1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Regular Session 5 Monday, June 24, 2019 6 9:00 a.m. 7 Commissioners' Courtroom 8 Kerr County Courthouse 9 Kerrville, Texas 78028 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 PRESENT: ROB KELLY, Kerr County Judge HARLEY BELEW, Commissioner Precinct 1 24 TOM MOSER, Commissioner Precinct 2 JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Precinct 3 25 DON HARRIS, Commissioner Precinct 4 2 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 *** Commissioner's Comments. 4 4 1.1 Conduct a Public Hearing for a revision 6 of plat for Spicer Ranch No. 3, Lot 166-B, 5 Volume 3, Page 85. 6 1.2 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 7 action for the Court to approve a revision 7 of plat for Spicer Ranch No. 3, Lot 166-B, Volume 3. 8 1.3 Public Hearing regarding installation of 7 9 a "STOP" sign on Van Hoozer Dr. W. at Shalako Dr. W. intersection. 10 1.4 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 27 11 action for the Court's final approval regarding the installation of a "STOP" 12 sign on Van Hoozer Dr. W. at Shalako Dr. W. intersection. 13 1.6 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 35 14 action to authorize a nominating committee to seek nominations and submit an 15 application to the Kerrville Chamber of Commerce for a county employee to 16 participate in the Kerr County Leadership Class 2019-20. Application fee to be paid 17 out of the current year's budget. 18 1.7 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 37 action to surplus two task chairs, four 19 calculators, one swivel key board tray, one microwave, two paper shredders, one 20 desk lamp, and one printer stand tag #00058. 21 1.5 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 41 action on Contract Extension with Spectra 22 for the Hill Country Youth Event Center. 23 1.8 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 42 action regarding Resolutions for 24 participants in the Kerr County Wounded Warrior Family Hill Country Adventure. 25 3 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.9 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 44 action to declare various items as 4 surplus and dispose of properly. 5 1.11 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 47 action to approve holiday and payroll 6 schedule for fiscal year 2019-2020. 7 1.13 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 48 action to review the Commissioners' Court 8 Order related to the 4th of July fireworks sales. 9 4.1 Pay bills. 62 10 4.4 Accept Monthly Reports. 62 11 4.6 Court Orders. 63 12 5.1 Reports from Liaison Commissioners. 63 13 5.2 Reports from Department Heads. 63 14 5.3 Reports from Elected Officials. 63 15 *** Adjournment. 71 16 *** Reporter's Certificate. 72 17 * * * * * * 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 4 1 JUDGE KELLY: It is Monday morning, June the 2 24th, 2019 at 9 o'clock in the morning, and the 3 Commissioners' Court of Kerr County is now in session. 4 I think you have -- hopefully have the prayer and 5 pledge. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Always ready. 7 (Prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance.) 8 JUDGE KELLY: Welcome. This is the 9 opportunity for visitor input. If anybody would like to 10 address the Court, this is an opportunity. If it is on 11 the agenda, we ask that you save your comments or 12 questions to us until we come to that item on the 13 agenda. So at this time my question is, is there anyone 14 that would like to address the Court? 15 Okay, if not then we'll take our 16 Commissioner status reports. Precinct 1. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Had a lot of good rain. 18 We will have the recycle trailer next week, first week 19 of the month next month. And a lot of road work going 20 on in Precinct 1. And everybody knows how to get in 21 touch with me. So that's all I got. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Good. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Let's see, the rain has 24 caused Brinks Crossing to be closed a couple of times, 25 but with the new barriers that Kelly and the crew have 5 1 put up, we know where the water level is, and it will be 2 open pretty quickly. 3 The other thing was that ham radio guys, 4 they came in here the other day and talked about their 5 event this past week, they were there. They had a lot 6 of communication out there. Big antennas spread all 7 over the place, so they were talking all over the world. 8 So nice event out at our Lady of the Hills little 9 facility. So that's it. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Precinct 3. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Not much. Just good 12 rains appropriate 4th of July coming up before we have 13 our next regular meeting, couple of special meetings 14 between now and then. But I want to invite everybody to 15 Comfort for their annual 4th of July parade. I think 16 it's ten o'clock. Always a fun small town good event. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Precinct 4, we 18 appreciate the rain, too. We got our fair share of 19 wind. Kelly's crew was out with chainsaws and stuff 20 after the last bout. I'd heard through the rumor mill 21 that they said maybe we had a small tornado out Hunt 22 way. As the Judge knows, he saw plenty of that the next 23 morning, debris and stuff. And so that's about it. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Good. I live in Precinct 4 25 and up by Hunt, and I drove in that morning last Monday 6 1 morning, and it looked like a tornado had hit it. Now, 2 I don't know if there was a tornado or not, but I'm 3 telling you there were -- the trees that were down were 4 trash trees, or old hollow infected trees, but there 5 were a lot of trees down. And I had two trees down 6 myself. I've got my son and grandson come out to help 7 me clear that out this week. But good rain. Got over 8 five inches in that, so that's a lot for Hunt. So 9 that's all I have. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It might be important 11 to know at this point that it weakens some of the other 12 trees, so you should check your trees, look at the 13 branches. It weakens them. They're going to fall later 14 on a smaller rain, so do an assessment. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. The first item on the 16 agenda is a public hearing on Spicer Ranch. Special 17 meeting come to order. Is there anyone wanting to 18 address the Court? 19 Okay, then we'll adjourn the special meeting 20 and going on to the next item on the agenda is a public 21 hearing regarding the installation of a "Stop" sign on 22 Van Hoozer Dr. W. at Shalako Dr. W. intersection in 23 Precinct 4. 24 MR. HASTINGS: Before we go do that, there 25 is another item right after that public hearing for that 7 1 Spicer Ranch 3. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, I'm sorry. Consider, 3 discuss and take appropriate action for the Court to 4 approve a revision of plat for Spicer Ranch No. 3, Lot 5 166-B, Volume 3. 6 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you. We just held the 7 public hearing and nobody spoke. This proper revision 8 of plat corrects part of Lot 166. It is an illegal 9 subdivision to be known as Lot 166-B. Its access will 10 be off of Mai Road. Both of those lots now will be 11 properly platted if this is approved. 12 The County Engineer request the Court 13 approve the revision of plat for Spicer Ranch No. 3, Lot 14 166-B, Volume 3, Page 85. This is in Precinct 1. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I move for approval of 16 the revision of plat for Spicer Ranch No. 3, Lot 166-B 17 of Volume 3, Page 85. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Been moved by Commissioner 20 Belew, and seconded by Commissioner Moser to approve the 21 revision of plat to Spicer Ranch No. 3, Lot 166-B. Is 22 there any further discussion on that item? Those in 23 favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 24 Now we'll go to 1.3, which is a public 25 meeting regarding installation of a "STOP" sign on Van 8 1 Hoozer Dr. W. at Shalako Dr. W. intersection. 2 This is a public meeting. We do have -- let 3 me pull it out here. We have one letter that we 4 received from Carol Van Hoozer respectfully protesting 5 the installation of a stop sign on Van Hoozer Dr. W. 6 She states that this is a private drive on private land, 7 and we've been using this driveway since, I believe, 8 sometime in the late 1970's. 9 Please consider the Hunter's Pointe 10 Subdivision located at the end of Shalako West does not 11 have a stop sign at its entrance. Also no other 12 driveways on Shalako West have a stop sign. 13 Thank you for your consideration in this 14 matter. 15 We have two notices of people to speak. 16 There's a Michael Mann, and a Tracie Reeh. Would you 17 like to speak? 18 MS. REEH: Hi. Can I go in front of here? 19 Okay. I brought some maps for the Court, and I wrote a 20 letter for you, because this is not my ideal thing to do 21 is to talk in front of you. I am a teacher, but talking 22 in front of little kids is much different than talking 23 in front of other adults. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Not much. Not much. 25 Talk slow. 9 1 (Laughter.) 2 MS. REEH: So I've written a letter because 3 I don't want to waste your time, and I want to make sure 4 my points are taken and I'm not rambling again, because 5 I like to do that. And just to let you that this is not 6 my forte, I'd rather be a fly on the wall back there. 7 JUDGE KELLY: You're welcome to hide behind 8 the podium if you like. 9 MS. REEH: You want me to go back there? 10 JUDGE KELLY: No. Just saying you're 11 welcome to. 12 MS. REEH: I'm going to stand right here, 13 I'm fine right here. So I wrote this on June 22nd, 14 2019. County Commissioners and Judge. My name is 15 Tracie Reeh. I live at 195 Van Hoozer Dr. on the Van 16 Hoozer property. That's where I live. Shalako Estates 17 was originally my grandparent's land. When I was in 18 elementary in the late 70's, my grandmother Dorthy Van 19 Hoozer sold the land. Shalako Estates was developed, 20 and Van Hoozer Drive became the private entrance into 21 the family ranch. I have lived on the Van Hoozer Ranch 22 almost my whole life. 23 I am here today because Mr. Patrick Murphy 24 has suggested a stop sign should be placed at the 25 entrance of Van Hoozer Drive. I assume Mr. Murphy has 10 1 suggested this due to safety issues. I agree there are 2 safety issues concerning Shalako Dr.; however, a stop 3 sign at Van Hoozer Dr. will not solve these issues. 4 These are examples that will show this to be 5 true: First, the drivers leaving Van Hoozer Dr. yield 6 or stop to oncoming traffic on Shalako Dr., and going to 7 show you the map. The map is -- can I see one of those? 