Keene Star (Keene, Tex.), Vol. 19, No. 2, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 11, 2011 Page: 3 of 12
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Thursday, August 11, 2011
www.keenestar.net
Keene Star ★ 3
■ COMMISSIONERS COURT
Commissioners decide to repair steps at Guinn Justice Center
Sheriff's Services Center to be
named for Deputy Clifton Taylor
PAUL GNADT
keenestar@thestargroup. com
Johnson County commis-
sioners talked Monday about
changes at county facilities,
including new tiles on the
front steps at the Guinn Jus-
tice Center and a new name
for the Sheriffs Services Cen-
ter.
In the new business por-
tion of the agenda, purchas-
ing agent Margaret Cook
asked commissioners to
consider a bid for replacing
broken and loose tile on the
front steps of the Guinn Jus-
tice Center.
“The steps are in bad
shape,” Precinct 4 Com-
missioner Don Beeson said.
“Many of the tiles are loose
and you don’t know one is
loose until you step on it.”
It will take three weeks for
replacement tiles to arrive
and another two weeks for
them to be installed, public
works director Mike Walker
said.
“The intense heat is ru-
ining those stairs,” he said.
“There are broken tiles creat-
ing an uneven elevation, but
it will be mid-September un-
til they can be fixed.”
Because the security
screening station at the en-
trance is expensive to move,
visitors will have to enter
through another entrance
and be routed to the front
lobby to pass through the
scanner, Sheriff Bob Alford
said.
The cost to repair the steps
is estimated at $20,000, but,
“I may be able to fine tune it
to $16,000-$ 18,000,” Walk-
er said.
Beeson proposed declaring
an emergency under LocalG-
government Code 262 that
would enable Cook to bypass
the bid process and order the
replacement tiles immedi-
ately.
Beeson’s motion was sec-
onded by Precinct 3 Com-
missioner Jerry Stringer and
passed unanimously.
OK to seek bids for
document management
system
Also in the new business
portion of the agenda, com-
missioners supported a rec-
ommendation by ITT ser-
vices director Dan Milam
to seek bids for a document
management system that
would make it easier to store
and locate records.
The system will cost an es-
timated $80,000-$ 100,000,
Milam said.
“This will reduce costs in
others areas,” he said. “We
need to reduce electronic
waste. We have too much
electronic stuff now and the
pace is accelerating. This
will solve our records storage
problems because items are
indexed and easy to find.”
Tax abatement for Air
Liquide
Commissioners supported
a recommendation by John-
son County Economic De-
velopment Commission ex-
ecutive director Diana Miller
that Air Liquide Industrial
U.S., a tenant at Cleburne
Industrial Park, be granted
a 55 percent tax abatement
for six years because of new
construction and expansion
at the facility.
Air Liquide has been in
Cleburne since 1998 and em-
ploys 44 people, Miller said.
The company makes air gas-
ses for commercial and medi-
cal use.
The new unit will employ
three new personnel at a to-
tal annual salary of $ 190,000
and create jobs for 12 truck
drivers at a total annual sal-
ary of more than $1 million,
Miller said.
The $25 million expansion
project will begin in Septem-
ber and be finished at the end
of 2012, Miller said.
Precinct 1 Commissioner
Rick Bailey made a motion
to grant the tax abatement.
It was seconded by Precinct 2
Commissioner Troy Thomp-
son and passed unanimously.
No rain delays at
Emergency Operations
Center
In the unfinished busi-
ness portion of the agenda,
Alan Magee, architect for the
new emergency operations
center and new adult proba-
tion building, said there have
been no rain delays to inter-
rupt work at the emergency
operations center.
“The roofers start work
today,” Magee said. “Our
aluminum supplier went out
of business and was repur-
chased, so the delivery of
aluminum will be delayed a
little.”
Work on the adult proba-
tion building is about 60 per-
cent complete, Magee said.
Naming sheriff’s facility
for Deputy Clifton Taylor
will be Aug. 22
In other business, com-
missioners:
■ Tabled an item about
naming a facility at the sher-
iff’s office for Sheriff’s Deputy
Clifton Taylor.
Taylor, 31, of Burleson,
was killed by a gunman April
23 as Taylor and two other
Tax rate
CONTINUED FROM PG. 1
When the same rate was
set last year, it was the first
tax-rate increase in five
years. The total combined
rate for the 2009 tax year was
35.3379 cents, or a little more
than 35 cents, per $ 100 valu-
ation.
