City approves Veterans Appreciation, hears updates on water line projects

The American Legion Auxiliary Post #9 is hoping to begin a new tradition of honoring veterans in Milam County.

The Cameron City Council approved a request from the Auxiliary for the use of Ledbetter Park on April 22 for a Veterans Appreciation Day at the Legion Hut during its meeting March 19.

Ladies Auxiliary member Joleen Cahill said the event is open to all veterans and active duty military in the county. It will be from 1-5 p.m. at the Legion Hut with games, food and fun for everyone.

The council also heard departmental reports during the meeting.

Water and sewer director Gerald Brunson told council his department is busy with fixing pipes. He said all the pipe is under ground on Country Club for the first phase of the replacement project and plans are to kill the old line by Friday for the section of Country Club that runs to Reenie Drive and over to Wallace. He said it should be an easy change over.

Council member Melissa Williams asked about the condition of the streets following the replacement project and Brunson said they will be chip-sealing over the spots where pipes were dug up but the repaving of the entire street was not part of the project funding.

“All of this work on those streets has really done a job on it as far as tearing it up,” Brunson said. “It is really thin in that area. Country Club will be the worst of the first batch of streets. They will come back and cut a two foot box and pack that in and go back over it with a chip-seal.”

“I think people will have to be disappointed with the streets for a little while until Craig is able to go back and chip seal them,” City Manager Rhett Parker said. “We may have to grind them back up and just start over. We had to do this after the first major project we did on Washington when I first came. We don’t know what is under the streets necessarily. When you dig it up and repack it, it doesn’t always pack the way you want it to.”

Parker said those streets will have first priority when the city gets back into street paving next year. 

Street Department Head Craig Arnold told council his staff has put up bicycle repair stations at three city parks and they have been working on pot hole repairs.

Arnold said that they will have to stop that to begin working on repairs from Atmos Gas line replacement. He said the department is looking at about five weeks of repairs from that. 

Parker said that they are looking at getting some part-time help for Arnold because of the amount of work needing to be done with streets and parks.

Fire chief Henry Horelica said the burn ban has been lifted in the county because there was some rain and everything is starting to green up. 

Cameron Public Library librarian Marie Christopher discussed coming up with a license to carry rule for the library. She said she has concerns over the safety at the library due to recent events and requested a panic button.

“It is really frightening,” she said. “There are things happening in libraries all over the United States. It is legal for people to carry these big knives and we can’t prevent it.”

She said the librarians have been watching webinars about safety in the event of a shooting at the library. She said she is concerned for the children and herself and their safety.

She said the library will be increasing its hours to 8 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday for the summer due to the Summer Reading Program so that parents will have the opportunity to get their kids there.