Erath County Commissioners Court recently agreed to filming utilizing the exterior of the courthouse for King Street Productions in the upcoming series “1883: The Bass Reeves Story.”
The Taylor Sheridan limited series is a spin-off of Yellowstone’s Wild West prequel “1883” and will depict the story of Bass Reeves, the first Black U.S. Marshal west of the Mississippi.
The show will star David Oyelowo who is also producer, a well known British actor who starred in Selma as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
At the Monday, March 27 commissioner’s court meeting, County Judge Brandon Huckabee explained only the exterior of the courthouse was being used for filming though a small “little city” was being built nearby.
Due to all of the things going on near the courthouse, voting for local school district and city elections has been relocated to the Graham Street Church of Christ Family Life Center in Stephenville.
In the agreement, filming dates are allowed from March 23 through May 31 and the county will receive $7,000 for use of property, including $2,000 for voting relocation costs. However, filming with traffic blocked is only supposed to occur for three to five days.
The series will be streaming on Paramount Plus.
The court also approved two software purchases to help the county manage growth.
The commissioners approved a Customer Relationship Software which will help them track subdivision processes, permits etc. and costs $8,400 annually with $3,200 in startup fees.
“The reason we hired Jason is because of all the subdivisions coming in and to keep this organized so I make a motion that we approve this,” Commissioner Dee Stephens said.
“This system has incredible added bonuses built in with paper trails for email communications. It takes care of all of that for us,” Subdivision Coordinator Jason Gardner said.
The commissioners also approved DebtBook, a software that helps calculate and account for leases and subscription-based technology arrangements at a cost of $8,000.
The county also approved the removal of communications equipment from the Huston Academy Tower since it is no longer needed. Once the equipment is down, the county will save $1,260 a month.
The county received a credit of $167,500.45 from Lumen in overbilled services from Fiscal Year 2021-23 for the county’s previous phone and internet service, though the contract was no longer in effect.
“We kept sending them pics of the bills at $9,000 a month and we knew eventually it would catch up,” Auditor Kent Reeves said.
The commissioners’ court also approved designating the county’s website as where County Clerk Gwinda Jones can post her notices instead of an interior bulletin board.
Because of Local Government Code 82.051(c), counties can designate that the county clerk may post official and legal notices by electronic display instead of posting a physical document.
“More people will have access to them if we post them on our internet than the bulletin board,” she said.
During new business, Commissioner Stephens utilized the time to clear up some rumors circulating.
Stephens explained the for a long time the county had utilized his dad’s property as a place to dump excess debris and trash dirt to save the county countless hours of manpower and fuel not having to drive over to Chalk Mountain.
He explained utilizing the land was previously discussed with Attorney Lisa Pence and approved by the commissioner court. County equipment is also stored on the property.
“None of the valuable dirt has ever been used for my private use, just to clear this up,” he said.
Stephens said that anyone is welcome to the “trash dirt,” they just need to bring a truck over to get it and make contact with Stephens.