Mayor Janice Sanders announced that the city has been approved for $750,000 in grant funds during a regular City Council meeting held Thursday, January 16.
In September, the city authorized a contract with Grant Works to facilitate its application for the 2025-26 Texas Department of Agriculture Community Development Block Grant. The mayor said that the city has been approved for the grant, which is the first funding received for infrastructure projects in the past five years.
In a related update, Sanders reported that the city had completed its 2023 audit in one month and the 2024 audit is underway. “This is exciting news for us, because our financial audit system had problems in the past and we fell behind,” the mayor said. “When I became mayor, we were three years behind in audits. I prioritized fixing these issues, and my team has worked hard to streamline the audit process.”
She said that in the past, audit failures and delays had prevented the city from applying for outside funding.
“We’ve implemented measures to ensure our city stays compliant with audit requirements,” she said. “This is important; this is how we repair Whitney.”
The city plans to hold a public hearing at 6 p.m. Thursday, January 30, at City Hall to give citizens an opportunity to provide input on how the grant funds should be spent.
The mayor said that the city is looking at other funding areas, such as applying for Texas Water Development Board funds for the water treatment plant.
In other updates, she reported that progress is being made on the city park project with the receipt of a $10,000 donation, although the city did not receive T-Mobile and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department grant funds that had been sought for the park. She said that the Whitney Lions Club has agreed to oversee the project to improve the city park and expressed appreciation for their assistance. The city will continue to apply for other grant funds each time applications open.
Sanders also reported that the city has purchased the downtown building that formerly housed Cato Drug to preserve the historic building. A decision has not yet been made about how to use it, but the city will have a better plan once inspections are completed. “Whatever we do, we want to make sure the rich history of the Cato building remains and is not forgotten,” she said.
Operations Director Billy Pribble reported that the last water billing cycle was the first to include new water rates. He said an error had been identified in the way the ordinance was written versus what was in the billing system. The billing system included the ascending rate scale, although this was not in the ordinance. The billing system also still included 2,000 gallons that was factored into the base rate, although this was not in the ordinance. Pribble said that the two errors pretty much washed each other out, so only those using well over 5,000 gallons would have seen a difference. “If you have a question about your water bill — about the ascending rate scale versus the 2,000-gallon minimum — call City Hall and let them work through it,” he added.
Pribble reiterated that the increase was necessary, pointing out that the cost of chlorine alone has increased well over 200% since 2019. He said that Whitney’s rates are still lower than its neighbors.
He also said that water bills, which were delayed last month, will be going out on time. “If there is any reason they are not going to be out on time, I’m to be made aware as to why,” he said.
In regular agenda items, the council discussed a request from Ayushi Agarwala with Whitney’s HealthNow Urgent Care for assistance with signage. Agarwala asked for the city’s help in placing signage around town directing traffic to the urgent care. She said that patients visiting her Hillsboro location often don’t know that there is an urgent care in Whitney, and the Whitney location continues to underperform compared to Hillsboro despite an aggressive marketing campaign.
After discussion, the council determined that there was no city property on main roadways that could assist Agarwala, and she would need to discuss the issue with TxDOT if she wants signage on state highway right-of-way.
The council also joined with other cities in Atmos Energy’s Mid-Tex Division to deny a proposed Atmos rate increase and approve legal representation for the city.
Council members approved an agreement for city park use with Whitney Wildcat Football League, which has taken over management of baseball, softball and other youth sports. The agreement is similar to the previous contract with Whitney Youth Association, which formerly managed sports at the park.
An ordinance vacating portions of right-of-way for property at 605 South Bosque was also approved, which will formalize the city’s agreement to sell property to the business owner. The city will sell the property to Perry Auten, who owns storage buildings at the location, and the city will retain utility easements in the area.
In departmental reports, Director of Emergency Services Robert Matthews reported that the ambulance service responded to 44 calls in December, including five in which they were covering for CareFlite outside the city. The average response time was 6 minutes and 15 seconds, which Matthews said was largely due to the county calls.
The fire department responded to 74 calls, including nine fire calls in the city, nine fire calls in the county, 22 first responder calls in the city and 34 first responder calls in the county.
The department is beginning business safety surveys this month, beginning with businesses on North Brazos Street. The inspections will continue throughout the city and wrap up in the summer with school inspections.
Matthews said that the next community CPR class is planned for Saturday, February 1, at the library from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Police Chief Joshua Scholes reported that the police department responded to 171 calls in December, made three arrests, conducted 40 traffic stops and issued 47 citations/warnings. One of the department’s primary calls in December involved shots fired at an apartment complex. Officers located the subject inside a restaurant hiding in a closet. He was arrested and found to have an outstanding parole warrant out of Ohio for aggravated robbery. Narcotics were also recovered.
Scholes said that the department’s new Chevy Malibus have been incorporated into the fleet, and applicants have been applying for two available patrol officer positions.
Code Compliance/Animal Control Officer Drew Youngblood reported that 12 code enforcement cases were opened in December, with eight still open. Animal control impounded two dogs: one was returned to the owner and another is still in his care.
Director of Public Works Chris Brennan said that the department worked four water leaks in December and repaired the lift station at the high school. The FM 933 lift station also went down and will be repaired. Public Works performed two-inch meter replacements at schools over the holidays.
Interim Library Director Christie Rogers reported that 21 new library cards were issued in December, and the library welcomed 40 patrons on average each day. The library saw a 144% increase in Facebook followers over the past 30 days. For the first time since 2020, the library circulated 10,000 physical items in 2024, and staff hopes to exceed that number this year. New clubs are forming, and the chess club had a large turnout at its first meeting.
The library has community activities in the works, including a resume workshop in February in partnership with the Lake Whitney Chamber of Commerce and Texas Workforce Commission and a job fair in April that will include resources for childcare and transportation.
In open forum, Amy Teal said that she was out of town during the December meeting but watched it. She expressed concerns about government regulations becoming burdensome and said that public servants are weaponizing code enforcement. Regarding the zoning ordinance approved last month, she said that home occupations were previously allowed in ordinance for SF-1 properties and never spelled out in agricultural zones, but they had been occurring as a natural, customary use of property the entire time. She said that the city could have just corrected the errors. “This May we have a city election coming up,” she said. “An election where the city violated the law by failing to post legal requirements a year in advance, and it’s that dang anarchist pointing it out — not our public servants.”
The council’s next regularly scheduled meeting is set for 6 p.m. Thursday, February 20, at the Lake Whitney Public Library.
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