Ellis County Commissioners unanimously approved submission of an application for grant funding to continue a program that focuses on vehicle emissions. The grant is funded by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

The program is going well,” said Constable Terry Nay, pct. 2. “I never realized what a case of organized criminal activity this was until we got involved. It’s a huge problem. Everything we run across seems to stem back to distribution and manufacture in Dallas County, which stems back to the Valley, which is linked to Mexican drug cartels and organized criminal activity out of Mexico.”

Nay said the program impounded 55 vehicles, issued 412 citations and 253 warnings, and made 25 onsite arrests October 2008 through September 2009.

“We also came up with a program last spring for doing some compliance notices that we put out on vehicles wherever they may be parked,” Nay added. “It says their inspection certificates are out and we would appreciate them voluntarily complying. We put out 192 of those and found that we had an 84 percent compliance rate within two weeks.”

Nay said they used that information to help encourage state officials to send out expiration notices on inspection stickers as they do with vehicle registration.

“I would like to commend you on placing the notices and having voluntary compliance,” said Commissioner Bill Dodson, pct. 2. “It shows people that it is in good faith, helping people rather than just giving tickets. It benefits everyone all the way around.”

Nay said the program recovered 32 counterfeit or fraudulent inspection certificates on one case, while Dallas County recovered 235 at the same time.

“I found it amusing that a lot of these vehicles putting fraudulent stickers on – a lot of them can legally pass inspection and it is cheaper,” Nay said. “I don’t know if it just a case of people bypassing the system or what.”

The County’s matching funds requirement will go down to from 50 percent to 25 percent in the new grant year.

Commissioners authorized the use of six-wheel trucks along approximately 1,000 feet of gravel county roadway for transportation of earthen materials by a contractor hired by the U.S. Corps of Engineers to make improvements to the dam at Lake Bardwell.

“I think it would be beneficial for the county to permit them to use this road,” Dodson said. “Everything seems to be in order.”

After a short executive session, the Court authorized the County and District Attorney’s office to file a civil lawsuit against Stuart Demerse seeking both injunctive relieve and civil penalties relating to an ongoing sanitation and environmental quality nuisance at 1150 Ashemore Court near Midlothian.

Two one-time variances for a single piece of property in precinct 3 were also approved, allowing the property owner to subdivide and build two homes for family members despite narrow road frontage (24 feet below the 150 foot requirement) and the lack of an available fire hydrant.

This is because of the waterline – a three-inch water line will not carry that fire protection,” said Department of Development Director Delton Ake. “I will say that the water company has stated that they are in the process now of increasing their water lines, and probably in the not-too-distant future this area is going to have fire protection.”

Also under the Department of Development, no action was taken on two proposals relating to Rockett Ranch, namely accepting infrastructure and releasing the construction bond.

The purchase of a 2007 Dynapac Soil Compactor Model CA150D from Bane Machinery was approved by the Court, with the total cost being $23,700. The equipment will be purchased for Road and Bridge precinct 3.