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The 19-item agenda was also the first for new Reeves County Judge Jimmy
Galindo, who was sworn into office last week.
Miller told Galindo and commissioners that the court had received
proposals from two agencies for automobile liability, general liability
and automobile damage coverage insurance. The agencies are the Texas
Association of Counties and Pecos Insurance/Titan insurance.
Although Titan's proposal for auto damage and liability and general
liability was $48,716, compared to TAC's proposal of $65,403. Sullivan
told the court that Titan only proposed to cover five county vehicles,
while TAC proposed coverage for 25.
In addition, Titan would require a number of exemptions from coverage.
It would not cover rodeos, fireworks displays or mechanically-operated
amusement devices and had a premises exclusion which exempted the County
Jail and Law Enforcement Center from coverage.
Following Miller's recommendation, the court voted to accept TAC's
proposal, minus $3,635 for uninsured motorist coverage.
Commissioners scheduled a later special session to discuss property
insurance.
In other action, the court voted to pay a bill presented by Permian Mac
after a heated discussion during a presentation by Hay.
Hay told the court he had previously told former Roads and Bridges
Supervisor Mack Ham that the diesel engine would not be warrantable, but
he went ahead with warranty inquiries at Ham's insistence.
He admitted that his company's bill was submitted eight months after the
original negotiations.
Discussion became heated after County Attorney Bill Weinacht asked him
whey he went ahead with repairs after telling Ham it would not be
covered under warranty. Weinacht said he found it hard to believe Ham,
who did in May following a traffic accident, authorized the repairs
under those conditions.
"One lesson that seems clear from this is that when we buy and install a
piece of equipment in the future, we should be sure to do it through one
vendor, to avoid this confusion," said Galindo, after the court voted to
pay the bill.
Galindo asked the Sheriff's Department to provide him with mileage
records for its deputies, to work out a cost per day per meal estimate
for feeding inmates in the county jail, and to learn the details of a
recent presentation on containing medical bills attended by Galindo and
Law Enforcement Center Warden Joe Trujillo.
The presenter might come to Reeves County to make her presentation, but
Galindo directed Sheriff Andy Gomez to find out how much this would cost
in advance.
Galindo also asked Gomez to discuss with County Auditor Lynn Ownes the
possibility of buying a fleet rather than paying deputies for the use of
their personal cars. Owens told the court previous estimates suggested
the county could save as much as $30,000 a year with a fleet, after
paying the initial purchase price.
Galindo asked Owens to begin the use of a DataFleet Card for fueling all
county vehicles. The card will keep track of the mileage of all vehicles
and, possibly, help in fuel economy.
Owens added the county will also eliminate some overhead fuel storage
tanks at the 4-H barns.
Trujillo told the court the LEC has completed an audit of all inmate
property and has begun new property storage procedures, following
allegations that some inmate property has disappeared. None of the lost
property is valued at over $100, he said.
Pecos Housing Authority Board president Frank Perea told the court all
bids under a county Home Improvement Project grant will have to be
reworked.
Galindo said he understood that two estimating agencies made two
different sets of estimates and that one of the companies presented
estimates within the $15,000 guidelines. He asked Perea to meet with him
later to discuss the discrepancies.
In personnel decisions, Robert Carrasco was approved for a position as a
guard at the LEC, for $15,000 and Gloria Natividad was approved for a
position as a probational jailer at the Reeves County Jail for $14,000 a
year.
Commissioners still had about a dozen agenda items remaining to be dealt
with when they reconvened at 1:30 p.m.
The victim officially identified by the University Medical Center
Pathology Department in Lubbock are Jeremy Newell, 21, and Stanislav
Yampolsky, 20, both of Atlanta, Ga., the DPS said.
DPS officials said Newell's next of kin have been contacted. Precinct 2
Justice of the Peace J.T. Marsh, who pronounced the four dead and
ordered an autopsy be performed, said this morning that Newell's family
has asked that the body be cremated.
His remains have been transferred from the UMC Pathology Department to
Resthaven Funeral Home in Lubbock for cremation.
Yampolsky, was tentively identified on Friday as being a victim on the
Jan. 4 accident, but his identity was not confirmed by the DPS until
this morning.
Yampolsky, 20, a student at the University of California, Los Angeles,
was the owner of the Honda Accord that crashed while eastbound on I-20,
reportedly on its way back to Atlanta. Yampolsky's mother, Ella
Yampolsky, was contacted the night of the accident after papers were
found near the vehicle identifying her son as its owner.
Yamposky, who family emigrated from the former Soviet Union when he was
10, would be buried in Estonia, his mother said Friday.
She said her son had left Los Angeles a few days before the accident
with a group of friends. The group had planned to drive from Los Angeles
to New Orleans, then from new Orleans to Atlanta.
The vehicle, carrying Yampolsky, Newell and the two other passengers,
reportedly am ale and a female, spun out of control while eastbound on
I-20 near mile marker 11 shortly before noon last Wednesday, according
to the DPS report. It crossed the center median and into the path of a
Freightliner truck-trailer, which struck, the vehicle broadside,
causing it to burst in to flames.
All four passengers were pronounced dead at the scene by Marsh, who said
their remains could only be identified through dental records. The
driver of the truck, Antonio Lizarraga of Chaparral, N.M. was taken
first to Reeves County Hospital, for treatment of neck and chest
injuries. He was released last Thursday, but was scheduled to see a
doctor in El Paso in connection with his injuries.
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