MIDLAND – The Texas Historical Commission grant that was awarded to Karnes County in January 2010 could be revoked by end of November 2011 if the building process does not begin on Phase I of the project.

The Texas Historical Commission had its final quarterly meeting for the year in Midland on Oct. 26 and 27. An item on the Architecture Committee Meeting agenda read “Consider approval of providing the THC executive director with the authority to cancel the Round VI THCPP grant to Karnes County”.

Stan Graves, director of architecture for the Texas Historical Commission, said the commission passed a motion to give authority to THC Executive Director Mark Wolfe.

This means that Wolfe would have the authority to revoke the Round VI THCPP, also known as Phase I funding for the Karnes County Courthouse, without waiting until the next meeting in January to go back before the commission again.

According to Graves, passing the motion formalizes an agreement the THC made with Karnes County back in July that construction on Phase I would begin after the Nov. 8 bond election. Construction of phase I needs to be started within two weeks of bond election to be within the terms of the July agreement. Any time after that two week period is up if construction has not begun, Wolfe will have the sole authority to revoke the phase I grant funding.

The bond election on Nov. 8 is for Phase II funding and Graves says that phase has nothing to do with the Phase I that is already funded.