The Commissioners Court of Lamb County met in regular session on Monday, November 13th in the Lamb County Courthouse, located in Littlefield to discuss a 10-item agenda.
The meeting was called to order by Lamb County Judge, James DeLoach and the Invocation was given by Lamb County District Attorney Rickie Redman.
There was nobody present to comment during the public comment portion of the meeting.
Item three on the agenda was the Consent agenda items; (a) Consider and take appropriate action on minutes from previous meeting(s); Regular Meeting, October 23, 2023 and Special Meetings October 27, 2023, November 3, 2023 and November 8, 2023.
(b) Consider and take appropriate action on budget and salary amendments and/or line item transfers; None (c) Consider and take appropriate action on bills presented by the County Auditor; Gina Jones asked that the Commissioners approve bills totaling $958,485.08.
(d) Consider and take appropriate action on payroll; Jerry Yarbrough presented two sets of payroll, the first Lamb County ending on Oct. 20th in the amount of $159,406.98 and LHC ending on Oct. 21st in the amount of $207,883.32; the second set was for Lamb County ending on Nov. 3rd in the amount of $173,241.71 and LHC ending on Nov. 4th in the amount of $194,493.45.
(e) Consider and take appropriate action on departmental reports; None The motion was made by Commissioner Danny Short and seconded by Commissioner Lee Logan to approve the consent agenda items. The motion carried.
The next order of business wa to consider and take appropriate action on out of state travel for Misty Diaz and Becky Cotton.
“Misty and Becky are going to Phonix, AZ, for a training. We have a major update taking place at the end of the month, so they’re going there to get trained and know how to use this new system,” Sherrif Gary Maddox explained.
The motion was made by Commissioner Kent Lewis and seconded by Commissioner Logan to approve out of state travel for Misty Diaz and Becky Cotton. The motion carried.
The next item on the agenda was to consider and take appropriate action on awarding bid for construction of JP 4 office building in Sudan.
“I’ve been by the office that we are currently renting right now and it needs lots of attention,” Commissioner Logan said. “It has sewer problems, roof problems, the foundation is cracking, so if we go in and redo it, it’s going to cost quite a bit of money. My opinon is that we should go ahead and move forward and accept bids here for the new building.”
The motion was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner Short to approve awarding the bid to Joel Ochoa at $79,500.00 for construction of JP 4 office building in Sudan. The motion carried.
Item six on the agenda was to consider and take appropriate action on Interlocal agreement between Lamb and Hockley County.
“As you all know, Judge Say has had to reccuse himself from many of the criminal matters that were pending when he was still in office,” DA Redman said. “Judge Phelan, who has filled in for us all year, anytime we have needed him, has been contacting district courts in some of their surrounding counties because they have a Capital Murder Trial that is set to start less than a month from now.”
She added, “He asked if Lamb County would be willing to basically host the trial. They will come over here and try the case, but they need a place and jurors to do that, because the judge granted a change of venue. Judge Say talked with Judge Phelan about it and we don’t have anything going on that would conflict with that and we certainly have the facilities to accomadate them. We’ve been in contact with the officials over in Hockley County and what we’re presenting to you this morning is an Interlocal Agreement that provides for the outlines, boundaries and rules of who is going to be doing what during this Capital Murder Trial.”
The motion was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner Cory DeBerry to approve the Interlocal agreement between Lamb and Hockley County. The motion carried.
The next order of business was to consider and take appropriate action on advertising for sealed bids for renovations to Ag Barn.
“This is our last step. The pad has been poured for the heating and air conditioning units and they are scheduled to be delivered the third or fourth week of December,” Judge DeLoach said. “The Duct work has been done and I believe they’re going to start putting the roof back in this week. I have gotten with Dennis McCain about getting a list of things we want to get together. Basically, what we’re going to do on the inside of the Ag Barn, we’re going to do new fixtures and stalls in the bathroom, we’re going to do away with the wooden cabinentry in the kitchen and replace it with metal cabinets that we can move around.”
He added, “We’re going to dress the interior up some, I’m propsoing taking out the double doors and replace them with curtain doors, the entrance will be dressed up some and painted. The one thing that I did add in was on the southwest corner, we’re going to close that in, so we can have a space to store stuff, so that it’s not just left out in the open.”
The motion was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner Short to approve advertising for sealed bids for renovations to Ag Barn. The motion carried.
Item eight on the agenda was to Discuss Lamb Healthcare Center operations.
Mike McNutt, Dylan Brown and Carla Synatschk gave updates on Lamb Healthcare Center. Evan Maxwell from the Board was also present.
Future agenda items were discussed: Friday, November 17th at 11:30 a.m. is the Thanksgiving Luncheon at the MAC- seven Retirees including Scott Harmon.
The Courthouse will be closed Thursday, November 23 and Friday, November 24 for Thanksgiving Holidays.
Book Signing of two books written by Retired Judge William Thompson at the Library.
Commissioner Logan updated information on new County Road in Sudan Canvass of Votes from the Texas Constitutional Amendments Election will be at 10 a.m. on Friday, November 17th at MAC.
With there being no further business to come before this Commissioners Court, motion was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner Short to adjourn. The motion carried and the meeting was adjourned at 10:30 a.m.