On Monday, September 22, the city commissioners held their last meeting for the month of September, opening with public remarks, in which Mr. Abraham approached the commission.
“I just wanted to give you a couple points of random data. The LSPSS 25,000 miles of distribution lines, if you had a spacing of 200 feet between poles, then it equates out to 28 poles per mile, so it comes to 650,000 poles in their system. On some of their data, it’s 600,000, so it gives you some idea of their normal replacement schedule at 3,000, it takes 200 years to replace all their poles, and 7,000 would take a little under 100 years. Their inspection process based on their 2012 settlement with the PEC was started at the beginning of 2009. It’s a 12-year process, so they should’ve finished it in 2021. None of the poles in Canadian were inspected until 2022. The pole that fell wasn’t inspected until 2024 and it was the first time it was inspected and had been installed in the 1950s. That’s just some added information.”
Next was to hold a public hearing regarding the property located at 725 E. Kingsmill, in which Code Enforcement Cary Rushing spoke about the property.
“725 E. Kingsmill is unsecured and is in need of some real TLC, but I don’t believe anyone is willing to do it at this point. I believe 2015 was the last time it had utilities, and we’re the only ones doing any upkeep. We would recommend it be condemned and demolished.”
“The car there-were you able to locate the owner?” Commissioner Brian Doughty asked.
“I’m not sure where he is on that process. That’s about another 45-day process which usually work out during this to make sure the car is gone before they demo the house.”
With no further discussion, the public hearing was closed and a motion was made to order a 30-day demolition order regarding the substandard structure, which was approved.
Next was to hold a public hearing regarding the property located at 953 Barnard, in which Cary also addressed the commission.
“953 Barnard is an eye sore in that neighborhood. We’ve taken some down in that neighborhood in the past, this is just a continuation of taking care of the ones that need to be removed. No one has taken care of it, it has overgrown weeds and is really a problem for the neighbors and needs taken care of.”
“Do you have any information about the inside,” Doughty asked.
“I believe that’s the one where he encountered a beehive on the porch, and that was as far as he wanted to go. Working in the winter time eliminates a lot of that issue, but if it is still there when we get to work, we will take precautions and get someone to remove them.”
“But we are 100% certain nobody is occupying that house?” Doughty asked.
“It has not had utilities since 2007.”
With no further discussion, the public hearing was closed and a motion was made to order a 30-day demolition order regarding the substandard structure, which was approved.
“Cary, I might ask you that as we’re approving the demolition orders on these, do you have a schedule on that as to what properties are next for demolition?” Mayor Mike asked.
“We usually put them in a spreadsheet and notify the guy at the landfill and he starts working on them. It’s usually in chronological order and where they are and consideration of other things.”
“We typically try to sweep the city by wards one at a time, unless something is priority then it gets moved up,” City Manager Shane Stokes said.
Next was the PampaFest Board with a report on the success of the 2025 PampaFest.
“So PampaFest as you know takes a lot of work and we have a board of great people that helps put everything together,” Board Treasurer Alissha Jefferis said. “This year, we had around 2,000 in attendance. The biggest thing that I would like to talk about is the expenses it takes to run this event. It’s a lot of money that runs through Pampa and our area. This year, we had $180,000 in expenses. The largest part of that is for the bands of course. But within that is money through our local restaurants, the hotels, and different things that we were able to spend that money to move it back through Pampa. We paid for food, hotels, advertising, our toilets, insurance, banners, police, security-all of that is used locally except for things that we can’t use locally, and then we go through Amarillo. With the money that we bring in through PampaFest, we are able to help some of the local organizations that volunteer their time and make a donation to them, and we also give scholarships to local high school students.”
