Gainesville — The Gainesville City council is one step closer to approving the Gainesville Economic Development Corporation’s $400,000 incentive package for Gainesville Cinema, LLC after hearing from GEDC Coordinator Kent Sharp at Tuesday night’s council meeting.

The council took no action on a resolution approving GEDC cash incentive plan to the Gainesville Cinema, LLC. The resolution is expected to appear again on the council’s Sept. 21 agenda.

In the meantime,the council heard an update on the plan to bring a $14 million 900-seat theater to Gainesville.

The GEDC approved the incentive plan during its August meeting.

Sharp pointed out that in order to get the incentive package, the cinema owners must build the theater and obtain a certificate of occupancy within two years.

He also said he expects the Gainesville theater to feature first-run movies and to compete with other cinemas in Denton and Grayson counties.

In other matters, the Council voted to approve a consent agenda that included minutes of the Aug. 17 City Council meeting, the appointments of Tom James, Joe Wallace and Keith Clegg to the GEDC Board. The Council also approved Frank Morris’ appointment as ex-officio to the GEDC Board and the appointments of Bonnie Slack and Tina Morgan to the Cohen Endowment Board.

Mayor Glen Loch noted that there’s approximately $1,500 in the fund which can be used for scholarships.

The council also voted on a resolution casting ballots for candidates for the Texas Municipal League Intergovernmental Employee Benefits Pool Board of Trustees.

“The city along with many other Texas cities is involved in an intergovernmental risk pool. Instead of having formal insurance through an insurance agency, we all went together to have a risk pool that pays out like insurance if something is to happen (during) the year such as an accident. We go to this risk pool to cover our costs and it also covers our liability and workers compensation,” City Manager Barry Sullivan said.

Every six years, terms become open on the board.

Sullivan recommended Mary Geyer and Kevin Carruth for Places 6 and 7 on the board.

He said he doesn’t have a recommendation for the other two open positions on the board.

Loch recommended Odessa Mayor Larry Melton for Place 8 on the board.

The council unanimously approved casting ballots for Geyer, Carruth and Melton.

Next, the council opened a public hearing on the proposed budget for the city’s budget for fiscal year 1020-2011.

“When we budgeted this year, we recognized that we were losing $30 million worth of property value (within) the city limit and that was an impact of about $131,000. On top of that, we budgeted for a flat sales tax,” Sullivan said.

The city’s overall budget is around $28.5 million.

“This is a balanced budget,” he said, adding that the city budgeted an additional $100,000 for a contingency fund.

He also noted that the tax rate reflects a property tax decrease of 2.1 cents per $100 dollar valuation.

In addition, Sullivan said he’d like to clarify the definition of the term effective rate.

“The effective rate is the rate that it would take us to bring in the exact same amount of money as the previous year,” Sullivan said.

The tax rate is 64.7, Loch said.

The council then voted to close the public hearing. The Council will take action on the tax rate at the Sept. 21 meeting.

The council also unanimously approved authorization of an annual bid for rental uniforms under Buy Board pricing. The vendor for the $30,580.68 uniform rental contract is UniFirst.

Sullivan pointed out that contract is for city worker uniforms and does not include police or firefighter uniforms.

The council then voted unanimously to award a bid for the purchase of some energy efficient washers and dryers for personal protection equipment for the Gainesville Fire Department.

The washers and dryers are not typical household appliances, Sullivan told the Council.

The machines are designed to clean heavy items including firefighter bunker gear. The $22,783 bid went to Ed Brown Distributors.

The council was also looking ahead to the city’s annual Depot Day when it approved the sale of alcohol in the 100 block of Commerce Street during the annual event set for Oct. 9.

On hand to discuss the impending city celebration was Main Street Board Manager Lynette Pettigrew. Council approved the resolution for alcohol sales between 10 a.m. and midnight Oct. 9.

In addition, the council voted to suspend the charter and approve an ordinance authorizing the issuance of $4.88 million worth of combination tax and revenue bonds for street improvement projects in the city.

“This $4.88 million bond will be going to replace streets and refurbish streets throughout the city. We worked for over a year now on a street/utility maintenance program where we brought in Kimberly Horn Engineers to put together a plan of what needs to be done to improve our streets. They found a total of 401 projects that needed to be completed,” he said.

He acknowledged that it’s not possible to complete all 401 projects.

However, Sullivan said he and his staff have devised a 5-year plan for improving the city’s infrastructure.

Sullivan also noted that the city’s bond rating has recently improved.

The council also voted to pass on first reading an ordinance amending Chapter 9 of the City of Gainesville code of ordinances.

The city has already abolished the position of health codes officer for restaurant and other food service inspections. The had city hired a private contractor to conduct periodic restaurant inspections at a cost of about $25,000 per year.

Sullivan said he and his staff did some research and discovered that the city can utilize state health code enforcement officers for about $4,500 and $5,000 less than the cost of a private contractor.

The amendment also includes some safety provisions such as giving city workers the right to trim trees that obstruct roadways and hinder emergency vehicles and other traffic, he added.