The combined rate in
2008 tax year was 35.9498
cents, or about 36 cents, per
$100 valuation, the single
largest tax reduction in coun-
ty history as the 2007 rate
was 40.9752 cents, about 5
cents higher.
The value of taxable prop-
erty in the county according
to the calculation required by
the tax code available to the
general fund budget is $10,
533,222,738 county tax col-
lector/assessor Scott Porter
said.
The taxable value of farm
to market lateral roads is
$ 10,586,255,184 Porter said.
This year’s effective tax rate
for the combined general fund
budget and road and bridge
budget is .402267 cents per
$100 valuation, county tax as-
sessor/collector Scott Porter
said.
The effective tax rate is a
calculated rate that would
provide the taxing unit with
about the same amount of
revenue it received the year
before on properties taxed
in both years, Porter said. If
property values rise, the ef-
fective tax rate will normally
go down and vice versa.
“The rollback tax rate is
the rate that provides the tax-
ing unit with about the same
about of tax revenue it spent
the previous year for day-to-
day operations, plus the tax
code allows an extra 8 per-
cent increase for those opera-
tions, in addition to sufficient
funds to pay debt in the com-
ing year,” Porter said.
The rollback rate is the
maximum rate allowed by
law without voter approval,
Porter said. If a rate is adopt-
ed that exceeds the rollback
rate, voters have the right to
circulate a petition calling for
a rollback election, he said.
The debt rate tax of
0.188 13 —almost 19 cents —
is the rate calculated to meet
the county’s debt obligation
which, according to County
Auditor J. R. “Kirk” Kirkpat-
rick, is $1,981,633, Porter
said.
PAUL GNADT/KEENE STAR
Burleson resident Betty Shelton, at lecturn, asked Johnson County Commissioners Monday to consider assigning money from gas
drilling companies to assist the Heart For Kids program that provides clothes, Christmas gifts, school supplies, shoes, and meals
for underprivileged families in the county.
deputies responded to a do-
mestic disturbance at a resi-
dence in rural Venus.
The agenda included items
naming the sheriff’s services
complex after Taylor, and the
emergency operations center
in his honor.
“I feel that since he worked
for the sheriff’s department,
naming the services com-
plex after him would be more
closely tied to his line of
duty,” County Judge Roger
Harmon said.
“I suggest the Clifton Tay-
lor Law Enforcement Cen-
ter,” Stringer said.
“I concur,” Alford said.
Bailey wondered if the
court has the blessing of Tay-
lor’s family to name a build-
ing in his honor.
“We do,” Alford said.
However, because the
agenda did not specifically
identify the renaming of the
sheriff’s services center as the
Clifton Taylor Law Enforce-
ment Center, the item was
tabled until Aug. 22 when the
agenda wording can be accu-
rate.
■ Decided not to accept
a recommendation by HEP
Acoustical Consultants Inc.
to improve acoustics in the
commissioners courtroom
for $59,000-$ 119,000.
Any work will have to be
approved by the Texas His-
torical Commission, Harmon
said.
Thompson moved to table
the item until other solu-
tions can be explored. It was
seconded by Beeson and ap-
proved unanimously.
■ Approved David J. Vese-
ly as a reserve deputy consta-
ble in Precinct 4.
Resident asks for
assistance from gas well
companies
In the public participation
portion of the agenda, Bur-
leson resident Betty Shelton
asked commissioners to con-
sider assigning money from
gas drilling companies to as-
sist Heart Lor Kids.
The HLK program pro-
vides clothes, Christmas
gifts, school supplies, shoes,
and meals for underprivi-
leged families.
The program, operated by
volunteers, offices in the Bur-
leson City Services Center.
“We need all the financial
help we can get,” Shelton
said.
The program does receive
assistance from the Johnson
County United Way and local
Walmarts, Shelton said.
Next meeting is Aug. 22
All commissioners were
present.
The next regularly sched-
uled meeting of the John-
son County Commissioners
Court will be 9 a.m. Monday,
Aug. 22, in the Commission-
ers Courtroom at the John-
son County Courthouse in
Cleburne.
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Gnadt, Paul. Keene Star (Keene, Tex.), Vol. 19, No. 2, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 11, 2011, newspaper, August 11, 2011; Burleson, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth804007/m1/3/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 3, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Burleson Public Library.