The Monitor (Mabank, Tex.), Vol. 39, No. 101, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 1, 2013 Page: 4 of 18
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Page 4A • The Monitor - Thursday, August 1, 2013
Citizens get answers on water transfer, Nov. 5 bond vote
By David Webb
The Monitor Correspondent
KEMP-The Kemp City
Council set in motion a
plan to transfer the city’s
water and sewer operation
to West Cedar Creek
Municipal Utility District
during a special meeting
July 25 following a town
hall meeting at City Hall.
The council approved an
ordinance authorizing the
issuance of general obliga-
tion refunding bonds for
$875,000 that will be used
to pay off the city’s debt
to the U.S. Department of
Agriculture. Comparing
the process to refinancing
a home mortgage, city ad-
ministrator James White-
head said the USDA’s de-
mand that it be repaid
prior to the transfer of
ownership made it neces-
sary to issue the bonds.
Next, the council ap-
proved a purchase agree-
ment between the city and
WCCMUD to transfer all
of the city’s water and
sewer assets, although no
money will actually change
hands.
Finally, the council ap-
proved an ordinance call-
ing for a special election
Nov. 5 for voters to de-
cide whether to allow the
transfer to take place.
The council held the
town meeting prior to
opening the council meet-
ing so the public could ask
questions about the pro-
posed plan. About 40
people attended the meet-
ing, filling most ofthe avail-
able seats.
The majority of the au-
dience seemed pleased
with the presentation, es-
pecially after learning that
increases to water and
sewer bills would be mini-
mal. City staff used an
overhead projector to dis-
play an analysis of current
and projected water bills
for the audience to see,
and copies ofthe analysis
were distributed to the au-
dience afterwards.
Based on an analysis
using 5,000 gallons water
per meter, Kemp water
and sewer bills would in-
crease by $ 16.94 monthly
for in-town residents, bills
for water and sewer would
decrease by $3 for resi-
dents in the unincorporated
area, and bills for water
only would increase by $7
for residents in the unincor-
porated area who do not
have sewer service. Those
figures include the consid-
eration of capital improve-
ment charges ($25
monthly) and debt service
($10 monthly).
For water and sewer
service only,, based on
5.000 gallons, Kemp in-
town customers now pay
$90.81 and out-of-town
customers pay $120.75.
Out-of-town residents
without sewer service pay
$70.50. Under WCC-
MUD for water and sewer
service only based on
5.000 gallons, Kemp in-
town and out-of-town cus-
tomers would pay
$117.75 monthly. Out-of-
town customers without
sewer would pay $77.50
monthly.
Those figures do not re-
flect charges for garbage
and other services such as
ambulance and fire
charged on Kemp utility
bills that would continue to
be billed.
Most of the discussion
I
Hacked
Continued from Page 1A
Monday morning she
immediately contacted her
e-mail provider to assist
her in reestablishing con-
trol over her account,
which they did.
Monitor Photo/David Webb
Kemp city administrator James Whitehead talks about
the change in billing once the city transfers water
rights to West Cedar Creek Municipal Utility District,
using a chart projected on the wall behind him.
in tlie city’s staff presenta-
tion involved how the
transfer process would be
carried out and how much
water and sewer bills
would be after WCC-
MUD takes over the op-
eration. WCCMUD gen-
eral manager A.P. “Tony”
Ciardo attended the meet-
ing and addressed the au-
dience, pledging his com-
mitment to providing the
city with a reliable opera-
tion.
Ciardo told the audience
it would be an expensive
undertaking for WCC-
MUD. The board of di-
rectors approved the
transfer more in the inter-
est of being good, helpful
neighbors. The operation
would at best “break
even,” he said.
“It is not a good deal for
West Cedar Creek, and it
is not good for our cus-
tomers,” Ciardo said. “It’s
a great deal for you all.”
WCCMUD now has
8,000 customer meters
which will help absorb the
cost of adding Kemp’s
700 meters to the opera-
tion and make the neces-
sary investments to repair
the city’s systems, Ciardo
said. WCCMUD is able
to charge less for water
and sewer rates to its cus-
tomers than the city could
because it is a much larger
system financed by many
more customers, he ex-
plained.
