The Gray County commissioners held their bi-monthly meeting this week, breezing through the first items on the agenda which included considering the minutes of the previous meeting, paying the bills as presented by the County Auditor, considering any line-item transfers or budget amendments, accepting the County Treasurer’s monthly and quarterly report, and accepting the County Clerk’s report; all were approved.
Next was to discuss and consider a request from the County Clerk to expend funds from the Records Management Fund for filing cabinets, which was approved.
Next was to discuss and consider approving a contract for operations of a homeless assistance facility at Grace Baptist Church in Pampa, which was approved.
Next was to discuss and consider the disposition or sale of the old FirstBank Southwest Building located at 300 W. Kingsmill, to which City Manager Shane Stokes and Assistant City Manager Dustin Miller addressed the commissioners.
“A couple of years ago, we were notified that we were awarded a USDA grant to the tune of a little over a million dollars,” Shane said. “We didn’t apply for it, and it took us about six months to figure out how it even came to us. Turns out the Texas Tech Health Science Center in Amarillo had submitted an application for an infant and maternal health training facility and clinic, but they were not eligible for the grant. So the grant was awarded to the City of Pampa and this came through Congressman Ronnie Jackson. So here we are with a million dollar grant that is very specific. It has to be for infant and maternal health care and education in Pampa. So we started working with USDA and the Texas Tech Health Science Center and we internally we determined if there was going to be a health clinic or training facility of any kind in Pampa, we need to involve our hospital and they need to have a seat at the table. So we did that and started coming up with ideas on what we could do. We got everybody together a few times and at one time we were going to work with the Pregnancy Support Center and help improve their facility and provide training and have a clinic there, but we found out we couldn’t do that. We have to own the building and we can’t lease or rent the building. It came pretty clear to use that Texas Tech Health Science Center and Pampa Regional Medical Center were not going to play well together. Texas Tech I don’t think wanted PRMC to have any say in it at all. So here we are two years later and we’ve been working more primarily with our hospital and their hope and vision is a mid-town, downtown clinic. The facility would be used for training and educational purposes, and what they’re really shooting for is a clinic that could be opened downtown because they feel like there is an underserved portion of our population on the south side of Pampa that for whatever reason can’t come up all the way north to the hospital. They’re missing those people, so that’s what’s on their mind on what they want the facility for.”
“So we looked around and we don’t have any current facilities that would work and we looked at trying to buy a couple of them but it would eat up the entire grant and wouldn’t have anything left to outfit it. So Chris had mentioned that you kind of had a change of plans on the old bank building and we started talking about that and if that would work, and it would if we owned it. The idea is to build probably a 600 to 800 square foot training facility that would also be a mid-town clinic in that building. The idea would probably on the west side where the walk-in door is and be isolated that way where in and out traffic is on the west side of the building and the parking over there as well. We can use it to purchase a building, we can use it to make improvements in that square footage, and also any commons, parking lot, entries, exits, elevators if it had a second floor-it’s pretty much specific to that facility.”
“To be real honest with you, if this doesn’t work out, we’re probably just going to have to graciously decline the grant-if we can’t find a use for it that fits everybody’s needs.”
“The main thing is we’re just working with the hospital and their needs,” Dustin said. “We’ve discussed a mobile unit at one point, but while it could service outside city limits, it had to come back and be in Pampa by night and we would be responsible for it. There was a concern with our hospital about them coming over and providing services that our hospital provides and we don’t want to undercut their services. They felt a great need for a walk-in clinic and they felt they could one day a week at least start a walk-in clinic, and I think we would offer the same services to Texas Tech if they wanted to provide services on those days it wasn’t being used so they can also be involved in the process. It’s coming to a point where we need to make a decision.”
