Besides being Bowie County's Office of Emergency Services coordinator, Jim Roberts is now the county's fire marshal.
Bowie County Commissioners agreed Monday to appoint Roberts, who is also the Wake Village mayor, as the county's fire marshal.
Bowie County Judge James Carlow previously said county officials thought it would be a good idea to have a fire marshal to help coordinate efforts regarding all future natural as well as man-made emergencies and disasters.
Roberts, who wasn't at the meeting, said during an earlier interviewthat the job will involve building safety inspections as they relate to fires, as well as investigations as to the cause of structure fires throughout the county's unincorporated areas.
Bowie County Sheriff James Prince asked Monday if his office will still be involved in possible arson investigations or if it will have to turn that responsibility over to Roberts. Carlow said both offices will have to work together.
Precinct 4 Commissioner Mike Carter added it would be good to have both the sheriff's office and the marshal's office work together on arson at least until the new office gets better grounded and established.
While the county's proposed fire marshal office will mainly focus on the county's rural, unincorporated areas outside of Texarkana, Texas-where about 57,000 residents live-the office will also coordinate with both the Texas side and Arkansas side during emergencies.
Following some additional discussion, commissioners approved both the new office and Roberts's appointment to it.
In other business, commissioners approved a service agreement between the county and the Texas Association of Counties' County Information Resources Agency regarding email security, storage, deletion and back up services as well as other website services.