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Agenda Analysis | Meeting Review | Tree Removal This grading plan page from the IC ISD bid documents for the new transportation barn definitively shows that the majority of storm water will be re-directed to flow east down the City of Mertzon alley between 4th and 5th streets. Some storm water will also be directed east down W Fleming Ave. IC ISD does not have to obtain a permit from the City of Mertzon to use the alley in this way. Click here to download the bidding plans document above. You'll find a higher resolution grading plan image at page 22. Below is the agenda for this meeting, and underneath that are my agenda analysis and meeting review . Go here for my Commentary on Regulatory Capture . A. Agenda Analysis Election cancellation, item 5 : In a rural city of less than 1,000 folks, its hard to find enough candidates to have competitive elections. State law allows the council to simply cancel the election if when there is no opposition. The previous two called elections, in 2023 and 2024, were cancelled. Our democratic system relies on debate and civil disagreement, however, so that ideally governance is always tested and challenged. I have covered this issue of election cancellations previously; see my Meeting Analysis at # 1 for the March 4, 2024 Council meeting . TXDOT and Oak trees, FM 72, item 7 : This might be the oak trimming proposal made recently by Ashley Hill at Brim's crossing. I don't think of FM 72 being within the city limits of Mertzon, so TXDOT involvement here is puzzling. Water and Sewer Ordinance, item 8 : I have no clue what this about. I went to the City's page for ordinances , and 20.02 is not posted. Perhaps with the recent addition of a full time office employee this page will get brought up to date? The blue arrow represents my estimation of where the storm water from new bus barn is going to flow after it leaves the paved surface surrounding the facility. Thus, it necessarily will flood private property. The red arrow represents a portion of the city owned alley. The bidding documents provide for no flood control barrier that will protect the private property owner. Whether Phase 2 construction (the next phase that is supposed to address flood control structures) will include a barrier has not been publicly discussed. Though not pictured, all of the water coming from this new source of storm water will cross my property a few hundred feet away. B. Meeting Review Here are the meeting documents for this meeting. TXDOT, item 7: The TXDOT representative was not present, but Councilman Randy Councilman, an employee of TXDOT, advised the Council that the purpose of the visit was as a public service to the community. The bridge at FM 72 (aka the "high water bridge in Sherwood") is slated to be torn out and a new one built by TXDOT. I'm not sure of the exact date, but I can confirm this because TXDOT has also appeared at a County Commissioner's meeting last year. New to the issue is that Councilman Councilman has been advised that 13 (thirteen) oak trees are slated to be removed to make way for the new bridge . See the photo at the bottom of this page. Advocacy tip for those that might want to take action: Councilman Councilman is the messenger only. (FM 72 is not in the city limits of Mertzon.) Neither he nor the City of Mertzon are toting the chainsaws. Likewise, while I recommend you contact Commissioner's Court for the latest, the bridge is not a county road. They too are not brandishing chainsaws. It is a State of Texas Farm to Market road. TXDOT . Here is a screenshot of the TXDOT project map, though the project appears to not be listed: FM 72 bridge north of Mertzon is west of Sherwood. The red arrow is my own. Cancellation of May 3 election, item 5: Mayor Aubrey Stewart and new Councilman Daniel Harper were the only two to file, so they get the nod and will continue to serve. No one filed for the open seat, so the Council is operating with 1 vacant seat. You can read the ordinance regarding the election cancellation on pages 3 and 5 of the meeting documents . Ordinance 20.03, item 8: The Council approved the repeal of 20.02 and replacing it with 20.03. You can find the new ordnance about water meters on pages 7-19 of the meeting documents. This change is about the discussion in the last meeting concerning the transfer of unused water meters; see my reference to Dead Meters on this page . Here are some of trees that might be the ones sacrificed for the new bridge: North side, east bank, of the High Water bridge on FM 72 at Spring Creek. Copyright 2025 G Noelke

A page from the IC ISD plans. Bidding documents for a portion of the IC ISD 2024 bond projects are now online at Gallagher’s site . Yes, you should download them (particularly the Plans) and check them out. The City of Mertzon does not have construction codes or a code enforcement department, so it is the Wild, Wild West for citizens who wish to protect their private property and public streets and park from stormwater flooding. Here is the agenda for this meeting, and below that will follow my agenda analysis and meeting review . I also have included some Commentary about the current state of government. IC ISD Board Agenda A. Agenda analysis 1. Teacher / Employee Contracts, Resignations, items 4, 11, 14, 16 and 17 : I'm a broken record on this point, but our community misses a real opportunity to support public education at this meeting each March when teacher contracts are renewed for the following school year. Look around...the Department of Education is being dismantled...and, our state leadership is on the verge of supporting the privatization of public education through school vouchers. The lack of support for public education is abysmal and discouraging. We are rapidly nearing a point of advancement with Artificial Intelligence (AI) where the discussion is going to turn to whether TEA trained classroom robots will be more effective and cheaper than hiring humans. (My reading says that in about 3 years AI systems will exceed human intelligence.) One part of an argument to oppose the anti-public education efforts could be to promote teaching and teachers at this meeting in particular when their contracts are being renewed. Stand up and thank a teacher for teaching and support their contract renewal...at a public meeting...in open forum. Learn more about the history of the Department of Education and how the current administration is changing its priorities: Listen to the NYT podcast The Daily for March 10, 2025 . (What’s your view? Reach out to me.) 2. What the heck is an "MOU"?, items 6 and 7: "MOU" stands for "memorandum of understanding". In a legal sense, it is simply a written statement of what the understanding is on a particular issue between two governmental entities. They take the form of a "memorandum" because they are not considered an enforceable contract. That is, you aren't going see the governmental entities suing each other over a violation of their agreement. Generally, they are a great tool to spell out which each side agrees to do. Their downside is that they are often forgotten about and go unused because, without enforcement teeth, they carry no weight. Sometimes, however, an MOU is vitally important to build trust after a period of disagreement or ill will among elected officials. Here is a recent example of that, the MOU between the City of Mertzon and IC ISD , which was necessary to recover from the rancor and fallout after the 2019 bond build out, something I have covered extensively in this blog. (The IC ISD Board and its allies pretty much told the City Council how high it needed to jump when they wanted a city street closed for a gym, and the Council did the jumping... thereby getting us where we are today using 2024 bonds for flood control structures that are necessary because of how imprudently the 2019 bonds were spent .) Note : The leadership at the City and IC ISD is different for the 2024 bonds than for 2019 bonds. Many of the legal issues, however, are identical. Moreover, the stakes are even greater. The 2019 bonds were for $18 million, and the 2024 bonds are for $53 million. This area at 2nd and Juanita on the IC ISD campus is slated to become a dual purpose band practice field and water detention structure. It was previously approved by the IC ISD Board as a site for the 2019 bond funded gym. Were it used as the gym site Government in the Sun would have never been created. B. Meeting review Note: I was not able to attend this meeting, and this review is from a recording of portions of the meeting. 1. Open forum, item 4 : No one spoke, thus yet another missed opportunity to create a community value around the importance of teachers. 2. Bond purchasing, items 5 and 10 : The Board, after much discussion concerning when to cycle out its current fleet of Suburban / suburban like vehicles, went with a bid offer from Jim Bass in San Angelo. There was also some discussion of putting some items up for auction, but it was unclear from the audio what was being auctioned. I'll come back to this if it is important. 3. MOU's, items 6 and 7 : The Board approved an MOU with ASU for dual credit. This may lead to a more rigorous educational environment than the current arrangement with Howard College. This is significant because of TSI and the additional dollars that come with compliance. 4. Admin Reports: Supt. Moore reported: - There will be an "intruder audit" in April, date unknown. More on this after April. - During spring break (next week) construction fencing is going up. -Legislation - bills that do not specifically provide for small or midsized school involve a funding bias for large schools. - Meetings with Parkhill are ongoing to identify the specific needs in the new elementary classrooms. Principal Parker: her report was limited to enrollment and attendance. AD/Asst. Principal Morrow: his report was largely limited to student athlete awards and upcoming meets. 5. Resignations, item 11 : Diane Heflin and Brian Tillman have submitted their resignations, and they were reluctantly approved by the Board. Mr. Tillman is a multi year state champion band director ( 3 years?), so this is quite a loss to the District. This past fall I had the opportunity to listen to him during a practice while I was waiting out the Board during a closed session. He was excellent, and there is no doubt this is a huge loss to the District. The new Director will soon enough enjoy a new practice marching field as a result of the 2024 bonds. I will be covering the construction of that field on this blog. 6. Closed session, action on closed and teacher/employee contracts, items 14, 16 and 17 : The Board in open session, without mentioning any particular teacher, approved a list of teachers for 10, 11 and 12 month contracts. 7. Not present: President Carlie and Tony Martinez were not present at this meeting; Ricky Rey, Ashley Hill, DJ Rainey, Taylor Douglas and Chad Koonce were present. Commentary Edward R. Murrow famously said, "A nation of sheep begets a government of wolves". As I watch our state move toward an approved system of educational vouchers and our federal government dismantle the Department of Education, both without any local public engagement at this school board meeting, I am forced to wonder out loud whether we are on the edge of some abyss. Government is getting broken , not to make it more efficient, but to redirect its vast wealth to serve the few who can manipulate it to serve their own financial ends. But, consider this as we watch other communities, states and countries begin to fester and publicly protest about what is transparently becoming a war among economic classes: Are we not being baited, no bullied , into a dispute amongst our fellow citizens, state and national government and our allied countries? Is declaring martial law one of the goals of these efforts to break our democratic system of government? Could be. After all, the declaration of martial law is the ultimate declaration that the democratic system is broken. Copyright 2025 G Noelke

