City launches new mutual aid agreement with Yoakum

The cities of Hallettsville and Yoakum now have the start of a partnership in place that essentially permits them to share equipment and specially trained personnel in times of need.

City administrator Grace Ward said this was something she’d worked on for some months but only recently was able to coordinate with the new Yoakum city manager. Before the program is fully implemented, Yoakum city leaders will need to approve a similar package from their end.

The initial agreement lasts four years and then would come back to both cities every year for review. Especially crucial in the agreement are items like Hallettsville and Yoakum having access to water and sewer plant techs, who much more so than other jobs around, require some very specialized state licenses that relatively limited number of people in Texas actually have.

Those license holders are so rare, in fact, that council approved hiring a temp service to try and locate qualified candidates. Despite staff’s best efforts to advertise the job and its qualification in the typical avenues available, they had failed to turn up anyone qualified to start the job in weeks now.

Also addressed the interlocal; city agreements, if either city had something like a bucket truck go down, for instance, they could—for established fees—essentially borrow that piece of equipment for the day, provided the city that owned said equipment wasn’t in need of it right then.

In another item discussed Monday, having now heard from business owners around the square who will be impacted by street closures and the event itself, Hallettsville councilmembers approved a multi-tiered request made by the organizers of the annual Festival of Lights for the coming year’s festivities.

That request included everything from street closure requests to utilities for sound and light board usage during the annual event that’s become something of tradition or many in and around the city each year.

It happens the Saturday after Thanksgiving each year and serves as the official launch of the Christmas season here in Hallettsville.

The complete request approval included:

• Street closures—Although a larger footprint was requested, only the four streets that front the courthouse (the block-long sections of Second, Third, Main and La Grange streets) were approved for closures.

Closing the streets any farther back would pose a traffic hazard as people would be forced to encroach on private drives or parking lots to turn around, or risk backing out onto a major highway.

• Electrical board—This was approved for existing hookups only; city leaders said they weren’t installing something all-new for that one day’s festival only.

• Use of city-owned barricades and cones to cordon off the approved area.

• Use of city refuse containers, and approval for city staff to come and empty them one time during the event.

• A one-day waiver of the city’s alcohol permit fee, so that alcoholic beverages may be served during the event.

• Allow Todd Schindler to host a Live Nativity Pageant on the east side of the courthouse.

• Allow the setup of a petting zoo and bouncy houses out in the street from noon to 4 p.m. The petting zoo, in particular, was discussed at length of the need to clean up after it is taken down. There was also some discussion of the need for more portable restroom facilities beyond what was provided last year. Several on the council also expressed concerns about the lack of anyone to speak on the issue or address questions from the city.

Although approved Monday in a slightly altered plan than requested, council said their next on Nov. 18 would provide opportunity for any item not dealt with on the checklist to be addressed once more, leaving a couple of weeks before the event takes place.

Watch for more news items from the Monday meeting in a coming edition of the Tribune-Herald.