COUNTY COMMISSIONERS RECEIVE SEVERAL UPDATES TUESDAY

  

Washington County Commissioners got an update this (Tuesday) morning on the A&M AgriLife Extension Service.  Extension Agent Kara Matheney explained the many activities that the service is involved in:

Matheney said that the recent Spring Tomato and Pepper plant sale set a record for her office.  She said they sold over 8000 plants and brought in $2000 that will go towards youth scholarships for students entering into an ag-related field. The Extension Service presented each commissioner with a gift box containing tomato and pepper plants.  Matheney challenged each commissioner to grow and make their own salsa, and bring it back for taste testing.

Commissioners also made two proclamations during their meeting.  They declared next week as Boys and Girls Club Week.  Washington County Executive Director Stephanie Wehring said that the Brenham Club has activities scheduled all next week and a different speaker scheduled each day:

Commissioners also proclaimed the month of April as Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention Month in Washington County.  Members from the local CASA for Kids office, Child Protective Services, and the Washington County Child Welfare board accepted the proclamation and spoke to the commissioners.

Commissioners also got the first look at the new Emergency Management Software App.  Emergency Management Coordinator Bryan Ruemke demonstrated the App to the commissioners.  The big advantage to the app is its ability to display a map that will show road closures, evacuation areas, or shelter locations.  The new app is not available from the App Store, but can be downloaded by going to oem.wacounty.com and following the directions on the screen.  Commissioners said that the biggest problem during that oil well gas leak two weeks ago was that residents in the evacuation area hadn’t signed up for emergency notifications.  They noted that the same problem would exist if they didn’t download this app.  Ruemke said that the county could apply for the authority to activate the ipaws system, and that would send a message to each smartphone in a designated area, but it would cost approximately $1000 per year for the software.  Commissioners said that it definitely would be looked into during the budget process this summer.