Delta County Courthouse Meeting

Robert West | November 11, 2021

I recently attended a meeting about the new courthouse. Maybe a dozen citizens, what felt like the entire staff of Delta County and the construction company representatives.

For those not in attendance, you did not miss much. We were presented with 3 options arranged by price.

Option 1/ $9,238,725.00 - Involves moving out, renovating and moving back into courthouse.
Option 2/ $11,665,250.00 - Move out, demolish and build a replacement on the same site.
Option 3/ $6,961,870.00 - They have already started and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars. Purchased land on the highway with plans to renovate the existing building and build a brand-new courthouse next to it.

The Question of a Vote

We went there about the Courthouse building.

When the subject of the people of Delta County voting was mentioned things turned.

Your “public servants” and one very vocal citizen, who advocated like her next vacation depended on it listed about 5 reasons why voting was a bad idea.

“Only landowners should be allowed to vote.” As if landlords don’t include the cost of property tax increases when they decide rent prices.
Low turnout because not many people vote. So, the ones that do vote lost that right?
The vote might not turn out the way we want.
The vote would only decide which of the three options we would follow and we have already started on the one we like.
It would take too long. This building is 80 years plus, but now we have no time to allow a vote?

The Good News and Cost to You

The good news is that it will only cost every man, woman and child in Delta County about $1,200 each. If you are a family of four, $5,000. More if they finance and you have to figure interest which was not covered.

Honestly, I don’t know how they arrived at a figure as no plans were presented, not even a sketch and only ONE bid was submitted.

Expect to pay more, a lot more, than what was presented and it still leaves us with a courthouse that no doubt the county will want to turn into a museum or demolish at some point.

Lastly, to do business at the new courthouse you will have to cross the highway and the new location will divert a lot of traffic away from downtown businesses.
The new location will shift traffic and business to the highway and like so many Texas towns, away from the square.
Let's face it people, the only reason many people visit the square is the courthouse. Now it will not even be in the county seat, but on the highway.

After two years of not having a vote about what the government is doing to us, do we want to support anyone that does not believe we should get a vote on this?

After all we’ll be the ones paying for it.

Not a Single County Employee in Favor of a Vote

Not a SINGLE county employee spoke up in favor of a vote by the citizens, not one.

Does anyone think that it would be a good idea to give the county a new building when they have not taken care of the one, we have?
Would it be impossible to fix the roof, storm drain and rewire the building?
Would you have to move everyone out when we only use half the building?
Could we not renovate a section at a time and spread the cost over several years?

This was not a meeting to decide what was to be done, it was a FYI, this is what we have decided to do and we have already started.

I trust their numbers about as much as I trust gas station sushi.

I urge everyone to make your voices heard, especially the business owners that depend on courthouse traffic.

Another great example why we must Replace Career Politicians with Patriots.

Robert West