Court awards some concrete/ labor bids, but rejects others
Due to the regular Monday meeting day falling on Memorial Day, a holiday, the Lavaca County Commissioners’ Court met Tuesday, May 27.
Addressing the awarding of concrete and labor bids for Lavaca County roads, the court accepted some and rejected others.
The primary rejection of the bids was in regards to a large discrepancy of the bids where some had anywhere from a $3,000 to $8,000 difference in them.
Commissioner Wayne Faircloth explained the reason for rejecting some of the bids.
“ The challenge we face is we do not have an engineer, so we walk on the sight and say what we want done, but there are no drawings, no specs, or no details of what we’re trying to do here,” Faircloth said. “Part of what we face is TxDOT is telling me that the ungirding of those bridges are failing and have to be redone. They don’t provide me with any details. They don’t say we want it done this way, they just say we want it redone.”
Faircloth said the problem with the bids is that when the commissioners’ receive the bids they have to assume they are the same.
“But, they are not,” Faircloth said. “One estimation to fix it is different from another and there is a big difference. You have one bid for ten thousand and another for four thousand. There is something wrong. One can’t be that right and another can’t be that wrong.”
The court did accept one bid in Precinct 1, while rejecting two others.
It accepted seven bids in Precinct 2, but rejected seven others and rejected all five bids for county roads in Precinct 3.
The commissioners decided to rebid and want to meet with the bidders on the different sites.
Certificate of Exemption
After convening in executive session, the court approved an application from the Reinger Family Living Trust subdivision that included their subdivision private road use agreement seeking a certificate of exemption from subdivision requirements.
The approval also included appendix I attached to the document and subject to final review of the attorneys involved.
Regarding another certificate of exemption from subdivision requirements for Denis Berger Jr., the court voted to table the item.
Proclamations
The court approved a KJZT Family Lives Societies proclamation that designated June 14 as National Flag Day.
Regarding proclamations from Gov. Greg Abbott, the court approved a proclamation concerning border security as well as renewing the disaster proclamation concerning serious drought conditions that pose imminent threat of widespread or severe damage, injury or loss of life.
Miscellaneous
The court approved designating Lavaca County tax assessor/collector Deborah A. Sevcik to calculate the 2025 no-new-revenue tax rate and the 2025 voter-approval tax rate.
The court nominated Judge Keith Mudd and Pct. 2 commissioner Wayne Faircloth for the Lavaca County Board of Directors as representatives for the 2026 Golden Crescent Regional Planning Commission.
In other action taken by the court:
• Tabled awarding the boiler replacement bid in the Courthouse.
• Approved filing an application for Unclaimed Property Capital Credits for Counties from the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts.
• Declared a 4-drawer filing cabinet and a 30-drawer compartment cabinet as surplus property for the County Clerk’s office.
• Approved meter services and/ or equipment rental agreement between Pitney Bowes and the District Clerk’s office.
• Heard a road plan and paving update.
• Approved all consent agenda items.
County judge Keith Mudd presided over the meeting with commissioners Edward Pustka, Wayne Faircloth, Kenny Siegel and Dennis W. Kocian present for the meeting.