The city commissioners held their bi-monthly meeting earlier this week, beginning the meeting with a public hearing regarding the 2024 Consumer Confidence Report for the Pampa Municipal Water System and the Water System at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Jordan and Baten Units, where Public Works Director Gary Turley addressed the commission.
“The Consumer Confidence Report went into effect in 1998 and back in those days, we printed this out, stuffed them into envelopes and mailed them out to the citizens. But over time, we’ve made it available on the website. So on your water bill, you should see a line that says, ‘Go to www.pampaccr.com’, and you can look at the current CCR online. This report has all the minerals, residuals, and monthly bacteriological samples that we take like the lead and copper results. It has all kinds of information about the drinking water.”
“How is our water? Is it improving or staying the same?” Mayor Mike asked.
“It’s great. We’re a superior water system again,” Gary answered.
Next item was to hold a public hearing regarding the substandard structure at 829 Barnes, where Code Enforcement Officer Jeff Kennedy provided information on the property.
“We have tried to make quite a bit of contact with the owner of the property, but we have not made any contact at all through letters, phone calls, posts on the door. We tried to reach out to other family members, but nothing. On this particular house, I couldn’t get into the structure. It is leaning and you cannot go into it. As you look at it, it’s a danger to the kids in the neighborhood and our first responders can get hurt as well if they go in there. It’s a blight on the neighborhood and the structure has no potential. I ask you all for permission for us to go ahead and condemn the property.”
With no one coming forward to speak on the property, the public hearing was closed, and the commission issued a 30-day demolition order for 829 Barnes.
Next was to hold a public hearing regarding the substandard structure at 742 Malone, where Code Enforcement Officer Jeff Kennedy provided information on the property.
“On this particular one, I tried to reach out to somebody that owned the property, and I did track down the family who’s in Canada. I never got anything back. There has not been any water in more than eight years, and if you look through the pictures, there’s not a suitable bathroom with a toilet or a sink. It is a dangerous structure. Same thing with our first responders and children-if they get in there, they could get hurt. Again we ask you guys for permission to condemn the property.”
With no one coming forward to speak on the property, the public hearing was closed, and the commission issued a 30-day demolition order for 742 Malone.
Next was to hold a public hearing regarding the substandard structure at 721 Malone, where Code Enforcement Officer Jeff Kennedy provided information on the property.
“This one here is a little bit different. There’s been notices posted on the outside of the home and they were removed by someone on two different occasions. I’ve sent the owner certified letters and did not receive anything back. On that particular one, there is no full bathroom, no kitchen, and you wouldn’t be able to put windows in there because they would fall right out. It’s in advanced stages of deterioration. I can’t think of what you could do to save it. It does have a public safety risk. There’s all kinds of insects and bugs in there and it was showing signs of mice and rats. I would definitely like to entertain the motion for you guys to condemn the property as well.”
Commissioner Wendi Miller Horst asked if once the structure is condemned, it is owned by the City so the previous owner can’t try to sell or do something about the property, to which the answer was the City holds a lein on the property after condemnation.
With no one coming forward to speak on the property, the public hearing was closed, and the commission issued a 30-day demolition order for 721 Malone.
Next was to hold a public hearing regarding the substandard structure at 838 Malone, where Code Enforcement Officer Jeff Kennedy provided information on the property.
“I’d like to tell you we had a good battle on this one, but we’re a few years to late on it. This particular one is owned by someone who lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. We reached out to them, but there’s been no contact. We’ve sent certified letters to them trying to track down any next of kin, but nothing on it. Just within the three months I worked on this, the whole roof has collapsed just in that short period of time. You can’t really get around it, so if it was to catch on fire, I don’t know how the firefighters would be able to even get to it. There’s nothing really left in it, there’s no floors, and it’s just really dilapidated. It probably wouldn’t take us very long to take it down, and that’s why I would like to ask you guys to go ahead and let us condemn it so we can help clean that neighborhood up a little bit.”
Wendi asked if there could be any fire training done with the properties that are considered condemned and City Manager Shane Stokes said that sometimes they do use them for training, and they had just recently used one on Highway 60. But it all depends on the state of the structure and the risks associated with it.
