Commissioners meeting focused on safety issues

The safety of county residents was the focus of the October 28th meeting of the Leon County Commissioners. An informational meeting was announced in regard to the sexual assaults on senior citizens. It was held on Monday evening, November 2 in Centerville. Sheriff Jerry Wakefield and Deputy Brent Walter also petitioned the court to let them amend their budget to cover additional hours for deputies to patrol along the Highway 7 corridor OR to add a dedicated part-time officer for that purpose. The Sheriff reported that some of his deputies had been volunteering extra fourhour shifts for that purpose. After reviewing the cities in the county which do not have full-time staff (City of Jewett, Oakwood, Normangee), Sheriff Wakefield concluded, "We're spread too thin to try to cover this situation out here. I think the citizens of Leon County deserve to have the coverage that we can't provide due to limited personnel. I think the addition of one officer would greatly increase our capabilities and hopefully get this guy off the street." He went on to describe a non-paid reserve officer who is already familiar with the area and the case.

Since the agenda did not include taking action on hiring new personnel, the Court authorized Sheriff Wakefield to let current officers turn in their overtime hours, and promised that the matter would be put on the next agenda for additional action by the court. Sheriff Wakefield was assured, "We understand it's an emergency situation. A situation like this is something you can't budget for and we understand you're going to have to start paying overtime."

Other county business in the brief meeting included approving and agreement for the County Tax Assessor/Collector to handle assessing and collecting taxes for Normangee ISD in the coming year. NISD will pay a $3000 fee to convert to the County's system, and the county will add a $1 fee per parcel. (Last year there were 12,502 parcels.) A start date for the agreement was not determined, but March 1 or May 1 were suggestions.

Wade Hedrick was re-appointed to another four-year term as Director of the Mideast Texas Groundwater Conservation District Board.

Auditor Susan Pugh presented a resolution authorizing a county grant of $1001 for Senior Nutrition to deliver homedelivered meals to disabled or home-bound seniors.

Financial matters included approving line item transfers totaling $181,055, and budget amendments covering carryovers for Road and Bridge accounts.

During purchase and selling requests: - Judge Ryder passed along a recommendation from District Court judges for a partition for the upstairs courtroom in the restored courthouse to eliminate "exposure issues" when women in dresses are seated at the elevated witness stand. - Armour Materials' bid for asphalt was approved. - A date to have trailers at the precinct dumps for tire pickup was put off until more tires have accumulated.