Category: Lytle City Council Meetings

By Anton Riecher
An ongoing struggle with AT&T regarding credit due following the cancellation of internet communication services with the city of Lytle may require legal intervention in the future, the Lytle City Council learned Monday.

Frontera Concepts president John Garza told the council that AT&T has not been forthcoming with billing credit due after the city opted to move internet communication to Rise Broadband last July. Frontera handles IT support for the city.
“We’ve made no progress up to this point other than we have submitted every piece of documentation we can possibility submit to them,” Garza said.…

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By Anton Riecher
An 80 percent tax abatement on real and personal property associated with the proposed Project Cinco hyperscaler data center located in the city of Lytle’s extra territorial jurisdiction was unanimously approved by the Lytle City Council Monday.
J.P. Newmann, representing Rowan Digital Infrastructure, issued the following statement after the vote.
“Rowan’s Cinco Project represents a transformational investment in the Lytle community, and we are thrilled by the city council’s vote of confidence in our project,” said Martin Romo, senior director of economic development and external affairs. “With this approved agreement, Rowan looks forward to continuing our work with local leaders to redefine digital infrastructure development and unlock tens of millions of dollars in direct economic benefit to this community.”
On a motion by District 3 Alderman David Emery, seconded by District 4 Alderman Michael Rodriguez, the council voted 5-0 to approve the abatement agreement.
However, Emery asked that the city’s legal staff review the abatement agreement before final action to make certain any reference to an original request for a 100 percent tax abatement on personal property be removed from the final document.
The abatement agreement covers the first 10 year of operation…LOGIN TO CONTINUE READING at www.devinenewsmembers.com. You will get instant access to our full E-edition, and begin getting the newspaper delivered to your home next week for $36 a year in Medina County. Support important local city, county, and school news like this!

By Anton Riecher
An agreement with an engineering consultant to update mapping of the water and sewer system in Lytle was approved by the city council Monday during its regular monthly meeting.
On a motion by District 3 Alderman David Emery, seconded by District 4 Alderman Michael Rodriguez, the council approved an agreement with San Antonio-based Cobb, Fendley & Associates for phase one of a two-phase project to update the city’s capital improvement plan.
City Administrator Zachary Meadows said the first phase will cover general mapping of the city’s water and sewer…LOGIN TO CONTINUE READING at www.devinenewsmembers.com. You will get INSTANT online access to our full E-edition, and begin getting the newspaper delivered to your home next week for $36 a year in Medina County. Support important local city, county, and school news like this!

By Anton Riecher
A host of new capital projects drove down the amount of cash on hand at the end of the 2023-2024 fiscal year by a small amount, according to the 2023-2024 municipal audit presented to the Lytle City Council Monday night.
The audit, prepared by Armstrong, Vaughn and Associates, was presented to the council by auditor Jacob Twomay.
“You did have less cash at the end of the current fiscal year,” Twomay said. “This is because you spent a lot of money on a lot of new capital projects that you’ve been working on. I’m sure you’ve seen the construction going on throughout town.”
The decrease in available cash amounted to $36,000 from the previous fiscal year, “not a very large decrease in terms of what you have on the books, but it was still a decrease,” he said.
Despite the decrease, the city continues to show growth in sales tax and property tax revenue, Twomay added.
“There’s been a lot of expansion here along the highway (Interstate 35) with new businesses and new buildings coming in,” he said. “That helped increase your sales tax and has been a great boom.”
However, the audit shows that the city’s expenses increased as well, Twomay said.
“The main thing I would note was your professional fees grew in the past year along with your salaries and wages,” he said.
Those increases are to be expected with the effort to retain the talent on the city staff, Twomay said.
“You’ve got to incentivize them to stay,” he said.
Twomay also noted that the increase in property taxes, while healthy, was not as much as had been expected.
“You were actually over budget in revenue overall, especially because of your sales tax, which was over budget by $232,000,” he said.
Mayor Ruben Gonzalez, who works as Medina County veterans services officer, asked if the expected increases failed to take into account tax exemptions for disabled veterans moving into the area. Twomay said that was possible.
“Depending on how the freeze works, over age 65 and disabled veterans, those freezes will kind of keep your tax value down, which keeps your revenue from increasing as much as you would probably expect, or as much as the market would say,” he said.
As is standard procedure in many communities, the council elected earlier this year to bring in a new auditing firm after a five-year stint with Armstrong, Vaughn & Associates. Gonzalez noted that the auditors had worked closely with city staff to bring financial bookkeeping up to date.
The books were as much as three years behind at one point before the auditing firm came on board, city finance director LaNet Hester said.
One area that Twoney noted that still needs work is the number of bank accounts main…LOGIN TO CONTINUE READING at www.devinewsmembers.com. You will get INSTANT online access to our full E-edition, and begin getting the newspaper delivered to your home next week for $36 a year in Medina County. Support important local city, county, and school news like this!

Filing opens January 15, 2025 and end at 5:00 pm on February 14, 2025 at the City of Lytle office, 14916 Main St..
The City of Lytle operates with a Mayor-Council form of government. The council consists of five Aldermen that each serve a single member district.
The City Council’s primary duty is policy making. The council identifies the needs of the city’s residents and provides programs to meet the changing requirements of the community and measure the effectiveness of ongoing services in the city. See qualifications for becoming a Council member at lytletx.org.