City approves contract with SPAN Inc. for Meals on Wheels, transportation and social services with minor contract corrections

The City of The Colony authorized a contract with SPAN Incorporated on Sept. 2 to provide nutrition (Meals on Wheels), transportation and social-services support to city residents.

SPAN representatives attended the meeting to explain program specifics and answer council questions. Councilmembers asked staff to correct two contract bookkeeping items before execution: the service term shown in Article 4.01 currently reads October 2024–September 2025 and should read October 2025–September 2026; and an item in Article 4.03 showed two numbers (2,196 and 2,496) that the council asked staff to reconcile. SPAN clarified meal counts and fiscal-year reporting: staff provided actual meals served by fiscal year and noted that meal and transportation funding sources differ and that COVID-related transportation funds had ended.

Council discussed the contract's not-to-exceed invoicing language for transportation (staff cited a not-to-exceed amount of $113,081 for a particular transportation line), the monthly billing approach for program components, and staff's ability to approve expenditures within contract limits. Council voted to approve the resolution contingent on the clerical corrections; the motion carried.

Staff said contract expenditures in certain sub-articles require city-manager authorization prior to incurring costs, and the contract contains language that invoices will not exceed stated caps without council approval. Council asked staff to monitor program utilization and revisit the budgeted amounts in next year's budget if usage is low.