Freestone County commissioners received a hopeful update on progress of the high-speed rail line the county has been fighting for several years. That happened during their Dec. 4 meeting, when the court also heard about another opioid settlement, about a fire truck swap and made other decisions concerning the county’s finances and well-being.
At one point, the court retired into executive session to discuss a contract being negotiated pursuant to settlement offers from Kroger and other companies regarding opioids.
When the court returned to open session, the court members approved a resolution authorizing approval of the Texas statewide opioid agreements. The county is expected to receive $3,803, bringing to a total of nine settlements to date of $118,537 coming to Freestone County. The court authorized Judge Linda Grant to execute the settlement participation and release forms regarding settlement offers from Kroger in the matter of Texas opioid multi-district litigation for the county in the matter of County of Freestone v. Purdue Pharma, L.P. et al.
Grant asked attorney Blake Beckham to update the court on what was happening in the case of the attempt by a Japanese railroad company to build a highspeed rail line between Dallas and Houston.
Beckham described himself as the chief litigation counsel for Texans Against High Speed Rail.
Ultimately, he said the company trying to build the high-speed rail system had less than 7 percent of the land it needed.
“The rest was going to have to go through imminent domain,” Beckham said.
Beckham gave a detailed description of the matter, telling the court why he believes the railroad is unlikely to go through, including evidence that the Japanese firm is telling the United States it is not going to ask for funds from the U.S. for the project while asking the Japanese government for huge grants in the billions of dollars. Details of Beckham’s report can be found at Part 2 of the Commissioners Court’s Dec. 4 meeting on YouTube. com.
Long-time attorney retiringAlso at the meeting, attorney Robert Meyers announced he would be retiring at the end of December after 37 years with the law firm of McCreary, Veselka, Bragg & Allen, and would be replaced by shareholder and attorney Staci Gold. Grant expressed the appreciation of the court for his many years of work.
Fire truck swap to save money
In other matters, the court approved a swap of fire trucks between Fairfield and Dew fire departments.
“The truck that Fairfield took out of service due to them getting the grant, is a county-purchased truck,” Commissioner Lloyd Lane said. “Dew was looking at purchasing a chassis and building out a truck. They got to looking at that one; they loved it, and said, ‘This will save us a ton of money.’” Fairfield has already agreed to the swap, Lane said, and the truck that Dew will be replacing has clean oil and good tires so it’s an opportunity for them to put a tank on it and make it a county water truck that the two departments could share.
Mental health reimbursement coming
Also during the meeting, Grant announced the amount of funds the county will receive as reimbursement for mental health counseling services.“Every year we get a reimbursement on mental health counseling services,” Grant said. “For this year, we will receive $1,392.”
Other agenda items In other matters, the court approved two 12-inch pipeline road-use agreements on So Shiney Road, one contingent on the county’s receiving a $250,000 bond, and the other contingent upon determination of a separate bond amount, and the county’s receiving a bond for that amount.
On another subject, the court members voted to use ARPA funds to purchase a truck, either a 2500 or 3500, for the Precinct 1 Road and Bridge Department.
In other business, the court:
• Agreed to leave the burn ban lifted at this time;
• Authorized the sale of fireworks in the unincorporated portion of the county between Dec. 20 through midnight of Jan. 1;
• Agreed to fund $2,000 to the Soil and Water Conservation District, which the state will match;• Approved a request to replat Lots 1, 2 and 3 of Wilderness Phase IV, Section II Cab. B Env 167 into final plat Lot 1-R;
• Were told the county was to receive a new firewall for the county’s laptop computers;• Approved a new contract with Windstream for Senior Services, but tabled a separate contract that covers switches;
• Approved a contract between Freestone County and Limestone Medical Center for 2025 for $3,845 to pay for medical services for Freestone County inmates; and
• Approved a schedule for filing fees for the District Clerk’s office, which are the same as the current price.
