June 27, 2016 Kerr County Texas Commissioners meeting minutes:
- recognition that warning system (then and now) "not reliable";
- that they have a duty to the public;
- that with more "camps" etc. a reliable warning system needed,
- but siren alarm system "a little extravagant for Kerr County".
- Commissioner Baldwin pissed off that funds for road--"I helped build the damn thing."--would be diverted for this "pie-in-the-sky" "sirens" thing; "damn sirens going off":
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19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Commissioners, the
20 early warning system, do y'all have any idea how much
21 money you're talking about?
22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's in for this next
23 budget year. The first thing to do would be to have an
24 -- two things, have a grant administrator, which would
25 cost nothing to do that, and then to have an engineering
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12 And probably -- this needs looking at probably for the
13 entire County we may be talking about a million dollar
14 thing because we got so many other tributaries and
15 creeks and things that may need sensors. But, you know,
16 that will be a long term thing. So this next budget
17 year, probably talking about anywhere from the county's
18 expenditures maybe $20,000, I would guess.
19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You know we had a
19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Commissioners, the
20 early warning system, do y'all have any idea how much
21 money you're talking about?
22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's in for this next
23 budget year. The first thing to do would be to have an
24 -- two things, have a grant administrator, which would
25 cost nothing to do that, and then to have an engineering
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12 And probably -- this needs looking at probably for the
13 entire County we may be talking about a million dollar
14 thing because we got so many other tributaries and
15 creeks and things that may need sensors. But, you know,
16 that will be a long term thing. So this next budget
17 year, probably talking about anywhere from the county's
18 expenditures maybe $20,000, I would guess.
19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You know we had a
20 baby flood a couple weeks ago, a month or so, whatever
21 it was. And I keep hearing these reports of the old,
21 it was. And I keep hearing these reports of the old,
Buster liked the old, word-of-mouth system, blah, blah, blah
22 old system, and I know we're not going to deal with that
23 though. Expect that to be gone where the Jones call the
24 Smiths, and the Smiths call Camp Rio Vista, and Rio
25 Vista blah, blah, blah, along down the line. But it's
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1 still there and it still works. The thought of our
2 beautiful Kerr County having these damn sirens going off
3 in the middle of night, I'm going to have to start
4 drinking again to put up with y'all.
5 COMMISSIONER MOSER:
12 It worked this
13 long and maybe we don't need to do a thing. 🤷♂️And then it
14 gets into the thing we talk about earlier today, and
15 that's risk mitigation. And you know there's still
16 people drowned and you know --
Notify crazy, Houston people? Not Buster!
17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And I hope you ask
18 the question like who are we notifying, or who are we
19 trying to get the message to? Are they these crazy
20 people from Houston that build homes right down on the
21 water?
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7 Their assessment was what existed today, and
8 the Sheriff may want to comment on it, is antiquated and
9 it's not reliable.
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1 County as far as camps, RV parks, ...
...
JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. I'll call also 1.32
15 consider, discuss and take appropriate action regarding
16 submission of a hazard mitigation grant application to
17 provide the County with a Flood Warning System to be
18 known as the Kerr County Flood Warning System.
...
COMMISSIONER LETZ: My gut feeling on this
25 is, it's kind of an odd way to say this, but I think we
Odf thing to say that we have a duty to the public!
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1 have a duty to look at what we have, we are very flood
2 prone, we know that. Probably Precinct 4 has most risk
3 of the public out there.
...
And especially since
10 we have a warning system out there that may or may not
11 work.
...
17 I know with one flood that we had earlier in the year,
18 by the time you got the warnings going off, it had been
19 too late. ...
...
I just don't see how we will
8 ever have enough money to put monitors on all the low
9 water crossings we have. I mean they're everywhere.
10 And who knows where it's going to rain. ...
...
JUDGE POLLARD: There is. Any further
16 comments? I hope not. Or discussion?
17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I have one. I'm
18 going to vote no because of numerous reasons. I think
19 this whole thing is a little extravagant for Kerr
20 County, and I see the word sirens and all that stuff in
21 here.
...
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN:
...
7 I helped build the damn thing [a road]. It's for projects that
8 you oversee and you run. It's like if it's going to add
9 on to a road, or help build a road, or you know special
10 project that's not necessarily specifically budgeted, is
11 what that's for. And to take that and move it over into
12 a pie in the sky thing, it really disturbs me a lot.
...
COMMISSIONER MOSER:
...with what's been
20 going on with flooding, like what we're seeing today,
21 okay. Today in Floresville and all had 9 inches of rain
22 yesterday. We know it's happening in Louisiana. And I
23 think that this area is one of the highest flood -- one
24 of the highest probability areas for flash floods that
25 exists, okay, with -- probably within I don't know,
8 you oversee and you run. It's like if it's going to add
9 on to a road, or help build a road, or you know special
10 project that's not necessarily specifically budgeted, is
11 what that's for. And to take that and move it over into
12 a pie in the sky thing, it really disturbs me a lot.
...
COMMISSIONER MOSER:
...with what's been
20 going on with flooding, like what we're seeing today,
21 okay. Today in Floresville and all had 9 inches of rain
22 yesterday. We know it's happening in Louisiana. And I
23 think that this area is one of the highest flood -- one
24 of the highest probability areas for flash floods that
25 exists, okay, with -- probably within I don't know,
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1 within the nation, but certainly within the State.
1 within the nation, but certainly within the State.