Recap By Gary Norman / Mineral Wells Area News
The regular scheduled meeting of the Mineral Wells City Council was called to order on Tuesday, June 3, 2025 at 6:00 PM.
Fire Department Receives Major Donation
Under Agenda Item No. 8, a Resolution was approved accepting a $50,000.00 donation from an anonymous citizen. The donation was made specifically to support equipment enhancements and address operational needs within the Fire Department and will be allocated during the upcoming fiscal year.
Tentatively, the allocation plan includes $9,500.00 for three sets of structural firefighting gear, $6,400.00 for technical rescue equipment, $10,000.00 for replacing aging fire hose lines, $7,000.00 for replacement of flooring at Fire Station No. 2, and $10,000.00 for the repair and renovation of the bathrooms at Fire Station No. 2.
Fire Chief Ryan Dunn commented to City Council that he was approached by a local citizen who commented to him he had done well in his stock market gains and wanted to help the department since he had ties in a different state where his father was the Chief of a fire department.
Chief Dunn stated, “When he wrote the check I was thinking it was going to be maybe fifty or one-hundred bucks. When I saw $50,000.00, it was pretty impressive and pretty incredible, so I wanted to publicly thank him.”
Fire Chief Dunn Applies for FEMA Staffing Grant
Under Agenda Items 11, City Council approved a Resolution authorizing the submission of a grant application to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for a Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant.
If awarded, the grant funds would be used beginning in the next fiscal year to add three additional firefighter/EMS personnel to the Department, one for each shift.
The grant would cover 75% of the costs in years one and two, then 35% of the costs for year three. The projected costs to be covered by the City of Mineral Wells would be $53,327.37 in years one and two, $138,651.14 in year three, then $213,309.45 in the post-grant years.
City Manager Jason Weeks commented, “This year we are doing outstanding in our EMS revenues, probably one of the best years yet, but we want to make sure that this stays consistent. At any point, if we write this grant and we are awarded, we will have to come back with a Resolution to state that we want to accept it. So, if we come back and our revenues are down, and it doesn’t look like we can afford it, we can actually turn away the grant.”
Relatedly, under Agenda Item No. 12, City Council approved a $3,000.00 Master Service Agreement with Lexipol for grant writing services related to the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant applicationapproved under Agenda Item No. 11.
Under the grant, Lexipol will provide the required narrative components of the application while Fire/EMS Department staff will provide the required analytical and operational information.
Funding for the contract will come from the Fire Department’s Professional Services line item. This line item currently has a balance of $293,772.30 of unspent funds due to a third-party ambulance service partnership which will not be pursued during this fiscal year.
Fire Chief Dunn noted the City had been successful in obtaining the grant in 2017 but had not been successful in subsequent years.
He went on to state, “We were missing something in the notice of funding that we were not doing correctly, or we are not hitting the targets they want, so seeking the professional help might aid us. They (Lexipot) have about a 50% rate of success at this grant, and I can’t find any that are doing any better than 50%. The closest I could find was 40% and I am like at ten percent.”
Proposed Fleet Management Program could save City money
Under Agenda Item No. 10, City Council received a presentation by Nick Hardwick of Enterprise Fleet Management regarding how the company’s fleet management program could benefit the City by optimizing the timely replacement of old vehicles.
The presentation noted the age of the 111 vehicles currently in the City’s fleet is having a negative budgetary and operations impact. It went on to illustrate 46% of the City’s light and medium duty vehicles are ten years old or over, 78% of the light and medium duty vehicles are five years or older, and the average age of the entire fleet is 10.67 years. Mr. Hardwick noted the City could save approximately $700,000 over the next ten years by implementing Enterprise Fleet Management’s program.
City Manager Jason Weeks asked for feedback from City Council regarding Enterprise Fleet Management’s programand stated he plans to include the cost of the program in the City’s budget planning process and discussions for the next fiscal year.