Petition organizers garnered just enough approved signatures to prompt a Kempner local option liquor election this fall.

Elections Administrator Dorothy Person on Monday told the Lampasas County Commissioners Court that a liquor election petition contained 75 verified signatures, six more than the required number.

Commissioners voted 5-0 to call for a Nov. 2 local option election, which will enable Kempner voters to decide whether to allow the sale of beer and wine within Kempner city limits. If the liquor election is successful, alcohol sales will allow for both on- and off-premise consumption.

In a related matter, the Commissioners Court voted to call an election Nov. 2 to fill the unexpired term of Precinct 2&3 constable. Constable Camron Brister — who in March won the Republican Party primary for Precinct 2&3 justice of the peace and faces no Democratic Party challenger — will leave the constable position vacant when he takes the JP post in January.

Several people have expressed interest in running for constable, Ms. Person said. The deadline for writein candidates was Tuesday.

Precinct 3 Commissioner Lowell Ivey said he hopes the winner of the fall election already will have gained the law enforcement qualifications needed for the position.

Sheriff David Whitis, who noted that a constable-elect has 270 days after taking office to complete licensing and training requirements, said all the potential candidates he has heard of meet the Texas constable qualifications.

In another ballot-related matter, commissioners took no action on a proposal to hold a special election this fall to abolish the office of county surveyor.

Jerry Goodson, a Lampasas surveyor, encouraged commissioners not to eliminate the county surveyor position, as he said county surveyors provide landowners with services that can be difficult to obtain. Most surveyors in Texas, Goodson said, are registered professional land surveyors, which means they cannot perform the functions of licensed state land surveyors unless they are elected county surveyor.

Only about 60 professionals in Texas work as licensed state land surveyors, Goodson said, adding that he and many others are nearing retirement age.

“So if somebody has a problem with access or with state land on their property, that means if you get rid of the county surveyor position they’ll have to go somewhere [else] to find a licensed state land surveyor, and that can be quite difficult,” he said.

Monday was the deadline to call for the special election, so the position will remain into 2011. Paul Maples, owner of Maples & Associates Land Surveyors, recently filed as a write-in candidate for county surveyor, Ms. Person said.

Health insurance is the only benefit or payment Lampasas County provides its official surveyor, County Auditor Jack Clark said. The 2010-2011 budget includes funds for the surveyor’s insurance only through December 2010, he said, so a budget amendment likely will be needed.

Also Monday, the Commissioners Court voted unanimously to give a surplus vehicle from the sheriff’s department to the Juvenile Probation Office. Juvenile probation staff have had to use personal vehicles for work-related matters, Clark said. In the first 10 months of the fiscal year, the county spent $2,700 on mileage reimbursements for those employees, Clark said.

Along with saving money, giving the Juvenile Probation Office a former patrol vehicle — which Sheriff David Whitis said he will try to equip with a cage to separate the front seat from the back seat — will protect employees, Whitis said.

“Some of these juveniles can get violent,” the sheriff said. “They have kicked the windows in our patrol cars. Personally, I wouldn’t transport one of these in my vehicle.”

In other business, although commissioners approved accounts payable and payroll, they voted 5-0 not to approve a $44,000 check to the Texas Department of Transportation for right of way along the proposed U.S. Highway 190 bypass in Copperas Cove. The county already has paid $40,000 for right of way, but Clark said a TxDOT official told him the department needed more funds from the county because land prices rose before the right of way could be purchased.

Ivey and Precinct 4 Commis- sioner Jack B. Cox said they want to see TxDOT documentation of what right of way is to be purchased with the $44,000 the department is requesting.

“Any time they send us a bill we need to see a map,” Cox said, “because we have paid for some of that [right of way] already.”

Goodson and Precinct 1 Commissioner Robert Vincent added that they thought Copperas Cove has annexed some of the area for which Lampasas County is being billed.

“If they annexed,” Vincent said of the city of Copperas Cove, “that’s their bill.”

Commenting on the proposed bypass, Vincent — a member of the Killeen-Temple Metropolitan Planning Organization — said the traffic reliever route will not be toll road. The bypass may take two to four years to build, with construction possibly beginning in 2011, the commissioner said.

Also at the recent meeting, commissioners:

· voted 5-0 to reject a proposal of $4,000 for a two-year maintenance agreement for an emergency generator. County employees can maintain the unit much less expensively, Precinct 2 Commissioner Alex Wittenburg said.

· approved a Precinct 4 budget amendment to reflect a $14,000 reimbursement from the Lower Colorado River Authority for damages on County Roads 2965, 2981, 2963 and 2901.

· voted to approve VIP Security’s proposal for security monitors at both county office buildings on Pecan Street, as well as for a security system at the courthouse. Cost of the three systems will be about $90 per month, plus a one-time fee of $500 for the courthouse system.

· agreed to give Hill Country Community Action Association an additional $849 beyond the $7,500 the Commissioners Court had budgeted for 2010-2011. The increased funding will help cover rising costs in the Home-Delivered Meal Grant Program that serves Lampasas and Lometa, County Judge Wayne Boultinghouse said.

Clark said he will identify budget cuts needed to balance the increased expenditure.