Commissioners Establish Official Inventory

District and County Clerks Present Scholarship

By Will Johnson
Messenger Reporter

HOUSTON COUNTY – During the Houston County Commissioners Court meeting held on Tuesday. May 28, the commissioners approved the county’s official inventory and asset listing.

“This is the culmination of three years of work,” Houston County Auditor Melissa Jeter said as he directed the commissioners’ attention to a handout she had distributed.

“As you may recall, the outside auditor made a finding in the 2016 audit that we needed an updated depreciation schedule of our assets. The county needed to know what our assets were and how much we paid for them,” the auditor said.

Jeter indicated the court approved Records Consultants, Inc. to conduct a county wide inventory audit.

“They did a great job and then they came back in 2017 to confirm their results to make sure they didn’t miss anything. At that point, my office picked it up and ran with it. At the end of 2017, our outside auditor said we had $27, 600,000 in assets. Through a lot of work – and I want to give (First Assistant Auditor) Brittany Womack big kudos – this was someone else’s job but they left, but she took it and ran with it,” Jeter said.

Following a few more minutes of discussion, the official county inventory was approved by the commissioners.

As the meeting continue, an item concerning a contract between the county and a county property owner was brought forward. The contract called for the property owner to allow the county to use his land to dispose of and burn debris from county roads caused by tornado damage.

“We put in a STAR (State of Texas Assistance Request) request where debris was visible in Precinct Four. What the STAR request does is that it means TX DOT has agreed to come out and get the majority of the debris (off of the roads). Any agreement means the county has to come up with a debris site and maintain access to that site,” Commissioner Precinct Four Jimmy Henderson reported.

“I was having trouble coming up with a site that TCEQ (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality) would accept. I found a site from a local property owner in my precinct. He and I have worked out an agreement and TCEQ did come out and look at it. They approved it and now the next step is to (develop) a contract for us to be on his property,” Henderson said.

After a few more minutes of discussion, the contract was tentatively approved pending the county attorney’s review.

The final matter of business was the presentation of a scholarship to Chad Fulgham, a graduating senior from Lovelady High School.

The scholarship was presented by County Clerk Terri Meadows and District Clerk Carolyn Raines on behalf of the Northeast Texas County and District Clerk’s Region VI Association.

In other matters brought before the court:

The commissioners approved the minutes from previous meetings.
The payment of bills and expenses incurred by the county were approved.
The Houston County Compensatory Report was received as information by the commissioners.
Salaries for new and/or transfer employees were approved.
Donations from Proline Energy Resources and Outback Land and Timber, LLC were accepted by the court.
Payments for emergency road reconstruction on CR 2265 and CR 3050, along with payment for the hauling of limestone road base for CR 2130 were approved.
Citizens National Bank was selected as the county depository.

Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].