Taxes in the City of West Orange will be increasing next year. The City Council held a workshop Monday on the city’s $3.7 million budget.
Later during the regular monthly meeting, the council approved raising the tax rate to $0.47 per 100 dollars value. Mayor Roy McDonald explained the reasons for the tax increase as a substantial decrease in appraised property values and the desire to maintain services to the citizens of West Orange. “We are not happy about having to go up on our tax rate, however, it is necessary for providing the same services that we are at this present time,” McDonald stated.
Public hearings on the tax rate and the budget were set for Monday, August 27, beginning at 5:00 PM. A second hearing on the tax rate will be held August 30 at 5:00 PM. All the hearings will be in the West Orange Community Center. The City Council will vote to approve the tax rate and the budget during its September 10 meeting.
A closed executive session was held to discuss personnel matters. Afterwards the council approved giving part-time employee Sheila Dunlap a one dollar an hour pay raise. She works as an assist court clerk and in the sanitation department. Code Enforcement Officer and Fire Marshal Dean Fuller meet with the City Council during the executive session, but no action was taken regarding Fuller.
West Orange is contracting with Traylor & Associates to manage a Texas Community Development Block Grant for sewer improvements funded by the Texas Department of Agriculture. Traylor & Associates will administer another grant which Schaumberg and Polk will do the engineering services for which includes $3 million for acquisition buy-outs and $7 million for infrastructure.
A rate increase request by Entergy Texas, Inc. was denied by an ordinance in a vote of the West Orange City Council on Monday. Another ordinance authorized the West Orange Police Department could tow vehicles that had been stopped by its officers if the driver of the vehicle did not have insurance on the vehicle.
Newly appointed member to the City Council Randy Branch was appointed by Mayor McDonald to serve as a board member on the Orange County Economic Development Corporation (EDC). The appointment of Branch will allow him to fill the position previously held by Carl Thibodeaux before he was appointed to be the city’s municipal judge. Public Works Director Mike Stelly also serves on the board of directors with the EDC for West Orange.
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