Smith County Judge Neal Franklin has innovative updates: from the forward-thinking jail med program in partnership with UT Health to new buildings, the future is brighter for the county, now in the top 25, size-wise in the state. Mike Landess talks with the judge about “the State of the County.”
Transcript
LANDESS:
Pretty regularly on social media, TV newscasts and other visual media outlets in East Texas, it seems like there’s always a picture of a group of people wearing ceremonial hard hats and ceremonial shovels turning over dirt for a project’s groundbreaking. I’m Mike Landess. It should be no surprise then that the Smith County judge has declared the coming year as “Breaking Ground.” UT Tyler Radio Connects with Neal Franklin. That phrase is about more than shoveling some dirt.
FRANKLIN:
It is. It is. When we were thinking about the theme this year, I just, I thought we have a lot of new relationships, whether it be in our jail med program going — we actually switched from a national company to a local hospital system, UT Health, and we were able to utilize them in our jail med, and we’re really excited about that because there’s in-person psychiatric care, which is really special, and with the new medical school again, really special, we’re going to be able to utilize the students to come through the jail and do those in the new expansion of the nursing school here…
LANDESS: Which you had to walk by to get here today.
FRANKLIN:
Yes, I did have to walk by, and we share in our contractor there as well, for the new courthouse. So we are breaking lots of ground. Our new parking garage and courthouse — that’s, of course, our big projects.
LANDESS:
That just sprung out from the ground.
FRANKLIN: It has.
LANDESS: My wife and I drove by one day and there was nothing. And we drive the next day, and it’s almost done.
FRANKLIN:
Well, you watch them and it looks like they’re playing in the dirt for a couple of months. And they haul dirt off and they bring dirt in, and then they’re rolling it, packing it, doing all these things and testing, and then all of a sudden the concrete Legos show up, and up it goes.
LANDESS:
Well put.
FRANKLIN:
Seriously, in no time, it’s there, and so we’re really excited about it. I know they have a lot of finishing touches: the elevator, the striping, all the different things that have to go into it, so we still have a while to go. Should be fall, September-ish — I hate to say months or dates now, but we’re excited about that.
LANDESS:
I certainly understand that. In your State of the County speech the day after Eclipsemageddon, by the way, you touched on a number of previous accomplishments in Smith County, including some perspective on growth: 22nd largest out of 254 counties is an interesting number, but what does it mean for Smith County residents?
FRANKLIN:
Well, we are growing. And we’re not the small East Texas County anymore, and so with that comes economic development, all these things that in the past, we might not have had to confront. And so now, it seems like a daily basis that we’re talking about economic development and all the projects that are going on, whether it be the Interstate Commerce Park, which is a wonderful addition. We’ve got a lot of companies looking, corporations looking out there and adding on. So it started out with the anchor tenant, and then we’re just adding on. So we’re excited about that. It is new for the county to realize that we could be upwards of 250,000 population.
LANDESS:
I saw that projection. That’s amazing.
FRANKLIN:
That estimate — it is. It’s something that now we have a lot more voices to listen to as an elected official, and so I’m trying to make sure that we do that. I’m trying to make sure that everybody gets to talk to us.
LANDESS:
You know the animated video from Fitzpatrick Architects showing the plans for the square and all of downtown featuring the new courthouse. We’re very impressive. We saw that again at your presentation, but for the first time, for me anyway, the video was updated to show what the new courthouse will look like inside, a little like the atrium at Plaza Tower.
FRANKLIN:
Yes, I had a chance to kind of give that nickel tour that day, and that was exciting. It was really quick. We just kind of, we went in, you got to see where security was going to be and as you walk in and the law library, and went up to the second floor and then the open air lobby — very beautiful building. But it’s truly the courtrooms are the key to that. We’ll have eight courtrooms initially ready to go, and then we’ll have one entire floor will be blank space, and that’s for four more courtrooms. And so for future growth, we needed to make sure that we were covering this. This building needs to be a 100-year building, and that’s what our hope it will be.
LANDESS:
Seven stories, more than 270,000 square feet. Is it safe to assume that the county judge’s office will be larger than a coat closet, but smaller than a barn?
FRANKLIN:
Well, let me tell you, the safety part of that is I’m staying in the annex building.
LANDESS: Are you really?
