In a brief agenda, the Erath County Commissioners Court opened 2024 with its first agenda, full of regular items.
The board received and filed an agreement between the county and Garner Park Ranch Partners, LP for a project known as Operation Firewater.
County Judge Brandon Huckabee explained that this was the project that had been talked about multiple times in court. Fred Underwood has built water stations that all Erath County Fire Departments can use. It consists of wells, with holding tanks and pumps that have hydrants to fill up fire trucks when needed on Hwy 281.
“It’s a really neat concept that I hope we can maybe duplicate in some other areas of the county to help cut down on drive time and help with any fires in the county,” Huckabee said.
Though Underwood had some help with the donation of part of the supplies, it was his idea and he is the one that got it done, Huckabee said.
The county will be paying $3,600 a year, basically just to cover utilities. All of the volunteer firefighters will be able to use this.
Court gave permission for the sheriff’s office to acquire a car for investigations from the Defense Logistics Agency in the LESO program, at no cost to the county (other than insurance for the vehicle).
The sheriff’s office also received approval to travel to Nashville, Tennessee to a TCOLE approved Narcotics investigation class. Two investigators from Stephenville PD and two from Erath County Sheriff’s Department will be receiving the training.
The class is in the training budget for the county, but approval must be given any time a county vehicle is taken out of state.
A bid to Jay Burns was awarded for the new Erath County VFD warehouse.
Erath County Emergency Coordinator Chris Brooks stated the bids looked identical to him, other than the total cost.
Brooks stated he had asked both bidders to clarify a time frame for the project and only received an answer from Burns who said if everything fell into place they would have concrete in two weeks.
“My personal preference is all I have to go off of,” Brooks said. “I would rather go with Jay Burns which is the higher bid by about $8,000.” The total bid was $126,720 and it was a budgeted item, which came in under the budget of $150,000.
Commissioner Joe Brown abstained because he is directly involved with Erath County Volunteer Fire Department.
Commissioner Albert Ray sought approval to go out for bids for a new maintenance barn for Precinct 2, in Dublin.
The current barn is at least 50 years old and has virtually no insulation making it impossible to utilize it when it is cold.
Precinct 2 already has additional land off FM 219, which is where they plan to build the new barn. The item was budgeted when the new budget was approved.
Ray explained he would like to have an 80 by 55 ft. building with an office and a break room for the precinct’s employees.
“I visited with the city of Dublin about sewer and water and there are no problems,” Ray said.
The commissioners gave unanimous approval with Ray abstaining from the vote, since it was his precinct’s project.
Court also approved: ■ two line item transfers
■ approved the treasurer’s report for Dec. 2023
■ approved invoices presented for regular and recurring payment as presented by the county auditor and issue order to the county treasure to disburse the funds The court went into closed session and no action was taken after they reconvened into regular session.