Shelby County Today

Texas Game Warden Austin Cryer assisted Louisiana Game Wardens J. Melton and H. Pearce in retreiving the boat which the man had been in just before falling into the lake.

January 29, 2022 - Law enforcement officials responded to the discovery of an apparent drowning incident Saturday, January 29, 2022 in East Hamilton Community at East Hamilton Boat Ramp.

At around 12-noon Texas Game Wardens and Louisiana Game Wardens were on scene assisted by the Shelby County Sheriff's Department, Texas Department of Public Safety and Constable Precinct 3.

According to Shelby County officials James (Tater) Cox, 71, of DeBerry was the man who was found at Toledo Bend. Marla Denby, Precinct 2 Justice of the Peace, pronounced Cox deceased at the scene and Watson & Sons Funeral Home transported him.

Cox had been fishing and Game Wardens were able to retrieve his boat, which although it was capsized, was secured to a stump out in the water.

January 28, 2022 - The Shelby County Commissioners spoke with Gary Adams, DRG Architects, about future work that is needed for the Shelby County Jail during their meeting on Wednesday, January 26, 2022.

He suggested repairs be completed near a clean out at a main trunk line of the jail sewer system where he described a deep hole. Then the more daunting sounding task can begin of searching for other problem areas connecting to that line.

"There is four feeder lines that run into that line, we can get to two of them to see how bad they are, and once we establish whether this is going to be able to fix the problem in the jail, I say we fix that one, keep monitoring the rest of the plumbing and not do anything at this point in time," said Adams.

Adams suggested having a meeting with the plumber involved as a saw is going to be needed to cut six to eight feet of concrete out of the jail floor.

"We may have to bring in a vacuum truck, at this point we don't know," said Adams. "What we need to do is figure out what we're dealing with and we can't do that just with a camera."

The project is expected to displace 30 inmates and Adams suggested advanced planning regarding the inmates. Chief Ruth Gonzales informed the court there is a contract with Carthage for 20 inmates, and another jail may need to be located to hold the other 10 inmates.

"It's going to be a messy job, it's going to be something we want to do quick," said Adams. "I have no idea what kind of cost we're looking at, because of the difficulty of this job."

Adams also suggested the project be declared an emergency because of the uncertainty of what may be required.

It was suggested there be a meeting of the plumber and whatever additional contractors may be needed, City of Center, Sheriff's Department and whoever else may need to be included in the project.

"Let the public know, I mean the DPS and the city know, the jail is down if they don't have to bring nobody, don't bring them," said Roscoe McSwain, Commissioner Precinct 1. "Also, we might get some people out of jail that's in there."

Capt. Tanner Peace with the Sheriff's Department presented the commissioners with a proposal for grant funding from the Texas Governor's office for needed equipment in the amount of $243,000.

"We feel like we've done tremendously well in the past year with resources and personnel that we have," said Peace. "We've essentially been working under the philosophy of we have to manage where we are, not where we wish we were."

Peace said he has been researching the grant which is offered through the governor's office where they have set aside around $14 million for Texas counties. According to Peace, a major upgrade for the Sheriff's Department would be a mobile reporting in the patrol vehicles.

"This would allow our deputies to go out to a call and actually complete an incident report on scene," said Peace.

At this time, deputies can't begin to work on an incident report until after they've arrived at the Sheriff's Department. According to Peace, the system would allow the deputies to see where each other unit is located, and for the dispatchers to see their position.

"It will, essentially, double the amount of presence of deputies in the county," said Peace. "Right now we go to a call, and assuming that it's a fairly substantial call, we may have deputies at the office doing paperwork for two or three hours, and so that's two or three hours during a 10 to 12 hour shift that our county roads aren't being patrolled."

The Sheriff's Department reached out to Spillman Technologies and acquired a quote for laptops for the vehicles, mounting brackets, and contacted Verizon to provide cellular service hot spots for the computers. Two additional patrol units are included in the total being requested for the grant.

A motion carried to table approving the grant for a special meeting to be held Monday, January 31, 2022.

The commissioners recognized Continuing Education Transcript for Tax Assessor-Collector Debora Riley, for evidence of compliance with Texas Property Tax Code Sec 6.231(d).

The meeting was adjourned at 10:14am.

Agenda items approved during the meeting include: 
1. Pay weekly expenses.
2. Recognize and record completion of required continuing education certificate for Jennifer Fountain, County Clerk.
3. Recognize and record completion of required continuing education certificate for Allison Harbison, County Judge.
4. Adjourn.

Agenda items tabled during the meeting include:
1. Sheriff’s office to apply for a grant from the Office of the Governor.

