On Monday, December 8, the City of Pampa commissioners held their bi-monthly meeting, beginning with Employee Service Awards presented by City Manager Shane Stokes and Mayor Mike Borger.
“We have 215 years of service representative of these folks today,” Shane said. “We couldn’t be any more proud of them.”
Five-Year Employees:
Robert Harding-Solid Waste
Britnie Cooper-Dispatch
Makeia Chaney-Finance
Zachary Peters-Police
Hubert Kimberlin-Fire Department
Chris Steger-Utilities
Tracy Washington-MK Brown
Matthew Albracht-Fire Department
Santos Flores-Police
Ten-Year Employees:
Nathan Stawarski-Streets
Ben Ponce-Community Services
Billy Matthews-Streets
Ricky Harvill-Solid Waste
Rachel Ledgerwood-Utilities
Lance Richburg-Police
Terry Davis-Waste Water
Theresa Daniels-Finance
Fifteen-Year Employees:
Jessica Mann-Dispatch
Jodi Allen-Finance
Twenty-Year Employees:
Cynthia Silva-Municipal Court
Kasey Presson-Fire Department
Neal Gardner-Animal Services
Next on the agenda was to hold a public hearing regarding the substandard structure located at 1014 McCullough, to which Code Enforcement Officer Jeff Kennedy spoke about the property.
“I’ve lived here about 25 years, and that property has always been pretty bad. I went through it and there’s not really much you can do to save this. It’s been run down for many years and is a blight on the community. I’ve had quite a few complaints coming from people in that general area of people staying in there during the winter. It looks like it could end up leading to a fire, or it could cause something worse due to the growing vegetation in the back. We would all like to recommend that you go ahead and let us condemn the property and remove it.”
With no further discussion, the public hearing was closed, and the commission ordered a 30-day demolition order regarding the substandard structure.
Next was to hold a public hearing regarding the substandard structure located at 1018 McCullough, to which Jeff also addressed this property.
“This one here is the same, just right next door. It’s been 20+ years, it’s pretty rough. It actually has worse issues with it, and walking through it, I can’t say much more about it other than we want to condemn this one too.”
With no further discussion, the public hearing was closed, and the commission ordered a 30-day demolition order regarding the substandard structure.
Next was to hold a public hearing regarding the substandard structure located at 502 North Starkweather, to which Jeff addressed this property.
“There is no one to contact about this property. I sent out a certified letter on it and contacted people that I could reach out to from my past job at Rent-a-Center that knew the original people who owned it. I would probably say about 15 years ago, my guys made deliveries to this place and it looked just as bad then. So this one needs to come down. It is extremely dangerous and getting it taken down is going to be some work.”
With no further discussion, the public hearing was closed, and the commission ordered a 30-day demolition order regarding the substandard structure.
Next items on the agenda was to consider approving the minutes of the November 24, 2025 regular meeting, consider excusing Commissioner Reed from that meeting, and approving the list of disbursements dated October 2025; all were approved.
Next was to consider adopting Resolution No. R25-029, granting a utility easement with Southwestern Public Service Company, which was approved.
Next was to consider approving a request from Jason Bagwell to replat Lots 1-16, Block A, Bagwell Blessings to the City of Pampa.
“Jason Bagwell sent in this request several weeks ago to replat a portion of property that he is getting ready to develop which is exciting for the City of Pampa,” said City Engineer Luke Raber. “The existing property is known as Briarwood Unit 4. There’s 12 properties there and Jason is proposing 16 properties on this section. This will tie in everything from the Briarwood Church there on Randy Matson all the way up to 18th which will create a new street to tie all that together and allow for that development to occur.”
“What does that do to the size of the housing that’s going to move?” asked Commissioner Wendi Horst.
“The size of the housing depends on what he wants to build. It would still have to follow the regulations we have in place.”
“So will it extend Lynn Street up to 18th?” Commissioner Brian Doughty asked.
