Granite Shoals Council on the fence over fencing
By Glynis Crawford Smith
The Highlander
The Granite Shoals City Council on Tuesday night, Jan. 24, launched into its sixth lengthy discussion of fencing in the city and the issue is far from over.
Long Planning & Zoning Commission study aside, the item has drawn citizens to meetings every time it has been on the council agenda. And, their interest did not wane Tuesday, when they sat out the discussion to 10:30 p.m., four of them addressing the council.
Only one consensus has emerged: the existing ordinance will change. At issue are utility easements, non-conforming existing fences, materials, heights, incline construction and safety. Interior fencing for pools, gardens and dog runs is such a fractious item the council has agreed to pull it from the main ordinance.
Still, citizens have plenty of chances to join the fray, with more discussion scheduled for the Feb. 14 meeting and months of hearings in the P&Z and council before a final ordinance can be considered.
Mayor Pro Tem Tom Dillard has spent more than a month in independent work assigned by his colleagues to look at other city ordinances and refine language. Traffic visibility at corners, a priority with Dillard, whose day job is law enforcement, is a shared concern with Council Member Shirley King, but otherwise is almost universally unpopular.
Council Members Todd Holland and Mark Morren actually proposed, without success, ending the debate and leaving the existing Fence Ordinance, as is. Citizen speakers reflected the morass of concerns. Susie Hardy, who serves on the P&Z, spoke of avoiding micro managing; Steven Dooley, supported eight-foot fences; Abraham Santillan continued to oppose the requirement for only “milled” wood, and Robin Lynn DeBerard, appointed at meeting as a new member of the Parks Committee, suggested decorative finials be excluded from fence height.
Action from the meeting that ended just short of midnight included approval for City Manager Ken Nickel and City Attorney Brad Young to continue development agreement negotiations with the two major property owners in the extraterritorial jurisdiction whose current agreements are set to expire. They are the Metzger ranch properties to the east and Scarbrough ranch property to the south. The agreements would allow the agricultural status of the property outside city limits to continue unless development triggers annexation into the city.
Morren, an employee of Pedernales Electric Cooperative, urged Nickel and Young to include language guaranteeing utility easements if some remote portion of the large properties is developed.
“We (the PEC) has ranches right now that can't get power because they don't have easements,” he said.
The council generally consented to a memorandum of agreement with the Marble Falls Independent School District (MFISD) that will allow the city to construct one or more soccer fields adjacent to the school campus. The city is to be responsible for the construction work and installation of fencing around fields. “A lot of people have worked hard to get to this point,” said King, noting volunteers from the local faith alliance to individuals and soccer organizations she feels will step up to help with work and ancillary projects.
In a report on Granite Shoals Fire Rescue, Fire Chief Austin Stanphill said the department averaged about two calls per day in the last year. The addition of part-time paid firemen to allow the fire station to be manned 24/7 has been helpful, but he hopes for even more paid back-up.
He said they depend on the good works of the Granite Shoals Volunteer Fire Department Auxiliary behind the scenes. On the front line, however recruitment of volunteer firefighters is a constant concern.
“We have a higher standard than some departments,” said Stanphill. “Our volunteers attain a certain level of training before riding out. It is hard to maintain the standard when, in a next door department, you can pick up a shirt and join.”
To continue to attract and retain trained volunteers, Stanphill said long range plans need to include incentives.
“Our city is growing, Emergency Service District 3 is growing,” he said. “We need a three-five-year plan.”
Two Park Committee work days are planned while the level of Lake LBJ is still low, reported Assistant City Manager Peggy Smith. Work days are not limited to committee members and other interested citizens can pitch in on the projects that will be added to the work the city has been conducting.
“On Feb. 4 and Feb. 11, volunteers will meet at city hall at 9 a.m. to decide where to go to work each day,” she said.
New Burnet County Precinct 1 Commissioner Jim Luther addressed the council, and Mayor Carl Brugger noted that the city is split east and west between Precincts 1 and 4.
“I don't care what side of the road you live on,” said Luther. “I work for you, for everyone in the county.”
He said he already has been hard at work identify priority road projects. That includes, he said, the more and more heavily traveled Farm to Market Road 120 that connects Ranch to Market Road 1431 from the Highland Haven intersection to US 281.
