Notes on Presidio County Commissioners Court Special Meeting, March 20, 2019, Presidio

Notes on Special Meeting Wed March 20, 2019, 10:00AM, Presidio

Meeting convened at 10:08 AM
Present: Aranda, Guevara, Knight. Absent: Bentley, Cabezuela. Also present: County Atty Ponton


Citizen Comments: Barbara Baskin: Redford community called for an unscheduled meeting. Tank repairs presented by Ramon Carrasco.
Wants to know what the grant project number is for Redford water project. Rains are coming, talks about her road.
Has spent $1200 clearing road of sediment that County worker dropped. Meeting in Redford of commissioners occurred while she was gone. She needs help.
Judge says that County now has forms citizens can fill out and county can respond to.
Baskin says this is awfully hard. Asks if grant documents are at the courthouse, has that happened. Judge says that they have those documents.
Joe Portillo, city of Presidio. They had a charter meeting last night. Home rule charter will be put to voters. Very exciting.
Judge introducing Matlyn Sein(sp?). She is going to be our new County Ag Extension Agent. She has a BA from Sam Houston State. Masters in nutrition research. Goal is to become an agricultural scientist. Ponton says rents are cheaper in Presidio and there are more youth in Presidio. From Lake Jackson, TX. Official start date is May 1st. By June training will be ver and sh will start working for Presidio County. Aranda recommends talking to Diana Baeza at the Presidio high school.

Item 5: payroll approval. Judge asks Treasurer if there is anything extraordinary. No. Just over 96,000. Aranda motions to approve. Second by Knight. Unanimous

Item 6: bids for trust properties. Aranda says this has been working out fine. Judge motions to approve. Second by Aranda. Unanimous

Item 7: renewal of affordable care act reporting and tracking service. IRS forms Treasurer has to do. TAC helps with this since our payroll system does not track this. TAC only charges to mail forms to employees.
Unanimous

Item 8-11 Still no action. Still not sent to us from Blanca. Waiting on papers from TXDOT. Judge called Austin to ask if County is at risk of losing projects. No, County is not at risk. Joe Portillo confirms that environmental studies have been done.

Item 12: 2018 Operation Stonegarden grant. Resolution read by Knight. Assures funds will be spent properly. Judge is grantee authorizing official. Knight motions to approve. Second by Guevara. Unanimous. Patty Roach says this covers overtime for officers working with Border Patrol on their operations. No equipment purchases. Some money for vehicle maintenance.
Operations border patrol requests are covered. No other overtime covered.

Item 13: Evaluation team for new Outside Auditor. Roach says that there have been multiple firms interested. Five firms so far. Judge nominates Frances Garcia, Natalia Williams and herself to be on the team. Makes motion. Unanimous.

Item 14: approve that Presidio EMS and Fire Dept present their reports at the monthly meetings in Presidio instead of at the regular meeting in Marfa. Better opportunity to communicate with commissioners.
EMS brought their report today.
17 runs to Candelaria in January. Virtually impossible to expect any reimbursement. Discussion about Candelaria mileage, call load, service interruptions, transports to hospital. Ambulances are having mechanical issues.
Judge wants to have EMS Director Melinda help educate the commissioners on all these issues. Including border patrol station calls.
Border station calls that are non-emergency may no longer be covered.
Melinda is looking at indigent care grants for next hospital district funding period. Planning on putting in requests. Joe Portillo has also requested to be on the hospital district board.
Ponton talks about City of Presidio and port of entry calls. Many calls from port of entry. Typo. Approximately 40 per year. 10-15% collection rate.
Portillo says that City of Presidio has serious health care issues. Urgent care services don’t exist in Presidio. Preventive care exists.
City is studying these issues with a professional firm. Pop is now about 5800.
Aranda is glad to have some reliable numbers.
Presidio hospital district office needs to do indigent care outreach.
Presidio now has a basic EMT education program available through the Workforce Solutions and Presidio EMS.
Judge motions to approve submissions of reports at Presidio meetings. Unanimous

Item 15 and 16: authorize county judge to seek safe routes to school TAP grant funding. Approve engineering services for preliminary application. Due April 12.
Project she wants to apply for is safe routes to school. No matching funds required. Sidewalks for kids, mostly. She wants to do a sidewalk from HWY 90 up Mesa st by MAC building, up past the schools, up Austin st back to the highway.
Knight moves to approve. Second by Aranda, unanimous. Engineering services: judge says that she, Patty and city officials met and city has an engineer from Parkhill Smith and Cooper who can do the support work on the preliminary. $10,000 possibly less. Works with city on their portion of this project and additional related work. Judge wants to work with him. If pre-application is approved there will be a competitive RFQ for engineers.
Aranda wants to know how much funding could be available. Construction costs are 100% reimbursable but this money will not be reimbursed.
It’s side of project is focused on south side and connecting bike trail. Knight would like a written contract with engineer. Judge says we can postpone. He is ready to work and submit by the end of the week. Commissioners can look at the product before approval at next meeting.
April 3 is next commissioners court meeting. Judge motions to postpone, second by Knight. Unanimous.

Item 17: airport Aviation Equipment Lease with AvFuel Corp for refueled truck.
Chase is not here, doctors follow up. Thrifty day use of truck during paving project.
Subject to change April 8. 3,025.00.
Ponton says this is standard, nothing out of the ordinary. Aranda motions to accept. Second by Knight. Unanimous

Item 18: line item transfers: Patty Roach presents: purchase new table for county judge office, telephone headsets. Airport: repairs and maintenance .
County clerk: telephone headset
Unanimous

Item 19: bills.
Treasurer says nothing out of the ordinary.
Autopsy expense for auto wreck individual.
Unanimous

Item 20: announcements from Judge and commissioners

Judge says that there was a meeting yesterday in Marfa. Wildfire preparedness. Numerous first responder agencies.
Meeting was good.
She says Presidio County needs an EMC in Presidio.
Texas Forest Service is looking to having training in Marfa for emergency management.
Try to ask Mexico not to burn when winds are high. Burning alfalfa fields. Natural fertilizer, but if it jumps river, it’s our problem.
Border patrol has grants available to make fire breaks.
There will be another meeting April 25th in Ojinaga or May 1st there as well.
Barbara Baskin says she is in terror in Redford anytime a fire is near because former farmlands next to her are overgrown and dangerous fire fuel. Can county make a rule that fields be tended to?
Some farming has started again in Mexico.
Judge says she wants budget done by July 31st.
Aranda says that he got a message that there is a bill to support county infrastructure plans paid for from the Rainy Day Fund. Wants Ruben Carrasco to prepare a list of needs including disaster preparedness.
Ruben has already sent it in.

Item 21: adjourn at 12:32 pm