Commissioners serve home-cooked meal to thank Coryell County employees

Commissioners Scott Weddle, Keith Taylor, Kyle Matthews and Ryan Basham spent the lunch hour at the Gatesville Volunteer Fire Department, grilling and serving a home-cooked meal to Coryell County employees on Friday, May 1.

The appreciation meal ran from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and had the feel of a potluck more than a formal banquet. The menu included salad, grilled beef, green beans, mashed potatoes, bread, drinks and a cake decorated with a message thanking county employees for their hard work.

Employees from across county government came through the line, including staff from human resources, the district attorney’s office, the county clerk’s office, the sheriff’s office, the tax assessor-collector’s office, the county treasurer’s office, public works and other departments. County officials said Coryell County has more than 300 staff members who help provide essential services to residents across the county.

The event also carried a practical impact for county business. The Coryell County Clerk’s Office posted that it would be closed from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. that day for Employee Appreciation. The clerk’s office also serves as clerk of the Commissioners’ Court and records its proceedings, putting it at the center of the county’s day-to-day public business.

That work matters in a county where commissioners oversee buildings and facilities, roads and bridges, the county budget and the county tax rate, while also appointing non-elected department heads. Coryell County also provides rural ambulance service and subsidizes rural fire protection, duties that make the county workforce especially visible when something breaks down and just as easy to overlook when things run smoothly.

The May 1 lunch fit a pattern of commissioners publicly thanking staff. A similar event in 2014 honored county employees at the Gatesville Civic Center, where Texas barbecue smoked by then-fire marshal Billy Vaden was served by the county judge and commissioners. In Coryell County, where the land stretches across 1,057 square miles and the 2010 Census counted 75,388 residents, these thank-you meals have become a small but familiar reminder of how much local government depends on the people behind the scenes.