Mayor's Minutes
By Ricky White
Greetings!
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year.
I would like to begin this month by recognizing Larry Martin on his retirement. The City of Friona will sorely miss his service, expertise, and knowledge. Good luck Larry in your retirement.
The public works employees took advantage of the cold weather and continued their efforts painting the city office and making some renovations. There was a major water leak directly behind the apartments on 12th Street, just north of Friona Interbank. The leak was detected on New Years and the employees did a great job isolating the leak and repairing it.
The city made it possible for citizens to bring their old electronic devices to the city instead of throwing them into dumpsters. The city collected enough electronic equipment to fill 25 combos. In December there was a vendor that hauled the devices off to be recycled. This process kept the electronic devices from going to the landfill and taking up a lot of dump space.
The city has two bond payments due in February. The bond payment of $127,000 to First Financial and $207,672.50 to the Bank of New York are due February 15, 2015.
The accounts payable for the month of December equaled $134,199.93. This covered all of the city expenses and keeps our city in good standing. The dollar amount will vary each month. January will be higher due to quarterly expenses.
Judge Campbell had 89 new court cases for the month of December. Fifty of the 89 pleaded guilty and seven were dismissed. She collected $12,000.76 and court cost was $4,913.90.
Emergency Medical Service (EMS) had a total of 22 runs: five were 911 calls, seven transfers, and ten runs ended up with no transfer. Collections were $14,021.53 and the city wrote off $8,908.61. There was a total of $18,293.20 billed.
The Volunteer Fire Department had a total of five fire calls in December; one trash fire, two car wrecks, one electronic fire, and one dumpster fire. Thanks to all of the volunteers that helped the citizens with stranded vehicles during the recent snow.
The City of Friona pumped 11,641,500 gallons of water and sold 10,975,000 gallons. There was $52,393.00 billed.
Chief Jimenez and the police department were very busy in December. There were 358 calls for officer assistance. There were 149 warnings issued, 56 citations, and 22 arrests (ten no driver license, 8 warrants served, one theft, one prohibited weapon, two drug possessions). The officers drove a total of 5,094 miles patrolling the city in December. Thanks to all of the officers that assisted stranded motorists during the recent snow.
Prairie Acres has 37 residents and Heritage Estates has 15 residents. Both continue to do very well. The roof on Prairie Acres is completed. They have begun the renovation of the front entrance and main hallway to the nurses' station. The wallpaper has been removed, walls textured, and both the entry and the board room have been painted at Prairie Acres. It looks good and the next step is to install wood flooring from the front entrance to the nurses' station.
Your Mayor
