County discusses prospective burn ban, annex renovation update

Gonzales County will institute a burn ban beginning Monday, March 31, unless the county receives significant rainfall from storms forecast to hit the area through Friday night.

County commissioners also heard an update Monday, March 24 from construction manager John Duke of CPM regarding the Gonzales County Annex building bids for both selective demolition and renovation.

Burn ban

County Fire Marshal Jimmy Harless, who was reappointed to another two-year term Monday, told commissioners the KBDI number for Gonzales County as of Sunday, March 23, was 556, which is “significantly dry.” The KBDI, or Keetch-Byram Drought Index,

“However, we have the potential for some moisture starting early Thursday morning through Friday,” Harless said. “I think we're in a 70 percent to 80 percent chance right now on the prediction for Thursday and Friday. Without the moisture in the forecast, I would recommend the court consider the burn ban. We do have burn ban resolutions in place in some surrounding counties. However, with the moisture predicted for this week, I would recommend that the court wait to see what’s going to happen.”

Harless said the number for the county was an average, with southwestern parts of the county going as high as 646 in some areas while the northeastern part of the county has been as low as 458.

Precinct 2 Commissioner Donnie Brzozowski suggested the court could approve a ban that would take effect Monday, March 31, if the predicted rainfall was not sufficient enough to improve conditions to make them less susceptible to uncontrolled burning. If the rain is sufficient, County Judge Pat Davis could end the ban by executive action, Brzozowski said.

Harless said area firefighters have been quick to respond to any reports of outdoor burning due to the dry, windy weather the county has been experiencing and he expects the rainfall the county would receive from the upcoming storm should improve the situation. However, he supported Brzozowski’s plan to set up a preliminary burn ban for March 31.

Texas A&M Forest Service (TFS), which monitors wildfire conditions for the state, uses KDBI for determination of drought conditions within the State of Texas. KBDI was developed by John L. Keetch and George Byram with the US Forest Service Southeastern Research Station to correlate the effects of drought on wildfire potential.

The KBDI is based on a daily water balance, where a drought factor is balanced with precipitation and soil moisture (assumed to have a maximum storage capacity of eight inches) and is expressed in hundredths of an inch of soil moisture depletion. 

The KBDI attempts to measure the amount of precipitation necessary to return the soil to full field capacity. It is a closed system ranging from 0 to 800, where 0 represents a saturated soil, and 800 an absolutely dry soil. At any point along the scale, the KBDI value indicates the amount of precipitation it would take to bring the moisture level back to zero, or saturation.

Annex

Duke told commissioners the county was set to receive demolition bids by noon Wednesday, March 26, with a deadline of Wednesday, April 2, for general contractor bids. He said, based on current estimates, he expected the demolition bids to come in at “around $650,000.”

“So we'll receive those here at the Courthouse,” Duke said. “The amounts will be read out loud, and then we'll go and open them up and go through them to make sure that they represent the best value for the court, and we'll get you the recommendation after we go through this. Our goal was to begin demolition in early April, which would be prior to county receiving tax note proceeds.”

Earlier this month, the court approved the issuance of $11.5 million in seven-year tax notes to pay for the renovation of the Gonzales County Annex building at an expected 3.33 percent interest rate. The county would end up paying a total of $13.8 million, including $2.3 million in interest and add about 2.8 cents to the county tax rate beginning this fall.

Duke said RBC Capital Markets, the county’s financial advisor, is making progress on the issuance of the tax notes and has already circulated a preliminary official statement, or first draft, that has been reviewed by the County Auditor’s Office as well as the County Attorney’s office.

“We anticipate the approval of those notes by the end of April, with ultimately funds transferring to the county from the tax notes sale by the end of May,” Duke said.

Because the county wants to begin selective demolition a month before tax note proceeds are received, Gonzales County would be required by statute to pay for the entire demolition cost out of county funds in advance and then be reimbursed from the proceeds of the tax note sale, Duke added.

“I will say, from a cash flow standpoint, the first invoice from demolition work, if we started in April, wouldn't be due until at the earliest mid May,” Duke said. “If your first payment is due in mid May and you get the funds at the end of May — that's not a big gap, but under Texas law, the county must have funds available at the time of contract execution.”

Duke said he expects a demolition bidder to be selected within a week after the bids come in, but it could take three weeks to select a construction bidder after those bids are received.

“We'll want to talk to the contractors and ask them some questions and make sure that they're fully covered,” Duke said. “We had pretty good attendance (at a prebid conference) and we've had a lot of people asking questions, so we think that we're going to get good coverage. We always hope for somewhere between three to five bids, with the minimum being three, just so if there's an outlier, we can spot it.”

Duke said commissioners have already given County Judge Pat Davis the authority to approve bids on the demolition and construction without needing full court approval as long as they come in at or under budget.