The Lamb County Commissioner’s Court met in regular session on Monday, June 13 th , at the Lamb County Courthouse to discuss the business of the county.
Lamb County Judge Mike DeLoach gave the invocation and led the United States Pledge and the Texas Pledge before calling the meeting to order at 10:01 a.m.
There was nobody present for public comment.
The Consent Agenda items include:
Consider and take appropriate action on minutes from previous meeting, which was held on May 24, 2022;
Consider and take appropriate action on budget and salary amendments and/or line item transfers, which there were none;
Consider and take appropriate action on bills presented by the County Auditor, Gina Jones. Bills totaled $803,986.10;
Consider and take appropriate action on payroll, which was presented by Jerry Yarbrough. There were two sets of payroll the first was for Lamb County Payroll ending on May 20, 2022, in the amount of $147,703.66 and for LHC Payroll ending on May 21, 2022, $169,121.36. The second was for Lamb County Payroll ending on June 3, 2022, in the amount of $153,947.86 and LHC Payroll ending on June 4, 2022, in the amount of $172,500.66.
Consider and take appropriate action on departmental reports, which was presented to the commissioners in their packet.
The motion was made by Commissioner Danny Short and seconded by Commissioner Lee Logan to approve the consent agenda items. The motion carried.
Item four was to consider and take appropriate action to advertise for sealed proposals for renovations to the Ag Barn.
“We’ve been working on coming up with a plan for the Ag Barn,” Judge DeLoach said. “Basically, we are not to a set of plans yet, because we need to get a few more ducks in a row there, but I want to go ahead and start advertising for the proposals, so that then we can start negotiating on how we actually want to do this.”
Lenora Ask from Chapman Harvey Architects was on hand to brief the commissioners on where they are at in the process of design, saying, “We’ve worked with Judge DeLoach and a committee of community members that has varied over the last couple of months and we’ve come up with an addition to the Ag Barn that would change the look of it. It would add some meeting rooms and new toilet rooms and re-purpose the space inside. The current toilet rooms would be used for storage, the event center would be revamped and the kitchen would be updated. We just want to freshen up that space that hasn’t been touched since the 70’s.”
She added, “What we’re asking for today is just approval of the project, so that when we get the plans done, we can advertise it and then we would bring those bids back to you for approval.”
Judge DeLoach added, “We’re looking at three different proposals; one of which would be just to renovate the existing Ag Barn, one is to add the new space on and renovate the Ag Barn and then there will be another proposal in between these two.”
The motion was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner Short to approve to advertise for sealed proposals for renovations to the Ag Barn. The motion carried.
The next item was to consider and take appropriate action on allowing a water slide for the Lamb County Library.
“The Library is requesting the use and rental of a water slide,” Selena said. “We’re getting this from Happy Jump Inflatables out of Levelland. We need a $50 deposit that will go towards the total cost of $250. The event will take place on July 29 th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and we have a total of 14 volunteers; seven teenage volunteers and seven adult volunteers to be out there during the water slide. We will also have liability forms for the parents to sign for the finale.”
The motion was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner Short to approve allowing water slide for the Library on July 29, 2022, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The motion carried.
The next item was to consider and take appropriate action on a request from Littlefield ISD to acquire property for a softball field South of the Sheriff’s Office/Jail.
“LISD has requested the property in between the existing baseball field and the Sheriff’s Office to build their new softball field,” Judge DeLoach said. “There is a water line that will have to be capped off and rerouted and I have asked for a fence/barrier, so that nobody parks on our property, primarily the area along Thompson Drive, that is east of the jail.”
He added, “One of the things that has been paramount to us, is that this cannot impeded our ability to expand the jail, if need be. I hope we don’t have to do that in the next three or four years, but if we do, we need to make sure we maintain the property to do that.”
The motion was made by Commissioner Short and seconded by Commissioner Logan to approve a request from Littlefield ISD to acquire property for a softball field South of the Sheriff’s Office/Jail, pending approval by the Lamb County District Attorney and subject to any Deed restrictions. The motion carried.
Item seven on the agenda was to consider and take appropriate action on Contract with Kofile for Imaging and Indexing of OPR in County Clerk’s Office.
“OPR is Official Public Records,” Tonya Ritchie said. “They will come and get our books and take them to Dallas, where they will index them and image them so that they can be online on the computer.”
Judge DeLoach added, “We’ve been doing this for the last couple of years, but I think this it is a good thing to get that stuff digitized.”
The motion was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner Kent Lewis to approve contract with Kofile for Imaging and Indexing of OPR in County Clerk’s Office. The motion carried.
Item eight was to consider and take appropriate action on Lamb County’s 2022-2023 Renewal of Employees Health Insurance.
Jerry Yarbrough spoke about this item, saying, “We’re actually going to change our plan this year, because the old one is going to go up another $53,000 per year and we just can’t afford that. The basic difference between the two plans is that it’s going to change our deductible from $750 per year to $1,500 per year. Co-pay’s are going to go up $5, but every copay dollar is going to go towards that deductible. Anything that is preventive such as blood pressure meds, if you’re diabetic or take birth control, those are preventive medicines so you won’t have a co-pay on those.
She added, “We won’t be grandfathered, so we’ll get more mental health stuff. There used to be a great advantage to being grandfathered, but over the last couple of years it has not been a great advantage. This will have our insurance go down $4 and there is no cap, it is unlimited coverage.”
The motion was made by Commissioner Short and seconded by Commissioner Logan to approve Lamb County’s 2022-2023 Renewal of Employees Health Insurance. The motion carried.
Lamb Healthcare Center CEO Cindy Pope discussed Lamb Healthcare Center operations, saying that Dr. Bass is leaving at the end of the month, but they have a new doctor starting on Aug. 1 st . She stated that their construction project is coming along well and they also had a permanent nurse practitioner start on Monday in Olton.
Judge Deloach discussed some future agenda items, which included