Residents who live on County Road 1953, on the northeast side of Lake Fork, were at the Wood County commissioners’ court meeting last week to complain about the condition of their road.

Citizens called the road located in the Yantis area “terrible” and “difficult to drive on.”

Gary Penny said those living on the road have been asking for repairs for three or four years.

“Both my vehicles, I’ve had to do wheel alignments this year because I’ve ruined tires…The road is in shambles. The potholes are so bad you can’t dodge the potholes,” Penny said.

“They go clear across the road, there’s bare dirt in every place. We were promised a year ago that we were next on the list to be fixed so I guess since nothing has been fixed in our precinct in the past year.”

Jerry Moss said he made a call to Precinct One Commissioner Virgil Holland early in the spring and he was told the residents were on the docket but everything was wet and it had to dry out first.

“You cannot pull a boat down that road,” Moss said. “So we’ve had someone tell us it was on the docket. We’re citizens are just like everyone else, we deserve the same consideration.”

Holland met briefly with the group after commissioners adjourned their weekly meeting.

Health Plan Changes

Commissioners approved a change in the reinsurer for the county.

Demetia Reynolds, with Brinson Benefits, spoke to the court to review the health plan and request a change in reinsurer agent.

She asked the court to move to Pace as the reinsurer organization and the commissioners agreed.

“We have other clients using Pace. They’re A-rated,” Reynolds said. “We would only bring the best to the table. We would never bring a subpar reinsurance carrier to the table.”

Reynolds said the former reinsurer came back with about a 35 percent increase in premiums for this year’s renewal, prompting Brinson to solicit pricing from other companies. Eleven different reinsurers bid for the opportunity.

Premiums for dental insurance will increase, as well.

“Our dental ran really hot this year,” she said. “We were in the hole with our dental so in order to make up for lost ground we’re going to request a three percent in premium equivalence.”

Brinson and the county have gone several years without changes in the funding, Reynolds said.

She went over the Telemedicine benefit. Last year, the county changed from Teledot to My Telemedicine in October. In the last three months of 2017, Telemedicine took 49 phone consults from employees, allowing patients to avoid urgent care or emergency room visits and saving $6,276 in claims.

From January to July this year, there were 121 consults with Telemedicine, avoiding almost $13,000 in claims this year.

Other Items

Commissioners approved a resolution recognizing Constitution Week Sept. 17 through 23. County Judge Bryan Jeanes read the proclamation commemorating the writing of America’s founding document.

Constitution Week was initiated in 1955 by the Daughters of the American Revolution and is celebrated annually.

Court approved the sheriffs’ and constables’ fees for the 2019 fiscal year. The interlocal agreement with the Andrews Center and the commissioners’ courts of Smith, Wood, Henderson, Van Zandt and Rains counties was approved for Wood County for the 2019 fiscal year. The agreement allows the counties’ reseidents to use the center located in Tyler and its 29 other service centers until the end of the agreement (Oct. 31, 2019).

Leonardo Martinez has filled the deputy sheriff role vacated by Branden Gamm since Sept. 3. Aulderson Franklin, Jr. had a change in position from deputy to CID sergeant since Sept. 1. John William Cooper moves from the CID sergeant to deputy. Georgia Cameron resigned from the secretary III/ office manager position in the county judge department effective Aug. 31.

Two hires for temporary help and two ending of temporary help were approved. Richard Levi Hammonds was hired for Aug. 6 through Feb. 6. Debra Carpenter was hired for Aug. 21 to Feb. 21. Both were hired under Mike Simmons, precinct three commissioner.

Chris Perkins ended his temporary job in the district clerk’s office effective Aug. 22.

A lease agreement for the Lake Holbrook lake house was approved by the court. Xerox machine lease agreements for the Wood County Extension Office were approved by the commissioners. Rob Allen was appointed to the Upper Sabine Valley Solid Waste Management District Board of Directors as a representative of precinct one.

A payroll of $228,300.06 was approved by the court. Health and dental claims were $65,407.11. Accounts payable claims totaled $50,198.31.Direct claims paid totaled $5,617.82. All claims were approved.