By JESSIE HORTON
TheFlashToday.com
DUBLIN (January 14, 2016) — The Texas State Guard is coming to Dublin and they’re bringing a few of their friends. Well, simulated ones, anyway.
Texas State Guard Col. Lloyd Lietz was on hand to explain what was going to happen in Erath County and, more specifically, what to expect in Dublin.
“The Texas State Guard is an unarmed group of volunteers who work together to help resident of the state of Texas. We will be conducting practice exercises in Erath County and part of those exercises will be a simulation of an emergency situation,” Lietz explained. “We have sseveral units coming into Erath County, and each unit is approximately 200-300 people and even less come to train. So it isn’t as if we’re coming in and taking over for the weekend. If you see us at all, it will be one or two at a time usually.
“The focus of our training at Tarleton this year is humanitarian assistance operations, confidence training, team building and small unit leader development,” the commander of the 19th Civil Affairs Regiment (CA) continued. “We will also train selected soldiers on Ground Search and Rescue/Recovery procedures. The weekend’s training will better prepare our Guardsmen to assist state and local authorities in times of state emergencies such as a tornado or hurricane.”
Several components of the guard will be in Erath County January 21-24 including the 2nd CA Regiment headquartered in Gatesville; the 4th CA Regiment headquartered in Fort Worth; the 19th CA Regiment headquartered in Dallas; and the 3rd Battalion Texas Medical Brigade, headquartered in the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area and central Texas.
Lietz said the guard has come to Tarleton for six years and that the guard hopes to continue the working relationship they have with the county and city officials. He said the training would consist of a scenario where drought and fire have strapped emergency services personnel in west Texas. Now, with a (pretend) severe winter storm moving into the area, residents are being evacuated to central Texas, including Erath County.
The guard will first move in to assist local guardsmen in setting up evacuation locations and then the (pretend) evacuees will move into Erath County. First to the guard armory in Stephenville, then to emergency shelters in the county. Once those are filled, the guard will place evacuees in churches, schools and locations around the county.
Lietz told Dublin council members the guard has three locations in Dublin they will use in the practice scenario – the Dublin HS gym and two churches in town. He said there might be just over 100 guardsmen and volunteers in Dublin total, throughout the weekend training.
In other business, a number of concerns of the finance committee were expressed by councilman Jimmy Leatherwood during his committee’s report including the fuel charges and related contracts with Progressive Waste. Representative Brian Uptmor was present and spoke on behalf of Progressive in the matter.
“While, yes, the wording in the updated contract is not clear, the council did approve the contract which used the national average cost of fuel for the estimate, not a local estimate,” Uptmor said. “That’s something we can look at changing moving forward and some of the cost for December isn’t where I think it should be, so I’d like to get back to you on that after I have a chance to further look into it.”
However, Leatherwood wasn’t satisfied, telling Uptmor the contract was invalid because those prices weren’t listed. After much discussion on the matter, council members moved the matter back to the finance committee, which allows Uptmor time to further research the billing in December and the contract with the city of Dublin in the future.
Other items on the agenda included:
• The council held a public hearing and discussed with Planning and Zoning Board representative Kassi Jurney a request for re-plat of the property owned by Lawrence Outlaw, Jr. Jurney said nearly 20 letters were sent out and only one was returned, however, no problem was listed by the complainant. The council approved the request.
• Allowing a discounted rate for use of the Dublin City Park to the Gypsy Motorcycle Club who are hosting a fundraiser this year – tabled, all.
• Award remaining bids for repairs and remodeling of city buildings – Haven Roofing, Calvary Construction and more were approved. Repairs continue to move forward, with Dublin City Administrator Nancy Wooldridge reporting TML has agreed to pay even more than first estimated. However, she did acknowledge they have been out of Dublin City Hall nearly a year.
• Council approved an ordinance setting regulations and requirements for garage sales and an amended ordinance regarding livestock within the city limits.
• Councilman Leatherwood presented a motion on behalf of the finance committee that all vacation and sick time be changed to a maximum of three weeks. After extended discussion, the motion died for lack of a second from the council. The measure was sent back to the finance committee for more work.
• The council discussed the possibility of changing from a Ward System to an At-Large System for the upcoming election. However, not all council members agree with the change and after much discussion on the matter, council voted to keep the Ward System for the 2016 election and reconsider following the election.
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