FRANKLIN:
Yes, our court stays in the annex building. The county court at-law, the district courts, as well as the 12th Court of Appeals, are going in the new courthouse. County clerks leaving our building — We’ve got several folks are leaving our building going into the new courthouse. But as far as our court, we’re remaining in the annex. And I was actually excited about that because as we went out and presented the bond to people, I actually had some comments where they’re saying, “Oh, you’re just building yourself something fancy.”
FRANKLIN:
And I said, “Oh, no, no, no. I’m not building anything for myself. This is for everybody else.” So we’re, I get the chill bumps when I think about the courthouse. I truly do. It’s going to. It’s something that well, the city, I mean not city, but the county citizens voted. They wanted it, and so we’re responding, and I think they’re going to be really pleased with the product.
LANDESS:
So give me, as of this date, the latest timeline, projected timeline, for how this sequence is going to take place?
FRANKLIN:
Yeah, the fall this year we should be complete with the parking garage, and during that time — right now, we’re already doing asbestos abatement in the on the east side of the square where the new courthouse will go. We’ll soon start…
LANDESS:
These are the old buildings?
FRANKLIN:
Yes, the old buildings. Two of them were burned, burned out, so that side of the square on Spring Street. So then we’ll follow up with demolition of that side, and so hopefully, by the time the parking garage is complete, that side of the, will be smooth dirt ready to go up, and then we’ll build up from there and it should be a 2-year build there, and then we’ve added on another year to move folks into the new courthouse, demo the old courthouse and have green space completed.
LANDESS:
Yeah, as I understand the way in which this place, this project is going to take place downtown, is that the county is taking care of the courthouse side of the square and the city is taking care of the other.
FRANKLIN:
It is it is, and we’re all in it together. The county owns all the land, but the city has, graciously is donating funds toward this, and I think the end product is going to be something that’s going to be — People will really want to come down and spend time on the square. We already have a lot of people that do, including myself, but it’s going to be very, the walkability, the shops. They’re going to increase the size of the sidewalks, the city is. The traffic flow is going to be easier because it’s going to be two-way. All the different things that the city’s kicking in, along with what we’re doing, I think everyone’s going to be really proud.
LANDESS:
I just hope they save the Arcadia theater sign and put it somewhere.
FRANKLIN:
Yes.
LANDESS:
Don’t let it get away.
FRANKLIN:
I know. I know there are some really special things, and we’re paying attention to the historic value, although we have to, what I try to tell people is we’re building a new historic building. It’s going to look like the historic courthouse, but it’s going to have the modern functions.
LANDESS:
It was really, really amazing, those Fitzpatrick animations. Now you talked about strengthening relationships, partnerships and programs within the county, and, on the subject of mental health, you’re proposing that all three of these aspects work together for good. Tell us more about that. You mentioned the jail earlier on.
FRANKLIN:
Yeah, we got that new jail contract with the jail med and psych, but also we have MOU with the Andrews Center, and we’re working with them daily.
LANDESS: Memo of understanding.
FRANKLIN:
Yes, I’m sorry, memorandum of understanding to where they come in and help us with a program in the jail. The jail is a big focus because — and we’ve all said it before — our county jails end up being the largest mental health facility in the counties, and this is widespread. I just attended a conference, judicial conference, and we were all saying the same thing. All the judges were saying the same thing. That’s where we have a lot of issues with our mental health, and so we’re really focusing on that. Whether we have a thing called court-ordered jail med hearings within the jail, or we’re doing programs. We want to get these people who are in the jail who have been found incompetent to stand trial. We want them to become competent to stand trial because they don’t belong just sitting in our jail, and we want the best for them and what’s best for our jail as well.
LANDESS:
Rather than just being warehoused?
FRANKLIN: Yes, yes.
LANDESS: I understand. There is a mental health summit coming up in May with UT Tyler School of Medicine and the Andrews Center. That’s going to be a fascinating event.
FRANKLIN:
Really excited about that. That’s May 7 at the W.T, Brookshire facility. It’s, I think, 2-4 p.m., free. You just need to get online. You can either go to the Andrews Center or just type in, I think, East Texas Mental Health Summit. There will be a lot of great speakers, but then also contacts where you could potentially plug in. And that’s what we really want. We want people to come up and find out that they can actually help just the general public.
LANDESS:
When we spoke to County Commissioner John Moore last year, he talked about a program to help with stray pets. Now he reiterated that point in your State of the County presentation. How does it work? How’s it going so far?
