Commissioners drop burn ban

The Leon County Commissioners worked through a brief agenda on Monday morning, September 14. Their actions included the lifting of the current burn ban.

Court opened with a special called meeting at 9:30 to discuss adopting a district county record archive/technology fund fee for both civil and criminal court cases. District Clerk Diane Oden-Davis was present and described the need for archiving files. "This is basically an add-on to fines... which creates a dedicated Dist Clerk records technology fee to be used to preserve and restore our archive records, which is an ongoing process, " explained Oden-Davis. "We have a lot of requests for copies from the old books -- this will give us better, easier customer access." The court set a fee at $5 and voted to amend the new budget to reflect these fees.

The regular meeting followed.

Tim Coffey, representing Double D-0 Land Company, presented a preliminary platt for the court's approval. It was tabled until the next agenda.

Also tabled was action on the VINE Victim Assistant report.

The court reconsidered a previous action which consolidated 14 voting precincts down to five in order to save county money on an upcoming constitutional amendment election. Precincts 10, 11, and 13 were to be consolidated at one polling station in Buffalo. Since Oakwood ISD has added a bond election, a larger turnout is expected so the court amended their previous decision and will leave a polling station in Flo (Precinct #13).

Leigh Anne Ross presented a map proposing new Meals On Wheels routes to accommodate 13 new clients. The new route includes Hilltop Lakes and upon Ross' recommendation the court approved the change, effective October 1. DADS (Dept of Aging and Disability Services) federally funded meals and BVCAA-subsidized meals are state sponsored. The county picks up 10 percent of the meal costs.

The court revisited a pipeline agreement which has been under revision over recent months. County Attorney Jim Witt reviewed the changes. Commissioner Joey Sullivan pushed for both a cash bond and insurance, and the court voted to adopt the agreement with those changes.

The court adopted a general resolution which puts the county in position to allow a tax abatement on a case-bycase basis, pursuant to Chapter 312 Texas Tax CodeCommissioner Mark Ivey wants bids to buy a used backhoe and a new Mack truck for Precinct 3.

Routine court business included: - Approval of a road use agreement with Atmos Energy for CR 278, 282, 275 and 212 in Precinct #2, and acceptance of a $2500 check for road damages. - Approval of a road use agreement with E-Tex Land Co. for CR 282, 284, 285 in Precinct 2. - Review and approval of an audit from ESD #3 (Northwest Leon County).

As FY09 winds to a close, Auditor Susan Pugh presented budget amendments which were approved. The court also approved line item transfers totalling $97,396.

Pugh next presented bid tabulations, as follows: - Pug mill recycling services had two vendor responses. The court approved both bids with Material Resources as the primary bidder and Cleveland Asphalt as alternate. - The lone bid for road oil was from Bryan and Bryan. The bid was at the current contract price. - Aggregate materials bids were considered from three vendors, and the court named Frost (1), Knife River (2) and Vulcan Materials (3). - The commissioners took no action on the purchase of RAP (reclaimed asphalt pavement.) - The county renewed the contract with ACS for the cashiering system and scanning services in the county clerk's office. - The commissioners extended for two more years the warranty for six panic buttons at the courthouse/annexes.