VISD trustees donate lots to city for economic development

The Vernon Independent School District board of trustees met last Monday for a regular business meeting.

In action items, the trustees signed over VISD’s interest in two parcels of tax foreclosed properties. The properties, located at 2802 Bacon, and 2804 Bacon, were signed over to the City of Vernon on a motion from trustee Chris Lehman. Superintendent jeff Byrd said the city plans to hand the two properties over to the Business Development Corporation as an incentive to recruit a business, such as a new truck stop, to be built on the old Gibson’s lot.

The trustees approved a resolution request sanctioning the Wilbarger County 4-H Organization as an extracurricular activity, and an agreement for Wilbarger County Extension Staff to be considered Vernon ISD adjunct faculty. Byrd said both had been approved in the past. He said the current staff would be Landgon Reagan and Jennifer Trufan. He said if the Extension adds new staff, the trustees will need to come back and approve them as well

The trustees, on a motion from Kevin Young, approved a request from Western Trail Wind to waive the minimum new job creation requirement from six full-time jobs down to 2 full-time jobs.

Also, on a motion by Young, the trustees approved the extension of a phone contract with Austen Consultants.

Trustees discussed the 2021 Wilbarger County Appraisal District’s adopted operational budget. Byrd said the final number of what VISD’s percentage of the CAD budget has not been set, as Chief Appraiser Sandy Burkett was still waiting on some entities to set a tax rate. Byrd guessed it would be about 40 percent of the CAD budget, whuich was set at $561,367.51 for next year.

“They went up substantially,” Byrd said, so even though VISD went down on its tax rate, it would probably still mean VISD paying more to the CAD. He said if the district’s percentage was 40 percent, then VISD’s portion would by around $224,000 – an increase of $15,000 to $20,000 from the current  year.