BLUEBONNETS, WILDFLOWER PHOTOS BROUGHT UP DURING WASHINGTON CO. COMMISSIONERS MEETING
The spring wildflower season has brought with it its fair share of complaints of residents and travelers entering private property to take photos with bluebonnets, according to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.
During his monthly report this (Tuesday) morning to Washington County Commissioners, Chief Deputy Jay Petrash said the sheriff’s office has received numerous calls on the matter, particularly during the Chappell Hill Bluebonnet Festival earlier this month.
Petrash implored the public to be respectful of others’ property and not go places that they should not be.
Petrash also gave a brief update on staffing at the sheriff’s office and jail. Petrash said the number of vacancies changes daily, but they are currently trying to fill at least five or six positions, including four deputy positions.
Commissioners also:
- Heard reports from EMS, Information Technology and the Veterans Service Officer.
- Proclaimed Thursday, May 5th as National Day of Prayer in Washington County.
- Approved a 12-inch temporary run-flat rubber water transfer line for a duration of six months on Raymond Lehmann Lane in Precinct 4 for Magnolia Oil & Gas Operation.
- Approved formal notices from Apache Corporation for 12-inch temporary lay flat water lines on Eberhardt Road in Precinct 4 and Iron Bridge Road in Precinct 3 for six months.
- Approved formal notices from ETC Texas Pipeline for 12-inch steel pipeline crossings on Sandtown Road and Koether Road in Precinct 4.
Seemingly, it would be frowned upon to run off the tourists “who are so vital to our local economy” , but law enforcement cannot/will not do anything because “they’ve got other more important things to be doing then to be enforcing trespassing on private property”. The easiest way to make your land boundaries clear (if a fence is not already in place) is to put up ‘No Trespassing’ signs every 300 ft or so, and/or paint a fence post or tree purple every hundred feet or so. While this may not prevent people from coming on your property, at least at that point when you call the non-emergency dispatch number, you can tell them and they will see (when the officer arrives) that the land is posted. Now, whether they will file charges or do anything, is another story. My one question for those who may know more than I, is that if signs are in place on property and trespassers enter the property and are injured by stepping into a hole and twisting an ankle or falling and breaking something, who then is responsible? Certainly I can’t imagine the landowner would be since the property is already posted, but the trespassers may very well say they didn’t see the signs. To me, if notices were placed in all of the tourist materials given out in Washington County and available on the internet that it is NOT permissible to enter private property, that may solve some of the problems as well; I can’t imagine that we want ‘criminal tourists’ in the county anyhow.
How do you think they find these fields, your county tourism PPL post maps for outside trespassers telling them where the big fields are in our county. Google it youll see.