The end-of-month meeting of Karnes County Commissioners Court opened with a request by a landowner for the possible closure of parts of County Road 285 and County Road 286.

After discussion, County Attorney Bob Busselman said that he would meet with the parties involved in the request to start the procedure for closure. That would include a petition needed from all of the owners that have property on the roads.

Commissioner James Rosales said that this same request had come up several years ago, but some of the property owners objected because of a cemetery in the area.

County Judge Alger Kendall, Jr. said that he would like several county officials go out and take a look at the roads involved.

It was decided to take up the matter again after the completion of the necessary procedures.

The court approved a burn ban for Karnes County as well as a ban prohibiting the sale and use of aerial fireworks. All outdoor burning is prohibited under the current burn ban.

Kendall asked the court to consider for approval the submission of a grant request to AACOG. This would be for a regional solid waste program grant. This, in turn, would allow the county to purchase a baler, to bale cardboard, paper and some plastics and to move on to better recycling. The county would get a return in monies from the recycling company for these bales.

The grant request is aiming for 100 percent to cover the costs which are an estimated $21,000.

Commissioner Isidro "Stormy" Rossett asked, "Will someone have to be there to help with the baling?"

County officials discussed the possibility of using someone the county already has on board as needed. County forklifts could potentially be used to move the very heavy baled items once they are ready to be picked up.

"There is a deadline the first week of December to get the grant request in," Judge Kendall said.

After more discussion, the proposal was approved.

Action was postponed at this time on the request to enter into an inter-local agreement with Camino Real Community MHMR Center for training and reimbursement for the transportation of patients from the center and other facilities to other locations as needed.

"We are satisfied with the way it is done now, on a case-by-case basis and agreement," Karnes County Sheriff David Jalufka said. Jalufka said he was not certain it would be to the county’s or the sheriff department’s advantage to enter into a binding agreement to provide an "on-call" service.

Jalufka said there are other factors involved such as the availability of personnel every time they were needed, the medical or mental state of the person to be moved, the liability that could occur, and the preparation for every situation that might arise.

Judge Kendall said that he would gather more details involved and the exact needs that might be expected before the court meets again. The proposal was tabled. The next and only meeting in December will be on December 18.

Presented and discussed by the court were several EMS bills that had come to their attention. One had been a bill for repair of an ambulance battery that was not taken care of by the usual establishment the county ambulance services uses and another involved having phone/Internet service for EMS in both the residence of Johnny Smart and the EMS building and a question of the cost of both.

County officials asked that it be looked into to see if AT&T would install a separate private line to alleviate the conflict and to come back to the courts with cost to do so.

The bills up for consideration and due at this time were approved for payment. A request to consider installing cable network channels on the EMS television to be available while crews were in the building waiting for emergency calls will be taken into consideration.

The court approved a request to amend the 2007 budget to change some of the wording. The budget remains the same regarding the dollar amount of total expenditures.