Commissioners recognize county telecommunicators

The Hays County Commissioners Court recognized public safety dispatchers by adopting a proclamation to declare April 10-16, 2022 as National Telecommunicators Week.

“Our communications operators are at the best of the best, they’re the ones that are behind the scenes, directing our officers on keeping them safe,” Hays County Sheriff Gary Cutler said. 

The commissioners also declared the week of April 10-16, 2022 as National Animal Care and Control Appreciation Week.

“It’s a very difficult, very strenuous job. With the number of citizens moving into the county, they’re bringing their animals and the population exploded with animals and you know, people not taking care of their animals and they’re running around.” Lt. Dennis Gutierrez said. “[Animal Control does]their best to try and get them reunited with their owner before they take them to the shelter.” 

The cities of Kyle and Buda Animal Control staff were present along with the Hays County Sheriff’s Department animal control. Gutierrez mentioned that the San Marcos Animal Control staff were not present due to short staffing.  

The Hays County Commissioners Court declared the week of April 10-16, 2022 as National Animal Care and Control Appreciation Week.

The court recognized the month of April as both Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month as well as Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention Month. 

“[Hays-Caldwell Women’s Center] staff and board would like to sincerely thank you for your time and effort in helping support the fight against child abuse and sexual assault,” said Pearl Gonzalez, HCWC Sexual Assault Counselor. 

April 24 - May 1, 2022, was declared Soil and Water Stewardship Week in Hays County by the court. 

“I appreciate the opportunity to be here and I thank you for consideration of this proclamation and look forward to working for you for the better of Hays County,  soil and water health in the future,” said Josh Storm, President of the Hays County Soil and Water Conservation District.  

During the meeting, Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra swore in Mark Wobus as Hays County Fire Marshal.

Following the presentations and proclamations, Tammy Crumley, Director of Countywide Operations gave an update on the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP).

According to Crumley, “We have disbursed an additional, estimated $300,000.” Crumley went on to say that there are 430 open tickets with 150 tickets pending for citizen completion, 40 under auditor’s review and 220 under caseworker review. 

Crumley added that she does a weekly check for two Justices of the Peace and that they ask if those on their docket have applied for the ERAP. 

Precinct 4 Commissioner Walt Smith asked how close the county was until running out of ERAP funding.

Assistant County Auditor, Vickie Dorsett answered, “As of today’s payment that were processed, we have made total payments of a little over $2.3 million, that leaves approximately $1.4 million in available funding, that does not include the contract for Adurra so we do have that $425,000 dollar encumbrance so we’ll just be under a million dollars for assistance, and that’s if we expand on the future funds.” 

Smith expressed that he wanted to provide clarity for those seeking assistance and that money will eventually run out. 

The commissioners went on to adopt a resolution to recognize the Texas Historical Commission’s Undertold historical marker in Kyle for the Vaqueros, Ranch Hands and Stock Raisers.

 The resolution speaks of the “long-forgotten cemetery for the vaqueros and ranch hands that served the once-thriving Blanco Community.”

Gina Alba-Rogers of the Council for the Indigenous and Tejano Community spoke of Pedro Veracruz and his family, recognizing and tying them to the origins of the Texas Republic and how they contributed to the Hays County area’s development. 

The court also had a discussion regarding the Hays County Sexual Assault Response Team (SART). 

Smith provided the court with a list of current individuals that are on that existing SART to review and assist in considering other individuals if needed. Becerra went on to suggest several names for consideration. 

“If you look in the statute, it actually lists out a representative of the highest individual in law enforcement and so I would leave it to those department heads to make those suggestions for those individual specified roles and then like I said, we already have people doing this I think it would be great to have additional individuals and I think that those recommendations would be great to take under advisement but I would not want to insert a political process of us appointing people to it,” Smith said. 

Smith emphasized wanting to individually reach out to current SART members for recommendations and guidance for the specified positions, appoint members and have SART members go back and review the team. 

“Judge, per your suggestion, you could have a list of other names that the court thinks maybe had some expertise in the area of some interest in the area and then once that SART is formed, then they can come back and say, you know just for an informational for court, ‘we’ve added these members because we believe they would help our functions,’” General Counsel, Mark Kennedy said. 

The court will look to finalize the names for the team and resolution during their next court meeting. 

To view the full meeting and agenda, visit https://hayscountytx.com/commissioners-court/court-video/.