COMMISSIONERS RECOMMEND PLAN NORTH AS ARCHITECT

  

Washington County Commissioners recommended Plan North as the Architect for the new Road and Bridge facility during their meeting this (Tuesday) morning.  The county plans to build on 21 acres of land it purchased last year on Highway 36 North.  Once the new facility is operational, the county plans to construct a new Justice Center on the current Road and Bridge site adjacent to the County Jail.

Commissioners appointed a committee in January to review the qualification submissions from four architectural firms.  Their recommendation was to go with Plan North.  The county will now enter into contract negotiations with Plan North for the new Road and Bridge facility.

Commissioners acknowledged the County Treasurer and Auditor Departments for earning the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting.  This is the 8th consecutive year the county has received the certificate form the Government Finance Officers Association.  County Auditor Sharon Stolz commented that with all of the required FEMA auditing this past year, that Road and Bridge completed an enormous amount of work in their department.

County Auditor Sharon Stolz (center left) and County Treasure Peggy Kramer (center right) along with their staffs accept the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting from County Judge John Brieden.

In other action, commissioners approved the annual maintenance contract for the Statewide Automated Victim Notification Service.  The service is operated by the Texas Attorney General’s Office and is funded 100 percent by the state.  The contract actually began September 1st of last year, but the county just now received the copy to approve.

Commissioners also approved a road bore for a water line tap on Seward Plantation Lane in Precinct 1.

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13 Comments

  1. Let’s face it folks. We ALL know this is a STUPID move!! Anyone with any sense knows this piece of property does and will flood. They don’t care and aren’t paying any attention to anything we say. Make your feelings count when election time comes and vote out the fools!!

  2. What bothers me about this particular property is the hush hush hurry up manner in which our county judge and prior commissioners court made the purchase. When the announcement was made that the county was looking at this property, questions were asked and the reply from our judge was that he would not comment on it. Check it out.

    1. It is obvious that comments will be made by the howowner’s and the developer who has recently developed their property adjoining the county property. This site for the new buildings are not in the floodplain. This location was planned and signs erected prior to the subdivision construction.

  3. Not only the fact that it has flooded there multiple times in recent years but what about the traffic? You will have gravel trucks, equipment, etc. turning out onto a road with a 60-70 mile speed limit. How many accidents will there be before someone realizes what a huge mistake this is. This is a waste of tax dollars. Please reconsider this location for safety reasons.

    1. Maybe can put in a red light or get citizens on potrol can help like at schools rock on its time rock on

  4. I think this building is good news for Washington County. The property where the building is to be constructed is far from any flooding on a huge tract that is spanning over 20 acres. The idea to build a new road and bridge headquarters was talked about for years and now it not just talk, but a plan put into action.

    I hope I am wrong but the crazy talk of this land entirely flooding is not accurate, and seems to be originating from a few people who are desperate (as early voting nears) to make this very smart project into some kind of political issue for the upcoming election. Good engineering and common sense will always prevail over political shots.

    1. That Property will flood!!! Doesn’t make sense to build in a flood type area and have all the repairs and damage to fix when it does. Wake up people ya common sense. Waste of money going down

    2. So many people speak without knowledge -how many homes, roads, businesses and developments are 50% in a flood zone. Any intelligent person would gather data before placing derogative remarks on a subject they know very little about. This is the 21st century, crawl out of the political box and get educated on flood zones. Look at how approximately 50% of the Bisd property for the Bus barn is in a flood zone. What about the city parks? High school? Waste treatment facility? An estimated 25% of the 21.45 acres is located in a flood zone, certainly the remaining 16 acres will be developable for a ROAD department.
      I would be more concerned about the houses for families coming up next to a department that generates so much dust and noise! I witness it every day as I drive down Blue Bell Rd/FM 577 and see the clouds blowing the dense material around. I certainly would not want to live next to that. I would imagine, and I also believe there are many other parents who would love to see the stopping of the big 18 wheeler trucks impeding the travel on this well-travelled road, Blue Bell Rd/FM 577!
      God Bless this move and may it be soon……VERY SOON!

      1. Without knowledge? Here’s some publicly available knowledge, if you have access to Google Earth Pro. Turn the globe and zoom into the county road & bridge’s proposed building site. Turn on the National Flood Hazard Zone Layer from FEMA. You will see that the entire highway frontage for the site is well within the flood hazard zone, as well as quite a bit of the property, which we can reasonably expect will be used to store the very same material we might use to repair our county roads and water-crossings — after a flood. Hope the repair material isn’t washed away, and I suppose the county can rebuild their own driveway first, so they can get trucks and material in and out. I think the point everyone is trying to make here is why buy this property near or in a flood zone in the first place, when there is plenty of other property available that isn’t anywhere near a flood zone at all?

    3. Please pardon us for being skeptical of your claim that this site is “far from any flooding.”

  5. I hope they are planning to build that facility on stilts! Has anyone been out there to see how high the water was the last time it flooded? And how many times has it flooded in the past 5 years at that specific location? I hope I’m wrong but I don’t think it is very smart to build a facilty like that in a flood zone!

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