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Council walks back ordinance

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groveton texas city limits 250TCNS staff

GROVETON — An ordinance setting new building codes and inspection policies was found to be too restrictive, and consequently was scrapped by the Groveton City Council on March 28.

The council elected to stay with the city’s current ordinances; however, those were enacted in 2006, so the council will look into bringing them more current.

Additionally, the council, which had contracted with an inspector in October 2021, has opted to not use the inspector and has instead found an electrical inspector from Trinity and began a search for a plumbing inspector. 

Mayor Tommy Walton said the inspector from Huntsville turned out to be too restrictive and was unwilling to allow individuals to do their own repair work or to allow owners to use unlicensed individuals to do repair work on their property.

This new inspector realizes that cities like Trinity and Groveton need to be able to do their own work when they can and employ unlicensed individuals when they can. Walton said the new inspector is willing to work with us to allow for older construction to be grandfathered in and then to just inspect what he has to. 

Walton said there will be times that the work complexity will be such that they will have to call in service providers from Lufkin, Crockett, or Huntsville to do their work, and that is what the city wants to promote. 

In a separate matter, the council heard from Shasta Bergman regarding Circle B Farm Wildlife Rehab.  They have dogs that are attacking and killing some of their animals and are asking for funds from the city in order to erect fencing at the back of their property. 

Walton said he check with the city attorney to see if there are limitations on giving to a 501(c)3. 

In other business, the council:

• approved a request from Kyle Isget and Hunter Arnold to hold a crawfish boil and band on May 21 on the City Square;

• reappointed board members to the Housing Authority of the City of Groveton — Benny McClain, Hollis Bennett, Shirley Hubbard, Maretha Lawrence and Karla Perkins — each for a two-year term;

• appointed Rita Danford as Election Judge and Sandra Cole as Alternate Judge and set their hourly rate at $12 for judges and clerks; 

• discussed with resident Margaret Peavy about a no-tied-dogs outdoors policy;

• discussed the police department’s statistics for the previous month, which showed 31 calls for service, 50 traffic stops, 1 verbal warnings, 10 written warnings, 27 citations and 4 arrests; and

• paid the Inframark bill of $5,500.

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