“A few of the bigger projects that we’ve done include the mural down next The Sparrow’s Nest, we’ve renovated Brunow Park by doing the landscaping and planting all the flowers there, we’ve paid to have all the Christmas lights put in downtown during the holidays, and we re-roofed the gazebo across from the Schneider House because it was just about to fall down,” Board President Misty Baten said. “The Pampa sign that is on the old theater that the Pampa Sleep Store owns-he funded a lot of that as well, but we helped him with all the expenses for the electric to get that sign installed. We do give back to the VFW and everybody that helps with our organization and bring those in. If you see any areas of opportunity for us next year, a project that you can think of, please let us know because we would like to support something that the City would think is a good idea.”
“How did the festival compare this year to last year?” Mayor Mike asked.
“I think numbers grew. We did change some things up this year. It was kind of funny because we were at the event and I told Alissha that things were going a little too good. But it truly was so seamless and so much easier, just the whole process was easier to manage. I don’t know what the dynamic was, but we did outsource the bars that eliminated the work that our board members typically do. I think that was one of the big things we saw.”
“Overall, it just seems like things went easier and it flowed better. It wasn’t near as stressful for the board as it usually is, but I do think we were able to grow and every year we’ve been able to do better and get a little more organized and work out the kinks.”
“I think it’s great,” Mayor Mike said. “I’ve been involved in some concert promotions and festivals, and people don’t realize the amount of work that’s involved and the risk you’re taking with weather and sketchy bands.”
“It’s a lot of risk to take on, but one of the biggest things is we charge $40 and I think a lot of people think that’s outrageous, but we don’t sell enough tickets to pay for all of these expenses at $40 per person. If it wasn’t for the local sponsors, we wouldn’t be able to do this. It takes the sponsorship money coming in along with the ticket sales, the bar sales, and even the vendors paying their fees to be able to make money or break even. We couldn’t do it for less than $40 per person.”
“Since we provide five bands, I don’t feel like it’s too bad. And another thing is if some people can’t afford the $40, we have volunteer options. If you come and work for four hours-taking tickets, doing trash, anything-you get a free ticket. So there’s opportunities for people to come if they can’t afford the $40. We always need volunteers to make this work. We can’t do it with us ten people. We have people every year that come and help us the Friday night before to set up, which is a process in itself, and those people get to come in the next day for free. It’s a good trade-off.”
“Did your revenue drop by outsourcing the bar?” Shane asked.
“I don’t think that hurt our revenue too much. I think the biggest thing that hurt was the cost of expenses this year. Our expenses was through the roof-$180,000 is a lot of money. The sponsorships were down a little bit as opposed to other years, so putting that in with expenses for bands going up and the sponsorships down, that contributed to our revenue to decrease. The bar wasn’t that big of an issue.”
“It worked out great and thank you so much for accomodating our last-minute request to change that. We also didn’t have to pay for the insurance to cover that-they carried their own and they carried their own permits which also relinquishes the liability from us as well. That was a big plus for us. The event insurance alone went down from not having to cover that.”
“We’re not sure what next year looks like, but we’re obviously hoping to continue things on and we have a lot of work to do. We do have some board member openings, so if you are interested in that, and we would love all of your insight as well if you know anyone. Just have them email us or message us on the PampaFest Facebook page.”
“Do you know what the stage cost?” Commissioner Keough asked.
“Twenty thousand dollars. And just to expand on that, we have to pay a fee for each different band that’s on there. I know there’s been a lot of complaints in the past about us not having all local bands on there, but it doesn’t matter if they’re a local band doing it for free or we’re paying them $2,000 or $50,000, we still have to pay the same fee. I think it ended up being $22,000 after we added in all the extra stuff, but that’s a huge expense. I don’t think people understand that we have to pay that extra fee on top of that to have that many bands.”
“So they charge for set up and sound for each?” Mayor Mike asked.
“Oh, yeah. Our team back here were the ones who helped flip the band in between. We have to provide that service in the contract, so during the bands, we’re back there hauling one band’s stuff off the stage to get the other on.”
“I had so many people telling me how great it was and it was really well done. It’s really great for Pampa,” Mayor Mike said. “A lot of people came who aren’t from Pampa, so they got to see how cool our town is.”
