The city of Aubrey got great news in the form of a $1.7 million Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant.
Chief Eric Schlotter shared his excitement about the funding with the council at the Oct. 22 meeting.
"This funding will allow us to hire nine additional firefighter- paramedics, adding three personnel to each shift," he said. "These additional personnel will strengthen our ability to respond to fires and medical emergencies, provide more resources for incidents requiring multiple crews and help our firefighters operate safely and effectively."
He clarified that the grant was "not a 100% funded grant."
"This is a matching grant," he said. "The performance period is three years. In years 1 and 2, it's a 75-25 split with the city's responsibility being the 25%, and then in Year 3, it goes to a 35-65 split, so our obligation in Year 3, 65%."
The city has 180 days to accept the grant and recruit to fill the positions.
"We've formally accepted the grant in the portal, and we're working on a plan for looking at hiring, potentially in January, which would be about the 90-day mark of that 180, so [that] gives us some flexibility and it'll break our three-year performance over four budget cycles," Schlotter said.
The mayor and council expressed their excitement for the announcement.
"I'm just glad after three or four [attempts], we finally got it," Mayor Chris Rich said.
Schlotter also took the opportunity to tell the council about the progress on the fire department's training tower.
"The slab is fully poured," he said. "All the building materials are on site, and construction's begun on erecting the tower, so we're finally starting to move along pretty quickly now. They've updated the completion date for some time in January."
Earlier in the meeting, the council faced a vote about the rate increase asked for by Republic Services for trash collection.
Aubrey Controller Marissa Newton introduced the proposed increase for the residential total of $21.30, up from $20.35, and the senior residential rate to $19.38 from $18.52.
Jeri Harwell of Republic Services stood before the council to give an overview of the current status of the services provided and to answer questions about the rate change request.
"We were only up on the overall trash tonnage year over year a little under 1%, which is a good thing," she said. "That means there's more things that are being recycled instead of going into the landfills."
Harwell also shared the statistics about how many households in Aubrey recycle—44%—and increase in household hazardous waste and ewaste recycling participation— up 13%, as well as decreasing direct landfill usage.
She touched, too, on the growth in Aubrey.
"We're reevaluating routes at this time to see where we need to add trucks so that we can make sure that we keep up with your growing community," Harwell said.
She explained that the increase is based on the Consumer Price Index published by the federal government.
"You want to keep up with the rising cost of your solid waste, because if you don't then at the end of your term of your contract, your residents see a big, huge increase instead of just going with increments year over year," Harwell said.
Such a rate change is allowed annually, according to the contract, something Mayor Pro Tem Jeff Perry pointed to as a point of frustration.
"If the CPI ever goes down, will we get a refund?" he asked.
Harwell said the costs to provide the services— "disposal, fuel"—going up is the cause.
"It would have to be a negative, would have to swing completely the opposite way for it to actually go down," Harwell said.
Perry inquired about when the contract with Republic is set to expire, which will be in September of 2028.
Harwell suggested an early renewal on the contract that could include a smaller rate increase when Perry said, "so this time next year we'll be having this same conversation, right?"
The price increase was approved in a 4-1 vote with Perry dissenting, and it will start on Dec. 1.
The council also heard a presentation from Kimley- Horn about its ADA self-evaluation and transition plan.
The council also approved an exchange with the city of Krugerville for land in both cities' extraterritorial jurisdictions, with 116.39 acres transitioning from Aubrey to Krugerville and 35.93 acres from Krugerville to Aubrey.