Location of the new ICISD Bus Barn The new IC ISD bus facility at 5th and W. Fleming Ave. that is going in at this location will undoubtedly add more stormwater to the basin that drains at City Park . Below is the agenda for this meeting, and underneath are my agenda analysis and meeting review . City Council Agenda A. Agenda analysis: 1. Meeting date: Monday March 3. The Council no doubt is trying to get back to its regular meeting times at the first and 3rd Mondays of the month. They had only 1 meeting last month because of problems of keeping a quorum. 2. Budget workshop, item 5: The term "workshop" on agendas sometimes forecasts that the governing body is just going to talk and no formal action is going to take place. I consider all budget discussions, however, as times when citizens especially need to be present. Citizens should be concerned with every agenda item that discusses the budget because, without citizen presence, the governing body will begin to think they have ultimate discretion to spend taxpayer dollars as they see fit. 3. Everything else: The rest of the agenda is the standard stock language seen on all of the City agendas. I expect this to be a leaner meeting because the Council met last only last week . Two drainage barrels on the Brady ISD campus. Here is an example of how another ISD, Brady ISD , is handling stormwater runoff. There is nothing extraordinary about my request to the City of Mertzon and Irion County ISD to manage stormwater. Stormwater management is something that happens in other cities and, as this photo shows, at other school districts. There's a reason for this: our Constitution and laws are clear that government cannot take private property by flooding it unless they first pay the landowner. Moreover, sovereign immunity is not absolute, so government officials who willingly expose citizens to injury without regard to their safety risk legal exposure in their official and personal capacities. B. Meeting review 1. Here are the meeting documents for this meeting. Note in those documents that the Council approved several meetings worth of meeting minutes without changes. 2. Budget workshop, item 5 : The majority of this meeting was spent on fiscal matters. a. Budget surplus: The Council wisely agreed to commit to a portion of its surplus to paying down already existing debt in preparation for new debt on the horizon related to its upcoming wastewater treatment bond obligations. The discussions were dizzying at times, but the bottom line is that this Council is not a "robbing Peter to pay Paul" kind of council, a real problem of past councils. b. Community drainage projects : The Council also approved that a portion of its surplus be dedicated to remedying community wide drainage at multiple locations throughout the city . This is notable for a couple reasons. First , it is acknowledgement that flooding is a community wide problem, something I've been preaching about since just before the 2019 IC ISD bond election when I warned that the school would be worsening the flooding problem if it built a new gym. Second , it is an acknowledgement that governmental immunity is not absolute, something I have also been publicly warning about since 2019 . Mayor Stewart had this to say to new Council member Daniel Harper about the closure of the flooded street, Fleming Ave., in front of my home that is being flooded by IC ISD stormwater runoff: "If you willfully turn an eye without doing something and harm somebody, then you are liable. So, if people drive around a barrier, that's on them, but if we do nothing and we leave the street open, then we are liable." Thus, as I have previously said here at A.4.a , the Tort Claims Act does not give the City Council, or IC ISD board members for that matter , a free pass when they exercise their governmental duties. Governmental immunity is limited. And, third , don't forget the MOU with IC ISD . Way back on Sept. 16, 2024 Supt. Nikki Moore and the Gallagher Construction folks appeared at the City Council meeting to secure the closure of a portion of 3rd Street in exchange for doing water retention/flood control projects. Just this week through a PIA request of IC ISD I have received the final MOU, albeit unsigned final, and here it is . (The first draft of their proposed MOU can be found here at page 2 .) I'll address some of the nuances of their final version in another post, but for now its significance is that, at last, there is a formal agreement between the City of Mertzon and IC ISD to remedy some of the flooding issues. Finally, there is still a lot left to accomplish. Gallagher Construction just published a portion of the IC ISD bid package for the 2024 bond projects, but not that portion dealing with drainage. Screenshot of Gallagher’s bidding page. Click on the image to go to their bidding page and view the documents. The portion addressing drainage has not yet been approved by the IC ISD board. So, we are still a ways out before we see whether the community is going to achieve any flood relief. 3. Present at the meeting were Mayor Stewart and Council members Jayton Lindley, Randy Councilman, Danny Crutchfield and Daniel Harper. The key vote at the meeting, approving how to spend the surplus funds, was unanimous. The minutes in the meeting notes were approved without changes. I was the only member of the community present. Here are the same two barrels shown in the photo above, also showing the Brady city street, berms and exit point. This photo shows how Brady ISD and the City of Brady coordinated the flow of stormwater in a detention pond to keep it off a city street. There is also nothing extraordinary about keeping city streets free of stormwater. Throughout this blog I have contended that IC ISD has neglected its responsibilities under the law to manage its own stormwater and it deflected fault by blaming the City of Mertzon for not having a stormwater plan. Copyright 2025 G Noelke

Language in Hibbs &Todd geotechnical report Here’s the rub: the geotechnical reports recently done by Hibbs & Todd for IC ISD recommend dumping stormwater into “storm drains or onto paved surfaces” thus giving IC ISD an excuse (but not a legal defense) to dump its stormwater into the streets and flood our community. Hibbs & Todd, however, is also the engineers for the City of Mertzon. What gives? Is it a good practice to recommend dumping water onto paved surfaces when they also represent the City? See additional comments below .* Below is the agenda for this meeting, and underneath that are my Agenda Analysis and Meeting Review . Here are the meeting documents for this meeting . A. Agenda Analysis : 1. Date of meeting : This meeting has been rescheduled to February 24. 2. Dead meters, item 6: Again, this about equitably awarding the very limited water meters. The limit on water meters is a major factor on city growth, and it doesn't seem fair that folks would be sitting on them. 3. Spring Creek Pavilion, item 7: The location is being considered here, and TCEQ has a say because of the proximity to the wastewater plant and river. My concern is what the long term commitment the Lions Club, the donor, will be. 4. Spring Creek Beautification Project, item 13: Ashley Hill spearheaded a fundraiser to beautify Brim’s crossing, the bridge going over to Stringtown. Two of the original cement picnic tables. I remember the time in Mertzon when these two cement picnic tables and the 6 man grass football field with a caliche track around it were pretty much all there was at City Park in Mertzon. I recall hearing that these tables were put in by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) , a New Deal program designed to provide employment to millions of Americans during the Great Depression. (The tables at "Roadside Park" at Hwy 67 and Duncan may have also been WPA projects.) Can you imagine that such a thing as the WPA ever existed in light of today's US government where an unelected billionaire is involved in the allegedly illegal termination of millions of federal employees? B. Meeting Review ( Here are the documents for this meeting .) 1. Support of proposed legislation favored by Concho Valley Food Bank , item 9 . The Council approved a letter to State Rep. Darby, favored by the Concho Valley Food Bank, showing support of a pending state bill that will increase fresh produce for those receiving assistance from the Food Bank. You can see the letter at page 9 of the meeting documents . Here is more on the proposed bill: HB 2002 . Go here to reach Rep. Darby's office to tell him of your support . 2. Dead meters, item 6: The Council approved an amendment to its ordinances that will clarify that those not using their water meters will lose their meter and it will go to the next applicant in line waiting for a meter. This is a significant decision that shouldn't be ignored. Water meters are hard to get in Mertzon, and this makes the process of getting one more equitable. 