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Council approves sale of $16 million in bonds for water and sewer improvements

The Mission City Council approved the sale of $16,140,000 in bonds for the planning, acquisition and design of the city’s northwest sewer service project.

The Texas Water Development Board approved a loan to the City of Mission with a maximum amount of $19,640,000 on March 26. The bonds will belong to the Texas Water Development Board. The plant is in the northwest section of the city on Abeline Farias Street.

20151002 City of Mission Blue White FillThe arbitrage yield was figured at 1.81 percent and the All-in-TIC at two percent. Final maturity of the bonds is February 15, 2044. The total cost with interest is figured at $20,809,407.

According to Mayor Beto Salinas, the new improvements will meet the city’s needs for about five years. He said the rapid growth the city has been experiencing makes it impossible to say whether a new bond would be needed for more improvements at that time. When asked what the population of mission was, City Manager Martin Garza said it was officially 78,000, but with recent growth he felt it might be as high as 85,000 to 90,000. Salinas added that with Winter Texans in the height of the winter season it could get as high as 130,000.

Salinas also said the city of Mission recently approved an agreement with Palmview to process sewage for the neighboring city. He said the plant already has the capacity to meet this need. Currently, the capacity of the plant is 9 million gallons a day but the expansion would take it to 13.4 million gallons a day.

A second component of this expansion is installation of equipment with the capacity to reuse the cleaned water for irrigation of city parks and golf courses. In times of drought, this gives cities the ability to water its parks and golf courses without affecting the city’s water allotment. Garza said the first park to receive this system would be the regional Bentsen Palm Park on Inspiration Road.

Salinas said eventually all city parks would have this water. He added that Cimarron Country Club had inquired about getting cleaned water to irrigate its golf course.

In other action, a request for a conditional use permit for a mobile food unit housing Valerie’s Tacos, at 1801 W. Griffin Parkway, was denied after discussion.

Garza suggested the matter be delayed until the city formulated a policy on whether or not mobile food units would be allowed in the city.

After two people spoke in favor of the request, Councilman Armando O’Cana made a motion to approve the request since the city had not yet set its policy forbidding the use on mobile food units.

Angered by the motion, Salinas accused O’Cana of “campaigning for re-election” by trying to push the request through before the city sets the policy. Saying the council was not going allow any vendor to have a permit until he policy was in place, the mayor recommended it be denied. He indicated the City of McAllen was also trying to do away with mobile food units.

Councilman Ruben Plata repeated his comment from a previous meeting about his concerns on whether the mobile food units were safe or unsanitary. He made a motion to deny the permit, and his motion was seconded by Councilwoman Norie Garza. The request was denied by a vote of four to one.

In other action, the city voted to use the right of eminent domain to condemn a 15-foot utility easement through 0.110 of an acre (4799.97 square feet) of Lot 10-6, West Addition to Sharyland Subdivision: 0.107 of one acre lot 10-2, West Addition to Sharyland; 0.140 of an acre from Lot 10-4, West Addition to Sharyland Subdivision; and .0999 of one acre from Lot 10-5, West Addition to Sharyland.

Under the housing assistance program, the council approved a home rehabilitation in the amount of $22,500, for one Mission resident. Another who had a ongoing reconstruction had his amount reduced after he complained he was not happy with the work being done by the company the city hired and decided to complete the work himself.

Following executive session, the council lifted a mowing lien on a front parcel of land on Lot 3, Basham Subdivision so that the lot could be incorporated into the Inspiration Road widening project.

The council also approved a 25-year lease agreement with Mission Skeet & Trap Club so the club could make some long-term improvements needed “to better serve the community.”

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