The first budget workshop for the coming fiscal year was held Thursday morning. The Commissioners Court heard requests by department heads and discussed past, present, and future budget needs for those departments.
County Judge Brint Carlton summarized this initial round of budget requests as productive after meeting with representatives from the Mosquito Control District, the Texas AgriLife Office, and the Road and Bridge Department. Carlton said, “None of this stuff is cheap unfortunately, but we’ll try to fulfill as many requests as we can.”
Patrick Beebe with the Mosquito Control District requested $34,000 in capital outlay to pay for a couple of spraying systems which will replace units that are 30 and 19 years old and no longer have spare parts available. He also requested that his department be able to purchase a back pack spraying apparatus that is being used to spray for the particular mosquitoes that carry the Zika virus.
Beebe started his requests by telling how the current hourly wage of $8.76 is making it difficult for his department to find qualified people to conduct the spraying for mosquitoes. Carlton suggested County Auditor Pennee Schmitt look to see the effect on the budget if the wage for all hourly employees were raised to $10.00.
Road and Bridge Engineer Clark Slacum had another extensive list of requests to replace old equipment in his department. Slacum informed the Commissioners that his equipment averages over 13 years of use. He requested over one and a half million dollars in capital outlay purchases to replace a gradall, a patch truck, and several dump trucks.
Slacum and the Court discussed future construction of new facilities for the Road and Bridge Department especially in Precinct 3. Two years ago, Slacum brought the condition of the Precinct 3 maintenance barn to the Commissioners attention. At that time he estimated the cost to be $200,000 to renovate it. He believes the facility is beyond renovation now and a new facility would probably cost between $300,000 and $500,000.
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