Council approves new downtown lights

The Yoakum City Council approved a request from the Yoakum Area Chamber of Commerce regarding the replacement of downtown string lights at the Oct. 8 meeting. This is in preparation for Christmas on the Grand Dec. 6-7.

“I have the privilege of chairing this year’s Christmas on the Grand and we as the community has put in countless man hours already for it,” Chamber Spokesperson Leyton Bohac said. “We have run into a roadblock and that’s why we’re requesting this. The lights on top of the buildings downtown need to be rehung. Also, the bulbs need to be replaced. We’d like to go from a warm light bulb to a cool blue (color.)The lights are falling off of the buildings in some spots. We are asking the city to help the Chamber in this endeavor. The Chamber has raised most of the funds for the new bulbs and the wiring. We need help with manpower to install it and funds for the contractor to do the work.

Even though the Chamber is spearheading the lights for downtown, everyone enjoys having a beautiful and festive downtown. It gives the town and the people something to be proud of. If you look at all the other small towns around here, they have a beautiful and festive downtown and we want the same for Yoakum.”

The council approved the assistance in funds amounting to $4,200. This will go toward the manpower for the project.

“We estimate this project to be around 40 hours of work,” Bohac said.

“ We have all but three permissions from the business owners downtown to put these lights up. There are three business owners downtown that when we contacted them, they said they did not want to put lights on their building.”

The council also received a request from Gabe Adamek for the elimination of green fees at the Yoakum Municipal Golf Course to host the second annual Yoakum Junior High Golf Tournament fundraiser.

“Last year was our first annual golf tournament,” Adamek said. “We used the Municipal Golf Course, and we’d like to use the golf course again this year for the Saturday prior to Thanksgiving (Nov. 23.) Last year, we were there until 1:30 p.m. and I anticipate the same thing this year.”

Council opted to close the course for the Junior High organization for the morning at a cost of $500.

Other items on the agenda include:

• Council approved a request from Texnet (the University of Texas-Bureau of Economic Geology) for the placement of a seismometer around the airport.

• A spokesperson from Rise Broadband was on the agenda to request installation of equipment on city owned property; however, there was no representative who appeared at the meeting.

• Council adopted revised policies for the Carl and Mary Welhausen Library, the City of Yoakum HUB City RV Park, and the Yoakum Municipal Golf Course.