Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, August 24, 2010,
Item 1
Item number 1 is to consider and take appropriate action regarding the prohibition of outdoor burning in the unincorporated areas of travis county.
>> good morning, judge, commissioners. Her shell lee, travis county fire marshal. The current drought on travis county is 551 which is increase of about 60 points since our last voting session. We're continuing to rise at a rate of about 10 to 12 points per day. There is not any substantial rainfall in the next two weeks forecast. Currently there are 53 counties in texas that have burn bans and i sent some documents this morning, you may not have had time to review those, but all of the surrounding counties for travis county have a drought index of 575 or higher currently. The -- our contiguous counties have not yet enacted burn bans, but there have been some significant fires. Bastrop county last week after the voting session there had a 300-acre fire. So it is something that needs to be considered. I have polled the local fire chiefs, the local emergency service districts, and those responding, 100% agree it is time to enact a burn ban. I have prepared a new order if the court so approves today and i will leave that in the judge's office for approval. For his signature. So if you have any questions, i'll be glad to try to answer those questions for you.
>> so where are we today on the index?
>> this morning it was 551. By this afternoon it's going to be about 560 this afternoon.
>> okay. Questions, comments? Move that we adopt the proposed burn ban.
>> second. And with that second, can you possibly maybe give the viewing public an indication of compliance, burn ban, what does it really mean for those of us that may not realize what's going on, and how they may be able to get in touch with your office to make sure that
>> [indiscernible] situations are taken care of under the burn ban?
>> yes, sir. Once approved, we will post the order on our website. You can visit our website or you can call my office at 854-4621 for specific questions. If anyone -- this particular order does not ban agricultural burning when it's done under the guidance of a prescription burn manager. There are also -- there's a possibility for required work such as hot work, welding, cutting, grinding, for those things to continue, but there are specific requirements for those. And anyone who needs to do that kind of work, there are requirements that are in this order which will be available online or by calling our office for fire watch, notifying the local fire department, ability to contact emergency services and those type things.
>> how long will this order be in place -- invoked or enforced as far as what we're doing here today? What -- sometime we'll come back when the conditions with warranted, but for right now how long will this be in place?
>> this proposed order would expire september 22nd.
>> september 22nd.
>> yes, sir.
>> okie-doke. Thank you.
>> what's the source for the safeguards that are set forth in the order?
>> these are established guidelines that most of these came from the -- a manual that's written in -- by fire school and university of oklahoma, which describes things which should be done, safety precautions that should be taken prior to any activity or for burning outdoors.
>> are these fairly common throughout the state of texas?
>> yes, sir, they are.
>> any more discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Thank you very much. And if we get heavy rains or something like that we'll stick it back on the agenda. Okay.
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, August 24, 2010, 2010 2:30 PM
