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by John Hallowell

County Judge Wayne Brascom announced at the county commissioners meeting on Monday morning that FEMA has "delayed any decision" on the new floodplain map, pending further study on historical high-water marks and elevations. The decision seems linked to extensive research and documentation of high-water marks by Castell resident Patty Pfister, and to the county’s decision to have selected cross-sections of the Llano River surveyed to provide more specific data to FEMA. Pfister has located 90 high-water marks along the river: approximately 35 from the devastating 1935 flood, and about 65 from the 1997 deluge. She continues to work with engineer Wes Birdwell and County Surveyor Fred Thompson to provide a more realistic picture of flooding risks in western Llano County.

Among other items of county business, the commissioners also voted to continue the burn ban during the current hot, dry weather, and announced that construction has begun on the communications towers ordered by the Department of Homeland Security two years ago. The court passed four of five resolutions on the agenda, designating September as National Preparedness Month and October 4-8 as Lawsuit Abuse Awareness Week, supporting the Texas Department of Agriculture’s Home-Delivered Meal Grant Program (Meals on Wheels), and urging the state legislature to re-consider cuts in the budget of the Hill Country MHMR budget. The court voted to table a proposed resolution that would support the Hill Country Telephone Co-op’s application to the PUC for expanded area service. Commissioner Jerry Don Moss will try to get more information before a future vote.

Judge Brascom warned that several proposed cuts in the state budget could affect the county. One example he gave was the indigent health care program, which he told the court, "we have managed well." The state currently asks counties to obligate eight percent of their budgets for indigent health care; it may soon ask counties to forfeit the unused portions of that percentage. Llano County has never spent more than six percent on indigent health care, and has a reserve of approximately $500,000.\

Constable Bill Edwards (Pct. #3) attended the meeting to request $4,200 in next year’s budget to purchase a "thermal viewer" for use around the county. He called the purchase "an officer safety issue," and told the court that the tool would enable law officers to find suspects hidden in heavy brush, whether in daylight or after dark. Judge Wayne Brascom explained that capital expenditures were considered on a "case-by-case" basis, and that other peace officers had felt that the thermal viewer would rarely be needed. The item will be re-considered at the next meeting.

The commissioners voted to accept donations of 25 trees from the LCRA (for planting at the Llano County Park, the new J.P. #2 office,or other county property) and $20,000 worth of material for seal-coating streets at Paradise Point. Judge Brascom reported that the county’s architect was re-evaluating a high initial estimate for construction of the new Justice of the Peace office in Precinct #2, that construction has begun at the communications tower site on the Leverett property (off County Road 312), and that the county had received a bid for construction of a road to the Lookout Mountain site, near Kingsland, which finally last week was approved by the FCC.