County hires deputy constable, tables election equipment item

Shelby County Commissioners approved the hiring of deputy constable for Precinct 5 at the Wednesday, March 20 meeting.

Josh Tipton, Constable Pct. 5, requested the deputy. “(His name is) John Pope, he has 20 years’ experience in law enforcement and lives in Timpson,” Tipton said. “Perfect fit. Pretty excited about this one.”

Tipton stated that Pope was currently working in Sabine County but would be available to start on March 25.

The other action, commissioners considered an increase in rental fees for county election equipment before tabling the request from Nancy Adams, County Election Administrator.

“I’d like to table it, and I’ll tell you why,” said Adams. first of all, when we went up to $35 per machine for rental, I said that I’d like to go next year to $50,” Adams told the court.

She said the county could charge up to $600 in rental fees for its ballot scanning machine with the fee based on the $6,600 purchase price. Adams added that she wasn’t recommending that the county charge that much.

“But the reason I decided to table this right now, if it’s okay, is because I’m charging them - the entities - for the media stick that goes in the machine that has all the ballot images, has all of the records on it, the tabulations. And so, I decided maybe we can table this until the summer. And I would like to go up to at least $100 for the next time,” she concluded.

The court approved her request without further discussion.

In approving weekly expenses, the court added two invoices from Hagler Painting and Remodeling discussed in an executive session at the beginning of the meeting. The invoices, falling under a discretionary exemption for unforeseen damage to a public property, totaled $50,683.58.

The commissioners court meets Wednesday mornings at 9:30 a.m. in the Shelby County Courthouse.