Grapeland City Council Approves 2017-2018 Tax Rate

Proposed Rate Stays the Same as Previous Year

By Will Johnson
Messenger Reporter

GRAPELAND – The Grapeland City Council approved a proposed tax rate of $0.610526 for fiscal year 2018 during a council meeting held on Tuesday, Aug. 8.

“This is exactly the same as it was last year,” Mayor Balis Dailey said when the issue was addressed by the council.

Dailey extended his thanks to the council for the job they did in preparing the budget and added “… this is a miracle to be able to keep our taxes the way they are. You know the county has raised their tax rate, Crockett has raised their tax rate and the school district has a big tax raise. I think we are probably the only entity that didn’t raise their rates.”

A motion was made, seconded and approved to keep the tax rate at $0.610526 per $100 of property valuation.

In other matters brought before the council:

Consent Agenda items were approved by the council.
The Municipal Court collected a total of $5,565.75 comprised of $3,526 in city revenue, $1,663 in state revenue and $376.62 in delinquent fees. There were 36 citations written, 25 total dispositions, and three warrants were issued.

Grapeland Police Lt. Ronnie Howell reported his department had: two 911 hang-ups; three agency assists, one animal complaint, one assaults, four burglar alarm call, one burglary; one civil matter; three criminal trespassing calls; five disturbances; two harassments; one identity theft; one information call; one intoxicated pedestrian; one marijuana possession; one prowler call; two suspicious circumstances; three suspicious persons; four thefts; two traffic accidents; one traffic hazard; and one warrant service. Howell said the PD responded to 47 dispatched calls. He also provided the racial profiling report for through the end of July 2017.
The city used 7,699,000 gallons of water from the municipality’s water wells. There were 8,048,000 gallons of water sold during the month of January and 2,936,000 gallons of wastewater were treated, for a daily average of 94,472 gallons.

Houston County Fire Marshal and Grapeland Fire Chief Roger Dickey said the fire department responded to a total of 15 fire alarms for the month of July which brought the year-to-date total to 70. He added there were 24 EMS calls for the month which brought the year-to-date total to 111.
An ordinance concerning Peanut Festival vendors outside of the City Park was tabled for future consideration.
Water and sewer write-offs in the amount of $3,459.89 were approved.

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