Resident Louise Holliger asked the Krugerville City Council for help on making her Ranch Road property sellable on April 22.
She spoke at the meeting regarding her 0.3879 acres at 301 Ranch Road, where she and her family once lived until their home burned down in August of 2024.
“It has taken me a pretty long time to emotionally come to the place where I was ready to sell it,” Holliger said. “Got a really good offer on it. And now I'm here. I've been told I can't sell it right now.”
Krugerville’s rules require lots to be a half-acre at least.
“With the house burning down, it's going to need a rebuild,” Mayor Rodney Cagle said. “To build a house on a less than half-acre lot, by general standards, it's not allowed.”
Holliger shared that when she purchased the property in 1999, she was not informed that it was nonconforming.
“This has opened up the wound that is finally healing, and I'm ready to move on,” Holliger said. “I need to be able to sell that lot so that somebody can build on it.”
The council approved Holliger’s variance request.
Now she will have to file with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to obtain a variance from the state for the septic system to be transferred to the new buyer.
“This is special,” council member Shane Kading said. “We need to get this done.”
Also at the meeting, the Krugerville council also received audit reports for fiscal year 2023-24 and 2024-- 25.
MWH Group’s CPA Valerie Halverson spoke at the meeting and provided the city with up-to-date reports.
“Financially speaking, the city's in a great position,” Halverson said.
Council also discussed the sanitary sewer project.
“The sewer negotiation that had been going on for a long time to bring sewer from the city of Aubrey's boundaries into the city of Krugerville, so that the commercial lots that we have on 377 in front of Woodland Park, or Woodland's Phase 5, the commercial lots could get better tax revenue businesses by having sewer there—that sewer is also going to be brought all the way to Woodland Park,” Cagle said.
The prices have risen because of inflation and cost of labor, Cagle added, since the early conversations several years ago.
City engineer Kevin Ware said that a manhole will be added to the new shopping strip.
Ware added that there is potential for the city to be added to that manhole, but it would have to be discussed further with Aubrey’s public works.
“ As long as we have gravity flow from Giulia's or the new manhole or even on the north side of Giulia's, just to keep us from going all the way to Redfearn,” Mayor Pro Tem Kristen Kromer said.
Stacey Sasser and Kromer planned to meet with Aubrey’s public works department to discuss possible solutions to move it closer.
No action was taken on the item.
Deputy City Secretary Kayleen Moss provided information on adopting a sex offender residency ordinance in Krugerville, following a request from resident John Klatt at the March council meeting.
Moss explained that because the city is a generallaw municipality, it has less flexibility than home-rule cities like Aubrey.
Susan Zambrano, the Krugerville Police Department administrative assistant and city clerk, and Moss found a local government code section for general-law municipalities that includes child-safety zones where children frequent, such as schools, playgrounds, day cares and other facilities.
One of Klatt’s requests was to require sex offenders to work or live at least 2,000 feet away from these zones; the code only allows up to 1,000 feet.
Moss added that the city could not have a cluster ordinance as a general-law municipality.
When the ordinance goes into effect, sex offenders who have already established residency near a child safety zone are exempt unless they move away.
The council plans to pass the ordinance at the special meeting in May.
The council discussed city regulations on roadway weight limits and truck routes to help protect city infrastructure and public safety.
With the new light off U.S. 377 at Stewart Road/ Arvin Hill Road, Cagle shared that traffic has diverted to Prosperity Way, which has caused other issues.
“We know there's still work to be done at the intersection, but if our council proceeds with trying to create a no through trucks on that route, then our police will have an enforceable ordinance on Prosperity that we can try to break it down a little,” Cagle said.
The next step is to evaluate what can legally be done to make that change.
The council approved changing Krugerville's signage along U.S. 377 to Ray Roberts Parkway.
Cagle stated that this will be in unity with the cities of Tioga, Pilot Point and Aubrey.
Zambrano also explained that the Krugerville Police Department is switching from a server to the cloud to prevent cybersecurity issues.
The department is also moving to air cards for PD laptops, so laptops can be easily transported between different locations outside of the vehicle without losing internet access.
The council made an amendment to “the City’s General Fund Budget for fiscal year 2025-26.”
The biggest adjustment, Kromer said, was to reduce sales tax estimates and make adjustments for police department purchases.
“The key takeaway is that we're not pulling from reserves; we're still putting money in reserves after making that adjustment to the sales tax,” she said.
Chief Stoney Ward swore in two police officers, Brianda Valdivia and reserve officer Chris Daigle, who he worked with in Little Elm.
“Not only have we become friends and family over the years; these are people that I really rely on, these are people that mean a whole lot to me,” Ward said. “My whole staff is a family, and that's the way I like to keep that.”
