Montague County Commissioners handled a brief agenda Monday that included calling the special State Senate runoff election for Dec. 19 and accepting the anticipated tax totals for 2020.
The court is still running one short, as Commissioner Mark Murphey continues to recover following surgery.
Tax Assessor-Collector Kathryn Phillips presented to tax figures to the court. Taxable value is $1,962,961,209 and taxes are $10,651,780.59. Montague County has 100,082 properties which will be taxed.
County Elections Administrator Ginger Wall presented the order call the Dec. 19 runoff election for District 30 State Senate. Wall also got approval to consolidate the runoff to the four locations that presently serve for early voting in Bowie, Nocona, Saint Jo and Montague.
District 68 State Representative Drew Springer will face Metroplex area business owner Shelley Luther in the runoff. Neither won the required majority in the six-person race in September.
The county will amend its agreement with the Texas Association of Counties, which hosts the county website to add a secure sockets layer certificate. Jessica Thomas, county technology director, said these connections protect sensitive data such as credit cards that may be exchanged during a webpage session.
She explained while the county’s website does not collect customer data it would provide an additional layer of security at a relatively low cost of $150 a year. Thomas added hackers often target smaller businesses with ransom ware so there would be a precaution. The request was approved.
Commissioner Bob Langford told the court it has been brought to his attention they need to post any new subdivisions or requests for plat revisions on the county website 30 days before they come to the court for consideration. Thomas said if the court forwarded her those requests she would make sure they go on the website.