Marshall Police Department announces no racial profiling complaints for 2020 | News

During Thursday’s city council meeting Marshall Police Chief Cliff Carruth presented the department’s annual Racial Profiling Report, announcing that the department received no racial profiling complaints in 2020.

Carruth said that the report is a part of the Sandra Bland act, and covers vehicle to vehicle stops only. The department hires an outside professional to perform the audit each year, along with verifying the department’s collection process, complaint process and policies and procedures.

“I certainly wanted to show the public and the council that we want to be transparent, and have someone come in and do this report for us,” Carruth said.

Additionally during the meeting, councilmembers voted to approve a resolution that canceled the city general election for Districts 1, 2 and 4, due to the races going uncontested. Incumbent councilmember Amy Ware, Leo Morris and Marvin Bonner were the sole candidates, and will be re-sworn into office in May.

Rush Harris, with the Marshall Economic Development Corporation, also presented the council with an incentive purchase for Project Composite at the cost of $100,000 that was passed during the meeting.

The incentive purchase was approved by the MEDCO board in August 2020, to recruit a company located outside of Houston to Harrison County.

The company will bring 40 new jobs to the area.

“Many of these people will be from Marshall or the surrounding areas,” Harris said.

Public works director Eric Powell also presented on the unprecedented winter storm that the city faced last week to councilmembers on Thursday.

City Manager Mark Rohr reported that the city saw 10 to 12 inches of last week with temperatures down to -5 degrees, which caused issues throughout the city, and the state of Texas.

Powell outlined the timeline of issues faced by the city during the meeting, stating that as temperatures dropped last Tuesday, Feb. 16, the city began to be faced with broken and leaking water pipes.

The city’s water storage tanks were having a hard time holding the water capacity, with water pressure dropping low enough that on Wednesday city officials had to order a boil water notice for the city of Marshall.

As of Thursday this week, the boil water notice was able to be lifted in the community when the lab results came back normal. In total, the city still has 16 remaining leaks to repair, with over 50 total reports coming in throughout the last week. Powell said that the public works department would be working for the rest of the week, and through the weekend, to repair the damages.

“Were out of the woods definitely, and we are on the right track, we ask the citizenry to continue to call us, and reach out to us on Facebook and let us know where those locations are so we can get our crews out and get those inspections,” Powell said.

Powell also commended Marshall citizens for keeping the public works department informed as issues popped up around the city, and encouraged community members to continue to do so as they work to repair the remaining damages.

A resolution authorizing the city’s acting finance director, and City Manager Mark Rohr to access the city’s Texpool account was also passed during the meeting.

Additionally, the first extension of two available extensions to provide fuel for city of Marshall’s fleet with the Pete McCarty Oil company was approved by councilmembers.

Powell presented on the resolution, stating that the company agreed to keep the cost at the original price that was bid.

Finally, six different companies were approved for the maximum amount of the city’s Small Business Grant program, at $2,500 during the meeting. These local businesses included, KK Embroideries, East Texas Office Supplies, Tortilla Factory, Greens Professional Services and Cole’s Garage Ed’s Sport Center Design.