Travis County Commissioners Court
November 15, 2005
Item 1
1. Consider and take appropriate action regarding the prohibition of outdoor burning in the unincorporated areas of Travis County.
>> good morning.
>> good morning.
>> my name is pete baldwin, I’m the emergency services coordinator in Travis County. We are requesting that the court consider an outdoor burning ban effective today, since the drought index is over 600, where it's 621 on an average. We are expecting a front through here today. While we may get a little bit of rain out of it, it's going to be very, very little. We are going to have a wind shift and start bringing in drier weather in behind this. Going to create a higher fire danger, no matter if we do get rain or not. We have been now about 20 something days without rain. We are still in the annual deficit. We are starting to see the small fires. We haven't had anything big, but we haven't had the winds and so that's why the -- why the fire departments have requested that we come today and ask for you to approve an outdoor burning ban for the unincorporated areas of Travis County.
>> pete, what's our deficit rain currently as far as rainfall?
>> we are approximately 10 inches behind on an annual basis.
>> 10 inches behind? Yes, sir.
>> that's a bunch.
>> yes, sir.
>> yeah, that's a bunch. Okay.
>> what have the sounding counties?
>> nearly all of the surrounding counties have outdoor burning bans. We are one of three left in central Texas that do not have an outdoor burning ban at this time.
>> your recommendation is that we impose one?
>> yes, sir.
>> mr. Fire marshal, any comments?
>> just concurrence with what pete has already said.
>> that's why I move approval.
>> second.
>> that is pete's recommendation. Discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, November 15, 2005 2:56 PM