Seven tons of trash taken from creek

By LPR Staff
Editor/POST-REGISTER

Discussion about Plum Creek dominated the regular meeting of the Caldwell County Commissioners Court on Monday.
Along with newly-appointed GBRA director Oscar Fogle, Lee Gudgell approached the Court to talk about a major Plum Creek cleanup effort that began recently.
“Plum Creek was listed as an impaired water body

for contact water recreation in 2004,” Gudgell reported. “In an effort to address that, and working with [several other area agencies] we chose six cleanup sites, two in Lockhart, three in Luling and one in between.”
Gudgell said that the process was “stakeholder-driven,” meaning the sites were chosen by individuals and organizations that have a vested interest in the cleanliness of Plum Creek, including GBRA and the Plum Creek Water Conservation District.
During the three-day effort, Gudgell said, more than seven tons of refuse, including furniture, tires and car batteries were pulled from the six cleanup sites.
“One of the things that people don”t think about is that if you have car batteries, that”s a hazardous material in the creek,” Gudgell said. “We don”t know who did all of the dumping, but we”re going to try to make people more aware of the dumping problem, and hope that will help.”
GBRA is currently working not only with the Plum Creek conservation district, but also with the Lockhart and Luling Independent School Districts to continue educational and cleanup programs throughout Caldwell County.
In other business:
Commissioner Tom Bonn presented a public awareness proclamation to the Commissioners for their support.
The proclamation is designed to remind county residents that dumping is illegal in Caldwell County, and that those caught doing so will be ticketed.
“This was brought home to me last Saturday when someone, in the cover of darkness,” dumped about a dozen tires and several bags of trash about 100 feet inside CR 215,” Bonn said.
In this case, investigators hit a lucky spot and found paperwork with the individual”s name on it, but in most cases, illegal dumpers are difficult to find and fine. Therefore, Bonn introduced the slogan “Don”t Mess Up Caldwell County,” to remind residents to keep the County clean.
Although there have been some fires in southern Caldwell County that might have been avoided had a burn ban been in place, the Commissioners opted to leave the burn ban off for one more week.
“We”ve got some rain scheduled later in the week,” Emergency Management Coordinator Jim Parker told the Court. “And the eastern part of the county is “greening up.” But there are still parts that are in [the mid- to high-danger range, according to the Texas Forest Service].”
Although it is still legal to burn outdoors, Caldwell County residents are urged to use extreme caution when burning brush or trash.
In brief news:
Wright reported the county has spent $142,804.97 on indigent health care since the beginning of the fiscal year. He said spending is on target to meet the budgeted amount of $300,000 for 2007-2008,
The County received a letter of resignation from County AgriLife Extension Agent Sarah Stribling, who will leave her position in June.
The Commissioners received an invitation to a Countywide Appreciation Day for Commissioner Joe Roland, which will be held at Lockhart City Park on Saturday, May 3.
The County paid bills in the amount of $188,801.01, including $7,543.80 in indigent legal defense and $23,664.79 for indigent health care.
The Caldwell County Commissioners meet on the second, third and fourth Monday of each month at 9 a.m. in Room 100 of the Caldwell County Courthouse.