A new council member and proposed tax rate were on the agenda at the regular meeting of the DeKalb city council last week.
Tom Ward was sworn in as the newest council member Tuesday night. He was appointed by unanimous decision to replace the seat left vacant after the announcement of SaraBeth Walker’s resignation at the July council meeting.
“We had several, in fact every one of the candidates that applied, are more than qualified. This was an extremely difficult decision and I’d be honored for any of them to be part of this council,” David Meadows said.
Ward was nominated by Meadows.
Ward is a graduate of DeKalb High School and of the University of Texas-Arlington.
Additionally, the council unanimously approved a public hearing for the 20252026 proposed tax rate. The hearing will be held at the council chambers on September 2. The hearing will give the residents inside the city limits of DeKalb the opportunity to address the council on two proposed property tax rates.
The current rate is $0.456199 per $1,000 of assessed property value, which provided the city a revenue of $471, 505.66.
State laws do not allow a municipality to increase revenue from property taxes by more than 3.5-percent without voter approval. According to the Bowie County Central Appraisal District, the assessed value of proper-ty within city limits has risen by about $7 million since last year’s appraisal.
Keeping the current rate would increase revenue by more than the allotted threshold.
To keep within the law, the city has two lowered rate proposals to look at, said Mayor Lowell Walker.
A “no new revenue” rate of $0.43896 would generate an additional $2,466.03 over last year.
The city also proposed a rate which would add revenue to the city but keep it below the state’s mandated threshold. A rate of $0.448245 per $1,000 would increase the revenue by $21,922.68.
The council will vote to adopt a property tax rate at their regular meeting on September 9.
In other business, the stop signs for east- and westbound traffic at the intersection of West Grizzly Drive and Beadie White Street will be temporarily removed.
The DeKalb Independent School District petitioned the council to remove the signs to allow for easier flow of traffic while construction is underway in the U.S. Highway 82 expansion project. Beadie White Street is one of the roads currently closed to traffic between Highway 82 and Grizzly Drive due to construction.
The temporary removal of the signs will allow traffic to better flow during student pickup and dropoff at the James L. Germany Middle School, DISD Police Chief Chad Ford told the council.
The signs will be replaced when Beady White Street reopens.
