At today’s meeting of the Brown County Commissioners Court, approval was given for a new unified phone number system for all County offices.  As explained by County Judge Shane Britton, current phone numbers for County offices are seemingly unrelated, and can be confusing at times.  Under the new system from Frontier, the County will reserve a block of 500 phone numbers.  County telephones, fax machines, etc. will all get new numbers, and all will have the same three-number prefix — only the last four digits will be different.  Internal calls from one County office to another will require dialing only the last four digits.  When the new numbers become active, the old phone numbers will still work for a certain time.  The new system has a set-up fee of $95, and will cost $125 per month.

In other business:

*** The Commissioners gave approval for an Interlocal Cooperation contract with the Texas Department of State Health Services, as requested by County Clerk Sharon Ferguson.  The agreement will allow the County Clerk’s office to access birth certificates from other counties, at a cost of $23 each.  The state will retain $1.83 of that $23.00.

*** The Commissioners gave approval for a private water line at CR 292 and CR 294, to be installed by Zephyr Water Supply.

*** The Commissioners voted approval for the purchase of a new Ford F-150 pickup truck, as requested by Precinct 4 Commissioner Larry Traweek.  The net cost of the new truck, after trade-in, will be $26,400.

*** The Commissioners voted approval for the disposal of excess fill materials located in Precinct 4.  Commissioner Traweek explained that as his crews perform maintenance work on County roads and bar ditches, excess dirt — also described as “fill” or “scrap material” — accumulates.  If interested in this excess fill material, contact Commissioner Larry Traweek.