Commissioners approve new lease for PACE building with GISD

Gonzales County commissioners on Monday approved a one-year lease agreement with Gonzales ISD that would allow the county to continue using the Gonzales Master Gardeners PACE Building at 623 N. Fair St. for horticulture-related programs, including some that involve GISD students.

The lease can be renewed an additional nine times at one year each and the county must maintain the premises of the PACE (Plantatarium A Center for Exploration) building while it is being leased.

However, the building will no longer be a polling location for Precinct 2 as commissioners agreed, at the request of the district, to move the polling site instead to the Emmanuel Fellowship and School, 1817 Saint Lawrence St., for all immediate and foreseeable future elections.

“We haven’t had a contract with them for the building for a substantial amount of time. We do also have a voting poll at that location and when asking the school about that, they do not really want to have a voting poll in the schools anymore,” County Judge Pat Davis said. “The Master Gardeners still need the building for the programs they have.”

Gonzales Master Gardeners works during the school year with GISD students to provide learning opportunities and educational consulting in a “Junior Master Gardener” curriculum in addition to other GMG activities, which fall under the auspices of and in collaboration with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension. The group has a green house and planting shed on the property, which is between Gonzales Elementary School and the bus barn.

Precinct 2 Commissioner Donnie Brzozowski asked why the county and district could not consider a possible five-year lease agreement for the PACE building.

“At the end of five years, either party, the county or school district, could decide if they wanted to continue the lease and it would be a lot easier than having to renew a lease every year,” Brzozowski said.

In the end, however, commissioners approved the lease as presented to them by the school district.

Gonzales County commissioners also approved an agreement to allow a Kansas-based company to use two county roads in order to put in a “solar energy generation facility” on the Quien Sabe Ranch in Leesville.

Brush Country Solar Project LLC, a division of Enel Green Power North America Inc., will need to have access to County Roads 102 and 532 off Texas Highway 80 so trucks can move the heavy equipment onto the ranch, especially since the weight could exceed the load-bearing capacity of the roadways.

In return, Brush Country will be required make upgrades — at their own cost — to both roads to accommodate the vehicles that will be transporting their equipment and would be required to make any necessary repairs to return the roadways to their prior condition or better to the satisfaction of the county. Brush Country will also have to provide a $400,000 surety bond to the county that, should the company fail to perform its obligations, would be used to offset any costs borne by the county to make the necessary repairs.

In other action, three more people were appointed to the Gonzales County Historical Commission at the request of chair Glenda Gordon. They include Lisa de la Garza, Bruce Maulding and Quincy Johnson.