Travis County Commissioners Court
December 20, 2011 (Agenda)
Item 4
Before those 9:30 items, number 4 ought to take 60 seconds in that long.
4.
consider and take appropriate action on an order concerning outdoor burning in the unincorporated areas of Travis County.
mr. Lee.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners, herschel lee, our drought index is down to 317 or 318, down from last week.
that doesn't take into account any effect of the little bit of rain that we got yesterday.
spoken to the local fire chiefs, they are still receiving quite a few requests for burning.
but are not reporting any issues with -- with fires getting out of control.
but they have reported to me that there are a number of people that are burning and are not calling the fire departments before they start.
so they wanted to remind the public to do that.
my recommendation today is to -- not take any action on the burn ban, which in effect would allow people to continue to burn, but remind them that they need to contact the fire departments first.
one of the things that that will do is on a day like today, when the wind is expected to reach up to 20 miles an hour at times, the fire department is likely going to tell them you may not burn today.
call back tomorrow and we'll check on that.
so my recommendation is to take no action on the burn ban today.
>> questions?
comments?
>> herschel, we've got what number should they call?
particularly if they are in the unincorporated areas and they don't really --
>> if they do not know, which esd they are in or what number to call, if they will call my office, 854-4621, one of the administrative people there will tell them who their local fire department is.
sometimes that involves looking them up to see who they are paying their esd tax to.
we will look that up and tell them.
also I have been working on a list of things, issues, that we're going to have to get worked out before we move to a county-wide permitting thing.
working on that.
currently there's a meeting scheduled January the 5th for the capital area fire chief's inspection enforcement subcommittee meeting.
we will be discussing that in the next couple of weeks as well.
>> so there is no fire ban in place now and by taking no act, we simply -- by taking no action, we simply do for the put one in place.
should I carry this item from week to week?
>> yes, sir, let's carry it.
we are expecting some northers, it don't take long to talk about it.
>> we will do just that, that's -- that's 27.
>> thank you, herschel.
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