8 The map, I've labeled Van Hoozer Dr., the pink is the 9 cattle guard, the little T is our stop sign, our Van 10 Hoozer Dr. stop sign. Van Hoozer Dr. comes up here, 11 that's a dirt road, and Shalako Dr. continues west 12 around that corner where the green and the. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Are. And I'll explain 14 the color coding is my teaching advise -- I mean my 15 teaching to you. 16 Okay. The drivers leaving Van Hoozer Dr. 17 yield or stop to oncoming traffic on Shalako Dr. I know 18 this because this is a family ranch. My sister, my mom 19 and dad, and my nephew live here, and I asked them. 20 That means that are exactly 9 licensed drivers that 21 leave the ranch daily, and two are college students that 22 do not live there 80 percent of the year. We are 23 leaving a dirt private road onto a public paved road. 24 One yields to a public road. 25 Shalako Dr. Has at least three times more 11 1 traffic on this road than Van Hoozer Dr. There are 2 approximately 30 houses past Van Hoozer Dr. on Shalako 3 Dr., and most likely each has at least one licensed 4 driver per household, maybe two, that drive past Van 5 Hoozer Dr. This public road is much busier and 6 hazardous than Van Hoozer Dr. 7 Again, I have lived on the ranch for almost 8 40 years so I am very aware of the travel on our private 9 road. To my knowledge there has never been a traffic 10 incident at the entrance of Van Hoozer Dr.; however, 11 there have been many incidents where drivers on Shalako 12 Dr. Have driven too fast through the cattle guard, the 13 pink little area, that's the cattle guard coming down 14 our hill, and around the curve, the curve is the green 15 right there, and either knocked down the Van Hoozer Dr. 16 sign, or ran off the road into the cedar trees onto Van 17 Hoozer land. There has also been one serious accident 18 on Shalako Dr. away from Van Hoozer Dr. because of 19 excessive speed. 20 I'm not an engineer or a road safety 21 advisor, but I am a teacher, an educated woman that 22 wants the safety for all. A stop sign at the entrance 23 of our ranch is not going to make this area safe for 24 everyone. Shalako Dr. is a public road that has blind 25 curves and much faster, 30 miles per hour, moving 12 1 traffic than our private the dirt road. 2 Commissioners, please research more 3 effective safety measures. Speed bumps on Shalako Dr., 4 three-way stop signs, yield signs, tree/brush removal 5 beside the public road, and/or speed reduction that will 6 help make this area safe. A stop sign is only going to 7 miniplate 9 licensed drivers in an area that has not 8 caused any accidents in the past, rather than finding a 9 solution to make Shalako Dr. safe for all drives. 10 Thank for your time. And the little. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: , I think on that left 12 side, that's where that blind curve is right there. 13 Okay, thank you. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. 15 Michael Mann. 16 MR. MANN: I've got a letter also from 17 another resident, Tyler and Taylor Mann. It's in a 18 handwritten letter. If you want to read it, you're 19 welcome to do that as well. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Is that the third page? 21 MR. MANN: Take one and pass it down. 22 JUDGE KELLY: I'll read the letter after you 23 make your presentation. 24 MR. MANN: One for you two get to share. 25 For Judge Kelly. Paper and ink is costly. Y'all can 13 1 share that one. 2 The images that you have are basically 3 grouped together in views and angles from the 4 intersection where Van Hoozer Dr. merges onto Shalako 5 Dr. I'm going to kind of reconcile this by the page 6 numbers written in the top right corner of pages as I go 7 through. 8 Is everybody familiar where the roadway is? 9 JUDGE KELLY: Yes I drove out there this 10 weekend. 11 MR. MANN: Okay, great. I know Mr. Harris 12 also drove out there as well. The biggest situation -- 13 (Pause.) 14 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, I'm sorry. 15 MR. MANN: Oh, that's all right. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Looking at pictures. Go 17 ahead. 18 MR. MANN: Y'all good? 19 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 20 MR. MANN: There are 7 households, and quote 21 our hunter's cabin where we have some season hunters 22 that come out there seasonally to hang out and shoot a 23 deer. Our biggest concern primarily is the safety of 24 the residents, our friends and our families that are 25 exiting the Van Hoozer Ranch, traveling onto Shalako Dr. 14 1 headed back to town. We're concerned about our seniors, 2 they do get a little bit nervous about the speeding 3 oncoming traffic both from the east and west coming and 4 going. We're concerned about our young adults and our 5 college-age drivers that are through there. And also 6 the friends, we do have to warn our friends, hey when 7 you're leaving, slow down, make sure nobody's coming 8 around the blind curve. Also take a look to your left 9 back towards town, because there's a cattle guard and a 10 rise, it's up and you can't really see it. I drive a 11 large truck, and there's a lot of people in small 12 vehicles that they cannot see over the rise, over the 13 cattleguard. 14 The other issue, to me, it will really 15 create a hazardous situation for the drivers leaving Van 16 Hoozer Road. Case in point really primarily, and this 17 happened to me as a young college age kid, I was on an 18 inclined road in San Marcos, Texas, just had my car 19 repaired. I went through an intersection after I 20 stopped, somebody hit me, they didn't have it. But 21 because I had the stop sign the officer said well you're 22 an 18-year old kid, it's probably your fault. And it 23 legitimately was not. So that's -- that's just the 24 biggest situation, the liability, financial and 25 insurance-wise. Stopping and starting right there at 15 1 this inclining dirt road creates a safety issue. 2 Really, you come to a stop sign, you're looking right, 3 you look left, you go. All of a sudden somebody's 4 coming from one way or the other, that's an incident 5 that happens to us all the time, so we're more than 6 aware of what we're having to be faced with when we 7 leave the ranch. 8 The other situation is when we're pulling 9 cattle headed to Fredericksburg, we have stock loaded up 10 in the back of the trailer and we stop on that incline, 11 the stock shifts back. We push the gas, they go out the 12 back door of the trailer, essentially. Maybe break a 13 leg. We did think about this logistically and 14 logically, hey if there's a stop sign placed, ideally it 15 would probably be on the road sign that's already 16 existing there. If the stop sign's placed further back 17 from the Van Hoozer Road sign, the Shalako drivers, they 18 wouldn't really be able to see us from the east, they 19 can't see a vehicle stopped. 20 And if you look on your photo pages number 6 21 through 9, and you kind of see that on that image there, 22 it gives you the visual perspective there of a driver 23 approaching the cattle guard. Van Hoozer Road's going 24 to be on your right just down that rise, and they're not 25 able to see somebody. 16 1 If you look at the next page as they 2 approach closer. Page 7. You can start to see the 3 front bumper of a truck. That driver still cannot see 4 somebody approaching from the east there. 5 And then the next page number 8, you see 6 that vehicle. The two drivers are able to see each 7 other, but at that point if somebody is accelerating 8 from a stop sign at that point, you're hit, you're hit. 9 The other situation is if a stop sign is 10 placed closer up to Shalako Dr., and ideally where that 11 roadway easement starts and stops is a little bit closer 12 to the main asphalt. We would still not be able to see 13 folks coming from our right, if you're looking west 14 around the blind curve. 15 And if you look at items 10 through 17, what 16 you're seeing there is the approach coming from the High 17 Pointe Subdivision on the western side, Shalako Dr., 18 and as it comes closer back around run that curve you 19 can start to see a vehicle, but there's not a point 20 where the Van Hoozer Dr. vehicle can really see somebody 21 coming around the curve. 22 And if it's put on the right there at the 23 sign, we're still faced with the issue of not being able 24 on see one way or another. So the safety issue to me 25 when my Driver's Ed said I'm turning left, you look to 17 1 the right, to the left, to the right, and no vehicle, 2 I'm proceeding if there's nothing coming from the left. 3 In that short amount of time, essentially two seconds, 4 you're still going to be hit by somebody. So we're 5 really, really aware of the situation that we're faced 6 with as folks are leaving it. 7 The biggest issue, I think, is probably item 8 number 4. 30 mile an hour speed limit is pretty fast 9 for a hill country road. It's curvy, there's a lot of 10 hills, you cannot safely take it. You're going to slosh 11 your coffee and your wife will be in your lap as you 12 take those curves. 13 The other situation, too, is folks like -- 14 to Shalako is a dead-end road out there, and we have 15 Cimarron Ranch Road out there as well. When it rains we 16 get little four-wheelers come out in the pasture, and 17 they do some donuts. They also like to run the humps 18 around back into the High Pointe Subdivision that goes 19 past our other gate up the hill. And I can work out 20 there and people will run that road four or five times, 21 and go back to town. There have been wrecks out there 22 through the years, there have. 23 Out other situation is drivers have run over 24 the Van Hoozer Road sign primarily because they come 25 over it, and they keep going straight right through it. 18 1 They've been in our cedars. We've had Highway Patrolmen 2 and Sheriffs Department call us up on a Saturday morning 3 because there's a car off in the cedars there, but 4 thankfully the cedars stopped them and nobody was 5 injured. 6 We also believe that because there's a road 7 sign there it creates the impression that it's a public 8 road, and we don't have any indication -- I had spoken 9 to somebody from Road & Bridge awhile back about putting 10 signs there, and we have some issues what we can and 11 can't do there, and essentially can fall on us, we'll 12 put our own private ranch sign up there, and we have do 13 have something further down closer to our main entrance 14 into the ranch. 15 The other final thing is, I mean I live off 16 the beaten path, I'm a good mile off the asphalt. But 17 somebody's GPS told them that's how to get to Lazy Hills 18 Guest Ranch. Yeah, a lady says it's right over that 19 hill. But you have to go ten miles back into Ingram and 20 circle back around to get there. So we do contend with 21 this. 22 We have people that drive in the back part 23 of the pasture and they're stuck. I had a handicapped 24 van, a man was transporting a lady to see somebody in 25 hospice here, and he got stuck as he tried to turn 19 1 around and he fell off in our ditches. 