City council reports Council renews contracts of judge and prosecutor

One of the first agenda items at last weeks city council meeting dealt with the city audit for 2014 The City of Howe contracts LaFollett and Abbott PLLC of Tom Bean for the auditing purposes

Rod Abbott first stated that the city received a modified opinion, which is a so-called clean opinion with correct balances

"As far as the auditors report, there are no issues there " said Abbott

In the summary, the firm recommended that the city council and management continue to cut expenditures as necessary, raise rates as necessary, closely monitor available cash, and closely monitor budget versus actual revenues and expenditures

City Administrator Joe Shephard told The Howe Enterprise that anyone intersted in seeing the audit can stop by City Hall

Howe Police Chief Carl Hudman reported that the police department answered 257 calls to service, nine felony arrests, and 13 misdemeanor arrests They also generated 33 offense reports, investigated two accidents and issued 89 traffic citations

David Wortham of Public Works told the council that they had 51 work orders, five leaks including a large one in front of Quick Check He stated that they were grateful to Van Alstyne and the Howe Fire Department who assisted

Economic Development Director Monte Walker stated to the council that he's staying in touch with major commercial real estate brokers

He reported that the former Dairy Queen building should be finished with reconstruction by September and stated that a new business could be in the property as early as then.

Walker told the council that Abbington Meadows Apartments Construction Manager says that the outlook is for a September move-in date

He reported that howetexas org, which is the website for the Howe Development Alliance had 709 visits from 667 different visitors in the last 30 days He reported that 24% were from Texas and 8% were from California Walker also said that a new store will be going downtown to replace Salvage Junky, who moved to Denny Street.

The City Council approved another two year term for Howe City Prosecutor Laura Wheeler and Howe Municipal Judge Larry Ashley.