With most of the county receiving rain recently, Brown County Commissioners unanimously lifted the county’s burn ban at a called meeting on Wednesday.

Commissioners Joel Kelton and Richard Gist, Precincts 2 and 3 respectively, each said that lifting the ban may be helpful to citizens within the county.

“I’m in favor of lifting the ban and reconsidering it at the next meeting,” said Kelton.  “This at least gives people a window to get things done.”

“I’m in favor, some of the people in my area have certainly received more than others and others have received very little rainfall, but as we go along, there are people needing to burn and we can take it up again at the next meeting,” Gist said.

Gist reminded that citizens should use “extreme caution with all the grasses” if they choose to burn anything.

Consideration of a burn ban will appear on the agenda of the next regularly scheduled meeting of the court on Monday, September 10 at 9:00am in the Commissioners Courtroom.

In other matters on Wednesday’s agenda:

*Commissioners approved installation of Zephyr Water Supply line extensions on several county roads, which include CR 406, CR 407, CR 417, CR 421, CR 423, CR 476, and CR 477 in Precinct 2 and CR 367 in Precinct 3.  All installations are to be at county specifications and will include cuts in unpaved roads and bores underneath paved roads.

*Nannell Mooney received approval for the purchase of a new stenography machine for the county’s court reporters.  The machine will cost approximately $4339 including taxes; however the county is exempt from paying sales tax on this item so the amount will be adjusted accordingly.  The older machine that will be replaced (purchased in 2006 for $4900) will be returned for a $1000 trade-in toward the new machine.  A new time saving feature that the new stenography machine will have is wi-fi capability which will help make the court reporters’ jobs more efficient, according to Mooney.  The older machine needs to be replaced because of advancements in technology which are making the supplies for the machine available by special order only.