2 So we're faced with lots of various 3 situations. But mainly we're concerned about speeding. 4 We're concerned about the blind curves, and us being 5 able to simply merge onto Shalako and keep traveling. 6 But without that, I can't give a statement 7 without giving some options. You know, the last couple 8 of pages, some of you all probably have them, some of 9 you may not. Other areas around the county do have some 10 different signage posted. A driveway entrance noting 11 the feet until you run into a driveway, or that there's 12 one ahead of you. You also got one that says "Hidden 13 Drives" ahead. This is very common, it's on blind 14 curves, and we're coming down hills, just to let people 15 know. This is in Hunt as well. 16 This one here is probably the bigger sign, 17 and I'd rather not have signs anywhere. I know that the 18 hill is going to be icy when it's icy. But I think 19 probably the strongest recommendation would be to put a 20 curve sign with the arrow, a speed limit indicator on 21 there. This is very very common throughout the Hill 22 Country. And also just a caution sign. I mean next to 23 putting flashing lights on there, I'm not sure what else 24 to tell folks. But that's to me the warning issue, 25 because we see it happening all the time. We're very 20 1 conscious of it. The older generation that's been 2 there, they've been running the roads for years, they 3 know who's coming down there. We contend with the Fed 4 Ex trucks coming, the Lowe's delivery truck, the cement 5 trucks, we know that they're coming out there. But our 6 biggest issue is to not have a liability put onto the 7 residents leaving Van Hoozer Road. Possibly put some 8 other signage on Shalako Dr. and slow the speed limit 9 down to 20. I'm very for that. 10 Any questions? 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I have a question. Is 12 the idea, and I haven't heard this expressed this way, 13 the idea that if you stop before you go on to the main 14 road before you get on the pavement, that the people 15 that are speeding around the blind curve are more likely 16 to hit you because you don't have a decent rate of 17 speed, is that the idea? 18 MR. MANN: That is part of the idea. That 19 is part of the idea. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's all I can get 21 out of this is I'm stopped, this guys flying around the 22 corner at 45 instead of 30, he can't see me. I get out 23 there, I'm doing five miles an hour. 24 MR. MANN: Right. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Is that it basically? 21 1 MR. MANN: It is. That is the whole premise 2 of it, because when you stop and you're on an inclined 3 hill and you begin to accelerate, at that point two 4 seconds later somebody will be coming around the curve 5 from your east or west of the cattle guard and impacts 6 us. 7 So like I'd said, we're really aware of it 8 and conscious of it. And if we're traveling steady, we 9 can see to the right, to the west up Shalako Dr. to the 10 curve before we get on up to our road sign and merge on, 11 we can see. We're going to slow down and/or stop anyway 12 if we see traffic coming from the right, that's 13 inevitable for us. We would still like to keep 14 traveling on without having to stop and start because of 15 eastern traffic coming in. 16 JUDGE KELLY: This letter that you gave me, 17 you want to read that? 18 MR. MANN: I can. 19 JUDGE KELLY: You might be able to read it 20 better than I can. And is that Tyler Van Hoozer? This 21 is from Tyler and Taylor Van Hoozer, uh-huh. 22 JUDGE KELLY: And they live out on the 23 ranch? 24 MR. MANN: They do, yes, Sir. Right next to 25 Johnny, Grandpa, so it's a family estate. 22 1 To whom it may concern: My wife and all 2 would like to respectfully protest the installation of a 3 stop sign at the intersection of Van Hoozer Dr. and 4 Shalako Dr. This intersection has been without a stop 5 sign for my whole lifetime, and to my knowledge there 6 has been no collision at this intersection. 7 When exiting Van Hoozer Dr. because of how 8 the road intersects, you are unable to see traffic 9 coming from either direction on Shalako Dr. This forces 10 the driver merging on Shalako Dr. to slow down to look 11 for traffic coming around the curve north of the 12 intersection before actually getting into where the 13 intersection is at. 14 If a stop sign was to be placed where the 15 county road of Shalako Dr. and our easement road, Van 16 Hoozer Dr., intersect, vehicles that were not visible to 17 a driver exiting Van Hoozer Road when coming -- and I'm 18 doing my best, Sir. When coming up to the intersection 19 could quickly have taken the curve north of the 20 intersection and would be speeding out of the curve by 21 the time the driver on Van Hoozer Dr. has come to a 22 complete stop, and has started accelerating onto Shalako 23 Dr. 24 This puts all liability driving of an 25 accident on the driver merging onto Shalako Dr. from Van 23 1 Hoozer Dr., which is unfair to that driver because they 2 are entering traffic not knowing if the car is coming 3 out of the blind curve to the driver's right. As for 4 traffic coming over the cattleguard to the left of the 5 intersection, there is not any visibility in that 6 direction because of the elevation difference between 7 where the cattleguard is in the courtroom -- excuse me. 8 Because where the cattle guard is in relation to where 9 Van Hoozer Dr. intersects with Shalako Dr. 10 This forces the driver exiting Van Hoozer 11 Dr. to have to quickly accelerate onto the far side of 12 Shalako Dr., meaning crossing through the intersection, 13 in order to avoid getting hit by traffic coming from the 14 left of the driver exiting Van Hoozer Dr. 15 If a stop sign was to be placed at this 16 intersection it would be unsafe for the driver 17 accelerating to the far side of Shalako Dr. by trying to 18 avoid traffic coming over the cattleguard because of the 19 transition from the dirt road of Van Hoozer Dr. to the 20 asphalt on Shalako Dr. is not smooth or even. This 21 could cause a vehicle to lose traction and may take away 22 on how quickly a driver can get into the far lane of 23 Shalako Dr. 24 I propose that a "Driveway Ahead" sign be 25 posted before the cattleguard on Shalako Dr. for traffic 24 1 coming over the cattleguard to be cautious of people -- 2 to be cautious of possible traffic entering Shalako Dr. 3 from the Van Hoozer Dr. 4 I also propose another "Driveway Ahead" sign 5 be posted on the blind curve on Shalako Dr. to caution 6 drivers coming out of the curve that there is possibly 7 traffic entering Shalako Dr. from Van Hoozer Dr. This 8 will at least notify traffic on Shalako Dr. of potential 9 merging traffic entering the roadway from Van Hoozer Dr. 10 Sincerely Tyler Mann. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. If you give me 12 back the letter, I'll keep it for the record here. 13 Thank you, Mr. Mann. 14 MR. MANN: You're welcome. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Anybody else like to address 16 the Court? 17 MR. MURPHY: I am Patrick Murphy. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. If you would -- 19 MR. MURPHY: I have some photographs here 20 for everyone of you. Judge, Commissioners. 21 Respectfully, each one of you have some 22 great ideas, and I like that. And a stop sign has not 23 stopped anyone, just like a traffic signal light has not 24 stopped anyone. A little bit about my background, 29 25 and a half years of transportation safety before I 25 1 retired, okay? And I investigated a lot of accidents. 2 On two separate occasions, I almost got hit 3 as I was leaving High Pointe coming down Shalako Road 4 and I had to stop and I was not exceeding the posted 5 speed limit of 30, probably going about 22 to 24 because 6 I monitor my speed with the indicator. Two different 7 times a pickup truck came out of a private roadway and 8 just cut right in front of me, and one guy looked at me 9 like his pants were on fire, he was running that fast to 10 come out of there. 11 I understand the elevation and the grade of 12 the road; however, I think -- and this is why I 13 suggested this, put a stop sign up to stop that traffic. 14 Or do we want to have a three-way stop sign? I don't 15 think so, that's not a good proposal, okay. 16 Enlightening everybody that roadway is 17 there, most people know and it could have been a hunter 18 or somebody that went in there on that property, or to 19 perform some type of commercial job, but they surely 20 didn't even slow down much less stop. I think someone 21 else in my situation may not have stopped in time, and 22 it could have had a crash and conflict, or worse. 23 Thank you. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Mr. Murphy -- 25 MR. MURPHY: Yes. 26 1 JUDGE KELLY: Who has the right of way, and 2 who yields in that situation without a stop sign? 3 MR. MURPHY: The main roadway has the right 4 of way. The private road should yield. 5 JUDGE KELLY: So that's not going to affect 6 liability because they're supposed to yield anyway, 7 right? 8 MR. MURPHY: Correct. 9 JUDGE KELLY: So when they get out there 10 it's because they can't see the oncoming traffic? 11 MR. MURPHY: Sir? 12 JUDGE KELLY: When the parties coming from 13 the private road come out onto Shalako Dr., the public 14 road, and they had to yield right of way, or stop, and I 15 understand sometimes they probably do stop. 16 MR. MURPHY: Yeah. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. But whether they yield 18 or they stop, they're not going to be in the middle of 19 that road if they saw traffic coming, would they? 20 MR. MURPHY: No, they would not. 21 JUDGE KELLY: So the problem is not being 22 able to see oncoming traffic. 23 MR. MURPHY: From the left, I would agree 24 with that, with the statement of not seeing the traffic 25 from the left because of the grade of the pitch of the 27 1 road where the cattle guard is, and a lot of shrubbery. 2 But from looking out towards the west where I was coming 3 from, a person should able to see someone. But this 4 time they just blatantly didn't stop, and this is why I 5 proposed the stop sign. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Well, stop sign or not, you 7 got a blatant that's going to come out on that road and 8 not yield. It's going to happen anyway, isn't it? 9 MR. MURPHY: It will. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Just wanted to make sure I 11 understand the situation. I live on the S-curve on 39, 12 so I understand this situation intimately well. 13 MR. MURPHY: Okay, thank you. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Look at these 15 photographs. Visibility's restricted from both 16 directions coming off of Van Hoozer Dr. both directions. 17 MRS. STEBBINS: Do you want to go ahead and 18 call 1.4 so you can have this discussion? 19 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. Item 1.4 consider, 20 discuss and take appropriate action for the courts final 21 approval regarding the installation of a "STOP" sign at 22 Van Hoozer Dr. West at Shalako Dr. W. intersection. 