County appoints water works advisory board

Image
Body

It’s no longer business as usual for Hermleigh Water Works (HWW).
During their meeting today, Scurry County commissioners began laying the groundwork for significant changes to how the water utility does business.
The first change was the formation of an advisory board to help oversee HWW operation that will be made up of the four commissioners and County Judge Dan Hicks.
HWW has never had an advisory board, but a recent suggestion from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) changed all that.
Hicks said Clinton Turner of the Texas Rural Water Association recently visited Scurry County and suggested that HWW needed to have an advisory board.
“We’re the only water works in the state that doesn’t have a board,” Hicks said. “Hermleigh Water Works flew under the radar for a number of years, but now we’re on (TCEQ’s) radar.”
For the past several years, HWW operations have mainly been the responsibility of the Pct. 4 commissioner — currently Jim Robinson — but Hicks argued that those duties should be spread out to more people.
“(HWW) is a county department and it should have more than one director,” Hicks said. “It’s been (Robinson’s) responsibility, and it shouldn’t have been just his.”
Over the next few weeks, commissioners will review procedures and policies to follow before the board is formally constituted.
Another major decision is hiring a supervisor for the utility, with much of the discussion centering on whether the position should be full-time or part-time, and whether the supervisor should be a contractor or county employee.
Robinson said the position is a strange one, in that it mostly demands part-time hours, but full-time attention.
“It’s not a full-time job, but you have to be on 24-hour call,” he said. “You’re kind of between a rock and a hard place.”
While the idea of hiring a contractor to fill the position found support from Pct. 2 Commissioner Craig Merritt, others objected because the director would be needed to respond immediately to situations such as water leaks, responsibilities that might be better met by a county employee.
“It’s probably going to have to be a full-time employee,” Pct. 3 Commissioner Shawn McCowen said. “If we could find just the right contractor, that’d be fine, but right now, I think making him a county employee is the way to go.”
Commissioners voted 3-1 to make the director’s position a full-time county employee, with Merritt dissenting.
In other business, commissioners voted to name West Texas State Bank the depository of county funds, approved the county’s investment report, gave EMS Director Jason Tyler the go-ahead to seek grant funds to pay for repairs to an ambulance and discussed maintenance and repair issues at the Adult and Juvenile Probation office building.
After a closed-session discussion, commissioners voted to authorize Hicks and McCowen to negotiate for the purchase of a fueling station for county vehicles.
Commissioners had previously discussed purchasing the fuel station in open session, possibly violating rules for discussing items in closed session.
They also conducted a closed-session review of County Airport Director Bob Snedeker, but took no action.
Commissioners approved three line-item transfers: for $15,000 from road materials and construction to maintenance and repairs in the Pct. 3 road and bridge budget to cover major repairs on equipment; $1,036 from emergency management and equipment to Delta Alert system and other equipment in the non-departmental budget to cover the increased cost of the Delta Altert system and costs of items purchased to live-stream commissioners’ meetings; and $20,549 from lease and rentals to food and concessions, grounds supplies and dues in the county golf course budget to adjust budget lines.
Commissioners approved a budget amendment of $100 for the sheriff’s office. The money comes from a donation to purchase items for the Family Fun Fair.
They also approved payment of $190,000 in bills and $570,000 in payroll.