County Gets Vehicle Impoundment Yard
At the request of Sheriff Keith Burnett, the Glasscock County Commissioners’ Court (Michael Hoch absent) on March 9 voted to create a vehicle impoundment yard for the county sheriff’s department use. The secured, three-acre facility will be located at the site of the old dump ground northeast of Garden City. A two-car carport and a chain link fence will be installed there as soon as possible. Until then, the department will temporarily use the north side of the county barn area for impoundment purposes.
Burnett said only abandoned vehicles or those seized as part of an arrest will be housed at the facility. He said the sheriff’s department will charge a per vehicle administrative fee of $30 plus $20 per day for impoundment. The county will pay wrecker towing fees, which must be repaid by the vehicle’s owner if the vehicle is retrieved from impoundment. If the vehicle is not retrieved by the owner within 40 days and receipt of proper notification, it becomes the property of the county and can be sold at a sheriff’s sale, and if not sold, can be crushed and sold for scrap metal. Title to vehicles at a sheriff’s sale is given by virtue of the sheriff’s sale itself.
Burnett said he doesn’t want a junkyard; he plans to move any impounded cars as quickly as possible, and will probably never have more than five or six on hand during any one period prior to disposition.
Abandoned vehicles now are taken to Cypert’s storage yard. Currently, Burnett said there are more than thirty vehicles there, having accumulated from 1999 to the present. He said James Cypert wants there to be a sheriff’s sale of them so he can recoup some of the money owed him for towing and storage.
Seidenberger, Jost Given Raises
The county court voted to raise Emergency Program Director Christy Seidenberger’s salary from $500 to $750 per month. Alan Dierschke told the court that the volunteer Emergency Medical Service group had asked that she be given the raise because of the increased hours now necessary for the job, and the overall good job she’s doing for the group. Burnett added, “She’s doing way more than a good job.”
The court also voted to give Marilee Jost a $550 per month raise in her job as County Judge Wilburn Bednar’s secretary, bringing that salary to $15,600.
According to County Treasurer Alan Dierschke, Oscar Trevino has resigned his job as custodian/grounds keeper, but is still working as the water system manager at a salary of $13,200 plus county benefits. The court has not hired anyone to fill the vacated job.
The commissioners’ court approved a road use maintenance agreement with CPV for their Rattlesnake Den Wind Turbine Project after a change in wording. The project, encompassing 33,000 acres located approximately eight miles south of Garden City on both sides of Highway 33, may not start until 2012, according to Michael Resca of CPV, due to congested transmission lines.
The court agreed with Dierschke that the county should look at alternate sources of risk management insurance due to “financial issues” with its provider, West Texas Rural Counties. He is to gather information so a decision can be made by July 1.