V Hugh Lewis II/Jefferson Jimplecute
Last week’s power outage was the main topic of discussion for Commissioners during their regular meeting on Monday.
“We’re waiting on the federal government to declare a national disaster area,” said Marion County Judge Leward LaFleur. “The minimum for that to happen is to have $54 million in damages. I’m sure that we’re there between property, business, and food losses, but we’ve got to report it.”
Texas Department of Emergency Management (TDEM) updated their online damage reporting tool to include additional types of damage and it’s causes. Residents are encouraged to fill out the form to help TDEM determine the extent of the damages. It is available at: https://bit.ly/3PA0Mo0
On Tuesday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) received federal approval for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients in a dozen Texas counties to apply for replacement benefits for food lost or destroyed in severe storms occurring June 14-16.
SNAP recipients residing in the following counties are eligible to receive replacement benefits: Camp, Cass, Franklin, Gregg, Harrison, Marion, Morris, Ochiltree, Panola, Titus, Upshur, and Wood.
Eligible Texans can request replacement food benefits by dialing 2-1-1 and selecting option 8 or by downloading Form H1855 (Affidavit for Nonreceipt or Destroyed SNAP Benefits) on the HHSC website. Completed forms should be mailed to Texas Health and Human Services Commission, P.O. Box 149027, Austin, TX, 78714-9027, or faxed to 1-877-447-2839.
SNAP recipients with food lost or destroyed by the storms on June 14-16 must apply for replacement benefits by July 14. Replacement benefits will be placed on recipients’ Lone Star Cards within two business days. More information is on HHSC’s website: https://bit.ly/42ZoRHJ
An unexpected consequence of the outage was the County Auditor’s office discovered their ability to print checks was disrupted. County Auditor B.J. Westbrook told Commissioners that there were $64,517.16 in bills she was looking at having to write manual checks for if the software company didn’t rectify the problem quickly. She requested Commissioners allow staff members from other offices come to help the situation.
Commissioners approved the request.
As of press time the system was on track to be operating properly by the time checks were due.
LaFleur also added that there were additional packs of MRE’s available for residents without the resources to quickly replace lost food items and he encouraged Commissioners to carry a box of them in their vehicles so they could be easily distributed when needed.
Commissioner Jacob Pattison told the court he would be extending the hours of his dump location for another week to allow for disposal of brush and food items due to the limited hours of his location.
LaFleur also commended the ability of local officials to work together during the emergency.
“I’d like to personally commend the [Commissioners], elected officials and people [of the county] for the work they did,” said LaFleur. “I think the events of last week really shined a light on this community and how we help each other out. The City and County worked together to actually do things for the people in this community instead of bickering over jurisdiction,” said LaFleur. “It was a really cool thing to experience. We did things together and that’s something that’s never happened to this extent before.”
LaFleur said a postmortem on the event is being planned. The event will be a public forum as well as discussion on what was learned and how the City and County can work to mitigate a future emergency situation like this. More details on that event is pending.
In other business, Commissioners tabled two items relating to the collection of unpaid fines and fees due the County.
Currently i3-Bearcat, LLC, or Graves Humphries & Stahl LTD or NetData holds the contract to do collections of the fees. Their contract expires September 30, 2023.
Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson, LLP, has submitted a proposed contract to take over the collection services for the county.
“We’re a larger firm and can bring more resources to the table [to collect the fees],” said Staci Killingsworth of Linebarger.
The County tabled both the new contract, and cancelling the existing one with NetData, until Assistant County Attorney Bill Gleason has completed reviewing it.
Commissioners will meet again on Monday, July 3, to begin working on the 2024 Budget.