What to expect in 2020 from Milam County
What should everyone expect in 2020 for Milam County? More progress!
For 2020 we set an aggressive budget to help improve the services we provide. For example, each of the four precincts will receive about 2.5 percent more funding than in 2019. In addition, we plan to receive some state funding for road repairs, particularly for those heavily traveled oilfield roads.
Both will help with keeping the roads in repair. We are working on new lease agreements to get better and newer road graders and other road equipment to help with maintenance. We have about 800 miles of county roads, of which about 600 miles are not paved and therefore there is a lot of daily, daily upkeep. Rest assured we are doing our best to keep our roads in good condition and we will make a lot more progress in 2020.
We will also complete the digitization of our county records by the end of 2020. A lot of our records are currently digitized and online, but we plan to finish this immense project by the end of 2020 and have all the records of the county on line, going back to the origin of the county, by the end of the year. Thus, one can search land records, marriage records, death records and other records of the county from the convenience of the internet. While this is a costly project, it will save the county a large amount of expensive, vaulted, fire proof storage space.
We hope to go forward with the new county annex in Cameron, by restoring the old hospital building. We just received a rough draft of the plans and those are being reviewed for an estimated cost of the restoration. We have quite a bit to do, but we could possibly start construction by the second quarter of 2020. This will be a nice facility that will instill pride in our county; provide our citizens one stop shopping for county services; save taxpayer money in heating, cooling, phones and maintenance. In addition, the planned agreement will also include the entire 8.3-acre hospital complex, which will give the county room to grow.
Look for more solar and high tech. We currently have four solar projects underway in the County and a fifth is planned. If and when all of these come to fruition, our County will become the largest solar producing county in the state and maybe in the nation. Bitmain and Whinstone will continue to grow and expand its profitable bitcoin mining operations. Both are welcomed additions to the County and both will continue to hire. These completed operations will make Milam County the largest bitcoin mining operation in the state and most probably the nation.
Economic development will be at the forefront of everything we do for the county. We will leave no stone unturned, no matter how small to keep the business we have and to get new business. Economic development is up to each of us in the county and I encourage each of you to help by contacting us about any new business lead you may have.
Yes, together we made a lot of positive progress in 2019 and we will make plenty more in 2020. Hang on!