County Commissioners Court Briefs

Ft. Belknap Pavilion County Commissioners approved funding this month to build a pavilion to protect Fort Belknap’s two cannons from the weather. Fort historian Jim Hammond proposed the plan two years ago, and asked the Commissioners to allow him to consult with Komatsu Architecture of Fort Worth to decide where on the 171-year-old site the pavilion should be sited. The new pavilion will cost $40,000 for the new structure, which will be architecturally compatible with the fort and will sit west of the cannons’ current location, Mr. Hammond said.

Air Tractor lights

Air Tractor Safety Manager Ryan Lawson, and TxDOT engineer Zach Husen proposed that the County partner with their organizations to erect lighting at a County road intersection that several hundred Air Tractor employees use daily on their commute. The Commissioners approved the proposal at their May 13 meeting.

Plane crash stunt County Commissioners reviewed footage of Young County’s close-up in the Paramount TV series “Landman” during a recess in their May 13 meeting. The television company filmed a scene in which a small plane and an oil tanker collide, causing an explosion, on State Highway 16 between Graham and Loving earlier this month.

“Landman” was created by “Yellowstone” writer-producer Taylor Sheridan and stars Billy Bob Thornton. It is set “in the proverbial boomtowns of West Texas and the world of oil rigs,” Variety magazine said.

The set manager “mentioned several surprises during the shoot,” Judge Graham said. “First, the oil tanker did not flip over after hitting the plane due to the wet ground. Second, the plane burned more than expected, and third, Taylor Sheridan was pleased with the first stunt, so they didn’t need to crash a second plane as originally planned.”

The scene will be featured in the opening episode of the new series, he said.

Mental Health grant County Judge Win Graham and Sheriff Travis Babcock were applying for a state grant that would rework plans for a mobile mental health team for Young County using telehealth technology, Judge Graham said at the Commissioners’ May 13 meeting. A previous attempt to secure state funding for the CARRE [Critical Access-Rapid Response-Evaluation] team proposal failed because that grant excluded law enforcement. The mobile mental health unit would consist of a law enforcement officer, an EMT or nurse and a mental health professional. “It’s a similar concept to what we talked about the last time but it’s a smaller grant, so [the program is] scaled back,” Judge Graham said. “Instead of having a social worker on staff, we are going to have iPads. Once we get past the health emergency and it’s safe we will contact the social worker [on the iPad] and it will be a way to use some of the resources we have available to us.”