Things were tough on the outside but improved on the inside for Hempstead County in the 2009 year as County Judge Wallace Martin reported a tough year for county roads and Hempstead County Clerk Sandra Rodgers reported a good year for courthouse improvements.
“We had a tough year weather wise. We had a lot of equipment break down. We have good equipment, we just had a lot of break downs which gets us behind on our work,” Martin said. “We started off like a normal year until all the rain set in. We had a lot of problems due to the rain and weather.”
Martin said the round of Spring rains damaged roads to the extent the county sought and received emergency funding through FEMA.
“We received 754 funds for FEMA to help mitigate on road damage,” Martin said.
Martin said county workers installed quite a few new culverts to eliminate problems that may come if rains kept up.
“The last rains in the fall didn’t affect us as bad due to the previous work. We had damage but didn’t have to have a disaster declared,” he added.
Martin said it seemed to be tough all the way around with the bad weather.
“At one time we had about 16 roads with a problem. He said there is currently one bridge still out on County road 2 due to the Spring rains. We are trying to get that worked through FEMA and that is a slow, slow, process,” he said.
Martin said the bridge work will have to go through a rebidding process and he is waiting on the information for what changes they will have to make.
“Hopefully we will have something pretty shortly on that,” Martin said.
Throughout the year for the courthouse, many improvements were made on the inside, according to Rodgers.
Renovation was completed inside the courthouse which included a remodeling of the county clerk’s office and abatement of asbestos that had been covered for some time in the courthouse flooring.
The offices worked together to link computer systems and install new programs for the payroll systems, treasurer’s office, and county clerk’s office.
Rodgers said a ton of paper had been eliminated and records were filed electronically. A second floor room used for storage was turned into the payroll/911 office, according to Rodgers.
DSL lines were updated, and phone system changeover was implemented which will save tax dollars, according to Rodgers.
Voter registration was updated and electronic copies were made of cards. New software for marriage licensing has been added which made the process easier, Rodgers said.
More recently, Rodgers said the courthouse bathrooms and jury room has also been remodeled.
