Inside City Hall May 21, 2008

Tickets, please.

Citations, better known as "tickets," are not popular with most of us. We would rather not ever get one, for any reason. After working with one end of the process for several months now I could probably rank them in order of their popularity.

The least desired citations are the ones handed out for city ordinance violations. No one has a mean dog or an overgrown yard. "You think this is overgrown, you should see ol’ John Brown’s over on the East side, now his yard is overgrown," is a usual response. Or, "Look at John Brown, his dogs are always running loose, why don’t you pick on him?" Or, "I’m not gonna pay this thing until you bring John Brown into compliance." In this situation John Brown is supposed to be a fictitious character, if there is a real John Brown in Munday, please pardon the use of your name.

Some people take a citation in stride, pay their fine and move on, no grudges or hateful feelings for having got "caught." These are the responsible citizens I wrote about last year. We do have a few of them. However, there are some who totally ignore their responsibilities, to be good drivers or to pay their fines.

At its last regular meeting the Munday City Council not only swore in two new council members, but they also gave their approval for the City to enter into a contract with a law firm in Wichita Falls to collect overdue fines and fees.

The firm of Perdue, Brandon, Fielder, Collins and Mott is devoted to the collection of delinquent government receivables. This is their specialty, it’s all they do, so they do it well. This firm’s team of experienced lawyers and collection specialists are accurate, aggressive and persistent yet empathic and sensitive when appropriate. They have the technological infrastructure that helps them locate people who leave "No Forwarding Address." Their arm reaches out a lot further than this one Roy Bean Wannabe in Munday, Texas.

The City pays them nothing, they simply add 30 percent to the fines and fees on each ticket. So if you are holding on to your green copy of a citation, you can save 30 percent by paying your fines and fees very soon. I have learned that there are fees on every citation of at least $52, more on school-zone related charges. These are state-mandated fees, which have to be paid to the state, whether we collect them or not.

This contract will go into effect as soon as we get our new computer and software running and on line with the firm and the State.

Now for some other matters concerning the citizens of Munday. Did you see that bright Orange Hummer in town for the Senior Prom? What’s Hollywood got on us?

City-Wide cleanup May 24. This isn’t much notice, but get your junk out and ready to go. I must be like a lot of folks who claim they have no junk. Lester has merchandise. I have valuable wood products. What do you have? (Have you been thinking about industrial education?)

Here are the rules. Bring the merchandise you wish to donate to the landfill to Knox Prarie Coop between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. Sorry, no tires or electronics, or haz mat stuff. You can bring your tree trimmings and other bulky yard wastes to be chipped.

Anything wooden is valuable, remember that. Oh, by the way, if anyone is interested, we would like to form a woodworking club to build toys for tots for Christmas. If you are interested, call the bunny at 421-3334. No funny-bunny stuff, please.

The city-wide garage sale is slated for June 7. Get your good junk ready for that. Let's have a good day of selling and buying each other's good junk.