3. Location of Spring Creek Pavilion, item 7 : The Council approved the location of the proposed pavilion immediately east of the baseball field between the road and Spring Creek. Note: See the meeting notes for the Hibbs & Todd engineer's interpretation of TCEQ rules. Because of the wastewater plant nearby, the TCEQ permit requires 17 acres of open land to irrigate the waste water. If you've ever wondered why there is no development of that area of the Creek, this is why. The pavilion is going to be placed in a flood prone area, so FEMA rules are requiring that it have a hard floor. No discussion was had regarding the Lions Club's long term commitment to the upkeep and maintenance of the structure. 4. Brim Crossing, Spring Creek beautification project, item 13: The Council approved Ashley Hill's request to beautify the bridge with a mural, plaque, trash cans, and tree trimming. The Council did not discuss the content or style of the mural, so it is unclear to me whether Mrs. Hill has been given carte blanche authority to install whatever mural she and her donors see fit...or whether there were some discussions about content in the background. Public art can be controversial, no doubt about it. I spent a good part of my formative years helping my father shear sheep and hauling shorn wool to the Wool House in Mertzon, so I have been amused at this 2023 PETA effort to protest sheep shearing by installing their own protest sheep in San Angelo . The First Amendment is an amazing legal concept, even as it relates to public art. 5. Spending money, items 9, 12 and 14 : The Council approved moving to a different emergency call program, paying for a new printer and new computers. They did a good job deliberating on how to spend the City's money, which is to say spending taxpayer money. Keep in mind that the City is in the black financially, something that has only been the case for the last 3 or 4 years. 6. Members present: The Council had a full house, excepting the one vacant seat. Present were Mayor Aubrey Stewart and Council members Jayton Lindley, Randy Councilman, Danny Crutchfield and Daniel Harper. I will update who filed for the open seat as soon as I have that information. More on Hibbs & Todd : *I review the IC ISD check register monthly, and in October 2024 the District paid $5,925 to Hibbs & Todd . I followed up with a PIA for the work product for that payment and received 3 reports for the boring done by Hibbs Todd. This language is from those reports. I became aware of Hibbs and Todd also being the engineers for the City of Mertzon by attending Council meetings. While I view this as a clear conflict of interest, this unusual role is not necessarily unlawful...but, it is at least professionally unwise and not taxpayer friendly. In any event, this language doesn't provide a legal defense to either the District or the City. The language does, however, highlight the origin of the permission structure that causes our local government to flood itself at City Park. Indeed, the quintessential topo map that I use to show that local government is flooding itself is done by…Hibbs & Todd for their client, the City of Mertzon. See the map on this page . The First Amendment at work: Support ranchers and shearers worldwide by wearing wool. Buy wool products at Pendleton USA by clicking on the map above. This map was my father's, M.B. Noelke, Jr., who spent most of his life raising sheep for their meat and wool. Copyright 2025 G Noelke

North east corner of City Park Here's a 2022 photo of City Park as the parking area was being paved. The 547 acre basin shown on a topo map here at # 2 empties all of its stormwater into the 4 barrels (in the yellow circle) that pass under State Hwy 67. IC ISD's engineer and architect acknowledged during the 2019 bond build out that the barrels were too small to adequately handle all the stormwater. The blue arrows represent the direction the stormwaters are flowing as they arrive at the IC ISD football stadium. The field itself is lower than where these waters collide, thus explaining why the field is so vulnerable to stormwater flooding. Below is the meeting agenda for this meeting, and underneath that are my agenda analysis and meeting review . I also have some Commentary on the US Constitution . A. Agenda Analysis 1. Accepting resignation of councilmember and swearing in council members, items 5 and 6: The Council, with the resignation of Ms. Holland earlier this month, now has two vacant seats. Gone but not forgotten Micah Elliot resigned back in May, 2024 . His seat has not been filled since. Then, at the last meeting Ms. Holland resigned. With 2 vacant seats, a Council of 5 plus the Mayor is a governmental body precariously close to not being able to function if there were an absence; a quorum of 4 would not have been present. 2. New Pavilion at Spring Creek, item 8: The river running through Mertzon, Spring Creek, is really the gem of the city. This is an item not previously discussed at a Council meeting, so this will be worth paying attention to. The barrels at HWY 67. Here's a closer view of the barrels. Even if they are replaced with larger ones, as the State of Texas has said it will do eventually, only a few hundred yards further down stream are the barrels that go under the railroad. Those barrels are even smaller than these, and the railroad has never committed to improving them. The best way to manage this storm water is to decrease the quantity at its sources and to regulate current and future growth. To accomplish this the local governments (school, city and county) must cooperate with one another. If they don't it is mutual destruction because they will flood one another. B. Meeting Review. (Here are the meeting documents for this meeting.) 1. Accepting resignation of councilmember and swearing in council members, items 5 and 6:  Daniel Harper was sworn in to fill one of the vacant seats as council member. There remains one seat unfilled. The Council also formally accepted the resignation of council member Holland, who submitted her resignation at the last meeting. 2. New pavilion at Spring Creek, item 8 : Michelle Rushing, Mike Dolan and John Young were present to request that the Council approve a donated 40’x60’ pavilion to be built with Lions Club efforts/donated funds at the river. The Council approved, conditioned on site approval by the City’s engineers. The initial plans can be found at page 3 of the meeting documents . 3. Administrative report, item 8: there’s a lot of interesting things to report on. Two things caught my attention, though. The recently hired part time office staffer will go full time in February. This will free up Ms. Rabenaldt to do more traditional municipal management work. Second, I’m always impressed with Mayor Stewart’s and Ms. Ms. Rabenaldt’s efforts to stay out of TCEQ’s enforcement crosshairs. The City, under previous leadership, paid a hefty administrative penalty to TCEQ a while back for violations at the wastewater plant. It appears that the lesson was learned. Our local tax dollars should NEVER be transferred to the State (TCEQ) in the form of administrative penalties. Commentary : To paraphrase President Lincoln, laws that aren’t enforced are nothing more than good advice. The concept of desuetude , that laws become unenforceable over a long period of their being unenforced, does not, however, apply to the US Constitution. (See reference to Walz v Tax Commission City of New York .) Put another way, that local government has flooded its community for years without landowner complaint doesn’t mean that the Takings Clause of the Constitution is merely “good advice.” Our government never achieves a vested right to flood its citizens. The flow of stormwater around the southwest corner of the Community Center. The Community Center (tan roof) is especially vulnerable to the stormwaters that exit the IC ISD campus at 2nd Street and Juanita. The District (via Gallagher Construction and Parkhill) is currently designing a stormwater detention site at 2nd and Juanita that hopefully will limit the flow shown here that threatens the Community Center. The entrance of the stormwaters here is at N. First St. and Duncan. Copyright 2025 G Noelke

A 2020 aerial facing west The yellow arrow in this 2020 photo points to the small abandoned house that existed on the property, soon to be the IC ISD bus barn, before it was purchased by IC ISD. The tennis courts were added in 2014-15, so in a roughly 10 year period (2015-2025) the community is going to experience the conversion of pervious raw land to impervious developed land for about 70-80% of a city block. Water that runs off this impervious property will reach City Park just a few blocks away. MEETING CANCELED BECAUSE OF A LACK OF QUORUM. A Agenda analysis 1. Tweel tires, agenda item 5 : Part of last week's meeting included a brief discussion about the mesquite thorns that are causing flats. It would seem to be a mundane topic, but its not if you are in West Texas. I've not found anything that is fool proof. Airless is bound to be the only way to go. 2. Move dead meters, agenda item 6 : The Council will be addressing the equity of folks having unused water meters while there are folks waiting in line to get new ones. It is only the limited number of available meters that keeps growth at bay in Mertzon, so this is a larger issue than one might think. Enlarged view of house in 2020. The yellow arrow points to the now demolished house on the lot that will become the bus barn. In 2020-21, IC ISD purchased the Lawdermilk home and barn just below the house. The red box represents the area of a planned extension to that barn. In 2024, the District purchased the Harris home, with lots, represented by the green arrow. I have been told but have not read for myself that he placed a deed restriction on those lots so they could only be used for residential homes. This opens the door for the District to ask for more bonds in 2030 or so to demolish the remainder of teacher parsonages to replace with new school buildings...and build new parsonages on these lots. As I told the County Commissioner's Court last month, plan for more storm water to reach City Park . B. Meeting review This meeting was canceled because of a lack of a quorum. Practically speaking, that means that a majority of the Council could not attend the meeting. A majority is required in order to conduct the public’s business, and without a majority no vote can be taken. 2020 View of IC ISD campus facing south before the new gym was built. This 2020 photo shows what is now the closed part of 4th Street looking south. The demolished field house's storage is going to be replaced with a new extension at the football field, while the bus barn is going to get rebuilt in the area shown at the top of this page. The maintenance barn, originally the Ag Building, to the right of the bus barns will be demolished soon (2026?) and will become a parking lot. The water from that parking lot will also reach City Park. Copyright 2025 G. Noelke

