With Christmas right around the corner, several Karnes City departments will be getting new toys to help them do their job thanks to a $120,000 loan that council members voted to assume during their regular Dec. 18 meeting.

The money will go toward the purchase of a new police vehicle, a tractor shredder, and a sewer jetting machine. The four-year note will be paid off at $30,000 a year at 4.25 percent interest, according to discussion.

"It’s achieving the purpose we set out, which was to get the sewer department new equipment and get the police department up to speed," Mayor Don Tymrak said.

Several city residents from East Calvert Street attending the meeting didn’t get their wish granted, though. City Administrator Larry Pippen told them repairing their street satisfactorily would cost too much considering the city will be putting holes in the area again soon.

More sewer work is scheduled there over the next two years and Pippen said any sufficient solution to the dust problem on the now unpaved, caliche road would prove a waste of the taxpayers’ money.

"There is a problem and I wish I had an easier solution," he said. "I’d hate to see the city invest all this money knowing that we may have to tear (the street) up again."

East Calvert used to be a paved road, but an emergency sewer repair about a year ago forced the city to perform repairs that damaged the paving job. Recently residents from the area have begun complaining to council members regarding the dust problem.

"All of us are sick from sinus infections, it’s in our houses, our cars, (and) it’s ruining our air conditioners," resident Esmeralda Solis told council members at the meeting.

Council member Leroy Skloss suggested the city look at getting an estimate for a short-term solution involving crushed rock and agreed to call a special meeting to decide on the repairs once the estimate came in.

Mayor Don Tymrak also introduced a new city employee at the beginning of the meeting. Kevin Moehrig was hired in early December as the city’s new code compliance officer.

Having worked code compliance in Falls City for five years, Moehrig has several water and sewer licenses and will be assisting the city crews with repairs and maintenance when not working to enforce the town’s nuisance abatement ordinances.

Moehrig has been bringing several new ideas to the city since joining on, Pippen said, and one of the big suggestions was to clean up the city government’s property.

"How can we force the citizens to clean up their properties when the city has failed to clean up its own property?" Pippen asked council members.

He said the clean up will start next spring and plans are in the works to include the school and county.