1 2 3 4 5 6 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 7 Emergency Meeting (reconvened) 8 Tuesday, July 9, 2002 9 3:30 p.m. 10 Commissioners' Courtroom 11 Kerr County Courthouse 12 Kerrville, Texas 13 14 15 16 17 Response to 2002 Kerr County Flood 18 19 20 21 22 PRESENT: FREDERICK L. HENNEKE, Kerr County Judge 23 H. A. "BUSTER" BALDWIN, Commissioner Pct. 1 WILLIAM "BILL" WILLIAMS, Commissioner Pct. 2 24 LARRY GRIFFIN, Commissioner Pct. 4 25 ABSENT: JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Pct. 3 2 1 On Tuesday, July 9, 2002, at 3:30 p.m., the emergency 2 meeting of July 8, 2002, of the Kerr County Commissioners 3 Court was reconvened in the Commissioners' Courtroom, Kerr 4 County Courthouse, Kerrville, Texas, and the following 5 proceedings were had in open court: 6 P R O C E E D I N G S 7 JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay. It's 3:30 on Tuesday 8 afternoon, July 9th, Year 2002. We will reconvene the 9 emergency meeting of the Kerr County Commissioners Court 10 that was convened yesterday, July the 8th, Year 2002. Under 11 the Texas Open Meetings Act, Commissioners Court is 12 permitted to adjourn a meeting for up to 24 hours. We 13 adjourned yesterday, after talking about flood response, and 14 I went out and I have made several attempts to contact 15 B.F.I. to solicit their assistance in allowing the residents 16 outside the city to dispose of debris from the flood. I 17 have been singularly and frustratingly unsuccessful in 18 getting any resolution. I talked to Mr. Ramos at the local 19 office yesterday. He said he was going to have a meeting 20 with his supervisor yesterday afternoon; they would call me 21 back. He didn't call me back. I called San Antonio this 22 morning, left a message with a supervisor. The secretary at 23 the local office called me back right before lunch and said 24 the supervisor and Mr. Ramos would be meeting right after 25 lunch and they'd call me as soon as he they were finished, 7-9-92 EMG 3 1 and at 25 minutes till 4:00, I haven't heard from them. So, 2 I'm hopeful that they're just having a hard time finding the 3 resources to accommodate us, because I know the people out 4 in the county do need some help. So, I really don't have 5 anything to report at this time. Rather than have to 6 reconvene a meeting, I would ask the Commissioners to 7 consider giving me the authority to commit up to a certain 8 dollar figure for this, because otherwise, if we do it other 9 than an emergency, it's going to be three days before we can 10 reconvene and get something going. So, what do y'all think? 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Doing exactly what? I 12 mean, let's have an entry game and an exit game here. 13 JUDGE HENNEKE: Well, the proposal that was 14 made by Commissioner Williams was that we -- we essentially 15 rent three or four of those large construction dumpsters 16 that are on wheels. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Mm-hmm. 18 JUDGE HENNEKE: And place them at several 19 places in the county. Commissioner Letz said he'd like to 20 have something -- if we did something like that, have it at 21 the Comfort Little League field. Commissioner Williams said 22 that the Lions Park in Center Point or somewhere like that. 23 Commissioner Griffin actually indicated he didn't 24 necessarily feel the need for one out west. 25 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: We don't have any 7-9-92 EMG 4 1 house damage where we've got household goods and carpet and 2 that kind of thing. There's just not enough out there to 3 rent one of those big things. 4 JUDGE HENNEKE: I thought we might put one at 5 the Hill Country Youth Exhibition Center, and I didn't know 6 if we needed one down in the Turtle Creek area. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Not to my knowledge. 8 JUDGE HENNEKE: So, perhaps three? Rent them 9 for two weeks, with B.F.I. responsible for hauling them off 10 when they get full. I mean, that -- that's a concept. 11 That's a notion. I don't have any idea what it would cost 12 to do that, or whether they even have -- whether they're 13 even willing to do that. 14 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Well, number one, 15 whether they're willing to do it, and number two is, 16 depending on where you put them, 'cause I know we've 17 tried -- the State tried to put some small dumpsters at the 18 Hunt Crossing some years ago, and in two days it was 19 overflowing with household garbage. 20 JUDGE HENNEKE: Well -- 21 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: I mean, it's just one 22 of those things that we might -- where you put them is very 23 important, is all I'm saying. Where we might locate them 24 would be very important. Of course, that was in a very 25 out-of-the-way area, where people didn't have any 7-9-92 EMG 5 1 compunction about throwing their household garbage in there, 2 but it wouldn't do much good if we can't get rid of the real 3 flood debris by that method. It wouldn't do us much good 4 just to rent them and put them out there and let people put 5 anything in them. 6 JUDGE HENNEKE: We're just going to have to 7 rely on the citizens. In a situation like this, you know, 8 if we had a refrigerator that was flooded, all the food that 9 was in the refrigerator is flooded. 10 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Right. 