The New Boston City Council held their regular monthly meeting on May 21, 2019 at City Hall. All council members were present, as was Mayor Johnny Branson, Chief of Police Garry McCrary, and City Secretary Sharmin Hutto. The invocation and Pledge of Allegiance was led by Pastor Ron Humphrey.
New Boston business owner Charles Patton spoke in open forum, stating that he is proud of the voters in New Boston, the schools, the police department, and 3 Bostons Museum, but he is not proud of the unmown yards and dirty streets and curbs in New Boston. He called for the city government and residents to help clean up New Boston, and offered several solutions to get citizens motivated, such as asking retired residents to help with the clean-up and recruiting the help of Telford inmates. “Doing nothing is a curable disease,” he said, and also stated that he hoped someday New Boston could be referred to as “the cleanest town in America.”
The council voted unanimously to ratify the Mayor’s appointment of legal council, hiring Texarkana attorney Wes Jordan of Jordan Law Firm. Jordan’s firm has more than 60 combined years of legal experience and Jordan himself has extensive municipal experience, having represented New Boston for more than 15 years in the late 1970’s to the mid 90’s.
David Williams updated the council on the progress of ongoing street repairs, striping projects, and grant applications for planned sidewalk projects. Williams reported that the TxDOT Safe Routes to Schools cost-reimbursement program application has passed Phase 1, and New Boston has been selected to go on to Phase 2.
Larry Henderson went in to further detail on footnotes from the 2018 financial audit, again stating that the audit was clean and the city is in “great financial shape.”
