Wednesday's Internet Edition, August 27, 2008.
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| DINNER GUESTS – Hamilton Mayor Roy Rumsey and City Administrator Bill Funderburk had dinner at Hamilton Healthcare Center as a part of their “Guy Thang” on Aug. 8. They enjoyed a meal of catfish, fries, slaw, homemade hush-puppies and desserts. |
Commissioners Jim Boatwright, Mike Lewis, Jon Bon-ner and Dickie Clary were all present for the meeting presided over by County Judge Randy Mills.
David Black, who introduced himself as a resident of Fairy as well as a land-owner and taxpayer, told the court that Mo-Rock was shut down on June 26 by the Texas Commis-sion on Environmental Quality. He said that Doug Harris, owner of Mo-Rock had been operating his business in violation of the law.
Black brought copies of a letter to Harris from the TCEQ that stated what their investigation determined. He distributed copies of the letter to the court, as well as to the Herald-News.
The supervisor and investigator for the case was Gary Goldman. Regarding their find-ings the letter said:
Alleged Violation: Mo-Rock has been operating the plant without meeting the conditions of 30 TAX 106.142 or without a valid standard permit. This is a violation for failure to obtain a permit or qualify for a PBR pursuant to 30 TAC 116.110(a). This alleged non-compliance is considered a Category A2.d violation according to the TCEQ Enforcement Initiation Criteria. Since no records were kept by the owner of Mo-Rock, I could only determine that Mo-Rock was operating without proper authorization on June 25, 2008.
Recommended Corrective Action: Formal enforcement action is warranted and will be referred to the Enforcement Division.
The letter contained a notice of the penalty assessed to Mo-Rock:
The TCEQ has documented that you have operated without authorization and that you are subject to a $10,000 per day penalty for each day of operation we have documented. In order to avoid further penalty assessment of $10,000 per day of unauthorized operation, you must shut down the rock crusher/concrete plant until proper authorization is received.”
“Why would the county continue to do business with a breaker of the law?” Black asked. “The commissioners’ court could say they didn’t know – but once we know it’s taking place, why would we continue to do business with Doug Harris?”
Black said it would be send-ing the message to the community that “you don’t have to abide by the law to do business with Hamilton County.”
He said he believes the county could have legal liability from doing business with Mo-Rock when it does not have a permit.
“From a business standpoint it is imperative that we abide by the law. We can’t use the ex-cuse that we didn’t know,” Black said. “We have a situation where we have a volume of known violations of the law. I am confused as to why we would continue to purchase from someone we know is operating illegally.”
Black said he wanted commissioners to level the playing field for other vendors who are operating legally.
“I would like for the commissioners court to pass a resolution to never buy another load of rock from Doug Harris,” Black stated.
Mills pointed out that the county accepted bids for crushed rock from all vendors that submitted them.
Mills told Black that, since the matter of a resolution was not on the agenda, the court could not act on it. He said it would be difficult to pass the ordinance Black suggested.
County Attorney Andy McMullen asked, “What is the status of the environmental order to shut down?”
Black said there has been a request filed to permit based on the requirements. “If he qualifies he will be issued a temporary permit.”
“This has been turned over to the enforcement division and they will be issued a fine,” Black said.
McMullen asked the commissioners if anyone knew whether a temporary permit had been granted to Harris. None of the commissioners had knowl-edge of a permit.
“My legal recommendation to the commissioners’ court is that, until Mr. Harris has evidence that he has a permit, you should not purchase from him,” McMullen said.
Lewis asked, “If he gets a permit to crush more rock, does that mean we can only purchase the later rock?”
McMullen said any rock could be purchased once the business is permitted.
Bonner said he has never asked for a permit from such vendors in the past.
“This adds a burden of inquiry that didn’t exist before,” McMullen said.
Black said he does not know the status of Mo-Rock’s permit application.
“If Harris presents a tempo-rary permit, the county can do business with him,” McMullen said. “Before you make a purchase, get the permit. Once you have a permit you don’t have to concern yourself with whether the rock was crushed before or after the permit.”
Black told the court that owning property adjacent to a rock quarry is difficult. He said there are problems with elec-tricity going out, water wells, foundational issues and fly-rock, (rocks being blasted and landing on his property).
“If you put yourselves in our shoes, it becomes pretty difficult to live next to a rock quarry,” Black said.
Following the commission-ers’ meeting on Monday after-noon, Harris brought a letter by the Herald-News office dated Aug. 4, 2008 from the TCEQ. The letter stated that the operation is again legally permitted.
Bonner, commissioner of precinct 3, was interviewed by phone Monday afternoon, regarding the county’s business relationship with Harris. He said Harris had presented a current permit to him after the meeting. “He’s met the level that the county attorney said he had to meet. He’s shown me a permit. I’ve read it over and I see that it appears to be legiti-mate.
Bonner continued, “We’re free to buy rock from him and we intend to do so because it is economically advantageous to the county due to Mo-Rock’s location.”
In other business, City Ad-ministrator Bill Funderburk asked the county if they would help pay for water used to fight fires outside the city.
He explained that the city now gets treated water from Proctor, where in the past it was treated locally. Funderburk said that the cost of treated wa-ter has risen from $2.75 per thousand gallons in March 2007 when they started receiv-ing it from Proctor to $2.80 in Oct. 2007 and he stated that it will increase again this October to $2.94.
Funderburk said he does not have any definite numbers; however, it is estimated that the fire department has used 1.3 million gallons of water in their tankers since January 2008.
“How would we know the water was actually used out of the city limits,” Lewis asked.
“They don’t use tankers in-side the city limits, they use fire hydrants,” Funderburk said.
Funderburk said the city would like to put a meter on the hydrant near the fire hall where the tankers are filled up in order to determine how much water is being used. With an estimated usage of 2 million gallons per year, the cost of water for fighting fires outside the city limits would be about $5,000.
He said the city is not asking to be reimbursed for all the other costs. “We just need a little help on the revenue side,” he said.
After some discussion about other possible water sources for filling up the tankers, the court agreed to take up the matter during their budget meetings.
Commissioners set August 29 at 9 a.m. in the commissioners’ courtroom as the date, time and location to set the tax rate for fiscal year 2009.
They also ratified the ap-pointment of Shane M. Tyson as Community Supervision Officer for the 220th Commu-nity Supervision and Correc-tions Department as approved by District Judge James M. Morgan and approved payment of bills in the amount of $221,212.59.
During departmental reports, Lewis stated that the bridge over Plum Creek is complete.
Clary said he has had many questions about the ‘unit sys-tem.’ He said the community needs the facts about the decision they will face in November. The court decided to hold a special meeting on Sept. 9 at 7 p.m. in the district courtroom to address questions from the community.