Polk County News - Breakout

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The Goodrich City Council was not able to hold their regular meeting Thursday, instead pushing the Gathering to next week. The council did not have enough members present to form a quorum.

Alderman Richard booth suffered a stroke a few months ago and is now in hospice care in Arkansas. Alderman Mary Orozco recently had surgery that has left her paralyzed from the neck down. 

The council will reschedule their regular meeting for August. The date selected is for 6 p.m. Tuesday in Goodrich City Hall.

Goodrich Mayor Kelly Nelson told the Enterprise that the Goodrich Fire Department is hoping to plan a fun day for the community in October

“The week of Oct. 14 is fire prevention week,” the mayor explained. “The fire department wants to have it at city hall in front of the fire trucks. They want to have the sheriff’s department come and do fingerprinting with the kids to give them ID cards. They are going to have Smokey the Bear for pictures, and it is a fundraiser for the fire department. They are going to have barbecue sandwiches (for sale) and stuff like that. I think they’re going to have a couple of other people there as well.”

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From Enterprise Staff

St. Luke’s Health-Memorial Livingston has earned a 5-star Quality Rating from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The 5-star is a symbol of quality that reflects the hospital’s commitment to providing safe and quality patient care.

The certification is based on safety of care, mortality, patient experience, readmission rates and timely and effective care. St. Luke’s Health-Memorial Livingston is one in only 483 hospitals across the nation and one in just 35 in the state of Texas to receive this rating by CMS.

“I am honored and incredibly proud of the staff and physicians for their commitment to the overall health and wellbeing of our patients and our community,” Kristi Froese, VP of Operations, Administration, St. Luke’s Health-Memorial Livingston, said. “The data reflects our unwavering commitment to delivering exceptional health care while ensuring the wellbeing of our patients and community.”

“It is important that when a patient comes through our doors at St. Luke’s Health-Memorial Livingston, they trust us to provide the most caring, dedicated clinical knowledge available to us,” Froese said. “Our entire team of providers and staff are committed to a culture of safety and transparency which has brought us to this remarkable achievement.”

The overall rating by CMS is based on how well the hospital performs nationally in 46 hospital quality measures. These are divided into five quality categories: safety of care, mortality, patient experience, readmission rates and timely and effective care. All of those areas are related to the CommonSpirit Core Values and areas on which the hospital focuses daily.

“It takes a lot of teamwork to achieve this level of performance and success,” Monte Bostwick, Market President, St. Luke’s Health-Memorial (East Texas), said. “I am very proud of our staff and our dedicated physicians who work diligently daily to serve this community and of the residents who trust us for their care.”

With this recognition St. Luke’s Health-Memorial Livingston is in the top 8% of hospitals in the nation.

“We encourage and empower our staff to speak up should they see something that could lead to patient harm or poor outcomes,” Froese said. “We believe that our processes and quality of care are better by recognizing there is always room for improvement, and we look for those opportunities daily. Our entire team working together made this happen and it will take that continued dedication to preserving our commitment to highest quality, safe, reliable health care, right here at home.”

For more information, visit https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/rankings-and-ratings/483-hospitals-with-5-stars-from-cms.html

St. Luke’s Health-Memorial, part of a national nonprofit health system, provides more than a quarter of a million patient services and millions of dollars in local charity care and community support each year. With hospitals in Lufkin, Livingston and San Augustine, Memorial offers comprehensive, quality health care, including an off-campus emergency center and outpatient facilities and services. To learn more, visit heartandstrokecenter.org.

CommonSpirit Health is committed to building healthier communities, advocating for those who are poor and vulnerable, and innovating how and where healing can happen – both inside the hospitals and out in the community. CommonSpirit was created by the alignment of Catholic Health Initiatives and Dignity Health as a single ministry in early 2019. Its commitment to serve the common good is delivered through the dedicated work of thousands of physicians, advanced practice clinicians, nurses, and staff; through clinical excellence delivered across a system of hospitals and other care centers covering 21 states, and accessible to nearly one in four U.S. residents; and through more than $4 billion annually in charity care, community benefits, and government program services.

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From Enterprise Staff

The Onalaska City Council approved a proposed tax rate for publication of 0.2410 per $100 value during a special called meeting Aug. 7. A public hearing on the proposed tax rate is slated for 5:15 p.m. Aug. 22 at the Onalaska City Hall.

Several personnel action requests were on the agenda for the Aug. 8 regular meeting. Council accepted the resignations of Officer Koriell Campbell and Court Clerk Tammy Seader and approved the appointment of Macey George as court clerk.

Council heard departmental reports on the police department, fire department, fire marshal/building inspector and library representative.

The police department drove 4318.7 miles during the month of July, worked 25 cases, served 23 city warrants and did 14 follow-ups. They conducted 589 subdivision checks, 118 business checks and responded to 362 calls, resulting in 25 arrests, 125 warnings and 159 citations. They assisted other law enforcement agencies 29 times and the fire department/EMS 15 times.