Long Grass Country is published in the Livestock Weekly. My daughter’s first column for the Livestock Weekly was published today. Her grandfather, Monte Noelke, wrote a weekly column for the paper from 1961 until 2012 when he passed. Grace has been coming to Irion County and Mertzon since she was a baby. She will no doubt be writing about these parts, but her columns will be varied, as were her grandfather’s. Here’s a portion of her first column: “I write about West Texas not as its authority, nor as the rancher's daughter who worked the day to day. I'm the shadow that extends as the sun lowers into the western horizon, the first generation with one degree of separation from the cowboy. And yet, despite the generational gap, I am ill with the disease filled love affair. I too have succumbed to her dusty seduction.” I’m not going to be re-posting her columns here, of course. I’d like you to go out and subscribe. The digital subscription is not expensive. To start things off, as an intermediary of sorts between these generations, I think it’s appropriate for me begin where my father left off. Below is his last column for the Livestock Weekly, published by the paper the week he passed in 2012. His message is for us all, even today. He is buried in the Mertzon cemetery, a few yards from his great grandfather who landed in Texas at Indianola in 1848. He wrote this article specifically to be published after his death. In all the times I rode across the Bank Hill sitting upright before I became a prospect for the spot of honor, there never was a chance for the deceased on his one-way ticket in the hearse to make one more dance in Angelo, or take one more ride at the ranch .             When we buried Jake Childress way back there, rains flooded the whole country . The pallbearers were halfway up under the funeral home’s awning . Looked like the sides of the grave were going to cave in before the coffin could be lowered . About the time it seemed like the preacher wasn’t going to be able to think of another word, he came over to each of the pallbearers, glared in our faces, pointed to the open grave and said, “That is the real thing, brother . ”             Well, the funeral was the real thing for me, too . Old Jake rode into a horse I hung to at the gate going out of the Clay Water Hole pasture in the Monument trap after a rain about as hard as the one falling at his funeral . We’d crossed a draw deep enough to swim our horses . As I started to dismount, my left foot slipped in the stirrup and a tie rope hung the right leg of my chaps . Jake rode in and grabbed the right rein and the headstall and gave me time to kick loose .             So burying Jake was double the real thing for me . He’s the cowboy I wrote about who pulled an old kid out of another horse wreck, but that’s what a final deadline means . It means it’s time to bury those old stories, too .             Sitting in the office at the ranch, I think better of how to write this final column . Most of my books are shelved there. The pictures of the steady hands at the old ranch, one photograph of the Big Boss standing by his friend Cecil Smith, mounted on a polo pony, are up on the very top shelf . Notebooks filled with letters from old friends are stacked in a row . A gal leg spur of my maternal grandfather’s and a rusty OK spur I found up on the big bluff overlooking the Monument Ranch are in a pile of papers on top of the desk .             The oak desk where I wrote my columns cost 25 bucks and came from Harris Luckett Hardware in San Angelo, when the fixtures of the old store sold in 1962 . The roll-top on the other wall came from a barn on a leased ranch . I paid 30 dollars for it. I spent $600 restoring the desk .             Unless you have eight roll-top desks and that many more chairs for the daughters-in-law and son-in-law to sit on, they are hard to divide in a large family like mine of seven sons and one daughter . I thought about leaving a note if Tom Parr, the wood worker over in Angelo who restored the desk, is still around; Tom might be induced to make my casket out of the desk and solve two problems at once .             Big drawback is going to be convincing Tom the work needs to be turned out in a hurry . Might be possible to anticipate the day of death and start him to work on the project ahead of time like the son did in William Faulkner’s story . I just want to be sure the casket isn’t a rushed-up job without the gold fittings and bronze handles needed to send me away in high style . (One thing different about my bequeaths or last wishes — the usual precaution in protecting the testator by his attorney from claims of unsound mind at probate at the slightest departure from the hithertos and henceforths of legalese, do not apply to a writer who has been in print since 1961 . The and/ors can be omitted in my behalf.)             I worry more what is going to happen to my books than the other stuff I’ve accumulated . Books are shelved and stacked all over the ranch house and overflow to the Mertzon place . All one section at the ranch covers the early New Yorker Magazine era, so important an influence over my education . I thought about selling the collection, then visited the final days of the closing of a big book store in California to face the same editions strewn on the floor rejected at 50 cents a copy . There are a few first editions, a few copies signed by writers I knew or wrote letters to .             Pretty ironic that this will actually be my last deadline . I sure don’t have to worry about the next week .             Every time I came back across the hill from the Mertzon cemetery from a funeral, I planned on writing this column to leave in my bank box to be submitted for the real deadline . Doesn’t matter where the funeral is; my lot over on the north side of the windmill is visible . The boundary of the lot is less than a windmill rod length (20 feet) from the bottom of the tower legs . I have already instructed two windmill men, Possum Martin and Ray Beam, that after I am buried I don’t want rods and pipe stacked over or on my grave . Windmills have been enough of a burden without placing rusty pipes and broken rods on my grave site .             The plots all around the windmill belong to the families I knew in my childhood . Quite a number of the men once traded at the barbershop where I shined shoes in the 1930s . Far as I know they never told on me and I never wrote anything to hurt them . Shine boys hear and see the word from shoelace and boot heel level . I knew, for example, how much dividend the bank and the wool house paid way before the editor of the weekly newspaper, The Mertzon Star .             In those formative years, I got a well-rounded education . The barber’s wife taught me how to smoke cigarettes back in a tin shed where clothes were dry cleaned . The soda jerk at the drug store gave lessons to all of us working downtown how to play half-rack nine-ball at the pool hall for a big cut in the shoeshine revenue and the wages at the grocery store and the filling station .             Things were plenty exciting on Saturdays . One of the most vigorous characters was a trapper, who in advanced stages of intoxication, got down on his hands and knees out in the middle of the highway coming through town to paw and bellow like a bull at the approaching traffic . He’s the fellow I might have written about who leaped from the chair during a shave and shine to chase a pedestrian he wanted to whip, until he ran out of breath from his dissipation . Three days later, he brought back the barber’s apron, paid me for the shine, and gave the barber 50 cents to even up his bead . He may have been the wildest one of all our customers . A few years later, he died a horrible death in a runaway wild horse wreck pulling farm equipment .             Also, we street kids never missed a chance to watch the fist fights around the garage where men shot dice and played cards on a square cushion . (I was never to see a poker game again played on pillow or cushion from an old couch . Worked real well as a portable table.) Election years were exciting times around the barbershop, as feelings ran high, especially for the local races .             Doctor Deal had an office in the back of the drug store building that he leased to his son . Whatever boy swept out the drug store knew exactly how many stitches the doctor took to sew up old so-and-so’s eye from smarting off too loud in front of old such and such’s choice for commissioner . Doctor Deal was a very strict church worker . The times offered few refinements for a doctor to have a painless practice, but he had no mercy for drunk cowboys .             The main lesson I learned from my customers, however, came much later in life . One Christmas when I visited my mother and stepdad’s graves, I read all the names along the way and remembered them coming in the barbershop or parking over at the post office . Over and over I’d heard my grandfather and grandmother say that if you lost or sold your land, you’d be buried in an unmarked grave . But on those visits I made later in life, I realized the abstracts and the stock certificates along with the bonds and bank accounts didn’t make much difference once you were dead .             Takes a lot of nerve to denounce a penny earned is a penny saved, or however the old axiom saws away at the conscience . But try someday to convince yourself out at the cemetery or on a visit to a nursing home that an estate plan is better than a living plan . While you are at either place, take a test and see what is better, the money you gave away alive, or the money you leave your heirs to divide . His Remington typewriter…at sunrise, when he enjoyed writing the most. Copyright 2025 G Noelke

