Hays County Commissioners Accept TCEQ Grant, TxDOT Donation

Staff Reports

The Hays County Commissioners Court was focused on safety, environment and crime Tuesday morning during the regular scheduled meeting.

The meeting opened with a presentation from Jude Prather, Veteran Services Officer for Hays County, on specific details of a grant application filed with the Office of the Governor’s Criminal Justice Division.

Prather spoke briefly at last week’s meeting when commissioners approved the grant application but did not provide details on what the grant would do.

Prather said the Veterans at School program will field 150 local veterans to be another set of eyes at Hays County schools, specifically during the morning drop-off and afternoon pickups.

“What it could be is another level of deterrent,” Prather said. “It could be another person to watch out for suspicious behavior.”

Prather said the 150 veterans will go through CERT training, background checks, mental health and physical screenings; the grant will provide training and comfortable clothing that will identify the veterans as members of the Veterans after School program and a potential role model for young students.

Following the presentation, County Judge Becerra read the weekly Sheriff’s office report on the Hays County jail count and costs.

The Hays County jail, in its current state, has a capacity of 362; however, the Texas Commission on Jail Standards recommends 10 percent of the beds remain open.

According to the report read by Judge Becerra, Hays County jail’s daily population average was 475 last week and peaked on March 2 with 480 inmates.

During the week of Feb. 24 and March 1, 157 inmates were outsourced to Burnet, Caldwell, McClellan and Limestone counties. Seven of those inmates were women, and the remaining one hundred and fifty were male.

Judge Becerra said the cost of outsourcing those inmates was $53,374; the cost of outsourcing inmates has gradually fallen based on the reports since the week of Jan. 27, which was reported to have been $68,258 for 192 male inmates and 12 female.

Commissioners voted unanimously to approve the acceptance of road-building materials valued at $34,365.48 from the Texas Department of Transportation as part of the 2019 TxDOT Surplus Program.

The donation will provide Limestone Rock Asphalt Type II material, as requested by the Hays County Transportation Director, which will be used for pothole and wash out repairs on any county-maintained roadway. The donation will total approximately 513 tons of material.   

Commissioners also voted to approve the acceptance of a $5,000 from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

According to staff, the grant application was filed last summer and has taken a while to get funded. Staff said the county had applied for more but was only allowed $5,000.

The funds from the grant will be put toward the maintenance of the county’s four Remote Automated Weather Stations (RAWS).

According to the Fire and Aviation Management Information Technology Portal, there are nearly 2,200 interagency RAWS strategically placed throughout the United States, which are used to monitor the weather and provide weather data that helps agencies monitor things like air quality and fire danger.

In other news, Commissioner Lon Shell gave the court a brief update on the Electro Purification application.

Commissioner Shell said a representative of the district, EP and the parties involved in the contested case regarding EP’s water pumping permit recently met for mediation on Monday, March 4, and after several hours, did not come to any resolution.

According to Commissioner Shell, while the mediation process may not be over, the case is scheduled to go to hearing sometime this fall.