Robson Ranch Roundup – October 2017

The Denton City Council passed the ad valorem property tax rate of $0.637856 per $100 of evaluation for 2017-18. That is a $.045484 reduction.

From 2016 to 2017, my city property taxes increased $3.50. At the same time, enough money was saved to add five new police officers while maintaining the same level of service to the City of Denton.

City Manager Todd Hileman and his staff deserve major thanks from the citizens of Denton. In addition, major changes have been taking place both in personnel and procedures.

The new fire station at the corner of Cleveland-Gibbs Road and Old Justin Road is progressing to completion in summer of 2018.

The road is completed from 407 to Old Justin Road.  The road was completed by the developers building homes. The section from Old Justin Road to Robson Ranch Road will also be completed by two developers, but this will not happen for 2-4 years.

Good news is the distance from the fire station to the main entrance of Robson Ranch is 3 miles which will have a positive effect on our home insurance. Harvest Road will also connect FM 407 and Robson Ranch Road at a later date.

The City Council will be interviewing candidates for a new Electric General Manager on October 20.

A committee to determine what to do with the empty building, City Hall West is being formed. It will consist of three persons appointed by each of the seven City Council members and three from the City Council: Gerard Hudspeth, John Ryan and myself. Committee meetings will be open to the public and citizens are encouraged to participate.  If you are interested in being on the committee, especially if you are an architect, please contact me.

The new Denton Energy Center (DEC) is over 50% completed. Six of the natural gas engines are installed and the other six are arriving after delays due to Hurricane Harvey.  I am in the minority thinking DEC will be a big winner for Denton. Of course, Robson Ranch gets their power from CoServ.

Previous City Council approved a “mining” operation in the older city dump. A lot of equipment has been purchased and employees had been hired, but the project had not started. Earlier estimates of the sale of material from the mining were grossly overstated. This City Council stopped the operation, will use equipment elsewhere and assign employees to other jobs.