[Marlin Democrat] -- Maines hired as Director of Public Works

Maines hired as Director of Public Works
By Denise Schoppe
Staff Writer

The Marlin Democrat
July 20, 2005

Despite the elimination of 21 positions within the city of Marlin, a new Director of Public Works was hired at the July 12 regular session of the City Council meeting to oversee the changes being made within the city and to ensure that current and upcoming projects are completed efficiently,

William T. Maines recently retired from the City of Waco, and has come to Marlin as the new Director of Public Works.

Maines has ties to Marlin. He attended school in Marlin, and he said he has eight generations of his family buried in the city.

"This is home," he said. "I want come back and help."

According to a memo from Holly to the city council, Maines will receive a salary of $40,000 and he will start immediately.

The memo said that Maines has over 31 years experience in public works and water utility design, operation and management. For the last 20 years, he has managed main line construction, fire hydrant testing and maintenance, surface water treatment, wastewater lift station maintenance, heavy equipment selection, repair and maintenance, warehousing and purchasing.

Holly said that in doing a background check on Maines, his peers said the city is lucky to have him on board. Holly said that Maines was the "go-to person" while in Waco.

Maines has an Associates of Applied Sciences degree in Civil Engineering Technology, a Class "A" Water and Class "B" Wastewater Treatement License and is a Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission approved water utilities instructor.

Maines said he believes that if people are trained correctly to do a job, it doesn't take as many to do it.

[Marlin Democrat] -- Council approves city reorganization

Council approves city reorganization
By Denise Schoppe
Staff Writer

The Marlin Democrat
July 20, 2005

Twenty-one city positions were eliminated and one of the two city fire stations closed during the Marlin City Council regular meeting held Tuesday, July 12, when the council approved the reorganization of the city.

"It was something had to be done," Norman Erskine, Marlin Mayor, said. "This was not an easy decision, but it was a decision that was necessary."

Reorganization of the city became necessary when a shortfall of $377,879 in revenue for the 2004-2005 fiscal year was discovered due to refinancing the current water and sewer debt service and lawsuit settlements from previous years.

Though 21 positions were eliminated, 12 were already vacant due to attrition. Due to the extreme nature of the city's lack of funds, it was agreed that the nine employees were to be given two weeks notice instead of the originally proposed 30 days.

"This is a radical change and I was hopeful to achieve this through attrition and not be in the position to have to lay people off, " Randall Holly, city manager, said. "Out of a soft spot in my heart I proposed giving those laid off a month, but the pure business need is to go with two weeks."

Holly stressed that once the city is able to put some of the positions back in place, those people that were let go would be given first chance to be rehired.

Within those positions being cut are three fire department personnel. It was voted that the fire department be given 90 days to make the cuts to allow for training with the volunteer fire department.

Cutting the department by three employees makes it necessary that the city rely on the volunteers when fighting a fire. Training will be held to teach the volunteers to use the city's equipment and to create a new list of protocols to be followed in an emergency.

Holly assured the council that concerns for the insurance rates of Marlin residents and businesses had been researched, and he said that with the agreement to have the assistance of the volunteers there will not be an increase in the cost of fire insurance.

With the elimination of three firefighters, it is not posssible to keep both stations open. Therefore it was agreed that Station 1, located next to city hall and across from the Falls County Courthouse, be closed and all operation occur out of Station 2 on Live Oak.

The decision was based on response time in the case of a train blocking the department's way across town.

"If we were operating from Station 1 and a train blocked all crossings, response time to the center of the southeast quadrant of Marlin would be approximately seven minutes," Holly said.

He explained that Station 2 is closer to the areas of Marlin that have the greatest danger of a fire spreading quickly and that all areas of the city will be able to be reached within four minutes.

Included with the reorganization of the city was the elimination of the parks and recreation department. The elimination of the department was possible through contracting out the mowing of cemeteries and parks to an outside company.

Premier Lawn Care out of Waco was awarded the one year contract after being the lowest bidder at $48,000 a year.

There were six bids submitted with a range of $48,000 to $175,225. Among the bids was Lawn Tech out of Marlin, but Holly explained that legally they have to take the lowest bid, or throw all bids out and start over. Due to the city's need to move forward with its plans to reorganize, the bid was accepted by all five council members present.

To help oversee the changes made within the city, a new Director of Public Works was hired.

William T. Maines recently retired from the City of Waco, and has come to work for Marlin as the new Director of Public Works. He will receive a salary of $40,000.

Following the reorganization, figures show the deficit lowered to $36,879 thanks to the elimination of city positions and additional water revenue. Holly explained that the figures also include a bonus program that will not be implimented for another two years, and that he feels confident the changes made will be sufficient to get the city through its current monetary crisis.

In other action, the council accepted the low bid from Jerry Wally Construction out of Lumberton, Texas, for the 18" transmission main replacement as part of the rebuilding of the city's water system. The bid was for $881,477.96 and will be paid by the EDA grant the city has received.

[Marlin Democrat] Column -- Sand in an hour glass...

Sand in an hour glass...

Nise's Notes
by Denise Schoppe

The Marlin Democrat
July 20, 2005

Time, I've decided, is a relative thing. It is relative to what is going on around a person. This is a pet theory I play with out of humor.

The old adage that, "Time flies when you're having fun" is all-too-true. It seems as if in a blink of an eye, hours have passed and you're left wondering where all the time went. Similarly, though, when you're left with nothing to do, time seems to elongate. Minutes feel like hours. Hours feel like days.

It all has to do with the perception you have about what you are doing at any given moment.

I've decided that time balances out by giving us equal amounts of instances when "time flies" as to when time seems to slow to a crawl. It's balanced within our individual lives as well as within the everyday world. I'm having a long day at the same time someone else has a day that goes too quick. Therefore, time stays steady across the globe.

Do I have any scientific basis for this theory? No, I don't, and nor do I take it seriously myself.

However, I decided to take my curiosity to the internet and all the brilliant people that hang out on that world wide web. Surely someone else has had the same theory at some point.
As a child we all learn in school that a minute is comprised of 60 seconds. An hour is made of 60 minutes. A day, 24 hours. A week is seven days. Etc.

We consider time to be a constant. The ticking second hand on a wristwatch is steady and reliable. These facts were reiterated in most of the sites I visited, until, of course, I found myself emmersed in Einstein's Theory of Relativity.

I found myself emerged in points and distances. How motion effects time.

I found posted on a message board the simpliest explination I could find:

"A person always measures time, for themselves, to pass at 1 second per second. How they measure time passing for another person, depends on the relative velocities between the two people, and any acceleration (or gravity) present. If they're moving, their time will move slower. Whoever is experiencing the acceleration will have time pass slower (they will always measure it as 1 second per second) which is the only way you'll measure someone's time to be passing faster than you're own (you are accelerating, they are not). "

This is why I became a writer and not a scientist. I only understood about half of it. The rest, I'm sure I learned in my physics class in high school. However that was too long ago to remember.

I scrolled down the page a little farther and found that someone actually had given a lot of thought to time passing quicker as you age. They actually explained it mathematically:

"When you are 4 years old, one year is 25% of your life - hence one year is more important and passes more slowly. When you are 50, one year is only 2% of your life."

I concluded upon all of my findings that my theory isn't really that far off. Time as a constant is true. Everyone spends the same number of days in a year, and we all experience 60 seconds in a minute. We all reach January 1st on the same day. However, due to our perceptions, of that time feels different or everyone.

I'm not a scientist, nor do I claim to be one. I still hold on to my little pet theory for humors sake, but I can now acually discuss it with some real knowledge.

And just think... this all spawned from time seeming to pass too slowly one day.