City administrator James
Whitehead told the audi-
ence that the city staff and
WCCMUD had worked
diligently for many months
to put the plan together to
guarantee that Kemp
Dead
would be assured a safe,
reliable water and sewer
system in the future. In the
summer of 2011, the fail-
ure ofthe city’s deteriorat-
ing water system worsened
by the severe drought
made national news when
water had to be trucked in
and distributed to residents
in the downtown area.
“We are in bad shape,”
Whitehead said. “We are
one foot away from disas-
ter. It’s bad all over the
state.”
The city’s situation is so
dire that the connection
process with WCCMUD
has already begun, even
though the administrative
process cannot be final-
ized until after the Nov. 5
election. WCCMUD has
already assisted Kemp
with repairs to pumps at
the water treatment plant
to keep the system oper-
ating.
A $350,000 grant the
city received from the
USDA will be used to
construct an eight-inch,
22,914-foot pipeline along
Highway 274 and County
Road 4023 to the WCC-
MUD water plant. The
cost of the project will re-
quire another $230,000
investment that WCC-
MUD is making.
City Attorney Terry
Welch said that in addition
to all of the help the city
has received from Kauf-
man County and the Texas
Department of Transpor-
tation in granting it right-of-
way privileges for the pipe-
line, city staff received a
pleasant surprise when it
offered the refunding
bonds for sale on July 22
through Southwest Finan-
cial Securities. Regions
Bank of Fort Worth of-
fered the city a 3.1815
percent interest rate that
will save $284,000 over
the course of 20 years. The
USDA bonds carried a
4.228 percent rate and
would not be paid off until
2045, whereas the new
debt will pay off in 2033.
Banks in Salt Lake City
and the neighboring city of
Athens also made offers
that were less attractive.
“We were actually kind
of shocked,” Welch said.
“We thought it would be in
the 5 percent range.”
Once the debts are paid,
the water and sewer bills
will no longer include a
charge for capital improve-
ments and debt service
that initially must be
charged, Ciardo said. City
staff said most of the cur-
rent debt owed to the
USDA is related to the
sewer system.
Mayor Laura Hanna
Peace said she personally
is in favor of transferring
the city’s assets to WCC-
MUD. She noted that the
final decision is still up to
the voters.
“Anyone who wants to
vote no, I want to know
what your solution is,”
Peace said. “I want to en-
sure the city has water in
the future.”
City officials noted that
if voters do not approve
the plan, the state would
likely come in and take
over the water and sewer
systems.
“I know from past ex-
perience that when the
state gets involved, the
price of doing business
goes up two or three
times,” Whitehead said.
If voters approve the
plan, WCCMUD will be-
gin billing customers for
water and sewer services,
and it will also collect other
charges such as garbage
now on city utility bills and
transfer those funds to the
city.
The city bills commer-
cial customers $20.35
monthly and residential
customers $ 11.44 per cart
for garbage. It also bills
customers $5 monthly for
ambulance service and $ 1
for fire department service.
There is an optional $1
voluntary charge for an
emergency siren system.
After the meeting, sev-
eral residents said they
would campaign for the
plan, and that they would
begin installing “Vote Yes”
signs in yards around the
city. Peace said that she
personally would contrib-
ute money to help the
campaign. When Council-
man David Smith was
asked if one of the “Vote
Yes” signs could be placed
in his yard he offered to let
the residents “stick it on the
roof of my house.”
Kemp resident Allen
Palmer who asked numer-
ous questions during the
meeting said he was im-
pressed by the presenta-
tion and the reaction of the
audience to the plan.
“It was one of the best
meetings I’ve been to
here,” Palmer said. “We
didn’t have anyone start-
ing a fight in the audience
like we have had in the
past.”
Paula Patterson, a resi-
dent who receives water
from Kemp but lives in the
unincorporated area, said
she also was impressed by
the information and re-
lieved to know city staff
came up with such a good
plan.
“I think it was one of the
most informative meetings
I’ve been to in Kemp,”
Patterson said. “I really
liked the overhead projec-
tor.”
Kemp resident Leodis
Buckey said he thought the
presentation was good,
but he still had concerns
that it might wind up being
more expensive. “I like the
idea, but what is the final
cost going to be?”
