The Blanco County Commission Court was called to order at 9 a.m. on Tuesday by Judge Brett Bray with Commissioners: Tommy Weir, Emil Uecker, Chris Liesmann and Paul Granberg.
Public comments were heard and limited to three minutes. First, D’Anne Welch spoke in regards to the updates of the “Rules of Procedure, Conduct and Decorum at Meetings of the Blanco County Commissioners Court.” She said,”...I am at a loss to understand why you believe it is necessary to amend the ‘Rules’ again, less than one year since the last amendment, and particularly why you now would seem to fear oncoming abusive public comments. Although I, and others, have publicly criticized this commissioners court regarding inadequate emergency response, unsafe roadways, naïveté in pipeline negotiations, and a general failure to welcome public participation, it would be unwise to characterize such criticism as abusive.”
Kenneth Welch spoke next about the supplemental agreements with Kinder Morgan (KM) and asked the commissioners to table these until the next meeting. Welch said geophysical studies should be completed, incidents should be immediately (within one hour) reported to the Blanco County Emergency Management Operations Center (instead of the county judge), all work should stop if non-compliance occurs, and coated pipe that has been stored for more than six months should not be used under county road crossings.
“In addition to these changes to the agreement I urge you to obtain the service of a Registered Professional Engineer to provide sorely needed knowledge and expertise to assist with the inspections noted in Items No. 6 and No. 7,” Welch said.
Lastly during public comments, Terry Casparis also spoke about the KM agreements as well. He expressed support for the amendments but wished more action and measures were taken. “Blanco County should share the railroad commission’s concerns that resulted in a formal notice of violation of statewide rules, including rural 8B the loss of drilling fluid resulted in the pollution of fresh surface water and rule 2A immediate notice of the event was not provided it took Kinder Morgan three days to report the incident to the railroad commission,” said Casparis. He was also in favor of incidents being reported within the hour along and the work should cease. Another suggestion was to let the owners with private wells within one-mile radius of the crossing and the groundwater district be notified before the start of work.
The minutes of the previous meeting were approved. The estimated May 2020 payroll of $438,940.39 was approved next. All the official reports are in; the commissioners approved the reports. The motion carried.
There were two line item transfers presented and approved. One of these line item transfer requests was from the county judge for $1,000 to cover the cost of purchase of the equipment for electronic meetings which have been necessary during the pandemic. Liesmann moved to approve the outstanding bills of the amount $56,796.81 and it carried.
The court considered and approved an updated version of the “Rules of Procedures, Conduct and Decorum at Meetings of the Blanco County Commissioners Court.” The Blanco County Investment Policy was reviewed and approved. “This investment policy applies to all financial assets of all funds of the County of Blanco, Texas at the present time and any funds to be created in the future and any other funds held in custody by the County Treasurer, unless expressly prohibited by law or unless it is in contravention of any depository contract between Blanco County and any depository bank,” states the policy.
The commissioners authorized Bray to sign the annual Motorola Service Agreement for the fiscal year 2020-2021. The grand total for the service agreement is $24,291.
There was a discussion regarding the letter of crest for Trinity Oak Preserve subdivision. TCEQ is in charge of the water supply of the subdivision thus the county bond will not include it. The maintenance bond includes roads and drainages; the roads, streets, drainage have all been completed. Liesmann moved to approve the maintenance bond and Weir seconded. The motion carried.
Next, the court discussed several KM agreements. A supplemental agreement to the Pipeline Easement and Master Road Use Agreement was approved. Liesmann moved to approve an amendment to the Blanco County Investment Agreement with KM. Uecker seconded the motion and it carried.
The annual road reports were given by each of the commissioners; in the past the reports were not presented to court and just turned into Connie Harrison, Bray’s administrative assistant. The reports are needed for the County Road Repair Grant, which is being prepared by Allison, Bass, & Magee, L.L.P. All four commissioners reported their precinct roads were in fair condition.
The burn ban will remain off; rain is predicted for this weekend. The second COVID-19 testing site in the county was held May 12, and at the time of the meeting, only 39 participants had signed up. At the last testing site, 94 people were tested and all 94 came back negative. The meeting was adjourned at 9:37 a.m.