“We’re obviously not health professionals, that’s why we felt it was important to rely on our hospital as well,” Shane said. “But we have this million dollars and Texas Tech wants to tell us what to do with it and how to do it, and we’ve had a little heartburn with that, but we got our hospital involved. In full transparency, the building is way more than we need for that and the intention of the building other than that would be at some point an expansion of a move of our police department. You guys have been in the basement of City Hall and you know it’s busting at the seams over there. The parking lot was an issue. Chris mentioned that you wanted to keep the north half of the parking lot, and that would be no problem for us. I mentioned to him that I prefer we buy the entire parcel and then do a long-term lease for the north half of the parking lot and do a dollar for 50 years or whatever we need to do to ensure you have use of that. It wouldn’t matter either way if we wanted to parcel it out in two parcels, that would be fine, but I would hate to see that parcel land get broken up. But that’s just my opinion. So that would be the long term goal for the entire building, and it would give us the opportunity to utilize this grant for a clinic and educational center downtown. And I envision that thing would be used for the fire department to have CPR classes, or the sheriff’s office and the PD to have their classes-kind of a multi-use facility, but also for a clinic for the hospital and/or Texas Tech if they wanted to come over. That was kind of our idea when we got everybody together-Texas Tech could have it Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and the hospital could have it Tuesday and Thursday. But we don’t know if that will work because Texas Tech kind of thought that because it was their money, they could do what they wanted with it. But at the end of the day, they weren’t awarded the grant-the City of Pampa was and ultimately we have the say on how it is used.”
“And we have been very transparent with USDA as far as the secondary use of that building just in case that would disqualify or make us repay that grant at some point,” Dustin said. “So they’re very clear on our intentions with that building if we were to acquire it.”
“These grants can be used for a lot of different things, and this one was specifically a facilities grant,” Shane said. “This grant can be used for infrastructure, new fire stations, new police stations, land acquisition, water right acquisition-a lot of things we could actually use it for, but it was applied for a health sciences education facility, so that’s kind of where we are if we want to use this money. Again, we’re not here to ask you guys to give us an answer, just to tell you what are plan is if we get the facility. I’ve told Judge Porter that if not, we’re probably going to decline the grant.”
After further discussion, the commissioners decided to postpone the disposition or sale of the building until a future meeting.
During the miscellaneous portion of the agenda, Commissioner Logan Hudson addressed the court, asking Sheriff JC Skinner to approach.
“IP Meitner who is going to be doing some additional testing in the area specifically on County Road B and County Road D in front of 23, I would advise them that they might want to hire an off-duty deputy to come with them if they are going to proceed. I just wanted to let you know that it may start as early as next week.”
“I just want to make sure before we proceed-you’re not requiring them to hire someone?” Judge Porter asked.
“No, I just suggested they might want to have an armed escort.”
“I also took a tour of the site last Wednesday, and it’s amazing what they’ve got going on out there,” Logan said. “They’re going to try to accommodate us every 30 or 60 days to take a tour and see what all they’re doing out there. I was impressed with the work flow. The guy that’s in charge out there helped build the Denver Airport, so this is a small project for him. They told me they’re expecting to have 4,500 to 5,000 workers at the end of the year.”
“How did the number go from 2,500 to 4,500?” Judge Porter asked.
“They are waiting to get the workforce hub so they can have a place for 2,500 people to stay. This isn’t permanent, it’s just for construction. I listened to the manager tell the project manager if he was sure those numbers were correct, and it is.”
“Has there been a change in how they’re constructing this?”
“The question was asked how fast it was going to be compared to industry standards, and he said twice as fast. I asked why and how, and he said they weren’t doing it in phases-they were doing it all at once. We can’t pour the concrete, send the guys home for 90 days, and then bring them back to pour concrete again. They’re doing each one.”
“I’m not trying to micromanage them, but I’m becoming increasingly frustrated with information from one group and different information from the people who actually know what’s going on,” Judge Porter said. “I’m constantly getting calls from people with bad information and I don’t know where it’s coming from. I was told a couple of weeks ago that they were going to be using eight million gallons of water a day at the man camp in Wheeler County. We have jurisdication over the man camp first of all, and second of all, that would equate 60,000 people out there.”
“As far as the concern as water usage goes, they’re putting in a treatment plant during the construction phase just to handle their constructions workers to be able to reuse it.”
“So it went from a six year deal to like a two year deal?” Commissioner John Mark Baggerman asked.
“They’re still talking three to five years on construction.”
“The last thing I have is Mortensen was asking if there were any projects we wanted there help with because they want to give back to the community. They are a family-owned company and they just asked for input for projects they could help with.”
With no further discussion, the meeting was adjourned.
