New Fairview approves interlocal agreement with Boyd

Messenger
By Jillian Nachtigal 
on July 18, 2023

The City of New Fairview approved an interlocal agreement (ILA) with the City of Boyd for municipal court services at their meeting Tuesday after several weeks of discussion.

Under the agreement, New Fairview will provide all municipal court services for Boyd and operate the municipal court dockets at the New Fairview City Hall every month. The Boyd City Council will review the proposal at their meeting Thursday, July 20.

“We have the capacity, we have the experience, we have the trained staff to be able to run Boyd’s municipal court operations for them,” said New Fairview City Administrator John Cabrales. “Boyd was also having issues with their [court] finances, they were having issues with their judge, they were having procedural issues, they were having to dismiss a lot of cases for various reasons … it’s a bad thing for Boyd.”

Boyd has agreed to pay New Fairview one-third of all court revenues collected after state fines and fees are paid. The current municipal court judge for New Fairview will serve as the presiding judge for the New Fairview municipal court and will be appointed as the municipal court judge to preside over Boyd cases.

“We need to make sure that the ILA is fair, not just to us, but to the City of Boyd because that’s how we continue to build trust with these cities,” Cabrales said. “Keep in mind this is just the first ILA, we’re going to be looking at another ILA for police services with them.”

The two cities are still in the process of developing an agreement for Boyd to provide policing services to New Fairview, which has been a central piece of New Fairview’s interest in extending court services to Boyd. Boyd Police Chief Jason Schmidt was present at the meeting to share his thoughts.

“Quite frankly when I got to the police department two years ago, I knew that the court was an absolute wreck,” Schmidt said. “I think this is a great solution for both cities. I think it fixes an immediate need for us. Once we get the police services outlined, I think it’s going to fix an immediate need for you guys as well.”

Boyd Mayor Rodney Holmes released the following statement Wednesday to clarify the comments made at the city council meeting from New Fairview and Boyd city officials:

“I wish to clarify to our citizens that the City of Boyd is in solvent financial shape and the problem was with some of the procedural issues the City of Boyd’s Court had in place. The City of Boyd’s court was not a court of record, and the City of New Fairview offered the opportunity to add that feature, which is very important. The City of Boyd highly respects the judges that have been in place in the past and appreciates their commitment to dealing justice in our city. Our court has always been about justice, not just collecting fines. The City of Boyd looks forward to our partnership with the City of New Fairview on court and providing them with police services that they desperately need. It’s a win-win for the citizens of both cities. And we hope it’s just the beginning of partnerships between cities in Wise County. We are stronger together.”

The council also approved signing the joint resolution with the City of Justin and the City of Rhome addressing the proposed Ramhorn Hill-Dunham transmission line project by Oncor Electric. Rhome passed the resolution at its city council meeting July 13. 

New Fairview city staff expressed concern with Section O8 in the proposed project “because of the negative impact the transmission lines and easements will have on the Constellation Lakes and Paloma Ranch developments.”

Additionally, Cabrales gave a progress update on the city’s first park. The park is located on Stewart Street in the Chisholm Hills neighborhood.

“We have the pavilion constructed, and they are starting to work on bolting down the three picnic tables that they’re going to have inside the pavilion,” Cabrales said. “We have three of the six park benches already installed and we have all the concrete work for the playground.”

The city plans to host a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the park by the end of August.