Hope City Board

The Hope City Board met Tuesday for their first meeting of July. The first order of business was to act upon a request to change the name of Julia Drive to Trinity Drive. The street is located off Hervey and Commerce. Mt. Kirby Investments asked for the change. They are constructing the new Christus Trinity Clinic. The board voted to do so.

The board considered a request from the Hope Academy of Public Service to adopt Grady Street from 6th to 16th to pick up litter on that route on a regular basis. The board agreed and Mayor Montgomery said they would encourage other groups to adopt streets for litter clean up.

The board looked at a request from Ann McWilliams who lives on 23rd outside the city limits to place a mobile home on her property for her elderly father. She would like to hook up to city sewer. Don Still suggested long-term the city should look at whether to offer city services only to residents willing to be annexed into the city. Still says if the city allows non-city residents to have city amenities there isn’t any incentive to come into the city. Still said he wasn’t against this situation and the board allowed McWilliams to hook up to city sewer.

The board looked at a proposed ordinance concerning collection and enforcement of the so-called “tourism tax”. This is the tax levied on prepared foods and hotel/motel accommodations. There was discussion on when the compliance would begin and also on when businesses would have to secure their permit to collect the tax and also possibly issuing a sticker for the windows of.permit holders. Under the ordinance businesses would have to secure a permit by November 1st and to have their permit sticker posted by December 1st. The ordinance was read aloud by City Attorney Joe Short. The ordinance was passed along with an.emergency clause.

Under the city manager’s report, Catherine Cook said the rail spur project is 87% done and should be finished by August 1st. She mentioned the next city-wide clean-up is July 20th. New City Human Resources officer Amber Collums was introduced. Cook noted there is no residential trash pick up on Thursday and that Friday will be normal. She noted the Hub Pavilion has some storm damage and the contractor is working on that. Cook says A.T.&T. is dragging its feet on relocating utilities on 6th and Joe Short will probably write a letter to them. The summer youth program at the park was. lauded by both the City Manager and Board member Mark Ross. Cook noted some downtime at the city pool due to a lightning strike. Vice-Mayor Don Still gave an update on.talks between the city and the. National Park Service on plans for a parking area on the old Kopecky property. Board member Trevor Coffee mentioned some excess concrete left over from repairs and Tim Blue noted that had been cleaned up. Mark Ross noted the Farmers Market had 20 to 25 vendors this week and lauded the efforts of Jodi Coffee. Catherine Cook mentioned the large crowds at the Hub and downtown during the”4th Thursday Slip Away”. The meeting then adjourned.