Washington County commissioners approve courthouse emergency repairs, EMS parking lot and purchasing agreement; hear sheriff and clerk reports

Washington County Commissioners Court met Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025, and approved an emergency contract for courthouse life‑safety repairs, awarded an EMS parking lot contract and voted to join a statewide purchasing cooperative while receiving monthly reports from the sheriff and county clerk.

The court approved a contract with Phoenix 1 Restoration and Construction LLC for life‑safety repairs at the county courthouse after county staff and the project architect identified additional work needed when crews began removing exterior stone. Commissioners were told change orders related to stacked granite lintels and a mock repair of a basement window add roughly $27,000 to the project, and the Texas Historical Commission declined to fund that additional work. Project manager Mister Hanna said the county will fund the extra cost. Hanna told the court, “There’s no more funding from the Texas Historical Commission. The funding that we got was an emergency funding, and there are no more dollars.” Commissioners approved the contract by voice vote.

The court awarded the EMS parking lot project to Concrete Solutions LLC for $79,800. County staff said the cost will be paid from highway acquisition funds set aside after a Highway 290 widening project removed part of the original parking area. Commissioners voted to award the contract by voice vote.

Separately, the court voted to reject all bids for construction of EMS Station 6 because of insufficient response and to re‑advertise the project. The court also approved a permit for Magnolia Oil and Gas Operating LLC to use Homar Mountain Road (permit materials include the roadway name as submitted) in Precinct 4; staff reported the company met bonding and permitting requirements and recommended approval.

On procurement, the court approved a master/local agreement to join the North Central Texas Council of Governments purchasing cooperative, giving Washington County access to the Texas SmartBuy/TexasShare program contracts. The court also approved accounts payable totaling $311,909.16.

In presentations, Sheriff Holloway delivered the sheriff’s monthly report and warned of a local increase in scams. He said the office is seeing “phishing scams” and impersonation calls and emphasized that the sheriff’s office “will not ask for money over the telephone.” Holloway also reviewed January jail and patrol statistics, including an increase in officer‑initiated traffic enforcement and an unscheduled inspection by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards that the sheriff said the jail passed.

County Clerk Martha Melville presented monthly and annual records statistics. Key figures in her report: 7,013 official public‑records filings in 2024, about 403 births recorded for the year, 317 deaths and 243 marriage licenses. She reported a drop in plats (40 filed for the year) and said guardianship filings remain around 276 active cases. Melville noted official‑records filing volumes remain below the 2021–22 peak.

Elections Administrator Miss Jackson reported voter registration totals for the county at about 25,068 registered voters and said roughly 820 of those are currently in suspense (addresses requiring verification). Jackson briefed the court on election planning for several local elections this spring, including an Emergency Services District special election May 3 that she estimated will involve about 3,300–3,500 eligible voters; she said the office adjusted street/master‑list coding to ensure eligible voters are correctly assigned to the special election.

Other routine agenda items — including approval of pending contracts for Washington County Expo events and routine departmental reports (auditor, tax assessor‑collector, treasurer, constable, veterans service officer) — were approved by the court. The meeting adjourned after the votes.