The Yoakum County Commissioners Court convened at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, May 18 in the District Courtroom of the County Courthouse in Plains, Texas, where they conducted their weekly meeting.
Those in attendance included Commissioners Woody Lindsey, Ray Marion, Tommy Box, and Tim Addison along with County Judge Jim Barron.
Others present for all or part of the session included County Clerk Summer Lovelace, County Treasurer Darla Welch, County Auditor Darinda McWhirter, CDA Bill Helwig, Tax Assessor/Collector Jan Parrish, Human Resource Director Crystal Gonzales, and Sheriff David Bryant.
During Public discussion Plains resident Neal Newsom addressed the Court concerning opening local businesses. He noted how many local business owners continued to take a financial hit while remaining closed due to the COVID-19 virus. Newsom went on to say he would like for the Commissioners to approve lifting mandated ban on all local businesses.
Moving into the agenda which started with the payments of all bills which included County bills of $195,273.51 and hospital bills that totaled $265,624.69. The Commissioners also unanimously approved the payment of part time salaries.
Following the payment of all the bills Judge Jim Barron acknowledged receipts from Precinct #1 Justice of the Peace and the Sheriff’s office.
In the next item the Court unanimously approved additional funding for the Plains Airport Grant for a total of $4,000. This is a 90/10 grant with TxDot for improvements to the runways at the Plains airport.
Human Resource Director Crystal Gonzales approached the Court asking for the them to approve action on TCDRS qualified replacement benefit arrangements. The Commissioners unanimously approved this request.
Sheriff David Bryant approached the Court seeking permission to hire a part time employee to train for a position in the Sheriff’s department to replace Connie Webb who will be retiring shortly. The Court unanimously approved his request.
Judge Jim Barron then suggested relaxing access rules to the courthouse as well as all county facilities. When a person enters the Courthouse there will be a hand sanitizer at each entrance for people to use. After explaining which facilities, the Court unanimously approved his request.
County Librarians Ginger Wilson from Denver City and Ann Benson from Plains approached the Court concerning the use of county community buildings for summer reading programs. In the previous meeting Judge Barron noted he had been approached by Cecil Bickley Librarian Ginger Wilson concerning the use of the Denver City Community building to host these reading programs. The first session will be on June 8. This request was also approved.
During this discussion Judge Barron also discussed the use of the Plains swimming pool during the summer and how to remain in compliant with the distance regulation imposed by the state. Since the Denver City pool is under construction and would not be opened during the summer Judge Barron was expecting additional swimmers from Denver City. The pool will only be opened to all Yoakum County residents but not to out of town swimmers.
Also discussed was the use of the Yoakum County golf course. Here again Judge Barron suggested the course should be open to non-members from Yoakum County as well as members from Yoakum County and non-county residents as long as they were a member of the Golf Course. Along these lines it was agreed that no new memberships would be accepted at this time.
There were no road crossing permit applications, no request for the disposal of county scanner, nine-line item transfers, and no Soil Conservation request.
The next scheduled Court session will be on Monday, May 25 starting at 10am in the district courtroom.
