We hope everyone reading our blog had a merry and safe Christmas. The past three weeks have been spent trying to get everyones vacation time in while the weather was too bad and wet to get much road work done. We did however get the all-weather materials bunk completed and loaded with iron ore and oil sand. We will begin soon on some simple sheds to park additional equipment under. I have a "thing" about equipment being left out in the weather. We installed some culverts for four of our taxpayers during the interim. We also got some patching done on part of the precinct and did some badly needed scabbing on CR 1250.
Recently in Commissioner's Court, I voted against the other commissioners on an issue that I feel strongly about. We have a very good health insurance policy that we provide as a benefit to our employees. It has been well administered by Health First TPA in the past. However, the agent that we deal with represents Health First and their company is owned by East Texas Medical Center. I feel that is a potential conflict of interest and I would prefer an independent agent that represents "only" our interests. The court has recently been sensitive to making local health care providers accessible to our employees through this plan and that will go a long way to helping my reservations.

We have officially started on our all-weather materials bunk. Despite the weather, we have cut our grade, installed our pole supports(2 7/8 drill stem), run our roof supports and welded our purling. We are working on running the rebar for our concrete bunks and ditching the perimeter for our concrete forms. We may have to sub-contract our forms and the concrete pour due to our lack of experience, however by doing the rest of the work ourselves, we can afford that to prevent the possibility of an expensive mistake with concrete.
During the intermittent good weather, the crew has been able to scab a portion of CR1616 and ditch a portion of CR1612. We were also able to due some culvert repair and drainage work for Mr. Whitfield on CR 1430. Mr. Huffman on CR 1345 needed some culvert repair where a large truck had turned around in his driveway and broke the end off the tile. We also "tried" to do some badly needed mowing and trimming, but we got so stuck, that we were afraid the precinct would end up looking like the job on the interstate by the state crews. One day we also cut some trees on CR1612, CR 1635 and west of Lake Tankersly. Center stripes were also repainted on several blind hills and curves.

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.