Harris County Commissioner Jack Morman aims to free up Charles Hixon's Tuesday mornings.

The Huffman resident has attended almost every Harris County Commissioners Court meeting for 24 years, delivering the same scripted speech - with minor variations - complaining of a drainage problem at his property in northeast Harris County.

Various officials throughout the years have attempted to mollify the most persistent of gadflies, now in his mid-50s, but most have determined that he could not be helped because his .69-acre lot, between Palm Drive and Cry Baby Lane, sits on a road that is not listed on the county road log, meaning the county is not responsible for maintaining it.

That changed on Tuesday, when the Commissioners Court - at the behest of Morman - voted to take on Palm Drive and its ditches, which Hixon contends "are overburdened and do not drain."

Morman, of Precinct 2, became Hixon's commissioner this month when new county precinct boundaries took effect after a long-awaited court ruling on redistricting.

When the first-term commissioner learned he would inherit the persistent constituent, he asked county staff to look into the problem.

"There is a grading issue and a drainage issue, so yeah, there's a problem for not just this guy, but for all of his neighbors," Morman said.

"Whenever it was built, it wasn't built to our standards so the powers that be at the time were allowed not to, and chose not to, accept the road. So, it's just this public road that, I guess, has been an orphan for however long he's been coming up here."

County crews will grade, level and eventually pave the bumpy drive, and install drainage pipes to mitigate the drainage issue that is the main the subject of Hixon's biweekly plea, which most county regulars can recite from memory.

Left him speechless

Morman already had dispatched workers to the site on Tuesday morning, when Hixon delivered his regular speech, perfectly timed to fit within the 3-minute limit.

"I've got road crews in your neighborhood right now," Morman told Hixon afterward. "I'm not going to make you any promises other than I'm going to promise to try to fix your problem, OK? We are going to work with you and your neighbors to see what we can do. All right?"

Hixon stood speechless. Reached by phone later in the day, he declined comment.

Morman said Hixon recently turned down an offer to meet with the road and bridge division to discuss his concerns, which had inspired an unsuccessful run against his then-commissioner, Jerry Eversole, about a decade ago. Hixon's speech still references Eversole and a promise he allegedly made "on Oct. 29, 1991" to fix the problem.

At one point, tired of hearing his constituent's repeated complaint for years, Eversole directed the county's head of infrastructure to explain to Hixon at each court meeting that the road and ditches were not under county purview.

Solid attendance

Asked Tuesday why no one had thought to add the road to the log before, Morman said, "I don't know that that's the case."

"I just think it was everybody had maybe gotten tone deaf to his complaints," he said.

"He's got a better attendance record than the members of Commissioners Court."

Hixon's previous commissioner, Jack Cagle of Precinct 4, who took office in 2011, said he also sent a crew out to assess the site, but that he was wary of spending tax dollars on what was - until Tuesday - considered a private road.

"Commissioner Morman is trying to solve a 25-year-old problem, and I applaud him for trying to find a new solution to an old problem," Cagle said.

John Blount, head of county architecture and engineering, explained that the Commissioners Court usually has chosen not to add subpar roads to the log because it would be unfair to ask taxpayers to maintain them.

'In poor shape'

Palm Drive, which Hixon calls Palm Lane, is a gravel road that was first laid in the 1960s when the Belle Terre subdivision was developed.

"It's very rough and in poor shape," Blount said.

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, who looked into the issue this year and concluded nothing could be done, also praised Morman.

"We've tried, you know, and I compliment Commissioner Morman for trying one more time," he said. "But, you know, there's just more at play here than merely weeds in a ditch."

Morman, though, said he's "pretty sure there is a fix."

"Whether that ultimately makes him and his neighbors happy, we'll see," he said. "We hope so."