County commissioners last week voted unanimously to approve a resolution that calls for Oncor Electric Delivery to use monopoles instead of larger lattice towers for new electric lines in Lampasas County.

Oncor has proposed routes that may bring electric transmission lines through northern Lampasas County as part of a project to connect a switching station in Brown County with the Newton substation on the west end of Kempner. A response to state legislation that mandated renewable energy production, the electric lines are intended to transmit wind-generated power from West Texas to more populated parts of the state.

“I feel like the use of the monopoles is the most aesthetic,” Precinct 3 Commissioner Lowell Ivey said. “It’s the most forgiving as far as right of ways.”

The resolution also emphasized that monopoles, rather than lattice towers that require larger easements, reflect “community standards.” County Auditor Jack Clark urged including that wording, as he said utility companies might consider “community standards” when deciding what type of materials to use.

The county will try to file the resolution with the Public Utility Commission, which makes the final decisions about electric transmission routes. In legal proceedings, however, resolutions often are rejected as “hearsay,” Clark said.

In another matter, commissioners took no action on a proposal to charge a $10 annual administrative fee for aerobic septic system maintenance contracts.

The county made $11,830 last year, Precinct 1 Commissioner Robert Vincent said, off the $300 fee assessed on new septic systems. Those funds, Vincent said, should pay for administrative charges associated with septic system record-keeping.

Precinct 2 Commissioner Alex Wittenburg agreed with Vincent that the county has sufficient funds for now to pay its administrative costs.

“If we’ve got a surplus, we don’t need to charge another fee,” Wittenburg said. “I don’t care if it’s even one dollar.”

The county charges the $300 fee only once per system, said Dianne Seery, administrative assistant to County Judge Wayne Boultinghouse. With more than 600 aerobic septic systems in the county, the fee may not generate enough revenue to pay for recurring administrative costs, Ms. Seery said.

Ivey and Precinct 4 Commissioner Jack B. Cox suggested not adding a new fee this fiscal year. If the judge’s office appears close to running a deficit on the septic line item at the end of the year, the commissioners said a budget adjustment for next fiscal year could address the problem.

During the public comment portion of the recent meeting, Dr. David Spence of Adamsville asked Cox, his commissioner, to have county crews maintain the road near his home and his denture clinic in Adamsville. Spence described the east-to-west road as “County Road 2804.”

Until 2004, the road received regular maintenance, Spence said. “I’m trying to figure out why I am not getting maintenance,” he said.

Spence said he did not expect paving, but he asked for county crews to mow and grade the road.

State law does not allow commissioners to respond during the public comment portion of a Commissioners Court meeting. After the meeting, though, Cox said the road Spence discussed has been a private road since before Cox took office.

By law, commissioners may spend county funds only to maintain roadways officially designated as county roads, Cox said.

In June 2005, the Commissioners Court completed a lengthy process of soliciting taxpayer requests for roads to be added to the county road lits, Cox said. Although all county taxpayers got notices by mail, Cox said commissioners did not receive a request to include the road by Spence’s property.

Also Monday, Vincent — a member of the Killeen-Temple Metropolitan Planning Organization — discussed recent changes to the Copperas Cove bypass highway route, which the commissioner said could be funded by 2012.

The bypass will not be located near Taylor Creek Elementary, as reported earlier, Vincent said, and it will not go as far south on Farmto Market Road 2657 as the Cedar Creek subdivision.

Maps of the proposed bypass route are available in Boultinghouse’s office, Vincent added.

In addition, the court approved changes to the county’s sick-leave pool policy and personnel policies. The changes were intended to reconcile discrepancies between the two sets of rules.

As sick-leave pool administrator, the county’s human resource director — part of the county auditor’s office — will approve leaves of absence that affect pool, track the paid sick leave hours a worker uses and issue Family Medical Leave Act paperwork when necessary. Because of federal privacy requirements, neither the Commissioners Court nor the sick-leave pool committee may approve leaves of absence, said Dorothy Person, human resources director.

To be eligible to draw paid time from the sick-leave pool, workers must “donate” at least 16 hours to the pool by the end of September each year, Ms. Person said. Policy changes also clarify that county workers cannot accrue benefit hours while taking unpaid leaves of absence.

In other business, the court OK’d the appointment of Ginger Jones, Betty Rials and Virginia Young to the Lampasas County Historical Commission.

Commissioners took no action on a proposal to increase several fees in the county’s rabies and animal control ordinance.

A draft of the ordinance with proposed changes will be ready for consideration at the Commissioners Court’s Monday meeting, County Attorney Larry Allison said.