Ciardo noted that WC-
CMUD will be taking
over all responsibility for
the system with ownership
of it so Kemp customers
will be responsible only
for paying their individual
bills. Whatever is needed
to repair the system, such
as repairing the treatment
plant and replacing dete-
riorating steel pipes, will
be accomplished, he said.
“All I can do is tell you we
will fix it,” Ciardo said to
a resident who com-
plained about the deterio-
rating state of the city’s
water and waste system.
Welch said city staff
had researched the issue
thoroughly, and there
should be no surprises.
“We’ve tried to uncover
every stone we could,”
Welch said. “Unfortu-
nately, there is no easy
fix.”
Welch said that only
residents who live inside
the city limits will be al-
lowed to vote in the elec-
tion, but Patterson said
she and others who de-
pend on Kemp water will
participate in the “Vote
Yes” campaign. Several
of the out-of-city custom-
ers said they are delighted
by the plan and the antici-
pated costs, noting that
they would have gladly
agreed to pay much more
“just to have water.”
Continued from Page 1A
Monitor Photo/David Webb
WCCMUD general manager Tony Ciardo tells Kemp
residents the benefits of completing the merge with
West Cedar Creek MUD.
tioning company.
According to a press
release from Eustace po-
lice chief Kenneth Holder,
Smith had active felony
warrants for his arrest, a
lengthy criminal history and
was well-known by law
enforcement in Henderson
County.
At 1:15 a.m. Saturday
Eustace police attempted
to conduct a traffic stop on
the vehicle Smith was driv-
ing. Smith slammed on his
brakes and backed the
truck into the Eustace po-
lice cruiser and then took
off.
The maneuver, however,
did not cause injury nor
prevent the officer from
continuing the pursuit. The
officer was able to identify
the driver as Casey Daniel
Smith, 31, and his passen-
ger and wife as Brandi
Smith, 30, both of Ma-
bank, according to their
driver’s license informa-
tion.
The chase continued
onto CR 2919. During the
pursuit a backpack con-
taining methamphetamines
and syringes was thrown
out the passenger side
window, and was later re-
covered.
At one point in the pur-
suit, the driver stopped the
vehicle and let his passen-
ger out. The officer in pur-
suit drove into the ditch,
missing the truck by
inches. Smith continued to
flee into a field where he
exited the vehicle and fled
on foot.
Deputies from the
Henderson County
Sheriff’s office responded
and assisted in the search
for Smith in the wooded
area where the vehicle had
come to rest. Eustace Po-
lice chief Kenneth Holder
arrested Brandi Smith and
booked her into the Hend-
erson County Jail for
Evading Arrest and Deten-
tion in a Motor Vehicle and
for possession of A Con-
trolled Substance. A sy-
ringe loaded with metham-
phetamines was found in
her purse. The drug charge
is a State jail felony. Judge
Daniels set her bonds at
$22,500.
Shortly afterward,
Holder was dispatched to
12871 County Road
2912, regarding a robbery
that had just occurred. He
arrived on scene at about
2:08 a.m. and met with an
82-year-old woman, who
stated that she arrived
home at about 1:45 a.m.
and encountered a tall, tat-
tooed man with dark hair
walking out of her back
yard.
Holder immediately rec-
ognized the description as
matching Casey Smith
from the earlier pursuit.
The woman said that she
walked in her house and
saw that it was ransacked.
She further stated that the
suspect said his wife was
in trouble and had been ar-
rested, and he was trying
to get some help.
She added that the sus-
pect followed her into her
garage, struck her in the
head with his fist and
pushed her to the ground
taking her cell phone and
car keys to her burgundy
2001 Cadillac El Dorado,
with Texas plates
CP2B547. The car was
later found in the parking
lot of the Garland Walmart.
Courtesy Photo
Casey Smith’s distinctive tattoos were remembered
by a robbery victim near Eustace Saturday, when he
took her car keys, car and cell phone. The car was
later found in the parking lot of a Walmart in Garland
where Smith was shot and killed after turning on a
security officer with a crowbar, he reportedly had
shoplifted on Sunday.
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Cantrell, Pearl. The Monitor (Mabank, Tex.), Vol. 39, No. 101, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 1, 2013, newspaper, August 1, 2013; Mabank, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth627566/m1/4/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .