County approves traffic rules for Port Adventure
Trinity Standard , March 2007

GROVETON – Although the roads will remain private, law enforcement officers will now be able to issue tickets for speeding and stop sign infractions in the Port Adventure subdivision.
During Monday’s meeting of the Trinity County Commissioners Court, a 25 mile per hour speed limit was set on all roads within the subdivision.
Commissioners also approved placing 12 stop signs at selected intersections throughout the subdivision.
County Attorney Joe Bell explained that state law now allows counties to set speed limits and place stop signs in private subdivisions at the request of the development’s property owners association (POA).
The Port Adventure POA petitioned the court earlier this year to set the speed limits and to allow them to place stop signs on the subdivision streets.
Bell noted that the petition asked for a 25 mph speed limit on most subdivision roads and for a 15 mph limit on “some streets.”
“The problem is you did not specify the streets where you wanted the lower speed limits,” Bell told the POA leaders. “We need to know which streets because their names will have to be included in the order.”
As a “first step,” Bell said the order being considered Monday calls for a 25 mph limit on “all streets,” but that the POA could come back at a later date with a new petition seeking the lower speeds.
When asked by Chief Deputy Jim Gratz if the order would mean sheriff’s deputies could now begin enforcing the 25 mph limit, Bell said it does.
“Actually, any law enforcement agency can now enforce the speed limit,” he said.
County Judge Mark Evans noted that the stop signs and speed limit signs would be put in place at the expense of the subdivision.
“We already have most of the signs and are ready to start putting them up,” one POA official told commissioners.
During Monday’s meeting, public hearings on the proposed speed limits and stop signs were held by the commissioners. They both lasted only minutes after no public comments were made either in support or against the proposals.
A third brief public hearing also was held on a road issue, this time regarding the placement of stop signs at an intersection in the Camp Branch Acres subdivision near Carlisle.
Under the proposal, the county will create a three-way stop at the intersection of Camp Branch Road and Rustling Wind Street.
Pct. 1 Commissioner Grover “Tiger” Worsham noted that both Camp Branch Road and Rustling Wind are public streets that are maintained by the county.
“It’s a dangerous intersection and there have been several accidents there,” Worsham said. “These stop signs are needed.”
As was the case with the Port Adventure stop signs, the placement of the signs in Camp Branch Acres was approved unanimously by commissioners.

Programs approved for JPs
In other business during the meeting, commissioners also approved the purchase of two computer programs from use by the county’s justice of the peace courts.
Approved for purchase for use in Pct. 1 JP Randy Barrett’s office was case management software that will allow him to more easily access criminal case information filed with his court.
Cost of the software is $3,000 plus a $895 per year fee for technical support.
Barrett noted this is the same software now being used by Pct. 2 JP Robert Stubblefield and Pct. 3 JP Bobby Nicholds. It was noted that the system was purchased for their offices last year using grant funds.
Commissioners also approved obtaining the Accurint locating service for JP precincts 1, 2 and 3 at a cost of $30 per month per precinct.
Barrett explained that the Accurint service should more than pay for itself by helping JPs locate people who have unpaid traffic tickets and other fines on their records.
He noted the Accurint service provide details about people including prior addresses, the names and addresses of relatives and other information that can be used to locate them.
“Right now, if we have their driver’s license number, we can go through the sheriff’s department and obtain an address,” Barrett said, adding that sometime the address listed is no longer valid.
“If we don’t have a driver’s license number, then we’re out of luck,” he added.
Barrett explained that the Accurint system does not rely on the DL number but can use other identifying factors to locate a person.
Gratz agreed that the system is effective.
“When I was with the Trinity Police Department, we had this system and I once ran my own name to see what information was available. I got back a 72 page report,” the chief deputy sheriff said.

May 12 election set
To comply with mandates from the Texas Legislature, commissioners voted Monday to schedule a constitutional amendment election for May 12.
The single item on the ballot is a proposal that would allow the state to reduce the school tax rates for senior citizens after they have been “frozen.”
Evans explained that under the law, once a person reaches the age of 65, they could have their school taxes frozen so there could be no future increases.
“The problem that ran into is that once the taxes were frozen, they could not go up but they also could not go down,” Evans explained.
When the legislature passed school tax relief legislature in 2005, this problem was uncovered and resulted in senior citizens having to pay higher taxes than others.
Normally, constitutional amendment elections are held in the fall, but Evans said that in order to make changes in time for the 2007 tax season, the legislature had to place the matter on the ballot in May.
Under the order approved Monday, the early voting for the May 12 election will be held on weekdays from April 30 through May 8 at both the Trinity City Hall and the Trinity County Courthouse in Groveton. Voting hours will be from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
In addition, an early voting box will be placed at the Apple Springs Volunteer Fire Department from April 30 through May 2, also open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Commissioners also approved Trinity County Clerk Diane McCrory’s recommendation that the county consolidate the 18 voting boxes into nine locations.

Other business
In other business the commissioners also:
• Approved a policy under which the Trinity County Sheriff’s Department can perform strip searches. The policy was recommended by the Texas Association of Counties, which provides the county’s insurance coverage. Gratz noted that the department was prepared to implement the policy as soon as it was approved by commissioners.
• Received the annual profiling report from the sheriff’s department. Required by federal law, the report noted that out of 292 traffic stops during the past 12 months, 54 percent involved white males, 31 percent involved white females, 8 percent involved African-American males, 4.7 percent involved African-American females and 2.2 percent involved Hispanic males.
• Amended the county budget to allowed a part-time clerk in the County Clerk’s office to move to fulltime. A request for an additional fulltime clerk was tabled at McCrory’s request.