HUNTSVILLE — The Huntsville City Council on Tuesday voted to authorize the city manager to pursue an agreement with two Montgomery County water utility districts that want to purchase the city's treated wastewater to supplement their water supplies.

Council approved the measure, which could yield sales of two million gallons a day at $100,000 per year, by a margin of 8-to-1. Council member Dr. Tom Cole voted against the measure after asking Carol Reed, the city's director of public works, if there would be public hearings held before any agreement was finalized. Reed said public hearings would be held as a part of the agreement and permitting process. Cole suggested the council's vote be postponed.

The city's treated wastewater is discharged into tributaries that flow into Lake Conroe. The proposed agreement Huntsville would enter into with Montgomery County water districts would be for a term of 40 years.

“That's pretty amazing,” council member Lanny Ray said. “That's creating something out of nothing.”

Reed also gave council members an update on repairs to Huntsville's ground water wells. This included plans to drill a new well on the site of one that has been decommissioned. Drilling the well would take about a year, Reed said, but, because the new well would be drilled on the site of the old well, the infrastructure required to convey water to the treatment plant would not need to be built. City Manager Bill Baine reminded council members that the new well would not add capacity but restore what the water volume previously produced by the decommissioned well. That well had produced a high quantity of water — about 1,000 gallons per minute — and Reed said she expects the new well to produce a similar volume once it's operational.

At a work session before the regular session, council members discussed a proposal by the Huntsville Independent School District to construct a driveway to help circulate traffic leaving the Huntsville High School campus in an easterly direction from the school with the goal of reducing congestion on FM 2821. HISD's proposal includes coming up with the materials for construction if the City of Huntsville would provide about $60,000 in labor. The Texas Department of Transportation has approved construction of the exit.

Cole questioned why HISD could not fund the project without city help since the district's $52 million budget “dwarfs” the city's operating budget.

“Didn't the superintendent just get a big raise,” said council member Jack Wagamon, “while city staff are sucking wind?”

Ray said that Montgomery's salary was not the issue and added that the current arrangement “creates a clot” of traffic in the morning and afternoons at FM 2821. Council member Mac Woodward said the exit that empties traffic east toward Highway 19 doesn't relieve the situation given that a percentage of the traffic loops back around to head west on 2821.

Council member Wayne Barrett suggested the city discuss a traffic master plan with HISD to determine if the proposed exit would really solve traffic flow problems at the high school.

Following work session discussion about the donation of lots through the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, council withdrew a consent agenda item that would have authorized the city manager to donate the six city-owned lots for construction of single family homes for low- to moderate-income residents. The lots would be the sites of new construction, 1,344 square-foot brick homes for sale to buyers who could qualify for low-interest loans.

Barrett questioned the donation of lots on Helen Street in the city, saying the lots were not in a neighborhood that was consistent with the profile of areas described by the NSP affected by foreclosures and abandonment. He cautioned council members about leading the city into “the spec home business” by donating lands in areas that did not need stabilization.

“It's about making a difference in a neighborhood,” he said. “I think that's a very important goal of the grant.”

During regular session, council agreed unanimously to award the bid for construction of NSP and other homes to Tegrity Homes of Beaumont. No local builders bid on the work.

Council member Dalene Zender thanked Sherry McKibben, the city's grant coordinator, for her work on grants that support the NSP and other affordable housing programs. “We are in desperate need of affordable housing for low-income families,” said Zender, a local real estate agent, “and this will provide ad valorem taxes as well.”

The council also authorized the city manager to apply for a Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grants to fund the salaries of four firefighters. If the city wins the $240,000 two-year grant, the new firefighters would be employed by February 2011. The Huntsville-Walker County Volunteer Fire Department employs 13 firefighters in addition to a number of volunteers.

Council members and Baine said they hoped the additional firefighters would put the department at staffing levels closer to recommendations of staffing studies and help lower the costs of insurance. After the grant funds expired, the city would need pick up the salaries for the four hired under the grant, Baine said.

Wagamon compared the city's $775,000 arts and tourism budget with the $1.1 million the city spends on fire department salaries for 16 full-time employees. “We're a city that loves our arts and tourism (but)...we're spending the farm on arts and tourism,” Wagamon said. However, he said, “most of our citizens” would say they'd rather spend more on fire protection than the arts.

Ray said the comparison wasn't apt since $775,000 was the entire arts and tourism budget and the $1.1 million was only the fire department's salaries.

Woodward said he supported expenditures on the arts and tourism.

“Arts and tourism bring tax dollars into the city and county, which in turn funds city services,” Woodward said.

Former volunteer firefighter John Cromer addressed the council during the public input portion of the agenda to advocate for a full-time city fire department of 36 paid firefighters. He said that a department of volunteers, part-time and full-time staff was adequate just for containing a fire to keep it from spreading to nearby structures. Response time is about 10 minutes and about six firefighters typically arrive on the scene to do the work of 10.

“Four (firefighters) is a small (number),” he said. “But it's a step in the right direction.”