The Polk County Commissioners Court issued an order prohibiting outdoor burning for the unincorporated areas of the county during an emergency called meeting prior to the Court’s regular meeting. Dry fuels, unusually warm temperatures, and elevated fire weather conditions that create an environment where wildfires can ignite and spread quickly necessitated the decision.
“The U.S. Department of Justice has updated Title II of the Americans With Disabilities Act to require that all state and local government websites, including all posted documents must be fully accessible to individuals with disabilities and counties serving populations of 50,000 or more must comply by April 24, 2026. TAC has emphasized that ultimately, commissioners court is responsible for ensuring that all websites, no matter who the elected official is or what department it is, must be in compliance and the reliance on a third party does not shift the responsibility away from the county,” County Judge Sydney Murphy said.
“With TAC’s recommendation, Civic Plus, who is our provider, evaluated our website and provided an accessibility report. Basically, it says that our compliance level is at critical and they indicated that only 13 of the 922 accessed documents are fully accessible to individuals who rely on assisted technology. This creates a legal risk and a barrier to equal access to county services and information,” Murphy said.
The Court approved taking remedial action regarding the website document accessibility report.
Requests for exemptions from the Polk County RV Parks regulations from Piney Ranch RV Park, located in Precinct 3, were approved based on the recommendation of Jed Morris, the county’s contracted engineer. The requests were for a variance from Section 9.B and a variance from Section 12.1 road construction specifications of the Polk County Subdivision Regulations. In related activity, the Court approved Piney Ranch RV Park upon conditions met.
Pinto Construction out of Nacogdoches had the low bid of $752,930 and was approved for Bid #2026-17 for road paving services for various sections of road in Precinct 3 Road & Bridge.
In personnel matters, the Court approved personnel action form requests submitted by department heads since the last meeting.
Fiscal year 2026 budget revisions and amendments, as presented by the county auditor’s office, were approved.
In an effort to clarify information that he presented in his annual report at the last meeting, Polk County Fire Marshal John Fugate gave a breakdown of each volunteer fire department’s (VFD) status regarding medical responses. Licensed first responder organizations – departments that have personnel who have advanced patient care skills and are authorized by a licensed physician to perform these skills under the physician’s license – include Livingston, Onalaska and Scenic Loop VFDs. Non-licensed departments – which can provide first aid only – include Segno VFD (which is in the process of becoming a licensed first responder organization), in addition to South Polk County, Alabama-Coushatta Tribe and Holiday Lake Estates VFDs. The following departments either only respond to assist EMS when requested or do not respond to medical calls at all: Goodrich and Corrigan VFDs.
In other informational reports, Murphy reported that she and Precinct 3 Commissioner Milt Purvis have been trying for some time to get funding for Polk County to have a CDL training facility. Working with Congressman Morgan Luttrell, over $3M has been secured and the county will be entering into a partnership with the Texas State University System Polk County Center to offer CDL training.
Items on the consent agenda included:
