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Bandera First Responders Don Kruckemeyer and Jennifer Harris stand in front of the new Dodge 5500HD ambulance at the Pipe Creek Sam Armstrong Building station house. The unit was put in service on Thursday, Feb. 13 and will eventually be stationed at the new EMS facility that is still under construction on Hwy. 16 S.
Photo by Chris Darus
February 20, 2020
Briefings from Commissioners’ Court
By Jessica Nohealapa'ahi Goode
The Bandera Prophet
During their regular meeting last Thursday, Bandera County commissioners cleared a check-list of items. Among them, commissioners…
~ gave Sheriff Dan Butts the go-ahead to apply for the Sheriff’s Office Repeater and Mobile Radio Interoperability Project grant. The $99,915 grant if approved will be awarded in Fiscal Year 2021, and includes 11 mobile radios and the installation of dispatch equipment.
~ approved an inter-local cooperation contract between Bandera County and the Texas Department of Public Safety to implement provisions in the transportation code for the Failure to Appear Program with the Driver License Division.
“If you get a ticket and you don’t show up, they put your name in the database and you won’t be able to renew your license,” County Judge Richard Evans said.
~ approved a contract with Champion Environmental Consulting for an asbestos survey and lead-based paint sampling. The project was prompted by a “calamity in the downstairs bathroom,” Evans said.
Installed in 1966, the floor will have to be completely removed. Before it can be replaced, an asbestos survey will have to be completed and the room will have to be brought up to ADA compliance.
“Which means it’s going to be a fairly expensive operation,” Evans said, adding the proposal to survey the entire courthouse is $4,900.
Evans said a budget amendment would be required to fund the project.
“We have to preserve this courthouse,” Pct. 2 Commissioner Bobby Harris said.
~ approved the enrollment of Bandera County staff in the Texas Association of Counties certified course for a cybersecurity course. Mandated by HB 3834, the free course is available online.
“Every person [employed by] the county who uses a computer is required to take the course,” Evans said.
~ revised the county’s wild animal regulation ordinance. Butts said the Sheriff’s Office has had some issues with requests, including a Lakehills resident who called about a baboon. The county’s ordinance, Resolution No. 0202A-98, was written in 1998 and did not include the county’s Health and Safety Code, which had different animals listed.
“We propose we tie the definition of the health and safety code to our order,” Butts said.
The addition clarifies that any animals defined as wild animals in the health and safety code are banned as pets, unless the owner has a federal license or is licensed as an exhibitor. The list of banned animals includes bobcat, lynx, coyote, rhinoceros, baboon, chimpanzee, orangutan and gorilla.
~ convened in executive session to discuss pending litigation regarding Kenneth Langer and Patricia Redding Langer vs. the Joseph Family Limited Partnership, Ltd, et al, with County Attorney Janna Lindig.
Commissioners unanimously approved allowing Lindig to “take all action necessary to remove the county from litigation.”
~ received EMS Director Calvin Plummer’s monthly report for December 2019. Plummer said in December, EMS responded to 218 calls with an average tone to en route time of 1.44 minutes, and an average tone to on scene time of 9.35 minutes. He said responders traveled a total of 12,034 miles for the month.
Plummer also reported the department’s new ambulance, a Dodge 5500HD, was officially in service on Feb. 13, adding the oldest ambulance in the fleet is a 2008 Dodge, which he said is still working well.
“That’s why we pay so much, because they last,” Evans said.
~ gave Sheriff Dan Butts the go-ahead to apply for the Sheriff’s Office Repeater and Mobile Radio Interoperability Project grant. The $99,915 grant if approved will be awarded in Fiscal Year 2021, and includes 11 mobile radios and the installation of dispatch equipment.
~ approved an inter-local cooperation contract between Bandera County and the Texas Department of Public Safety to implement provisions in the transportation code for the Failure to Appear Program with the Driver License Division.
“If you get a ticket and you don’t show up, they put your name in the database and you won’t be able to renew your license,” County Judge Richard Evans said.
~ approved a contract with Champion Environmental Consulting for an asbestos survey and lead-based paint sampling. The project was prompted by a “calamity in the downstairs bathroom,” Evans said.
Installed in 1966, the floor will have to be completely removed. Before it can be replaced, an asbestos survey will have to be completed and the room will have to be brought up to ADA compliance.
“Which means it’s going to be a fairly expensive operation,” Evans said, adding the proposal to survey the entire courthouse is $4,900.
Evans said a budget amendment would be required to fund the project.
“We have to preserve this courthouse,” Pct. 2 Commissioner Bobby Harris said.
~ approved the enrollment of Bandera County staff in the Texas Association of Counties certified course for a cybersecurity course. Mandated by HB 3834, the free course is available online.
“Every person [employed by] the county who uses a computer is required to take the course,” Evans said.
~ revised the county’s wild animal regulation ordinance. Butts said the Sheriff’s Office has had some issues with requests, including a Lakehills resident who called about a baboon. The county’s ordinance, Resolution No. 0202A-98, was written in 1998 and did not include the county’s Health and Safety Code, which had different animals listed.
“We propose we tie the definition of the health and safety code to our order,” Butts said.
The addition clarifies that any animals defined as wild animals in the health and safety code are banned as pets, unless the owner has a federal license or is licensed as an exhibitor. The list of banned animals includes bobcat, lynx, coyote, rhinoceros, baboon, chimpanzee, orangutan and gorilla.
~ convened in executive session to discuss pending litigation regarding Kenneth Langer and Patricia Redding Langer vs. the Joseph Family Limited Partnership, Ltd, et al, with County Attorney Janna Lindig.
Commissioners unanimously approved allowing Lindig to “take all action necessary to remove the county from litigation.”
~ received EMS Director Calvin Plummer’s monthly report for December 2019. Plummer said in December, EMS responded to 218 calls with an average tone to en route time of 1.44 minutes, and an average tone to on scene time of 9.35 minutes. He said responders traveled a total of 12,034 miles for the month.
Plummer also reported the department’s new ambulance, a Dodge 5500HD, was officially in service on Feb. 13, adding the oldest ambulance in the fleet is a 2008 Dodge, which he said is still working well.
“That’s why we pay so much, because they last,” Evans said.