Court hears telecommunications update
The Lavaca County Commissioners’ Court met in a regular meeting Monday, Nov. 25 and heard from Lavaca County EMS chief Michael Furrh regarding an update on the telecommunications system that is being implemented throughout the county.
The system involves improving the ability for all county first responder agencies to be able to communicate with a new system upgrade involving three towers with them located in the Hallettsville, Shiner and Moulton areas.
“There has been a lot of work for the last two and a half to three years in relation to this and it’s all coming to fruition,” Furrh said. “Chief (Tim) Decker, Mike Wick, myself and Motorola have been working quite a bit over the last month getting this up and going.”
According to Furrh, they are in the testing phase with the 800 megahertz system with two towers out of the three that are up at this time.
He said Decker traveled to locations in the western side of the county, while he went to the eastern side and Wick went to the south.
Furrh said he went into Colorado County, while Decker went to an area around Westhoff and Wick went to downtown Edna and they were able to communicate from their handheld communication radios and not their car mobile radios.
“So remember, this is only off one power and we’re fixing to have our three areas up and going,” Furrh said. So, this is really, really good.”
Furrh said they are going to continue testing the system and eventually switch to the new system. He said they will have 30 or more radios when they have the software implemented.
“We’re doing really good and are very happy with it,” Furrh said. “I think, December 15, plus or minus a week, we should be going live.”
Following Furrh’s presentation, the court approved a contract between AT&T and the county for securing a fiber connection for Lavaca County.
Furrh said this a recurring agreement that links Lavaca County with the Harris County network.
Road Material Advertisement
The court approved the guidelines for the purchase of road materials including all bids to be received in the Lavaca County Auditor’s office by 10:30 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 5.
The court also approved the bids will be opened and read aloud by County Judge Keith Mudd, or his designee, in the Commissioners’ Courtroom on Thursday, Dec. 5 at 10:45 a.m.
The bids will be discussed and/or awarded at 10 a.m. during the Commissioners’ Court regular meeting on Monday, Dec. 9.
Road materials advertised for bidding and purchasing include:
• Level up-patch material – premix type D, hot mix cold/lay type D.
• Purchase of HMAC Regular D Hot Mix asphalt;
• Cover stone material – Pre coated grade 3 and grade 4 and uncoated grade 3 and 4;
• Soil stabilizer – Quicklime-pebble bulk/powder lime;
• AC-5, AC-10, MC-30, CRS-1P and CRS-2;
• Limestone – 3/4 inch to dust, one inch and down to one and a half inches road base;
• Vegetation management services;
• Purchase and delivery of various pit run gravel and screened gravel, one and a half inch and down;
• Gasoline and diesel fuel for all precincts, Sheriff’s department, Senior Citizens Center (Hallettsville and Yoakum), Lavaca County EMS (Hallettsville, Shiner and Moulton), Emergency Management and Maintenance.
• Labor and equipment for road construction services.
Canvass of Votes
Lavaca County election administrator Tenia Hudson presented the voting results from the Nov. 5 election with the court acknowledging the completion of the canvassing of the votes.
The results of the overall voting of Lavaca County voters will appear in another article in the paper.
Stop Sign on CR 392
The court approved a request from Pct. 3 commissioner Kenny Siegel to add a stop sign on CR 392 behind the Yoakum Community Hospital.
Siegel said he has been receiving a lot of complaints from citizens residing on CR 392 that cars departing the parking area at the hospital are not yielding the right-of-way to traffic.
“We’re going to try to curb this from continuing to happen,” Siegel said.
Miscellaneous
The court approved contract for secure short-term detention of juvenile offenders between the Lavaca County Juvenile Detention Probation Department and the San Patricio County Juvenile Justice Center. The agreement is effective from Jan. 1, 2025 to Dec. 31, 2025 and the daily rate is $175 per day.
Following executive session, the court approved temporary employee transfers from one department or supervisor to another department or supervisor when and where applicable as deemed necessary by the joint consent of human resource department, county judge, and temporary supervisor.
In other action taken by the court:
• Approved a certificate of exemption from subdivision requirements for John Holland (Light Switch Residential LLC) located on CR 157A.
• Tabled certificate of exemption subdivision requirements for the Cook Family Estate.
• Approved transferring all surplus computers and IT related equipment to the IT department.
• Approved a Texas Settlement Subdivision participation and release form pursuant to the Kroger Texas Settlement agreement.
• Approved a resolution authorizing signatories for contractual and financial documents related to the Hazard Mitigation Plan.
County Judge Keith Mudd presided over the meeting with commissioners Edward Pustka, Wayne Faircloth, Kenny Siegel and Dennis W. Kocian present for the meeting.