Burnet City Council members got a grim report on the latest COVID-19 variant at their Tuesday, Aug. 10 meeting, while at the same time putting three county properties into compliance with city zoning ordinances, giving final approval to more than $1 million in budget amendments and hearing the city’s proposed Fiscal Year 2021-2022 budget and tax rate.
Fire Chief Mark Ingram, the city’s emergency management coordinator, told the council
“This new (COVID-19) variant is extremely contagious, and it is spreading very, very fast.”
Ingram said his department had tested 12 people for the virus that date and seven of them were positive. Of those, only one was cleared to return to work, he said.
Ingram said a vaccination clinic was scheduled for Monday, Aug. 23, aimed at the 12-to-18-year-old age group. Efforts to vaccinate that age group have not been very successful in the past, he said.
“It definitely is a huge problem,” Ingram said. “These numbers are higher than last year when (the first) COVID was at it peak.”
The council will consider moving its meetings from the council chamber at Municipal Airport to the city’s community center, where social distancing is easier. However, City Manager David Vaughn reminded the council that be cause the pandemic-triggered exemption to the state open meetings law will expire Sept. 1, the council cannot vote during virtual meetings.
In-person meetings could be held with on-line viewing available, he said, adding that when the council held on-line meetings before, citizen participation was higher than he’d anticipated.
The next council meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 24.
“You know, we’re not allowed to mandate masks because of the governor’s order,” Mayor Crista Goble Bromley noted, “but certainly we can issue something recommending (mask wear).”
“I agree with that 100 percent,” Ingram said.
At the same meeting, the council gave final approval to budget amendments totaling more than $1 million, with most of the expenditures being paid for through available funds. Council members had already heard the amendments and given preliminary approval.
They also approved a $270,000 contract with the Austin architectural firm of Seaux & Pierce to design the redoing of the former Bealls building on East Polk Street into a new city hall. The firm had already been chosen to do the work; the new vote merely established a contract.
Vaughn presented a preliminary budget that foresees revenues of $50,384,069 while predicting expenditures of $47,713,211. The proposed tax rate of 61.81 cents per $100 property valuation is a half-cent lower than the current rate of 61.31 cents but is still expected to raise more money than last year, through higher property valuations and new property.
A hearing on the tax rate is set for Tuesday, Aug. 24 and one on the budget will probably be held Tuesday, Sept. 10, Vaughn said.
The council also put three county properties in line with city zoning ordinances.
Properties at 1601 E. Polk St. (the sheriff’s office), 1701 E. Polk St. (the county’s north annex) and 501 Coke St. (also part of the sheriff’s office) all had been bought by the county before there was such a thing as a “governmental” zoning classification, City Planner Leslie Kimbler explained. Rezoning the properties would put them in their proper classification, she said. The council agreed.
