The pool at Towle Park, and adjacent splash pad, will remain closed this summer.
On Tuesday, commissioners discussed allowing various facilities operated by the Parks Department — including the Towle Park swimming pool and splash pad — to re-open for the remainder of the summer, but decided to leave them closed due to an unwillingness to enforce social distancing and the cost involved in opening.
Park Department Director Larry Thompson said the pool has been cleaned and is ready to open, but said lifeguards have no way to enforce social distancing and that the occupancy limit would be 50, including the six lifeguards needed to monitor the activity at the pool.
“We are not going to be the social distancing police,” he said. “If they get in there and all pile up on each other, that’s just the way it is.”
Commissioner Craig Merritt asked Thompson how much money he estimated the pool would lose during the approximately five to six weeks it would be open.
“Plenty,” Thompson replied. “I’m pulling these numbers off the top of my head. I think that pool runs us about $180,000 a year, and it’s open 12-15 weeks out of the year. This time we only have six.”
Commissioners approved the county’s annual audit for 2019 at the same meeting.
Aaron Miller of Condley and Company, LLP, presented the audit, in which the company issued a “qualified” opinion on the county’s accounting practices during the year.
According to the audit, Scurry County had $36,764,074 in assets and deferred outflows during 2019, up from $31,229,243 in 2018.
The county’s 2019 total fund balance was more than $4.6 million, up from $3 million in 2018.
“The numbers in the financial statement are correct, but the county has not implemented GASB 74 and 75, which relate to post-employment benefits,” Miller said.
GASB is the Governmental Accounting Standards Board.
“The County declined to implement GASB Statement No. 74, Financial Reporting for Postemployment Benefit Plans Other than Pension Plans, and GASB Statement No. 75, Accounting and Reporting for Postemployment Benefits Other Than Pension,” according to the printed audit. “Specific reporting and disclosures related to post-employment benefits paid by the County are required by accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.”
Commissioners voted to use Snyder High School’s Worsham Auditorium as a temporary auxiliary venue for the 132nd District Court in order to provide more room for social distancing.
“The courtroom and this room in the courthouse would really be too small to have that many people in the current situation we’re in,” said County Judge Dan Hicks. “District Court, we’ll have a trial at the end of this month, and (District) Judge (Ernie) Armstrong has spoken to the school, and they’ve agreed to allow us to use Worsham Auditorium for our auxiliary court.”
Armstrong said he still needs to get permission from the state Office of Court Administration, which is allowing each judicial region to hold a limited number of trials.
“I was shocked to learn that a limited number of trials meant maybe no more than two or three in an entire region,” Armstrong said. “Our region stretches from east of Eastland to El Paso. Two to three trials in two months. I was trying to get ready for a civil trial — specifically the Kinder Morgan vs. Scurry County Appraisal District trial — because of the importance to all of the taxing entities.”
Commissioners accepted $1,586 in donations to the Scurry County Senior Citizens Center and certified payments from the Texas Association of Counties for $1,341 for an ambulance wrecked in Lubbock, and $2,202 for repairs due to an accident involving the Extension Office truck.
Commissioners tabled items involving memberships at the Scurry County Golf Course and a proposed combined fee for use of the Towle Park Armory and the Scurry County Golf Course and approved accounts payable in the amount of $328,699.
Budget amendment
$100,305 to the Reserve Fund for the Law Enforcement Center for administrative fees on certification obligations.