Commish demands road use agreements

• Commish demands road use agreements
• Commish demands road use agreements

LEFT: Precinct 3 Commissioner Lloyd Lane explains to Marilyn Hardy, who owns landlocked land in Freestone County, why the county cannot “re-open” the end of County Road 1131 since it was removed from the official list of county roads in 2011. At right can be seen County Judge Linda Grant. The exchange took place at the Commissioners Court’s June 5 meeting. RIGHT: Freestone County Jail Administrator Sheena Wimberly and Sheriff Jeremy Shipley (not shown) tell the County Commissioners at their June 5 meeting the procedure they use for notifying the Texas Department of Criminal Justice of Freestone’s transferring inmates to TDCJ so the county can be reimbursed. Photos by Roxanne Thompson/Fairfield Recorder

Attending Wednesday’s meeting were representatives of Watkins Construction, of Corsicana, which is about to lay natural gas pipeline in Freestone County for Atmos Energy. They said the project would eventually cross 39 roads in the county.

Precinct 4 Commissioner Clyde Ridge Jr. said before the work could begin, Watkins would need to sign a road use agreement for each road they would cross and provide $100,000 bond for each.

“I’ve noticed several places in my precinct that y’all have access signs up, and I have nothing showing y’all have access to those roads,” Ridge said.

“If you tear my roads up, you’re going to fix it,” Ridge continued. “And you’re not going to fix it after y’all get through. You’re going to fix it while you’re doing the work, OK?” BRIDGE RECONSTRUCTION PUT ON FAST TRACK

In other action, the court voted to use its discretionary exemption in accordance with Local Government Code 262.024 to build a new bridge on County Road 841 at Cat Creek in Precinct 2 without going through the regular bid process.

Later Precinct 2 Commissioner Will McSwane explained that the bridge had been washed out about a month ago by heavy rains but he managed to get the rebuilding of the bridge on the list of bridges to be rebuilt.

He said the bridge should “hopefully” be open in four to six weeks. Using the regular bid process would have required six months to get the bridge built, McSwane said.

ANNUAL BID LIST APPROVED

Also at Wednesday’s meeting, the commissioners approved going out for bids on the following items from the annual bid list:

• Road and base materials;

• Bulk fuel;

• Solid waste; and

• Tree cutting and removal.

COUNTY TO BE READY IN CASE OF CYBERATTACK

In other matters, IT Director Dane McBroom gave the court members a copy of a report he created on cyber security, establishing what to do in case of a cyber attack, such as ransomware. He suggested that being prepared with steps of what to do would be better than not knowing what to do if that ever happens.

“I’m looking for guidance from you guys as to how we want to start the training process with employees,” McBroom said. “There is help available to us through the Department of Justice and some of these bigger things. They will come in house to do an evaluation of our systems, and possibly provide training.”

He said the county was “in pretty good shape” since the county mainly uses the Cloud rather than many servers.

TDCJ MAY START PAYING COUNTY

On a separate agenda item, the court discussed with Sheriff Jeremy Shipley a problem that has been ongoing for sometime. Shipley has told the court that his department submits reports of sending inmates to TDCJ facilities the way it has done for years, but the county has not been reimbursed by TDCJ for those transfers.

Jail Administrator Sheena Wimberly said she spoke with the TDCJ director of transportation who was reluctant to pay Freestone County for transfers from previous years, but County Auditor Karen Craddock said she had also spoken to TDCJ and was told TDCJ would pay the county for transfers from previous years back to 2019 as long as they were sent a year at a time.

Wimberly said the forms have now been updated and she checked the records to see which deputy made each transfer. Craddock said she had sent the contact information from TDCJ to Wimberly and they had offered to provide information if needed.

Shipley said he has received conflicting information on the subject.

“Every time we come in here and talk about TDC, we’re getting different information,” Shipley said. “We get information from somebody; she gets information from somebody. It makes it look like somebody’s not doing something or something’s gone wrong. That’s bull, and I’m actually tired of it.”

County Treasurer Jeannie Keeney said she has been treasurer since 2012 and has never seen a payment from TDCJ.

Ultimately, Judge Grant suggested they all get together and talk to TDCJ to resolve the situation.

“I think if we all sit down together, we can get this straightened out,” she said.

OTHER COURT DECISIONS

In other matters, the commissioners: • Took no action to reinitiate a burn ban;

• Rescheduled the Wednesday, June 19, meeting to Thursday, June 20, because of the (Juneteenth) holiday;

• Approved the sale by sealed bids of a 1996 Ford pickup with a welding bed from the Road and Bridge Department;

• Authorized the sale of fireworks for the Fourth of July holiday; • Confirmed that deputies and jailers, as well as Sheriff Shipley, would receive incentive and certificate pay, beginning in the next budget year, on Oct. 1.

• Approved a request from County Attorney Brian Evans to use $10,000 in funds formerly approved for paying for a Victim Coordinator position to different employee salary positions until the end of this fiscal year;

• Tabled a proposal to have the District Clerk submit monthly reports on the money received from delinquent tax sales, since the Clerk had not been contacted; and

• Canceled an executive session the court had planned to hold on a personnel matter, but the session is expected to be held at the next meeting.

PUBLIC COMMENTS

During the public comments portion of the meeting, retired civil engineer Charles Morgan informed the commissioners that an oil-and gas facility that was closed down five years ago and is 2 miles from his house is trying to be re-opened, but he is fighting it since he believes the low-frequency noise it produces is negatively affecting his health.