Resident urges county to beef up SO

By Tony Farkas
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COLDSPRING — In light of the recent mass killings in San Jacinto County, residents came to the San Jacinto County Commissioners Court looking to have the Sheriff’s Office fully staffed.

George Deeter said that while all the accolades were to be given to the Sheriff’s Office for the arrests in the catastrophe that occurred, they need to be fully staffed and equipped.

“You have tasked the Sheriff in covering 700 square miles of the county, but have not provided the necessary funds for the Sheriff’s Office to have a full staff,” he said.

Deeter said he was fearful during the manhunt because he was not sure where the suspect was going to land.

However, court officials told Deeter that the office had the funds available to be fully staffed, and had the paperwork to back it up, but there was a hiring problem statewide.

Deeter said there has to be a way to make people interested in working for the Sheriff.

“Between the five of you sitting up there, and with the county and the residents, we need to solve this,” he said.

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Commissioner Donnie Marrs said that the hiring shortage was due to people not wanting to work as police due to the way they are treated, and that, combined with shortage in proper equipment, including vehicles, leave people demoralized.

In other business, the court:

•approved a bid of $43,300 on the sale of several lots of land owned by the county;

•approved the bond renewal for Jaclyn Williams;

•approved a lot split in the Tomiko Brown survey for J. Moore;

•approved seeking bids for an asphalt grinder/reclaimer for Precincts 1 and 3; and

•approved seeking bids for a Maxxum tractor.