1st of 2 county tax rate hearings held

By Melinda L. Lucas

Shackelford County conducted the first of two public hearings along with moving through a few other pieces of business on Monday morning, Sept. 16.

The hearing was required as part of the county’s plan to set a tax rate of 58.91 cents per $100 valuation, which is the highest option without a rollback election, even though it’s actually less than the current year’s tax rate of 61.51 cents.

The second public hearing is set for this Friday, Sept. 20 at 9:00 a.m. in the courtroom of the Shackelford County Courthouse.

The commissioners plan to vote on both the tax rate and a proposed $4,329,454 budget at a special meeting on Sept. 30.

Damaged Bridge

The elected officials continued to discuss possibilities to repair the “cracked skirting” on a bridge on CR 179.

County judge Bob Skelton plans to check with a TxDOT engineer to get input about how to write specifications for the bidding process.

Precinct 2 commissioner Ace Reames, where the bridge is located, agreed with other commissioners that the rebar used in the repair work should be steel, not wire mesh.

Since it is believed that the bridge damage originated from October 2018 flooding, Skelton will also see about the availability of federal funding for the repair. 

The cracks were discovered only recently because they are not readily visible from the roadway.

Rock Hill School

Skelton reported that county attorney Colton Johnson is proceeding with a title search for the Rock Hill School site near Lueders, where Shackelford County elections for Precinct 4 voters have been held for decades.

It is not clear at this point who actually owns the abandoned school property, and because the building is rapidly deteriorating, the county needs to make repairs in order to continue using it as a voting site.