“Yes. He owns the southeast corner that touches Randy Matson, and that’s part of the potential future development there. In order to connect all this as you build, you have to have a street that runs in front of the property. You can’t just build a random house and not have a street to it. That’s part of his plan is to build out Lynn Street across to 18th.”
“What will that do to the property values of everyone that live on the street as it is, will it change?” Wendi asked.
“Not really. It might help even a little bit.”
With no further discussion, the commissioners approved the item.
Next was to consider and approve the Interlocal Agreement with Hemphill County Hospital for 911 Dispatch Services.
“Several years ago when we took over dispatch from the county, we incorporated their dispatch into ours and started doing that,” Shane said. “Hemphill was part of that, EMS was part of that, but since that time, they’ve expanded their service area into Carson County, Groom, White Deer, and Skellytown, and it caused an increase in workload on the dispatchers and all that they have to do. So we approached the Gray County EMS about that and told them it was no longer a fair situation and we needed to negotiate an agreement. We spent several months talking back and forth and we settled on this agreement where they will pay us $25,000 a year for the additional dispatching services we do for them. Technically, they request $100,000 a year from the City and the County as a stipend, so what that will mean is we will pay them 75 net instead of the 100.”
With no further discussion, the commission approved the agreement.
Next was to consider on first reading Ordinance No. 1829, granting Atmos Energy Corporation a franchise to construct, maintain and operate pipelines and equipment in the City of Pampa, which was approved.
Next was to consider and approve the items on the consent agenda which included:
Awarding the bid to Robert Blalock in the amount of $500 for the delinquent tax located at Lot 8 Block 2, Hillcrest Terrace, commonly known as 412 Crest; awarding the bid to Fabian Isael Soto in the amount of $1,000 for the delinquent tax property located at Lots 19 and 20 Block 1 Routson Subdivision, commonly known as 1016 Clark & Lot on Clark; awarding the bid to Jorge Torres in the ammount of $1,500 for the delinquent tax property located at Lots 11 & 12 Block 1 Talley, commonly known as 736 N. Christy; and awarding the bid to Fernando S. Mendez in the amount of $3,000 for the delinquent tax property located at Lot 8 Block 3 Benedict Addition, commonly known as 416 Lefors, to which Code Enforcement Director Cary Rushing addressed the commission.
“These are four properties that we have had issues with in the past, and they didn’t sell in the last tax sale. We have to wait six months and then they go on the struck off list. We were lucky enough to get bids on all four of these properties. It’s a great idea to get these properties back on the tax roll. I know they have already started cleaning up one of them around it and that’s a good thing. That one had been an issue since I came to work here in 2012.”
“I learned that those properties when they go up to the courthouse steps to go on sale and no one bids on them and they don’t sell, they go on a struck off list and the back taxes are struck off. When these people buy those properties, they owe zero tax for back taxes, and then they start paying regular tax,” Mayor Mike said.
“Typically at the courthouse sale, they try to get the back taxes at that point,” Shane added. “They’ll set a minimum bid to cover those taxes for all the taxing entities. If they don’t sell, they’ll go six months before they get struck off. As opposed to sitting delinquent and vacant for years, we’re happy to sell those to whoever we can for whatever we can get to get them back on the tax roll, and to get someone living in them and taking care of them.”
“You mentioned one of these houses had been an issue since you’ve been here; is there a process where you follow up with these buyers?” Brian asked.
“Not usually. Some of them when they go on the struck off list and they are bad enough, we will go in and take care of them. We are technically the owners, so some of those will do that. But none of these houses are really that bad. They do have the potential where someone can buy it and move into it in the next few months.”
With no further discussion, the commission approved all items on the consent agenda.
The commission then went into an executive session, and upon reconvening, moved on to the next item on the agenda; consider appointing members to the Panhandle Alliance for Safer Electricity (PASE) Board. The members are Commissioner Jimmy Keough, Fire Chief Kasey Presson, City Manager Shane Stokes, and Mayor Mike Borger. The appointments were approved.
The final item on the agenda was to consider cancelling the December 22, 2025 meeting, which was approved.
With no further actions to be taken or discussions to be had, the meeting was adjourned.
