Travis County Commissioners Court
March 10, 2009,
Item 1
Number one is to consider and take appropriate action regarding the prohibition of outdoor burning in the unincorporated areas of Travis County.
>> good morning, pete baldwin, emergency management coordinator.
to my right is herschel lee, the interim fire marshal for Travis County.
we have a new outdoor burning ban before you, which is not new.
herschel and I were just talking about this.
we think we've only been out from under an outdoor burning ban about nine days over the past six or seven months.
however, it is our recommendation that we do go ahead and implement this outdoor burning ban simply because of the exceptional drought conditions that we are in.
we are all quite familiar with fire last week in bastrop county, which totals 491 acres, 1,491 acres.
so the conditions are still ripe out there.
with that being said, we do have the forecast of some rain later this week.
the latest quantitative forecasts say we could get between an inch and two inches over the next three or four days, starting sometime Wednesday afternoon.
we hope, we pray for that, but it is still our recommendation we put the burn ban in and leave an agenda item on next week in the event that we should get that nice two inches over three to four days.
because that will spell us -- if we got something like that, that would spell us for seven to 10 days and we would see an immediate green-up in the county.
herschel, do you want to add anything?
>> I believe that's it.
kbdi is currently in the 640 range, which has risen the last two weeks over 40 points.
without the rain that we're hoping to receive, our kbdi will continue to increase.
>> the governor's disaster declaration is still in effect?
>> the governor -- I'm glad you brought that up, judge.
i had it written down and forgot it mention it.
governor perry sent a request to the president obama requesting a federal disaster declaration for all 254 counties in the state of Texas due to drought conditions.
we have not heard anything back on that request as to date.
now, based -- on the tails of the fire last week in bastrop county, they received a small business administration declaration, meaning that it was devastating enough and they lost enough homes that they were eligible for loat interest home.
-- for the low interest home.
we are a contiguous county and we are still ver fieg that, but in normal disaster declarations whatever is available to the county declared in is also available in the contiguous counties.
so therefore if bastrop county, we know they got declared for sba loans.
we are trying to make sure we verify that then Travis County would be eligible of which then that would help out some of our farmers who are looking for emergency food assistance for their cattle and everything.
and that would be very beneficial to us even if the federal disaster declaration does not get approved.
we would still have the opportunity to offer our ranchers and formers those low interest loans.
>> you can use those for I guess feed for animal.
what about water supply.
i've gotten complaints about that.
scarcity of water for livestock.
>> well, one of the things we'll have to look at is that long-term plan for drought because as you remember back in the 30's that's when the county got in the business of hauling water was we were actually hauling water to these ranchers for their stock tanks and their livestock.
we're not -- I'm not suggesting we get back in the water hauling business.
>> thank you.
>> you're welcome, sir.
>> bottom line is the scarcity of the water will have to be addressed on it.
we know we'll have loans for emergency feed and things like that, but water is one of those elements that when it start getting low, it's -- we've got to find other means to address that.
>> can we get a status report on the federal assistance next week.
>> yes, sir.
>> and if it's available, exactly what it covers.
some forms are better, but we want to know that, I believe.
>> we can do that.
>> what about I move that we basically approve another prohibition against outdoor burning?
>> second.
>> any discussion of the motion?
and we'll have this back on next week in case we get heavy rains between now and then and that render this unnecessary.
all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
we'll have separate language for the update on the federal assistance.
>> okay.
>> thank you.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, March 10, 2009 2:17 PM