Since my last post, we literally had a flood. On Thursday, October 29th, we had more rain in an hour and a half than I ever remember seeing. Whew!! We did have one day last week when we could do some much needed patching throughout the precinct. We also were able to unclog some culverts and bridges in the rain. Thanks to my crew who never complained about work that had to be done regardless of the weather. We also got the pad for the materials bunk laid out so we can get started on that next week.
This week we were able to finish patching the worst places in the precinct on Monday. Tuesday, we began installing two sets of tile culverts on CR1540 for Ms. Chism. We ran into probems when we cut a phone cable and had to move to another job while repairs were being made. The cable was in the middle of the ditch, not off to the side per the code so my crew not not liable. In the meantime we installed another culvert on CR1632 that was intended to be done a month ago. Wednesday and Thursday, we got some topping material and scabbed more sections on CR1632 and CR1314. We also had time to finish the tile culverts for Ms Chism on CR1540. Today, we have at least two and, if time permits, maybe three culverts for Mr. Griffin on CR1035, Mr. Johnson on CR1540, and Dr. Robertson on CR1675.
At last the proposition election is over and resolved. The people spoke loud and clear about their wishes concerning beer and wine sales in the city. That sounds like the good "ole" American way of doing things is working!

Well, so much for better weather. We have been out in the weather however, repairing culverts that have not carried this much run-off since they were installed. We were able to overlay one section of CR 1312, another section of CR1475 and a section of CR1660 close to the old Greenhill Presyberian Church. They will be having their foundational worship service on this Sunday, October 25, and I'm sure they will appreciate smoother roads. We also installed a supplemental culvert on CR 1362 to assist the drainage of their road. CR1362 is in a Post-Oak flat that will not drain very rapidly, regardless of what we do, but we are willing to try this to maybe ease the problem. We also overlayed a section of that road while we were there.
As for the Courthouse, we are dealing with a request by local volunteer fire departments to fund the matching portion of two grants that were awarded to them. Our VFD's are very dedicated and valuable to our county, but we have no allocation in our newly adopted budget for the $30,000+ that they will need. Although we may opt to fund this request, I'm very concerned about the future applications for grants on which we have no input. The county budget was not lightly conceived and more pressure at this critical time in our local economy is very worrisome. On one hand, we welcomed the "Tea Party" to our budget hearings to address their taxation concerns and at the very next meeting, we are asked for a large budget amendment by the VFD's. I guess one thing is for sure: "Ya can't please everybody!"

In preparation for the construction of a bad weather storage bunk for our materials, I was stepping off the pad and found a treasure. Covered in briars and brush was a rusted old brush-hog. It had been there since Mike Price was commissioner nine years ago. Nobody could tell me if it was any good, so during one of these rainy days, I had the crew dig it out, clean it up, and hook it to a tractor. IT WORKS!!! We rewelded some damage to the frame, sanded out all the rust and painted it. Since we don't need it, I'm going to put it on the auction site along with other items that haven't been used in years and put the money into some extra road work.
We did get some half-way decent weather last week and got to scab some areas on CR 1475, CR 1550 (some of the rebuild was too rough), CR 1695, and CR 1660. We also got to pull some ditches on CR 1660 and help out a resident on CR 1670 with some trashy fill dirt she needed behind her house. Three disability residents also asked for help with their drives to accommodate the mail carriers which we were glad to do for free. Working on private property is generally a big NO unless the resident is documented as "Disabled".
This week we have been cleaning equipment, prepping and painting the precinct's treasure brush-hog, and cleaning some culverts for residents on CR 1362. Hopefully we'll have some better weather next week so we can get started on our building project.

Rain, rain, and more rain. We have been able to catch up on some equipment maintenance. Some of the larger problem trees and some fallen trees around the precinct have been cut up and piled to burn. The few semi-dry days this week have afforded us the opportunity to do some patching that has been neglected while we were building roads the last two months.
The County has had the last of the budget and tax rate hearings on Monday. I think from the questions posed, we satisfactorily explained the rate and the reasons for the budget changes. The Commissioners as a whole took the lead in giving their employees a small raise, but paying for it without increasing our budget allotment. We all are carrying a certain amount of contingency money that we will have to do without next year. I think that is responsible and sensitive to the harder economic times.

We have now finished the immediate improvements to the "Pipeline " roads. We do have CR1905 yet to complete, but we have been working hard and fast to beat this rapidly approaching fall temperature. The rain and early onset of cooler temperatures may cause that to be postponed until late spring, early summer. We surfaced the bottom road on CR1680 with the ground up asphalt called RAP. It will be damaged every time it floods that road (often!) and we can blade it back fairly easily. The high ground was surfaced with RAP mixed with oil as an experiment and it layed down well and appears to cohere fairly well. We have other areas of the precinct that are lightly traveled that might benefit from this method because it makes a good surface and is inexpensive.
Some people in the precinct don't know that if you need a culvert for your property, call us. We will come out to assess the need, tell you what size culvert to buy, and we will install it for FREE! We have had some people try to put it in themselves and we can't let them do that because the bar-ditch belongs to the county. We have to maintain it so it needs to conform to certain specifications. If you need one, give us a call.
On the "local option" election, I don't really care one way or the other. The way it is now is acceptable to me. I happen to drink alcohol and have no problem driving out of town to purchase my needs. However, I am sensitive to the arguement that it would boost local sales tax revenue considerably. As far as the Court calling for the election, it is our responsibility to respect the lawfully submitted petitions and let the voters decide the issue.

We finished to repairs to CR1612 just in time before school started! The work has begun on the remainder of CR1550 and the first part turned out very well in spite of some very hard rains. The road was broken up, ground up, mixed with crude oil, and was laid back down. We are using our new Caterpillar motor grader htat does such an exacting job of finishing the surfacing. The good news is, it's costing less than the depreciation on the old one! In my next post, I will talk more about the "local option" elections here in Titus County.

Precinct #1 hit a bonanza on the auctioning of our equipment. The items brought considerably more than we expected. This will enable us to buy a bigger, more suitable tractor and side-boom mower plus allow us to lease a Caterpillar motor-grader for the same money.
We have finished one-half of CR1550 and have started rebuilding CR1612. We will return to CR1550 after we finish but we needed to complete the repairs on CR1612 before Hart's Bluff School started their classes. We have also started over on mowing the precinct due to the unseasonal rains.