Mayor's Minutes
by Ricky White
I want to keep “you”, the citizens of Friona updated on some important issues in Friona and share other information on how the city is performing. I will be sharing this once per month in the Friona Star under “Mayor’s Minutes.”
1) Water: We asked our city engineer to perform a study on Friona’s water supply and give us a good estimate on how many years supply we have. After an extensive study we know today that we have a water supply of approximately 40 years. The city council will be making some decisions on Friona water and I will inform you as those decisions are made.
The city is asking for bids to replace the top of the north water tank. It is in need of repair and plans are to replace the top around October. More information to come in the future on our water supply. In June we pumped 25,323,100 gallons of water. We sold 21,491,000 gallons of water and billed $87,375.53. We expect the water usage to continue to be high for July and August, depending on how much rainfall we receive.
2) Housing: The Whaley lots are 90% cleaned up. The city will finish that project in the next couple of weeks. A big “thank you” to all of the city workers involved in the project. We have had a couple of meetings with an investor and contractor out of Clovis, working on the possibility of condos or twin homes being built on that property. We are positive that this will happen in the future but at this time no specific agreements have been made. We are still in the discussion process.
3) Police Department: Police Chief Mooney was busy along with all police officers. There were 85 warnings and 38 citations issued. There were 7 arrests made in June. Overall, there were 200 calls made to the police department requesting service from policemen on call at the time. Chief Mooney and all of the officers do a great job for the citizens of Friona.
4) Municipal Court: Judge Campbell was also very busy. There were 81 new cases filed in June and 33 trials by judge. There was $8,406.47 collected in fines for June. The motto is, “You do the crime, you will pay the fine.” Judge Campbell is working hard on getting all of the fines collected and issuing warrants for arrest if not paid. Thanks to Judge Campbell for her dedication.
5) Volunteer Fire Department: They were called out 7 times in June for fires. These were small fires that were handled very quickly. Thanks to all of the volunteers that are there when we need them. They do great work.
6) EMS: The ambulance was called out 19 times in June. There were six calls made to 911 and 11 calls for transfers. The other two calls were non-transfers. There was $9,558.23 collected in June. Thanks to all EMS employees for their commitment.
7) Library: There were 3,311 patrons visiting the library in June. Darla Bracken and all of the staff do great work in servicing the citizens of Friona. We will continue to support Darla and the needs of the library.
8) Prairie Acres/Heritage Estates: There are currently 45 residents at Prairie Acres and 12 residents at Heritage Estates. Billy Ray Johnston and Staff have done a great job keeping the home a great place for our family members to call their home. We will continue to support Billy Ray and his needs to make Prairie Acres a great place for our family members to live.
9) Patricia, Chief Mooney, and I met with the American Red Cross to begin our planning on getting some approved Red Cross facilities designated in case we have a catastrophe like a tornado. We had good participation from four area churches that have volunteered their facility to help in the need of an emergency. The Red Cross will be back in the near future to give training to all volunteers so we can be ready to act and know what to do and where to go when needed.
We will designate a storage place to hold approximately 200 cots, blankets and accessories so we will be able to quickly respond to ones needs. Once this process is completed we will inform and educate all citizens of Friona on what facilities will be available and where to go for shelter, food, and water. We are excited to team up with Red Cross and get this plan in place. We want to thank them for their cooperation and assistance in this endeavor.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Patricia Phipps and what she does for the city of Friona. She does a great job and we are very fortunate to have a City Manager that is very knowledgeable and makes good decisions for “you” the citizens of Friona.
