AMENDED NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING ON TAX INCREASE 9/16/2025

Resources, News, and Announcements 

From the Mayor’s desk – 9/26/25

Happy Friday! 

Things are shaping up for the 50^th Anniversary of Surfside planned for October 25^th.  The epicenter  will be in and around City Hall and the Ft Velasco Monument & Timeline Fence.  We will have some free food and entertainment along with evening fireworks.  50^th Anniversary merchandise will also be available for purchase.  More news on other vendors, booths and activities still to come, along with any special plans for 50^th celebration festivities at local establishments and retailers.  This should be a great time as we kick off the 50^th anniversary festivities for the Village.

Police Department:

Thanks to all who joined Chief Hester and PD for the town hall yesterday.  It’s important for the community to be involved in his community policing efforts by attending a get together like this along with his weekly walks at Stahlman Park.  Dialog  helps to create connections and avoids assumption.  Keep up the great dialog with our first responder services in the Village.

Beach & Parks:

We are winding down the seasonal efforts on the beach including beach booth sales, weekday garbage runs, and reduced numbers of port-a-potties on the beach.

This caps the most successful year ever in terms of beach pass sales income.  We have plans to use some of this money from the Beach Fund in 2026 for multiple beach entrance road repairs ($150k), beach walkover repairs ($150k), for a used skid steer and new beach rake to maintain the beach, and for new showers at the main entrance.  In addition, the accounting for our 2026 budgets has been finally aligned properly for City Hall staff to be shared according to time spent in each fund, including Beach Fund, which correctly reduces the burden on our General Fund.  In other words, the beach pass sales are able to fund their proper portion of City Hall staff costs which frees up general funds to be spent on GF items like city wide road repairs, significant repairs to our historic City Hall building, and replacement of a $120k water system pressure vessel tank that is in violation with TCEQ.  We were able to better fund infrastructure repairs and replacement projects that have been underfunded for years.  You should have already seen measurable improvements over the last few several months and it should continue throughout next year to repair infrastructure and get our infrastructure in full compliance with TCEQ.

During the offseason we will be discussing ways to improve the beach and beach season from Beach & Parks, PD, EMS, and Tourism perspectives.  If you have input on how we can make the beach better, please feel free to contact me directly.

Finance:

Our Finance team hosted a TML Financial “wrangler” this week.  Keith from TML reviewed our finances, accounting processes, budgets, and also really dug into ways to improve our financial practices to trim some costs in the future.  His insight and teaching was invaluable for me personally as he took the time to answer specific questions.  He reviewed our budget and confirmed that the Village is implementing GASB best practices and is on track to achieving greater financial stability and transparency. Thanks to both Christie and Mindy for the incredible work to get us to this position to receive a passing grade from TML.  Also, additional thanks to  Mindy and David to pitch in fully integrating T-Sheets in QuickBooks before the visit.  This further confirms that we are in a good position today and I am confident that our small but able Finance team will further improve the open and transparent budget and monthly spending processes in 2026.

Public Works:

Again, we will be offering a $5 utility bill credit to every account that signs up for e-billing by January 1^st.  This $5 credit will hit your account by March 1^st.  If you need help to get registered and sign up for e-billing, Breana at City Hall would be happy to assist you.  She can also assist you with making sure that you sign up for fee free bill payments!

Reminder that the red disconnect notices will be placed on doors in the very near future for anyone that is 60+ days overdue on their water bill.  If the water bill is not paid in full or a payment plan agreed upon with City Hall in 10 days, your water service will be disconnected.

Other Items of Interest:

Yesterday a group from Surfside travelled to Rosharon to help Miss Claire celebrate her 100^th birthday, where she made her 3^rd jump from a plane, skydiving from 14,000 feet.  Several folks from the Village accompanied her on the jump.  What a way to celebrate your 100^th birthday.  Happy Birthday Miss Claire!

Coming up on October 4^th the Old Guys Surf Reunion will be held at Stahlman Park.  Always a great event, so mark your calendars and make it out for that!

On October 7^th, the National Night Out will be celebrated at the Surfside Volunteer Fire Department. The fire department will host visitors from 5-7pm and will have a smoke detector give-away, including an offer of installation scheduled for a few days later on October 11^th from 9am – 5pm.  The event is intended for owner/occupants, not for rental properties, or anyone that has a monitored system.  Take advantage of this opportunity and offer from our VFD.

As always, I hope that you have a great day in wonderful Surfside Beach!  Get out and enjoy some cooler weather this weekend.

Thanks,

Zach

05/01/2025

SCAM ALERT: Beware of Fraudulent Emails Posing as City Communications

The Village of Surfside Beach has been made aware of scam emails being sent to residents, falsely claiming to be from official city departments. These emails may request personal information, demand payments, or contain suspicious links.

Please Note:

• The City will never ask for Social Security numbers or bank details via email.
• Official emails from the City will come from addresses ending in @surfsidetx.org
• If you're unsure about the legitimacy of a message, do not click any links or download attachments.

If you receive a suspicious email claiming to be from the City, mark it as spam. When in doubt feel free to call the City first. 979-233-1531

Help us spread the word by sharing this post. Stay alert and stay safe!

— The Village of Surfside Beach

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Notice About 2025 Tax Rates

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If you need help obtaining a WPI-1 for Windstorm Inspection, feel free to call the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) Angleton Office at 800-248-6032, option 4, then option 3; or you may hire a Texas Certified Windstorm Engineer.