Council hears presentation from Ramos

By Mollie LaSalle

COLMESNEIL – Colmesneil City Council held their monthly (rescheduled meeting) last Tuesday evening in the break room at City Hall. The meeting was moved back a week due to the A/C going out in the council room. 

Vance Cowart was called out to assess the problem(s) and as of May 17, it was still not operational. 

Council members welcomed Sergio Ramos, the tennis coach at Colmesneil ISD to speak about National Tennis Association Month, which is in May. 

Ramos has been teaching and coaching for a total of 55 years; he taught and coached at Woodville ISD (Spanish and Tennis) for 50 years, retired, and came back when offered the job at Colmesneil. When he came to Colmesneil, the district had one tennis court. Ramos went to the school board to lobby for new courts; his efforts have paid off. May 27 at 11 am, there will be a dedication and ribbon cutting ceremony at the new tennis courts, and two distinguished former players will be in attendance, Jeff Moffett, former CISD tennis standout, and Jacques Blanchette, current Tyler County Judge, and former CISD tennis player. 

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Ramos said that attendees will also observe a moment of silence in memory of Lacy Reynolds and Kaitlyn Byrum. Reynolds and Byrum died in March 2021 from injuries sustained in a car accident. 

Both girls were standout tennis players also, having won tournaments around the southeast Texas area.

Council moved on to the rest of the agenda items in short order. All council members were given a summary review of the FY 2021 budget to read over. Council will discuss and vote on accepting the findings at the June meeting. A discussion was begun on changing the city’s garbage service provider. Pineywoods Sanitation of Huntington currently charges the city for rent of one dumpster, and wanting to possibly utilize local companies, and keep the money within the community, discussed switching to Local Sanitation which is based in Colmesneil. No action was taken at this time. 

Mayor Duane Crews brought up the subject of acquiring a new city truck. The one currently being used by utilities director Keith Barnes is having too many problems, and a discussion entailed about shopping around to get the best price on the purchase of another one; again, no action was taken on this matter. 

All office, Financial and Investment and Water/Sewer reports were approved in short order, and the meeting was adjourned at 7:35 p.m.