The Brown County Clerk Sharon Ferguson and her office staff received the 2014 Five Star Service Award for Vital Registration from the Texas Department of State Health Services.  The award is given for excellence in vital registration within the State of Texas.  Ferguson was presented the certificate at a conference she attended last week in Austin.

When explaining the award to the Brown County commissioners at Monday’s court, Ferguson stated that her office was honored to receive the award.

“I’m real proud of this.  We get it nearly every year.  Since I have been county clerk I think there has only been one year that we haven’t gotten it,” said Ferguson.  “Of course I have a great staff and I couldn’t have done it without them and they are really amazing.  We are really proud of this award because it is getting harder and harder to get it because they are so picky.”

Ferguson explained that fraud is the reason it is getting harder.

“There are a lot of local registrars that are not county clerks; they are like the City of Dallas, for instance.  There are 49 people who were awarded this five star award and only 28 were county clerks and we were one of them,” Ferguson stated.  “We are really proud of this award and we hope we can continue the tradition.”

In other matters on Monday’s agenda of the Brown County Commissioners Court:

*Commissioners took no action regarding a burn ban.  Currently there is no ban in effect.

*Commissioners unanimously denied a waiver of penalty an interest for delinquent taxes on a property located on Hall Street in Bangs, which is owned by CDH Holdings, LLC.  Bangs ISD and the City of Bangs recently approved a waiver of their portion of the property taxes on the property due to the owner, Chris Hall having overlooked the taxes after being in a serious plane crash.  Brown County’s tax attorney had written a letter regarding the matter which Commissioner Gary Worley cited, saying that the attorney advised against the waiver becauase the tax code does not authorize such action.