Jasper County Commissioners Court
The Jasper County Commissioners Court met on Monday, September 16th, 2024, in a lengthy Regular Session and covered the following agenda items:
First, the Court heard from Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Scott Duncan, who presented the monthly Jail report advising that the Sheriff’s Office had invoiced a total of $46,830.00 for housing inmates from Nacogdoches, Newton and Tyler Counties during the month of August, 2024.
Next, the Court considered a request from the Sheriff’s Office to approve a contract between Jasper County and San Jacinto County, Texas to house their inmates, due to damage to their Jail facility. The Court voted to approve the contract up to January 22, 2025, to place the possible contract renewal in the same rotation with the contracts from the other jurisdictions for which Jasper County houses inmates.
The Court then discussed a proposed 9-1-1 microwave communication tower to be constructed at the Sheriff’s Office off Burch Street in the City of Jasper behind the Communications Center. The Court noted that this tower would be funded with 9-1-1 grant funding through the South East Texas Regional Planning Commission and that microwave dishes would be installed to connect the north end of the county to the 9-1-1 network of Hardin, Jefferson and Orange Counties using the new grant-funded radio communications tower on County Road 546 as a relay.
After construction, the Court hoped to utilize additional grant funding to install communications equipment on the tower as well to further expand radio communications capabilities on the north end of Jasper County.
The Court approved the use of Jasper County property at the Sheriff’s Office to construct the permanent tower to improve the safety of citizens and the coordination of emergency responders to 9-1-1 calls.
Concluding law enforcement business, the Court voted to accept the donation of a U.S. Coast Guard search and rescue boat coordinated through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for use by the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office Emergency Corps.
Next, the Court accepted a donation of $10,000.00 from Blackfin Pipeline on behalf of Emergency Services District #1, designated for use in funding the Buna Volunteer Fire Department’s Cairo Springs Substation off FM 1004. The Court thanked Blackfin Pipeline for working to assist ESD #1, which is the jurisdiction where most of their natural gas pipeline and proposed compressor station will be located in Jasper County.
The Court then voted to authorize the Jasper County Office of Emergency Management to apply for the upcoming round of Local Emergency Preparedness Committee grant funding through the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
In other emergency management matters the Court voted to renew Jasper County’s declaration of disaster for Hurricane Beryl, noting that FEMA and the Small Business Administration were still utilizing Jasper County’s Annex Facility for providing support and information to storm victims.
The Court then took up more grant related business and voted to apply for an upcoming round of funding through the Texas General Land Office under the Community Development Block Grant disaster program. The Court noted that the Texas GLO had approximately $136 million in funds remaining that had been left over from disaster programs dating back to Hurricane Ike in 2008, and that Jasper County was eligible to compete for funding for up to two projects with a cap of up to $20 million per project.
The Court noted that the timeline was short for identifying eligible projects tied to specific disaster events under this program and agreed to consult with Ms. Lesley Waxman of David J. Waxman, Inc. for projects that had been identified in the past that might be shovel ready.
Under a different round of funding, the Court then voted to initiate procurement for grant administration services for the upcoming FY2026-2027 CDBG grant cycle through the Texas Department of Agriculture for up to $750K in grant funding. In the past, the Court has opted to assist local water districts and water supply corporations by applying for this funding on their behalf to assist with upgrading or expanding fresh water supply infrastructure.
The Court then voted to appoint Precinct 2 Commissioner Kevin Holloway, Precinct 3 Commissioner Willie Stark and County Auditor Mellissa Smith to serve on the scoring committee for grant administration and engineering procurement on this upcoming CDBG grant cycle.
Concluding grant matters, the Court voted to apply for the upcoming round of Texas Department of Transportation – Aviation Division Routine Airport Maintenance Program grant funding for both of Jasper County’s airports which are the Bell Field Airport in Jasper and the Kirbyville Airport off FM 82 in Kirbyville. These grants are for up to $100K per airport, with Jasper County making a ten percent match in funding and can be utilized for maintenance and upgrades of existing airport infrastructure.
Next, the Court voted to accept a sole proposal received and award a contract to Apex Clean Energy for leasing approximately 9,000 acres of Jasper County’s school land in Pecos County, Texas for renewable energy development to facilitate the production of hydrogen through electrolysis. This long-term lease will enable Jasper County to continue existing and future hunting, grazing and oil and gas development on the property.
This lease, which will consist of up to a seven-year development period, three-year construction period and up to a thirty-year operations period with the option to extend two additional terms of ten years each for operations. This lease will generate continuous revenue annually which will continue to strengthen Jasper County’s Permanent School Fund.
The property, which was granted to Jasper County when Texas was still a young Republic, has been utilized for the past 185 years to generate funding to assist local schools in educating our youth throughout the county. Since the creation of school districts, the Court now transfers funds to the districts themselves to determine the best use of the funding for operations.
The Commissioners Court currently transfers any interest generated from the Permanent School fund into what is designated as the Available School Fund and distributes these interest dividends annually to each school district that educates Jasper County students and is based on the student census population in each district. Currently, an annual distribution is made to Buna ISD, Brookeland ISD, Evadale ISD, Kirbyville CISD and Jasper ISD, but there are also periods whereby funding is provided to Colmesneil ISD, Woodville ISD and Vidor ISD, due to their educating a small number of Jasper County students that reside inside the Jasper County line, but within their individual district.
In other business, the Court voted to participate in a feasibility study sponsored by the Texas Forest Country Partnership to establish a regional Foreign Trade Zone which would include Jasper County to bolster economic development locally by leveraging Jasper County’s proximity to the Ports of Beaumont, Port Arthur and Orange and taking advantage of the current and future rail and highway expansion and improvement plans underway in our area.
In road and bridge matters, the Court voted to approve a bid received for a road and bridge improvement project on Beechwood Drive in Commissioner Precinct 1.
The Court also passed a resolution authorizing the continued lease of dump trucks for Commissioner Precinct 1 and another resolution authorizing Jasper County to participate in the upcoming Texas Indigent Defense grant program to receive partial reimbursement for court appointed attorney fees on criminal cases.
The Court then heard from Deputy Treasurer Brenda Harding, who provided the monthly finance report, and also reported that after the Court modified Jasper County’s healthcare plan to assist employees with providing family healthcare, that nineteen children had been added that were not previously enrolled, which was the goal of the Court to help protect the youth.
Mrs. Harding also presented the annual renewal of Jasper County’s retiree Medicare supplement plan through the Texas Association of Counties Choice Silver program, which the Court approved. This Medicare supplement is offered at the retiree’s expense at no cost to Jasper County.
The Court then heard from Deputy County Clerk Patty Wagstaff who advised that the Clerk’s Office was seeking additional office space for the storage of archived records. The Court was advised that the storage areas in the Clerk’s Office and the Records Repository building were being filled quickly and that the Clerk’s Office was looking for additional office space for records as well as voting equipment and materials, which they proposed to fund utilizing County Clerk archival fees collected instead of county general revenue funds.
After a brief discussion, the Court voted to appoint a committee to research options for acquiring space at a new location or other methods available, with the committee members comprised of County Clerk Holly Thomas, County Auditor Mellissa Smith, Precinct 1 Commissioner Seth Martindale and Precinct 2 Commissioner Kevin Holloway.
Concluding business, the Court heard from the District Clerk Rosa Norsworthy, who presented her monthly criminal and civil fee reports, which the Court approved.
That covers it for this Court meeting. Have a great week and as always, feel free to call if you need anything my way.
Mark Allen, County Judge
Jasper County, Texas