With no one coming forward to speak on the property, the public hearing was closed, and the commission issued a 30-day demolition order for 838 Malone.
“I would like to just thank you all for doing this and helping make Pampa safer and helping beautify our town,” Mayor Mike said. “I know you’re taking your life in your own hands when you inspect some of these properties, and I would like to just convey my appreciation to you.”
Code Enforcement Manager Cary Rushing advised that anyone who sees a building that looks abandoned and poses a public risk to reach out to his office or on the City of Pampa app.
Next was a report from Assistant City Manager Dustin Miller regarding the 2025 Independence Day Celebration.
“This is a joint event with the Chamber and now the EDC has joined with us, so it’s a joint effort to pull all this off. Cortni and Cambree at the Chamber do a ton of legwork on this to make it happen and Ryan Bradley at the EDC, I just want to recognize them. The initial idea for this event was twofold: Number one, why were people leaving Pampa to go to other towns for a 4th of July celebration? And two, can we pull this off and just have free family fun? That was our intent from the very beginning, and I think we’ve stuck with that and it’s been successful, and that’s why the event goes so well. Our goal is for them to be able to spend the entire day out there without having to spend any money.”
“This year, we had ATS Tree Service who provided 600 hamburgers and even more hotdogs for free, so even if you wanted to spend the day out there, you could have a meal out there for free this year. This is the fourth year and it’s quickly turned into the largest single-day event as far as population numbers go for an event in Pampa. We used to block off the campsites we needed for food trucks, and we learned we better do that the first week in June because the campsites are usually full. That’s probably our only ruckus we have is people wanting the campsites.”
“We met with the committee for the very first time this year in January. We probably had 20 or so there, so people are getting more involved which is just what we want. We want this to have a life of its own and everybody taking care of their own little thing and it just happens. The one thing I did want to point out is that Canyon has a very large 4th of July celebration, and they had an event with probably 70-90,000 people in the square. They did have someone arrested who had bad intentions for the parade, and I hate to publicize anything like that, but it’s a good time to point out why we prepare for events like this. Unfortunately it’s the day and age that we live in that we have to prepare for the bad as well as the good. We met down with the EOC, emergency management, the fire department, ESU Pampa, and dispatch EMS to come up with an incident action plan. This is also a good time to point out this is why a couple of years ago we started the event permits in the City. We were prepared for literally anything. Kudos to those people who all step up and make sure people are safe. That is our number one goal always.”
“I just want to thank donors who gave their time, money or gifts. It’s hard to be creative for the 4th of July every year, but this year we had the daytime fireworks that was successful other than the wind pretty much all day long. I would like to thank every city department who had a hand in helping. I’m grateful to anybody that did what they did to make this all happen.”
“Lastly, a lot of people ask if it was successful and they want to know numbers. I would say yes. Last year we had about 10,000, this year we had over 11,000. It never felt overwhelming, it’s just a great space to have an event like that. We had no incidents and we had a great day. We did have a fire at the end of the night, but the fire department had it out in about 15 minutes by the end of the night. But everything was really great.”
“We were out there and it was great, but getting out of there that night was a bit of a challenge. Were you aware of that?” Mayor Mike asked.
“I think it’s always a challenge. ESU has worked hard and TxDOT has created a new center lane on that highway as well, so this year was the first year of the new highway out there. I think it will be better in the future.”
“Unfortunately you have to pick a direction to go when you’re exiting people out of that one place and we sent them all westbound back up 60,” Brian Massey said. “The problem we had is it used to be two lanes, but now it’s down to a single lane. We had to utilize the shoulder and kind of create a makeshift merge lane just past the entrance to the armory. Unfortunately that’s the problem with Rec Park-there’s two entrances and two exits out of it, and either way you do it, you’re going to have traffic flow problems. It’s definitely something we can look at and see if we can do to maybe speed that up, but ever since we started this event out there, it’s the same thing. I think it’s the same for the rodeo when it releases at night. You just have traffic problems.”
Next on the agenda was the 2025-2026 Budget of Enterprise Funds presented by Finance Director Theresa Daniels.
Next was to approve the minutes of the June 23, 2025 Regular Commission Meeting, which was approved.
Next was to consider adopting Resolution No. R25-19, the updated Gray County Hazard Mitigation Plan, which was presented by Emergency Management Coordinator, Troy Schwiegerath.
“This is basically a program that happens every five years, and the reason we want to do it is because you can’t get FEMA funding or reimbursement if you don’t participate in the program. We willingly do it because we think it’s necessary.”
“We take everything in this plan seriously and we generally already have plans in place. We are following all the recommendations on there.”
“I just want to point out that Troy is a firefighter by heart,” City Manager Shane Stokes said. “This is not a fire mitigation plan, it’s an all-hazards plan. It deals with flash floods, everything you could possible think of. It’s a very valuable document and tool for us.”
Next on the agenda was to consider adopting Resolution No. R25-020, authorizing the Mayor to enter into an Interlocal Agreement with Panhandle Regional Planning Commission for E9-1-1 Public Safety Answering Point Services; which was approved.
Next was to consider approving on first reading Resolution No. R25-021 approving the Economic Development Agreement between the Pampa Economic Development Corporation and Shimmels, LLC, to which PEDC President Glennette Goode addressed the commissioners.
“I’m proud to present a project that reflects the values of service, community, and local entrepreneuers, Shimmels LLC., locally known as T-Shirts and more located at 111 W. Kingsmill Avenue. Today I’m excited to share a project our board is supporting. Shimmels, DBA T-Shirts and More is proposing an expansion of their existing facility not just in scale but in purpose. Alongside their printing operations, they plan to build a vibrant event space designed specifically for our town’s young people. A place where our youth can gather safely, creatively and socially. They also plan to make it available for rental for community members for parties and local events. It’s their way of reinvesting in Pampa, not just economically, but socially. We all believe that stronger connections lead to stronger communities. The PEDC is offering a funding package of $15,000 to support this launch. These funds will assist in building renovations and startup costs. The business owner is also contributing private funds to establish a strong foundation and shared investment in the venture’s success. The project has been reviewed and approved by the PEDC directors. In accordance with bylaws, we held a hearing on June 19 at 5 PM during which no public comments were submitted or voiced. This reflects both transparency in our process and a positive reception from the community. We believe this projects aligns with our broader goals of supporting local businesses, revitalizing commercial space, and encouraging regional commerce. Shimmels is a locally-owned business and has been printing Pampa’s stories on T-shirts for many years, whether it’s a school spirit design or athletic jersey. They have been here helping our town. Today I ask for your support in their effort to expand their facilities to better serve the youth of our community. I appreciate your time and consideration.”
Next was a word from T-Shirts and More’s owner, Kaleb Snelgrooes.
“So in the very back of our store is an area that we’ve already come through and gutted, and it’s a functional space. Having two young boys at home, I always want to know where they’re at. So knowing people in this community who have young ones, they want to where they’re at. So we have an outside door in the alley that we want to make where it has a keypad and a fab system to where we can rent it out or we use the term ‘open gym’ for athletics. I kind of got the idea when my son says, ‘we’re going to so-and-so’s house to spend the night’, and he walks out and he’s carrying a TV and an XBox. I ask ‘what are you doing carrying a TV?’ So I want to have four TVs in the backroom and have four Xboxes and they all can meet and play there. We have arcade games around the sides and it’s just a place where they can go and hang out. This is kind of the smaller version of Weekends or the bowling alley. Church groups, superbowl parties-just a place to have fun. I told the EDC this is a passion project. I just want a place where families and kids can go.”
The resolution was approved.
Next was to consider authorizing the City Manager to submit the Subdivision Participation for the Purdue Direct Settlement, which was approved.
Next was to consider awarding the bid in the amount of $737 to LaRue Trowell, Sr. for the delinquent tax property located at 1073 Varnon of Prairie Village, which was approved.
The commission then went into an Executive Session, and upon returning with no further items to discuss, the meeting was adjourned.