The fire department responded to 37 calls in the city and 24 calls in the county, clocking a total of 311 man-hours during the month of July. They provided mutual aid three times, responded to 21 medical calls, four structure fires, 20 grass fires, three motor vehicle accidents, four lake rescues, five assistance calls and eight landing zones.

The fire marshal/building inspector conducted three fire investigations during the month of July, two of which were burn ban violations. A fire in Impala Woods was a structure fire that was ruled accidental in nature due to an electrical malfunction at the electrical connection for the sewer grinder pump.

The library reported total current patrons at 1,812 and total holdings records at 15,525. The library was open 20 days during the month of July and serviced 965 patrons. A total of $841.65 was brought in and 35.8 volunteer hours were worked.

Other business included approval of the minutes, vouchers and financial reports.

 

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By Emily Banks Wooten
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Changes to the proposed fiscal year 2024 budget were reviewed by County Judge Sydney Murphy during the regular meeting of the Polk County Commissioners Court Tuesday.

The current ad valorem tax revenue, including both current and delinquent, is $27,839,181 and this is based on a 96% collection rate with a tax rate of 0.583000. Murphy said that 11.6897% of the budget goes to debt service, which is a significant decrease from previous years. She said basically 63% of the proposed budget is going to the general fund and a little over 25% is going to road and bridge, which includes a $906,782 increase for road and bridge from the prior year.

Changes to the proposed budget include updating revenues derived from county property rent such as Anco Insurance and Habitat for Humanity ReStore which are both located in the building in the 300 block of North Beatty that the county recently acquired. A 4% increase earmarked for discretionary salaries will be a new line item for every single department, whereas it was previously just one line item. An additional change to the proposed budget is increased allocation to the volunteer fire departments based on a formula determined by the fire chiefs.

Final approval of the budget is slated for a special called meeting of the Court at 10 a.m. Aug. 15.

Based on the recommendation of Polk County Fire Marshal John Fugate, the Court approved adoption of Fire Code-NFPA 1 Fire Code 2021 Edition from the National Fire Protection Association.

Several requests from Sheriff Byron Lyons were on the agenda.

“The auditor’s office estimates that due to vacancies, at least $217,482 would be remaining in the jail salary line item at the end of this fiscal year. The sheriff is requesting a portion of it to buy down all of the accrued FLSA and holiday hours and all but 20 hours of the comp hours earned so far by the dispatchers and the jail staff.” County Judge Sydney Murphy said. “The cost to do this will be about $100,482.09. He’s also requesting to move $30,000 from jail salaries to sheriff vehicle maintenance to cover the overage in that line item to fix two units that need new transmissions which will leave approximately $117,000 in jail salaries at the end of the budget year.”

The Court approved the requests.

Based on a request by the auditor’s office to begin the process of annual bids for the precincts, the Court approved advertising for fiscal year 2024 annual bids. This includes road materials, bulk limestone, tires, oil, grease, gas, diesel, pest control services, motor grader blades, material hauling and the demolition of disposal of nuisance abatement buildings.

The Court entered into an executive session for deliberations about officers and employees regarding the appointment, employment, evaluation, reassignment, duties, discipline or dismissal of a public officer or employee; or to hear a complaint or a charge against an officer or employee. However, no action was taken upon return to open session.

In personnel matters, the Court reviewed and approved personnel action form requests submitted by department heads since the last meeting.

The Court also approved the fiscal year 2023 budget revisions and amendments as presented by the county auditor’s office.

Items on the consent agenda included:

•Approval of the minutes of the July 25 regular meeting;

•Approval of the schedules of bills;

•Receipt and recording of personnel action form requests submitted by elected officials since the last meeting;

•Approval of a memorandum of understanding with Polk Central Appraisal District to provide support during a time of natural or manmade disaster to include mapping services;

•Approval of a request from District Attorney Shelly Bush Sitton for asset forfeiture expenditure of seized property not to exceed $435 for training expenses;

•Approval of the re-appointment of Rachel Drake to Burke Center Board of Trustees for a two-year term beginning Sept. 1, 2023;

•Termination of a memorandum of understanding between Polk County and Precinct 1 Constable Scott Hughes approved on March 24, 2020 to provide constable reserve deputy patrol in Precinct 1;

•Termination of a memorandum of understanding between Polk County and Precinct 1 Constable Scott Hughes approved on March 8, 2022 regarding the monthly salary of Beau Price; and

•Receipt and recording of the 258th and 411th district judges’ orders setting the fiscal year compensation for the county auditor, assistant auditors, court reporters, court coordinators, bailiffs and labor pool staff pursuant to Local Government Code.

•Bobby Gokey addressed the Court during the portion of the meeting earmarked for  public comments, attempting to clarify statements previously made by Tyler Epstein regarding San Francisco Road in Precinct 1, calling Epstein’s statements untrue.

Lindell Mitchell of the Livingston Church of Christ opened the meeting with prayer.