During the Dallas County Commission meeting Monday, Dallas County Probate Judge Kim Ballard said he offered kudos, not to mention his thanks, to the crews and employees who helped clear roadways and restore power throughout the community following last week’s storms.

“The mayor, myself and a bunch of other people were [at Memorial Stadium] trying to get the fireworks started, when all of a sudden there came a huge storm right when it was supposed to start,” Ballard said, adding that winds of up to 65 mph blew down around 40 trees at the storm’s peak. “But they got out there quickly and assisted the power company and had the power at the stadium back on 15 minutes after it happened.

“We forget sometimes what we’ve got in our road crew because that was on the Fourth of July. We really forget sometimes how valuable they are to us,” Ballard said.

During Monday’s meeting, the commission also declared six Mack Trucks and miscellaneous equipment as surplus, authorized the sale of the six dump trucks in a March 2013 auction with J.M. Wood Auction Company and authorized the purchase of five new dump trucks from the current ACCA bid.

Commissioner Roy Moore, who represents District 2, also said he’d received very positive feedback, especially from county employees, about the three-day Fourth of July holiday given to employees last week.