Grapeland Growing Again
City Approves Annexation of 25 Acres
By Will Johnson
Messenger Reporter
GRAPELAND – While not quite the urban sprawl of a Dallas or Houston, the city of Grapeland is expanding its borders.
After the Grapeland City Council approved the annexation of approximately 210 acres south of town during a June 21 meeting, the city leaders gave their consent to annex an additional 25.771 during a July 12 meeting.
Municipal Development District Chair Brandon Bridges was on hand for the meeting and explained this area was behind the previously annexed land. He said it abuts the aforementioned 210 acres and the railroad tracks, south of the Grapeland city limits.
“It meets all the qualifications and it is touching something else that is being annexed,” he said.
A motion was made, seconded and unanimously approved to begin the annexation process.
Prior to the annexation discussion, the council approved the minutes from the previous month’s meeting as well as water adjustments and vendor payments.
After the approval of the minutes, City Supervisor Kevin Watts provided the monthly water department report.
“This last month, our water usage is way up. We used seven million gallons last month and we used 12 million gallons this month. It wasn’t due to any leaks. I verified that today. Grapeland ISD is using lots of water. Their well is out. Darling Ingredients has also increased their production and they are using more of our water. Then, our bills have also increased this month – probably due to the heat. That is the highest I’ve seen since I’ve been here,” he said.
The city pumped 12,844,00 gallons of water during June and sold 12,405,000gallons. Fire flushing and repaired leaks accounted for 493,000 while water loss was only 3.42 percent, Watts said.
He went on to say, “If we get close to the 18 to 20 million mark, that puts us in our drought contingency plan. TCEQ (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality) states that we will have to abide by that, which includes nobody watering their yards. We can choose to do it sooner.”
Before he concluded his report, Watts informed the council the city recently had a TCEQ inspection on its water and passed “… with flying colors.”
Councilman Joseph Musick spoke next and provided the council with the Fire Department’s report for the month of June.
He reported there were 16 fire alarms for the month, which brought the year-to-date total up to 92. Musick said there were also 30 runs for EMS, which brought the year-to-date total up to 258.
Police Chief Richard Lewis followed the councilman and said Grapeland Police Department calls for service had recently, dropped going from 190 in May to 116 in June. The Chief said there were 86 traffic stops, resulting in six warnings and 31 citations issued during June.
Mayor Mitchell Woody concluded the reports portion of the meeting and informed the council the city would be switching official payments to payagov.
“They integrate with RVS. It is of no cost to us; the fees are less for our customers to use and it is more user friendly. All we are doing is changing the interface of how people are paying. It’s really no big deal,” he said.
Following the mayoral update, the council adjourned into executive session at 6:25 pm. When they returned, approximately 20 minutes later, a motion was made and approved to deny establishing a DWI task force.
Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].
