City Council awards contract
By Clayton Kelley
The Yoakum City Council awarded a contract for the 2025 Street Improvement Project at the July 8 meeting.
“The street improvement project is a yearly project that we do, and we have not done it yet because of staff,” Director of Public Works Victor Gomez said. “We just upgrade and maintain the roads. For instance, from down Baldwin Street up to Wimberly Street and the streets will get resealed and re-topped with new rock and tar. We’ll put hot oil and rock on top of it and run it all the way through. They will do whatever our budget allows us. We don’t have enough manpower to do it, so we have to use a contractor to do it.”
The contract for this project was awarded to H&C Construction.
Also at the meeting, several citizens spoke out on ordinances regarding animals running at large. It was reported that the City of Yoakum is in the process of hiring an Animal Control Officer.
“The city has a definite need for an animal control officer,” Mayor Carl O’ Neill said. “There are too many dogs and chickens running loose not in compliance to ordinances. We’ve been receiving continual complaints.”
Another citizen spoke out on excessive speed of vehicles along Schrimsher, Hubbard, and East Gonzales streets. This person was concerned due to children walking from the family center over to the school.
The Yoakum Chamber of Commerce also requested street closures for the following events:
• Downtown Street Dance scheduled for Sept. 20.
• Pumpkin Patch Trail scheduled for Oct. 31.
• Annual Sip and Shop scheduled for Nov. 20.
• Christmas on the Grand scheduled for Dec. 5 and 6.
It was reported there will be no carnival this year for Christmas on the Grand.
Other items on the agenda include:
• The council accepted the 2023-24 City of Yoakum Financial Audit presented by Harrison, Waldrop and Uherek LLP.
• The council tabled awarding a contract for long-term Municipal Solid Waste Transfer Station Services.
• An annual conference for the council members will be held in Fort Worth at the end of October.