“I didn’t get the final numbers for this year, but last year we had over 500 people that were outside the Pampa zip code. There were people from Miami, Canadian, Amarillo, and Lubbock, but we had people from Dallas, Colorado, North Carolina and Nebraska. We had a group of ten men who came for a bachelor party from Arkansas to Pampa for their party.”
“It’s also become a class reunion event. We had three class reunions this year, one held their event inside PampaFest where they rented a space and set up. It’s kind of like a Pampa community reunion as well, which has been really fun.”
Next on the agenda was to approve the minutes of the September 8, 2025 public hearing and regular commission meeting, which was approved.
Next was to excuse the absence of Commissioner Reed from the September 2, 2025 public hearing and regular commission meeting, which was approved.
Next was to consider approving the list of disbursements dated August 2025, which was approved.
Next was to adopt on the second and final reading Ordinance 1826, setting a tax rate of $.703304 per $100 valuation on taxable property for the 2025-2026 fiscal year and levying an Ad Valorem Tax on all properties subject to taxation within the corporate limits of the City of Pampa, which was approved.
Next was to consider ratifying the 2025-2026 City of Pampa Operating Budget and Tax Rate adopted, recognizing the budget will require more revenue from property taxes than the budget adopted last year, which was approved.
Next was to consider approving the Gray County Appraisal District’s 2026 Operating Budget, with Chief Appraiser Tyson Paronto addressing the commission.
“On behalf of the appraisal district, I do want to express our gratitude for the cooperation from the City of Pampa and the high level of support you guys offer and provide for the Gray County Appraisal District. It’s greatly appreciated. Our budget this year does not have just a copias amount of changes in it. The easiest way to go through this is to go through the comparison part. This first category is personnel services where we did propose an increase of $31,241 in overall salaries, a $3,584 increase in retirement, a $454 increase in FICA, a $6,000 increase in our health insurance, a $1,000 decrease in our license fees and dues. With a total category increase of $40,280.”
“On the salaries and wages, is that increase of $31,000 for additional employees or raises?” Commissioner Doughty asked.
“It was a cost of living and comparison to appraisal districts of our size in our area, so that’s how we got those numbers.”
“The next category is supplies, materials, and equipment. The first one we did have a change in is printing for $1,500 and then postage decreased by $3,500, with a category total of $2,000 decrease. The next category is contractable services, we did have an increase in equipment maintenance. Our consulting fees which are our complex property appraisals-pipelines, compressors, plants, things of that nature-did increase $2,000. Our accounting services increased $2,000, our FTP storage site increased $60, the Mac services did increase by $1,500. So all that together netted a $6,260 increase in that category. The next one is our utilites, and the only increase we projected there was in our natural gas for $450. The last is other expenses and we did not project any kind of increase in this category, netting a total budget of $911,724 compared to 2025’s budget of $866,612. We have excess revenues left over from our 2024 budget. We just got those released to us, so we’re going to use that excess revenues from that to offset any kind of funding of the budget. So the adjusted budget total this year is $856,375. I know in the past we liked to give you an idea of what that nets in your contribution, so last year it was $148,287.01, this year will be $139,284.79. So looks like your quarterly contributions will be right at $34,821.20.”
After no further discussion, the budget was approved.
Next was to consider approving the Pampa Economic Development Corporation and Pampa Energy Center 2025-2026 Operating Budget, with PEDC Director Ryan Bradley addressing the court.
“The EDC is expected to receive $1.4 million in sales tax revenue. This is an anticipated increase of roughly 7% from previous years. We are obviously expecting growth. One thing we did differently this year is we are presenting our budget in two sections. The first is an operating budget that shows how we are conducting our business against the sales tax revenues and the second is the expenditures. We are sitting on cash reserves, and this year we will be pulling some of those down for deployment into the community. We expect that to be $750,000 on top of an additional $200,000 that is going to go into the Beautification Committee and the Workforce Committee. The next is the personnel budget; we have increased that from $286,000 to $374,000 which is a 5% merit increase for our employees as well as to hire an additional person.”
