Shelby County Today

March 23, 2022 - The intersection of Tenaha Street and Cass-Caid Drive was the scene of a three-vehicle crash Wednesday, March 16, 2022.

According to Center Police Officer Jerry Payne, at 8:50pm a white Jeep SUV driven by Leslie Ortega, 30, of Center was traveling northbound with passenger Victoria Ortega, 31, on Tenaha Street when she stopped to make a left turn onto Cass-Caid Drive.

At that time a white Dodge Ram pickup truck driven by Rafael Soto, 36, of Bronson was northbound on Tenaha Street when it failed to control speed and struck the Jeep in the rear, spinning it into the southbound lane where a blue Nissan driven by Hillary Ihlo, 29, of Center was traveling south and was unable to avoid impacting with the Jeep, striking it once again in the rear.

The Dodge came to rest in the shoulder of the northboud lane while the Jeep and the Nissan remained in the southbound lane blocking traffic.

A 5-year-old male passenger from the Jeep was transported by ambulance to Nacogdoches Medical Center - Shelby Emergency Department for medical evaluation, as was Soto.

Neither of the Ortega's or a 9-year-old female passenger from that vehicle were reported to have received injury. Ihlo was also not reported to have been injured. All vehicles were towed from the scene.

No citations were issued at the time of the incident.

March 23, 2022 - The Shelby County Commissioners held a lengthy meeting Wednesday, March 2, 2022, addressing multiple issues important to the county of which a Hazard Mitigation Plan was a leading concern.

A Hazard Mitigation Plan is something necessary for the county to have in place and should be updated every five years per FEMA regulation. Not having a plan in place would make the county ineligible for certain grant programs such as flood mitigation assistance, hazard mitigation grant program and pre-disaster mitigation competitive.

"After speaking with GrantWorks and doing some research, if we go through the grant process it's gonna take us about two years or more, and it's going to cost over $100,000 and of course we'll have 25% of that," said Shelby County Judge Allison Harbison. 

Judge Harbison explained the county needs to move more quickly than that and she said GrantWorks has presented a contract and quote for $49,950 to complete the project. She stated it would likely be $15,000 to $20,000 more than the grant route. If the county takes the grant route, she said it's likely to take twice as long to get the plan in place.

GrantWorks is investigating the possibility of using American Rescue Plan Act funds to afford the expense of the Hazard Mitigation Plan Project; however, in the interim and with time being a factor Judge Harbison suggested moving forward quickly and possibly paying out of the County Contingency fund account.

Tom Bellmyer, Commissioner Precinct 4, confirmed with Luciana Barr, Emergency Management Coordinator, the previous plan went out in June 2021.

Roscoe McSwain asked Keith Payne, a GrantWorks representative, how long the process could be expected to take.

"If you were to go the grant route, it's over two years," said Payne. "If you hire to write the plan, its at least cut that time in half. If you go the application route, the application has to be submitted to the GLO for review, it goes to the department of TDEM and then finally to FEMA and that process is usually over a year,"

McSwain indicated the issue the county and cities in Shelby County are facing without the Hazard Mitigation plan in place, "so if we have a disaster in the next year, we're not going to qualify for grants." Commissioner Bellmyer agreed that was correct.

Payne described a Hazard Mitigation department within GrantWorks that will be working on the plan for Shelby County.

A motion carried to move forward with the Hazard Mitigation Project and seek legal counsel to review the contract. 

Commissioner Bellmyer mentioned several county buildings in the area he would like to see the county continue to move toward working on them including the Adult Probation Building; attention needed to the old County Clerk's building; and the old elementary school gym that is now being utilized by AgriLife and needs air conditioning. 

The commissioners ranked and approved moving forward with a list of projects using the American Relief Plan Act of 2021.

The initial projects included jail plumbing repairs; Huber water drilling; the jail roof; communications towers; City of Center project broadband communications; assistance to non-profit; covid testing; courthouse security; and a generator for the courthouse.

"The communication towers is something I really want to get going, especially starting with the one in Joaquin to begin with because that's where the biggest drop off is," said Judge Harbison.

She said she would like to see the Joaquin tower be installed first and then look at where would be most beneficial after that to help strengthen the radio signal. 

In discussion over items already on the list Ann Blackwell, County Treasurer, remarked confirmed the county had around 600 tests for Covid-19.

The need for fiber optic cable service through AT&T at the County Clerk's office was discussed and Judge Harbison described the need. During election time, the county clerk has to upload results to the state website.

"Friday she had no U-verse, so she had to work [in the courthouse] in my office, which is fine, but she has to bring all that stuff over here," said Judge Harbison.

Jennifer Fountain, County Clerk, agreed she was at the courthouse working until 10pm using the courthouse internet. The County Clerk's office has U-verse, and the courthouse has fiber. Judge Harbison encouraged the need to get fiber to the County Clerk's office.

"A lot of time I either, if we can't catch somebody [at the courthouse] I've had to haul 20 tablets to my house before to try to update them, which at my house I have cable," said Fountain.

Fountain explained the fiber is so much faster than the cable internet at her house. According to Fountain, when the County Clerk's office internet is down they cannot process birth certificates, or credit cards, which halts a lot of business through her office.

Bellmyer confirmed the District Attorney's office has fiber and the County Clerk's office isn't very far from the District attorney's office. Blackwell expected the bill for the fiber to be around $500 a month.

It was explained the internet being down has an effect on the ability of outside access to records, and Fountain stated 90% of the issuance of birth certificates is accomplished online. She also said there has been a little bit of an increase of "land men" accessing records through the internet.

As discussion continued about items on the list, Judge Harbison said she would actually like to see other generators considered for the list for the District Attorney's office and the County Clerk's office in addition to the courthouse generator.

"A generator for your command center is not an option, it is a requirement," said Bellmyer.

Judge Harbison agreed that's why the county doesn't have a command center. 

With the completion of the plumbing project on the first side of the Shelby County Jail Roscoe McSwain, Commissioner Precinct 1, was enthusiastic about moving forward with the other side of the jail and reaching completion of the total project.

Sheriff Kevin Windham was very pleased with the process of the plumbing project and stated they are very pleased with the result for the money. 

"They could have went in there and tore everything out like had initially been discussed and they saved the county hundreds of thousands of dollars," said Windham. "I really appreciated them for looking out for us."

Bellmyer recollected previous discussion at a previous meeting about the potential to upgrade voting equipment. Fountain said she had spoken with someone at the Secretary of State office and they weren't sure the funds from the American Relief Plan Act could be used for that purpose.

"We have a little bit of time, but we have a presidential election coming up in two years, and of course we've got mid-terms, I think that we can't make the mid-terms this year but we need to look over the horizon if we need to upgrade our voting equipment," said Bellmyer. "We need to take advantage of it now."

McSwain said he would like it in writing if the Secretary of State is saying those funds couldn't be used for the purchase of voting equipment, since the court has been informed they can use those funds for anything beneficial to the tax payers.

"That is definitely a good and service to the citizens," said Bellmyer.

A motion carried to move forward on the Huber Water project; jail roof; communication towers and generators for the courthouse.

There were several FY 2022 Budget line item transfers to be made and Clint Porterfield, County Auditor, described what they were, and he reminded the court the county is already in the sixth month of its budget.

"There are four funds involved here, one is the coronavirus relief fund - Fund 44. We have a budget there that everything is in fixed assets," said Porterfield. "Repairing the jail plumbing, that's not a fixed asset that's a repair, so as we do things like that we're creating expense line items which we now need to move a budget into."

The first line item transfer was for $75,000 for the plumbing repairs. The remainder were three line item transfers for precincts 2, 3, and 4 to clean up some expense accounts that did not have a budget. Porterfield reminded the commissioners for such expenses those funds come out of their gravel accounts.

Porterfield explained the needed funds would be transferred from their gravel accounts to the line items to support those expenses.

Agenda items approved during the meeting include:
1. Pay weekly expenses.
2. Current payroll.
3. Order the May 7, 2022 Constitutional Amendment Election. 
4. Move forward with the Hazard Mitigation Plan Project.
5. Move forward with Huber Water System project; jail roof; communication towers; generators for the courthouse using the American Relief Plan Act of 2021.
6. Cooperative Agreement between Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and Shelby County.
7. Discontinue the contract with DISA for drug screen compliance.
8. Approve Random Drug Screen Compliance agreement with DATCS.
9. Historic Courthouse venue use contract and payment to go through the County Treasurer's office and scheduling to go through the Historic Courthouse docent.
10. Sale through bids of a Mack Truck for Commissioner Pct 3.
11. Mutual Aid Agreement from Nacogdoches Police Department and numerous surrounding agencies and Shelby County Sheriff’s Office.
12. Plumber to present proposal for remainder of plumbing repairs for the Shelby County Jail.
13. FY 2022 Budget line item transfers.
14. Record Racial Profiling Report for the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office.
15. Record Racial Profiling Report for the Shelby County Constable Pct. 1.
16. Record Racial Profiling Report for the Shelby County Constable Pct. 2.
17. Adjourn at 10:56pm.

March 21, 2022 - The Joaquin Volunteer Fire Department has been dispatched to five fires since March 19, 2022 that were the result of some form of outdoor burning.

On March 19 there was a woods fire on County Road 3485 in the Woodland Shores community that started from a burn pile and burned into the woods several feet away.

March 20 saw four calls alone, each within three and a half hours from the first to the last. The first was a tree fire on County Road 3845 that started in a burn pile and jumped the road and into a nearby tree.

The second was a call for an excavator on fire down County Road 3001. The fire started while a pile of trees was being cleared.

Next was a call for a yard on fire on County Road 3000. The fire started in a burn pile and preceded to spread across the caller's yard.

Lastly the JVFD was dispatched to a fire at the intersection of FM 139 and County Road 3361 and 3360. This fire most likely was caused by a discarded cigarette in the ditch, catching the grass and nearby trees on fire.

No one was harmed in any of these fires. However, the Joaquin Volunteer Fire Department would like to urge everyone to use extreme caution when considering any outdoor burning of any kind, and also be mindful of the current weather conditions before starting to burn. As for discarding cigarettes, please use an ash tray if one is available and never put one out on dry grass that could spark a larger fire. The JVFD wishes everyone a safe and fire-free week.

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March 18, 2022 - Officials with the National Forests and Grasslands in Texas, Angelina and Sabine National Forests, have advised a prescribed burn today location:

Sabine N. F. – Compartments 117/118/119, Located in the Moore Plantation WMA south of State Highway 2426, The Trail Between the Lake is included, 2915 acres, Block A & B Only. This will be a hand burn and Winds are predicted from the West at 7-20 MPH.

Please drive with caution. Also, we advised long range drift SMOKE may affect some of the areas.