All stormwater runoff in Mertzon runs to City Park, where the Community Center, owned by the County, is located. IC ISD is a stormwater source for the two arrows on the right. An agenda item for this meeting shows that the County is considering renovating or replacing the Community Center. Below is the agenda for this meeting, and underneath that are my agenda analysis and meeting analysis . A. Agenda analysis : 1. Item 12, Goals and timelines, Community Center : As my regular readers know, I typically don't address the goings on at the County Commissioner's meetings. ( Here is my last post involving the County. ) There are two reasons for that - my limited resources (this blog is a solo unpaid gig), and the County's property is not flooding me. Indeed, the County's property at the City Park is at a lower elevation and, like mine, is getting flooded by the same stormwater source as I am: Irion County ISD. So, this particular agenda item touches on a key part of my analysis about how our elected officials are addressing stormwater issues: our government is flooding itself. That is, stormwater from IC ISD is by design directed into city streets, with the acquiescence of the City of Mertzon, and ultimately reaches City Park, where 3 governmental bodies (IC ISD, City of Mertzon and Irion County) all share space. Thus, all 3 are stakeholders in controlling stormwater flooding. 2. Public comment, item 3: Note that the County allows for a 5 minute period per person for public comment. The City and IC ISD, in contrast, allow 3 minutes. The law, Texas Gov't Code 551.007 , does not provide a specific time. It says that the governmental body is permitted to limit the time and that the time must be "reasonable". My experience is that governmental bodies use either 3 or 5 minutes as a standard. I prefer 3 because if I can't say what I need to say in 3 minutes I risk loosing the attention of the elected officials. B. Meeting Review 1. Here were my comments during public comment Thank you for this opportunity to speak.  I would like to briefly speak on agenda item 12 relating to your goals and timelines for renovation or replacement of the Community Center in City Park. This Spring will mark my 9th year attempting to get some relief from IC ISD’s stormwater runoff from their buildings .  I consider this Court a stakeholder because that part of the School’s runoff that passes over my property also floods City Park and impacts County property there. Another part of the School’s runoff drains north down 1st Street and impacts the Community Center parking area. I am here to ask,  as you start this process of Community Center development, that you keep your vision looking uphill to the School and factor in how their stormwater plans, or lack thereof, will impact your potential development.  While the 2024 bonds included money for flood diversion, I am suspending my judgment about whether anything will be accomplished.  Unfortunately, there is still sentiment on the School Board that the School can dump its stormwater runoff onto City streets and be absolved of any sins because the City does not have any stormwater ordinances. The City’s failure to regulate is not a legal defense for the School, however.  This argument by the School is nothing more than a convenient misdirection. There is also sentiment on the Board that there is nothing legally or morally wrong with flooding private property with stormwater runoff. This disregard for private landowners by the Board goes back several decades at least. Maybe it’s born from the fact that the School’s wealth is from the minerals, not so much from residential or rural  real estate.   In any event, every chance I get I remind folks: be good to your neighbors, and don’t flood them because you never know when you will need them. My other request is that you move forward with an appreciation that flooding is a community wide problem. This has been my central message since I first spoke about flooding in April 2019.  Like the School, this Court is also a governmental body. You have the same Constitutional prohibition against taking private property by stormwater runoff that the School does.  So, if you increase the impervious footprint of the Community Center, you should not flood our neighbors in the houses along Oak Avenue.  We are all in this together.  I don’t want my tax dollars to go to an improved Community Center if it means that my neighbors along Oak Avenue lose their homes.  You as community leaders shouldn’t want that either. If we all shared an understanding that flooding is a community wide problem we wouldn’t be in the pickle that we are currently in. All the stormwater that enters my property leaves my property and hurts someone else. My final request is that your plans include the real potential for increased stormwater runoff from future development at the School.  The Texas legislature has made it far too attractive for the School to issue bonds. The School  is going to stay in debt for the foreseeable future.  There will be even more development that will displace even more stormwater after the 2024 bonds are spent. Whether the School’s growth will be sustainable given their M&O revenue is a debate for another day.  In the meantime, this Court should plan, like I am,  for ever increasing volumes of stormwater. Thank you for your time. Topo Map To put my comments into perspective, look at above topo map done by Hibbs & Todd for the City of Mertzon back in 2023. It is showing that Areas 1-4 all drain stormwater into Area 5, which is City Park. I have added the red, black and blue lines showing, respectively, the Community Center, Football Stadium and where all the stormwater for all 5 areas must exit. So, both the Community Center and Football Stadium are effectively in the bottom of a 547 acre basin. The Community Center is owned by Irion County, City Park is owned by the City of Mertzon, and the Football Stadium is owned by IC ISD on land leased to it by the City of Mertzon. If any of these 3 local governments refuses to cooperate on stormwater management, all are assured of being flooded, at taxpayer expense. Regrettably, it is a perfect storm of government flooding itself. Action taken by the Court on Agenda item 12: The Court took an extended break in the middle of the day, and I was unable to return to hear their discussion on the Community Center. When I later contacted Judge Criner by email about whether any action was taken on this item, she replied: " No, it was more of a brainstorming session about the kind of information we might like the community advisory committee to gather from residents. " The County's approach to public comment, item 3 : Before the meeting, I was visiting in the hall with a few Commissioners and the County Attorney, James Ridge. I commented to them that I thought the County was being quite generous during the public comment portion of the meeting by allowing to public to speak a full 5 minutes as apposed to the typical 3 minutes that most governmental bodies give. Mr. Ridge quickly pointed out that the County wanted to hear what citizens had to say and that it was best to give ample time for citizens to make their point. Whether it is 3 or 5 minutes, in my opinion this is exactly the approach all governmental bodies should have. Let citizens say what it is they want to say...unless there is some indication that violence is about to occur . I have personal experience with the former leadership at IC ISD throttling my public comments (refer to this page at Meeting analysis 1 ). The best reason for those managing public meetings to adopt the approach Mr. Ridge is taking is that encouraging input from citizens tamps down their anger and prevents them from becoming principled about their cause. Once a citizen is angered by their government and becomes principled because they sense their speech is suppressed, well, they might start blogging about it. Like I said in my public comments above to the Commissioners at this meeting, I'm almost 9 years into my advocacy to get flooding relief from IC ISD. I'm not close to being done yet because our stormwater flooding is a community wide problem. This blog isn't just about me and the injustice of a school district flooding my property. Copyright 2025 G Noelke

Texas on the left, Mexico on the right , at the Rio Grande in Seminole Canyon State Park. The park entrance is 146 miles south of Mertzon. Below is the agenda for this meeting, and under that are my agenda and meeting analysis. And, read my commentary about this meeting here . A. Agenda analysis Council pay, item 5: We've really got to show some respect for Mayor Stewart, an elected official, willing to state in public that he is considering a pay cut . And, the City Administrator is out there on a limb with the Mayor, as well, because as written she is making the ask. For sure, nothing gets included in the agenda in this instance without both of them being in the loop. Regardless of how the vote turns out (and other council members have resisted in the past), this agenda item shows some real moxie. The rest of the agenda is the stock agenda. That's the Rio Grande on the left just above the cactus, so Texas is in the foreground and Mexico in the background. The trail here is a bit gnarly for biking, but e-bikes are ideal because with their "walk" feature they can carry their own weight on the portions of the trail that are not bike friendly. The nearby canyon views are stunning, on foot or by bike. B. Meeting analysis Council pay, item 5: Upon a deadlocked 2-2 vote, Mayor Stewart broke a deadlock by voting in favor of Council Member Lindley's motion to reduce the Mayor's and Council's pay by $100 per meeting. Thus, the vote was 3-2, and the Council reduced its members' pay by $100 per meeting. Councilman Councilman was the second to Lindley's motion. So, those voting in favor were Stewart, Lindley and Councilman, and those opposing were Holland and Crutchfield. Only Holland voiced opposition to the motion while it was being discussed. See my commentary below. Council Member resignation, other announcements, item 8b: In a surprise move, and in apparent protest to the reduction in pay, Council member Holland resigned her position. See my commentary below. Reward yourself after the trek by driving 45 or so minutes to Del Rio to eat at Julio's at 3900 US-90. They never fail to provide comfort. C. Commentary: I quoted President Jimmy Carter on this page at picture 3 , “The experience of democracy is like the experience of life itself - always changing, infinite in its variety, sometimes turbulent and all the more valuable for having been tested by adversity.” Well, democracy was in its best changing form at this meeting when Mayor Stewart broke a deadlock and voted to reduce the pay for himself and the Council's members. The Council