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The Colorado County Commissioners Court denied a tax abatement for a new construction material plant, reviewed the yearly county EMS report and approved other business during its meeting, Monday, Feb. 23.
Tax abatement
After a lengthy discussion, the court denied an abatement by Heidelberg Materials LLC for a 128-acre tract of land to construct a new plant on Calhoun Road near Eagle Lake. Heidelberg Materials, formerly known as Hanson Aggregates, operates Eagle Lake Sand and Gravel on the neighboring Pioneer Plant Road. County Judge Ty Prause noted that the county rarely grants abatements and only considers them once or twice a year.
“Attract new business and create jobs —those are primary goals in the consideration…so that you could balance granting the abatement and what other members and citizens of the county perceive as something that is not fair to them,” Prause said.
Lalit Bhatnagar, Heidelberg Materials’ vice president of land, environment and strategic projects, presented the request to the court and cited the company’s 89-year history in the county. Bhatnagar said Eagle Lake Sand and Gravel has provided 16 stable jobs but that the existing plant “can’t continue operating for the next 25-30 years.”
“What we suggest is by making this investment, we are continuing to have these 16 well-paying jobs over the next several decades,” Bhatnagar said. “…We are not adding additional jobs, but [what] we are contributing is the annual beneficial effect from the purchases that we make, our employees make [that] invest into the community.”
Prause said he also considers whether an abatement is contingent for a company to develop in the county. Bhatnagar called the new plant Heidelberg Materials’ “largest capital investment in south Texas” and said the abatement would “help us with the financial side.” Prause pointed out that Bhatnagar did not directly answer his question about contingency.
No one on the court motioned to approve the abatement, resulting the abatement’s death. Precinct 4 Commissioner Darrell Gertson abstained due to having familial connect ions within the company.
EMS report
Colorado County Emergency Medical Services Director Michael Furrh relayed his 2025 yearly report to the court. He outlined the department’s goals for the new year: “improve response times through systems deployment analysis, expand community education with more CPR training opportunities, enhance clinical capabilities and treatment options, and maintain our staffing retention and recruitment.”
Furrh highlighted Assistant Director Marti Ingvardsen’s work to streamline inventory across all units and reduce overstock. Colorado County EMS also implemented a new QR code to track and locate equipment across ambulances.
“Every single ambulance now looks like every single ambulance now in Colorado County,” Furrh said. “Say a volunteer firefighter knows our ambulance and opens up the back door to look for a certain thing that we’ve asked for in Weimar, but the truck came from Eagle Lake, it’s the exact same way.”
On the whole blood program, Furrh said the implementation has been delayed slightly due to having numerous departments to coordinate with in the southeast Texas region. However, he said whole blood will be in the department’s supervisory vehicles by the end of the year.
Furrh listed a handful of statistics including 3,985 calls for service, an average response time of 10 minutes and 18 seconds and an average time out the door from being notified of 33 seconds. He attributed the county’s average response time being higher than the national average of around eight minutes to covering over a thousand square miles with rural towns.
Other
The court awarded Wakefield Bridge Inc. the bid to construct a bridge on County Road 215 at Dowdy Creek in Precinct 2. The court also approved for San Bernard Electric Cooperative Inc. to install power poles in the rights-of-way of Forest Oak Drive and South Logan Park Drive.
