Scurry County said goodbye to a longtime county department head at the commissioner’s court meeting Tuesday.
Nelda Colvin has been county treasurer for 19 years, and has been employed by Scurry County for a total 35 years.
“Nelda, first of all, I want to say ‘thank you’ for 35 years of service to Scurry County,” County Judge Dan Hicks said. “Not many people will give that much time to their community.”
“I’ve really enjoyed it. I’ve learned a lot and met a lot of people. But I’m ready. I am, to retire,” Colvin replied.
The court unanimously accepted Colvin’s resignation.
Commissioners also approved seeking an interim replacement for Colvin, planning to start conducting interviews for the post in about two weeks. As an elected office, a replacement will be elected in November.
In other business, the court discussed plans for the upcoming Fourth of July celebration, an event organized by the Snyder Chamber of Commerce.
Chamber president Linda Molina asked commissioners for guidance for this year’s event.
“We usually bring in about 5,000 people,” Molina told the commissioners. “I don’t know if we can have that many people in one area, and social distancing will not work while we’re there. Usually, our food trucks are there, we have volleyball. I mean, we’re pretty congested. We wouldn’t mind putting it on. We would love it. We haven’t had an event yet this year.”
The commissioners voted to allow the chamber to organize the Fourth of July celebration, pending State of Texas rulings on whether such events will be allowed.
Vince Viaille of Specialized Public Finance reported on a recent refinancing of 2020 obligation bonds. The county’s A+ credit rating contributed to the refinance netting a lower interest rate than expected.
“Those interest rates were outstanding at 3 percent to 3.275 percent. So effectively we went down from that 3 percent to a 1.9 percent,” Viaille said. “What that did was, it resulted in a net savings to the county of $1,070,000 over the life of the obligations, or about $75,000 per year, each year, over the life.”
“Don’t let it slip through the cracks,” McCowen quipped. “That’s amazing. That will never happen again.”
Commissioners approved re-opening the Scurry County Senior Center and opening play at the Scurry County Golf Course to people who reside outside Scurry County.
In her first quarter treasurer’s report, Colvin told commissioners that the county’s total cash balance for all accounts at the end of the quarter was $15,932,360.
Interest earned for the quarter was $77,671, with a gain over the previous quarter of $5,307.
Commissioners also voted to take the routine annual step of requesting capital credit from the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts.
There were no line-item transfers or budget amendments for consideration by the commissioners. Accounts payable were $365,906.
At the start of the meeting, Morgan West read a statement accusing commissioners of taking away people’s livelihoods through the county’s Stay Home, Stay Safe order.