Granite Shoals fund balance victory in sight
By Glynis Crawford Smith
The Highlander
Victory in a years-long effort to establish a comfortable general fund balance seems to be in sight for the City of Granite Shoals.
City Manager Ken Nickel told the city council Tuesday night, Dec. 12, that he would have to wait for an official pronouncement from the upcoming audit, but the city's own summary of Fiscal Year 2016-2017 is promising.
“Between the increase in revenue and less money expended we are $243,456, net, to the good,” he said. “Added to current reserves, I believe we will hit the 90-day reserve of normal or best practices.
“It is nice to have the balance, but we have to remember, one major expense could knock it out.”
Nickel credited the success, part, to frugal operation in every department to stick to the year's $1.7 million general fund budget: “$88,000 was not spent.”
But a healthy boost came from increased sales tax and building permit income, as well as fire department success in finding grants and the best price for the resale of old equipment.
The utility fund did not fare as well. With water sales down $40,000, the expense of new water plant filters and a rash of repairs on the books, utilities were $71,284 off the budget mark.
Since Nickel joined the city as finance director in 2010, and continuing since he became city manager and Wendy Gholson became finance director in 2013, the state of general fund money on hand for a minimum of three months emergency operations has been a major goal. Along with a steady advance on that front, the city has seen their bond rating rise to an A rating in Standard & Poor's (S&P) Global Ratings.
That will be important as the $3 million road bond project begins next year.
Nickel told the council that responses to an advertised call for professional engineering qualifications were due by 3 p.m. Dec. 22, allowing staff to make a recommendation by Jan. 9.
“Every minute counts now,” he said. “Paving season is coming (and) we plan to finish in 2018.”
By that he means rehabilitation of the three major north south traffic arteries: Valley View Lane, Prairie Creek Road and Phillips Ranch Road.
He said he had appointments set with financial and bond counselors to be ready when a contractor was selected and bids could be opened on the project.
“We will advertise them separately to take advantage of individual capabilities contractors may have,” added Nickel. “It may be one contract. It may be three.”
The council gave a nod to a proposal from Assistant City Manager Peggy Smith, who serves also as utilities director.
“I want to provide project information on every water project we need to the Texas Water Development Board,” she said. “It does not obligate us to anything, but it allows us to review our situation for loan forgiveness. If we don't do it we can't find out what we are qualified for.”
She said also that two water rate studies under way by the Public Utilities Commission of Texas should be complete soon.
In response to a request from the council to innumerate streets without water lines, Smith said, “We have 44 streets with no water service across the city
“That means an extension to serve them. It might be two feet, it might be 80 feet....There is a lot of undeveloped land. Sometimes (original lines) ran into granite slabs.”
“People all over Granite Shoals have wells,” said councilwoman Shirley King, in reference to recent, lengthy discussions of the impossibility of counting wells and whether new wells could be allowed.
The discussion was renewed with the benefit of advice from attorney Emily Rogers, who specializes in utility law. The council continued to examine options that could be offered to residents, from wells to storage tanks and from rainwater collection to cost-sharing. In the end, they declined to make any ordinance modification and did not set a date for returning to the subject.
The discussion of the fencing ordinance continued. Modifications drawn from opinions in previous meetings were presented by City Attorney Brad Young. One more round of editing was applied to a draft headed back to the Planning & Zoning Commission for review and public hearings.
The council did act to approve sale by the Burnet Central Appraisal District of 28 lots around the city to Roger A. VanVoorhees for a total of $17,935.
“Much more was owed in back taxes,” said Nickel. “But selling these at auction puts them back on the tax rolls.”
The council also approved the purchase of one auctioned lot by the city itself. The lot, purchased for $2,000, is adjacent to the well-water system in Sherwood Shores III and will allow for expansion and security of the operation.
