City Council amends its purchasing policy

TEXARKANA, Texas — The City Council on Monday voted unanimously to amend the city’s purchasing policy manual regarding Texarkana’s Metropolitan Planning Organization.

The change means the Council will no longer have to approve large MPO expenditures. The MPO plans transportation for both Texarkanas; Nash and Wake Village, Texas; and portions of Miller County, Arkansas, and Bowie County, Texas.

The city acts as fiscal agent for the MPO, Chief Financial Officer Kristin Peeples explained to the Council. That means the city pays expenditures approved by the MPO’s policy committee and is then reimbursed.

“We are basically a pass-through for the MPO,” she said.

City purchasing policy had required any such expenditure of $50,000 or more to be approved by the Council, in addition to MPO policy committee approval. But legal and accounting advisers recommended removing that requirement, City Attorney Jeffery Lewis said.

Fire Chief Eric Schlotter gave a brief update on local response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Bowie County has been allocated 36,770 doses of coronavirus vaccine over the past 15 weeks, including 4,540 doses this week, he said.

Hospitalizations because of COVID-19 continue to trend downward in the county, and numbers are now “very low,” at levels last seen in early summer 2020, Schlotter said.

In other business, city staff gave the Council its first official look at four rezoning and permitting requests, including two that would allow construction of new apartments.

One request would change land in the 1600 block of Moores Lane from Agricultural to Planned Development-Office zoning. The owner has no immediate plans for the land but would like its zoning to be consistent with that of the rest of the lot, Director of Inspections and Code Enforcement Mashell Daniel said.

Another rezoning request would change a five-acre plot west of 6210 Gibson Lane from Single Family-1 to Multiple Family-2 to allow expansion of the Waggoner Creek apartment complex. The new units will be built in a style that matches the current complex and connect to it with driveway access

The Council was also briefed on requests for a specific use permit to allow a mini-storage facility at 1609 N. Robison Road and approval a site plan for construction of 10 two-story, one-bedroom apartment units in the 3400 block of Brooke Place.

Public hearings and votes on the measures will take place during the Council’s next meeting, scheduled for April 12.