“In regards to the Energy Center, we have continued to grow over the last several years. Most notable this last year, we’ve had the partnership with Duos as well as the departure of Flogistix. We have received multiple inquiries regarding access to facilities, lease options for existing spaces, and data centers and power generation. We’ve been quite busy this year, and if you look at our finances, you’ll see our legal fees increased because of that. We did make some changes to the board: Ted Hutto resigned in February and we have brought in Nathan Bailey from Hunting/Titan and he has accepted the role as Treasurer on the board. The PEC site is the former Celanese site and we advertise as the PEC North and the PEC South, the north being the north side of 70 and the south being the south side of 70. Proman and Rampa have continued their leases for rail storage. Attebury Grain was acquired by Heartland, so Rampa is a subsidary of them and through that transition, we were able to come to an agreement against the previous frameworks and costs so we have no change through that transition. As everyone is aware, Flogistix has chosen to centralize its location in Yukon, Oklahoma. They are currently working through that departure. What our board for both the PEDC and Energy Center is to focus on heavy industry, manufacturing, chemical processing, and those sorts of things. As far as the money goes for the previous ten months has been $2.3 million with an annual income of $1.3, the expenses at $1.2, and we expect to be $1.4 by year’s end, which is the end of this month. We expect it to grow over the coming years and we’re setting aside capital funds at the EDC to invest into the facilities.”
Next was to consider approving the amendment to the Interlocal Cooperation Agreement for the Provision of Ambulance Services with Gray County and Hemphill County Hospital District and authorize the City Manager to execute said agreement, which was approved.
Next was to approve the consent agenda items as listed:
Reappointing Cade Taylor, Heath Parker, Lynn Allison, and Bino Facio to the Board of Adjustments for a two-year term beginning October 1, 2025, and ending September 30, 2027; consider reappointing Kevin Jefferis, Bobby Burns, Josh Crawford, and Kevin Redding to the Construction Board of Appeals for a two-year term beginning October 1, 2025 and ending September 30, 2027; consider reappointing Jerri Erickson and Sarah Doucette to the Lovett Memorial Library Board for a two-year term beginning October 1, 2025 and ending September 30, 2027; consider reappointing Audrey Meaker, Harold Price, and Rachel Schmidt to the Planning and Zoning Commission for a two-year term beginning October 1, 2025 and ending September 30, 2027; consider reappointing Russ Alexander to the Hidden Hills Golf Advisory Board for a two-year term beginning October 1, 2025 and ending September 30, 2027; and consider reappointing Adam Zuniga and Chris Vainrib to the Hidden Hills Golf Advisory Board for a two-year term beginning October 1, 2025 and ending September 30, 2027; all were approved.
The last order of business was to state the proclamation for the PampaFest Board of Directors, and it reads as follows:
‘Whereas, the City of Pampa recognizes the importance of community events that bring citizens and visitors together to celebrate music, culture, and local spirit.
And whereas, PampaFest has become a signature event for the City of Pampa providing entertainment, economic impact, and a showcase of community pride.
And whereas, the PampaFest Board of Directors has dedicated countless hours of planning, leadership, and volunteer service to ensure the success of this annual festival.
And whereas, the commitment and collaboration of the PampaFest Board of Directors has not only enriched the cultural life of our city, but also strengthened the bonds of fellowship among residents and visitors alike.
And whereas, the City of Pampa values and appreciates the vision, energy, and contributions of the PampaFest Board of Directors in making PampaFest a highlight of our community calendar.
Now therefore, I, Mike Borger, Mayor of the City of Pampa, Texas by virtue of the authority vested in me do hereby proclaim my gratitude and appreciation to the PampaFest Board of Directors for their outstanding service to our community.’
