We mailed letters to non-profit organizations in the community notifying them of the recent change to donations from the City for all non-profit organizations. Beginning January 2026, the City will begin accepting applications for the City's fiscal year 2026-2027 budget. All non-profit organizations requesting funding from the City have until April 30th to submit an application to the City Secretary by email or in person if they intend to request City funding to supplement their organization's annual budgets.
The Parks and Recreation Department spent a large part of the week trimming trees hanging into the streets and blocking stop signs. If anyone notices a specific intersection where stop signs are blocked by low hanging tree limbs, please let us know. The Director for Parks and Recreation also met with District Representatives for Boy Scouts of America to begin allowing them to utilize the Activity Center for regular meetings.
The First Responders and the City Manager participated in a "Wreaths Across America" wreath laying at the Veterans and First Responders Memorial on Monday.
I participated in a TXDOT Transportation Master Plan Focus Group on Monday to review near-term plans for TXDOT improvements in Jack County and the City of Jacksboro.
We completed an inventory of all planes that are permanently stationed at the Jacksboro Municipal Airport. This inventory is required to ensure that airports have a minimum number of planes "hangered" at municipal airports in order for those airports to receive federal and state funding. The City has worked very hard over the past ten years to ensure we have both the facilities and the required number of planes assigned to our airport in order to receive future funding.
We sent a letter to Representative David Spiller encouraging him to support funding during the next legislative cycle for fire department funding specifically for rural training facilities. The goal of the rural fire training facilities is for the State to build fire training facilities for rural fire departments that will reduce travel costs and time for rural fire departments. The creation of rural fire training facilities will allow small departments to send full-time and volunteer firefighters to training within a few hours travel.
Distribution and Collection responded to twenty-two (22) calls for service, to include water leaks, wastewater issues, or trash receptacles.
The Water Treatment Plant met with the engineers that are planning the new Water Treatment Plant. In addition to looking at the schedule for the Treatment Plant, they also reviewed an ongoing "Water Loss Study" completed by the engineering firm to develop plans for water conservation.
The Building Inspector and Code Enforcement Officer conducted five (5) inspections. We also held our weekly Code Enforcement Meeting to discuss on-going code enforcement issues.
We want to CONGRATULATE Chief (Grandpa) Jeremy Jennings, and Chief (Grandpa) Jerry Penny. Both of them became grandfathers this week. This is actually the second time in a week that Chief Penny has become a grandfather. Both of their daughters and grandchildren are doing well. We are proud to have three new members of our City Family.
Our Employee of the Week is Taylor Foster. Taylor is one of our newest employees and currently works in the Water/Wastewater Distribution Department. Effective January 1, 2026, Taylor will transition to the Wastewater Treatment Plant as one of the two operators at the plant. Taylor has done an outstanding job in Distribution and Collection, and we look forward to see all the positive improvements he will make with the Wastewater Treatment Plant.
As a reminder, City offices will be closed December 24 - 26 in observance of the holidays.
The City will hold a Special Called City Council Meeting on December 22, 2025, to discuss a new contract with Waste Connections. That will be the only item on the agenda. The next regularly scheduled meeting will be January 12, 2026, at 5:30 PM.
Respectfully,
Mike S.
MICHAEL R. SMITH, Lt Col, USAF (ret)
City Manager