The county has agreed to purchase an acre of land for a new 911 tower being built by North Central Texas Emergency Communications District.
Erath County Judge Brandon Huckabee explained that the tower was to aid with the new digital radio system the county is moving towards for first responders.
The new tower will be close to Morgan Mill.
“It gets complicated because of the windmills in Huckabay,” Huckabee said.
The acre is being purchased at a cost of $150,000 for the county.
Huckabee explained several other options were considered including leasing property and even a donated piece of land.
“By the time we paid to add on a 100 foot to the tower because it wasn’t exactly what we needed and a road, we would have been in excess of $200,000 for the donated land,” he said.
“This was the smartest financial decision we could make,” Huckabee said.
Emergency Management Coordinator Chris Brooks explained that NCT911 will be building the new tower and an additional tower for the new joint dispatch facility at a cost of more than $850,000 with no cost to the county (other than the land purchase).
The court unanimously agreed to give Huckabee the ability to move forward to sign the land purchase paperwork.
The court also unanimously approved a memo of understanding between Somervell County and Erath County for the radio tower on Chalk Mountain.
The court received its annual collection report on county taxes by Robert Meyers with McCreary, Veselka, Bragg and Allen, P.C.
Meyers explained that typically Erath County collects more taxes than the access because of penalties, interest and back taxes.
“We don’t have large delinquents in this county. Erath is good about paying their taxes,” Meyers said.
For delinquent taxes, each July 1, the county refers its unpaid delinquent taxes from the prior year to the firm for collecting.
As of March 31, the firm has collected 65.19% of the 2022 delinquent taxes, 86.31% of the 2021 delinquent taxes and 91.82% of the 2020 delinquent taxes.
In other business the court:
■ approved paying the monthly bills
■ approved allocating the fire marshal’s previous vehicle to Precinct 4 due to the age and mileage of some of those vehicles
■ approved a resolution and $40,000 to HOPE
■ approved helping Texas Agrilife with dirt for a community garden/ greenhouse project
■ approved allowing Precinct 1 on WandaPacks’ property located on CR 274. A small stream on her property has become clogged and is affecting water flowing across the roadway when it rains. The county is going to clean out the small stream to fix the water runoff problem so the road is not washed out.