has achieved a degree of selflessness in their leadership by lowering their own pay . Find me an example of that anywhere else in government these days and I'll eat my new "Gov in the Sun" custom cap given to me this Christmas by my daughter! Here is what the community misses out on when it fails to attend these meetings: you miss seeing the instances where democracy works as it should and elected officials act selflessly on behalf of the public . The very ideal of public service - serving the public's interest rather than one's own interests - was tested. And, it was put to the test by Mayor Stewart and City Administrator Michelle Rabenaldt, who as I said above, showed a lot of moxie just by putting the matter on the agenda. The truth is that some folks will serve on a government board for free, and Mayor Stewart is an example of that person. He has said in prior discussions on this issue that he didn't come to the council looking for pay. His actions show that. Another element of this discussion is that there are some, like Ms. Rabenaldt, who don't believe council members should be paid. When challenged by Council member Holland on the issue at this meeting, she did not shy away from her opinion that she did not think that pay was appropriate...but she also said that did not mean that she did not value the sacrifice council members made to serve. Why was less pay promoted now? The gist of the discussion was that more could be accomplished, more than just treading water, in certain priority areas. There is no financial exigency at the City, no misspent money or graft going on. The reduction would just mean that money could be reallocated in the budget to more productive areas. I think there were two other reasons for raising this now, though not stated at this meeting. First, the City's bond counsel recently forced a water and sewer rate hike because the City was just treading water financially . The City needs to do more than just tread water, and this reallocation would in part allow for that. And, second, I think the Council still had some explaining to do from a previous discussion of council member pay that showed in fact the Mertzon City Council was being handsomely paid in comparison to other cities its size . The Mayor and Council pay was just too high, and it was rather obvious. These facts made Council member Holland's opposition to the pay decrease seem rather shallow. Her refrain was that the current pay should be left alone "for the citizens" because reallocating the money elsewhere would be changing how the City is spending its money and change wasn't needed. This, however, was really just her misdirect to avoid openly saying that she would like to continue being paid the same because the money is a nice side gig. (Most council meetings last 1 to 1.5 hours, so the previous pay was sometimes $200 an hour!) Moreover, back in 2020 Council member Holland was a key member voting to close 4th Street for the City Gym , thereby currently hamstringing the City and IC ISD with street and City Park flooding. So, from my perspective her financial legacy as a Council member is more in the red than in the black, by far. Both the City and IC ISD are going to have to deal with flooding from now until that gym is razed for the wrongheaded decision that was made to close 4th Street and locate that gym where it is today. The only other Council member to oppose the pay reduction was Council member Crutchfield, who at first appeared to try to straddle the fence during discussion by saying that he could "go either way" on the decrease. He did not voice any opposition to the decrease during discussion, but ultimately voted "no" along with Holland. Procedurally, when there is a deadlocked council vote the Mayor gets to break the tie. Mayor Stewart did not hesitate in his resolve to approve the reduction by casting the tie breaker. Later in the meeting Council member Holland did not make explicit that she was resigning in protest, but she didn't deny it either by stating some other reason. I commend City Administrator Rabenaldt and Mayor Stewart for their courage to bring this issue forward. I also commend them, as well as members Lindley and Councilman, for making the larger point that their role is one of public service. The very ideal of public service - serving the public's interest rather than one's own interests - was tested. And, the public came out the winner. Explore the uneven ground. Here's the Park website: Seminole Canyon State Park and Historic Site . I've also written about this park in another blog post, with more pictures . We did not see any migrants crossing this trip, if that is an issue for you. Copyright 2025 G Noelke

A portion of the IC ISD campus that is scheduled for demolition. As 2024 comes to a close today, December 31, I think it timely to post some photos of what the IC ISD campus looks like before the 2024 bond money is spent in 2025. At the same time, our country this week is mourning the passing of President Jimmy Carter. My impressionable years in learning about government and politics included President Carter as President while I was in high school at IC ISD. He occupied the Whitehouse post Watergate and at a time when a President’s character mattered. Putting aside party affiliation for a moment, I think most agree that Carter's post presidency has had a positive and lasting impact on our country. So, in that vein, I am including some of Carter's quotes among the photos. His quotes in one way or another touch on points that I wish to make, or have made, in this blog. The photos are not in any particular order, and the quotes are randomly associated with the photos. I anticipate referring to them by number in posts in 2025 and beyond. The photos were all taken on December 30 and 31, 2024. "Increasingly, developed and developing nations are recognizing that a free flow of information is fundamental for democracy. Whether it's government or private companies that provide public services , access to their records increases accountability and allows citizens to participate more fully in public life. It is a critical tool in fighting corruption , and people can use it to improve their own lives in the areas of health care, education , housing and other public services. Perhaps most important, access to information advances citizens' trust in their government, allowing people to understand policy decisions and monitor their implementation ." From We Need Fewer Secrets, his 2006 op-ed. “The experience of democracy is like the experience of life itself - always changing, infinite in its variety, sometimes turbulent and all the more valuable for having been tested by adversity.” “It is difficult for the common good to prevail against the intense concentration of those who have a special interest, especially if the decisions are made behind locked doors.” "If you fear making anyone mad, then you ultimately probe for the lowest common denominator of human achievement." "The evidence shows that investing in women and girls delivers major benefits for society. An educated woman has healthier children. She is more likely to send them to school. She earns more and invests what she earns in her family." "The abuse of women and girls is the most pervasive and unaddressed human rights violation on Earth." "My first public office was as a county school board member. As a state senator and governor I devoted much of my time to education issues. I remain convinced that education is one of the noblest enterprises a person or a society can undertake." (At the signing of the federal bill that created the Department of Education .) “Thoughtful criticism and close scrutiny of all government officials by the press and the public are an important part of our democratic society. Now, as in the past, only the understanding and involvement of the people through full and open debate can help to avoid serious mistakes and assure the continued dignity and safety of the Nation.” “I believe in the separation of church and state. The government has the right to say what happens in a civil case, like in a court house. And religious people have a right to say what happens in a church congregation. They are two completely separate things.” “When people are intimidated about having their own opinions, oppression is at hand.” “But we know that democracy is always an unfinished creation. Each generation must renew its foundations. Each generation must rediscover the meaning of this hallowed vision in the light of its own modern challenges. For this generation, ours, life is nuclear survival; liberty is human rights; the pursuit of happiness is a planet whose resources are devoted to the physical and spiritual nourishment of its inhabitants.” “I’m not in favor of the government mandating a prayer in school because our country was founded on the fact that no particular religious faith would have ascendance over or preferential treatment over any other.” Copyright 2024 G Noelke

