County Treasurer Keeney resigns

County Treasurer Jeannie Keeney proffered her resignation to the Freestone County Commissioners Court, effective Aug. 3, since she will accompany her husband to his new job location in South Texas.

Her resignation is effective Aug. 3, but she said she wanted to give the commissioners plenty of time to hire her replacement.

“I have appreciated the opportunity to work with the citizens of Freestone County,” Keeney told the court at its July 10 meeting.

“My husband got a job transfer so we are going to be moving to South Texas,” she continued. “This was a decision that was very hard for us. We tried to see how it would go for a while, just him driving back and forth.

“I am going to have to leave, but I wanted to give the commissioners court plenty of notice so they have the opportunity to get somebody in my place. I did appreciate working with y’all. I appreciate working with all the elected officials.”

County Judge Linda Grant expressed the court’s appreciation for Keeney’s time in Freestone County and told her she would be missed.

Photo by Roxanne Thompson/Teague Chronicle COUNTY TO EVALUATE SOFTWARE

In other action, two bids were received for the purchase of Freestone County Judicial County Management software: LGS (Local Government Solutions) and I-Docket. No decision was made at that time until the two bids could be evaluated and scored.

BUDGET WORKSHOP PLANNED

Although a budget workshop was on the agenda for this meeting, the workshop did not take place but is expected to be held at the next scheduled meeting.

The commissioners did take time to take an initial look at the information the different departments turned in to show changes in their respective budgets.

“The main things we will be discussing next week is what we’re going to do about salaries,” Grant said, “if we’re going to be giving any raises, and whether they will be across the board.”

DIRECT DEPOSIT CONSIDERED

County attorney Brian Evans, who said he is not on direct deposit, said he wouldn’t mind getting on that method of payment. Precinct 2 Commissioner Will McSwane noted, however, that some of the other employees who are not paid by direct deposit may not want to change their method of getting paid.

County Treasurer Jeannie Keeney said that it could be that all the county needs to do is report to the bank that the county had spoken to those employees without direct deposit.

Judge Grant appeared to agree with this idea, saying the county could simply tell the bank that they had brought up the idea to the eight to ten county employees not on direct deposit, and they simply preferred not to use bank accounts.

OTHER DECISIONS

Also at the meeting, the court:

• Took no action at this time to initiate a burn ban;

• Tabled the discussion of amending the subdivision regulations;

• Tabled the decision on which security cameras to use for the Tax Office;

• Extended the decision on which medical insurance to accept until July 17, and the date to award the bids until July 24;

• Tabled the decision on what changes to make to the county’s road use agreements; and

• Tabled signing a lease agreement with Pitney Bowes for a mail machine since the contract has not yet been received.