Bosque Commissioners amend solar farm contract at Feb. 12 meeting

During its regular meeting on Monday, February 12, the Bosque County Commissioners Court, by unanimous vote, approved a resolution and order for amending the tax abatement agreement between Bosque County and the Markam Solar Farm.

Jeff Snowden of Capex Consulting said that the original agreement needed to be amended due to concerns over projected tax revenue for the county over the 10-year period.

At the current tax rate, the project could generate $2 million to Bosque County over 10 years, which includes calculations for depreciation, he said.

Snowden, who negotiated on behalf of the county, said if the county continued to lower its tax rate by seven percent a year as it has since 2020, the county would lose $500,000 in property tax revenue over the next decade.

To make up the difference, the amendment stipulated that Bosque County would receive a series of “Payments In Lieu of Taxes” (or PILOTs), he said.

Snowden said that he calculated a $600,000 net increase in revenue in the county’s cash position through the PILOTs under the amended agreement.

Overall, the solar project will add $98 million to the county’s tax roll, which is the equivalent to 495 new single-family homes based on the appraisal district’s certified property values in 2023, he said.

Snowden said that the first agreement was executed in February 2020 provided for a 57-percent tax abatement; the amended agreement lowers the tax abatement to 30 percent over 10 years.

Snowden added that electricity storage using batteries is not included under the amended agreement; a tax abatement for battery storage would need to be subject to a full levy or considered under a different abatement.

Colton Sorrells, a developer with Scout Clean Energy, explained that the project covered 1,300 acres under lease on the L Bar L Ranch situated in both Bosque and McLennan counties with access off China Spring Road.

Sorrells said the project has an electricitygeneration capacity for 161 megawatts, which has a point of interconnection to Texas’ power grid is across the street within 500 feet at Brazos Electric Cooperative’s Bosque substation.

Sorrells further explained that the project has a long-term power purchase agreement with Colgate Palmolive.

“This shows a lot of our determination that we are executing on these key contracts, and this is a project that we do intend on moving forward with as we got into the next year here,” he said.

Software

The court approved accepting the bid from Tyler Technologies for time-keeping software. The software’s annual fees amount to $7,421, while the intial set up cost is $9,000.

Bosque County Human Resources Officer Darcie Ragsdale said that the county can pay for the software’s set up and firstyear use through LTCE grant funds.

Ragsdale said that the software would replace the process of manually calculating time sheets for county employees – a four to six hour process.

“There’s human error that happens when you’ve got humans calculating things,” she noted.

Under the new system, the employees would clock in-and-out of work during their work day – rather than submit their time sheets the Friday afternoon before payroll with their time for the previous two weeks.

The new system will allow employees to clockin on their smartphones once they reach the range of a new geofencing area around their precinct. It will allow office employees to clock in from their desktop computers as well.

Ragsdale and the commissioners discussed the importance of supervisors assisting employees with clockingin while working outside the coverage area.

“With a timekeeping system, it minimizes the risk to the county in a risk audit, EEOC audit, which a lot of counties are getting right now, and they’re getting hit with huge fines. And so this helps limit that liability,” she said.

Reports

During the Bosque County OEM report, Turner stated that at present, the county had no drought issues, and the soil was saturated with moisture.

Turner noted that several local municipalities were making plans, leading up to the total solar eclipse on Monday, April 8.

Turner said he anticipated the first round of visitors for the eclipse arriving in the county the Wednesday prior to the event.

During the report Commissioner Hall stated that a TxDOT engineer told him the new Kimball Bend Bridge will be completed by November 2024.

In the jail status report, Sheriff Trace Hendricks noted that the Bosque County jail at the time had 53 total inmates incarcerated. Of the 14 inmates from Coryell County, one was female and the other 13 male.

No cases of COVID-19 were found in staff or inmates, he said.

The court approved receiving and filing the January 2024 monthly reports from District Clerk Juanita Miller, Justice of the Peace Precinct 2 Michele Valdez, Texas A&M Agrilife Extension Office, and OSSF Clerk Wynn Moore.

Comp time

The court approved the comp time hours in the amount of 70 hours total for the Elections Administrator office and 20 hours total for the County Clerk’s office for work related to the partisan political party primary election on Tuesday, March 5.

BCCAD nomination The court approved the nomination of Kyle Williams of Clifton for the Bosque County Central Appraisal District for the 2024-2025 term.

Judge Vanlandingham said the new nomination was necessary because the court had previously nominated someone who was not eligible.

Mental health leave policy

The court approved an amendment to the county’s mental health leave policy. The updated policy added dispatchers to the mental health requirements, as outlined in SB 3059 by the Texas Legislature.

Agreements

The court approved an interlocal cooperation contract for the Failure to Appear Program with and between Bosque County and Department of Public Safety of the State of Texas.

The court approved the Road and Right of Way Agreement with and between Bosque County and AT&T on CR 3550.

The court approved an agreement with and between Bosque County Precinct 3 and Rudy and Beverly Almaguer for gravel.

Encroachment permits The court approved eight encroachment permit applications filed by Moss & Associates in Precinct 3. They included: 729 CR 3405, Area 2.1; CR 3405, Area 3; 1131 CR 3105, Area 6; CR 3425, Area 7.2; 384 CR 3240, Area 13; CR 3240, Area 14; CR 3240, Area 15; and CR 3405, Area 17.

Usual Business

The court approved and ordered payment of claims, salaries, and wages against both precinct and county funds including the items listed on the expense approval register packet.

The court approved extending the COVID-19 Declaration of Local Disaster issued by the County Judge, pursuant to Chapter 418, of the Government Code for an additional 14 days because the court will not be meeting on the holiday the following Monday.