April 27, 2015 - Gary Miller, resident and businessman from Huxley, is seen addressing the Shelby County Commissioners at the Monday meeting.
A Shelby County resident spoke at the Monday, April 27, 2015 meeting of the Shelby County Commissioners' Court about drug issues in the Huxley area, which is in Precinct 2, and the need to clean it up.
Gary Miller, resident and businessman from Huxley, spoke passionately about what he says is a constant bad drug issue in the area. He explained he is an example of one person who has fallen victim to theft due to the drug problem in the area.
"I've made Shelby County my home, I moved away from Austin to get away from some of the crime and the hooliganism and stuff like that that went on," said Miller.
He says he met good people in Shelby County with a good Christian work ethic, which brought him to the area; however, he says the problem in Huxley is out of hand.
"Roger's Harbor ought to be a show place; Shelby Beach ought to be a show place. Instead they're drug dens, we've got people down there manufacturing methamphetamine, we've got drug users and with the drug users they come in and they steal from you. They break into your shop, they take your money, they take your tools, they siphon gas out of your trucks. It's a problem, it's a major problem."
Miller says he approached the commissioners to see what he could do as a representative of the Roger's Harbor neighborhood association to get the criminals off the street. He says working hand-in-hand with the Sheriff's Department they have succeeded in getting six people involved in drug activity off the streets and they aren't finished.
"We've got to take a concentrated effort, it's got to come from the ground roots, we've got to have our neighborhood associations working with our Sheriff's Department, working with our judicial system, with our attorneys, the commissioners. Everybody's got to get on the same page, if there's any little petty differences or things like that that are in the background they need to go away. We've got a serious problem, these drug dealers think that Shelby County is an easy mark," said Miller.
Miller says there isn't enough law enforcement in the county to combat the drug problem countywide. He says he's heard comments from the perspective of both the sheriff's departmant and the commissioners.
"On Saturdays when the Sheriff's Department only has one deputy for the whole of Shelby County that's on duty, it makes it pretty hard for them to enforce the law, it really does and I've heard the argument from both sides. I've heard that 'We don't have enough money to do it,' 'They're not making good use of the resources that they do have to take care of this.' I've heard both sides of it and I understand budget constraints, believe me I do," said Miller.
"I own two companies, Huxley Plumbing and Shelby Septic [Services], and I just got hit with a major budget restraint of about $3,000 of tools that were stolen by some of these crackheads. I thought my trucks were just getting bad gas mileage, I found they're little siphon thing, they've been siphoning gas out of my trucks at night," added Miller.
Miller implored the commissioners and County Judge Allison Harbison to work together to do whatever needs to be done to address the issues of drugs and drug users in the area. He says he is currently working with a sanitarian in the area to identify houses they consider to be "rat traps" or a public health nuisance to then present that information to the county to begin getting the area cleaned up.
"Those abandoned houses and 'rat traps' like that, that's where these crackheads go to do their business. I say crackheads, they're probably all manufacturing methamphetamine in Shelby County, I don't know," said Miller.
Jimmy Lout, Commissioner Precinct 2, stated Sheriff Willis Blackwell was invited to the meeting; however, he stated no one from the Sheriff's Department was in the courtroom to represent the department. Lout asked Miller, "Who told you that they just have one deputy on weekends?" and Miller confirmed the deputy who took the report on his business' robbery informed him.
The commissioners then attempted to confirm how many employees there are with the Sheriff's Department and Judge Harbison suggested the employee roster would not be limited to only deputies and would include employees from dispatch and jailers as well.
"If we all work together on this thing, and if everybody needs to sit down in the same room and get on the same page, I'll be glad to come in and Allison [Harbison] and I will come in and referee it, but I don't know the particulars Jimmy I don't. I don't know how many deputies are supposed to be on duty, I don't know how many deputies they have got as a pool to pull from. All I hear from them is, 'We don't have the budget dollars to put enough deputies out there to police this thing.'"
