County officials discuss illegal dumping solutions
With an upcoming opportunity to apply for a grant to help solve the problem, the Bastrop County Commissioners Court discussed the need for better environmental enforcement to combat illegal dumping.
The meeting began with four citizen comments, including one by Paige resident Lourdes Meinhold. Over the past few years of living in Paige, she said she has noticed an increase in litter.
“I don’t know who’s doing this,” she said. “I can’t control how people decide they want to treat the environment, but it has a huge impact on everyone.”
Later in the meeting, as she began to give a presentation to the court about illegal dumping, county engineer Carolyn Dill referred to Meinhold’s comment, saying, “It’s an issue that we’re having throughout the county.”
The problem for the county’s environmental code enforcement department arises from what kinds of penalties are issued for different levels of dumping. Since the county’s code enforcement staff are not peace officers, they are only able to issue a class C summons to people dumping less than five gallons or five pounds; for anything larger, they do not have the authority to issue the corresponding criminal citation, Dill said.
In addition to maps showing the illegal dumping sites, Dill showed photographs taken of garbage dumped at sites across the county. The items found range from construction debris to household waste to mattresses and tires.
“Your pictures are pretty convincing that we have a serious problem, and we need to make some positive steps in eliminating that and preventing it in the future,” County Judge Paul Pape said.
Dill added game cameras are installed throughout the county in particularly problematic locations.
“In those cases, we have a license plate, we have good evidence, but we have not had a great deal of success in taking these things to prosecution,” Dill said.
“Looks like it’s over five pounds,” Precinct 1 Commissioner Mel Hamner remarked.
“It is definitely over five pounds, and out of our authority,” Dill replied.
The solution that Dill suggested is to hire a peace officer for the environmental code enforcement department to issue criminal citations for dumping of more than five gallons or pounds. Burnet County has recently hired such an officer through a criminal justice grant from the Capital Area Council of Governments (CAPCOG). The deadline for the application is February 20 with a maximum request amount of $100,000. The starting salary for a peace officer at Bastrop County Sheriff’s Office would be about $46,000; this would not include a vehicle, weapon and other law enforcement equipment, which would bring the total up to the $100,000 maximum.
In addition to issuing citations, a peace officer could take sworn statements, sign affidavits and serve warrants, Dill said. Code enforcement staff are also often sent into areas with illegal activity, she added.
“We sent an investigator in, and the sheriff’s office followed them in to do a bust on a meth house,” she said. “That’s a scary place to be if you’re not carrying a gun.”
Pape asked if the citations that an officer could write would be taken to court and prosecuted. Dill said the code enforcement department would be able to provide everything needed in order to do that.
“We’d evaluate the cases just like any other criminal case,” said assistant district attorney Greg Gilleland. “We’re ready and willing and able.”
Gilleland also said if the county has an effective officer focusing on illegal dumping, the cost would pay for itself in fines. Precinct 2 Commissioner Clara Beckett added the county already spends a lot of money in various expenses for code enforcement with no revenue coming in through fines.
“At the end of the day, it’s not about fines, although that’s how you get compliance,” Dill said. “Compliance is what we want, and right now there’s no consequence.”
Dill intended to bring the issue to the court as a discussion-only item, seeking general direction from the court regarding the grant. Pape told her to put the item back on the agenda as an action item whenever the required resolution supporting the application is ready. The court voted to table the item.
Burn ban proposed, canceled
The court discussed a potential burn ban during last Monday’s evening.
In order to comply with the Texas Government Code, agendas for the commissioners’ court must be posted 72 hours before their meetings on Monday at 9 a.m.; as a result, the agenda for the January 13 meeting, with the potential burn ban to be passed by the court, was finalized and posted before the previous Friday night’s major storms that swept across much of Texas’ I-35 corridor.
According to emergency management director Christine Files, the Keetch-Byram Drought Index (KBDI), a numerical scale of drought conditions, had dropped by 42 points the morning after the storm, and was at 479 last Monday for the county. A KBDI measurement between 600 and 800 is associated with extreme drought and increased wildfire occurrence, according to the U.S. Forest Service. Since the drought conditions had lessened, Files did not recommend a burn ban at this time. As a result, the item calling for a burn ban was tabled by the court.
Files also gave an update on the effect of the January 10 storms on the county. She said there was not much damage, and the damage suffered by Bastrop County was mostly concentrated in Smithville and the surrounding area. Some power lines were down, and at one point, about 1,500 customers of Bluebonnet Electric Coopertive did not have power, she added.
Repairs to damaged jail discussed
The court discussed their options for repairing a low-risk jail facility that was damaged by a storm eight months ago.
The 12-year-old building was damaged during a storm on May 30, 2019.
After walking through the facility with potential contractors, county purchasing agent Leon Scaife said, all but one vendor backed out when they realize that it would be a “top-down” turnkey project, meaning the building would have to include all systems it needs to be usable. The final contractor is the one that built the building in the first place, and their repair cost totals a little over $350,000. The insurance payout maxed out at a little over $150,000, but Scaife said the county could request an additional $35,500 that was withheld. As a result, about half of the project’s cost would be covered by insurance. Tearing down and replacing the building would cost between $375,000 and $450,000, which would not include any of the systems such as heating and air conditioning, Scaife added.
When the county’s jail facilities were surveyed on December 20 and 30, the jails were below 20 percent vacancy. The county has to start looking at building more facilities when vacancy falls below 10 percent, according to state guidelines. Pape said the county needs to keep this facility as a “cushion” to avoid hitting this threshold.
“Without these 48 beds, we’re getting dangerously close to the next trigger level on expanding our jail,” Pape said. “This is a pretty good investment, even at $350,000, to keep this capacity available to us.”
Scaife offered to solicit bids from more local vendors, but he said he wasn’t sure if that would guarantee any more participation. However, a quick fix on the roof of the building that was made after the May storm is already beginning to deteriorate, he said.
“If we decide to push this off and go out for bids again, we will need to look at spending $10,000 to $12,000 to get the roof and some sort of structural stability so that it doesn’t further deteriorate,” Scaife said.
The court decided to table the item until they could talk to the sheriff about the details of the building, as well as discuss whether the county could afford to wait until the next budget cycle to make the repairs.