Hopkins County Commissioner Court Monday morning scored and selected from the two proposals a hazardous mitigation engineering service provider, a county road inventory, appointed a representative to the Workforce Development Board and approved a security group to install new security upgrades at the new county buildings.
The court held a special 8:30 a.m. work session Monday to open and grade potential engineering service providers to the Texas Hazardous Mitigation Program. The county received two proposals, one from Hayes Engineering which earned just shy of 500 points and one from MTG, which received 584 points.
The court, at the recommendation of the county auditor, adopted a resolution designating MTG as the engineering service provider for the Texas Hazardous Mitigation Assistance Program application and project-related engineering services during their regular court session later Monday morning. The county officials said the work would be on roads in two precincts.
The court also appointed Andrew Mendezona to the local Workforce Development Board. Mendezona was “recommended highly” to serve on the board, which Newsom said is “part of the success of Hopkins County and Northeast Texas.” The judge said the unemployment rate last month was 2.6 percent,” the lowest Newsom can recall. The board consists of 20 people from nine counties in Northeast Texas. Newsom said based on the reports he’s received and the meetings he’s attended, accounts are that Northeast Texas is doing well, as far as employment statistics go, but Hopkins County is “doing better.”
Commissioners approved a contract with Firetrol Protection Systems Inc. to install at the new District Court building, and new District Attorney and Clerk’s Offices for $24,988 security systems that can be monitored at the sheriff’s office.
The county emergency officials were asked to evaluate security systems. Then, the sheriff and his staff recommended having a system that can be monitored by county staff. This would cut out the need for a third party that’d be contacted if a security alarm is triggered, then alert the county officials. This would mean a quicker response time, officials pointed out.
In other business during the regular commissioners court session, Kristy Springfield was recognized for completing Level 3 CJIS Security Training of the Criminal Justice Information System Security and Awareness Training.
Newsom noted the commissioners court would meet again on July 15 and July 29, to work with elected officials and other county employees to develop a 2019-20 budget, with the goal of having a proposal ready by the end of July or first of August.
