At today’s meeting of the Brown County Commissioners, Sheriff Vance Hill presented awards to two Deputies who will be retiring soon:  Valton Posey, 45 years experience with the Brown County Sheriff’s Office, and Ricky Belvin with 12 years experience.  In a fortunate coincidence, Posey began his career with the Sheriff’s Department exactly 45 years ago today, August 18, 1980.  In the photograph above, left to right, Sheriff Vance Hill, Deputy Valton Posey, Deputy Ricky Belvin, and County Judge Shane Britton.

In other business, the Commissioners voted to set September 8 as the date four items:  (1) a public hearing on the County’s budget for the 2025/2026 fiscal year; (2) a vote of the Commissioners Court to adopt the 2025/2026 fiscal budget; (3) a public hearing on the proposed ad valorum tax rate for 2025; and (4) a vote of the Commissioners Court to adopt the proposed ad valorum tax rate for 2025.

The Commissioners approved the call for a special election to be held on November 4, 2025.  Three items will be on the November 4 ballot: (1) Seventeen proposed amendments to the Texas Constitution; (2) Place 6 on the Brownwood Independent School District’s Board of Trustees; (3) a proposed sales and use tax of 1% in the City of Blanket to provide revenue for maintenance and repair of municipal streets.

The Commissioners also agreed to take no action on a Burn Ban, leaving the burn ban OFF for now.

Also the Commissioners heard a presentation from Brown County Elections Administrator Brenda Arp concerning a new vendor for the County’s “poll pad” system for elections.  The poll pad system is used to identify and check-in properly registered voters.  It is not used for the actual voting process, only for the check-in procedure.  The VOTEC system has been used for several years, but VOTEC recently went out of business.  Arp presented information from two possible vendors, Knowink and VR Systems.  The Knowink system will cost about $35,655, and the VR Systems will cost about $52,800.  The Commissioners accepted the report and will decide which system to purchase at a future meeting.