FRANKLIN:
Well, it has gone fantastic. In fact, when I first decided to even throw this out there as a possibility, we talked about a $100,000 donation from our ARPA funding. And that money, when I talked about it with different groups, when we decided the veterinarian, they didn’t think that we would use the whole. They didn’t think they could complete utilizing $100,000 in a short period of time. Well, it’s turned out, it’s gone so quickly.
FRANKLIN:
The community has been responsive. We ended up having to adjust the timing, and we’ve given now, we’ve actually turned over all the $100,000 to them, and they will have run through this in probably 6 months rather than a year. The very first day, I believe, that we held a clinic, they had over 120 dogs either spayed or neutered — dogs and cats spayed or neutered, so pets in the community. And so now, they’ve had to gate it back down, and so now they’ve had to gate it back down, and so every time they have a time where they welcome people, a clinic, they’ll say 80 is the number, so they don’t have to stay up there for 16 hours and taking care of animals. But it has just really been great, and I cannot, as a county judge, I cannot ask for donations from outside agencies, but I know they are asking for donations to keep that seed money going.
LANDESS: You’re just passing information along.
FRANKLIN: I’m just passing that information on.
LANDESS:
OK, good. Of the many successes, new programs, new outlooks, new attitudes I heard about that day, I may have been most taken by the Smith County Prayer Force proposal. Tell us what that is and how it works.
FRANKLIN:
Yeah, that is, I think I probably was most taken by that as well. I had a friend over in Marshall, Texas, who presented an idea. That’s something they’ve been doing in their community for a while, and when I heard about it, I just got more excited. So I actually, I realized I couldn’t take it on.
FRANKLIN:
But what this is is a program where individuals can pray for first responders, and that’s our dispatchers, law enforcement, firefighters, and EMS personnel. We always pray for those folks, but it’s usually group prayer, so you just kind of group them as a whole. So what this is is you have a prayer warrior sign up, and then you have a first responder sign up, and it’s intentional prayer for that first responder every day for a year. Then at the end of the year, if the first responder would like to meet the prayer warrior, we have a banquet, and they can actually meet and talk about it. And I actually signed up yesterday, got my prayer, my first responder, and I prayed for that gentleman this morning. I sent out an email yesterday to all the chiefs and leadership in all our agencies around, and just to tell them we’ve got a lot of prayer warriors signed up, but we haven’t gotten all our first responders. So I encourage them.
FRANKLIN:
One of the things they worry about oftentimes is giving their personal information. And all that’s given in this is their first name and the first initial of their last name and then what they do. So I gave an example Neal F., firefighter, and I left it at that. I’m so excited about it. I’ve got a close friend, Larry Melhart is leading the charge. I had to have someone. It’s too big a project. But they’ve got a website. It’s dot-org. So it’s smithcountyprayerforce.org. He’s taken it on in his ministry, and man, they are rolling.
LANDESS:
Are you working with local churches?
FRANKLIN:
Yes, he has worked with local churches. He’ll talk. Go and talk to anyone. We’ll get them signed up. But you just get on that website, and you just choose which one you want to sign up to, no cost to anyone. It’s absolutely free, and I think it’s going to change the community. I really do.
LANDESS:
What kinds of responses have you gotten over these past weeks to your State of the County presentation? Anybody who was anybody in Tyler and East Texas was there that day. Were they impressed, skeptical, supportive? What was the feedback?
FRANKLIN:
You know, I started my midway into my talk, I decided to share some of my heartstrings, and one of them is patriotism. And I told people, I said, “You know, if you don’t agree with me, we can still be friends.” And that’s something I truly live by. I don’t like what I see in this world right now. If someone disagrees one thing, you’re written off, you’re hated, you’re. you know whatever it is, and I also started with, “I hate politics.” So I guess I’m in a tough job, but I just, I think that everyone, the feedback that I’ve received, Mike, is that we need to hear more of that. People were excited. People have sent me a lot of emails, a lot of texts saying it was so refreshing to hear and to think back about, just kind of a step back into the past, about how everyone felt when the American flag was flown. It just, it means something, and it meant something, and I hope it can continue meaning something, and I hope I can stir some hearts to feel like I do.
LANDESS:
Thanks for listening as UT Tyler Radio Connects with Smith County judge Neal Franklin. For UT Tyler Radio News, I’m Mike Landess.
(Transcripts are automatically generated and may contain phonetic spellings and other spelling and punctuation errors. Grammar errors contained in the original recording are not typically corrected.)
