2. Departmental Reports

Electric, Water/Sewer, Police, Street, R.O. Plant, Golf Complex,
Economic Development Director and City Secretary.

Brad Tilley, Greg Shumate, Ronnie Kolacek, Rick Garcia unavailable.

Chief of Seymour Police Department, Tommy Duncan:

Tommy reported that the department answered 281 calls and investigated 19 reported offenses in which 17 were cleared this past month. Several people were charged with offenses which included Assault with bodily injury, D.W.I., Falsifying report to a police officer, evading arrest and Possession of Marijuana. The police department issued 69 citations and warnings for minor traffic infractions, 29 of which were for speeding over the posted limit. There were no traffic accidents this past month.

The Code Compliance reported abatement of 14 junk vehicles and another 91 were checked and tagged. The weather storm spotter training was held on Tuesday, February 13th, at the Salt Fork River Estates and they had a pretty good turn out.

Economic Development Director, John Studer:

John gave an overview of his department report
that had previously been submitted to the Council in writing.

The report is as follows:

The projects this office is working on this month are:

Fossils:
The Houston Museum of Natural Science s coordinator of the local activity, David Temple, was in town on January 24th - 25th . He gave an overview of their intention for the fossil project to the Seymour Community Development Corp. He was looking at real estate to purchase and also to rent while on this visit. He is busy putting together a budget for their project in Seymour. They plan to work with the Seymour ISD to use their interactive studio for maybe a class. I introduced him to Midwestern University who is formulating an accredited class around our fossils. The HMNS seem to have high expectations for this project. They are planning to be here again around the week of the 12th. They will have Dr. Bakker and also one of their two grant writers which they have on staff. Hopefully we will be able to write some grants for a local museum facility here. I have also arranged for the Houston group to go to Crowell and view the seven million dollar astronomy facility located there. My vision is to use a similar type plan for our fossil development. I just want to show the Houston group what can be done.

Tower Extrusion:

In the last report I mentioned that the Board of Directors for Tower Extrusion was going to have a meeting on January 19th , to decide if they were going to start the plant expansion project for Seymour. They decided to postpone for another six months. Mark McClelland said they were still determined to do the expansion project in Seymour, but, the timing just was not right for them. They are trying to purchase a press which is in excess of $13 million. They said their projected cost was 60% higher than the same project they did a few years ago. They are a perfect fit for our community. They want us and they are not asking for cash incentive to move here. We have to find companies that want us for the limited advantages we offer.

Business Prospect:

I visited several hours with a person from a new technology start up company from Vernon native. He was moving back to Vernon to open up this business. He was interested in trying to get 20 persons from Seymour to commute to his business. It would be very appealing for any Seymour natives who were looking for an opportunity of a good salary in order to move back to their home town. He gave me a list of the salaries they would pay with an entry level of between 30 and 36 thousand dollars. The average 3rd year salary is $58 thousand. They would provide transportation for groups who would commute. The CEO also said that if they had twenty working from here they might possibly build a satellite facility here. Vernon Development Corporation gave them $200,000 to start their business expansion in Vernon. We gave him a lot of useful advice concerning government programs and assistance. He said he had not received any information assistance from Vernon. I think that to emphasize that, the only tools we lack in Seymour is the source of consistent funding to be able to offer such incentives, as well as for other needed programs and studies. I know the council would be willing to offer aid if the right company came along. I still think that one of the greatest challenges we face as a community is to find that source of funding to entice businesses to come and stay in Seymour. I have already visited with Judge Rogers about setting aside a percent of the tax revenue from the wind generators(if we get them) for economic development.

New Community Development Organization:

I have asked Myra to help organize a meeting on February 21st for a core group of citizens interested in addressing and promoting community development programs for our city. That core group would be responsible for encouraging more public involvement for projects that need to be accomplished in Seymour. The group would address such issues as sidewalks down main street, historical preservation, and beautification. Public participation is critical to making our town the best it can be.

New Regional Organization:

Judge Rogers and I attended a meeting on January 2nd with Foard County and Knox County at Crowell. Foard County wanted to encourage us to join them in an organized regional partnership called the Ogallala Commons. Foard County has belonged to this organization for about a year. The purpose of the organization is to help counties to identify their key assets and how to benefit fully from each. It involves a lot of exchange of ideas among participants. It also provides educational program and leadership training. It would be the perfect tool to motivate and train the new Community Development Group I would like to see organized locally. The membership is $1500.00 . At the regular meeting they had on the 7th, I gained several useful ideas. One was on a $40,000 TCEQ grant for cleanup of housing and junk cars, which Joe is looking into. The other was on the information and source of a study on sales tax and economic contributions by regional towns in Abilene area. This study is similar to the one I wanted Midwestern State to do for our area, which they said would be difficult to determine. This study would show how much we contribute to our regional economic hub of Wichita Falls. We also toured the Astronomy Facilities at Crowell.

Highway 277 Corridor:

I have talked to two of the potential businesses that say they are going to build in this area. I am trying to encourage them to choose their location.

There are always a number of projects in progress that might not be in this report. If you have any questions or advice, I urge you to call, or come by my office, anytime. As always, thank you for your support of the efforts of this office to strengthen our community’s future.


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