A lot of ground was covered in an emotionally charged meeting of the Polk County Commissioners Court Tuesday.
Polk County Fire Marshal John Fugate presented his annual informational report, which reflected 449 total calls for service, 85 true investigations, 23 fireworks permits issued and $5,460 in revenue from fireworks permits.
“First of all, I want to thank all the men and women who volunteer with our volunteer fire departments in Polk County. I fully understand the time and effort involved in volunteering and want each and every member to know they are appreciated,” Fugate said.
“I would like to address recent allegations that the fire marshal and the commissioners court are making decisions on fire protection without having our citizens’ best interests in mind. I would like to assure the citizens that the fire marshal and commissioners court made all decisions regarding fire protection with the best interests of public safety and service in mind. It is our job as public servants to ensure that citizens receive the best possible service we can provide,” Fugate said.
“I would like to provide a brief overview of the types of volunteer fire departments operating in Polk County. We have several levels of responders. These levels describe the types of service these departments are authorized to provide,” Fugate said.
“Response levels are:
“I can assure you that we have more information about the current circumstances than the public does, thanks to continual monitoring of the services we provide. While I appreciate public input, I would ask that they exercise due diligence when gathering facts before making accusations,” Fugate said.
“You know, I am going to comment on that. At the last meeting, we had Mr. (Tyler) Epstein present himself as speaking for Goodrich Volunteer Fire Department,” County Judge Sydney Murphy said.
“Goodrich Volunteer Fire Department falls in the non-EMS category. They cannot respond to medical calls, so those were invalid accusations. I think what I resent the most about those accusations is the accusation that the first responders that did arrive did not do their job, which included our sheriff’s office, it included ambulances, it included fire departments,” Murphy said.
“We’re a rural community and we all have to hold each other up and I have always said that the firefighters are the ultimate volunteers. And we have to recognize at the same time that some times the smaller departments have to call the larger departments. To come in here and so passionately provide false information is disturbing to me. It is disturbing to me,” Murphy said.
Sherry Hughes, HR director for RoyOMartin Corrigan Oriented Strand Board, and Scott Townsend, director of manufacturing, made a presentation to the Court. The company’s Corrigan I line will have been in production eight years in April and its Corrigan II line will have been in production two years in June.
“That’s something we’re very proud of. With those two lines in production, we are the largest single site producer of oriented strand board in North America. We’re also proud to be a part of this community. We employ 320 employees, 32% of them actually reside here in Polk County” Hughes said.
“If you’re around Roy for any time period, we’ll tell you that we grow trees and we grow people.
We are stewards of our environment. We make sure we take care of the things that supply us with the things that supply us with the material to continue production, but we also take care of our people. Whether that’s through direct opportunities for careers as employees, or indirect partnerships with contractors and vendors or partnerships with local area schools, volunteer fire departments or other nonprofit organizations,” Hughes said.
Murphy said she put some information in front of the Court for three of the economic development projects the county has going on.
“Prior to the tax abatement project, the county property tax revenue was a little over $2,000. That was the relief the taxpayers were receiving. Currently, the property tax revenue is almost $108,000 and by 2027, it’s projected to be over a million and by 2034, it will be close to $2M. So you see how a project like that that takes advantage of our resources and provides good quality jobs is a huge impact for Polk County residents,” Murphy said.
“We did pull some information. Since 2021, the past five years we have contributed between property and sales taxes a little over $2M,” Hughes said.
“So mine is strictly property tax because the sales tax revenue does not impact the county as much as it does the cities and the other entities that are involved,” Murphy said.
“I like that they’ve been a welcome addition to our community up north, Polk County in general, because they’re good to the school system, they do a lot for our schools, a lot for the community, for the fire departments, they’ve really been a good addition to Polk County and I’m proud to have them,” Precinct 3 Commissioner Milt Purvis said.
“There is always a concern with an abatement, but you have to step back and look at it from a business perspective of what are we going to gain with an abatement versus lose without,” Hughes said.
“We want to be good stewards of the resources, obviously that includes the team members that we employ there and the resources that we harvest from this area, and look for other opportunities to be more involved, so as those present itself, we’re certainly open to hearing what those might be,” Townsend said.
