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COMANCHE – Three members of the
Commissioners Court gathered for a special called meeting on Monday,
June 19, to consider the Emergency Burn Ban declared by the County
Judge less than one week earlier.
Judge James Arthur and Commissioners
Garry Steele and Chris Biggs were present at the meeting. Commissioner
Bobby Schuman was unable to attend the meeting and one position on the
Court is temporarily vacant.
The rains that fell on the county over
the preceding weekend bolstered the Commissioners desire to allow some
outdoor burning. At their last regular meeting one week earlier, the
Commissioners had voted to continue a restricted burn ban.
On the following Tuesday, however, acting
in coordination with other area counties and in accordance with
recommendations of the Texas Forest Service, County Judge Arthur
declared an Emergency Burn Ban.
Under a restricted burn ban, all persons
wishing to burn outdoors, other than for burning trash in an
appropriate container, must call county dispatch for permission on the
day of the burn. It is then the responsibility of fire marshals in
various areas of the county to determine whether and how much burning
will be allowed on a given day.
Under the Emergency Burn Ban, however,
all outdoor burning, including trash burning, is banned. Violations of
either ban are punishable as a Class C misdemeanor.
When Judge Arthur asked the Commissioners
for their comments on the burn ban situation, Garry Steele said,
“Judge, my personal opinion is, in light of the rains we have received
and the fact that it is still early in the season, I think we need to
let this temporary ban lapse and go back to a restricted burn ban
because the Chiefs have been doing an excellent job of supervising
what burns they have.”
Chris Biggs expressed his agreement with
Steele’s comments and noted that there would be a problem in
restricting fireworks.
The state law that permits Texas Counties
to ban the sale and use of aerial fireworks requires that an action
must be taken before June 15 for the Fourth of July fireworks season.
Steele added that if the winds had
remained high like they were in the preceding week and the rains had
not fallen over the weekend, then he would have been for continuing
the total outdoor burn ban. He noted that the winds were now calmer,
the humidity was higher, and the grass was greening up from the recent
rains.
Proctor Lake area resident Beverly
Edwards Cathcart was present at the meeting. She asked questions about
the enforcement of the burn ban and cited examples of neighbors not
complying. Suggestions were offered to Cathcart as to how she could
obtain compliance with the burn ban, including calling the fire
department to put out the illegal fires.
Cathcart was also referred to the County
Attorney and the Justice of the Peace as far as legal consequences
were concerned. Judge Arthur pointed out that the Sheriff’s Department
and other law enforcement agencies were doing their part in
enforcement.
County Emergency Services Coordinator Ray
Helberg distributed various maps showing the Keetch-Byram Drought
Index showing burn conditions in Texas by county. Helberg also
distributed county maps showing Texas counties with outdoor burn bans,
those with aerial fireworks restrictions and a two week projection of
the drought index. The projection showed Comanche County returning to
a high wildfire risk situation. However, Helberg never made any
specific recommendation regarding the burn ban situation.
Sheriff Jeff Lambert commented that his
deputies had been writing tickets for burn ban violations.
Garry Steele stated, “Our restricted burn
ban has worked real well for us in this county. To be honest,
sometimes we have more violations when we have a total burn ban than
we do when we have a restricted one. I think, temporarily, we need to
let this total burn ban lapse as of today and revisit this at the next
meeting, or the first one in July. That will be my motion.”
Chris Biggs immediately seconded Steele’s
motion. The vote to approve was unanimous.
Since wet weather conditions can rapidly
disappear, it was agreed that the burn ban subject should be on the
next Commissioners Court meeting agenda for June 26. |
