City of Brock / Brock West
update
We have been having joint Commissioner meetings on the 3rd Monday of each month starting at 6:00pm at
the lecture hall at Brock High School. We meet with Brock West Commissioners
because we have the same direction for both cities to proceed forword. Please
come if you have a chance.
We have
had 3 partials of property in the Canyon Creek Ranch HOA voluntarily annex their
property into Brock. I was the first because even though we have a court
settlement stating that Weatherford would not encroach to the West past Dennis
Road, I have been in on all the negotiations and I wanted the protection of the
City of Brock and Mrs. Hicks our attorney who can fight for me if for some
reason our neighboring city decided otherwise. My voluntary annexation moved our
Extra Territorial Jurisdiction (ETJ) East to the west barrow ditch of Dennis
Road. It does not include the paved portion of the roadway. The other two
properties that voluntarily annexed into Brock are both on Duncan Court. If you
haven’t voluntarily annexed into Brock to protect your property and want to let
Bill Cooper know 817-313-7233 and he will get you the document and explain it to
you. It is only a form to fill out and attach the legal description of your
property and sign it. It is then put on the agenda at a regular scheduled
meeting and voted on by the commissioners and added into the city. This is
strictly the land owner’s decision because you are in the ETJ but do not receive
any city protections if you are not in any incorporated city limits or have any
voting power for the city. All other homes in Canyon Creek Ranch including those
3 on Duncan Court, a portion of Country Place, Comanche Crossing and a portion
of Canyon West are in the City of Brock.
Currently
both cities commissioners have voted to present a petition to our residents to
place on the May ballot a vote to conduct the voluntary merge of both cities
into one which will be called Brock. This merge will allow us to apply for and
be eligible for government funds such as grants etc. if needed, but mostly it is
what we told everyone we would do back when we first started. We need 100
signatures on the petition to let the voters decide if we should merge with
Brock West. As like anything we do, it is up to each of us to make the decision
for Brock as a whole.
This
merge also will require the same action by the citizens of Brock West. Both
cities will have to put it on the ballots and both will require it to pass. I’m
hopeful this happens. Both cities have the same goal for our
citizens.
I truly
believe it is the right thing to do for our community and hope you will support
our effort to keep Brock – BROCK, Rural and a great place to live and a school
district everyone is proud of.
This
merge would link our area west to the area on 1189 including the Olive Branch
community, Young Bend Estates, all the business areas along 1189 going into
Brock West, (the area we all have considered Brock) from interstate including
the school areas.
It would
require that one of the 2 mayors vacate their position as well as adding 2 more
commissioners, and I would hope to merge the commissioners into one council. The
Secretary of State rules for this type of merger if voted by both cites to do,
would bring the mayor and council of the city with the largest population to
remain seated into the newly formed Brock Texas. I would anticipate that it
would be the wishes of that board to bring those from the smallest city over
since whoever that might be has a good working relationship on the tasks at
hand. Our goal is still to operate from Franchise taxes and sales taxes, No
Property Tax!
We have
had dialog with Tri-County concerning franchise taxes which I have seen on my
bill already which I for one am glad to see to help out with what few bills we
have. It was only a couple of dollars but right now it all counts.
Both
cities voted in the increase in sales tax bringing us up to the 8.25% like all
the cities around us. If we had not claimed this increase being an official
city, any city within our county could have claimed that increase if we had not.
Great job by the people of Brock.
Everyone
representing the two cities are volunteers except for our legal counsel
Eggleston / King with Mrs. Sharron Hicks is our counsel. They have been very
lenient with us knowing we do not have any revenue coming in, but know the
people of Brock are worth fighting for. Our attorney has worked tirelessly for
months defending the people of Brock, we could not have had any better
support.
We
currently have about $15,000.00 in debt that is including legal fees, (over a
years’ worth of work), an outstanding debt with the elections department who
apparently miss calculated the expense of our November election and a bill we
have not received for our official boundary map which is required by law.
Once we start receiving our taxes we will be paying our debts and
will be in good shape. We are still accepting donations at First Financial Bank
under the account of Brock Development.
We will
be doing an inter-local agreement with our County Commissioner, Mr. Larry Walden
who will continue to assist us with what few roads we have. We will be paying
for materials at a discounted rate from what a private person would pay a
private company and with no equipment to buy. A great deal for us. All HOA’s
will continue to keep up their own roads.
The City
of Brock is very blessed to have the citizenry we have. It has been a tough
battle to protect what is ours but everyone gathered together and made a bold
statement, “Not in Brock”. I could not be prouder to have been a part of this as
I know each of you are. Not many people can say they were part of incorporating
a city. I also want to thank the staffs from both Comanche Crossing and Canyon
Creek Ranch for all their help in distributing this to each of you. Thanks so
much for all your help.
