Hopkins County Commissioners approved disposal of property for three of the four county precincts, requests from an electric company to put distribution facilities across two county roads, removal of a beaver dam in Saltillo, a contract with TCEQ, lease agreements for printer/copier/scanner units for three sties at Hopkins County Law Enforcement Center and two resolutions.
Approval was given for Farmers Electric Company Inc. to construct electrical power distribution facilities, which will cross County Road 2333 and County Road 3520.
Hopkins County Fire Chief Andy Endsley asked the court to consider a contract with Texas Commission on Environmental Quality through the local Planning Committee. Endsley explained a few years ago, the county received a grant through this program to obtain portable radios.
“What we’ll do with this, is we’ll finish our programming sequence with all of our four repeater towers where we can go fully digital on our fire department side. This will help to complete this process, a much needed $5,000,” Endlsey said.
The grant would require no county match either in funds, labor or property, Endsley added. The court approved the contract.
Commissioners approved lease agreements with Advantage Copy Systems for copier/printer/scanner units for the jail, dispatch and arraignment room at HCLEC. Hopkins County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Tanner Crump said the ink and toner are included in the lease agreement, which when coupled with the advantage of owning the units, is a saving to the county.
Tax Assessor/Collector Debbie Pogue Mitchell received approval to begin the hiring process of finding a replacement an employee in the motor vehicle division who will be stepping up to replace the department’s “top hand” in property tax and voter registration, who is retiring on July 31. Beginning the hiring process now should provide ample time to not only hire, but train individuals working with current staff to do those jobs. Mitchell said her department does have the funding required to have an extra employee during that time of transition.
Precinct 4 will be selling at auction a 2000 half-ton Chevrolet pickup, a 1997 backhoe, a Catterpillar with a back-blade and a few other items, most of which were not operational until recently, when precinct workers got all except two working. Most have not been operational for 7-8 years. The current precinct workers got all except two working. They’re to be sold at auction
Precinct 1 will be auctioning a pickup bed. A 1994 Ford dump truck from Precinct 3 will be sent to auction as well.
The piano that’d been in the basement of the courthouse has yet to be sold. It is tentatively scheduled for auction on May 2 in Commerce. The auction scheduled at the facility had to be postponed due to the rainy weather. The parking area is not paved, and thus can become too muddy during rainy weather, Precinct 3 Commissioner Wade Bartley.
Commissioners passed resolution designating GrantsWork as management service provider to draft and or a Community Development Block Grant for disaster relief.
The court also designated May 2 as National Day of Prayer in Hopkins County. A gathering for prayer for the county will be held on the downtown square at 5 p.m. that day, Newsom said.
Precinct 3 staff removed a beaver dam on private property on County Road 3357 in Saltillo, which was backing up onto the right-of-way causing issues on the road.
Hopkins County Extension Agents johanna Hicks, Mario Villarino and Jessica Taylor gave an update on programs that’d occurred in the last 3-4 months and a few upcoming projects.
Hopkins County Commissioners entered into a work session immediately following the regular court meeting. Tom Glosup was scheduled to give maintenance and construction update. The new Civic Center manager was to discuss events, repairs and improvements for the facility as well as revenues and expenditures. Additional topics to be discussed included environmental concerns, appointment of members to the Historical Commission, , courthouse security, employee safety equipment program, feral hog grant, modifications of economic development agreements and a budget work session.