23 MS. HOFFER: I just have a couple thoughts 24 on this. I spoke with Charlie and, you know, it could 25 use the stop sign; he's not necessarily saying it 28 1 absolutely has to have one. We did check for accidents 2 at this intersection, could not find any accidents at 3 this intersection. 4 30 mile an hour for a white and black sign 5 is the lowest we post. In curves we can add the yellow 6 advisory, and they are advisory; they are not regulatory 7 signs, but we most certainly can look at that as far as 8 if maybe some signs are needed. We are doing sealcoat 9 out there, so probably the brush is probably cut the way 10 it needs to be cut on that road, but we can look at 11 that. 12 Speed bumps, we don't install speed bumps. 13 I just want to cover a couple things that have been 14 brought up just to let people know on that. Speed bumps 15 can sometimes be just as bad. If you got a 16 motorcyclist, somebody's that's not sure of the road and 17 hits it, or a bicyclist or something. So we're not in 18 favor of the speed bumps. 19 But driveway entrances, these are things 20 that we can look at. Hidden driveway, the curve ahead, 21 with possibly a speed reduction. Three-way stop signs I 22 had heard. If you into the MUTCD, they have a pretty 23 strict criteria on doing these multiple stops. A lot of 24 it is based on traffic count and how many accidents at 25 this exact location in order to do multiple-way stop 29 1 signs. 2 So I'm not saying that this wouldn't need 3 it, but we had one recently that has a lot more traffic, 4 and it did not meet the criteria for a three-way stop. 5 And the big one was accidents, and I did check on the 6 accidents on this. 7 But that really is about all that I've got 8 on this. And you know Mr. Murphy had contacted me. You 9 know, we had looked at it. Yes, a stop sign could be 10 installed. I'm kind of one of those people that signs 11 sometimes are only as good as a person that's going to 12 read them and obey them. 13 This county has a real speeding issue, huge 14 speeding issue. I don't see it probably getting much 15 better. I know law enforcement is short staffed. 16 Sometimes writing a ticket gets people attention, but 17 sometimes it's just short lived and they're back to 18 driving fast. But we do have a big speeding issue, I 19 believe, in Kerr County on these county roads. People 20 are in a big hurry. I don't have the answers. If we 21 need additional signs, Charlie and I go out and run it, 22 you know, we'll write things up and add them. But our 23 population is growing, and it's growing really fast. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Kelly, is it true -- I 25 mean it was a long time ago, maybe not any longer, that 30 1 stop signs should not be used to control speed. 2 MS. HOFFER: Right. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. I knew that 4 existed a long time ago so, you know, adding a stop sign 5 on -- 6 MS. HOFFER: Van Hoozer. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No. On Shalako Dr. 8 would not be appropriate -- 9 MS. HOFFER: Yeah. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- or legal if you're 11 trying to control the speed on that road. And the other 12 thing is Van Hoozer is really a driveway. 13 MR. MURPHY: That's right. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: There's a lot of other 15 driveways, so if you're going to put a stop sign there, 16 are you going to put a stop sign on every driveway? I 17 don't think so. So that would be one consideration. 18 I think the recommendations to me, 19 recommends on signs, curves, and slow down, and advisory 20 speeds would certainly be of benefit to especially 21 people that don't live there. Everybody lives there 22 probably knows, and they're going to do what they've 23 done for decades anyway. So at least it let's the 24 outside people understand that there's curves and blind 25 spots and blind driveways, etc. etc. It seems like to 31 1 me a good recommendation, so -- 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I'm going to have to 3 agree with Commissioner Moser on that. Driving out 4 there yesterday and approaching it, I think possibly 5 the hidden driveway and the curve, blind curve and 6 stuff. Signage like that would be more appropriate 7 from my point of view. You drove out there, too. What 8 was your take? 9 JUDGE KELLY: It's a private driveway. And 10 as I said, I live on 39. You know exactly where I live 11 Kelly. And it's -- it's an experience every time, 12 everyday, coming and going. 13 MS. HOFFER: Yes, Sir. 14 JUDGE KELLY: You don't know if they're 15 going to stop, and you got your blinkers on, you slow 16 down. You don't know who's coming around that curve 17 from Hunt. You don't know who's coming out of the 18 S-curve from Ingram. And in my situation, of course, 19 that's a state highway, but it's my front street, if you 20 will. They put what, rumple strips, or rumble, what was 21 it they put out there, Charlie, do you remember, on the 22 highway? 23 MR. HASTINGS: On the S-curve out there? 24 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 25 MR. HASTINGS: They have had the rumble 32 1 strips at one time. 2 JUDGE KELLY: They put something out there 3 that -- well, I was having coffee one morning, and I 4 almost came unglued. And one call to Commissioner 5 Oehler, and we now have a flashing warning light with 6 advisory speeds. In fact I'm not sure that's advisory 7 out there, is it, on that one? 8 MR. HASTINGS: It's advisory. 9 JUDGE KELLY: It's advisory. And I can 10 promise you that our gold cart cannot go 20 miles an 11 hour if we tried. It's just hazardous. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Another question. If 13 you were to put a stop sign on Van Hoozer would it be in 14 the right of way on county road, or would it be on 15 private property? 16 MS. HOFFER: No. We would install it within 17 Shalako's right of way. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: The right of way? 19 MS. HOFFER: Yes. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, that just seems 21 to me -- 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'm not advocating. 23 MS. HOFFER: Right. No. Good question. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: If you slow those 25 people down and they come to a complete stop and two 33 1 blind spots on either side of them, that's going to add 2 to the trouble. It's not going to fix the problem. 3 MS. HOFFER: And you do have -- it does 4 flatten out a little ways, but when you're back in the 5 High Pointe Estates, the very back of Shalako and where 6 it goes to the right, you got some hills, and so it's 7 also pretty easy for drivers -- because I was just out 8 there on Friday because we were sealcoating out there. 9 It's pretty easy when you've got some hills that you 10 don't realize the acceleration of your vehicle. I mean 11 I've had it happen myself. But there are some hills and 12 as you're coming down from the very back end, there 13 could be possibly some accelerated speeds. 14 And I know myself if I know a road really 15 well sometimes I probably tend to drive it faster than I 16 should, because I know the road really well. Still 17 doesn't make it right. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I agree, I think the 19 advisory sign is the better way to go. And the other 20 comment I would have, I'm not sure that the property is 21 right on Van Hoozer, I presume. It may help if two 22 cedar trees are taken out. There's a cedar tree on both 23 sides of the road pretty close to the intersection. I 24 don't think there of value other than blocking the view, 25 and that might open it up a little bit as well. 34 1 AUDIENCE: I was going to say that the area 2 that the blind views, they're not working on that road 3 right this minute, so they have haven't -- as she said 4 it's probably cleared to code. It hasn't been worked on 5 in that area, so I don't think it's been trimmed. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But the county will trim 7 those cedar trees; not take them out. You own them, you 8 can take them out. 9 JUDGE KELLY: And we all know what a cedar 10 tree's worth. Sorry. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So if it's going to be 12 advisory signs, no action needed, correct? 13 MS. HOFFER: Correct. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Thanks for bringing this to 15 our attention. This is important, it really is, to the 16 people out there. 17 MS. HOFFER: It is. And you know and having 18 a public hearing, this is a good example of why the 19 State requires public hearings on this, you know, as an 20 example like this. You've got two separate parties, and 21 I fully agree, gives everybody an opportunity to speak. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Thank you, Kelly. 23 Mr. Murphy. 24 MR. MURPHY: Yeah, one thing. I want thank 25 Michael for bringing his point of view up. Maybe by 35 1 just sharing this information by the people that visit 2 out there, not aware of it, and ask them when they leave 3 to at least yield to the road. Maybe not come to a 4 complete stop, but just watch the traffic. 5 MR. MANN: Yes, Sir. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: This is all well 7 documented. Thank you. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, do we have a motion? 9 This is an action item. We don't have to take action, I 10 understand. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: There's no action so we 12 don't have to. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. So take no action on 14 that. 15 Item 1.6 consider, discuss and take 16 appropriate action to authorize a nominating committee 17 to seek nominations and submit an application to the 18 Kerrville Chamber of Commerce for a county employee to 19 participate in the Kerr County Leadership Class 2019-20. 20 Application fee to be paid out of the current year's 21 budget. 22 MRS. STEBBINS: I'm here for Tracy. She's 23 out paying jurors upstairs. This is I think the third 24 year that the Court has budgeted for someone to 25 participate in the Leadership Kerr County Program. Last 36 1 year Jackie Dowdy did it, and just graduated in May, I 2 believe. The year before that, I believe that Kelly 3 participated. 4 It's a great program that several county 5 officials have participated in, and we just ask for you 6 to give us permission to seek nominations for next 7 year's class, and we ask that people who are interested 8 in applying to participate in the program apply no later 9 that August the 7th. 10 In the past the committee has been Tracy, 11 me, and Dawn, who was the HR Director. And so I also 12 ask that if you want to consider having it just be the 13 HR Director instead of Dawn, who's now our District 14 Clerk. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: How much is the 16 application fee? 17 MRS. STEBBINS: It's $700.00 and it's 18 already budgeted. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, I think it's a 20 good program. I move for approval. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Been moved by Commissioner 23 Moser, seconded by Commissioner Belew to approve the 24 nominating committee, I take it, and the application 25 fee, and the nominating committee is to be the HR 37 1 Director, the County Attorney, and the County Treasurer. 2 Is that correct, that's the motion, Commissioner Moser? 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yes. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, those in favor raise 5 your hand. Unanimous, five zero. Thank you. 6 MRS. STEBBINS: I'll leave an application 7 with Jody so that if any elected or directors want to 8 pick one up and submit an application for them or their 9 employees, they can do that. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. 11 MRS. STEBBINS: You're welcome. 12 JUDGE KELLY: 1.7 consider, discuss and take 13 appropriate action to surplus two task chairs, four 14 calculators, one swivel key board tray, one microwave, 15 two paper shredders, one desk lamp, and one printer 16 stand tag #00058. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And a partridge in a 18 pear tree. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I move for approval. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Commissioner Belew has moved, 22 seconded by Commissioner Letz. Is there any further 23 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Five zero, 24 unanimous. 25 MR. ROBLES: As we start getting more of 38 1 these, would it be appropriate for us to save them all 2 for once a month and just have a long list, or do y'all 3 want to do one or two items each -- 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's probably good to do 5 them once a month, and that way there's a list. And it 6 helps, I think, your office to keep track of what 7 we're -- 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: They're going to have a 9 yard sale once a month. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Well, it would allow us to 11 call several agenda items at one time and do all of them 12 for the month. I think that's a good suggestion. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It helps James. 14 MR. ROBLES: Most people don't actually 15 provide this list. I have to go and find them. It 16 would be helpful if they gave them to me first. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Now we're going back to 1.5 18 we're going to get it done. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Can I ask a question? 20 What is the process, James, what do you have to do, 21 what's the issue? 22 MR. ROBLES: Well, first the department 23 head, I guess, has to determine a value, bring it to the 24 Court whether it's surplused or salvaged, and how we're 25 going to dispose of it. 39 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Do you do any 2 investigation or anything, or do you just accept the 3 list? 4 MR. ROBLES: I do investigate it if it's a 5 fixed asset or inventory item. Calculators, we don't 6 have on inventory so I have to take it at face value 7 with the department head. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Is there a better way 9 to do this from your vantage point? 10 MR. ROBLES: I think once a month would be 11 probably easier and more efficient. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Is that all? 13 MR. ROBLES: Yeah. As long as they provide 14 me a list, and I can check through our assets and 15 inventory that we're doing the correct thing. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And you'd rather do it 17 all at once? 18 MR. ROBLES: I think it would be easier 19 because we're starting to get a lot more of these, at 20 the suggestion of the External Auditor doing these. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So in other words if 22 something's on the list, if you don't have an 23 inventory -- does that happen? 24 MR. ROBLES: It does. But if it's low 25 dollar value things, we don't keep track of calculators. 40 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: What if somebody 2 brought a chair from home? 3 MR. ROBLES: If it's valued at $500.00 to 4 $4,999.00 in inventory. $5,000.00 plus is a fixed asset 5 that we can depreciate. On anything under $500.00. 6 Like desk lamp, we don't. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have to keep a 8 list -- they have to keep a list to keep up with our 9 insurance, that's why. And it is important that our 10 Auditor is in the loop to make sure if it does have a 11 tag, it may not be worth now but it may have been worth 12 a bunch when we bought it, so they we have to get it off 13 the list. So it needs to run through the Auditor's 14 Office. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: As long as that's the 16 simplest process. If it needs some other step or some 17 other -- 18 MR. ROBLES: For now it's working. 19 JUDGE KELLY: I'd estimate we're averaging 20 at least one to two of these every regular 21 Commissioners' Court. 22 MR. ROBLES: I think we're going to start 23 seeing more, so it's easier to call them all at once. 24 However you all want to do it. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Who's going to keep 41 1 track of that? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it would make 3 sense if they were turned into the Auditor's Office and 4 the Auditor puts it on the agenda. I think they need to 5 go into the Auditor's Office. When it comes to the 6 agenda, and the Auditor puts it on the agenda once a 7 month. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's the way it works 9 when you bring something up. 10 (Laughter.) 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Thank you, James, for 12 volunteering. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Jake's been out here 14 waiting patiently. We're trying to keep all our guests 15 on time. I'm going to call item 1.5 consider, discuss 16 and take appropriate action on contract extension with 17 Spectra for the Hill Country Youth Event Center. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It was on the last 19 agenda, and I wanted to make sure everybody has a copy 20 of the extension agreement. It's pretty short, three 21 pages. The County Attorney has looked at it and 22 approved it on the agenda. I make a motion to approve 23 the amendment as presented. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 42 1 JUDGE KELLY: Commissioner Letz has made a 2 motion, seconded by Commissioner Harris to approve the 3 contract with Spectra. Is there any further discussion 4 about that? 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: More Midget Wrestling. 6 MR. WILLIAMSON: Yes, Sir. 7 JUDGE KELLY: That's on the record. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Unfortunately. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Those in favor raise your 10 hand. Unanimous, five zero. Thanks, Jake. I've 11 managed to -- what we've been trying to do, just 12 reminding everyone, we're trying to keep the people that 13 come to Commissioners' Court, make a special trip to be 14 here, to get them heard in the first hour and reserve 15 the second hour of the Commissioners' Court for people 16 who are routinely part of the courthouse and on the 17 agenda. And it seemed like we made it just in time to 18 do that. It is 9:50. We try to take a break at 9:50, 19 start back up at 10 o'clock so that we have a regular 10 20 o'clock docket. 10 o'clock agenda; not docket. 21 So we'll take ten-minute break, and be back 22 at ten o'clock. 23 (10-minute break.) 24 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Court's back in 25 session. I believe we're on 1.8. 43 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Sounds good. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Consider, discuss and take 3 appropriate action regarding Resolutions for 4 participants in the Kerr County Wounded Warrior Family 5 Hill Country Adventure. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you. Do we have 7 the Resolutions here? 8 JUDGE KELLY: Jody was preparing them. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Anyway, let me say what 10 we want to do is present Resolutions -- I don't think we 11 have them right now. Resolutions to each one of the six 12 wounded warriors that will be here starting Tuesday, 13 okay. I think the Judge is going to host the farewell 14 luncheon next Sunday for these guys. The Mayor will 15 host the welcome dinner on Wednesday evening. And 16 they'll be here with their families from Tuesday through 17 Sunday. 18 And so in the past, for the last six years I 19 think we had Resolutions from this Court recognizing the 20 Wounded Warriors with their Resolution. And so each 21 wounded warrior will be getting a Resolution. 22 So I make a motion -- and it'll be worded 23 very similar to last year, not having it in front of me 24 right now. I would make a motion that we approve the 25 Resolutions for the Wounded Warriors coming to the Hill 44 1 Country this week. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. But is there a 3 draft that we could -- 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Jody, do you have -- 5 MRS. GRINSTEAD: I can print one out. I got 6 everything last week, but haven't done it. I can print 7 one out. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Perfect. Okay. And 9 then we'll come back to this then, as soon as we get the 10 draft. 11 JUDGE KELLY: You want to wait until the 12 draft comes back? 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm fine. We can vote 14 for it now. 15 JUDGE KELLY: We're going to use the 16 draft -- as a template, we're going to use the draft of 17 what we did last year. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Is there any other discussion? 20 Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 21 1.9 consider, discuss and take appropriate 22 action to declare various items as surplus and dispose 23 of properly. Bruce Motheral. 24 MR. MOTHERAL: I had presented a list of 25 items that have inventory tags. Predominantly it's old 45 1 computers that are totally scrap. We have gutted them, 2 there's nothing left but the shells. So that's it. 3 JUDGE KELLY: And you presented a list to 4 the Auditor? 5 MR. MOTHERAL: Yeah. Already gave James a 6 list. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move we surplus the 8 list, the property as presented. 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Been moved by Commissioner 11 Letz, seconded by Commissioner Harris to surplus the 12 items identified from the IT Department as surplus. Is 13 there any other discussion? Those in favor raise your 14 hand. Five zero, unanimous. Thank you, Bruce. 15 1.10 consider, discuss and take appropriate 16 action to approve the lease agreement with Xerox for the 17 Extension Office. Roy Walston. