Photo credit: Midland County

What happened: The Midland County Commissioners Court met on Tuesday, May 5, and cut the county’s road-construction standard and cost for new residential streets by a third while denying an extension on a previously granted privately-built road variance request. The court also adopted a formal financial policy, establishing a conservative fund-balance target.

Key points:

  • County road standards: The court unanimously set a new countywide standard for residential roads at 24 feet wide with two inches of asphalt over eight inches of caliche (costing roughly $600,000 per mile in materials), down from the previous 32 feet wide with three inches of asphalt over 11 inches of caliche (about $900,000 per mile in materials). The new standard applies only to residential streets that don’t connect to other main streets.

These residential roads are often privately maintained roads that the developer pays for and maintains, and eventually, the property owners on them. Midland County Public Works Director Andrew Avis told the court that they engineered the lighter standard specifically for residential streets that don’t carry truck traffic. He said, “It makes sense” to have different standards for roads with different traffic.

Commissioner Jeff Sommers pressed for an even more flexible standard that would let developers pour a caliche base now and finish with asphalt later, only if the county later takes the road over as county property. He said the new rule is an improvement, but does not go far enough. Lower development costs allow more housing to reach the market at prices that more families can afford.

Commissioner Steven Villela said the county has privately built asphalt roads that have failed and that it can’t legally repair them. He said he has been thinking about a road bond modeled on Ector County’s, which would allow neighborhoods to pay to bring their own roads up to county standards, so the county can then take them over.

  • Road variance denial: The court denied an extension of a road variance request that it previously approved last fall. Meaning, the court previously approved a developer to build a portion of its privately built and funded road as caliche only, but required it to pave the second portion. Sommers and County Judge Terry Johnson voted to grant the variance, while Villela and Commissioners Dianne Anderson and Charles Hall opposed.

“We approved half, and we disapproved half. That’s bizarre,” Judge Terry Johnson said after the vote.

  • Finance policy: Commissioners adopted a written financial policy, which county staff said solidifies the county’s current practices. The policy locks in a 40% fund-balance target, which staff said most Texas counties run closer to 25%, and that Midland County’s higher fund balance is part of why its $170 million bond came in at a lifetime cost of $155.9 million.

The policy also dictates an annual audit, including any single audit on grant-funded programs.

  • Speed-limit change: The court dropped the speed limit on West County Road 30 between FM 1788 and the Midland County line from 55 to 45 miles per hour to match Ector County’s recent reduction on the same road.
  • Humvee renewal: The court renewed Midland County’s Department of Defense Law Enforcement Support Office (LESO) agreement covering two Humvees used by the sheriff’s SWAT team. LESO is a federal program that gives county and city law enforcement access to surplus federal equipment, mostly for free, with some return-to-feds requirements if law enforcement retires the equipment.

Sheriff David Criner said the vehicles are old, but returning them to the DOD would cost roughly $40,000, making renewal the cheaper path.

  • Justice Assistance Grant: The court signed an agreement to receive $12,605 from a federal JAG award, which Criner said they will use for SWAT team ammunition.
  • Detention van: The court approved a budgeted purchase of and outfitting a detention van for the Sheriff’s Office for $78,375.
  • ATM contract: The court voted to put the county’s ATM contracts out to bid after Villela flagged that one of four Horseshoe machines had been out of service for nearly a year. A representative of the current ATM vendor told the court that the county had not notified the company that the machine had failed and that the company had replaced it three weeks ago. Villela said opening the RFP allows the court to compare offers from vendors.
  • Star Spangled Salute: The court approved a $50,000 payment to the Midland Chamber of Commerce for the July 4 Star Spangled Salute event at Centennial Park and the Bush Convention Center. Chamber President Evan Thomas told the court that the event is the largest single-day event in Midland, with more than 10,000 attendees in past years, and that this year will mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
  • Future Interstate 27: The court approved three resolutions submitted by the Ports-to-Plains Alliance supporting future-interstate funding, a feasibility study, and a future-interstate designation extending the route through other states. Villela said Texas and New Mexico already have the I-27 future-interstate designation.