HENDERSON COUNTY–Commissioners’ Court of Henderson County approved lifting the drought-related disaster declaration Aug. 23, which the county has been under since late July.
In addition, according to the county’s official Facebook page, County Judge Wade McKinney followed that by directing County Fire Marshal Shane Renberg that McKinney would lift the countywide burn ban that has been in effect since June 21.
“We believe the conditions have changed quite dramatically,” McKinney said during the commissioners’ court meeting, referring to heavy rainfall across the county Aug. 22. Stated Precinct 1 Commissioner Wendy Spivey, “My precinct got a lot of rain, I don’t think we need to renew it.”
The court also approved setting the proposed 2022 tax rate for the county’s 2023 budget at $0.3492260 per $100 taxable property valuation. The current tax rate is $0.4464870.
The proposed tax would mean almost a 10-cent rate reduction, according to McKinney. “That is by far the largest single rate reduction for the county that I’ve ever seen,” said McKinney, who also noted increased property values.
The court approved setting Sept. 6 public hearings for the proposed 2022 tax rate and for the 2023 county budget.
Further, after a public hearing, the court approved setting a 30 mph speed limit on County Roads 1400, 1402, 1403, 1404, 1405, 1406, 1408 and 1436, located in Precinct 1. Spivey said former Precinct 1 Commissioner Joe Hall had undertaken setting speed and weight limits on roads in his precinct.
“These roads never were done because there weren’t very many houses on them,” Spivey said. “But years later, today, there’s lots of people that live on these roads and there’s a lot of truck traffic and they are taking advantage of the situation. People that live there are getting almost run over and they’d just like to see some kind of ordinance to stop, to help the people and that’s what we’re doing here.”
In addition, after another public hearing, the court approved instituting a no thru truck ordinance on County Roads 1402, 1403, 1404, 1405, 1406, 1408 and 1436, located in Precinct 1. The list of no thru truck roads does not include County Road 1400, Spivey said, which was among those roads that had a 30 mph speed limit set.
Not including County Road 1400 is “giving the trucks a way in and out that’s only like a mile long instead of going through all the other roads, so when I get ready to fix it, I just fix a mile instead of 10 miles that they’re tearing up every day.”
Spivey added that the county did take in for county maintenance a portion of County Road 1400 within the City of Malakoff’s jurisdiction “and we’ve redone the road and cement stabilized it and it’s good to go, it’s finished. So I’ve provided them a one way in, a one way out a lot better than the rest of the roads.”
The roads are located between State Highway 198 in Malakoff and State Loop 7 around Athens, in a portion of Precinct 1 north of State Highway 31.
In other business, the court:
• Approved two right-of-way permits for RPM Water Supply Corp. for separate road bores under County Road 3313 (McFadden Lane) in Precinct 3.
• Approved a replat in the Leisure Land subdivision splitting one lot into two.
• Approved the payment of fiscal year 2022 bills in the amount of $331,749.59.