On Friday, August 14, the Gray County commissioners held their bi-monthly meeting, starting with: paying the bills as presented by the County Auditor, considering any line-item transfers or budget amendments, accepting the County Treasurer’s monthly report, and accepting the County Clerk’s monthly report; all were approved.
Next was to discuss and consider approving the $0.05 tax rate for Clarendon College, to which Clarendon College President Tex Buckhaults addressed the commission.
“We’re at the end of the 2026 operating budget, and I just wanted to show you all that we budgeted $926,000 in taxes, but what actually came in was $971,000, which is about $40,000 interest from the previous year’s taxes. I’m proposing $922,000, so the taxable value would be by the nickel and and the collection rate would be around 98%. We budgeted $2.8 million and we spent a little over that. We re-did the entire parking lot at our facility over on Kentucky Street as well as replace the four-way intersection with concrete, which should be finished up pretty quick. We’ve been doing quite a bit of repair work to get things brought back up. The main building is starting to show some age-it’s 27 years old now. In the past several years we’ve replaced all the roofs, done a lot of bathroom modeling, and we’ve had some major floods so we replaced some four-foot flood cut in the main building and replaced all of the wainscoting in there, and all the flooring has been replaced and the rooms have new furniture.”
“So are you starting to explore internet technology and stuff like that?” Judge Porter asked.
“Yes, I have a meeting next week. Amarillo College implemented an AI technician program, and there’s an 8-week and a 15-week track, so I feel like we could implement those pretty quickly. We’re trying to find an instructor that meets all the qualifications for that company.”
“I know with talking to Google in the past, they have been very proactive on local education and whatever they need to do to become part of that,” Judge Porter said. “I think there’s more interest in Gray County for more data centers and I would hate to be behind the curve on that. I know we’ve got some high school seniors who are chomping at the bit to get their certifications and things of that nature so they may be more educated and prepared as possible when things start rolling.”
“We may reach out to Mr. Piatt to see if you wants to visit about that as well,” Tex said.
With no further discussion the item was approved.
Next was to discuss and consider a request for a grant ambulance through HB 3000 for Gray County to be used by Hemphill County Hospital District DBA Gray County EMS, to which Chief Administrative Officer Rich Henkel addressed the commission.
“This House Bill 3000 was passed I believe last year and it was really was designed to help counties and EMS services to get an ambulance to help with operations. I think somewhere along the line, they thought this was going to help rural EMS and it definitely did help. The money is in the State Comptroller’s office, and it has to go to the county, so I can’t request the funding alone and have to go through the county and you all have to fill out the application to request the funds for an ambulance. They will provide up to $350,000 for the ambulance and the necessary equipment to operate that ambulance. Some of the things we’re learning since last year was the first year is that the unit will be titled to the county, so it won’t be titled in our name. We would end up leasing it from you for like $1 or something along those lines. If something happened and we were no longer your ambulance services provider, that vehicle would still be yours to provide to whoever else would be taking over your ambulance services at that point. It was designed specifically that way-we’re a government entity and can easily just get a local agreement, but if it was a private company that was doing it, the title would technically be theirs and you would be out that money. This is to help rural communities so it’s available out there and to apply for. I don’t know if they’re going to give it to every ambulance company every year-we did get it last year in Hemphill County, so they may skip on us this year, but it’s definitely worth the opportunity to reach out and apply.”
“If this is approved by the commissioners court, we’re probably going to need to get your attorney and our county attorney together to figure out some sort of lease agreement between us about what the set fee is,” Judge Porter said.
“That would be done down the line after the money is awarded,” Rich said. “There will be some things that you have to provide when you’re filling out the application to the Texas Comptroller, and one of those is you have to have an interlocal agreement with the ambulance service in your county which you’ve had for the last seven years, so it won’t be a problem to submit that. They’ll ask for our ambulance license number and things like that, and then if you are awarded the money, you have up to five years to use that money, and this probably won’t come up again until after you apply after another year. Then we order an ambulance, and we’re looking at about two years before we get it if we order. Purchasing a new ambulance takes some time, and I don’t expect to see a new ambulance titled to you all for several years, but this is the first step in the process.”
“Did you and Jacob do the grant for applying for your ambulance last year?” Judge Porter asked.
“The County Judge applied for it, it has to be done by the county.”
With no further discussion, the item was approved.
Next was to discuss and consider assignment of the Gray County Title VI Coordinator, which was postponed to the next meeting.
Next was to observe as a ministerial act the order of salary increases for the 31st Judicial District and 223rd Judicial District Court employees.
“So Carla, I want to make sure I’m clear on this-so the county is not giving any raises to the employees, but the District Courts are giving 7% raises to their employees, correct?” Judge Porter asked.
“Yes, sir.”
“In lieu of raises this year, we are committing to pay the 20% premium increase on insurance, correct?”
“Correct.”
“The statute says that this is a ministerial act and we have no oversight over the raises for the District Judge’s employees. So after that information, do I hear a motion to observe as a ministerial act the order of salary increases for the 31st and 223rd Judicial District Court employees? If we choose not to observe it, it will be entered into the court record by order of the District Judge.”
John Mark Baggerman was the only commissioner to vote, so the motion died for lack of a second motion.
Next was to discuss and consider the County Clerk’s Records Management Plan, which was approved.
Next was to consider the Gray County Fiscal Year 2027 Proposed Budget.
“As we are all aware, our health insurance premiums have increased by 20% this year and in this budget, in lieu of raises for the employees the commissioners court has decided to increase $12,600 per year to $15,120 per year per employee. While the courthouse may be upset over no raise this year, there technically is a raise because we’re not pushing those premium costs down onto the employees. That has been a difficult decision for our commissioners court to make for our employees and for the betterment of Gray County. Not only that, but we made cuts in the budget to offset the $297,000 increase in health insurance costs and that budget was submitted to the County Clerk. Is there any changes or anything anyone wants to discuss about the budget, or do I hear a motion to approve the proposed budget for 2027?”
“Carla, are you good with it?” Commissioner Lake Arrington asked.
“Yes.”
“Under the circumstances with the increase in insurance premiums, there was nothing else we could do,” Commissioner Jeff Haley said. “It was a very hard blow to all of us, and what I’ve been hearing, it hasn’t just been a problem for us. Healthcare costs are just through the roof.”
“I’ve had a lot of conversations with other County Judges in the past couple of weeks, and this has come up quite a bit,” Judge Porter said. “Everybody is having these issues and I’m going to say every one of those is not self-funded like we are. They’re being forced to pay what their insurance provider is forcing them to pay, but we actually got to have some thought in the process.”
With no further discussion, the item was unanimously approved by a hand vote.
Next was to consider the Gray County Fiscal Year 2026 Proposed General, M&O, and Road and Bridge tax rates.
The General Fund is $0.516397 and the Road and Bridge is $0.086081 for a total of $0.602478. These rates were unanimously approved by a hand vote.
Next was to discuss and consider IMS language changes to the Gray County Health Policy, which was approved.
Next was to discuss and consider appointment members to the Perry Lefors Airport Board of Directors, and they are: Jeff Andrews, Jim Cherone, Ted Hutto, Rodney Puryear, and Josh Seabourn with County Commissioner Precinct 1 Logan Hudson as Ex Oficio.
Next was to approve the tax bid for struck off property at 519 Wilson Street in McLean in the amount of $450 by LaToya Taylor, which was approved.
With no further items to discuss, the meeting was adjourned.
