By Anton Riecher
Due to extensive drought conditions a burn ban originally approved by the Medina County Commissioners Court in February has been extended an additional 90 days effective Monday.
On a motion by Precinct 3 Commissioner David Lynch, seconded by Precinct 1 Commissioner Jessica Castiglioni, the commissioners voted unanimously to approve the extension requested by county emergency management coordinator Mark Chadwick.
“If you know anybody who does rain dancing or anything else I would entertain talking to somebody at this point,” Chadwick said.
Out of 254 Texas counties, Medina County is one of 84 counties currently under a burn ban. Nearby Zavala, Frio and Atascosa counties are also under current bun bans.
A check of the local fire risk as determined by the Keetch-Bryan drought index Sunday morning showed Medina County at a high of 646 out of a possible 800, he said. The index balances precipitation against soil moisture to calculate potential fire risk.
The county median stands at 552 and the low was measured at 450, Chadwick said.
“Right now our drought index is jumping anywhere from five to 10 points a day,” he said. “As the heat increases for the next few weeks and you have days like tomorrow (Tuesday) we are already looking at a relative humidity that is going to drop to 12 percent.”
As the summer heat increases, the drought index is expected to jump as many as 15 points a day, he said.
Instead of brief, periodic rains that quickly run off, the county needs three to four days of slow, soaking rainfall to break the drought, Chadwick said. Short of a tropical storm moving in from the Gulf, such heavy rains are unlikely.
County Judge Keith Lutz, who formerly served as the county’s emergency management coordinator, noted that while short steady rains are insufficient to break the drought, resulting conditions may be safe enough for Chadwick or the sheriff’s office to issue temporary exemptions to the burn ban.
Last year the county issued 472 such permits, Chadwick said. Since October, the county has issued 610 temporary permits to allow burning under safe conditions, he said.
“We process them as fast as we can get them,” Chadwick said.
In other business, the commissioners took no action on the appointment of Cynthia Sultenfuss to replace Juan Zamora on the Medina County Emergency Services District No. 4 board of commissioners due to an error in posting the item to the official court agenda, Lutz said.
Whereas the item was added to the court’s on-line agenda, it was mistakenly left off the agenda posted for the public outside the courthouse annex in Hondo.
Commissioners did take action to make 40 mph the official speed limit for County Road 6612 after a public hearing on the issue. Precinct 4 Commissioners Danny Lawler explained that while 40 mph is the posted speed limit, the commissioners court had failed set that speed as the official limit, making it unenforceable.
No comment was offered during the public hearing. On a motion by Lawler, seconded by Lynch, the commissioners voted unanimously to set the speed limit at 40 mph.
Commissioners also voted unanimously to approve a road use agreement with Rowan Land Resources for construction and maintenance on portions of county roads 683 and 6712 bordering the “Project Cinco” hyperscaler data center project near Lytle. Rowan Land Resources is the property acquisition arm of Rowan Digital Infrastructure, developer of the data center project.
The motion was made by Lynch and seconded by Castiglioni.