While a few more “t’s” need to be crossed and “i’s” dotted, the city is very near to obtaining leasing rights to property in the downtown area.

At the regular monthly meeting of the Bullard City Council Tuesday, June 8, Bullard City Manager Larry Morgan said the city and the Texas Department of Transportation are close to an agreement regarding prop- erty formerly used by the railroad through the downtown area of the city.

“TxDOT and the city have entered a contract,” Morgan said.

Morgan said the city will likely agree to a long-term lease for the property west of Houston Street, including the area south of Brook Hill School to north of Bullard High School. The city may use some of the area for trails and park-like landscaping.

In other business, Bullard Police Chief Gary Don Lewis said he and his staff have been quite active.

“We’ve had a very busy month,” Lewis said. “We’ve had 30 arrests and that’s astronomical for us.”

According to Lewis, 12 of the arrests were drug-related.

The Bullard Police Department also conducted a “sting” operation to determine if area businesses were selling tobacco or tobacco products to minors.

“No stores sold tobacco to our kids during our tobacco sting,” Lewis said.

A good portion of the June meeting was dedicated to the city’s budget, first to remind council members that city administrators are working on the 2010-2011 budget.

“It will be a very conservative budget,” Morgan said.

Secondly, the council considered the financial report with Randy Gorman, the city’s accountant.

After considering several budget items, Bullard Council Member Shirley asked Gorman, “So, overall we’re under budget?”

Gorman confirmed that the city is under budget for 2009-2010.

Also, Brian Capps, the city engineer, said there may be additional problems with getting construction on the new wastewater treatment plant started. According to Capps, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which hosted a hearing regarding a complaint about possible effluent water runoff from the proposed plant, was informed by an additional governmental agency to reconsider the complaint despite the fact that TCEQ ruled in favor of the city during the initial hearing.

The request likely will cause more delay in starting construction of a new plant.

On the regular agenda, the council approved executing an annual agreement with the Bullard Community Library ratifying council financial support; approved a bid for a bar screen at the sewer plant from the low bidder, Capps- Capco Construction; approved payment of $1,325 to Capco Engineering for engineering services; adopted the general penalty ordinance; approved payment of $2,314 to Smith County for the city elections; approved authorizing Morgan to enter an agreement with TXU Energy to supply electricity; did not act on accepting bids for roadway improvements on Hickory and Willow streets.