Tom Green County Commissioners Court approved a salary rise for key investigators, heard from the county extension agent about her departments’ outreach, and approved a contract for the maintenance of parks and cemeteries during their meeting on Jan. 28.
Pay parity for DA’s investigators
Commissioners approved a measure to improve income parity for investigators in the two district attorneys’ offices, using funds provided under Senate Bill 22.
119th Judicial District DA John Best made the presentation, and told commissioners that the county has approximately $32,000 worth of discretionary funds remaining from monies provided by the legislature to district attorney offices.
“What we found was that (County Attorney) Chris Taylor decided to allocate more of his money for investigators salaries…his investigators are making around $75,523.76 each,” Best said. “Our most senior investigator is currently making $71,000, so we want to get her up to their level.
Best quoted salaries for two other investigators, and told Commissioners briefly about their many specialized qualifications, and the special role they play in the local justice system.
According to Ziprecruiter.com, the average salary for a district attorneys’ office investigator in Texas is a little under $70,200, which would equate to a $33.74 hourly-rate of pay.
County Extension Office
Commissioners welcomed County Extension Agent Allison Watkins, who came to update the court on horticultural outreach programs.
“I wanted to share a little of what we did in the horticulture realm last year,” Watkins said. “We and our volunteers did 292 in-person educational sessions last year, with over 6,000 in-person contacts, as the total audience of all of our programs.
“Currently, I go once a week and teach horticulture therapy at the Roy K. Robb (Center) and we have workshops, like our Earth Kind workshop and summer water-conservation seminar that we provide to the public; I also do monthly “lunch-And-learn” sessions.
“Something I’m very excited about, is our youth gardening; I had a master gardener who a couple of years ago went into one of the pre-K classes, and taught them about gardening, and she expanded to two schools.
“For this current school year — they asked us last summer, if we could do every pre-K in the (district) — which was 14 classes, I believe; so we had to get more master gardener volunteers on board, and we’ve been in every SAISD pre-K this year, teaching weekly sessions with little pre-K kids.
“The curriculum is called “Learn, Grow, Eat & Go”, and it’s designed to reduce childhood obesity by teaching them gardening and getting them to grow vegetables, and it increases their likelihood of eating vegetables.”
Watkins said they teach a similar unit to some of the third-graders in town.
Watkins shared the fact that, according to her calculations, the volunteer master gardeners of Tom Green County contributed more than 5,200 hours, which according to the Texas Comptroller’s Office represents a donation of more than $166,000-worth of value to the community.
Pct. 3 Commissioner Rick Bacon offered thanks on behalf of the court, mentioning that Watkins — a certified arborist — recently helped the county assess trees in the county parks.
Watkins thanked commissioners for their continuing support.
Watkins started with Tom Green County in 2009, and holds a master’s degree from Texas Tech University and a bachelor’s degree from Tarleton University.
To learn more about the many programs offered through the Extension Service, follow this link.
Upkeep contract for parks, cemeteries
Commissioners awarded RFB 25-002 parks maintenance contract to Site Sweep Services for a monthly amount of $14,165, which covers vegetation control, some brush trimming and trash pickup for nine parks and five listed cemeteries.
“We had quite a bit of interest this year,” Procurement Supervisor Dustin Klein told commissioners, noting the county had received eight submissions from contractors responding to the request for bids.
Commissioners said they have been using a contractor for a few years now with good results, and they were encouraged to have received so many competitive bids.
The contract comes with renewal options and establishes set fees for storm cleanup and special call-outs.
The Tom Green Co. Commissioners Court meets at 8:30 a.m. Tuesdays, at the Keyes Building, 113 W. Beauregard Ave.
Follow this link to see the upcoming agenda.
http://deptpages.co.tom-green.tx.us/countyclerk/CCAgendas/fy2015/agenda.pdf
