Jasper County Commissioners Court
The Jasper County Commissioners Court met in the final Regular Session of the year on Monday, December 16th, 2024 and covered the following agenda items:
First the Court heard from District Clerk Rosa Norsworthy, who presented her monthly criminal and civil fee reports, which the Court approved.
Next, the Court voted to authorize Jasper County’s individual departments to begin applying for Homeland Security and Criminal Justice grants through the South East Texas Regional Planning Commission and the Office of the Governor. Historically, Jasper County’s Office of Emergency Management, the District Attorney’s Office, Sheriff’s Office and Juvenile Probation Departments have all been recipients of grant funds through these programs.
In other grant related matters, the Court voted to award a contract for vegetative management mowing equipment to the sole bidder, George P. Bane, Inc. out of Tyler, Texas in the amount of $350,208.92 per unit and authorized the County Auditor to issue a purchase order on the equipment after authorization to expend grant funding is received by the U.S. Forest Service and Texas Forest Service.
This equipment will be purchased with funding from the recent $9.8 million grant award that Jasper County received through the U.S. Forest Service Community Wildfire Defense Grant. Jasper County was also awarded an additional $250K for wildfire defense planning and activities.
Concluding grant business, the Court voted to award a construction contract to the winning bidder, Pittsburg Tank & Tower, Inc out of Henderson, Kentucky, to build a 150,000 gallon elevated water storage tank for the City of Kirbyville under the Texas General Land Office Community Development Block Grant Mitigation Program in the amount of $2,609,990.34. Of this, Jasper County has committed to utilize $2,116,085 in grant funding to assist with the project, and the City of Kirbyville has committed to fund the remaining $493,905.34.
This is being provided as part of a much larger $13.254 million grant that was awarded to Jasper County under the CDBG-MIT program.
In other business, the Court heard from Sheriff’s Office Lieutenant Jason Hollyfield who advised that the Sheriff’s Office had invoiced a total of $36,405.00 to Nacogdoches, Newton, Tyler and San Jacinto Counties, as well as the City of Jasper and the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas for housing inmates in the month of November, 2024.
In other law enforcement matters, the Court heard from Sheriff-Elect Chuck Havard, who requested that the Court amend his 2025 budget to reflect changes to increase salaries for law enforcement officers and dispatchers utilizing a combination of a dissolved administrative assistant position and surpluses in the parttime employee line items to keep the budget completely neutral in cost compared to what the Court had adopted earlier for the FY2025 budget cycle.
Sheriff-Elect Havard advised that he felt that this would assist with retaining existing staff and attracting professional and qualified personnel, which the Court approved.
Next, the Court heard from Lieutenant Hollyfield once again regarding FY2024 budget cycle overages of accrued vacation at the Sheriff’s Office for five of the existing employees and advised that Sheriff Newman had requested that these officers be allowed to carry forward their surplus vacation into the FY2025 budget cycle. Sheriff-Elect Havard advised that he would accept the additional cost of this, as well as the additional scheduling duties of ensuring that these employees were allowed to take time off next year if needed.
However, after a brief discussion, the Court voted to pay off the surplus vacation time of all of the listed employees out of the Prisoner Reimbursement Fund to help prevent vacation scheduling conflicts in FY2025.
Following this, the Court voted to approve the bonds for all re-elected and newly-elected District, County and Precinct Officers for the upcoming 2025 term and thanked all retiring officials for their service to Jasper County.
Next, the Court heard from the County Clerk Holly Thomas, who requested that Jasper County’s rental fees to lease space from other entities be increased to $100 per day for Election Day use, due to the increased voter turnout traffic inside and outside each facility, which the Court approved.
In road and bridge matters, the Court voted to authorize Precinct 2 Commissioner Kevin Holloway to initiate the process of including certain roads in Rayburn Country into Jasper County’s road system, pending legal assistance and approval. These roads include Red Wolf Lane, Black Squirrel Lane, Deer Park Drive, Trevino Drive, Racoon Lane and Gray Fox Lane.
The Court also voted to retain the legal services of Allison, Bass & Magee, LLP out of Austin to assist with assimilating these roads into Jasper County’s road system, as well as any other roads from other Commissioner Precincts that might be eligible.
Next, the Court once again voted to retain the legal services of Allison, Bass & Magee, LLP to assist in redrawing the Justice of the Peace Precincts 4 and 6 boundary lines to correct discrepancies discovered after Jasper County moved to the South East Texas Regional Planning Commission, whereby boundary lines became clarified by their mapping department, but that also excluded citizens from voting in areas that they were accustomed to previously. This comes after requests were made by citizens and election workers to make a boundary change in this area.
Next, the Court voted to reappoint board members on Jasper County’s Emergency Services Districts 1, 2,3 and 4 for another term.
In housekeeping matters, the Court voted to set the term for the FY2025 Commissioners Court dates, as well as setting the 2025 Jasper County holiday schedule, and also renewed Jasper County’s local declaration of disaster for Hurricane Beryl due to outstanding FEMA and SBA projects underway to assist local citizens.
The Court also discussed a request made by the TEX-21 Transportation Coalition to join their group to increase future capacity on U.S. Highway 96 from the Ports of Beaumont and Port Arthur through Jasper County and on to the Tenaha, Texas area where it would intersect with the future I-69. After a brief discussion, the Court noted that it currently is a member of the I-14 Gulf Coast Strategic Highway Coalition and determined that additional information would be necessary before joining another group, and will readdress the topic at a later date.
Concluding business, County Treasurer Rene’ Ellis provided the monthly finance report, and then requested that the Court appoint Deputy Treasurer Terrena Busby as the administrator for the Sick Leave Pool, which the Court approved. Jasper County’s Sick Leave Pool is made of a board of volunteer employees who manage sick leave hours donated by employees to assist fellow personnel with serious or terminal illnesses who have exhausted their vacation and sick leave time balances.
That covers it for this Court meeting. As always, please feel free to give me a call if you need anything my way. We hope that you and your families have a peaceful and blessed Christmas Holiday and a healthy and prosperous New Year in 2025. May God bless each and every one of you.
Mark Allen, County Judge
Jasper County, Texas
