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Travis County Commissioners Court

January 13, 2009
Item 3

View captioned video.

Item no. 3, consider and Take appropriate action Regarding the prohibition of Outdoor burning in the Unincorporated areas of Travis County.

>> good morning, judge, Commissioners, pete baldwin, Emergency management Coordinator for travis County and partially the Assistant fire marshal. Our existing outdoor burning Ban expires tomorrow. What you have before you is A new one for 30 days, same As the one that's we have Been under for a little over Four or five months now, With just the dates changed. Weather conditions have not Changed, we don't look for Anything out there right now That would benefit us. So it would be our Recommendation that the Court approve the new Outdoor burning ban for the Next 30 days.

>> questions?

>> just to -- to clarify Now, this drought has been Really hard on a lot of Folks. I did receive calls about Fireworks for any left over, Can you talk about what can And can't be done during the Burn ban.

>> we would highly recommend That no one be shooting Fireworks in this particular Weather conditions. We are in an extreme drought Condition. Central Texas has been Affected by it. If you look at the parmer or U.s. Drought index, our Outlying areas, even in the Panhandle aren't in near the Shape we currently are in. My recommendation is that You box those up or destroy Them, don't take a chance During this type of weather. We noticed Williamson county Had a fairly significant Fire yesterday yesterday Pushed by the winds.

>> what's the appropriate Disposal method if anybody Has fireworks left from the Holidays?

>> just put them back in the Cardboard boxes, tape them Up, seal them up, put them In a secure area, preferably Outside of a private Residence, in a secure dry Area where children or People that are not Appropriate to have them at This time won't have access To them.

>> okay. If they want to destroy Them, is there a -- is there A location to take them to For destruction?

>> if you have an amount That is of concern, if you Will contact us at the Travis County fire marshal's Office, 854-4621, we will Make arrangements to pick Those up for you, we can Work with a.p.d.'s bomb Squad quite often for Disposal of those type of Things or atf will help us With that.

>> great, just to clarify. We can't prevent people from Holiday seasons from Preventing certain types of Fireworks, although we can Ban the sale of certain Types, correct.

>> the restricted fireworks Which the law allows us to Prohibit the sale and use of Are stick rockets and Missiles with fins. Other than that we have no Jurisdiction unless we go Into a full scale disaster Declaration of which we have Only done once in my years Here.

>> thanks.

>> move that we approve Another order which would Extend the ban through February -- 11th.

>> February 11th.

>> okay.

>> discussion and motion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous Vote. Thank you very much. By the way, unless we Stumble seriously, we should Be into executive session in I would say 10 to 15 Minutes.


The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.


Last Modified: Tuesday, January 13, 2009 2:03 PM