Lubbock Mayor Glen Robertson Explains Atmos Energy Decision, Talks City Maintenence Issues [AUDIO]

On Friday’s edition of Lubbock’s First News, Lubbock Mayor Glen Robertson talked with Chad Hasty and Rex Andrew about the latest issues coming out of City Hall.

At yesterday’s city council meeting, the council denied a rate increase from Atmos Energy. Robertson explained that the rate increase would have the citizens of Lubbock essentially subsidizing the smaller towns in the area, and that would be unfair to the city of Lubbock.

The cost of delivering gas in Lubbock is a lot cheaper than it is in these small rural towns. They want to spread this cost out to everybody where, in effect, it would make our citizens subsidize the rest of West Texas, and we don't feel that that's fair to our citizens.

Robertson said that Atmos will likely try to overturn the council’s decision.

City maintenance was another big issue at yesterday’s council meeting. Specifically, Robertson talked about the possibility of a new police station for Lubbock, saying that the current station has some serious maintenance issues that need to be addressed in the near future. However, there is no concrete plans for a new police station, though he indicated he would like to keep the station as close to the jail and courthouse as possible. Robertson also talked about moving the Health Department, citing that maintenance issues were a big part of the decision to move.

Robertson also talked about the council moving to night meetings. He said he was not expecting a huge influx of people, but that it’s important that the council make themselves available to the public.