County receives rural grant money from state

• Com Court: The DeWitt County Commissioner’s Court proclaims next week “Soil & Water Stewardship Week.” Members of the Soil and Water Conservation District are shown behind Judge Fowler (L to R) Finley Frels, Curis Koenig and Leo Heineman. (Staff photo)
• Nordheim ISD board member Pamela Remmers addresses the court about her concerns with the upcoming school election. (Staff photo)

The DeWitt County Commissioner’s Court got one step closer to re-routing FM 240 in Westoff away from the school area at their regular meeting Monday. They also amended the budget to accept increases for the County Attorney and Sheriff’s offices coming from state grants.

Judge Fowler said the FM 240 re-route was a project 14 years in the making. “We need to get gold shovels for that groundbreaking,” he said.

In October of 2023, DeWitt County entered an Advance Funding Agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation, to release $687,370 for the process to begin. Since this was after the budget approval, the court needed to approve the expenditure.

Fowler warned, however, that TxDOT is advising him that bids have been coming in higher than the allotted amount and a bit more funding may be needed.

In the public comments time, Nordheim ISD board member Pamela Remmers expressed surprise and concern over late notification of the ballot and election costs in the upcoming school election.

In items 8 and 9 of the agenda, commissioners approved the increase of the budget for the County Attorney ($175,000) and the Sheriff’s Office ($370,000) to accept state grants for rural law enforcement.

The commissioners also approved the addition of two new members of the De-Witt County Historical Commission: Dr. Cynthia Orozco and Tincia Seginski.

They also proclaimed the week of April 28 through May 4, 2024 “Soil & Water Stewardship Week.”

Since the next regular meeting would fall on the Memorial Day holiday, the court rescheduled for May 30 at 9 a.m.