911 Calls Now Answered in Stanton
County Judge Wilburn Bednar reported to the Glasscock County Commissioners’ Court July 10 that the county’s 911 phone calls are now being handled by Martin County’s 911 personnel. They will activate Glasscock County’s Emergency Medical Service pagers and will call the Glasscock County Sheriff’s Office when there is a 911 call. Bednar said no EMS paging will be done from Glasscock County locations.
Commissioner Hugh Schafer said persons calling 911 should not hang up if the person answering says, “Martin County 911” instead of “Glasscock County 911,” until the personnel get accustomed to answering Glasscock County calls.
Veronica Schroyer was asked to explain an invoice she had sent the county. The invoice was in the amount of $180.50 for 19 hours, at $9.50 per hour, for part-time work as a jailer. It was accompanied by a time sheet signed by Schroyer and by Sheriff Royce “Booger” Pruit which covered the period from June 16 through June 30.
Commissioner Jimmy Strube said the jailer’s job is salaried, and not subject to hourly rates, but Schroyer replied that the $50 she is paid [twice monthly] for being a jailer is only “stand-by pay.”
When Strube asked who the other jailers are, Schroyer named Constable Leroy Hoelscher, Deputy Fred Schroyer, and Deputy Ken Zunker, but County Treasurer Alan Dierschke said Zunker receives no pay for jailer’s duty. There was no further discussion, and the commissioners each initialed the invoice, thus approving it for payment.
However later that week, commissioners Michael Hoch, Mark Halfmann and Schafer initialed a handwritten note on Schroyer’s invoice, which stated, “We resend [sic] this bill until approval by supervisor on 7-17-00.” Then on July 17, after a closed session at a special commissioners’ court meeting, the commissioners unanimously voted to rescind payment of the invoice. There was no public discussion of why the action to rescind was taken, but Schafer said it was because Sheriff Pruit had not approved payment of the invoice.
Contacted on July 18, Pruit said he did not approve hourly wages for V. Schroyer’s part-time work as a jailer. He said when he signed the time sheet, he mistakenly thought it was for time she had spent working with the 911 phone system. “I should have checked it closer,” he said. The time sheets, in use only a few weeks, show hours worked, but do not indicate what job was performed.
County Engineer Dan Glass estimated the cost for paving the Senior Citizens’ building parking lot to be $6,554. He also reported that recent tests for methane gas at the north landfill were negative.
Employee Insurance Discussed
The court discussed county employees’ health insurance, and heard proposals from four private insurance providers. At a special meeting July 17, they voted to have one of those providers, Mark White, check into getting active employees into an insurance group called West Texas School Cooperative. He was also asked to get information on: 1) providing Medicare supplement insurance for retirees who are over age 65, and 2) options for providing coverage outside the county’s group policy for other retirees. After the court has this information, they will make a final decision about a health insurance carrier in August.
At the July 17 meeting, Dierschke asked if the commissioners were considering any pay raises so he could prepare figures to be used in discussing next year’s budget. Schafer said raises shouldn’t be discussed until employee health insurance costs are determined. He said, for example, if the county decides to put $100 per employee per month into a medical savings account as part of their insurance benefit, that could be considered a raise.
At the request of Wanda Forbis, the court approved a raise from $20 to the state maximum of $25 for election judges. Forbis explained that the election judge in each precinct receives this compensation for picking up and delivering election supplies and for the responsibility of the polling place on election day. In addition, each judge is paid the state maximum hourly rate of $6.
The court appointed Ann Hoelscher, Doris Schwartz, Deanie Craft and Karen Cox as election judges for the upcoming bond election. Each election judge also has an alternate.
County Agents Steve Sturtz and Shirley Weeks reported on their office’s 4-H activities, ranging from stock shows, shooting sports, fashion and foods to programs aimed at developing character and leadership. They report success with all the activities and said participation in them is increasing.
The court will take bids for a new maintainer on Aug. 14.
Regular commissioners’ court meetings are at 9 a.m. on the second Monday of the month. All meetings are open to the public