WASHINGTON CO. COMMISSIONERS TO CONSIDER NOVEMBER ELECTION ITEMS
Washington County Commissioners will take up several housekeeping items for the November election when they meet Tuesday.
Commissioners will act on an order for the November 5th general election as recommended by the Texas Secretary of State. They will also vote on appointments for election judges and alternates, the central counting station manager, the tabulation supervisor and tabulation assistants.
Also on Tuesday, the court will look to accept a bid for a full-color LED outdoor monument sign and cabinet cover at the Washington County Expo, using hotel occupancy tax reserve funds. Expo Director Harrison Williams said during the July 30th commissioners meeting that this item is to replace the LED portion of the sign.
In addition, the county will vote on an agreement with Brannon Industrial Group for administrative services relating to the scrap tire collection event in October.
After the regular meeting, the court will shift into a public meeting for the Pecan Glen Road District to propose the 2024 property tax rate. The item was brought up during the most recent meeting, but Commissioner Kirk Hanath said the court was informed after the meeting by the county attorney’s office that approval of the proposed rate requires at least four members of the road district to be present for the vote, and there were only three members present.
The rate proposed at the latest meeting was $0.297725 per $100. The rate is listed as the voter-approval rate, but it is lower than the no-new-revenue rate of $0.308024 per $100, as well as the existing tax rate of $0.33407 per $100. The tax is used to support road upgrades within the road district and only applies to residents in the Pecan Glen subdivision.
In other regular session business, commissioners will:
- Read a proclamation declaring the month of September as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month in Washington County.
- Consider a drainage and construction easement between the county and Cegielski Country Property Trust for a drainage project along Wonder Hill Road in Precinct 2.
- Act on a subdivision variance request for a land division fronting Sandstone Road in Precinct 4, consisting of 71.88 acres.
- Consider a subdivision variance request for a land division fronting Hohenwalde School Road and Highway 290 in Precinct 4, consisting of 5.8 acres.
- Vote on accepting Timber Bridge Lane (0.520 miles) and Timber Cove Lane (0.102 miles), located in the Timber Bridge subdivision in Precinct 2, and adding them into the county road system.
- Hear reports from the sheriff’s office, information technology, county and district clerks, justices of the peace, auditor, tax assessor-collector, treasurer, constables, elections and veterans service officer.
Commissioners will meet Tuesday at 9 a.m. at the Washington County Courthouse.
We can not get roads repaired because we have a small county with a ridiculous amount of out right overkill of an EMS for a county of this size without an interstate highway. Ten million will fix and provide lots of jobs and adequate maintenance for our roadways. Larry K Deramus is good salesman and he has gotten his salary up from 112k in 2019 to 164k in 2023 and all his people below him over 100k in salaries. This guy could sell a bald man a brush or we have some politics in motion either way does not even out to the Sheriff, Road and Bridge, or Fire Department in fair distribution of funding with our tax dollars. Just common sense here folks. I still have tree limbs stuck in trees and about to fall but if it does and you get hurt EMS will be there in minutes! Duh! Ever here of an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure? We need better common sense leadership cause this is upside down in my opinion. The EMS here is great not saying they are not but when Paramedics make more than Lawyers and Civil Engineers and there is a 3 to 2 vote no on getting the Chief Jailer a raise for add responsibility. To me this is not fair at all.
Here we can’t take care of the roads and now going on private property again it’s time for a change need somebody to run in pct 2 and county judge
I’ve asked this question numerous times and never get an answer. How many died or became more seriously injured because they did not get EMS or life flighted quick enough in the last 5, 10, 20 years? When making such decisions as was made regarding adding helicopters and additional sub stations what statistics were used besides an overzealous director who promotes himself and commissioners who chose it as their pet projects. Sure, nobody wants this to happen. But common sense and physical responsibility must be applied. But this is a government run institution…that term never applies.