Hondo Anvil Herald (Hondo, Tex.), Vol. 128, No. 11, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 13, 2014 Page: 1 of 25
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Medina County’s Leading Newspaper Our 128th Year Published in Hondo, Texas
Thursday, March 13, 2014 • Volume 128, Number 11 • Website: HondoAnvilHerald.com • Three Sections, 28 Pages • 73 Cents
Council extends Alamo 1 contract
Refinancing 2005 bonds
will save plenty for city
By William Hoover
Anvil Herald Correspondent
Hondo City Council on
Monday refinanced $1,835
million of the $2.4 million in
Certificates of Obligation is-
sued in 2005 at a lower inter-
est rate, assuring the city at
least 4% in savings. Council
refinanced the debt by au-
thorizing the issuance of new
General Obligation Refund-
ing Bonds series 2014.
City Manager Jeff Litchfield
asked Bond Counsel Clay
Binford of Norton, Rose and
Fulbright to explain the bond
issuance to council.
“What we have before you
is an ordinance authorizing
the issuance of refinancing
of your outstanding debt,
specifically being your 2005
COs,” said Binford. “Interest
rates today are lower than
they were in 2005 when we
originally issued the debt.”
Binford noted the refund-
ing bonds were a mechanism
for the exchange of outstand-
ing debt for new debt at a
lower interest rate that results
in lower debt service costs to
the city and an increase in
savings. He said exact terms
had not been established
with local banks, but there
were agreed upon param-
eters for the new bonds.
“Mr. Litchfield cannot en-
act the authority you give him
tonight unless the refunding
transaction produces at least
4% savings,” he said. “Once
we have the final terms with
the bank, we will complete
the documentation and sub-
mit it.”
Financial Advisor Duncan
Morrow of Southwest Securi-
ties told council the current
2005 bonds were financed at
a 4.73% interest rate. He said
current market rates could be
locked in for the new bonds
at around 2.6% to 3%, there-
by saving the city at least 4%
in debt repayment costs.
“We are probably look-
ing at a savings of around
$90,000 over the term,” noted
City Manager Jeff Litchfield
of the effect of the proposed
new interest rate.
“This is a good deal for the
city, I know that,” said Mayor
Jim Danner.
By William Hoover
Anvil Herald Correspondent
Hondo City Council has
awarded an exclusive fran-
chise contract to Alamo 1 /ACI
for the collection and dispos-
al of residential, commercial
and industrial solid waste.
The new agreement estab-
lishes a three-year term with
annual review, removes alley
trash collection during semi-
annual clean up campaigns,
sets maximum trash volumes
per resident to be four cu-
bic yards during semiannual
cleanups, and clarifies the
Consumer Price Index calcu-
lation is based on the CPI read-
ings from March to March.
Place 2 Councilman Sam-
my Nooner said he was ap-
proached by another com-
pany and asked how other
bidders could compete with
Alamo 1 for the city contract
if the company is given an
uninterrupted four-year con-
tract as originally proposed.
“In the beginning, four
years was set because at that
time Alamo 1 / ACI needed to
make an investment and buy
their equipment,” said Mayor
Jim Danner.
“We came in seven years ago
when the city and ACI decid-
ed to become partners,” said
Director of Municipal Waste
Blake Caesar in defense of the
four-year contract. “We are a
local company and currendy
employ 12 citizens of Hondo. I
purchase all my fuel here and
all the auto parts I possibly
can. Anything we purchase, we
purchase in Hondo. We do a
lot of things you all never hear
about at no charge to the city.”
See ALAMO 1 Page 3A
City's warrant backlog o+ gets attention
By William Hoover
Anvil Herald Correspondent
Hondo City Council ap-
proved entering into agree-
ments with Medina County
and the Texas Department of
Transportation to participate
in Scofflaw programs.
The programs compel pay-
ment from people who have
failed to pay traffic violation
fines when they try to obtain
their driver’s licenses and an-
nual vehicle registration stick-
ers. Council approved the
agreements after participating
in a workshop addressing the
backlog of traffic related cases
being seen in Municipal Court.
New Municipal Court Judge
Hunter Schuehle brought
the backlog of over 3,000 out-
standing warrants to the atten-
tion of City Manager Jeff Litch-
field. The CM offered council
several options for addressing
the court’s staffing problem
and increasing court revenues.
“We talked about our po-
lice staff and who we have
available to serve warrants,”
Litchfield told council. “The
City of Hondo had a popu-
lation of 6,985 in 2010, not
counting the census tract
with the prison. Castroville
has a population of 2,875 and
Devine’s population is 4,350.”
Hondo’s Police Department
budget is a little over $1.4
million, Castroville’s is about
$730,000 and Devine’s is about
$700,000, noted Litchfield.
“We have a PD staff of 21,
Castroville has 10 and Devine
has a staff of nine,” he said by
comparison. “Hondo has one
police staff per 333 citizens,
Castroville has one staff per
278 citizens and Devine has
one staff per 483 citizens.”
Litchfield said Hondo
would need to add four staff
and an additional $387,000
to its annual budget to reach
the same level of staffing per
capita as Castroville.
“The city of Hondo issues
around 100 citations per
month,” said the City Manag-
er, noting 34% of the citations
work their way to warrant
status. “The city of Castroville
Issues about 170 citations per
month and Devine issues
about 50 per month.”
