WASHINGTON COUNTY COMMISSIONERS TO MEET TUESDAY MORNING
The Washington County Commissioners Court is scheduled to meet in regular session on Tuesday morning.
Items up for discussion include a Request for Qualifications for the Washington County Courthouse Landscape project possibly through the American Rescue Plan Act funding administered by the U.S. Department of Treasury.
The county has selected Grant Works for assistance, and they recommended a five-step process.
The first step is to choose a selection review committee to determine the criteria to select architect service providers, and to review and rate proposals. The committee will consist of Commissioners Candice Bullock and Kirk Hanath, as well as, County Engineer Wesley Stolz, and Business Owner Tracy Pyle.
The other steps include reviewing scoring criteria, choosing an architectural provider, approving an RFQ ad for the newspaper, and preparing an independent cost estimate.
Also, during the regular meeting, the Commissioners will be deciding on approval for two interlocal agreements between the Brazos Valley Council of Governments and Washington County E-9-1-1. One agreement is for Public Safety Answering Point Services, while the other is for Database Maintenance Services.
In addition to that, the Commissioners are expected to authorize the County Engineer’s Office to advertise for bids for an Alternate Bulk – Jet A Aviation Fuel Supplier.
Following the regular meeting, the Commissioners will meet in a workshop session.
The workshop session includes a discussion on the Washington County Seal Design. The other topic will be Health Insurance Renewal Rates.
The Washington County Commissioners Court meets Tuesday at 9am in their chambers at the Washington County Courthouse.
I remember back in the 1970’s, when there was an ongoing attempt to get trees to root and grow on the four grassy corners of the courthouse lot. Several of the trees died over time, but by the early
1980’s, all four had been established. In the intervening years, the block has been cut up and decorated and memorialized and now we have more money (even though it’s not local money, but just taxpayer money in general) being slated for you to do even more. If I remember correctly, in the 60’s and 70’s, there was an older African-American man who used to mow the lawn at the courthouse, and it probably didn’t take him over 3 hours to do all of it. He mowed, trimmed with an edger, and hand clipped around vertical items and swept the trimmings into a pile and picked them up. Washington County and Texas keep saying how conservative they are and how financially responsible they are and yet more and more money is piled into a jumble or hodgepodge of things surrounding the courthouse. At some point, several of those trees may need to be removed, and I guess we’ll have to see if we can get a federal grant for that and their replacements. I just don’t understand how people think that the downtown area has got to be decorated up like some midway of a traveling circus instead of a business-like, easy-to-care-for setting.
Yes, I hope that we do absolutely everything and anything possible to bring back home the dollars that we send to Washington D.C. If we don’t spend it here then somebody else will spend it somewhere else. It’s that simple and we should be aggressive about pursuing these opportunities. You can be for the local grant writing and against the federal appropriation at the same time.