11 JUDGE HENNEKE: If you had a house that was 12 really -- that was really damaged, everything is flooded. 13 Now, what we don't want would be large trees. We don't want 14 somebody to haul a 3-and-a-half-foot diameter tree down 15 there that blew over. They can deal with that in other 16 ways. What we would want would be actual debris from the 17 flood, household debris or personal debris. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Which I think we have 19 -- if we do figure out how to do it, I think we're going to 20 have to understand that there's going to be a certain amount 21 of trash in there that somebody's going to take advantage. 22 And the question is, does it serve a useful purpose for the 23 people who have a need? Notwithstanding that somebody's 24 taking advantage, 'cause somebody's going to do it, take 25 advantage. The question is what it's going to cost, and how 7-9-92 EMG 6 1 long it should be left out there. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think that's one of 3 the keys, is the time period. I -- I would want to cut it 4 as short as possible. I mean, why leave that thing out 5 there and open up opportunities for some problems to happen? 6 You know, it's kind of like the burn ban. Inevitably, we 7 put the burn ban on and people call me that night, wanting 8 to know when they can burn. And it's just the -- I don't 9 know if it's a phenomenon or what, but we -- we put the -- 10 if we put it out there, there's nothing going to -- 11 anybody's going to put anything in it for a month. If we 12 put a time frame on it, if we put it out there for a week or 13 two or something like that, give people some time to -- you 14 know, I'll go along with it. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah, I agree. I 16 think we should have a time frame that's reasonable, but not 17 too long, because then you'll -- then it's an invited 18 situation. You know, that dumpster's still there. Let's 19 take it out -- 20 JUDGE HENNEKE: Well, I would suggest no more 21 than two weeks. A week might be enough, but it might be 22 kind of close, too. I mean, I don't want -- and, again, I 23 don't know if this is even possible. This is just an idea. 24 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Yeah. 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Only thing out in the 7-9-92 EMG 7 1 county that I would wonder about, most of the wood products 2 and things like that, unless they're in the subdivision 3 itself, most people are probably going to stack up and 4 burn -- 5 JUDGE HENNEKE: Exactly. 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: -- out there. What 7 you're going to end up with is -- is hot water heaters, 8 washer/dryers, refrigerators, and how are they going to get 9 that inside one of them dumpsters? 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You're going to end 11 up with a lot of rotted out carpet and things like that too, 12 Rusty. 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: But how are they going 14 to get it -- 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Leave them out beside 16 it. 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's where it's going 18 to end up. You're going to end up with a pile of stuff. 19 Then you're going to have to get somebody down with a 20 bulldozer or something, or front-end loader to pick it all 21 up. 22 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Yep. 23 JUDGE HENNEKE: Well, that -- I think we need 24 to do something. And I'm -- you know, we're trying to 25 figure out a way where it doesn't inconvenience the people 7-9-92 EMG 8 1 who have been wiped out in this flood. I really don't want 2 them to divert a Road and Bridge crew to -- 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Would it be feasible to 4 contract with somebody, with a good front-end loader and 5 dump truck, just to go out at flood-damaged areas and help 6 clean it up and haul it off, and then the County pick up the 7 tab on some of that for those largest items? Now, I don't 8 know if you can do it with just one dump truck and one 9 front-end loader; if even a contractor would consider it. 10 JUDGE HENNEKE: I -- I'm willing to consider 11 anything, you know. 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And have them haul it 13 somewhere, and we end up with it everywhere. 14 JUDGE HENNEKE: Maybe we just need to keep 15 looking into this. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, Rusty may be on 17 to something there, but I don't know how you'd -- you know, 18 if it's truly people in need, you know, personally, if I had 19 damage, I don't want the government taking care of me. I 20 would rather do it myself. I'm -- I want to be responsible 21 for my own deal. But then you have folks out there that 22 are -- really and truly have a need, that are -- have been 23 flooded, and may not have a pickup and a trailer to haul all 24 those things to the dump. Which I don't either, but I'd 25 borrow one. But then you have -- 7-9-92 EMG 9 1 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: You can have mine. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. I can borrow 3 yours? 4 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: You can have mine. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. And then you 6 have those people out there that are multi-gazillionaires 7 that just need to have the trash hauled off, and we're going 8 to send a dump truck out to their place and haul it off and 9 send us a bill? Or -- that would make me mad. 