Energy companies will pay for some county road repairs
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Last updated 3/4/2014 at Noon
Some roads in Orange County will soon be repaired courtesy of the energy industry.
The Orange County Commissioners' Court approved adopting the Orange County Energy Transportation Reinvestment Zone board members, creating a reinvestment zone and adopting a project priority list at their regular meeting Tuesday afternoon.
Jody Crump, Precinct 4 commissioner, informed the court the State of Texas is doling out $225 million in funds to the counties to repair road damages created by the energy sector. Heavy oil and gas trucks damaging roadways, for instance.
Orange County was slated to originally receive $488,000 in funding, but due to some counties not receiving funding from the state, Orange County will now receive anywhere from $2.6 million to $3 million.
The zone advisory board members will consist of Holly Petrie who is a RE/MAX real estate agent, Ira Graham who has a background in studying rivers and streams and Chad Cassell who is a pipeline and refinery engineer.
Some of the possible roads that are candidates for repair with the funds are as follows:
Woodland Ride Road
South Teal Road
Trainer Road
N. Bilbo Road
Tulane Road
Gilbert Road
Bessie Heights Road
Church House Road
S. Mansfield Road
W. Hoo Hoo Road
Duhon Road
Lakeview Road
N. Tram Road
In other county business, Gene Smith, veteran's service officer, requested $3,000 in a line item transfer for overtime salaries since the office is shorthanded.
County Judge Carl Thibodeaux suggested the amount for overtime salaries be $1,000 instead for emergency purposes. Smith would also need pre-approval from the commissioners court to request the overtime.
The motion passed.
Commissioners approved the Texas Department of Transportation's offer to give the county 1,447 cubic yards of recycled asphaltic pavement under the 2014 Local Government Assistance Program.
The material is currently stockpiled on Highway 73 in Taylor's Bayou. Clark Slacum, county engineer, reported the material is worth $15 per cubic yard and TxDOT is giving away $21,000 worth of material.
During the comments section of the meeting, Crump urged people to vote in the primary, in spite of the cold and wet weather.
John Banken, Precinct 3 commissioner, said he wanted to thank county department heads for working through vacancies in their departments.
™I want to thank you for being team players. We'll come out of this (budget shortfall) a better county,∫ he said.
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