HENDERSON COUNTY–Henderson County Commissioners’ Court voted Feb. 11 to award a contract to remove and replace lift station pumps at the Henderson County Justice Center “to preserve and protect public health and safety,” according to the meeting agenda.
After discussion, the court found that agenda text to be true and hired Mosby Mechanical of Longview to do the job in Athens for $63,300.
In that discussion, Henderson County Sheriff’s Office Major David Faught explained to the court that the lift station is at one-third of its capability. The jail has a three-pump system, Faught continued, with one pump on the ground. “The second pump that we have is going out, it’s actually bubbling back through the system and not working. When you have three components to make something work and you’re putting it all on one component, it’s not going to take long for the whole system to fail. We had Mosby Mechanical come out and look at it, they proposed completely replacing the whole system due to the fact that we have parts that are rusted and are actually falling off into the bottom of the reservoir.”
Faught also told the court that “they’re taking everything out, going to scrub out that reservoir and rebuild the whole thing.”
County Judge Wade McKinney said a previous issue with the lift station was 5-6 years ago, and before that, 12 years ago. “This is a cyclical process, there’s even been at one point discussions with the City of Athens about taking over this lift station,” said the judge, adding it “has challenges to it” because of the ground and “the sheer size of tying in a gravity feed into the Athens (sewer) system. We continue with what was originally installed after the expansion of the jail in ’07.”
Added McKinney, “We have a jail that has to continue to function, or we have to find other accommodations for the 450 individuals that we have under our care.”
According to Assistant County Attorney Kenneth Strawn, “Since this is over 50,000 (dollars), you would have to find an exception to the normal bidding process in order to approve this contract today. Mr. Davis (County Attorney Clint Davis) and I were in communications with the sheriff’s office, after listening to the situation, we felt that it fell into what’s commonly referred to as the ‘emergency exception,’ we think if we go out for bid, awarding bid, scheduling bid, by the time we do all that, the calamity may happen, and if that happens we’re probably going to be out a lot more money as taxpayers as we’re going to have to figure out what to do with these inmates, and that in and of itself creates a public safety issue, for their health, and then also transporting them to other counties creates a safety issue as well.”
Strawn said the county attorney’s office believes the situation falls under exemption No. 2 of Section 262.024 of the Texas Local Government Code, which he informed the court says “an item is necessary to preserve or protect the public health or safety of residents of the county.”
Continued Strawn, “That exception cannot be used for routine repairs or routine maintenance, but it can be used for sewage projects, removal of waste, things like this situation really fits into this where, if you don’t get it fixed something’s bad going to happen and we don’t have time to waste.”
In other business, the court:
• Approved accepting the 2024 Racial Profiling Report from the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office, for filing purposes only, which Chief Deputy Michael Adcock said shows “traffic stops consistent are consistent with the racial makeup of the county and for the year, we did not have any racial profiling complaints.”
• Approved a request to use proceeds from the Healthy County Fund for prize drawings for the county employees’ Wellness Incentive Program, money which County Auditor Ann Marie Monk said comes from the Texas Association of Counties’ Health & Benefits Pool.
• Approved reappointing Dr. Douglas Curran, Mark Smith and Michael Deeds to the Henderson County Hospital Authority Board.
• Approved transferring a Precinct 1 Road & Bridge employee to the Maintenance Department.
• Approved a right-of-way permit for Oncor Electric Delivery Co. to install new primary conductor structure for a new feeder along County Road 2930 (also known as Peachtree Road), located in Precinct 2.
• Approved a right-of-way permit for Spectrum (a Charter Communications company) to install fiber-optic cable along County Road 2803, located in Precinct 2.
• Approved a right-of-way permit for Spectrum (a Charter Communications company) to install fiber-optic cable along County Road 2813, located in Precinct 2.
• Approved budget amendments that Monk said include lease payments on the county’s Seven Points facility that features increased rental payments “after we set the budget,” and also paying property taxes on a boat ramp, which McKinney said is in Caney City.
• Approved paying fiscal year 2024 bills of $44,516.26.
• Approved paying fiscal year 2025 bills of $508,789.12.
• Approved acknowledging and accepting requests for qualifications from three companies for a project to install panic button alarm systems at county facilities.