The Commissioners of Lamb County held their regularly scheduled meeting at 10 a.m. on Monday, August 26, in the Lamb County Courthouse, where a 16item agenda was discussed.
Lamb County Judge James DeLoach called the meeting to order at 10 a.m. and gave the invocation before leading the Pledge of Allegiance. There was nobody present to speak during the public comment portion of the meeting.
Consent Agenda: a) Consider and take appropriate action on minutes from previous meeting(s); Judge DeLoach stated there was one set of minutes and they appeared to be in order. 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 requested that the Commissioners approve bills totaling $377,068.01. d) Consider and take appropriate action on payroll; none. e) Consider and take appropriate action on departmental reports; packet.
The motion to approve the Consent Agenda items was made by Commissioner Short and seconded by Commissioner DeBerry. The motion carried.
Item four on the agenda was a Public Hearing on the Creation of a Reinvestment Zone to be known as Lamb County Reinvestment Zone-Cage Ranch for purposes of tax abatement to provide economic development with the county.
Judge DeLoach opened the Public Hearing at 10:03 a.m. and the Public meeting was closed at 10:19 a.m.
During the Public Hearing, Bob addressed the Court, stating, “This is an application, a re-filing of the Cage Ranch, that was initially filed in 2018. Due to various circumstances they were no able to pull that one off. This will be a total of 1,500 megawatts over the course of time ending in 2031. It starts out with a 300 megawatt unit, which would generate over the abatement period about $393,600, and that would be paid each year for 10 years. This is a good sized project if it comes out to maturity.”
Judge DeLoach, stated, “To my knowledge there aren’t any county roads out there, so if there is going to be some road improvement, it’s going to be new built roads.
The project would start construction at the latest in 2029 to be operational by 2030, but they’re hopeful they could start sooner as soon as 2028.
The next order of business was to consider and take appropriate action to create a reinvestment zone for purposes of tax abatement to provide economic development within the county in accordance with Chapter 312 of the Texas Tax Code, said reinvestment zone to be known as Lamb County Reinvestment Zone-Cage Ranch and located as described and depicted in the application by Tax Abatement Agreement, and in the public notices publishes in accordance with Chapter 312 of the Texas Tax Code.
Judge DeLoach made the motion to approve creating a reinvestment zone to be know as Lamb County Reinvestment Zone- Cage Ranch for purposes of tax abatement to provide economic development within the county in accordance with Chapter 312 of the Texas Tax Code, said reinvestment zone to be located as described in the application by Cage Ranch Solar, LLC. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Kent Lewis. The motion carried.
The next item on the agenda was to consider and take appropriate action regarding a Road Use Agreement between Lamb County and Cage Ranch Solar, LLC to address possible degradation of any county-maintained roads in the construction, operation or maintenance of the Lamb County Reinvestment Zone-Cage Ranch.
“We’ve already discussed that there aren’t any county roads, but I’m going to recommend that we go ahead and do the Road-Use agreement in case that we get down the line and they are having to use a county road somewhere for something to go off of to get on to their property, that is in place,” Judge DeLoach said.
The motion was made by Commissioner Lewis to approve a Road Use Agreement between Lamb County and Cage Ranch Solar, LLC to address possible degradation of any county-main- tained roads in the construction, operation or maintenance of the Lamb County Reinvestment Zone-Cage Ranch and it was seconded by Commissioner Logan. The motion carried.
Item seven on the agenda was to consider and take appropriate action regarding the adoption of a Tax Abatement Agreement with Cage Ranch Solar, LLC pursuant to Chapter 312, Texas Tax Code.
The motion to approve the Tax Abatement Agreement with Cage Ranch Solar, LLC to provide economic development within Lamb County reinvestment Zone-Cage Ranch located within Lamb County in accordance with Chapter 312 of the Texas Tax Code. The land described in the application, a public notice is required by law for the construction of a solar power generated project of approximately 300 megawatts capacity at an estimated cost of $213,120,000. the motion was seconded by Commissioner Lewis. The motion carried.
The next item on the agenda was Budget Work Session.
Pursuant of Government code 551, sub-chapter D and authorized by the Texas Open Meetings Act, the Commissioners went into Executive Session at 10:28 a.m. and returned to the regular meeting at 11:08 a.m.
Item nine on the agenda was a Public Hearing for 2024-2025 Fiscal Year Budget.
Judge DeLoach opened the Public Hearing at 11:17 a.m. with no comments, the Public Hearing was closed at 11:18 a.m.
The next order of business was to consider and take appropriate action on Adoption of the 20242025 Fiscal Year Budget.
The motion to approve the 20242025 Fiscal Year Budget was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner Short. The motion carried.
Item 11 was to consider and take appropriate action on Adoption of the 2024 Tax Rate.
No action was taken on this item.
Item 12 was to consider and take appropriate action on Ratify Property Tax Increase Reflected in the FY 20242025 Budget.
No action was taken on this item.
The next order of business was to consider and take appropriate action on EDA Grant Resolution Change.
“It’s a change to the resolution on the economic development grant for the City of Littlefield,” Judge DeLoach said. “It’s still not going to cost us any money, but it’s changing the percentages on the grant. It changed it to 80/20, where it was 70/30.”
The motion to approve the EDA Grant Resolution Change was made by Commissioner DeBerry and seconded by Commissioner Short. The motion carried.
Item 14 on the agenda was to consider and take appropriate action to Fund an IGT for LHC.
Dylan Brown stated that this IGT is, $347,420.03, and the amount of the payment they will get back is $871,819, which they will get in a lump sum.”
The motion to approve funding an IGT for LHC was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner Short. The motion carried.
Future agenda items were discussed.
Selena has to replace some board members and she has recommendations for those.
LHC CEO Mike McNutt stated that their new equipment for Sleep Lab was delivered last week and is getting installed. They will start scheduling it this weekend and that will give us four rooms running.”
He added, “We had the CEO of Vestra here last week, which is our Billing and Collection Company that we used. She validated and confirmed the things we’ve been saying and seeing in that things are improving and the ship is turning and things are going in the right direction.”
With no further business to discuss the motion was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner Short to adjourn. The motion carried and the meeting was adjourned at 11:28 a.m.