Crockett City Council Moves Forward on Grants, Public Hearing Held

By Will Johnson

Messenger Reporter

CROCKETT – The Crockett City Council met on Monday Aug. 21 to discuss what the city should do about moving forward on grants and grant applications. 

Once the meeting had been called to order, the first item of business before the city council was a public hearing on the 2017 tax rate proposed by the city.

In a council session held earlier this month, the council proposed a tax rate of 0.586094 per $100 of property value for fiscal year 2018. The FY 2017 tax rate was 0.533823 and the effective rate for FY 2018 is 0.586094 per $100 of property value.

According to Section 26.16 of the Texas Property Tax Code, “The effective tax rate is the rate that would generate the same amount of revenue in the current tax year as was generated by a taxing unit’s adopted tax rate in the preceding tax year from property that is taxable in both the current tax year and the preceding tax year. The rollback tax rate is the highest tax rate a taxing unit may adopt before requiring voter approval at an election.”

The rollback rate for FY 2018 was set at 0.59166. No one spoke during the public hearing and the hearing was closed.

Following the hearing the hearing Mayor Joni Clonts brought forth the first of four resolutions for the councils deliberation.

The first resolution pertained to the establishment of boundaries for a proposed historic commercial district to be located in downtown Crockett. The establishment on the historic district will allow the city to apply for financial assistance from the Texas Department of Agriculture’s Texas Capital Fund – Downtown Revitalization program.

The boundaries would include the area around the square in Crockett and extend at least one block in all directions. After a brief discussion, the boundaries were established with the caveat the lines could be redrawn at any time by a future resolution.

Three other resolutions concerning the Downtown Revitalization Program also received council approval. The first of these dealt with “… finding that conditions exist within the designated historic commercial district of the city are detrimental to the public health, safety and welfare of the community and therefore are declared to constitute a blighted area.”

The second of the three resolutions pertained to parking, sidewalk and handicap accessibility improvements while the third resolution concerned adopting a public access plan for use during construction of the public infrastructure projects that are included with the Downtown revitalization grant.

A separate resolution was also approved allowing the city to submit an application for the 2017 Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s small community grant program.

The final item brought before the council dealt with water rates. After a lengthy discussion, the council approved an ordinance amending the current rates charged by the city. The new rates are as follows:

For residential water usage, the rate will be a base of $24.67 plus 0.489 cents per 100 gallons of usage.

For commercial water usage, the rate will be a base of $34 plus 0.489 cents per 100 gallons of usage.

For residential sewer usage, the rate will be a base of $24.67 plus 0.242 cents per 100 gallons of usage.

For commercial water usage, the rate will be a base of $34 plus 0.242 cents per 100 gallons of usage.

For bulk water sales, the basic monthly service charge will be $400 plus an additional $1.90 per hundred gallons purchased. 

Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].