Lout said he spoke to Jamie Hagler, Constable Precinct 2, who told him one of the people Miller was speaking of passed away last week. Miller confirmed that was the case and said the daughter of the man is living in his home with no utilities and she is a "magnet for these crackheads." Miller says he informed the Sheriff's Department drug activity was witnessed there on the morning of County Court.
"Commissioners are not law enforcement officers, I don't have more right to arrest anyone than you do," said Lout.
"We don't have the say so, where [Sheriff Blackwell] goes or how many deputies that he sends. The onliest thing we have is the budget," said Travis Rodgers, Constable Precinct 3. Lout reiterated, "The budget, and he's got a big budget."
Judge Harbison spoke about being proactive toward cleaning up Shelby County, "I've been opening some dialog with people, we had a public meeting week before last on this, not on the criminal side, but on the public nuisance side with trash and things like that. It didn't get that way overnight and we can't fix it overnight, but I'm going to try my best to get a program in at least for the trash side. We can open a dialog with the sheriff, he did come to my public nuisance meeting. He was very engaging and I think if he didn't come today, something's come up."
Judge Harbison says she looks forward to getting a program going and she empathizes with the members of the community in Huxley.
Kelly Holcomb and Brian Sims with Angelina and Neches River Authority spoke with the commissioners about grant funding which can now be available to certain parts of Shelby County for on-site septic systems in use within the Attoyac watershed. The grant is identified as Clean Water Act Section 319. They requested the county be the central clearinghouse for the county. The county will collect the applications until May 29 and pass them on to the river authority.
"The Attoyac watershed is southwest of Center and it's a grant program whereby we are the administrators of that grant and will be installing on-site septic systems for entity, citizens or residents who own their property inside the Attoyac watershed," said Miller. "It's a low-income type situation basically it's federal grant monies that have been passed back down to the state of Texas administered to by the TCEQ (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality) in this state in this particular circumstance."
Holcomb explained through an application process the Angelina and Neches River Authority was granted this grant to install 23 systems of these septic systems throughout the entire Attoyac watershed. The proposition is to install these systems in the four effected counties including Shelby, San Augustine, Nacogdoches and Rusk. The grant funds will pay for licensing fees, design fees and installation of the system and the resident will pay almost nothing for a system which could cost $6,000-$7,000.
"Precinct 1 and Precinct 4 are the only precincts that this is going to affect. I just thought it was a great program, I having been somebody whose had to put in two of these systems for a business and then a home that I owned, but it's awfully nice to know that they might get some help from the government to do it," said Judge Harbison. "They're costly and most people that really need them are usually the ones that can't afford them out in the rural areas, so this is a great thing that we might can possibly help our citizens with."
Sims explained the Attoyac Bayou is listed as impaired for bacterial contamination, "It's currently under the development of a watershed protection plan through a partnership that was done through a similar grant from the soil board a few years ago. As part of that watershed protection plan they identified failing septic systems as one of the leading contributors to the bacterial contamination that was in the Attoyac," said Sims. "The purpose of this grant program is to address those sources of pollution and that's why we're able to use those funds to pay for the replacement or installation of septic systems in order to alleviate that source of bacteria entering the watershed."
The commissioners have heard on several occasions from Don and Tina McGuffin and neighbors about property off CR 4670 they are attempting to sell. In order to do this they requested CR 4670 to be recognized as a county road. This road was once maintained by the county, but has not been for some time. Terry Scull, a neighbor who only just recently learned of the issue, addressed the court and explained in his opinion it is not a county issue as the issue is one that is addressed under state law. It was determined during the meeting the county has nothing to do with the roadway and Judge Harbison suggested once again for the property owners to work something out amongst themselves.
Agenda items receiving approval include:
Pay monthly expenses.
Purchase of an integrated Case Management
System from iDocket for the County Attorney, County Clerk, and County Judge. $50,000 case management system with a $10,000 maintenance fee.
Adjournment at 10:27am.
Agenda items tabled during the meeting include:
