ATHENS —
The start of fiscal year 2012 for Henderson County began with fine tuning of several activities from 2011, which included the county’s redistricting, finalizing the move into the Henderson County Annex and finishing work on the new county phone system.
By the end of the first quarter, work commenced on the most challenging issue facing Henderson County in 2012 — the 2013 county budget.
Throughout most of 2011, Commissioners Court worked on redistricting Henderson County, a process required by state law every 10 years. When redistricting was finalized in 2012, Commissioners Court had reduced the Justice of the Peace and constable precincts from six to five and reduced Henderson County voting precincts from 31 to 27 voting boxes at 26 locations.
The move into the Henderson County Annex was complete in early 2012, moving county offices into the former Prosperity Bank building. The move was completed with very little expense to the county, as the county utilized the building in its current form and made the space work without any renovations to the building.
Commissioner Ken Geeslin led a project in obtaining a new phone system for county offices, as part of the County Annex move. Geeslin, working with Henderson County’s Information Technology (IT) Department, was able to replace the existing outdated phone system with a modern system and provide phones for the new County Annex and the entire county’s Athens campus. The county immediately benefited in cost savings. When the system is paid in 2014, the county will realize cost savings in excess of $60,000 per year. Over the life of the equipment a total of $632,000.00 will be saved as compared to previous cost of phones used by the county.
The county budget process started when the County Judge’s Budget was submitted in July of 2012, and the process was not complete until the budget was passed by Commissioners Court in September 2012. With property values holding steady to slightly declining, and with a steep decline in out-of-county inmates, a shortage in projected revenues of approximately $600,000 was created. Each line item in the county’s budget was closely scrutinized. When streamlining of the county budget was completed, the Commissioners Court in a combined effort with other elected officials and department heads had reduced the county’s budget in the amount of approximately $1,200,000 and had balanced the budget without raising taxes.
Commissioner Ronny Lawrence should be commended for his work on the insurance committee, holding down insurance costs, and Commissioners McKinney and Geeslin for their work on the McKinney/Geeslin report. The report compared the last five years of increased costs to revenues and was helpful in looking at the 2013 budget challenge and future county budgets.
After many months of evaluation in the IT Committee, the Commissioners Court approved the purchase and installation of new audio/visual equipment in three courtrooms. Additionally, the county’s IT Committee started the laborious task of reviewing Judicial Software packages to replace the aging Able Term Judicial Software, which will cease to be supported by the vendor in 2014. The county hosted several workshops with two possible software vendors, so the Judicial Package software users could provide input and suggestions.
The Commissioners Court worked with the Henderson County Appraisal District in its obtaining of Pictometry Aerial Imagining & ERSI Mapping Software. These incentives will have great benefit to the Henderson County 911, Sheriff’s Department, volunteer fire departments and to county commissioners. The software is expected to be implemented in 2013.
The Year of 2012 came to a close with the retirement of Commissioner Joe Hall. Henderson County Commissioners Court would like to congratulate Hall on his retirement after serving 12 years on the court.
Richard Sanders has been Henderson County’s county judge since 2010.
Opinion
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Richard Sanders
Discussion
GUEST COLUMN: 2012 was a year of challenges, growth
- Opinion
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JEFF RIGGS: I'll cherish every second of our first 25 years
Twenty-five years is a long time to do just about anything. At least that is true with many things.
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5/24 MAIL CALL: Yes, I know it’s too late, but ...
We now know more about the lowliest Tea Party member than we do about our current President. I know, I know, “It’s too late now.”
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5/23 MAIL CALL: Maybe a ‘thank you’ would be nice, Mr. President
When President Obama went on his famous apology tour four years ago I had to wonder if, after apologizing to world leaders for America’s innate, all-encompassing rottenness, did he happen to stop off at any of the 19 American military cemeteries located in England, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Italy where the remains of tens of thousands of America’s bravest lie beneath the surface?
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KATHI NAILLING: I’m not ready to retire just yet — I’m just thinking about it
Retire? Who retires? I have reached that age where retirement could be part of my future. Too many times I hear my friends say I can’t afford to retire.
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5/18 MAIL CALL: Patriots, or traitors?
The supposedly patriotic racist white supremacist and radical secessionist groups, the Glen Beckian, (fired by Faux News for his off-the-cliff conspiracies) and the NRA/Gun Lobby sheeples who all claim that background checks on guns favored by 90 percent of Americans would violate the second amendment, and, if enacted, would start a “culture war!”
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EDITORIAL: Seizure of phone records an insult to free press
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
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RICH FLOWERS: The Splash Pad will be an asset to Athens, not a drain
The long, hot, summer is about to set in and there will be plenty of dog days between now and the time the Splash Pad opens.
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5/17 MAIL CALL: You might want to check those ‘numbers’ again
My thanks to our congressman who stood up for the Second Amendment. They obviously read the proposed background check bill and determined that it was a “feel good” bill that would not have prevented the shootings at Newton, Tucson or Aurora.
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MAIL CALL: Are the facts becoming inconvenient truths?
I read with interest an article in the Dallas Morning News, May 8, 2013, concerning gun crime over the past 20 years.
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JOE ELERSON: I’m still amazed at the superhuman feats of mothers
This Sunday marks another day where we give special attention to the mothers in our lives for all they have done to make us the men and women that we are today.
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