By SCOTT REESE WILLEY
Bee-Picayune staff
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posted May 3 -
Fast moving thunderstorms dumped an inch of rain on parts of Bee County this weekend, but it wasn’t enough moisture to end the drought, Bee County Judge David Silva said Monday.
Commissioners, acting on a recommendation from Emergency Management Coordinator David Morgan, voted unanimously to extend the ban on outdoor burning for another 90 days.
Bee County residents may continue to burn household trash outdoors from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. Saturdays or burn brush and grassland with permits.
A total of 126 burn permits have been issued by Morgan’s office or the fire marshal’s office between Nov. 23, 2007, and April 23, 2008, Silva reported during Monday’s regularly monthly meeting of the commissioners court.
“We had a good rain this weekend,” Silva said. “It was wonderful — we needed more — but it wasn’t enough to get us out of the drought.”
In other business Monday, commissioners also postponed adopting a tax collection fee per parcel of property.
In recent years the county had charged other taxing entities in the county a $2 fee per parcel for tax collecting service.
However, Bee County Tax Assessor-Collector Andrea Gibbud said the interlocal agreement that allowed the county to charge such a rate expired two years ago. Since then, area taxing entities — such as the four school districts — have adopted resolutions requiring her to collect the taxes on the property within their boundaries.
Beeville ISD Superintendent Dr. John Hardwick Jr. said, in the name of cooperation, BISD and the other school districts have agreed to pay $1 per parcel of property for collection services.
Without an interlocal agreement, the tax assessor-collector’s office is bound to charge the taxing entities the $1 fee per parcel set by the taxing entities rather than the $2 per parcel fee set by commissioners, explained Gibbud, citing a state statute to commissioners.
“I am bound by the resolution, not by the amount the court wanted,” she said.
Precinct 1 Commissioner Carlos Salazar Jr. seemed puzzled that the taxing entities could decide how much the county could charge for tax collection services, given the fact that the county provides the office, paper and personnel to collect the taxes.
He was also surprised to learn that the collection rate the commissioners agreed to last fall was not the rate the tax assessor-collector’s office charged the taxing entities.
“So the rate the court charges is not the rate you charged them?” he asked Gibbud.
Without a interlocal agreement or contract, the commissioners court cannot simply set any rate it wants to set, she said.
“The court cannot dictate to them what they pay,” she replied.
Precinct 2 Commissioner Susan Stasny recommended the commissioners court table the issue until they could study a report provided by Gibbud.
In yet other business Monday, commissioners agreed to include eight new residents to a list of property owners in Bee County seeking free state-of-the-art septic systems.
Those eight bring to 49 the total number of residents approved for the new septic systems.
A total of 26 property owners received new septic systems in 2003 under a grant. Another 71 received new septic systems during a similar grant program that started in 2004.
The new grant cycle, which started in 2005, will replace 92 septic systems in Bee County.
Martha Arosemena, project manager with GrantWorks, which is overseeing the septic system program on behalf of the county, said the 2005 grant calls for 92 septic systems to be replaced in Bee County. Sixteen residents have already had their applications approved, the engineering completed and are ready to get new septic systems, she said.
Thirty-three others, including the eight approved Monday, are still in the application stage. The county is still seeking applications for the septic system grant program, Arosemena said.
The septic systems and their installation would cost property owners around $4,000 each if they had to pay for it themselves, said Bee County Health Officer Dennis DeWitt.
Commissioners also agreed Monday to allow residents to purchase soil excavated from ditches by county crews. Commissioners agreed to charge county residents $5 per load of soil. County Road and Bridge Supervisor Frank Montez recommended the fee in hopes of helping the county combat high fuel prices. He said the county crews presently must transport all the soil to a central landfill, sometimes 10-20 miles away from the site being cleaned.
“We’re trying to save money on fuel,” he explained.
Commissioners also adopted a resolution naming May as Elder Abuse Prevention Month.
Tipsters made some 85,000 calls to a toll-free elderly abuse and neglect hotline last year, of which some 50,000 were validated, the proclamation reads.
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