During the Sulphur Springs City Council Meeting the council approved all items on the agenda.
Love’s Travel Center, to be located across Highway 19 from Pilot Truck Stop, will be required to install a 12-inch water main as a part of the plat approval. City Manager Maxwell noted to KSST News that the two agencies in the world that provide mapping information to all the other GPS groups have been updated with the new configuration at Highway 19/I-30/Hillcrest Dr. Additional trucks are expected with the building of the Loves Travel Center. The Loves facility is planned to be larger than the Pilot location.
Crosstown Trail construction will begin this week with approximately $200,000 in concrete being poured to connect Buford Park to Coleman Park. The walking trail was approved two years ago and at least one of the two grants approved to fund the trail is now available. Work will begin at Buford Park and it is hoped to be completed in that area before the annual Hopkins County Stew Contest.
Pay Day Lenders will be regulated by an ordinance that passed on first reading. A second reading is required before the ordinance can be enforced. Banks, lending institutions, and pawn shops are not affected by the ordinance due to federal and state controls. Pay Day Lenders provide a predatory lending mechanism that often prevents the borrower to repay the original principle. The borrower is then stuck in a cycle of interest and loan costs. In the ordinance, pay day lenders will be required to register with the city and keep books on loans. They will also be required, if providing installment loans, to credit 25% of each of payments to the loan principle. The contract between the pay day lender and the borrower must be written in the language of the person receiving the loan. The state legislature has failed on several occasions to regulate pay day lending. According to the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission, pay day lobbyists can be credited for the failure to regulate. The TBCLC has lobbied for state regulations. Locally, steps will be taken by a group of churches to partner with an agency that provide small loans to individuals with smaller interest rates and an easier method of payback.
