Road and Bridge to hire seasonal mowers for county roads

Grimes County Commissioners held a Special Meeting Wednesday, June 30, and amended county policy which will allow the Road and Bridge Department to hire seasonal workers to mow tall weeds and grass along county roads. Road and Bridge Engineer Harry Walker brought his request for mowers to the June 16 court but it was tabled pending a rewrite of the policy by Human Resources Director Talitta Coleman and subsequent court approval.

In a unanimous vote, commissioners approved the first related agenda item, amending the verbiage to allow unused salaries to fund temporary/seasonal positions within the same fiscal year. Such requests would have to be placed on the court agenda for consideration.

Two agenda items later, commissioners approved authorizing Walker to move unused salary lineitem money to the temporary/seasonal line item and authorizing the auditor to prepare the appropriate line item transfer.

This allows Walker to hire up to four seasonal employees for up to 29 hours per week at $10 per hour.

Clerk’s shelving passes 4-1

County clerk Vanessa Burzynski’s request to purchase roller shelving from Scott & Merriman for the new Grimes County Justice and Business Center for $18,230 was approved on a 4-1 vote, with Commissioner Phillip Cox voting nay.

Burzynski said the $18,230 will come from fees for county clerk services which are dedicated and restricted to use for records preservation and storage. Burzynski also pointed out that by purchasing them with dedicated funds, the Justice Center furniture budget would decrease by that same amount. It was noted that due to the rising cost of steel, the shelving quote presented was good through the end of the day.

Burzynski said the shelves will allow access to approximately 200 marriage, probate, deed, commissioner and cattle brand books. While some books have already been scanned and some slated to be scanned in the next budget year, state law requires the book be maintained.

Cox said, “That’s the issue I have with purchasing shelving when I believe the money would be better spent scanning.”

Cox also inquired about storing books at the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. Burzynski replied they don’t come out and do evaluations anymore.

She said, “Me as County clerk, an elected official, would prefer the books stay in the County because once they leave the County, you’re never getting them back and they do belong to the County.”

Discussed was the cost to scan and replace the remaining 2,000 books and scanning as opposed to purchasing shelves.

Cox said “it’s the way of the future. We need to be forward thinking and housing books on $20,000 shelves is not the way of the future.”

Burzynski reiterated she is required to make them available, convenient or not, to the public. New records are scanned and not required to be maintained in books, but she does maintain hard copies of all marriage licenses.

Commissioners Court may be viewed in its entirety at www.grimescountytexas.gov/page/CCVideos.

Other court action:

•Approved a motion to bring in both Justice Center furniture vendors, HBI and KI, and choose items requested by elected officials and department heads, eliminating all desk chairs, with a cap of $200,000.

•Approved continuing the county employee’s vision coverage with National Vision Administrators with no price increase.

•Approved accepting the sealed bid from Waller County Asphalt for Cold Mix Asphalt Material with the cost per ton delivered at $95.82 per ton and $88 picked up. Only one bid was received with Logan County Asphalt declining to bid.

•Approved accepting the $425,050 bid from Glenn Fuqua Construction for the CR 302 Reconstruction Project. No other bids were received.

•Approved renewal of the Special Road Use and Indemnity Agreement for the Blue Jay Solar project for another 30 days.

•Approve the Interlocal Agreement with the Brazos Valley Council of Governments for 9-1-1 and Database Maintenance Services with the county judge as signatory.

•Approved authorization to issue RFPs (Request for Proposal) for administrative services and RFQs (Request for Qualifications) for professional services for the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

•No action was taken on a possible rewrite of the Purchasing Policy.