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: He's not here. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Have you looked at it, 21 Heather? 22 MRS. STEBBINS: No, I haven't look at it. 23 But it's probably a general contract that other 24 departments enter into with Xerox that has the same -- 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It came into -- 46 1 MRS. STEBBINS: -- government entity -- 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- Jody last week. 3 MRS. STEBBINS: -- language. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Let me ask a general 5 question about that. Do we not have agreements where we 6 have an automatic rollover after a year or two years or 7 more? Do they always have to be renewed? 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They all have to be 9 reviewed because they put clauses in there that Heather 10 doesn't like. 11 MRS. STEBBINS: And usually they're just a 12 couple years, and so it's just probably expiring and 13 can't be renewed annually. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And so on these things 15 we pay so much per print, but I guess that's standard 16 operating procedure. Half a cent for black and white, 17 and four and a half cents for color. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's pretty 19 expensive. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, I would think it 21 is, but -- 22 JUDGE KELLY: So we put this off and take a 23 look at it next time? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Why don't we pass it for 25 right now. 47 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I think so, because 2 they're not here to represent it. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, we'll revisit this 4 before we adjourn today and see what the pleasure of the 5 Court is. 6 1.11 consider, discuss and take appropriate 7 action to approve holiday and payroll schedule for 8 fiscal year 2019-2020. 9 MRS. DOSS: Good morning. I just request 10 the approval of the 13 standard holidays, and the 11 corresponding pay schedule. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: This is basically the 13 same as this year? 14 MRS. DOSS: Yes, Sir. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Do you have a list? 16 MRS. DOSS: Yes. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes, it's attached. And 18 pretty much follows the school holidays pretty close, 19 and bank holidays. 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Makes sense to me. I 21 move for approval. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Been moved by Commissioner 24 Harris, seconded by Commissioner Belew to approve the 25 holiday schedule as presented, and payroll schedule. 48 1 Any other discussion? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a comment. 3 The days that we go back and forth on has been Texas 4 Independence Day, San Jacinto Day, and Martin Luther 5 King Day. We don't add one, but some days we go with 6 one of the Texas holidays. The issue we come up with is 7 those are not Federal holidays, and it causes some 8 problems with some of the offices. I don't have a real 9 strong preference. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, I'm for leaving 11 it like it is with the Federal holidays. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, there being no other 13 discussion, those in favor raise your hand. Five zero, 14 unanimous. 15 Thank you. We'll call item 1.12 consider, 16 discuss and take appropriate action on personnel matter 17 to be addressed in executive session. But Roy's not 18 here. Anything wrong with Roy? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm not sure. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Go to 1.13. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Let's go to item 1.13, which 22 is on the addendum to the agenda. Consider, discuss and 23 take appropriate action to review the Commissioners' 24 Court Order related to the 4th of July fireworks sales. 25 And we lost Heather in the meantime. 49 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: This was brought to my 2 attention -- 3 (Mrs. Stebbins present.) 4 JUDGE KELLY: Fireworks. 5 MRS. STEBBINS: Okay. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Go ahead. I'm sorry. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: This was brought to my 8 attention by Diane Wildman that evidently sells Mr. W 9 Fireworks to about 200 counties, and we were the only 10 one she said that had prohibited the sky rockets with 11 sticks and missiles with fins, and she said we couldn't 12 legally do that. 13 And I got with the County Attorney and I 14 believe that's her take, too. When we passed that, when 15 we restricted them, our drought index was a 52. And in 16 order to prohibit it, it has to be higher than 575 on 17 their rating scale, and we weren't even close, so -- 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But there's other 19 reasons -- there was something else in there, too that 20 if it was dry conditions, or excess fuel or something 21 like that. 22 MRS. STEBBINS: But that's only during the 23 New Year time. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh, it's restricted -- 25 I'll be darned. 50 1 MRS. STEBBINS: Uh-huh. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I thought it was an 3 exception to it, but it's only for New Year's. I'll be 4 darned. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So on New Year's, we 6 can restrict the missiles with fins and rockets with -- 7 MRS. STEBBINS: No. You can restrict them 8 during any of the times that fireworks are permitted to 9 be sold; however, it's only during a time that the 10 drought index is above the 575 that is the standard. 11 But during the New Year time the Court can use 12 discretion for dangerous or hazardous conditions that 13 they're high weeds and things like that that are dry and 14 it would create a danger to have the missiles and fins. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And that's what we did 16 last time? 17 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well we can't use -- 19 I'll be darned. 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. Because I 21 thought for safety reasons we had an out on that, but 22 after studying this, I believe we were in the wrong, 23 maybe. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, let's get the 25 legislature to fix that. 51 1 JUDGE KELLY: Do I understand correctly that 2 the only time statutorily that we have the discretion to 3 limit these rockets with fins and missiles sticks, or 4 whatever it is, discretionary is New Year's. Other than 5 that, we're tied to the index. 6 MRS. STEBBINS: You're generally tied to the 7 index; however, the discretionary is really when it is a 8 very dangerous and hazardous condition that exists 9 and the Court finds that. 10 JUDGE KELLY: So for it to be dangerous and 11 hazardous do we have to meet a certain index number? 12 MRS. STEBBINS: No. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. I'm confused now. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You just said we had to 15 reach a certain index number. 16 MRS. STEBBINS: You do. But there's also a 17 second opportunity for y'all to say okay, we may be at a 18 different index that's not up to the 575, but it's still 19 hazardous or dangerous conditions so that these types of 20 fireworks may create a dangerous condition, so you can 21 limit them. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And that's what we've 23 done in the past, I know a couple times. 24 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes, that's correct. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: But we got a clearer 52 1 rule on it now. 2 JUDGE KELLY: I want to restate it because I 3 want to make sure this is clear on the record as to what 4 we can and cannot do. Are you telling me that -- well, 5 let me just ask you, if you would restate it to us so 6 that hopefully we understand what the law is. 7 MRS. STEBBINS: Well, I'm going to just read 8 it to you. 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We've had a lot of that 10 today, haven't we? 11 MRS. STEBBINS: I have a court order, too, 12 so you'll need that. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, I tried to call 14 Roy Walston and he didn't answer, and Jody is trying to 15 track down that office. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Heather, maybe your 17 e-mail. I've got it. 18 MRS. STEBBINS: Oh, you do. Thank you. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I printed it out. So 20 let me see if I can just get to the meat of it. For the 21 July fireworks sale season the Court can adopt an order 22 to prohibit these restrictive fireworks. Firework sales 23 are permitted during this time and can only be limited 24 by the Court pursuant to an order of the Commissioners' 25 Court based on drought conditions in the county. On 53 1 June 10th when you adopted the order, drought conditions 2 did not exist in Kerr County. I contacted Texas -- what 3 is it? 4 MRS. STEBBINS: Interagency -- 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Interagency 6 Coordinators Center who advised on the day Kerr County 7 Keetch-Byram Drought Index was 52. In order to restrict 8 particular fireworks during the 4th of July sales period 9 it was to be 575 or greater. We weren't even close. I 10 think that's the meat of it. 11 MRS. STEBBINS: That's the meat of it, yes. 12 JUDGE KELLY: That's the meat of July 4th. 13 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes. 14 JUDGE KELLY: I understand now. I'm trying 15 to figure out what the general rule is so that the next 16 time this comes up I'll understand exactly what we can 17 and cannot do. If we're at 575 or above, period, we can 18 restrict it anyway we see fit, correct? 19 MRS. STEBBINS: You can restrict the -- 20 it's call restricted fireworks. It means only those 21 items classified under the Code of Federal Regulations 22 are sky rockets with sticks and missiles with fins, 23 that's what you can restrict. During the -- 24 JUDGE KELLY: When the drought index is 575 25 or above? 54 1 MRS. STEBBINS: right. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Got it. 3 MRS. STEBBINS: During the December 4 fireworks season the Commissioners' Court of a County 5 may order may restrict the sale or use of restricted 6 fireworks in specified areas when conditions on rural 7 acreage in a county not under cultivation for a period 8 of at least 12 months are determined to be extremely 9 hazardous for the danger of fire because of high grass 10 or dry vegetation. 11 JUDGE KELLY: And so the only time in a year 12 that we any discretion when it's either 575, and the 13 only time we can vary from that is in the December 14 fireworks's season. 15 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes, Sir. