COMMISSIONERS’ PROCEEDINGS
JULY 25, 2022
Agenda: 8:30 – Bills
8:45 – Shelby Martin – Purchases
9:30 – