Jasper County Commissioners Court
- Sandi Saulsbury
- Feb 11
- 3 min read
Jasper, Tx- The Jasper County Commissioners Court met in a brief Regular Session on Monday, February 10th, 2025 and covered the following agenda items:
First the Court approved a contract between Jasper County and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to provide funding for the Sheriff’s Office to have additional law enforcement patrol coverage in the Sam Rayburn community during peak tourism and fishing months.
This has been an annual project that the Army Corps of Engineers has funded for many years and allows Sheriff’s Deputies to work overtime in the Sam Rayburn area in a patrol vehicle at no cost to Jasper County.
Next, the Court heard from Sheriff Chuck Havard and Chief Deputy Larry Pulliam, Jr. who advised that they had completed an audit of the evidence storage areas within the Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff Havard further advised that in the midst of the audit, $2,849.42 in funds from unidentified sources were discovered and the Sheriff requested that the Court approve allocating these funds over to the Sheriff’s Office for operational purposes.
The Court then voted to accept the funds on behalf of Jasper County and allocated the balance to the Sheriff’s Office Investigations budget line for law enforcement operations.
Concluding law enforcement business, Sheriff Havard provided the monthly Jail report and advised that Jasper County had invoiced a total of $35,145.00 for housing inmates from the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas and the City of Jasper, as well as from Angelina, Nacogdoches, Newton and Tyler Counties, which the Court approved.
In other business, the Court voted to rename the road identified as Neches River Drive, located in the Neches River Subdivision to “Neches River Lane” at the request of the South East Texas Regional Planning Commission’s 9-11 department. The change request was made to make the road more distinguishable from a similarly named road in the Rayburn community to assist emergency responders and 9-11 dispatchers by avoiding confusion between the roads.
In grant related matters, the Court voted to establish guidelines for allocating equipment and operational funds evenly between the four Commissioner Precincts under the $9.8 million U.S. Forest Service Community Wildfire Defense Grant program.
The Court then voted to accept bids received and awarded a purchase contract to George P. Bane, Inc. out of Tyler, Texas for three Linkbelt 80X3 Tier 4 excavators in the amount of $177,267.16 each to be utilized by Jasper County for wildfire mitigation operations under the Wildfire Defense Grant.
Jasper County is hopeful that mitigation operations conducted through this grant will greatly reduce our vulnerability to large wildfires effecting homes, farms and residential areas while helping to reduce insurance increases for homeowners.
In other business, the Court heard from District Clerk Rosa Norsworthy, who presented her monthly criminal and civil fee reports, which the Court accepted.
Deputy County Treasurer Brenda Harding then presented the renewal contract for the 2025 Affordable Care Act reporting and tracking service provided by the Texas Association of Counties at no cost to Jasper County, which the Court approved. This is a federal mandate passed down to jurisdictions under the ACA.
Following this, I presented the annual continuing education and compliance certifications on behalf of County Treasurer Rene’ Ellis, which the Court approved.
The Court then discussed the flooring issues at the Kirbyville Sub-Courthouse in downtown Kirbyville and voted to authorize the County Judge’s Office to initiate the process of replacing aged carpet flooring within the building.
Concluding business, the Court then approved an extension of Jasper County’s local declaration of disaster under Hurricane Beryl to allow time for the completion of projects.
That covers it for this Court meeting. Have a great week, and as always, feel free to give me a call if you need anything my way.
Mark Allen, County Judge
Jasper County, Texas
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