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Beneath twinkling lights, families settle in to enjoy the movie”Jingle Jangle” at Our Place Friday night. December 10, 2021. (Photo by Ann Reagan)
The Commissioners of Lamb County met in regular session on Monday, Dec. 13th at 10 a.m. in the County Courthouse to discuss a 15-item agenda.
The meeting was called to order by Lamb County Judge Mike DeLoach, who gave the invocation before leading the group in the United State Pledge of Allegiance and the Texas Pledge.
There was no one present for public comment and the commissioners retreated into executive session at 10:05 a.m. and reconvened in regular session at 10:11 a.m.
The minutes from the previous meeting were approved as read and there were no salary amendments or line-item transfers. Renee Trevino, from the County Auditor’s Office asked the commissioners to approve bills totaling $1,065,262.29.
Jennifer McKinnon presented payroll for Lamb County ending Dec. 3, 2021, in the amount of $154,649.71 and for Lamb Healthcare Center ending Dec. 4, 2021, in the amount of $247, 231.26. She also asked that the Commis sioners approve the Lamb County payroll supplement for Dec. 8 th in the amount of $464,025.00. The Commissioners reviewed the departmental reports that were given to them.
The motion to approve the consent agenda items was made by Commissioner Lee Logan and seconded by Commissioner Cory DeBerry. The motion carried.
Lamb County Sheriff Gary Madoxx dicussed item 4 with the Commissioners, saying, “I’m requesting to hire a part-time person in the records division for a few months. It will help Heather get where she needs to be and another reason is because we’re fixing to divide the old DPS office in half and expand our records division, which means a lot of records are going to have to be combined and moved and set up for the new move. The position would only be for a few months and then it would go away.”
Judge DeLoach added, “We’re looking at possibly six weeks at the most. The pay will come out of Gary’s budget, so it won’t require any new money, it will just be Sheriff Maddox moving money around in his budget.”
The motion to approve this position was made by Commissioner Kent Lewis and seconded by Commissioner Logan. The motion carried.
Commissioner DeBerry discussed the next item, saying, “I’m just needing to bury a water line on CR 248. We haven’t gotten to it yet, but everything looks good and everyone is OK with it.”
The motion to approve burying a water line in Precinct one was made by Commissioner DeBerry and seconded by Commissioner Danny Short. The motion carried.
Commissioner Short discussed the next item with the Commissioners, which was Soil Conservation work in Precinct three.
Judge DeLoach stated, “What I’ve discussed with Danny on this, is that our freight rate needs to be what we would be charged.”
No action was taken on this item.
“We’ve been talking about rates for Soil Conservation work performed by County Precincts for a while now. Currently we are charging $110 per hour per machine and we’re way under what everybody else is charging, so we’re going to need to adjust that, if we’re going to do that work.”
Commissioner DeBerry added, “There is a gentleman in Olton, who charges $175 per hour and he does the same kind of work we do. In a year he is probably going to jump up to $200.”
Jude DeLoach’s recommendation was to take the current rate of $110 and raise it to $175, that way we are changing the same rate they are and we aren’t competing with anyone. The motion was made by Commissioner DeBerry and seconded by Commissioner Short. The motion carried.
The Commissioners discussed possibly putting a burn ban back into effect, that was requested by Littlefield Fire Chief Jaime Grey.
The motion was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner Short to reinstate the burn ban for 90 days. The motion carried.
The motion to approve the sale of Tax Deeds R18502, R19163 and R19187 was made by Commissioner DeBerry and seconded by Commissioner Short. The motion carried.
Goheen requested that her Chief Deputy, Tami Kirkland, be appointed to finish her term. Goheen’s resignation will go into effect on Dec. 31, 2021. Because she is an elected official, her resignation has to be approved by the Commissioner’s Court.
The motion to approve the resignation of Lamb County Tax Assessor and Collector, Brenda Goheen was made by Commissioner Lewis and seconded by Commissioner Logan. The motion carried.
Judge Deloach said that his recommendation is to appoint Tami Kirkland to fill that role. Because Brenda is one year into her term, Tami will have to be on the ballot for the March Primary. It’s not a special election, but it is a special election. Should she be appointed today, she will be sworn in on January 1 st .
She’ll be on the ballot March 1 st and if she is elected then she’ll be elected to serve the last two years of Brenda’s term, and then she’ll have to be elected again to get back on the same rotation that the tax assessor is on now.
The motion to approve appointing Tami Kirkland as the Lamb County Tax Assessor and Collector was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner Lewis. The motion carried.
Lastly, the motion to approve renewing a franchise agreement with El Paso Natural Gas was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner Short. The motion carried.
With no further business to discuss, the motion to adjourn was made by Commissioner Short and seconded by Commissioner Logan. The motion carried and the meeting was adjourned at 11:05 a.m.