Alderman total increased to 5

By RANDALL ALLEN

HORIZON Reporter

CELINA-Residents here will now pay lower taxes in the upcoming year, after the City of Celina Board of Mayor and Alderman passed a one-year tax relief amendment at their June meeting last week.

Before the vote, mayor Luke Collins spoke about taxes being lowered.

“This is pretty rare and something you don’t hear of very much,” he said. “It is to cut the property tax in half for one year.

“It will be giving some money back to the people.  It is the people’s money of course.”

The mayor told the board this year’s city budget was “healthy” and said “the city could certainly do this for one year.”

An increase in sales tax revenue was cited as a reason for the healthy fund balance.

The tax cut was accomplished with the passing of a series of two motions.

The first motion approved the 2nd reading of the 2024-2025 certified tax rate of 0.8732.

The second vote was to institute the one-year tax relief in the amount of 0.4366.

Both motions were unanimously approved by city aldermen.

Other business

In other business, alderman unanimously approved the second reading of the 2024-2025 city budget.

Bids were also opened for the purchase of a dump truck.

Two bids were presented to the board—one for a 2005 International dump truck in the amount of $32,980 and another for a 2010 International dump truck in the amount of $35,000.

After hearing feedback from city maintenance workers, who recommended the 2005 dump truck with a bigger bed, alderman Brittany Kerr made a motion to accept the bid for the 2005 model, and it passed unanimously.

Additionally, the purchase of a skid steer was tabled until a later date.

A brief discussion about the possible sale of the old dump truck then ensued, but the item was not declared as surplus during the meeting.

Alderman Kenny Westmoreland also made a motion to change the number of aldermen to five members in the future, expanding the city board from their current three members.

Kerr seconded the motion and alderman Justin Rich voted no. The motion to change the number of aldermen to five passed by a 2-1 voice vote.

Alderman also unanimously approved the adoption of the 2018 IECC Energy Code and amendments to the 2018 edition of the International Building Codes.

They then chose to raise new sewer tap fees from $700 to $1,500, and approved raising the bid limit to $12,500–both by unanimous votes.