Kempner earmarks funds for City Hall
By MAT TAYLOR Special Correspondent

Kempner City Council, in a 20- minute meeting last week, voted to set up a designated fund balance.

Mayor Gene Isenhour suggested, and the council agreed, to transfer $50,000 from the city's general funds to a designated fund to be used to purchase the current City Hall building, or to purchase property and construct a new city administration facility sometime in the future.

At the previous meeting, the 2006-07 fiscal-year audit was approved. One recommendation from the auditor was to set up a designated fund, as the city is in good financial condition and has a fund balance over $120,000.

The auditor also recommended that Kempner keep an adequate balance to operate the city for three months in case of an emergency.

"With the remaining fund balance, the city can operate over six months," Isenhour said. "In the future, if the council decides the designated fund is needed for another purpose, it would only take a vote of the council to put it back into the general fund."

In other business, the council approved an amendment to the city ordinance entitled Establishing Charges for Public Records. Isenhour said the state limits what small cities can charge for copies of its records. Previously, Kempner was charging 15 cents for a standard page copy; the state limit, however, is 10 cents.

The revised ordinance was rewritten to reduce the charge to 10 cents.

Also last week, Isenhour said the filing deadline for City Council positions had passed, and only the incumbent council members had filed for election. That includes Isenhour for mayor, Paul Cook for Place 1 and Melba Vandeveer for Place 5.

At the next council meeting, if no one has filed as a write-in candidate, the council will consider canceling the election and declare the candidates elected. Deadline for a write-in candidate was Monday.

At a previous meeting, the coun- cil approved installation of a street light at the intersection of U.S. Highway 190 and Peach Street (County Road 4616). Isenhour said Hamilton County Electric Cooperative had informed him the light should be installed in about a week.

The mayor also said he recently attended the ground-breaking ceremony for the new Lampasas High School campus.

Isenhour said he understood that groundbreaking for the new Taylor Creek Elementary School on Big Divide Road east of Kempner would be held at a later date.

Kempner City Council will meet next on March 25 at 6 p.m. in City Hall Council Chambers. The council will meet one hour earlier than usual to conduct a workshop prior to the regular session. The council will review possible amendments to update the garage sales ordinance and the outdoor sign ordinance.