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Got it. 17 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes, Sir. And I think that 18 something else is important to point out, and while it 19 makes it a little bit more convoluted is the December 20 firework sale season and the July 4th firework sale 21 season are different from all the others, which are the 22 Cinco De Mayo, San Jacinto, Memorial Day, Texas 23 Independence Day. Those, if you don't take any action 24 there are no sales permitted during those times, but 25 they're always permitted unless restricted during the 55 1 December season and the July 4th season. So there are 2 different things that happen every time y'all come to 3 Court to talk about fireworks. There's a little bit of 4 a nuance. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, I want to make sure I 6 didn't under hear things. July 4th and December 7 fireworks season are governed by statute, right? The 8 other ones we can permit fireworks; otherwise, they 9 can't have fireworks, and so we have the discretion to 10 do whatever we want to with the other fireworks seasons 11 throughout the year? 12 MRS. STEBBINS: You do have discretion to 13 permit those. Oftentimes locally they don't sell during 14 those times. But if you take action and permit those, 15 they can sell them. 16 JUDGE KELLY: So historically when we've had 17 these restrictions on missiles and sky rockets and 18 stuff, all of that was in fact appropriate and legal by 19 the Court because we can put those restrictions on 20 these, except for the July 4th and the December 21 fireworks season, which are tied to the index, is that 22 right? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just the 4th is tied to 24 the index, and the December one is the index or -- 25 MRS. STEBBINS: That's right. 56 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- discretion. 2 MRS. STEBBINS: However, I don't know 3 that -- 4 JUDGE KELLY: Let me restate because I want 5 to get this in the order correctly, okay? It sounds 6 like to me that we have discretion on these missiles 7 with sticks and fins and all that stuff anytime of the 8 year except for the July 4th weekend. 9 MRS. STEBBINS: No, I don't think that's 10 right. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I think that's right. 12 MRS. STEBBINS: I don't. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: No. If it's 14 discretionary, everything except the two holidays you 15 mentioned. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Well, until she tells me it's 17 discretionary, we're not doing it. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: She just said it's 19 discretionary. 20 MRS. STEBBINS: Huh-uh. Texas Forest 21 Service in the ordinary course of its activity shall 22 determine whether drought seasons as defined under A2, 23 that's the 575 number, exist on average in any county 24 requesting such a determination, which I did when I 25 called them the other day, and they said 52. 57 1 Texas Forest Service shall make available 2 the measurement index guidelines used to determine 3 whether or not drought conditions exist in a particular 4 area. Following any determination that such drought 5 condition exists, the Texas Forest Service shall notify 6 county or counties that such drought conditions no 7 longer exist. 8 That Service shall make itself available 9 each day during the Texas Independence Day, San Jacinto 10 Day, Memorial Day, 4th of July, and December fireworks 11 season to respond to the request of any County for 12 determination whether those conditions exist on behalf 13 of the County. 14 Upon the determination under the section 15 that drought conditions exist on average in a specified 16 county the Commissioners' Court of the county may 17 prohibit or restrict the sale or use of restricted 18 fireworks in an unincorporated area of the county. 19 So you are bound by that drought index on 20 the other times of the year, too, if you want to 21 restrict particular types of fireworks. But you're 22 given an opportunity not to take any action, so if you 23 feel like it's dangerous even if we're not in a drought, 24 you just do nothing and they don't get to sell during 25 San Jacinto Day, Texas Independence Day, Cinco De Mayo 58 1 and -- 2 JUDGE KELLY: Regardless of the drought 3 index? 4 MRS. STEBBINS: Right. 5 JUDGE KELLY: And the only two that are 6 statutorily protected is the December fireworks season 7 and July 4th? 8 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes, Sir. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Got it. 10 County clerk, do you have it, you're going 11 to be drafting the order? 12 MRS. DOWDY: Was there a motion? 13 MRS. STEBBINS: What I'm asking you to do 14 today is to rescind your order from the June 10th 15 Commissioners' Court hearing, and it's Order No. 37530, 16 that restricted sky rockets with sticks and missiles 17 with fins during the July 4th sale season. That's what 18 I need for y'all to do today. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move to rescind the 20 the order that the County Attorney just verbalized, our 21 order on June 10th on the issue of fireworks with sky 22 rockets with sticks and missiles with fins so that we 23 can allow during the July 4th holiday season. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Been a motion to rescind the 59 1 order by Commissioner Harris, seconded by Commissioner 2 Belew. Any further discussion? Those in favor raise 3 your hand. Five zero, unanimous. 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I -- go ahead. 5 MRS. STEBBINS: Each time this comes up in 6 the future, I will remind y'all what you have permission 7 to do and what you are prohibited from doing as it 8 relates to fireworks. 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And the index. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And this relates to 11 that, and maybe I think we did it legally in the past. 12 In a drought the Judge has the ability to declare an 13 emergency which shuts off July 4th, too, and it's not 14 tied to an index, I don't believe. It's just the Judge 15 has to declare an emergency, maybe. I'm not sure of the 16 index part. But my memory tells me that the Judge can 17 do that -- or maybe the Court has to declare the 18 emergency. I thought it was the Judge. 19 MRS. STEBBINS: There's a way, and I 20 believe it's the Judge, and we're not near that right 21 now. But there is a way. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We're not in a drought. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's a court order, 24 right? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But we're not there now. 60 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's the Judge's 2 decision. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I think it's a court 4 order. 5 JUDGE KELLY: It's never going to get so dry 6 that we haven't talked about it. 7 MRS. STEBBINS: And I'll advise you if that 8 happens so that you do it the right way with the court 9 order that's been used in the past and approved, and we 10 can take care of that. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, I'm still unclear 12 on one thing. 13 MRS. STEBBINS: What's that? 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: If every holiday except 15 New Year's and 4th of July are basically -- you have to 16 get permission rather than prohibit, then what keeps you 17 from setting a rule for those? 18 MRS. STEBBINS: The rule that says you can 19 only permit them. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Only two annually are 21 mandatory; the rest are -- 22 MRS. STEBBINS: The Local Government Code 23 Chapter 352 says thou shall do it this way. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: If you do it at all? 25 MRS. STEBBINS: Right. If you're going to 61 1 let them do it, you can only restrict them -- 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: By these boundaries? 3 MRS. STEBBINS: Right. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay, that's all I 5 wanted to hear. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I will say that the 7 people that pointed this out to me requested if we did 8 rescind it to let newspapers know, and I think we've 9 done that. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think you have. By 11 definition of Bunny Bond taking notes, and everybody. 12 And let them take care of it. 13 JUDGE KELLY: I still have personal 14 reservations about those sky rockets regardless of 15 drought conditions. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I do, too. 17 JUDGE KELLY: I have a metal roof and I'm 18 not too worried, but my neighbors don't. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But nothing we can do 20 about it. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. We have a note that Mr. 22 Walston is on his way. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Pay bills and do that. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Let's move over to the 25 approval agenda. Do we have any bills, 4.1? 62 1 MR. ROBLES: Yes, we do. We have two of 2 them. Looking for approval for the Treasurer to 3 disburse 63,408 for the county. This is for our second 4 and third quarter payment to TAC for workers 5 compensation. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move for approval for 7 the Treasurer to disburse. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Been moved by Commissioner 10 Letz, seconded by Commissioner Moser to approve the 11 bills as presented. Any further discussion? Those in 12 favor raise your hand. Five zero, unanimous. 13 Budget amendments? 14 MR. ROBLES: No, Sir. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Late bills? 16 MR. ROBLES: No, Sir. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Monthly reports? 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. Treasurer's 19 report month of May, 2019, County Treasurer Tracy 20 Soldan, and Indigent Service month of May, 2019, HR 21 Director, Jennifer Doss. Animal Services month of May, 22 2019, Director Reagan Givens, District Clerk May 2019 23 report Dawn Lantz, and May 2019 reports from Constable 24 Precinct 3, Ken Wilke, and Constable Precinct 4, Gene 25 Huffaker. 63 1 And I move for approval. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Commissioner Harris has moved 4 for approval, seconded by Commissioner Letz. Any 5 further discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. 6 Five zero, unanimous. 7 Auditor reports? 8 MR. ROBLES: No, Sir. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Court orders. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. We do have court 11 orders from our special session on June 13th, special 12 session June 17th, and special session June 20th. These 13 are court orders 37540 through 37545. 14 I'll make a motion that we approve them as 15 presented. