Commissioners Court Meets August 15
Despite having only two commissions attend the weekly meeting the Commissioners Court still met in regular session on Monday, August 16, where they addressed their weekly agenda.
Commissioners Woody Lindsey and Tim Addison were both not in attendance which left Commissioners Ray Marion and Ty Earl Powell along with Judge Jim Barron to act on the county business.
In the first three items on the agenda the Court unanimously approved a petition to Riley Exploration Operating Company, LCC and Walsh Petroleum, Inc. for the right to bore, lay, construct, install, occupy, use, operate, maintain, repair, replace, or remove pipeline in specific areas. That area for Riley Exploration is Section 603 & 604, which are both in Precinct #2, and under County Road 175 in Block D, J.H. Gibson Survey in Precinct #3.
The Court acknowledged memorials for Lela Warren from Vicki Taylor and Pattie Cox for $100.
County Auditor Darinda McWhirter presented the 2017 Proposed Budget. She informed the Court that Yoakum County property values had decreased $2.8 million, a decrease of 14.9%. Her report was unanimously approved.
In their next item the Commissioners set Monday, September 19 for a public hearing on Budget authorizing notice to be published in newspaper. The hearing will be from 4-6 pm.
The next item called from a discussion on the tax rate, but since there were no discussions this item was skipped.
The Commissioners unanimously approved action on out of state travel for Yoakum County Agrilife agent Bubba Lamolinare. He will be attending a conference in Canadian, Texas, but will be staying in Oklahoma during the conference.
There were no request for the disposal of county equipment, no line item transfers, and no Soil Conservation request.
There was no new action of the Senior Citizens Building project, but there was one change to the contract with WR Construction, the company who was awarded the bid to construct the new Denver City Community Building. This change said the county could take action against WR Construction if the project exceeded the projected 300 construction days.
Rick Alexander, with the company, was present at the meeting to answer any questions the commissioners might have and to pick up four contracts to take back to Lubbock and have signed. The contracts will then be returned back to Judge Barron and filled in the courthouse.
WR Construction submitted the low bid of $2,044,700. The high bid for the new facility was $2,862,970 and was from Butler Construction.
Work on the new community building should begin within the week.
In auditing and settling all accounts against the County the court approved to pay all bills from the General Fund which totaled $98,930.96, Precinct 1 bills totaled $895.28, Precinct 2 bills totaled $717.39, Precinct 3 bills totaled $609.06, Precinct 4 bills totaled $743.75, $945.00 for the jury fund, $3,229.31 for Co Clerk Records Management, $180.67 for Yoakum County Landfill, and $233.59 for Library Grants fund for a grand total of $106,485.01.
In medical bills $133,432.28 was paid from the hospital funds, $20,545.15 from West Texas Medical Center, $3,106.19 from the Plains Clinic, and $658.76 from the Plains Lifestyle for a grand total of $157,742.38 of hospital bills.
The only other medically related bill was $8,945.14 from Dialysis for a grand total of $166,687.52 in medically related bills.
The next meeting will be held on Monday, August 22 at 10 am in the County Courthouse.
