Order Closing West End Of CR 3602 Approved
Hopkins County officials plan to get ahead of heating and air conditioning repair needs in the future with a preventive maintenance program.
After having issues with air conditioning units in more than one county office, Hopkins County Commissioners Court asked a business to go through county buildings to make recommendations for air conditioning maintenance issues. A preventive maintenance plan was recommended.
The matter was discussed by the court during a work session Monday morning, Dec. 14. At the regular Dec. 21 meeting, the Commissioners Court approved a preventive agreement with Williams Air Conditioning and Heating to check and maintain HVAC units in County building throughout Hopkins County and to recommend repairs if needed.
“The amount for the entire county would be $9,728 the first year, plus $26,088 for the rest of the years, for a total of approximately $35-$36,000 to maintain this. Through our studies, we actually believe this is going to pay us back because the machinery will wear out less. We will maintain it better,” Hopkins County Judge Robert Newsom said.
Hopkins County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Tanner Crump said a quote for another company offering a similar product for the jail that was $10,000. Williams’ quote was substantially less than that of his competitors, who have been used. The jail’s portion of the quote from Williams would be $2,500.
“It’s not just on repairs and maintenance but its on efficiency of the machine that’s operating,” Precinct 3 Commissioner Wade Bartley pointed out.
“We’ve never taken this step before of having a plan to maintain AC and heating. We think it will save money in the long run. This will be watched much more carefully than we’ve done in the past. Generally, we’ve waited until there was a problem, then reacted to it. The idea is to maintain what we have and try to make the equipment last longer,” Hopkins County Judge Robert Newsom said following the Dec. 14 work session.
Newsom on Nov. 21 reported that historically, each county department has “kind of been on their own.” With no preventive maintenance plan in place, some equipment was serviced or routine maintenance attended. He named the many AC repairs required for the sheriff’s office, where new units were installed when the new jail facility was constructed as an example. He said in one instance, it was discovered that a filter on a unit had not been changes in four years. Luckily, the issue was discovered and the filter replaced, with no additional damage to the AC unit, the judge noted.
“The expertise to maintain this commercial air conditioning and heating equipment has been lacking. So we are considering a maintenance agreement for every county building and every county air conditioner in the County [buildings].
The program is anticipated to save Hopkins County 18-22 percent on AC/heating repairs overall annually, and after five years will have paid for itself in saved maintenance costs, Newsom said.
Road Closure
Also during the Dec. 21 meeting, the Commissioners Court approved closure of a section of County Road 3602. The matter was raised at the Nov. 23 Commissioner Court meeting but tabled until Dec. 21 as all steps required to consider a road closure had not been fully completed.
Those steps include getting a petition signed by a certain number of property owners in the same precinct and identifying using Appraisal District records “abutting landowners.” Letters must be also be obtained from any emergency district, school district, utility district and the county fire department that would indicate no objections to the road closure. Once all other terms are met the proposal may then be submitted to Hopkins County Commissioners Court for consideration. A notarized affidavit of certificate of posting must be displayed at the courthouse and two other places in the vicinity of the affected route.
Bartley at the November meeting told the other members of the court that he had discovered when reviewing the paperwork that the notice had not been posted for 20 days on site. He said he’d have the document notarized and posted for 20 days before its brought back to the court for consideration to approve the order closing a portion of CR 3602.
The Precinct 3 Commissioner reported the request was to close the last 400 or so feet at the west end of the dead end road, where the land owner now owns the property on both sides of CR 3602 and wanted to close it.
The request received unanimous approval from the Commissioners Court.
Additional items
Hopkins County Tax Assessor/Collector Debbie Mitchell was recognized for successfully completing 14 hours of educational training during the VG Young School to Tax-Assessor Collectors hosted by the VG Young Institute of County Government in Waco Nov. 10-12.
The Commissioners Court also approved a request from Farmers Electric Cooperative for utility easements to construct electrical power distribution facilities across Cou8nty Road 1130, half a mile northeast of CR 3218 in Precinct 1.
