Granite Shoals City Council

By Glynis Crawford Smith

The Highlander

The Granite Shoals City Council on Tuesday night, Aug. 9, heard a review of a staff proposed budget and agreed to publish a tax rate they would not exceed: $0.5572 per $100 valuation.

That rate represents a sliver of an increase over the 2015 rate of $0.5207, just about three and a half cents per $100 valuation. But it falls below the rollback rate but above the effective rate, bringing in this year's ad valorem tax revenue to $2.4 million.

The hard decisions on a staff proposed budget of $6.76 million will be on the table at a budget workshop Monday, Aug. 15.

Development slowed in Granite Shoals last year over the previous six percent hike in property valuation. The 2.9 percent increase in valuation would add only $56,000 to revenue if the full 55.72 cents per $100 were instituted.

By Glynis Crawford Smith

The Highlander

The Granite Shoals City Council chose a conservative path Tuesday, July 26, delaying a citizen vote on a bond issue that could restore major thoroughfares.

The meeting wore on to midnight as the council weighed the possibility of putting a bond issue for around $2.8 million on the November ballot. In the end, Mayor Carl Brugger's vote decided to delay the ballot option to citizens until May.

The bond issue would buy the city another $3.4 million in grant matching funds if the proposed street project were to cost as much as $6.2 million.

The elected officials of Granite Shoals include a council of six led by Mayor Carl Brugger and they follow a long line of unpaid citizens that have guided the city through its 50-year history.
They are Mayor Pro Tem Shirley King, Eric Tanner, Tom Dillard, Mark Morren and Anita Hisey.
Five of the citizens who have held the title of Mayor of Granite Shoals live in the city today.
They are the current mayor, Carl Brugger, elected in 2015; Dennis Maier, elected in 2011 and 2013; Frank Reilly, elected in  2005, 2007 and 2009 and Pat Crochet, elected in 1999 and appointed in 2004. Crochet did not finish that last term and  King served as mayor in the interim.
First to last, they came to serve the city first through volunteer service on committees, commissions or advisory groups.

The Granite Shoals City Council on Tuesday night, March 8, resolved to pursue grant support for a $5 million street improvement project.

The council authorized City Manager Ken Nickel to proceed with an application to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for a grant to repair Phillips Ranch Road and Prairie Creek Road to a standard equal to Ranch to Market Road 1431.

The city is preparing to celebrate for its 50th Anniversary Bash, April  23-24, as citizens travel streets that pre-date its incorporation. Surveys identified those streets as a high prioriity and the council was already involved in public forums and traffic and engineering studies when it was learned a grant might be available.

Unable to pass by the opportunity for a grant that pay 55 percent of a project, a grant application will be submitted, even as the council strategize ways to pay for the project, even at less than half price.

By Glynis Crawford Smith

The Granite Shoals City Council continued grantsmanship efforts Tuesdeay, Feb. 25, in a meeting that touched on Quarry Park, street improvements and the airport.

All city council candidates for the May election, except Mayor Pro Tem Shirley King (unopposed for Place 2) and the final filer Michael Lee Steenbergen for Place 6 were on hand for the ballot order drawing before the meeting began. They are incumbent Tom Dillard and Arturo Rubio, who drew first and second place on the ballot for Place 4, and Will Skinner and incumbent Mark Morren, who drew first and third places on the ballot for Place 6.

For the full story, see the Friday, Feb. 26, edition of The Highlander.

Glynis Crawford Smith/The Highlander

An ambitious plan for streets, an old debate over the airport and a pilot program to thin urban deer all were tackled by the Granite Shoals City Council Tuesday, Feb. 9.

See the story in the Friday, Feb. 12, edition of The Highlander.