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: It just needs to be -- 11 you know, whoever you contract with, that they have the -- 12 the deal on whether it's actually flood-damaged stuff and 13 actually a need for it and, you know, have the right to do 14 it or not to. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, I understand 16 what you're saying, Rusty, but you're talking about two 17 people at least, and two pieces of equipment. 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: From a cost 20 standpoint, that probably will exceed what it will cost to 21 ask B.F.I. to come in and put a dumpster down. 22 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: By the time we work 23 this out, it sounds like FEMA may have already put a check 24 in their hands, which will include the cost of hauling it 25 off. Now, there is some -- there is -- because that's 7-9-92 EMG 10 1 usually a part of an insurance cost or FEMA program, is the 2 cleanup. And, so, if -- depending on how fast a response we 3 get, this may be overtaken from B.F.I. This may be 4 overtaken by other events. 5 JUDGE HENNEKE: Well, that may be the best 6 way to leave it, is just -- you know, when I hear from 7 B.F.I., I'll contact you and -- 8 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: We can do a two-hour 9 emergency deal if we want. 10 JUDGE HENNEKE: Well, I think we can. 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, if the County 12 contracts with a private one with bulldozer and dump truck, 13 will FEMA reimburse the County's expense of doing that? 14 JUDGE HENNEKE: I doubt it. 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: To help get it cleaned 16 up, you know, in a quicker, timelier manner, instead of just 17 leaving it there? 'Cause -- 18 JUDGE HENNEKE: We'll only get reimbursed -- 19 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: -- some people may take 20 what they get from FEMA, leave it, and we still end up with 21 piles and piles of trash that somebody's got to deal with. 22 JUDGE HENNEKE: The County will only get 23 reimbursed for cleaning up our infrastructure, roads and 24 bridges, and the two facilities that were damaged. So, any 25 money we spend on behalf of the citizens is spent on behalf 7-9-92 EMG 11 1 of the citizens. 2 MS. SOVIL: Can we identify the areas of 3 need? 4 JUDGE HENNEKE: We can come pretty close. 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Verde Creek is a big 6 one. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Say again? 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Anything down Verde 9 Creek is a big one. 10 MS. SOVIL: Can we identify the areas of 11 need? 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Pretty much -- well, 13 I can, you know. And a lot of it's in Center Point, in the 14 area of B, C, and D, and 1, 2, 3 Streets in there. And a 15 lot of it's out there on Verde Creek where folks got flooded 16 out. Some of it's down here on Riverside Drive, which -- 17 access the Ag Barn, real quickly. 18 JUDGE HENNEKE: Well, let's just -- you know, 19 when I get a report, we'll -- if I think it's something 20 that's worth pursuing, we'll reconvene and move forward. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's a good idea. 22 JUDGE HENNEKE: The other thing I think we 23 need to talk about is this issue of private road access. 24 Road and Bridge is being inundated with phone calls from 25 individuals who live on private roads wanting us to come out 7-9-92 EMG 12 1 and clean their road, and it's just overwhelming them, from 2 what Truby told me and from what Commissioner Griffin saw 3 out there himself. So, they've asked us to try to figure 4 out a mechanism whereby someone screens these requests and 5 makes a determination of whether it's legitimate or not, 6 because there have been some alleged abuses along the lines 7 of, "I need to go down and see if I need to feed my cows, 8 but I can't get to my stock tank." And I don't think that's 9 what we have in mind. So -- 10 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: We're talking about 11 residential access, is what we're talking about. 12 JUDGE HENNEKE: Yeah. So, a suggestion has 13 been made -- two suggestions have been made. One, that the 14 Commissioners screen the calls. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's not a very good 16 idea. 17 (Laughter.) 18 JUDGE HENNEKE: You notice I said 19 Commissioners. Not County Judge. Commissioners. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. Go to Plan 2. 21 JUDGE HENNEKE: Well, the -- Plan 2 was for 22 the calls to be referred to the Sheriff's Department. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's a good one. 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Thanks, Buster. 25 JUDGE HENNEKE: And that they would -- if -- 7-9-92 EMG 13 1 basically, the criteria is if they couldn't get a -- a 2 patrol car down the road easily -- not necessarily easily, 3 but couldn't get a patrol car down the road without severe 4 damage, it probably needs some work. So -- 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: So, if we get severe 6 damage, then they need work, huh? I've had enough damage so 7 far. