Published: August 20, 2008 08:25 pm      

Hargrave named BC interim police chief

BRIDGE CITY — City council members met behind closed doors for nearly an hour Tuesday night to discuss the vacated chief of police position.

Although no action was taken during the meeting, Jerry Jones, city manager, announced Wednesday afternoon that Maj. Joey Hargrave has been selected as the official interim police chief. Hargrave has served as the unofficial interim chief since Steve Faircloth announced his sudden decision to retire Aug. 12.

Jones said the city will post the job “in house” first and then begin posting the position with local media outlets and other law enforcement sources.

During Tuesday’s city council meeting, council members held a public hearing to discuss the proposed ad valorem tax rate of $0.48700 per $100 property valuation.

The new proposed rate is $0.01602 less than the previous ad valorem tax rate.

With the approved tax rate, the owner of a house valued at $100,000 would pay $487 this year, compared to $503 last year. However, the amount of taxes paid could be more if appraisal rates increased compared to last year.

“We have been able to increase our tax revenue over the last year, mainly because of new construction,” Jones said.

According to information provided during the council meeting, this year’s fiscal budget will raise $81,563, or 4.3 percent more than last year. Of that amount, $37,703 is tax revenue to be raised from new property which has been added to the tax roll.

Jones also said city council has been able to provide a 5 percent pay rate increase for all city employees too.

“We’ve been able to give our employees smaller raises in recent years, but we thought it was time to give them something a little more this year,” Jones said. “Given the rising cost of fuel and the inflation which has been happening, it was the right thing to do.”

In other news, city council also heard the second reading of a new city ordinance providing traffic control devices at several intersections along North John Street.

“A lot of people living along North John have complained about the flow of traffic since we began work on Ferry Drive and closed it to traffic,” Jones said. “We are putting up stop signs at cross streets along North John to interrupt the flow of traffic. These people were just having a hard time getting out of their neighborhood.”

The new stop signs will affect traffic flowing down North John at the intersections of Dobbyn, Warner, Quincy and Morris Streets.



Reach this reporter at 409-883-3571, Ext. 2619 or tmann@orangeleader.com