The Lamb County Commissioners Court met in regular session on Monday, June 12th, at the Lamb County Courthouse in Littlefield to discuss a 13-item agenda.
The meeting was called to order at 10 a.m. by Lamb County Judge James DeLoach, who gave the invocation and led the Pledge of Allegiance.
There was nobody present for Public Comment.
Consent Agenda Items: a) Consider and take appropriate action on minutes from previous meeting(s). There was one set of minutes and Judge DeLoach said they appeared to be in order. b) Consider and take appropriate action on budget and salary amendments and/or line-item transfers; There were none. c) Consider and take appropriate action on bills presented by the County Auditor; Gina Jones asked that bills were approved in the amount of $1,016,431.36. d) Consider and take appropriate action on payroll; Terra Hopper stated that there were two sets of payroll that needed approval. Lamb County Payroll ending May 19th in the amount of $142,560.92 and payroll for LHC ending on May 20th $192,504.57 also Lamb County payroll ending June 2nd in the amount of $143,958.36 and LHC payroll ending June 3rd in the amount of $197,692.18. e) Consider and take appropriate action on departmental reports; Packets.
(f) Consider and take appropriate action on donations for Lamb County; “There are several donations totaling $2848 for various projects,” Jones said.
(g) Consider and take appropriate action on Tax Deeds R16513, R20095 & R20096 in Littlefield; “One of these is from Amherst and the other two are in Littlefield,” Judge DeLoach said. “The one in Amherst is a part of Track 15 of Amherst Suburban Farms. This is a lot that has a little bit of fencing on it, but it does not have any structures on it. It is located on Washington Ave. in Amherst and the bid on this one is $500.”
He added, “These other two are in Littlefield; 613 and 621 E. 6th Street in Littlefield. There is one little small building on it that needs to be torn down. These have already gone through the district court and have bids on them and I recommend that they be approved.”
The motion was made by Commissioner Lee Logan and seconded by Danny Short to approve the Consent Agenda Items.
Item number four on the agenda was to consider and take appropriate action to designate Lesa Kloiber as a person to calculate the Tax Rates.
“With all of the new property tax regulations that started a couple of years ago, we designated her in the very beginning, but after going to conferences, it sounds like something we need to do every year, Jones said. “She will get us our certified values and calculate the tax rates.”
The motion was made by Commissioner Cory DeBerry and seconded by Commissioner Kent Lewis to approve the designation of Lesa Kloiber as a person to calculate the Tax Rates. The motion carried unanimously.
The next item on the agenda, was to consider and take appropriate action on Bond for Lesa Kloiber.
“It’s an annual bond, and all of the paperwork appears to be in order,” Judge DeLoach said.
The motion was made by Commissioner Lewis and seconded by Commissioner Short to approve the Bond for Lesa Kloiber. The motion carried unanimously.
Item number six on the agenda was to consider and take appropriate action to accept/reject bids for replacement of Heating AC and Lighting at the AG Barn.
“We went out for bids on this; we had one bidder and it was not local,” Judge DeLoach said. “This bidder is out of Plainview and they bid to replace the heating, air conditioning and lighting, which is going to involve removing that ceiling and putting it back. It also includes updating all of the electrical in the building, they’re going to set us a pad outside to put our air conditioning units on and they’re going to redo the vent hood in the kitchen.”
He added, “Some of the figures that I threw around was just updating heating and air conditioning, but the bid came in at $650,803. The base bid was $675,279.”
The motion was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner Short to accept the bid for replacement of Heating AC and Lighting at the AG Barn. The motion carried unanimously.
The next order of business was to consider and take appropriate action on repairing the plumbing at the AG Barn.
“I list this as a repair; I called two different plumbers. I called Lowery Plumbing and I called Comfort Masters; I didn’t get a phone call back from Comfort Masters until late Friday, Lowery was out here the next day. They put a camera in the line; basically, what we have is a line that runs down the north side of the building, it crosses the breeze way and just on the east side of the breeze way there is a sect pool. Both of Danny’s Barn’s are running into the same sect pool. I visited with Lowery last week and told them what I wanted to do, which was to put in a new line on the north side of the building and tie into the sect pool. He does not want to do that; his concern is that when you increase the efficiency of that building that sect pool is going to fail.”
He added, “I’ve been around that building since it was brand new and I didn’t even know it was there. He said he will do it, but he wanted the commissioners to know he does not recommend it. If we don’t do that, we have two options, we can put in a septic system, which will be a septic tank on the other side of the sect pool with lines running down the east side of the building. The other option is to go around that building and go out to the street, but we would have to put in a lift station, but it will double the cost of this. And then we will have to man this lift station, and I don’t want to do that. We can either tie into that sect pool and see how it goes, or we can go ahead and put the septic system in. If we do that, the quote is just over $48,000, to do it all and that includes putting in a grease trap in the kitchen, which was recommended by the architect when we did the original design.”
The motion was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner Lewis to approve action on repairing the plumbing at the AG Barn from Lowery Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning with the plumbers recommended new septic system. The motion carried unanimously.
Item eight on the agenda was to consider and take appropriate action on Lamb County’s 2023-2024 Renewal of Employees Health Insurance.
“Everything is going to stay the same with our plan, but there is a rate increase of $37.62 per person,” Hopper said. “We’ve had quite a bit of discussion about this over the last few months, and Jerry’s recommendation was to leave it alone,” Judge DeLoach said.
The motion was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner Short to approve Lamb County’s 2023-2024 Renewal of Employees Health Insurance with an increase of $37.62 each month per each employee. The motion carried unanimously.
The next order of business was to consider and take appropriate action on an Extended Warranty for a Motorgrader in Precinct 1.
“I’ve got a five-year old machine and I can’t take a chance of not having that warranty and it going out,” Commissioner DeBerry said. “For one year it’s $6,260, and I just can’t afford not to have it.”
The motion was made by Commissioner DeBerry and seconded by Commissioner Short to approve an Extended Warranty for a Motorgrader in Precinct 1. The motion carried unanimously.
Item 10 on the agenda, was to consider and take appropriate action on Texas Health & Human Services System-Data Use Agreement contingent with the County Attorney’s approval.
“This is just an agreement with the County Clerks Office and Texas Health and Human Services,” County Clerk Tonya Ritchie said. “It’s about privacy and confidentiality.”
The motion was made by Commissioner DeBerry and seconded by Commissioner Logan to approve Texas Health & Human Services System-Data Use Agreement with the County Attorney’s approval. The motion carried unanimously.
The next item of business was to discuss Lamb Healthcare Center operations.
Cindy Pope gave report on Lamb Healthcare Center operations. Guest speakers Kenna House and Brent Fuller spoke regarding a Sleep Study facility.
Each Elected Official and Department Head gave brief reports on office and future agenda items.
Jenna Yarbrough was introduced as County Extension Service Summer Agent.
With there being no further business to come before this Commissioners Court, the motion was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner Short to adjourn. The motion carried unanimously.