January 25, 2022 - Shelby County Sheriff Kevin Windham informed the Shelby County Commissioners during their January 12, 2022, meeting of a proposal from Center Motor Company for two trucks to add to the Sheriff's Department fleet.

As a result of the crash incident involving a deputy vehicle on December 21, insurance money has been received which can be put toward the purchase of a replacement. Due to the short supply and high demand of Chevrolet Tahoes, the Sheriff's Department has chosen to purchase more available options by way of pickup trucks.

"Our vehicle was a total loss, the insurance has paid us $30,025 for that Tahoe," said Sheriff Windham.

According to Sheriff Windham, the Sheriff's Department researched available options and located two dealerships which had the same model Ford F-150 XL Police responder Sheriff Windham is currently driving. At the time of the meeting, Center Motor Company was one of those dealerships and they gave a price of $38,950 on each unit.

Sheriff Windham expressed gratitude to the commissioners for being gracious enough to make it possible for the hire of a new deputy position at the Sheriff's Department and he remarked that position does need a vehicle, and was the reason for the request of another vehicle at that time.

"What we're looking at to [equip] both these vehicles is somewhere in the neighborhood of between $11,000 and $12,000 to equip these vehicles," said Sheriff Windham.

The total price for both vehicles and equipping them was projected at $59,550 with the deduction of the $30,025 from the insurance reducing the total cost from over $100,000.

The commissioners reviewed the Sheriff's Department's current overtime which according to Sheriff Windham has been effected by the absence of employees due to Covid-19. The Sheriff's Department time and a half overtime budget is $100,000 and as of January 12, 2022, it had $34,935 remaining. The regular overtime rate account has considerably less total funds at a total of $10,000 with $7,240.67 remaining.

At the time of the meeting Sheriff Windham stated he had several employees out with Covid-19 including one deputy, three to four dispatchers, and one jailer.

Sheriff Windham asked about the possibility of utilizing available Covid funds for the purchase of the vehicle; however, Judge Allison Harbison expressed concerns over the potentially high cost of needed plumbing repairs at the county jail.

"We though about that, but we don't know what we've got over there on the plumbing issue and if we keep whittling away at that, you know, we want to figure out what it's going to take to fix the plumbing over there," said Judge Harbison. "I didn't realize [Covid funding] was down that low already."

Ann Blackwell, County Treasurer, said it was about "half spent." Those funds, which were originally reported on December 16, 2020, were around $905,685.

Roscoe McSwain, Commissioner Precinct 1, reviewed the vehicle repair budget and he was expecting to see less usage out of that fund since the Sheriff's Department has increased its fleet with newer vehicles. Sheriff Windham said some of the older units are still in service and they have just been reassigned. Chief Ruth Gonzalez and Captain Tanner Peace each drive vehicles that have been retired from patrol.

There are several surplus vehicles Sheriff Windham said are in progress of being dealt with so they can either be sold, or returned to their original owners, and get vehicles removed from county insurance.

The commissioners continued to discuss the possibility of using Covid relief funds for the purchase of a vehicle, but without knowing with greater certainty what the jail plumbing repairs might even cost, they were not enthusiastic about taking that route.

Judge Harbison informed the commissioners the Contingency fund had $186,318 at that time and to prevent taking funds out of the Sheriff's budget for the addition of equipment for the patrol vehicle the commissioners could use funds from that account for that expense.

A motion carried to proceed with the purchase of the single F-150 with the idea the purchase and the equipment addition will be in a $15,000 range out of the Contingency fund. After additional information on the repair to the jail has been received, the commissioners may revisit the subject of the second vehicle again.

The Commissioners approved turning Stolz Road into CR 2706 in Precinct 2 and Jimmy Lout, Precinct 2 Commissioner, explained the situation involving the roadway and two men who live off of the road and who have provided maintenance.

"They've maintained the road for [20-something] years and they just said they hate to keep putting money on it. One of them is 90 years old," said Lout.

According to Commissioner Lout, the road is around 200 yards in length and the request has been made for the county to adopt the roadway and take responsibility for its maintenance.

A motion carried to adopt the road in Precinct 2 as a county road.

Agenda items approved during the meeting include:
1. Minutes of December 1, 2021 Special meeting, December 8, 2021 Regular meeting, December 15, 2021 Special meeting, December 22, 2021 Special meeting of the Shelby County Commissioner’s Court.
2. Pay weekly expenses.
3. Officers Reports.
4. Record the filing of the Vehicle Inventory Tax Fund audit for January 2022.
5. Adopt Stolz Road to become County Road 2706 in Pct. 2.
6. Purchase one Ford F150 police unit for the Sheriff’s Department.
7. Adjourn.

January 25, 2022 - Roscoe McSwain, Commissioner Precinct 1, announces County Roady 1246 will be closed in the middle for culvert replacement until work is complete.