Aransas County Commissioners approve emergency screwworm resolution, tax exemption increase and multiple routine items

Aransas County Commissioners Court on a series of unanimous votes approved a resolution asking federal and state authorities to act on the New World screwworm threat, adopted a higher residential homestead exemption, authorized contracts and routine administrative actions, and tabled one personnel-policy update.

Resolution on New World screwworm The court adopted Resolution R-22-2025, which the record describes as “requesting that the state of Texas and the federal government take immediate action to combat the spread of an invasive insect known in the record as the New World screwworm.” The resolution, read into the record, calls on the president and federal agencies to expedite production and distribution of ivermectin dry premix, to convert federal facilities to breed sterile screwworm flies, and to urge USDA and FDA emergency authorization for certain feed premix. The motion passed unanimously; Commissioners Cheney, Castorlein, Russo, Dupnik and County Judge voted Aye.

Other votes and approvals - Order O-06-2025: Abandon and vacate a 20-foot platted alleyway in Block 269, the Manning Addition — approved, unanimous. - Contract for architectural services for the aquarium project with Garza Bomburger and Associates; county judge authorized to execute documents — approved, unanimous. - (Item 5 covered in separate article) Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program required for Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) airport grants — the court authorized the county judge to sign the DBE program and designated the county contracts procurement specialist as the DBE liaison officer; the court amended the administrative-reconsideration officer to be the county auditor’s office (recorded as a position, not a specific name) — approved, unanimous. (See separate article for full discussion.) - Order No. 0072025: Adopt additional homestead exemption pursuant to Texas Tax Code §11.13; commissioners amended the motion to set the exemption at 5% and approved it unanimously. County staff said raising the exemption to 5% would reduce the county’s taxable value by about $100,000,000 under current appraisals and that the no-new-revenue tax rate process will absorb the change. - Memorandum of understanding with the City of Rockport to place a city drop box on county property (city to procure and install box; city responsible for installation costs) — approved, unanimous. County staff and city representatives discussed timing relative to acceptance of the community center project and urged coordination on signage and transfer procedures for misdirected items. - Items 8–10 (stormwater interlocal and engineering selection) — approved (covered in separate article). - Indigent Health Care report for May 2025 (presented by the treasurer/indigent health staff): accepted, unanimous. Staff said indigent-health reimbursements from Medicaid contributed modestly to the fund and that year-to-date spending remains within budgeted levels. - Personnel and administrative matters: approved a new job description for a court manager position (to give a path for promotion), approved a two-step pay increase for the court manager upon completion of a certified court manager program, approved an updated hazard communication policy (with minor edits requested), tabled proposed updates to the county employee handbook to allow additional review, and approved holiday schedules for county offices and the transfer station for 2026 — all votes recorded as unanimous where taken. - Finance: The court approved the May auditors’ monthly report, accepted payroll and accounts-payable items presented, and approved the accounts/payroll/payroll-liability list; commissioners also approved listed budget line items (no new items presented at time of vote). Several invoices of note were discussed during accounts-payable review (outside counsel invoices and capital-project invoices for ongoing capital work).

What was not approved or deferred - The item to update the county employee handbook was tabled at the request of a commissioner to allow more review time; the motion to table passed unanimously.

Ending: The court closed with routine reports and then recessed to a closed session on a separate real-property negotiation item; no public action on that closed-session item was recorded when the court returned and adjourned.