Cleaning up illegal dump

It started with some grim news about a local museum and great news from local gardeners.

Then Ector County Commissioners allocated money on Monday for a new emergency paging system for volunteer firefighters before approving the use of existing money for hazardous waste cleanup at several sites throughout the county.

Commissioners voted 3-1 in favor of allocating more than $11,000 toward the purchase of a new 911 emergency alert paging system for the West Odessa, South Ector County, Gardendale and Goldsmith volunteer fire departments.

The court also heard from Lettie England, curator of the Presidential Museum, who asked the county to write a check for $25,000 for the struggling facility, which she said has entered "dire financial straits."

"I cannot state clearly enough the severity of this situation," she told the four commissioners in attendance.

County Judge Susan Redford sympathized with England's plight, but informed her there was little the county could do to help the museum without a prior budget allocation. She asked England to submit a request for October's budget.

"As for your immediate needs," Redford said, "I wish we could do more to help you, but we can't."

Regarding the new emergency alert system for volunteer firefighters, a lightning strike about two weeks ago destroyed the former system, which essentially alerts volunteer firefighters via pagers when their response is necessary.

Since the system's shutdown volunteers have relied on radio traffic to know when an emergency breaks out, a system West Odessa chief Jimmy Ellis said involves loud conversations that keep firefighters awake.

He also said firefighters who constantly monitor the radio become less focused on the traffic therein, which diminishes how closely they listen for emergencies.

"This pager system is a necessity for all the volunteers in the county," Ellis bluntly told the board as discussion on the funding took a turn toward debate.

The total cost of the state-of-the-art replacement system is about $31,000, of which $20,000 was donated by the county's 911 district.

Commissioner Greg Simmons voted against the allocation, citing concerns about the court's virtually non-existent oversight of fire fighting agencies and personnel, who are under the director control of municipalities.

Simmons also questioned whether the proposed system was more elaborate than is necessary.

"It seems like we're just throwing money out there without really having a game plan for where it's headed," he said during the meeting, referring to all of the money the county has allocated toward firefighting in the past.

Later in the meeting, commissioners gave the green light to a program that aims to clean up several locations throughout the county that have been cited by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality as containing illegally dumped waste.

As a partnership between the county and the Texas Association of Resource Conservation and Development, a $23,000 existing fund from environmentally related fines will pay for the first part of the project, which will have to be outsourced to a company with the proper equipment to handle potentially hazardous waste.

"This is a great step forward for the county, to get these sites cleaned up," Redford said.

In other actions, commissioners:

>> recognized local volunteers with the Texas AgriLife Extension Service & Master Gardeners Service for their continued work in beautifying gardens across the county.

>> officially recognized May 5 as the "Cinco De Mayo Celebration Day" in Ector County.

>> recognized Esther Avila as the Ector County Wellness Coalition's first recipient of the "Wealthiest in Healthiness" award for providing the areas with education and an example of healthy living.

>> considered and approved the budget calendar for the 2009-2010 fiscal year.

>> delayed any action on the awarding of contracts for the county's vending machines.

>> approved the contract with the Texas Department of State Health Services for providing immunizations in the county.