On Friday, the Gray County commissioners held their first meeting for the month of May, beginning with public comment from Sena Brainard.
“I didn’t have any plans on saying anything at this meeting until last night. I really don’t like doing this, but I’m going to. The road use agreement and the tax abatement are just pieces of paper unless you choose to enforce them. Last night, it wasn’t a rumor, it wasn’t a Facebook rumor, it wasn’t nefarious people of Gray County that are against this-just a brother and sister talking about their week. My brother was coming into Pampa in the early morning hours, and as he was passing the Hamburger Station, he saw something he couldn’t tell what it was. Thank goodness he slowed down because it was a belly dump truck coming out with absolutely no running lights. He called 911 to protect the citizens of Gray County and the people of Pampa, and he turned that vehicle in. As they pulled up to the light on Hobart, he said the brake lights worked but the running lights still weren’t on. He thought at any moment the Pampa Police Department or the Gray County Sheriff’s Department would show up and pull them over, but they continued on. He said, ‘we’re over at Bartlett’s now,’ and he pulled over and read what was on the side of the truck, but the truck continued on all the way to The Armory. It picked up speed, it passed Loop 171, and it passed a DPS officer in the ditch, and it continued on to County Road 21 without ever being pulled over at all. So yes individual break the law, but this has an agreement. And we’ve already had one wreck concerning the belly dump trucks. Is it going to take somebody dying? It was called into 911 and no one showed. Don’t get me wrong, I have seen the Sheriff’s Office out on the loop in broad daylight, but these are early morning accidents, and they need to obey the law. If I was running a horse trailer without lights, I would get pulled over and get a ticket. If we’re going to have these agreements, there has to be consequences.”
Next items on the agenda were to consider the minutes of the previous meeting, pay the bills as presented by the County Auditor, and consider any line-item transfers and budget amendments; all were approved.
Next was to recognize Judge Julie Sims as the Judge of the Year, recognize Constable Joe Montgomery as the Constable of the Year, and recognize Jennifer Hartman as Clerk of the Year per the West Texas Justices of the Peace and Constables Association.
“This is a huge accomplishment,” Judge Porter said. “We are proud of all of you and appreciate the jobs you do every day. Thank you so much for your hard work, and I know that there are times it’s unrecognized, but you are absolutely all truly appreciated. I know it has been a lot of hard work and we really appreciate the success in the conference you put together. I have heard nothing but good things from other counties and judges about how great of a job you did. So thank you again.”
Judge Porter was also recognized as a 5-year Fellow of the Texas Judicial Academy with certification to be recorded in the minutes of the court.
Next on the agenda was to discuss website migration with TAC, with Member Solutions Manager for TAC, Matt Boyd addressing the court.
TAC is the current website provider for Gray County, and because they have recently updated their platform to be more ADA accessible, they have offered to help transition the current Gray County website into the new platform. The feature that would allow the site to be more ADA accessible would include audio and visual improvements, such as reorganized content for a better layout, so for anyone using a screen reader, the reader would be more efficient in relaying the content to the individual, as well as accommodating those with color blindness.
Matt also suggested to the court to apply for a .gov domain to use for their website, allowing the county website to have more credibility as a governmental entity. He also mentioned combining other county departments who have their own website separate from the main county website to merge into the main site, but because there is a vast amount of content within the other sites, further discussions need to be held with those other departments to find out what would be more efficient for them.
So the court decided to postpone taking any action and pushed the item to a future meeting.
Next was to consider approving TAC Cyber Security Training for Gray County, which was approved.
Next on the agenda was to discuss and consider a Solar Road Use Agreement with Intersect Power.
“The roads that this agreement cover are county roads, but not state highways,” Commissioner Logan Hudson said.
“Is this agreement essentially what you’re already operating with?” asked Commissioner Jeff Haley.
“Correct.”
“Are you satisfied with it?”
“It has worked well so far. Obviously not everyone has the same opinion about what the road use covers, but the content of the agreement includes the maintenance and usage of the roads and it has worked out well so far.”
“If we have an incident out on the state highway, people think it’s somehow covered in this agreement, but it’s not. I’m happy to report that any road deficiencies that have occurred have been taken addressed within hours, not days or weeks.”
With no further discussion, the agreement was approved.
Next was to discuss and consider approval of a Road Crossing Request by Cabot Corporation, but was postponed to a future date.
Next was to discuss and consider extending the county-wide burn ban for 30 days, which was approved.
With no further items on the agenda, the meeting was adjourned.
