Friday's Internet Edition, March 12, 2010.
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| SCHEDULE CHANGE- The Bulldog baseball team was scheduled to play McGregor here on Friday night. However, the has been changed and they will now travel to McGregor on Friday. They will face McGregor here for the last regular season game on April 22. Above, Truman Baize looks for a throw at third base last week in Clifton. |
The court heard a presentation from Mary Gerdes, membership coordinator for Air Evac Lifeteam Air Ambulance. She explained that they provide service for rural areas.
“We put our helicopter where there is the most need and that is in the rural areas,” she said. “We can get the patient to definitive care in minutes, not hours.”
Gerdes told the court that company is a membership based organization and there is no out-of-pocket cost to members who use their service.
“A typical flight costs $10,000,” she said. “But when you have a membership with us, you never get a bill.”
Gerdes said the company also provides continuing education for local EMTs at no cost.
She asked the court to consider purchasing memberships for county employees.
“I will present it to the court for consideration during our budget deliberations,” Mills said.
Rusty Harris was present to request an easement for a six inch drainage pipe across county road 232. He said it would be a 6” flexible line that would be removed after five days.
Bonner, commissioner of Precinct Three where Harris is requesting the easement, said his crew would take care of preparing the road for the pipe and making the road safe for traffic if Harris would provide good road material for the project. He requested that Harris leave any remaining material for use by the county for the road. Harris agreed to do so. The court voted to grant the easement.
Commissioners voted to change the existing Internet configuration for DSL service for all courthouse offices. They said the existing system has been extremely slow and cannot handle the web-based pages the courthouse personnel need for daily business.
Hometown Computing has been providing Internet service to the courthouse free in exchange for the county’s allowing them to place an antenna on top of the courthouse for downtown customers’ wireless Internet service. The antenna would remain on the courthouse roof, at least until the cupola is installed during the renovation.
The court voted unanimously to switch to DSL service for the courthouse offices.
Lewis requested approval from the court for purchase of a motor grader at a cost of $146,500 and a loader at a cost of $135,814.18.
He said the motor grader will be an addition to his fleet.
Lewis said he has leased the loader since August and will use it until the FEMA work is complete when he will sell it. He said the resale value of the loader will cover the purchase cost.
He also said there will be no financing on either pieces of the equipment since Precinct Two will purchase it with cash.
County officials unanimously approved the purchases.
Clary asked for the court’s approval to help make the Shive Fire Hall accessible for voters in Shive Voting Precinct 9. He said it would be very difficult for a handicapped voter to get into the building.
Clary suggested that a four-inch concrete slab be poured in front of the fire hall and around to the side door. He said the cost will be approximately $400 and he will use precinct funds for the slab. The request was approved unanimously.
Mills told the court that the county is within moderate range on the drought index and there is moderate fire danger for the next few days. Commissioners took no action to implement a burn ban in Hamilton County.
County Auditor Marliessa Clark told the court that, after looking carefully at the fuel bid from Bailey’s Fuel in Hico, she realized that the bid was not submitted as requested.
“They submitted only their cost without a margin,” she said. “We assumed that we were given what we requested. If a bidder does not put the right numbers in the bid, we make the wrong decision.”
“We would not have made the decision we made if the bid was submitted correctly,” she concluded.
County Attorney Andy McMullen recommended that Clark demand Bailey’s Fuel to furnish the fuel without a margin as the bid indicated.
Clark said that if they did so, Bailey would not make any money from the transaction.
McMullen said that if Bailey’s Fuel does not want to meet the specifications of the bid they submitted, they can withdraw and Clark can publish to have the fuel re-bid.
McMullen said he would audit the fuel bid with Clark and draft a letter to be sent to the company.
Commissioners also approved payment of bills in the amount of $474,503.06, budget amendments and minutes of the previous meeting.