The Erath County Jail recently passed its annual jail inspection despite recent changes in jail administration.
Vanessa Griffin, who has been acting as jail administrator since the illness of Jail Administrator Danny Clayton, was promoted officially to interim Jail Administrator by the court on Monday, June 12.
Erath County Sheriff Matt Coates praised Griffin for her tremendous work in regard to getting the jail to pass its annual inspection by Texas Commission on Jail Standards.
“She did the lion’s share of the work,” he said. “There were no deficiencies noted. When we’ve had some flux in our jail administration it’s admirable that we passed.”
The jail in 2022 and in 2021 received non-compliance reports but in both instances the issues were resolved to fix the problems.
After a vital request from Meals on Wheels of Erath County (MOWEC) Executive Director Elizabeth Johnson, the court approved $100,000 from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds.
Johnson explained during the COVID19 pandemic Erath County saw a 25% increase in a request for meals.
Any senior citizen who wanted to be on meals was able to request Meals on Wheels services during the pandemic because they did not want vulnerable seniors out grocery shopping.
Johnson explained that MOWEC went to once a week delivery services with frozen meals to minimize impact with the public and called their senior citizens every day so they still received contact to know they were cared about.
MOWEC also had volunteers to go shopping during the pandemic to minimize exposure for senior citizens.
During this time period, the federal government was providing funding equating to an additional 1,000 meals per month.
“We will no longer be getting this money, since the pandemic has officially ended,” Johnson said.
The executive director explained that approximately 10% of those who were added during the pandemic stayed on the program since they now qualified or were suffering from the effects of COVID-19.
MOWEC also received double the funds from the Texas Department of Agriculture, which has now been retracted, going back to the senior citizens centers.
“We lost about 1,350 meals a month,” she said. “Senior citizen centers are not having those people come back to them.”
In addition, food and transportation costs have risen and due to the economy, donations are reduced.
Johnson said MOWEC currently does not have a waiting list to receive services, but if additional funds are not received it may have to be implemented.
Currently, MOWEC is providing 175 meals a day and serving 250 clients a month.
Johnson said the requested $100,000 would be spent solely on providing meals for those on MOWEC.
Without hesitation, the court unanimously approved the motion to give MOWEC the requested funds with gratitude for everything Johnson does for the aging population of the county.
Variance requests
The court tackled a slew of variance requests, the major from property owners who were transferring property from one family member to another.
Though Subdivision Coordinator Jason Gardner was not in attendance due to vacation time, County Judge Brandon Huckabee said Gardener had received and recommended approval prior to his time off.
A property on County Road 184 for Julian Medina was granted a variance for road frontage. The road frontage is 56 feet instead of the required 200.
A property on County Road 461 for Mark Lane was granted a variance for road frontage. Prior questions the court had about RV space had been answered. . The road frontage is 53.8 feet instead of the required 200.
A property on Farm-to-Market 2156 for Spencer Leyendekker was granted a variance for road frontage. The road frontage is 25 feet instead of the required 200.
A property on 2775 County Road 389 in Stephenville was granted a variance for road frontage. The road frontage is 109 feet instead of the required 200.
Financial items
Several financial items were approved in the Monday commissioners court meeting.
County Treasurer Angie Shawver addressed the court and asked for approval for both herself and County Auditor Kent Reeves to have full online viewing access for all accounts maintained at Interbank which are established under the County Tax ID.
A two-year extension for all accounts at Interbank was approved as the county’s main depository and a subdepository account with First Financial Bank was approved. The sub-depository agreement allows about 19 fiduciary and agency accounts already existing at FFIN to remain there.
A contract with Tyler Technologies to move Erath County’s financial software from a local server to a cloud-based platform was approved.
Reeves explained that within the next year most everyone would be moved to the cloud anyway and it would provide several extra services they county did not currently have access to.
The court also approved Tax Assessor-Collector Jennifer Carey to calculate the no-new- revenue tax rate and voter approval tax rate as the county begins budget preparation for the next fiscal year.
Several budget adjustments, the approval of the May 2023 monthly treasurer’s report and regular and recurring payments were completed.
Additional items
The court gave approval to Precinct 2 Commissioner Albert Ray to utilize water out of a pond owned by Joey Staude on 3607 County Road 297 at no charge. The water may potentially be used to assist with a county project.
Ray explained if water from an irrigation well is used, a contract will need to be signed to reimburse Staude, but there is a high possibility no water will be needed at all.
County Commissioner Jim Buck asked permission on the behalf of the electric coop if they could utilize water from a county pond as they bore under FM 219.
“It beats having to drive all the way to town to get water,” Buck said. “This is rainwater we are letting them use.”
The court unanimously approved the usage.
Those needing a birth certificate from Erath County can now do everything online thanks to a move requested by County Clerk Gwinda Jones.
A module is being added for the county’s vital software service at a cost of $6,000 which will come from the records preservation account.
Users will be charged a $6 fee.
In other business the court: ■ approved the use of Everything Shredded at a rate of $30 for 65 gallons or $20 for 32 gallons as they get ready to move offices into the new annex
■ approved a job description for a temporary records preservation clerk to held scan books prior to the annex move
■ approved a job description for a county mechanic amending it not to require a CDL and accepting all state’s drivers license
■ approved copier agreements with Kirbo’s Office Systems
■ approved a contract between CTC Commissary, LLC and the Erath County Sheriff’s Office No action was taken on the burn ban, though caution was urged due to the amount of fuel (tall grass) that was available currently because of recent rains.