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So, after we've torn 9 up a Sheriff's car or two -- 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Already tore up one. I 11 don't want any more. My opinion of that, as far as -- as 12 dealing with emergency calls and things like that, which is 13 where I get concerned, I think we do have to be able to get 14 to all the residents in the county. Because what happens is 15 they call us; we can't get to them, and they want us to call 16 a helicopter, and so it's not needed at that time. Some of 17 it is. If you want to refer them to call us, I won't -- I 18 can't afford -- I don't have the amount of personnel to run 19 around all day long doing nothing but checking roads. We 20 can keep a list, and during the regular patrol hours, try 21 and get people to go by and check some of those, and if they 22 are truly a need just to get them accessible -- I don't mean 23 fixed, or I don't mean because they're too rough or 24 something, but if you want to leave it at the discretion of 25 that patrol officer to call Road and Bridge and say, "This 7-9-92 EMG 14 1 one, we cannot get to their residence," I don't mind trying 2 to institute something like that for a week or two to give 3 Road and Bridge time, and to prioritize some of these to at 4 least get car or vehicle access to residents, where we could 5 need to get them to an emergency. 6 JUDGE HENNEKE: No. Addressed to the 7 Commissioners, are we talking about roads? Are we talking 8 about driveways? 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, I think first, 10 public access roads, even though they're not in the county 11 maintenance program. That's the first -- after we've taken 12 care of our own roads, then public access roads that are not 13 in the maintenance program should be looked at. Now, I'm 14 just looking at order of magnitude. 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: To me, the first -- 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Private driveways 17 come way down on the list. 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: To me, the only ones 19 that should matter and that I would be concerned about are 20 ones where you may have eight or nine different homes back 21 in this area. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Right. 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Like we have in several 24 places, and we can't get to them. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Right, that's what 7-9-92 EMG 15 1 I'm talking about. 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: You know, that access 3 road -- it may be a private road or whatever, but we 4 cannot -- 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I realize that. 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: -- cannot get to those 7 eight or nine houses. Those are the ones that I wouldn't 8 mind going out and sending a guy out during regular duty 9 hours to look at, call Road and Bridge and say, yes, this 10 has got five or six houses back in here. We can't get to 11 them; it's a dirt road, but can you at least make it 12 passable? 13 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: See, and another -- 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Driveways. I'm not for 15 going out checking people's driveways. To me, if you own 16 property and that's your personal, private driveway, it's up 17 to you to keep it up. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Why couldn't we 19 screen that down, Rusty, along the lines you're talking 20 about, by having Road and Bridge give each Commissioner the 21 list, and let the Commissioner take a look at the list and 22 give it back to you? 23 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Here's the problem we 24 run into, that -- Bill's already been through some of this. 25 In many cases, the Sheriff's Department guys and guys that 7-9-92 EMG 16 1 ride those roads regularly are the only people that can find 2 some of these private roads. You could have a list, and I 3 guarantee you -- I can guarantee you, in my precinct there's 4 732 square miles; there's a whole bunch of those private 5 roads that I have no idea where they are. Even if I've 6 talked with the landowner, it's very difficult. 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Our guys probably are 8 already aware of some of the roads that we can't get to 9 multiple houses here. 10 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: We're talking hundreds 11 of roads. I mean, hundreds and hundreds of private roads. 12 JUDGE HENNEKE: How would you want to handle 13 this, Sheriff? Do you want the calls to come directly to 14 you? Do you want them to come through Road and Bridge? 15 Or -- 16 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: I think you ought to 17 go directly to the Sheriff. 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, I think with it 19 already coming out in the newspaper one way, okay, Road and 20 Bridge is going to get a lot of calls, 'cause that's the 21 only newspaper some people are going to see. You can say 22 it's going to come to us this time. We're both going to get 23 them. And we're just -- us and Road and Bridge are just 24 going to have to work together to get out and check them. 25 If Road and Bridge has got a crew out in the area and they 7-9-92 EMG 17 1 can go up there and look at the guy's road, you know, I'd 2 like for them to do it, 'cause my three guys on the road at 3 a time aren't going to be able to cover everything that 4 happens. If we've got somebody in that area, we'll go do 5 it. 6 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Yeah. This is a 7 clarification of what we were talking about -- I'm talking 8 for the media here. This is a clarification of what we were 9 talking about yesterday, because what has happened is -- is 10 that the Road and Bridge people don't even have enough 11 people to man all the equipment -- 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Right. 