In a special called meeting Tuesday, Kempner City Council approved a subdivision agreement with Jimmy Banks, co-owner of Infinity Dollars of Texas, for 1.8 acres at 12563 East U.S. Highway 190 in the city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction.

The property is located north of the highway about 100 yards east of Kempner Brick Oven restaurant.

Banks said his company owns the property and has a 15-year lease with Dollar General stores to construct a 9,100-square-foot building on the property. The Waco-based company does commercial developments for Dollar General and other clients.

Kempner officials discovered last week that the owners of 17 acres north of the highway had sold the 1.8 acres without filing a subdivision plat with the city and getting the necessary approval.

Mayor Gene Isenhour said Kempner officials attempted to contact the non-resident landowner several times but received no response.

After meeting with the city’s attorney, Kempner City Council called the special meeting to approve an agreement that allows Banks to begin clearing the property for construction. The agreement requires Infinity Dollars to begin the application process to have a plat approved and request voluntary annexation into the city within 10 days to avoid any penalties for failing to meet the city’s ordinances.

“To help speed up the process, as the construction of a dollar store would be very beneficial to the city, we agreed to make the developer responsible for what the seller should have done,” Isenhour said.

The mayor noted that if the property owner sold other tracts out of the 17 acres without filing a subdivision plat for approval, the city would take action against the landowner.

“Just because we are a small city, we are not going to let anyone run over us,” Isenhour said.

Banks said that Dollar General has 9,700 stores nationwide, and the local store would be an economic benefit to Kempner.

“In small towns, Dollar General stores usually average about $1.2 million in sales per year,” he said.

He estimated the store would generate up to a 15 percent increase in the city’s sales tax revenue, and Lampasas County’s sales tax revenue also would increase by several thousand dollars.

Isenhour pointed out that the city’s quarter-percent sales tax from local sales would bring additional dollars to the city for street maintenance and repairs.

In response to a question by Councilwoman Melba Vandeveer, Banks said construction of the store should take between 90 and 105 days once the building permit has been received and depending upon the weather.

Mayor Pro Tem Paul Cook noted that after recent rains, several inches of water stand on the lot where the store will be built.

Banks said normally the stores are constructed on 24 inches of base material. To address this concern, however, the Kempner Dollar General will sit on 30 inches of base.

After approval of the agreement, Isenhour and Banks signed the necessary documents so construction can begin as soon as possible.