Established in 1873, Whitesboro is home to many historic buildings and older residences. With older buildings comes increased maintenance and upkeep. Many homeowners in town might need to repair their homes to comply with city ordinances but don’t have the means to do so. After discussing the Property Maintenance Code, Whitesboro City Administrator Julie Arrington and Building Inspector Dalton Fallaw discussed the potential of providing a HOME Program for the people of Whitesboro who qualify. This program consists of three options.
The first option would be a program that would provide up to $50,000 (a $10,000 grant and a $40,000 loan) to a homeowner for repairs to their home. The homeowner would apply through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The second option would be a grant program for homeowners with a clear title and deeds to their home. Arrington said this program would also be up to $50,000 as a loan. This program would require the city to facilitate the application process to the USDA, inspect the home and keep $40,000 earmarked in the bank account for this program. Arrington said due to the additional workload this would create, she would like to hire a contractor, such as Grant Works (with whom the city already works), to perform the responsibility for staff. Arrington said this program was used in Whitesboro about 18 years ago.
Looking at the third option, Fallaw said he has also spoken with Connie Lloyd, director at Your Neighbor’s House Food Pantry and Thrift Store (YNH), about an idea regarding home repairs. They spoke about meeting with local church leaders, YNH and other Whitesboro businesses to come together in collecting donations and creating a community workday where volunteers can sign up to help repair minor needs for residents of Whitesboro. These needs could be code violations or simply a service need such as getting a wheelchair ramp installed, minor painting or siding being replaced, to name a few. Arrington said they would build the qualifiers (elderly, disabled, etc.) and build a committee to help facilitate donations of time, materials and more for the day.
The idea is to potentially provide this once or twice a year. The City of Whitesboro wants to be the facilitators and possibly have YNH as the leaders in providing this to the community. Arrington said the next steps would be creating a meeting with all local churches and those businesses wanting to be involved in this program.
Moving forward, the City Council discussed an ordinance for the adoption of the International Property Maintenance Code. According to the agenda, the Code of Ordinance Chapter 150 Building Codes currently addresses issues regarding building regulations that stipulate the standards of building construction. The purpose of this amendment would be to provide minimum housing standards of living for Whitesboro citizens. If the amendment is adopted, it will provide proper enforcement of property owners and landlords to maintain the property in a safe and sanitary manner. This comes after Fallaw simply drove around the city and noticed about 20 homes that have been vacant for more than five years.
Arrington said by adopting the International Property Maintenance Code, it gives the city the permission and the procedures to follow to take these homes down or force their remodels and clean up some of these properties. This is to provide safety to Whitesboro and its residents. Fallaw said the goal here is not to throw fees at homeowners to either fix the homes or get fined, but the goal is to get these homes to where they are in the minimum living standards. Fallaw said this code will include homes that are currently being occupied and those that have been vacant for over five years.
Next, Arrington discussed with the council some of the changes she made to the building set-backs portion of the Whitesboro Code of Ordinance Chapter 150 Building Regulations and Chapter 154 Zoning. She said the changes made would make the building of a structure easier, allowing requirements for visible intersections and for the key lots to be more aesthetically appealing.
Whitesboro’s telephone franchise tax rate will remain the same. At the last City Council meeting, it was discussed that the Public Utility Commission has allowed municipalities to raise their telephone franchise tax rate by 2.2484 percent due to inflation. The rate increase would affect over 1,200 residents in Whitesboro. After much research, Arrington said the revenue that Whitesboro would bring in with this tax increase would be $500 a year opposed to what was thought to be $43,000 a year. Council voted on leaving the tax rate at 22 cents.
Then, Arrington discussed updates to ongoing capital improvement projects. Arrington confirmed the geo study for the elevated water tank and water line has been completed. The engineer has given assurance to build on that location on US-56. Arrington said she is working on easements and a meeting has been scheduled with a property owner representative. The Texoma Street Project Notice to Bidders advertisement is out and will be featured in the News-Record. The bid opening for the Texoma Street Project is April 23. There will be contractor suggestions in the May 7 City Council meeting agenda.
Whitesboro’s Public Library has added 240 books to its collection. The library has wrapped up with a six-week long American Sign Language class. Additional shelving units have been purchased for the children’s section and library staff have recently completed going through and weeding out the entire adult non-fiction section of the library. Alderman Carla Woolsey congratulated Library Director Lara Blair for the library’s recent Achievement of Library Excellence Award from the Texas Municipal Library Directors Association (TMLDA).
The City of Whitesboro will be receiving a court payment kiosk which will be located inside the Whitesboro Police Department’s lobby. Defendants that choose to use the payment kiosk will be able to access it 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This kiosk, which is a custom design for the city, will allow defendants to look up balances. It will also take payments in the form of cash, credit or debit cards and update payments using software API or lockbox file.
The kiosk will be equipped with advanced payment software, such as a touchscreen, receipt printer, cabinet, credit card reader, bill dispenser/recycler and security cameras in the safe and outfacing.
Source: Freepik.com