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's made my Commissioner 18 Letz, seconded by Commissioner Harris to approve court 19 orders as presented. Any further discussion? Those in 20 favor raise your hand. Five zero, unanimous. 21 Okay, reports from Liaison Commissioners, 22 Department Heads, or Elected Officials? Do we have any 23 reports? 24 One thing that I would advise the Court. I 25 think Commissioner Harris was sitting in my office the 64 1 other day when Shane came in with regard to the cane 2 spraying process that we've done in the past. In fact 3 we'll have to put that item on an agenda for an action 4 item. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Texas Parks and 6 Wildlife and UGRA. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Arundo donax. 8 JUDGE KELLY: The invasive thing. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. All right. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There's some 11 sporadically. We don't have a real bad problem in the 12 county, but we don't want to get it bad. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Keep it in check. 14 JUDGE KELLY: And other thing I would report 15 is, I did talk with Judge Evans in Bandera County about 16 the allocation of expenses with regard to the 198th. 17 He's not receptive of that consideration. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Surprise, surprise. 19 JUDGE KELLY: He's a great guy, but very 20 cordial about it. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But he said no. 22 JUDGE KELLY: He also takes issue with the 23 198th proposed budget to try to train somebody six 24 months to step in and start at Kyle Dean's step and 25 grade. So I think that issue will be revisited at some 65 1 point. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: How much input do 3 the -- amount of input on how that's decided? 4 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I think I told 5 Commissioner Letz, I visited with Judge Ables, who's the 6 Administrative Judge all the way to El Paso, and in all 7 of his districts that are multi-county districts it's 8 allocated on the basis of population, and encouraged me 9 to contact David Slayton at the Office of Court 10 Administration in Austin to see if there's a policy or 11 requirement. But I believe the custom and the usage in 12 the state is on the basis of population. 13 We're in a unique situation. This is Judge 14 Ables' observation as well with the unprecedented growth 15 in our neighboring counties, so we're stuck with the 16 census allocation at almost a decade old. 17 And so, you know, our complaints are very 18 valid. And I see people out there looking at us and 19 they don't know what we're talking about. We allocate 20 expenses with our neighboring counties for our district 21 courts. We have two district courts, the 198th, which 22 is Bandera, and the 216th, which is Gillespie. And we 23 allocate those expenses on the basis of population as 24 per the last census. And I'm not sure exactly what the 25 allocation is, but I think we pay roughly 70 percent, 66 1 close to 70 percent, of the expenses of those courts. 2 And in our budget workshop we were complaining that our 3 judges are spending in Bandera County 50 percent of 4 their time over there, but they're not paying that much. 5 And in Gillespie they're spending over 50 percent 6 because of their unprecedented growth out on 290 and 16, 7 so that just means that we have fewer district court 8 time in Kerr County, and so I feel like we're getting 9 the short end of the stick. And I'm not going to say I 10 was nominated; I volunteered to talk to the County 11 Judges, the neighboring County Judges, and they like it 12 just the way it is. Surprise surprise. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, correct me if I'm 14 wrong, but we have about twice the population, or at 15 least twice the population of Gillespie County, right? 16 Maybe more. What are they at now? Are they even at 20? 17 JUDGE KELLY: They were big enough to get a 18 County Court at Law, so I don't know. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They're probably in the 20 neighborhood of, I'm guessing around 20. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Around 20. Bandera 22 would be about the same, right? 23 JUDGE KELLY: No. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Bandera's less or -- 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Bandera's like 30 some. 67 1 JUDGE KELLY: They've got the lake 2 population out at Lake Hills. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Just put those together 4 and that shows we shouldn't be spending 70 percent by 5 population. 6 JUDGE KELLY: But it's 70 percent with -- 7 one is with Gillespie and the other one is Bandera. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I understand that, but 9 still each of them puts in their portion and we don't 10 come out at 70 percent if -- 11 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we're twice as big as 12 Gillespie County, over twice as big, and we're going to 13 have more that two thirds. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's the last Census. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I think it offsets by 16 the time you get them both in there. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But they're different 18 districts and at the last Census that ratio was correct 19 for Bandera County. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: The population of 21 Gillespie County 26,646. 22 JUDGE KELLY: We're twice as big as 23 Gillespie County. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But I don't know what 25 the population of Bandera is. 68 1 JUDGE KELLY: Close to the same. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: So can it be 3 considered by the number of cases? 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: They said no; it says 5 population. 6 JUDGE KELLY: I haven't checked on the law 7 yet, so I'm not going to represent that. Judge Ables 8 says that's routinely the way it's done in these 9 multi-county districts. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Talk to somebody else 11 who knows. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think the population 13 the reason is, I think that's a given that you can look 14 to; you don't know the number of cases. I mean you know 15 your population based on the last Census. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: But ten years down the 17 road it gets skewed a little bit. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: The population of 19 Kerrville is still 22 thousand, because it's been that 20 on all the signs as long as I've been here. And we know 21 that's not true, right. Okay. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Any other information items to 23 share. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just trying to kill some 25 time waiting for Mr. Walston to get here. Commissioner 69 1 Harris and I met with Peter Lewis and Jake, and the 2 stock show folks to go over a list of things that need 3 work at the indoor arena, and also Huser Construction 4 with Rob was there from Huser to prepare an estimate. 5 The problem is when you're out there looking 6 at the building, you see more problems than you 7 remember. But anyway, it was good we met out there, 8 went through it, and kind of divided it into a 9 maintenance list, a nice list, and a kind of a 10 maintenance list and a good to do, but not maintenance 11 list. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Did you include the 13 fencing in that? 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. Fencing the whole 15 property? 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, we've talked 17 about that. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have talked about 19 fencing around River Star. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It is fenced. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well -- 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Not good fencing. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And then on the 24 backside it looks like grapes of wrath around on River 25 Road. We need to do something about that, put screens 70 1 on that stuff. I mean our county has kind of like a 2 junk pile back there that everybody sees. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's a good point. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's underutilized at 5 River Star. What are they doing for the use of that? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Talk to Jake. I mean 7 they do have quite a few events out there, but not big 8 events. One of the issues we had out there -- I mean we 9 always thought -- or we being mostly me and Bob when he 10 was here, that was great venue for music. The problem 11 is the people across the river don't like the music 12 unless they like the -- I mean they may not like the 13 music, and they've complained about music when we've had 14 music events there that are kind of loud or big crowds. 15 So it's kind of a -- we decided we didn't want to ruffle 16 everyone too much, and we decided we just aren't going 17 to do -- I mean Flat Rock's a great venue for that type 18 of event. And we actually had a -- Spectra did an 19 estimate to put a little stage down there built into the 20 bank. But then when they did one and they had so many 21 complaints from across the river, they decided that 22 maybe that wasn't such a good idea. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That sound really 24 carries. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Over there at River 71 1 Star, I think some of that, you know, if you 2 strategically put your speakers pointed in the right 3 direction that might minimize what they get across the 4 river. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Oh, I don't know. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's pretty much all I 7 have. You want to take a five-minute break and see if 8 Roy shows up? 9 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, Court will be in recess 10 for five minutes. 11 (Five-minute recess.) 12 JUDGE KELLY: Court will come back into 13 session. We've learned that Mr. Walston will not be 14 able to make it today, so unless there's any other 15 business for the good and welfare of the County, we'll 16 stand adjourned. 17 * * * * * * 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 72 1 STATE OF TEXAS * 2 COUNTY OF KERR * 3 I, DEBRA ELLEN GIFFORD, Certified Shorthand 4 Reporter in and for the State of Texas, and Official 5 Reporter in and for Kerr County, do hereby certify that 6 the above and foregoing pages contain and comprise a 7 true and correct transcription of the proceedings had in 8 the above-entitled Commissioners' Court. 9 Dated this the 19th day of July, A.D. 2019. 10 11 /s/DEBRA ELLEN GIFFORD Certified Shorthand Reporter 12 No. 953 Expiration Date 04/31/2020 13 * * * * * * 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25