Citizens appointed to serve in Marble Falls

By Glynis Crawford Smith

The Highlander

The Marble Falls City Council meeting Tuesday, Jan. 17, began with an introduction of the city's new fire marshal by Fire Chief Russell Sander.

Fresh from his first day on the job at Marble Falls Fire Rescue, Thomas “Tommy” Crane told the council the welcome he receive here made him and his wife look forward to finding a home here.

“The night I was staying here at the Hampton for my first interview, I went out to dinner,” said Crane. “Complete strangers included me in their conversation. This is a friendly town and I look forward to working with the fire department and the business owners to keep it safe.”

Willis Engineering was chosen from among seven firms that applied to design a city sewer project to be funded by a 2016 Community Development Block Grant.

The local firm had the highest score in an assessment of qualifications also submitted by K. C. Engineering, S. D. Kallman. Garcia & Wrig, Jones/Carter, River City Engineering and Naismith/Hanson.

The council authorized City Manager Mike Hodge to negotiate a contract with Willis Engineering for the project.

Only a few new appointments were made to committees, boards and commissions, since most of the citizens already serving applied for re-appointment to the long list of terms officially about to end.

One of those was Anitra Torns was chosen to serve on the Parks & Recreation Commission to replace Mark Hodge in Place 5.

“I am a coach's wife and we have four children and they are all in sports,” she told the council. “We use the parks and facilities. And, we travel to other places and see what other cities have, so we know what we want to bring here.

Parks Commission re-appointments were Kendra Lewis, Ann Berg and David Rhodes, to Places 1, 3 and 7, respectively. Fred Becker also was considered for appointment.

Open seats remained after the council made re-appointments to the Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) Board No. 1, a zone that administers a fraction of sales tax revenue from the downtown area. Terry Pilley and Brenda Morris did not seek reappointment.

Because Tuesday's appointments were the first since the creation of the board and initial appointments were not made for staggered terms, Kyle Stripling, Joe Don Dockery, David Plante, Lori Brix and Rebecca Nunnally were named to serve two-year terms, expiring January 2019. Charles Johnstone and Scott Martin were appointed to one-year terms, expiring January 2018.

The nine members include a State Senator appointment, Stripling, and a State Representative appointment, Dockery, and an annual chairmanship appointment by the council, for which Stripling was chosen.

As requests for re-appointment to the Planning & Zoning (P&Z) Commission had come from Fred Zagst, Steve Reitz, Greg Mill and William Haddock, they will continue in Places 1, 3, 5, and 7, respectively. An application from Tom Martin to join the P&Z was not accepted.

Appointments to the Capital Improvement Plan Committee (CIP) followed a new ordinance approved by the council in July, changing the committee configuration to include the seven members of the Planning and Zoning Commission and two citizens. Tom Martin and Brian Shirley were chosen for the two-year terms. Tony Plumlee also was considered.

The city council also makes appointments to the Marble Falls Economic Development Corporation Board of Directors. To fill the unexpired term of Mark Hodges, the council chose Ryan Nash from their own ranks. Alex Payson also was considered.

The Hotel Motel Tax Advisory Committee, which administers Hotel-Motel Occupancy Tax Revenue includes two citizens and five fixed positions. Of those, three required re-appointment: the mayor or a council member, for which Council Member Nash will serve, the executive director of the Marble Falls/Lake LBJ Chamber of Commerce, who is Patti Zinsmeyer, and executive director of the EDC, now Christian Fletcher.