some manner of treatment for our water supply so that we can reduce the radionuclides that place our water supply in “non-compliance”.  In every other way our water is wonderfully clean, and there are no other concerns with the quality of the water the City provides.  We have determined the method to treat the water using a chemical “sponge” that will absorb most of the problem molecules to be backwashed into the waste water system.  We are working out the costs of purchasing the equipment, taking care of the construction needed, and adding another large ground storage water tank to serve as a mixing tank and provide additional contingency water storage for our town.  We expect to begin the construction on the project next spring so that we can move to providing good, compliant water to everyone by next year about this time.  The next step we have to deal with is the one that we are working on so hard right now, and that is securing the financing for what will be a two and a half million dollar project.

       The City staff and I are working with several consultants to complete an application for a loan from the Texas Water Development Board.  This would be a loan at about 2% interest, or perhaps a little less, for a 20 year period and our intent is to carefully trim the construction budget so that we borrow only the necessary funds.  The other great benefit is that we are in line to receive some loan forgiveness in this program, which would result in a “grant” of up to half the costs involved.  We will not know all of the details until further down the road when the application is complete, reviewed and the final terms are determined.  However, we have been working on this for several months, and the qualification list has Mason ranked very high, so we have great expectations for this financing option.  The application is rather complex and involves many details that only a state agency working with federal funds would want, but we are confident we will be finished in plenty of time prior to the early October deadline.  If at times I or one of the City staff seems distracted, we are probably just working out how to get the answer needed for some challenging question on this application.

        Another significant benefit that we have identified with this loan approach is that the City will not need to change utility rates or raise taxes to meet the repayment requirements for the near term future.  There will be some extra expenses and maintenance costs for this system, so there may be some need for added revenues in the future, but for now we have no intention of increasing City costs to be paid by our residents.  While this loan process is a bit of an extra challenge at the present, I am confident that it will provide a benefit for many years to come to our community and our citizens.  In much the same way as the new landfill we are also working towards, a little hard work now will pay benefits to our town for the next generation and for years beyond that.  Long range planning is the only way to build a community we can all be proud of and be glad to call home.