Brown County Commissioners continue negotiating a bid for lease of the Brown County Juvenile Justice Center, and readdressed the issue Monday with no action taken.
A bid between the county and G4S Youth Services, Inc. to lease the Brown County Juvenile Justice Center was approved at last week’s meeting of the court on March 11th but was on the commissioners’ agenda for approval once again this week. Commissioners took no action on the matter of the approval of the lease or renovations on the facility which was also on the agenda of Monday’s meeting stating that they needed to work out some issues.
“We’ll actually pass on items 3 and 5 until we can ‘ferret’ out some of those issues,” said County Judge Ray West.
When asked after the meeting why the lease needs to be approved a second time, County Judge Ray West commented, “Well to a degree, there were still some blanks to be filled in.” West then rushed off to another meeting with no further comment Monday. Although commissioners did not discuss the details of the lease approved last week, a copy was filed with the county clerk’s office for public record as of today.
County Auditor Nina Cox stated that the contract has some points of negotiation to be settled between the county and the potential lessee G4S Youth Services, Inc.
“They had to negotiate some utility rates between what they would pay and what we would pay,” said Cox. She explained that the contract was approved based a contingency of the utility split between the county and the new leasee.The topic of the lease is expected to appear on the next commissioners’ court agenda.
In an unrelated matter, Brown County Emergency Management Coordinator Brent Bush approached the county with a request to purchase over $7,000 in radios for emergency dispatchers. Bush explained that approximately $8050 of Homeland Security Grant funds remain unused. These funds need to be used by the end of the month according to the grant rules; however, an extension may be granted and bids sought for the radios according to Bush. No action was taken on the matter, which commissioners will agenda for the next special called meeting scheduled for April 1st at 9:00 AM.
Other unrelated items on the Monday’s agenda:
*No action was taken on a burn ban. Commissioners will continue to agenda this item on a weekly basis.
*Brown County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Bobby Duvall received approval for two employee changes. James W. Guthrie will replace Stan Pachall as court house security. Richard Long will replace Chester Land as a jailer. Duvall stated that the jail count is at 143, “which is still low.”
*Commissioners approved an increase in the subsidy paid to Brown County Livestock Producers which pays for the county trapper. A trapper is utilized in the county to help control the number of feral hogs, in moving animals such as beavers, and more animal issues that affect the crops and herds of local farmers and ranchers. The trapper is employed through the Texas A & M system at a cost of $32,400 per year salary, which was increased this year. Brown County and the association contribute to the salary of the trapper in a 75/25 split. The total amount paid by the county will be $24,300 and the remaining $8100 is paid by the Brown County Livestock Producers Association. According to Texas A & M officials present at the March 4 meeting of the court, the cost of having a trapper (in addition to the salary) runs $50,000-60,000 each year. This amount covers the cost of equipment, gas, vehicle maintenance, snares and other supplies and is not billed to the county or the association. The A&M system also utilizes a helicopter occasionally for hunts, which is a large expense. At the March 4th meeting no action was taken because county officials did not know where the funding could come out of the already stretched county budget. Monday the court approved an increase in the subsidy of $3150 which will be paid from a transfer of budgeted funds from the non-departmental miscellaneous fund.