Having heard the numbers regarding RoyOMartin Corrigan OSB, Murphy also provided the numbers for two other entities.
“The ETC Hydroelectric Plant in 2019, the revenues were about $35,000 and post abatement, the revenues are estimated at $345,000 yearly. Umbriel Solar – the additional tax revenue was a little over $6,000 and post abatement, it’s going to be $174,000, nearly $175,000,” Murphy said.
County Extension Agent Alyssa Kimbrough, the county coordinator of 4-H and youth development, presented the annual informational report from the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Office in Polk County.
“Jay’s stuck in Fort Worth. He took kids to a heifer show and will start steers next week. I had a food challenge over the weekend, so we split ways and he went with the cattle and I went with the food nutrition kiddos,” Kimbrough said, referring to Jay Diehl, the county extension agent for agriculture and natural resources.
Kimbrough reviewed the two programs she worked on this past year. One was “hatching in the classroom,” in which 245 students at Cedar Grove Elementary School witnessed the full life cycle of a chicken egg – from incubation to hatching – over a 21-day period. The other was assisting Texas Farm Bureau with “ag in the classroom,” in which 457 students from throughout the county participated in hands-on activities and lessons in agriculture.
“We had floral design workshops and our shotgun program has really outranked our beef program with 56 participants in shotgun and 30 in beef,” Kimbrough said.
She then introduced “our top 4-H guru” Eddie Turk, a Livingston High School student. “He actually serves on state council so we’re lucky enough to have a member from Polk County representing Polk County in state 4-H,” Kimbrough said.
“My name is Eddie Turk and I serve as vice president of Livingston 4-H Club and also serve on district and state councils. I want to give you some information about events going on both locally and state and district levels. Our meetings have been having strong attendance. Out last one in Livingston we made blankets for the local nursing home. We had about 35 kids and their families attend,” Turk said.
“The majority of our members participate in projects relating to food nutrition, shooting sports and livestock, but we also have a growing photography group and several other groups going on. I’ve very involved in the shotgun program and like she said, this year we were glad to have 56 members enrolled. Last fall we had seven of these members compete at the district level. This year we’ve already had members compete at several different competitions in other counties as well,” Turk said.
“We will have five members represent Polk County at both the Houston and San Antonio rodeos. We also want to say thank y’all. We know that the county has done a lot of work on the 4-H program and especially the shotgun team and we really want to thank you for that. That’s been a lot of the reason we’ve been able to grow and develop our facilities,” he said.
Turk continued to review some of the activities at both the district and state levels and commented how grateful he is for these opportunities.
A sheriff’s request for a six-month inmate housing agreement with Angelina County to reserve space for 36 inmates at a rate of $75 per day per inmate was approved.
The Court approved action related to the purchase of a 2025 John Deere tractor for Precinct 4 Road & Bridge in the amount of $210,363, to be purchased through Buy Board Contract No. 706-23, thereby satisfying competitive bidding requirements under Texas Local Government Code § 252.021, with a down payment of $70,101 and the remaining balance financed over a two-year term, to be paid for from the Precinct 4 Road & Bridge budget.
A request to solicit Bid #2026-17 for paving services for various road segments in Precinct 3, to be paid for from the Precinct 3 Road & Bridge budget, was approved.
An order authorizing the sale of fireworks during the Lunar New Year period of Feb. 12 through midnight Feb. 17 was approved.
The Court approved a subdivision application for Timber Ridge Ranchettes Subdivision, Block 1, located in Precinct 3, and conditionally approved a subdivision application for Cody Road Subdivision, located in Precinct 4.
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 old business, the Court approved an offer to purchase tax foreclosed property, specifically, Lot 252 of Section 2 of River Lakes Estates in Precinct 1, Cause #T23-0194.
During informational reports there will be a presentation from RoyOMartin Corrigan OSB. Annual informational reports will be presented by the Polk County Fire Marshal and the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Office for Polk County.
Items on the consent agenda included:
Lindell Mitchell of the Livingston Church of Christ opened the meeting with prayer.