13 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: -- that they need to 14 man. And they don't have anybody that can go out and do 15 this, quote, evaluation kind of function. And it's a lot 16 better, anyway, because the Sheriff's Department guys -- the 17 deputies probably have a better knowledge of where the roads 18 are. And if they can't get a cruiser in there, chances are 19 people need some help. So, I agree that -- and I would hope 20 that on -- that the calls that they have received, they can 21 give to you; they have the phone numbers and names, at 22 least, and names of roads. And maybe they can coordinate 23 something out with you. And, as you said -- 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: A lot of other people 25 that may know already of a lot of these roads is going to be 7-9-92 EMG 18 1 your volunteer fire departments. 2 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Yes. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Because they drove a lot 4 of them; they were out constantly all during this time, and 5 they could help with that. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: They can help. 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I'd listen to some of 8 them. If we get a call in from a volunteer fire department 9 to our office saying, we've got this road, then I don't want 10 to have to go out and doublecheck. If the volunteer fire 11 department's already seen it, they've seen it. They -- I 12 trust them just as well as our guys. They'll know what we 13 can get across and what we can't. 14 JUDGE HENNEKE: How about this? How about 15 we -- we continue to have people call the Road and Bridge 16 Department, and put out that the Road and Bridge Department 17 and the Sheriff's Department will cooperate in determining 18 those roads -- those private roads which need immediate 19 assistance for access purposes. And let -- that's -- you 20 all call Elm Pass and say, "Have you been by this road?" 21 They say, "Man, you can't get down that road," or -- 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I think it needs to be a 23 joint effort between all of us, between Road and Bridge, us, 24 and the volunteer fire departments to make sure -- because 25 what we're talking about is in emergency situations. Any of 7-9-92 EMG 19 1 those emergencies out in the county, normally, your First 2 Responders and most of your volunteer departments are going 3 to respond, so any of us three that can -- can just kind of 4 be in touch with each other, make sure somebody's checked, 5 and then let Road and Bridge know, yeah, this one's 6 important, and -- and if we get an emergency, we're going to 7 need to get in there. 8 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: One of the issues 9 they've run up against, by the way, is that we have 10 people -- there are people in the county who live on 11 county-maintained roads that still don't have access. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's the first 13 priority, in my book. 14 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: That's almost got to 15 be -- and those are major -- those carry more traffic, so 16 those roads ought to be opened first. Those 17 county-maintained roads need to be opened first, because 18 they do serve more than one person. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. I just hope 20 that we remember that -- you know, I think we're probably 21 walking on the edge of law out there anyway by going on 22 private property and doing work. But we just need to 23 remember that we're talking emergency here. We're talking 24 about people that need to be able to get out and get some 25 groceries, food for the families, and to the doctor and an 7-9-92 EMG 20 1 ambulance to be able to go in there and get somebody. If 2 Joe Blow needs to feed his cows, I mean, I'm not real 3 interested in his cows. I'm not willing to go to jail -- 4 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: For his cows. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- for his cows. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I agree with that. 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I agree. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Emergency services. 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: In my opinion, it's only 10 getting to and from the house to where we could get help, 11 EMS could get help, fire department, whoever up to that 12 house, without having to call a helicopter to do it. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Rusty, you have an 14 employee that happens to be one of my constituents that is 15 the husband of the lady sitting over there. He knows the 16 roads in Kerr County better than anybody I know. 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: He knows every nook 19 and cranny in this county. 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Drives them all the 21 time. And I don't have a problem -- 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Give him a big fat 23 raise, put him in charge of that. That's what I'd do if I 24 was -- if I was the Sheriff of this county. 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: What did I hear about 7-9-92 EMG 21 1 giving him a raise, Buster? My budget hearing's tomorrow; 2 I'll be back. 3 (Discussion off the record.) 4 JUDGE HENNEKE: All right. I think that 5 pretty much outlines the program. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Another dimension 7 here that I want to kick around with us, 'cause this came in 8 as a request, there are homeowners' associations who have 9 roads that are private, that have been damaged. And the 10 question is, they're not ones we take care of, but will we 11 or can we include them on the FEMA list? And one particular 12 one that comes first, what about including them on the FEMA 13 list so that they can qualify for FEMA funds, but we not pay 14 the 25 percent; they pay the 25 percent. This comes out of 15 Creekwood, and they've already checked with FEMA, and FEMA 16 says they're eligible for 25/75 consideration. If it's 17 convenient to put them on the list, when it comes time to 18 pony up the 25 percent, they pony it up. 19 JUDGE HENNEKE: I don't know how the program 20 works that well. We could put them on the other 21 organization part of the D.S.O., like we did the Little 22 League and the different utilities, and then what FEMA does 23 with that is up to them. But, yes, we can include them in 24 our D.S.O. under other organizations. So -- 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Not for funding or 7-9-92 EMG 22 1 anything like that. 2 JUDGE HENNEKE: Just for informational 3 purposes. So, if we have -- we have, like, the Creekwood 4 Homeowners' Association, anything like that, who wants to be 5 on the list. 6 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: And I would still 7 think it would be important, would it not, that Creek -- in 8 this case, Creekwood Homeowners' Association needs to call 9 the FEMA 800-number. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: They have done that. 11 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: They've done that. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And that's why they 13 know that they could become eligible. They just want to 14 know if they can get on the list and not be on a single 15 list; they may be included in Kerr County's wrap-up. But 16 not for funding, just for FEMA purposes. 17 JUDGE HENNEKE: I have no problem with 18 including them on the list, but I'm making no guarantees 19 about what that does for them. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay, absolutely. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Good work, men. Can 22 we rent a helicopter or not? 23 JUDGE HENNEKE: Sure. Where do you want to 24 go? 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We'll feed the cows. 7-9-92 EMG 23 1 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: A guy out there Sunday 2 in Mike Henke's field gave me a helicopter ride. 3 (Discussion off the record.) 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: There is one private 5 helicopter that did help out extensively during this flood, 6 and that's Tommy Taylor. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, is that who did 8 that? 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I had one lady call 10 me about the need to get in and feed the cows. 11 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: I think he -- he 12 carried some campers out, didn't he? 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Carried some campers 14 out. He responded. We got them out before way up on 39 by 15 the Vanderpool Road; we had one truck going in the water 16 with a man and a kid in it, and he tried to respond to 17 there. We were able to get somebody there first to get them 18 off the vehicle, but there was -- he did help. He landed 19 out there at our office several times; he used that. I know 20 he went over to Bandera and things. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Rusty, was that his 22 homemade helicopter? 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: This was a little bit 24 bigger bubble. Well, he's got about four of them now, and 25 he's probably going to be giving me a -- a price, which may 7-9-92 EMG 24 1 be something the Court wants to consider, to be able to 2 contract with him during cases like this, under his 3 liability insurance, his everything, to where in emergency 4 situations we have access to a helicopter that will be 5 parked at the office during these major floods and major 6 events, and get can people in and out. 7 (Discussion off the record.) 8 JUDGE HENNEKE: I think we're done, so this 9 special meeting of the -- emergency meeting of the Kerr 10 County Commissioners Court is adjourned. 11 (Emergency meeting adjourned at 3:58 p.m.) 12 - - - - - - - - - - 13 14 STATE OF TEXAS | 15 COUNTY OF KERR | 16 The above and foregoing is a true and complete 17 transcription of my stenotype notes taken in my capacity as 18 County Clerk of the Commissioners Court of Kerr County, 19 Texas, at the time and place heretofore set forth. 20 DATED at Kerrville, Texas, this 11th day of July, 2002. 21 22 23 JANNETT PIEPER, Kerr County Clerk 24 BY: _________________________________ Kathy Banik, Deputy County Clerk 25 Certified Shorthand Reporter 7-9-92 EMG