City of Oakwood votes encore for Oncor

At this month's regularly scheduled City Council meeting, Brenda Walker of Oncor presented the board members with their electric delivery franchise renewal. Oncor is not an electric provider through which one obtains actual electricity. This contract, last signed in 1961 for a 50 year term, is for maintenance and repairs of the actual electrical lines and poles. According to Walker, "It's just a standard contract basically to make sure we keep your lights on." By voting to renew this contract, the city of Oakwood ensured that, although there are many electric companies to choose from, only one company handles all of the maintenance and repairs, at least for the next 20 years.

Randy Platt, owner of Hutto Waste Services, also stopped by the meeting. He, and his associate, Joe Darryll Hatten, were there with an unsolicited proposal. Currently, Hutto handles the trash ser- vice for most of the surrounding areas and has Wednesday open. As Oakwood is only a once a week pick up, Platt said, "We'd love to fill that spot with Oakwood." Platt presented each of the Council members with a copy of his proposal which not only included the prices of their service but, the 16 min. standards of customer service the company was founded on. Mayor Vicki Stroud accepted the proposal on behalf of the Council and thanked the gentlemen for taking the time to answer questions. O n the agenda this month was the proposed tax rate, which is currently .2300. After a short discussion, the Council voted to bring a tax rate proposal of .2134. There will be a public hearing on August 26, 2010 at 5:00PM before the Council can set the rate.

City Secretary Shannon Nicholson spoke to the Council about the growing need for the City to accept credit card payments for court costs, fines, and even water payments. With the number of people relying on the use of credit and debit cards these days, the Council voted to install a computer program that would allow them to take such payments. A 3% surcharge will be applied to any credit or debit card transaction to cover the cost incurred by such a program.

The Council received a request by the Leon County Expo Project. This resolution requested a donation from the City, to be given annually, to help this project along. This matter was tabled.

The Council did go into closed session at the end of the evening.