Yoakum County Commissioners Court Meets January 8

by Eric

The Commissioners Court met on Monday, January 8, where they addressed their weekly agenda with the main focus of the meeting centered around setting 2018 salaries.

The meeting opened with the Commissioners looking through the bills and addressing any concerns after which they unanimously approved to audit and settle all accounts against the county and direct their payments. The county had total bills of $179,516.36 and the hospital and medical bills totaled $350,601.00.

Tax Assessor/Collector Jan Parrish was present to give her December, 2017, receipts which totaled $2,870,910.65. The Court also acknowledged the continuing education hours that Parrish had earned.

In the next item County Judge Jim Barron acknowledged receipt of December, 2017 monthly reports from the District Clerk, Justice of the Peace Precinct #1 and Justice of the Peace Precinct #2.

The Court also unanimously approved the 2018 holiday schedule.

Moving into the setting salary schedules the Court unanimously approved full-time employees’ salaries as reflected in the budget, part time salary maximum rates for clerical and road hands, and passed an order placing Officers on Salary Basis for 2018.

Compensation for Grand and Petit Jury Service was also set. Those who report for jury duty will receive $15 and serving on either jury will be $40 per meeting.

The Commissioners also set mileage rate for out-of-county travel.

Economic Development Corporation Executive Director David Mitchell was also in attendance to update the Court on the survey map for the new housing development at the former location of the DCISD Elementary school that also housed several county offices. He noted one change would be the width of drainage ditch from 20 feet to 10 feet and the width of those lots on the west side of the ditch would increase from 56 feet to 58 feet. The width of all the lots on the east side will be 60 feet.

Sheriff David Bryant informed the Court his department was in need of a new mobile command unit. He said a good used replacement could be purchased for $20,000 to $30,000. Commissioners Woody Lindsey and Ray Marion both questioned those figures and asked Bryant to put together some more concrete figures and bring them back to court next week for further consideration. A motion was then made to table his request.

There were no road crossing permit applications, no request for the disposal of county equipment, no line item transfers, and no Soil Conservation request.

The ongoing saga of the completion of the new Denver City Community building continued with new inspection dates set. The Court was informed a walk through on the new facility would take place on Thursday, January 11.

Commissioners Woody Lindsey, Ray Marion, Tommy Box, and Tim Addison along with County Judge Jim Barron were all in attendance.

The next meeting will be held on Monday, January 15, at 10 am in the County Courthouse.

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