Major Dennett of the Texas Highway Patrol briefed the El Paso County Commissioner's Court on Sept. 18 about a proposal to develop a commercial vehicle scale house and inspection facility near Fabens, asking the county to assess feasibility and potential partnership roles.

“We would like to have a scale house slash, inspection facility for our troopers as well as our civilian civilian inspectors to be able to inspect truck traffic, commercial motor vehicles,” Major Dennett said. He told the court that TxDOT plans to open new rest areas and is willing to transfer the old rest-area property at mile marker 50 eastbound to a local partner; DPS is asking the county to consider using that property for an inspection facility once the new rest areas are complete.

Dennett and Captain Matthew Scales told the court the county and DPS have safety and enforcement motivations. Dennett cited a reported 14–16% increase in commercial-vehicle traffic on Interstate 10 over five years and said inspections can catch equipment violations and hours-of-service violations that threaten public safety. He also stressed inspection infrastructure needs — in-ground scale pits, paved approaches and sheltered inspection areas — and noted agencies often rely on partner contributions for upfront site work and facilities.

County staff and elected officials asked practical questions about operation and revenue. Dennett and a Constable who addressed the court said civilian DPS inspectors can issue citations and that those citations are processed through county justice-of-the-peace offices; the constable said prior operations have produced substantial collections, describing periods when they “brought in thousands of millions of dollars” in fines and observed that the presence of inspections encouraged trucking companies to repair equipment before travel.

County Administrator Betsy Keller said staff would analyze impacts and work with the budget office and court analysts to estimate construction costs, expected revenue and effects on JP workload: “We'd work with our budget department and get 1 of our analysts, to start looking at this and see what we could do,” she said. Court members discussed how other counties combined inspection facilities with short‑term lodging for troopers and with local justice operations to manage case processing.

No vote was taken; the court directed staff to study traffic and safety data, the potential revenue profile, and capital and operating cost estimates and to return with a recommendation on whether the county should participate in development of a scale/inspection facility.

Ending: Staff and DPS agreed to coordinate on data and a feasibility analysis for future court consideration.