“The average monthly rev-
enue collected in Hondo is
$6,303,” he added. “Castro-
ville collects a monthly aver-
age of $20,000 while Devine
collects about $2,000.”
Recapping his primary com-
parison between the two High-
way 90 cities, Litchfield said
Hondo is 2.5 times larger than
Castroville, yet Castroville is-
sues 70% more traffic citations
a month and collects 217%
more in revenue with more
police officers per capita.
“If we convert that to dol-
lars, Hondo would need to
spend $36,000 more a month
(on officers) to match Castro-
ville on a per capita basis,” he
said. “Hondo would need to
collect an additional $13,697
a month to match Castroville
on a revenue basis.”
“While Castroville only has
one court clerk, I do believe
that Hondo needs to advance
to two if we plan to increase
volume,” he added.
Litchfield said the city has
a backlog of 3,012 warrants,
totaling $954,099 in value if
cleared, recorded in the city’s
Incode computer system. He
said 1,695 of the warrants, to-
taling $542,972 in value, are
issued to people in the Hon-
do zip code.
To improve the serving and
clearing of warrants for the
long-term, Litchfield said
the Incode computer system
needs to be upgraded for
compatibility, city depart-
ments need the ability to ac-
cept credit cards as payments
and police officers need to be
equipped with iPads or other
electronic computer tablets.
“The problem is staff abil-
ity to serve warrants,” he said.
“As a short-term solution, we
could consider additional
police staff with a focus on
the backlog of warrants. We
could consider having on
duty officers serve warrants
on scheduled court dates.
And, we could also consider
a dedicated warrant officer.”
Litchfield also suggested the
city implement the Scofflaw
programs in the short-term to
improve the city’s revenue col-
lections on citations issued.
“I am recommending tonight
that we consider additional
staffing in police and courts to
improve the serving of warrants
and the issuance of citations,”
he said. “I am concerned about
the long-term financial impact.
I do think we’d have an immedi-
ate increase in revenues caused
by our increased effort.”
“I think the new revenues will
offset increased costs, but only
for the short-term,” he added.
“My concern is the long-term.
What happens when we’ve col-
lected on all the outstanding
warrants that we can and we
still have costs associated with
the new staffing?”
Litchfield concluded his
presentation asking council to
consider hiring two new part-
time officers to work on serv-
ing and clearing warrants for a
See BACKLOG Page 3A
Hondo sells remaining lots
in La Lomita subdivision
By William Hoover
Anvil Herald Correspondent
Hondo City Council on
Monday accepted a $150,000
bid from developer Tony Ren-
don of Rendon Homes to buy
the 15 remaining lots in La
Lomita Subdivision. The city
also agreed to credit Rendon
with $1,000 in permit fees
per lot once his construction
plans are submitted and ap-
proved for homes to be built
on the property.
City Secretary Gloria Col-
bath introduced Realtor Tim
Hardt as Rendon’s represen-
tative before council.
“Mr. Rendon is out of town
on spring break with his
grandkids and he asked that
I represent him at this coun-
cil meeting, expressing his
appreciation for the oppor-
tunity to build homes in this
community,” said Hardt.
Hardt, who has represent-
ed Rendon as his realtor in
Medina County for the last
10 years, said Rendon antici-
pates building 15 masonry
homes in the subdivision
with 1,100 to 1,600 square-
foot living areas.
“Each of the homes will be
three bedrooms, two baths,”
he said. “They will have at
least one garage and some will
have two-car garages. They
will be 100% masonry, with
the front being brick or rock
and the remaining three sides
being cement board, or what
is called hardy board. They
will have concrete driveways
from the street to the garage.”
“We anticipate these homes
to be between $120,000 and
$150,000,” added Hardt.
“Part of the condition of the
bid is that the city will reim-
burse him $1,000 per house
in permit fees and that kind
See LA LOMITA Page 3A
PHOTO / DIANE COSGROVE
Budditl0 beauty... Redbuds bravely began showing their colors in the area, hoping
freezes are long gone.
s
Wed.,
Thur.,
Fri.,
Sat.,
Sun.,
Mon.,
Tues.
Mar. 5
Mar. 6
Mar. 7
Mar. 8
Mar. 9
Mar. 10
Mar. 11
Hondo 53
66
70
62
53
59
78
Weather 38
42
42
50
46
51
54
0
0
0
0.06
0.03
0.26
tr.
Total rain for the week: 0.35 in.
Total rain for Mar. 2014: 0.54 in.
Total rain for2014:1.49 in.
Avg. high temp, for the week: 63.0°
Avg. low temp, for the week: 46.1 °
High temp, for 2014:86°, Feb. 19
Low temp, for 2014:18°, Jan. 7
Edwards Aquifer level, Mar. 11,
at Bexar County, J-17 well: 643.0 ft.
Medina Lake level, Mar. 12:974.40 ft.
90 feet below spillway
Anvil Herald weather info
recorded by Jeff Berger
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Hondo Anvil Herald (Hondo, Tex.), Vol. 128, No. 11, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 13, 2014, newspaper, March 13, 2014; Hondo, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth739768/m1/1/: accessed June 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Hondo Public Library.