Commish extends disaster declaration

Freestone County Commissioners voted to extend the Declaration of Local State of Disaster initiated by Judge Grant regarding the series of storms that began on April 26 and have continued for several weeks.

The court members approved this extension at their May 20 meeting, when they also updated the county’s drug testing policy; agreed to have the county’s insurance broker come in so they could find out any changes to the county’s employee health insurance; and made other decisions regarding the county’s finances and well-being.

As for the disaster declaration, Judge Grant made the initial declaration on May 16, but the declaration was only good for seven days; the extension made at the May 20 meeting was for an undetermined number of days.

Grant’s declaration followed the court’s May 16 meeting, when District Disaster Coordinator Martin Widtfeldt, of Waco, told the court the amount needed for Freestone County to make a local disaster declaration was $89,530. After Monday’s meeting, the commissioners estimated their damages totaled well over that amount.

Precinct 1 Commissioner Andy Bonner said he estimated his precinct had sustained at least $150,000 damage from the storms. Precinct 2 Commissioner Will McSwane said his precinct had already had more than $125,000 in damages. Precinct 3 Commissioner Lloyd Lane said his precinct had sustained $200,000 in damages. Although Precinct 4 Commissioner Clyde Ridge Jr. did not have a total, he said his precinct had sustained a large amount of damages and he was confident the county had more than the minimum amount of damages to meet the disaster declaration.

DRUG TEST POLICY UPDATED

Also at the May 20 meeting, the court addressed a problem in drug testing, in which those taking certain legally prescribed medications may receive false positives when the person is drug tested.

The court members changed the county drug testing policy such that if a job applicant receives a positive drug test, the testing facility will send the results to a second facility, which will ask the applicant if they have a current prescription for a drug that has the possibility of producing false positives. If the applicant has a current prescription for that drug, the elected official or department head will have the discretion to decide whether or not the applicant will be hired. Evans said he would check to ensure the drug testing facility will follow that protocol and if not, then he could possibly put it on the next meeting’s agenda for any change.

HEALTH INSURANCE TO BE CHECKED

In other matters, the court members discussed going out for RFP (Request For Proposals) for health insurance.

County Judge Linda Grant explained what this agenda item entailed.

“What we’re talking about today is whether we’re satisfied with the health insurance company we have,” she said. “You know, we have the broker that takes care of that with the one we put in place last time. And if we’re not going to go out for RFP’s, we’d like to go ahead and get an idea if there is going to be an increase of some type.”

Precinct 3 Commissioner Lloyd Lane asked if the broker could come to court and talk to the commissioners about the matter, and Grant said he could.

Although most county employees were happy to not have had to pay for their medical bills upfront, other employees were reported to have had problems.

“What we want is an idea, if we can get it from them, is how much of an increase there is going to be and talk about if there is anything else available,” Grant said.

OTHER COURT DECISIONS

In other business, the court:

• Agreed to buy a backhoe and a new Chevrolet 3500 work truck for Precinct 4 Road and Bridge through the Buy Board, using ARPA funds;

• Agreed to purchase two Chevrolet Tahoes for the Sheriff’s Office, using SB 22 funds; and

• Pre-approved the purchase of 23 hand-held radios for first responders at a cost of $4,600. Sheriff Jeremy Shipley said he planned to give one to each of the county’s nine fire chiefs and one to each assistant fire chief.