Well, well, well

Well, well, well is all that can be said about last night’s Quorum Court meeting. Marilyn Clifton was scheduled to address the court on the topic of lack of law enforcement but was unable to attend. In her place was an on again, off again, part time investigator for the sheriff’s office, Jim Hedrick, an investigator we are all too familiar with.

Hedrick got up and introduced himself and then proceeded to scold the members of the court for cutting the sheriff’s office budget by $250,000. This he says has led to his dismissal and has left the county unsafe.

“There are many times that we have only 2 deputies on duty for the entire county”, Hedrick adds, “when the 2 deputies were shot recently they were the only ones on duty, what if my wife needed a deputy to respond, what would we have done?”

While these are very good points, Jim, but you are however wrong about this being a budgetary problem. In a very polite way F&A committee members, JPs Wells, Blankenship, and Kellar, informed Mr. Hedrick that they have not cut the overall budget at the sheriff’s office but simply split its appropriations to quarterly rather that annually. In fact JP Wells told him the sheriff’s budget has increase dramatically in the past 4 years.

Treasurer Regina Oakley then tells Hedrick that the sheriff’s office has over $56,000 appropriated for part-time employees with $48,000 left in its budget at the time. She adds that last year Sheriff Marty Montgomery returned $112,000 from his budget. In what we believe to be a ploy to divert the public’s attention from the spending issues that has led to the quarterly appropriations.

One has to feel sorry for Jim’s plight, well almost. Ironically it was the actions and/or inactions of then investigator Hedrick that has led us in part to write our site and now to see him complaining about the lack of law enforcement is priceless.

This is just another shining example of Sheriff Montgomery’s wonderful administration. It appears that instead of admitting there is a problem with spending at his department and working to correct it he returns money back to the county while leaving us citizens ultimately unsafe.

I had a chance to discuss my feelings with Mr. Hedrick after the meeting that led to him getting very upset. It seems he’s rather disturbed about his name being published at this site and has threaten to sue us. I tried to tell him that we have only published the truth about our experiences with his performance as investigator but that didn’t go over well. He ultimately had to be calmed down by Candidate for Sheriff Karl Byrd who was in attendance.

Also in attendance at this meeting was candidate for County Judge and State Representative Preston Scroggin who was there undoubtedly to hear a report about the newest boom business that is about to hit this County, the drilling for natural gas.

County Administrator Mike Hutchens told the court about his and County Judge John Wayne Carter’s recent trip to Cleburne TX. This trip was to investigate what kind of impact this industry will have on the county economically and environmentally since this town had 41 wells. This biggest concern the court shown was for the growth that will likely occur from this.

Hutchens stated that the projected growth for this county already will put us at the third largest county in the state by the next census even before this industry’s plan hit the books. This raises concerns about traffic, infrastructure, and public safety that must be addressed in the real near future by the court.
Hutchens adds that from his visit to TX it is clear that these gas drilling companies are will to work with the county in alleviate any problems that will arise.

Further research is going to have to be done before the court will entertain any regulating ordinances for this win fall industry. In our opinion the research must include environmental impact studies that target the long term effects on the county’s water table from the deep well injections of waste water used in the drilling.

All in all it was a very productive and informative meeting…