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February 17, 2022
Briefings from Commissioners’ Court
County addresses 1881 Jail restoration, approves stretcher purchase for EMS
By Jessica Nohealapa’ahi
The Bandera Prophet
Bandera County commissioners are going back to the drawing board to restore the 1881 Jail and Courthouse.
“This is something the county has been talking about forever,” Pct. 3 Commissioner Jack Moseley said, prompting the court to pick up the baton and run with a project they started four years ago.
Commissioners agreed last Thursday that the first step was to find an architectural firm that specializes in historic buildings. Moseley said no one was happy with the previous plans, and County Judge Richard Evans said he would ask County Attorney Janna Lindig to review the agreement between the county and the previous firm.
Evans said the county has about $600,000 to put toward the project, which was collected from the Hotel Occupancy Tax.
“That’s non-property-tax money,” Evans said.
The project is split between the two buildings, both of which Moseley said would need to be somehow tied together with a common area. Evans added other challenges to construction include flooring on the second level of the courthouse, creating wheelchair and handicap access, as well as enlarging the doorway to the front offices.
“There’s no way to get into the front offices without steps,” Evans said. “To get into the jail, I have to turn sideways and duck.”
In other business, commissioners unanimously approved the purchase of a new Stryker stretcher, after two grant requests were denied. The $24,500 stretcher replaces an eight-year-old broken one, and comes with a seven-year warranty. EMS Director Shannon Griffin said her goal is to rotate and replace equipment on ambulances every seven to eight years, once warranties expire.
“We need to have the best equipment we can on the units,” Evans said, adding the court also needs to have a dollar amount before approving any purchases.
In her report for December, Griffin said EMS received 232 calls for service and EMTs traveled 12,769 miles. The average tone to response time was 1.073 minutes and the average tone to on scene time was 11.24 minutes.
“This is something the county has been talking about forever,” Pct. 3 Commissioner Jack Moseley said, prompting the court to pick up the baton and run with a project they started four years ago.
Commissioners agreed last Thursday that the first step was to find an architectural firm that specializes in historic buildings. Moseley said no one was happy with the previous plans, and County Judge Richard Evans said he would ask County Attorney Janna Lindig to review the agreement between the county and the previous firm.
Evans said the county has about $600,000 to put toward the project, which was collected from the Hotel Occupancy Tax.
“That’s non-property-tax money,” Evans said.
The project is split between the two buildings, both of which Moseley said would need to be somehow tied together with a common area. Evans added other challenges to construction include flooring on the second level of the courthouse, creating wheelchair and handicap access, as well as enlarging the doorway to the front offices.
“There’s no way to get into the front offices without steps,” Evans said. “To get into the jail, I have to turn sideways and duck.”
In other business, commissioners unanimously approved the purchase of a new Stryker stretcher, after two grant requests were denied. The $24,500 stretcher replaces an eight-year-old broken one, and comes with a seven-year warranty. EMS Director Shannon Griffin said her goal is to rotate and replace equipment on ambulances every seven to eight years, once warranties expire.
“We need to have the best equipment we can on the units,” Evans said, adding the court also needs to have a dollar amount before approving any purchases.
In her report for December, Griffin said EMS received 232 calls for service and EMTs traveled 12,769 miles. The average tone to response time was 1.073 minutes and the average tone to on scene time was 11.24 minutes.