Duff honored at retirement

The Grimes County Commissioners Court held a Regular Meeting Wednesday, July 24, and after 29 years of service, Elections Administrator (EA) Rebecca Duff bid farewell to ballots, JBCs, voter registration forms and a host of election workers she trained over the years.

Duff has served Grimes County’s electorate since 1990 when hired as a voter registration deputy in the county clerk’s office. In 2006 after the creation of the EA position, she was hired by the Grimes County Elections Board to fill that position. The board consists of the county judge, county clerk, county tax assessor and the chairmen of the Democrat and Republican parties.

Wednesday, County Judge Joe Fauth said, “This is a retirement award presented to Rebecca Duff, better known as Becky - ‘In appreciation for your 29 years of service and commitment to Grimes County. Your hard work and years of service is greatly appreciated.’”

Fauth continued, “Her job as our Elections Administrator has had a lot of ups and a lot of downs with elections, equipment and changes in the law – just one thing after another. Election laws are not very static. They tend to change on a very regular basis. I worked with Becky 12 years in another capacity. We’ve worked through special elections, runoff elections, general elections, primary elections…and none of us have gone to jail as a result of Becky running those elections. I think that’s an absolute positive.”

A teary-eyed Duff said, “I just want to thank God and all the people who worked so hard to support the elections and make Grimes County No. 1.”

Swipe machine for JPs

Commissioners approved the Master Agreement between Official Payments Corporation and Grimes County to provide credit card swipe machines for the county’s three justices of the peace.

According to Pct. 1 JP Chris Acord, online and phone payments have been available through Official Payments Corporation, but not the ability to swipe credit cards.

Acord said, “It’s really important for my office especially. We don’t have a bank in town. All we have is a post office and when people come in, they have to have a cashier’s check or money order to pay. The post office accepts only debit cards.”

The cost per office per machine is $120 with a $100 per office set up fee. Customers will pay the same $5.95 user fee charged for online and phone payments.

Silver award for tax

assessor’s office

Grimes County Tax Assessor and Collector Mary Ann Waters and staff were presented a Silver level recognition award from the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles (TxDMV) for their participation in the Performance Quality Recognition Program.

Whitney Brewster, Executive Director of TxDMV said, “Today we are here to recognize Mary Ann Waters and her staff for providing exemplary vehicle title and registration transactions here in the county. This well-earned achievement is something the county and your residents should be extremely proud of. It shows the commitment to outstanding performance and efficiency in performing these transactions and this makes a difference to people in your county.”

Other court action:

•Approved consent agenda items that included the Treasurer’s list of claims and bills, payroll, June 2019 monthly report and authorize advertisement of affidavit of same, budget amendments and/or line item transfers and the minutes as follows with corrections to June 26 and July 10: Workshop, June 13; Regular meeting, June 26; Workshop, June 26; Workshop, June 28; Special meeting, July 8; Workshop, July 8 and Regular meeting, July 10.

•Received a report from Chief Appraiser Mark Boehnke regarding the 2018 certified tax revenue.

•Approve out-of-state travel for Commissioner David Dobyanski to attend the Regional Leadership Conference at the White House July 25, 2019.

•Approved an Interlocal Agreement between the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles and the County Tax Assessor-Collector for equipment provided by the state and authorized the county judge as signatory.

•Approved the final plat for Anderson Ridge Subdivision, Phase II.

•Approved the annual payment of $10,140 for the Hart Intercivic Maintenance/ Extended Warranty for election equipment.

•Approved the Interlocal Contract between the Department of Information Resources and Grimes County for use of the DIR Shared Services Master Services Agreement.

•Tabled reclassifying Deputy Clerk Barbara Kimich from a Grade 4 to Grade 7 and title change to Chief Deputy Clerk pending budget workshop.

•Tabled action to adjust status from part-time to full-time and pay rate for County Court at Law clerk pending budget workshop.

•Approved authorization for Road & Bridge to seek bids for construction of a maintenance barn on FM 2445.

•Approved authoriza-Services, E9-1-1 Databases Maintenance Services, and authorized the county judge as signatory.

•Authorized the sale of 10.2 acres of county property with a 1,392 SF house at 6155 FM 2445.

•Commissioner David Dobyanski was absent from the meeting.

Burn ban

The burn ban was not reinstated.

Public comments:

•Grimes County Crime Stoppers president Bob Goldstein announced that Crime Stoppers is moving their monthly meeting to the first Thursday of each month. The next meeting will be held Thursday, Aug. 1.

tion for Road & Bridge to seek bids for the $489,000 CR 202 bridge project to be constructed under the 2015 General Land office-CDBG grant.

•Received a Road & Bridge report from Engineer Harry Walker that included updates on chip sealing, county parking restriping, ditch work, tree cleanup and removal. Walker met with prospective developers, and continues to work with FEMA on disaster reimbursement, Hurricane Harvey grant applications and pipeline monitoring.

•Approved the Interlocal Agreement between the Brazos Valley Council of Governments and Grimes County for E9-1-1 Public Safety Answers Point (PSAP)