When Carrie Wood moved into her home on Robert Street many years ago she could sit on her back porch and wave at neighbors, visit with them as they walk by, enjoy some wildlife.
She said during a public hearing during the Thursday, Sept. 3, Aledo City Council meeting that she doesn’t want to lose all that. But, she probably will.
City Council approved a zoning change, at the recommendation of the Planning and Zoning Commission, making a .242-acre lot near Wood’s home a C-2 (commercial district) instead of an R-2 (residential district).
The lot is adjacent to other C-2 properties.
“My current resale value is about $250,000 to $275,000. Being adjacent to a commercial building, my home will depreciate on a minimum of 10%. Could be up to 20% being next to commercial,” Wood said. “That's $25,000 to $50,000 in value that I'll be losing. “But it's not just the monetary values. I can sit on my back porch and watch my grandchildren walk to the convenience store and back home safely. I can sit on my back porch and watch my neighbors walk through the neighborhood, wave, talk, visit from my back porch. I can see across (FM) 1187 and see the cattle, wildlife, birds. If this building is built, I lose all of that.”
The council vote allows an office building for Hark Homes to be constructed at the northeast corner of Pine and Robert Streets, with the proposed existing residential structure to be removed, according to Grant Fore, senior planner with Berkley Group, which the city has contracted with for planning and zoning consultation services.
Aledo City Council approved a 10-year technology contract for $829,576.12 with police-equipment provider Axon Enterprises during the meeting.
Police Chief Carol Riddle presented council with a proposal to replace the department's current five-year Axon contract — signed in 2025 and covering body cameras, tasers and dash cameras — with a new 10-year agreement covering the full department buildout of 16 officers.
Riddle told council the current contract has grown costly as the department has added staff: what began as about $9,800 a year for one officer and two patrol cars rose to about $35,000 annually after five officers were added in 2026, with pricing locked in at whatever rate applied the year each officer was added. With three more officers authorized for the coming fiscal year, and continued growth expected, Riddle said she approached Axon about stabilizing the department's budget.
The new 10-year agreement for about $83,000 annually will save the department about $52,000 a year, according to Riddle, when compared to continuing to add officers piecemeal under the current contract.
The pricing locks in equipment and services for all 16 officers the department expects to have on staff by the end of fiscal year 2029, even though most of that equipment won't be deployed until new officers actually come on board.
Beyond hardware — tasers, holsters, cartridges, dash and body cameras, and virtual-reality training equipment that refreshes automatically under Axon's Technical Assistance Program — Riddle said the contract gives the department several capabilities it currently lacks, including:
Riddle said Axon waived about $30,000 in implementation fees — including for Axon Standards — because of the contract's length.
In response to council questions, Riddle said Axon does not use department video or license plate reader data for AI or product development; that data is not stored in a national database; and Aledo's footage is not accessible to other local agencies using Axon, including Willow Park and Parker County.
Council also approved about a three-month renewal of the city's existing agreement with the Parker County Sheriff's Office for after-hours police coverage. Aledo currently provides its own law enforcement services from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., with the sheriff's office covering overnight hours.
City Manager Candice Edmondson said the renewal is a bridge measure. With three new officers authorized in the FY2027 budget, the city plans to extend its own department to 24/7 coverage and end its reliance on the county for night patrol, likely around January. The renewal is expected to cost about $55,000 over three months, already accounted for in the police department's budget.
The city's separate dispatch and jail service contracts with the county will continue regardless of the patrol transition, since those services — including access to state and national crime databases and warrant confirmation — are unrelated to overnight patrol coverage, Edmondson said.
The city will continue paying the county on a monthly basis if the January transition is delayed, with no additional penalty beyond the ongoing monthly cost.
Edmondson presented a professional-services agreement with Freese and Nichols for engineering and design work tied to the Texas Department of Transportation's planned expansion of FM 1187 south of the traffic circle to the Barnwell/FM 1187 intersection.
The roadway expansion will require the city to relocate existing water and wastewater infrastructure along the corridor, and the project will also upsize that infrastructure to accommodate future development, Edmondson said. The utility work extends along FM 1187 from Barnwell Lane to Maverick, then along Maverick toward City Hall to tie into existing lines — an area slightly beyond the roadway project's own limits.
Under the agreement, Freese and Nichols will handle design and engineering for 4,500 linear feet of 8-inch water line; 4,500 linear feet of 12-inch water line; 2,300 linear feet of 8-inch wastewater line; and 1,000 linear feet of 6-inch wastewater force main; along with project management.
Total compensation for the agreement is $932,729, consisting of a $502,000 lump-sum basic services fee and a not-to-exceed $430,000 for special services.
Edmondson noted the city's adopted FY2027 budget includes $950,000 for engineering and professional services tied to the utility relocation project.
Council voted to join steering committees of cities served by Oncor (electricity and Atmos (natural gas).
The committees work to represent the interests of cities and their residents in electric utility natural-gas utility matters, such as proposed rate increases, according to City Manager Candice Edmondson.
Annual cost to the city for the Oncor steering committee is $628.70 and for the Atmos steering committee is $261.48.
Library Director Beck Gorman shared results from the library's 2026 summer reading program, describing steep gains across nearly every metric compared with 2025.
Compared with last summer, the library saw 47% more borrowers; a 59.4% increase in physical materials checked out; and 62.6% more new library cards issued in June and July.
Programming drew 72.9% more attendees despite one fewer event overall (44 programs this year versus 45 last year), and volunteer hours rose sharply.
Reading log participation — the core measure of the program — rose 27.8% in registrations, while total minutes logged rose 55.6%, indicating both more participants and deeper engagement. The share of registrants logging at least 20 hours of reading, a benchmark tied to preventing summer literacy loss, rose from 28.6% to 37% year-over-year; among participants who logged at least five hours, the share reaching 20 hours or more rose from 64.4% to 80%.
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