A construction erosion fence on the IC ISD campus, Nov. 2021. IC ISD initially failed to do a Stormwater Prevention Pollution Plan ( SWPPP ), a requirement of state and federal law with construction projects larger than 1 acre, when it started Phase 1 construction with the 2019 bonds. Their position, via their architect and construction firm, was that the first project site, the cafeteria kitchen, was less than an acre. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) said, no, it was larger than an acre; and they said all of the proposed construction site (including the gym), regardless of phasing, counted toward the 1 acre anyway. These are federal laws enforced by TCEQ on behalf of the EPA. I am dumbfounded by the Board's continued resistance to these laws and issues related to stormwater flooding . It's a lose-lose situation for everyone - the District, Parkhill , Gallagher , and our community - to disregard these laws. The blue erosion fence above was required as part of the SWPPP ultimately required by TCEQ. In the background you can see that the roofing was not yet complete on the new gym. Below is the agenda for this meeting, and underneath it are my Agenda Analysis and Meeting Analysis (pending). A. Agenda Analysis 1. Location and Time: The Administration has moved to 5th Street, but this meeting is still at the usual Board meeting room on 3rd Street. The meeting is on Wednesday at 6:30. 2. Pending construction projects, item 6 : This agenda language is too vague. One purpose for my critical analysis of agenda language is to publicly question whether the language is specific enough so that the community knows to question what the Board is up to and is voting upon . Consider the following about Mertzon and Irion County that make this an unusual public education environment. First, no one from the community attends school board meetings, including parents. Second, there is no Fourth Estate (local media). Third, the Board does not stream its meetings or post recordings of them online. And, fourth, races for school board elections are largely not competitive. So, the Board and Administration generally gets to operate in private . It historically has tended toward being as cryptic with its agenda language as it deems fit. Understandably, the Board and Administration desire as much independence from the community as necessary so that they can accomplish their goals. The problem being, however, is that there is an entire body of law just on specificity of agendas . So that I avoid writing a legal brief here, go no further that the District's own board policy BE , where it is stated, " Agendas for all meetings must be sufficiently specific to inform the public of the subjects to be discussed at the meeting, setting out any special matters to be considered or any matter in which the public has a particular interest ". (That's the Cox Enterprises v. Austin ISD Texas Supreme Court case, and its progeny.) I have already asserted for the previous agenda on this page at B.1.c. (where the Board first used similar agenda language) that the Board was voting on bond construction projects not previously disclosed to the voters prior to the bond election. (Estes Gym rehab and Field House addition.) As I try to interpret the language for this agenda item, item 6, I'm in the same quandary as I was in for agenda item 8 for the November 8 meeting: which construction project are they going to vote on? And, for this agenda, add the question: what specific "bond purchasing" might they vote on? Does the public have a "particular interest" in the kind of detail I am asking for here? Yes, and it's called preventing community wide stormwater flooding that is destroying both private and public property. The remedy for future agenda items like item 6? It's easy and would cost nothing. The drafting just needs to identify with more detail the specific bond project or part of bond project being approved. Not only will this kind of specificity alert the public about what is going on, it will help keep the Board, Administration, staff, private donors, Parkhill, Gallagher and the myriad of subcontractors honest . I spent an extraordinary amount of time following the money spent on the 2019 bonds, up to and including winning an Open Records dispute with the District (See OR2022-17229 ) in which the District tried to keep secret the name of one of its large donors to City Gym . (At the time it appeared to me that private donations were being solicited by Board members and staff in order to get the gym or parts of the gym named after the donors. But, it was impossible to tell from the agendas or during the meetings where the money was going!) My experience analyzing the spend down of the 2019 bonds teaches me that one of the best ways to keep everyone honest is to openly disclose where the bond money is being spent as it is being approved by the Board at its board meetings. The Board clearly needs to be more specific in its agendas. 3. Administrative reports, agenda item 8 : Highlighting this is a given - this is always a portion of the meeting that should receive focus. Here's a thought for the future, though: maybe an "Music" or "Music and Arts" ought to be added to these reports. A fair portion of the 2024 bond funds is going to a new marching field for the now 3 time State champion IC ISD marching band. Maybe its time the District play to its strengths outside of its passions for athletics? The only time there is band representation at Board meetings is when they are recognized. 4. Dyslexia handbook, agenda item 9 : I was educated at IC ISD during the dark days before Section 504 and when the District had no affirmative legal obligation to screen for dyslexia, as it does now. One obvious advance in public education is that the Board has to approve the dyslexia services the District provides to students. They have to do it annually, and its a good thing. 5. Present and discuss new football field/track: The flooding of the football field and track by stormwater coming from the IC ISD campus' impervious cover, paid for with public bond money, is the crux of my argument that the District is flooding itself. No funds should be considered for a new field and track until Parkhill makes public its data from its surveys of the area. To be specific, the following is the data I have requested several times in my PIA requests to the District: A copy of the following  survey results and all accompanying interpretations done by ParkHill or any of its agents or contractors: A. Lidar survey, done in August 2024. (Previously asked for in August and September, 2024.) B. Topography , done in October 2024. The Board should not repeat the mistakes it made with the 2019 funds where Phase 1 funds were spent first on its lowest elevation property at the football field and Phase 2 funds were spent later at higher elevation property, the campus, where the new impervious cover created more stormwater runoff that flooded the lower elevations . Thus, part of the solution to objectively evaluate whether the Board is throwing good money after bad and continuing to flood itself at the lower elevations is to evaluate Parkhill's Lidar and topography surveys. 6. Closed session and actions, items 13 and 15: I highlight these each meeting as a reminder that matters can only be discussed in closed session if they are specifically allowed in the Open Meetings Act. An exception has to exist. Last month in Santa Fe I saw these required postings for stormwater (SWPPP) and municipal construction permits at the site of a new Georgia O'Keefe museum. What I have been asking IC ISD and the City of Mertzon to do is not extraordinary. Federal laws apply and municipalities in all states have ordinances that protect citizens and serve the greater good of the community. Asking my local government to not flood our private and public property is simply not a big ask. One policy reason to have these laws and to require compliance is that flood remediation for both private and public property is extremely expensive. B. Meeting Analysis 1. Pending construction projects and/or bond purchasing, item 6 : The Board voted to approve the purchase of a medium sized bus with bond money, though the dollar amount was not discussed openly during the meeting. As a continuation of my analysis above , I think the Board should be transparent about the dollar amount of the purchase or construction at the time of the motion. They appear to be relying on meeting notes provided by Supt. Moore, and the public doesn't have access to those during the meeting. No one will know whether those notes become part of the official record of the meeting. In addition, a more frank and open discussion of the cost creates accountability of the Board members, especially in that rare event down the road that the budget gets blown up, as happened during the previous administration . Yes, that happened. 2. Present and discuss new football field and track, item 5: Asst. Principal/Athletic Director Morrow lead this part. No vote was taken, and the discussion was about the kind of field and track surfaces to use. For the first time it was publicly disclosed that bond money would be used for these improvements. I'll be revisiting this issue later, as a central criticism I had of the 2019 bond package is that the lions share of the money was spent on athletics and no classrooms were built. The 2024 bond pre-election community meetings clearly kept the plans to continue with the athletic facility build out on the down low so as to not trigger, pre-election, this criticism that the Board's emphasis is on athletics. There was no discussion about the history of the track and field to flood from stormwater, and there was no discussion about the potential cost, including the cost of flood remediation. Artificial turf has to specially cleaned when it floods. Coincidentally , this week I learned that one reason the great Notre-Dame Cathedral could be re-opened this week after that terrible fire is that they had an exact digital 3D of the interior because Lidar had been used before the fire. ( See also here .) Our community now has this kind of data, accurate up to a few millimeters, of the basins that flood the football field and track. Yet, it is not being discussed during Board meetings, and my repeated efforts to get access it via the PIA have all failed. (I am not stopping, though.) What I learned with the build out of the 2019 bond funds is consistent with the build out of the 2024 bonds: the architects, engineers and construction firms (the Parkhills and Gallaghers ) know or have access to quite precise data that will inform our community the degree of stormwater flooding that will occur before the ground is even broken for the construction. This is a travesty. They, Parkhill and Gallagher, aren't members of this community, and they, like Jeff Potter Architects and WBK Construction before them, are going to leave this community as soon as that final bond fund check lands in their company account...and they will never be heard from again. 3. Administrative reports, item 8: Superintendent Moore's report mentioned the following: a. She and staff have done a tour of the Wall ISD special ed facilities run by Small Schools Coop . (Special Ed funds from Washington are potentially on the chopping block given a campaign promise to abolish the Dept. of Education. So, this is an area to watch.) b. Bond construction update: planning stages still, and portables are currently being delivered. Coming up are meetings for construction fencing and elementary school "saves". (The steeles on the front of the elementary , flooring of the old gym and other things are being listed as things to not to be destroyed but kept for part of the new construction.) Raising the building won't start until about March 1. c. Home inspections - the new property recently purchased at 612 W. Fleming is under rehab. More on this property later. d. Next board meeting is on Wed Jan 15, location unknown. 