By Steve Knight/reporter3@trcle.com
— County commissioners on Monday approved a $3,500 per acre bid by Chesapeake Energy to lease county-owned land in downtown Cleburne and in Market Square for mineral development for the C. Chaney Survey.
Johnson County Precinct 1 Commissioner Rick Bailey said bids previously sought for mineral rights for those lands were inadequate until Chesapeake’s bid.
Members also approved, with Precinct 3 Commissioner Jerry Stringer abstaining, accepting Pecan Tree Court for county maintenance in the Meadow Hill addition.
The court tabled a motion to accept a racial profiling report from Precinct 1 Constable Bill Pearce. Commissioners said they wanted more information from Pearce, who was not in attendance.
In other business, commissioners approved a motion to tear down a building on Anglin Street in Cleburne previously occupied by the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation, depending on acquisition of city permits and completion of asbestos abatement.
“We’ve tried selling [the building] and giving it away,” Bailey said.
When it was last inspected, the building’s copper wiring had been stolen, leaving no choice but to recommend demolition, Bailey said.
The court also presented proclamations for Poison Prevention Week Sunday- March 20 and to Meals-on-Wheels of Johnson and Ellis Counties for March for Meals Awareness Month.
Harmon comments
on Texas 121 project
County Judge Roger Harmon announced that both the Texas Department of Transportation and the North Texas Tollway Authority board of directors voted in February to move the long-awaited Texas 121 project forward.
NTTA board members Feb. 26 voted to approve the estimated $1.2 billion project that calls for extending Texas 121 from Fort Worth to Cleburne as a toll road.
“That was an historic vote,” Harmon said. “There was a lot about 121 that we were concerned about.”
Harmon said that the complex plan would save taxpayers $700 million in finance costs.
TxDOT will backstop NTTA’s efforts to build both the Chisolm Trail and the Texas 161 project by putting up the state’s gas tax fund as collateral, the Times-Review reported Feb. 26.
“It was a big decision for TxDOT,” he said. “It has been a partnership all throughout this. I am very encouraged.”
The next scheduled meeting of the commissioners court is March 21.
