Brown County Commissioners met this morning at the courthouse for their weekly meeting.
Today Commissioners heard a report from County Surveyor Don King regarding his extensive work at and around Lake Brownwood to help with the issues regarding the FEMA flood plain. The county, city of Brownwood, and the Brown County Water Improvement District hope that King’s work can get a fixed point (called a monument) certified by the government agency the National Geodetic Survey (NGS).
The hope is that having the NGS certify the spillway as a monument at the level 1425 mean sea level (msl), FEMA will be forced to accept that number and maintain the current flood plain elevation at 10 feet above that point as it is now.
King just finished his field work and paperwork at the lake tracking down other monuments that were established during the 1920’s & 1930’s in an attempt to prove the spillway level. Out of the 40+ older monuments that King found, he recorded 6 of them with GPS satellite equipment to prove their level.
King said, “The government is dealing with millimeters. It kind of boggles the mind.”
King has submitted his findings for review to NGS in hopes to get the spillway level certified soon. King explained, “We will be setting a precedent. There are not many NGS certified maps out there.”
King believes that NGS may require 2-3 more monuments to be recorded by him before they will certify his findings, but King said he cannot be sure until he hears back from them.
Along with this report on King’s work, he was also seeking payment for some of the work that was done. Although the County Surveyor job is an elected position, it does not come with a budgeted salary. A county surveyor can however charge reasonable surveyor fees for their work.
Don King told the commissioners that he has spent about $10,000 so far out of pocket for equipment rental and payment for assistants during the work. King expected some money was put aside for him for surveyor filing fees, but was surprised last week when the money was not there.
King was asking for the court to reimburse him for expenses and noted that if the county had hired an outside firm to do this work, it would have cost between $30,000-$40,000 in his estimate.
County Judge Ray West asked King to submit an itemized invoice that will be addressed at next week’s commissioner meeting. The county is going to approach the city and the Water District to help pay for King’s work since it was a joint effort.
In Other County Business discussed today:
-Commissioners approved for an Inter local Agreement regarding the 911 Automatic Location Information Maintenance Service. This is between Brown County and the Council of Governments to use automatic mapping when a caller dials into 911. This only works for land line phone at this time.
-County Treasurer Ann Krpoun submitted a request for change of the Flexible Benefits Plan. The only change was on the effective date which was changed from September 1st to October 1st to coincide with the county’s fiscal year.
-Captain Tony Aaron from the Brown County Sheriff’s office requested approval of two new employees in the Brown County Jail to take up two recently vacated positions at the same pay as the previous employees. Aaron submitted a jail report as well of 135 male and 26 female inmates for a total of 161.
-Jule Richmond from the Pecan Bayou Soil Conservation District submitted a report that they received a grant in the amount of $1.1 million with 21% going to Brown County. Part of this is a matching grant in which the County contributes 10% of the local portion totalling $26,975.
Judge Ray West said that this is a biennial program with the county contributing $10,000 each year along with the City of Brownwood for a total of $40,000. Biennial time goes from September 2009 – September 2011.
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