4. Discuss/approve dyslexia handbook, item 9 : The Texas Dyslexia Handbook , published by TEA, was updated in Aug. 2024, so the District's handbook had to be approved to be consistent. This is a fascinating and ever changing area of the law. An important change is that now dyslexia is identified as a specific learning disability. A child will qualify for Special Education under IDEA if they have dyslexia AND need evidence based reading instructions. This means federal money kicks in, there's an ARD and potentially an individual education plan specific to that child's needs. Specific IEP's are a lot of labor for school districts, but they potentially have HUGE benefits to the child. If the child is going on to higher education, that IEP can be used by him/her to require their college to provide those or similar services. So, when I speak to parents about learning disabilities I tell them to get as specific of a plan as you can in primary school because your child may need that in higher education. There may be around 7 students at IC ISD that are identified as dyslexic but who have already been provided reading instructions, so do not have to go into SPED under this year's handbook. Their parents might want to reconsider that because they potentially will get more protection from discrimination later on with an IEP than a 504 plan. (But, there's also the stigma of special education to contend with...) The Board's treatment of the new handbook at this meeting was about what one might expect. Some members failed to even read it ( and one said so !) , while others indicated they had and were appreciative of the efforts that went into it. The handbook was approved by the Board, but without any discussion. The District's page for dyslexia is here . As an aside, my first memorable "No, you can't do this, you aren't smart enough" relating to my own education was at IC ISD. My IC ISD high school principal smirked at me when I told him about my low SAT score. His smirk burns me to this day, but along the way it provided me with some fuel, like a good breakfast bar does when one is on a long hike, to accomplish a few things. So, it is critically important that board members try harder when they approve this manual. Any lack of concern from the Board about learning differences can send a terrible message to the administration, staff and ultimately to students. I'm a firm believer that how the school board feels about learning differences is how the entire school feels. Diversity in learning skills means diversity in thought. The lack of uniformity is what makes education worthwhile to us all. Thankfully we are not all the same. 5. The following update was posted on Dec 18 and was cross posted on this page : Tournament parking:  The IC ISD Billy Barnett Hoops Classic set for Dec. 27 and 28 2024, once again makes painfully transparent the achilles heel of City Gym : parking and flooding . ( Read more about Barnett here .) To his credit, former Mertzon Mayor Bill Taylor (before he got his ears boxed at this hearing)  tried to get the District to address the parking problems for the gym before the gym was built. Former AD Jacob Conner  and Supt. Ray DeSpain  ultimately failed to alleviate the parking pressure by constructing a new parking lot that I have labeled the GMPL . Even that parking lot was not enough, so part of the 2024 bond funds will be used to pay for the destruction of the current maintenance barn and construction of a new parking lot in its place. ( See the photo on this page .) Watch these pages for my posts on the additional stormwater that more parking at City Gym is going to add to our community. More flooding is a certainty , and it will be substantial because the GMPL could be doubled in size. I have personally notified Supt. Moore of these concerns. Expansion of the GMPL is a huge mistake and will lead to additional flooding at the football field. Palace of the Governors, Santa Fe, Nov. 2024 Stormwater management, including snow melt management, takes all forms. The week before we arrived Santa Fe NM was blanketed with a foot of snow. During the early part of the melt each rain gutter at the Palace of the Governors had these galvanized tubs underneath so that the melt would not splash on the vendors and so the flow would enter the street, owned by the City of Santa Fe. Unlike the City of Mertzon, however, the City of Santa Fe has an underground stormwater management network of pipes to redistribute the stormwater runoff. Here is the EPA's page on Santa Fe's stormwater management , a plan especially notable because of its adoption of green infrastructure concepts. Copyright 2024 G Noelke

A topo/utility line map done for IC ISD as part of the 2019 bond build out. This topo/utility map was paid for with public funds and obtained by me via the PIA back in 2022. The map highlights one problem with the potential MOU between IC ISD and the City of Mertzon to permanently close the street for the 2024 bond build out: the streets are thick with water, waste water and electric lines. Is it in the public interest to transfer the surface to IC ISD when there are public underground utilities? A public hearing will have to be held. The closest precedent for such a hearing is this one, where I argued that closing 4th Street was not in the public interest because of the flooding it would cause . I lost that argument , and the City turned over 4th Street to IC ISD, thereby worsening the same flooding problems IC ISD is trying to remedy today. Below is the agenda for this meeting, and underneath that are my agenda analysis and meeting analysis . A. Agenda analysis: 1. Proposed franchise fee ordinance 8.03, Rural Waste Management, item 5: In a prior meeting, Ms. Rabenaldt stated that one of the trash pickup services, RWM, had not applied for a franchise license with the City. Here are the related franchise ordinances on the City's website. Question: can the City pass new ordinances that will collect franchise taxes or fees from Parkhill, Gallagher and the construction contractors who necessarily must use the City's street for construction of the 2024 IC ISD bond build out? The photo below explains the importance of this question. Juanita Street, Mertzon, in Feb 2022 between 5th and 4th streets, facing east. Prior to the completing of the IC ISD tennis courts on the left in 2016 , this street was literally a one lane dirt road. At the time of this photo the roof was being installed on the new gym at the far right. All the construction from that build out, and its continuous flooding, demolished the paving. The City of Mertzon should not be on the hook for IC ISD's growth when these streets are destroyed as this one was. Here is a photo of the street when it was being repaved, at IC ISD expense . These costs should instead be incorporated as franchise fees to be paid by those who profit from the bond money. Alternatively, IC ISD should commit to street rehab costs as a part of their promises to the community prior to any bond election. There will be significant damage to city streets as part of the 2024 bond construction. B. Meeting analysis 1. Here are the meeting documents for this meeting. 2. Approved, items 5 and 6 : The Council approved the ordinance for franchise taxes, as well as the interlocal agreement. 3. Lesson learned, Administrative report, item 8 : Under a previous administration and council leadership, the City let fester TCEQ deficiencies at the waste water treatment plant. If memory serves, the administrative penalty for that mishap was north of $100,000 and caused the City to go into debt to pay the penalty. The current leadership has wisened up to TCEQ's enforcement authority. The current plant is limping along to new upgrades next year to be paid for by bond money. As the Council is faced with ongoing repairs, it is clear from their discussion that they do not intend to ever get in TCEQ's crosshairs again. Maintenance is still being done and paid for to avoid TCEQ's enforcement authority. 4. What's going unsaid ? In the "What's not on the agenda...or...What is left unsaid?" department, IC ISD was not mentioned at all during this meeting. Significant street closure (partial and permanent) issues and possible detours are looming in the next 2 to 3 months. According to Supt. Moore at their last board meeting, the initial stages of demolition of the elementary school will start in January, and the District is currently evaluating construction fencing. Mum's the word, it appears. parking 5. Tournament parking: The IC ISD Billy Barnett Hoops Classic set for Dec. 27 and 28 2024, once again makes painfully transparent the achilles heel of City Gym : parking and flooding . ( Read more about Barnett here .) To his credit, former Mertzon Mayor Bill Taylor (before he got his ears boxed at this hearing) tried to get the District to address the parking problems for the gym before the gym was built. Former AD Jacob Conner and Supt. Ray DeSpain ultimately failed to alleviate the parking pressure by constructing a new parking lot that I have labeled the GMPL . Even that parking lot was not enough, so part of the 2024 bond funds will be used to pay for the destruction of the current maintenance barn and construction of a new parking lot in its place. ( See the photo on this page .) Watch these pages for my posts on the additional stormwater that more parking at City Gym is going to add to our community. More flooding is a certainty , and it will be substantial because the GMPL could be doubled in size. I have personally notified Supt. Moore of these concerns. Expansion of the GMPL is a huge mistake and will lead to additional flooding at the football field. 6. Who was not present: Council member Holland was not present at this meeting. The Council is precariously close to not having enough members present to not conduct business for lack of a quorum. If any of the remaining members, Stewart, Councilman, Lindley or Crutchfield, are absent while Ms. Holland is out there will not be a quorum. The playground/practice field in 2021 on the IC ISD campus at W. Fleming and 4th Street. WBK was the Contractor for the 2019 bonds projects. This is the field shown flooding in my recent photo here . Prior to the 2019 bonds, this area was also used as a practice field for the football team. The field did not flood until 2016 when Juanita Street was paved and the tennis courts were completed. Based on the nearby oak groves and the topography, I think it is likely the area was at one time (early 1900's) a dry creek with native live oaks...probably removed by IC ISD for it to become a play area. Copyright 2024 G Noelke