The Brownwood City Council met Tuesday morning, August 9, with all members present.  Mayor Stephen Haynes presided over the meeting.

The Council held a Public Hearing on an Ordinance regarding amendments to the City’s zoning ordinance, Chapter 98 of the Code of Ordinances, regarding the placement of Wireless Telecommunication Facilities, including Towers.  There were no comments from the public during the hearing.

The primary amendments to the zoning code adds a minimum distance requirement for wireless telecommunications facilities (the “WTF”), either on a tower or not attached to a tower, equal to at least 200 feet or 300% of the height of the WTF or tower, whichever is greater, from the nearest residential district boundary line and/or nearest structure used for or designed for residential purposes.  The Council passed the Ordinance on First Reading.

The Council also approved a 5-year (60 month) operating lease with SpectrumVoIP, Inc. for hosted VoIP services and Yealink Phone System.  Spectrum was the low bidder.

The current City Hall Avaya phone system 5-year lease with Sharco Technologies, Inc. expired in February 2021.  Since that time, the City of Brownwood has been on a month-to-month lease.  The new lease with SpectrumVoIP, Inc. will replace equipment currently in use and upgrade the operating system and components with additional soft-phone features.   The following locations will be upgraded: Brownwood City Hall, Health Department, Service Center, Senior Citizen Annex,  Adam Street Community Center, Lehnis Railroad Museum & Visitor Center, Central Fire Station.

The Council took no action at this time on authorizing the City of Brownwood Mayor and Emergency Manager to sign the updated Brown County Emergency Operations Plan.  The 813-page plan will continue to be reviewed.

The Council gave approval to the City Manager to sign a service agreement with UniFirst to provide uniforms for city employees.  City personnel have been working to establish a new service agreement with UniFirst because of an overall cost savings. The new agreement with UniFirst will be for 36 months and will include a fixed 3% annual increase per year.

The Council approved awarding an engineering services contract to Enprotec /Hibbs & Todd for the 2021 American Rescue Plan Grant TX0225.  The first and most high priority project will be the Riverside Park road reconstruction project.  The awarding of the engineering contract covers this specific project, and any/all prospective ARPA projects.  Should the City want to use a different engineer for other ARPA projects, they can solicit other proposals.

The Council gave authorization to the City Manager to sign an agreement with Justice Benefits Inc. to investigate Federal Reimbursement Program funds.  Justice Benefits Inc. will review current Health Department practices to investigate opportunity for additional Federal Reimbursement Programs.  JBI will receive 15% of funds identified through JBI’s process. This is a renewal of a term of the contract is 2 years.

The Council went into Closed Session at 10:00 am to begin the City Manager’s annual evaluation.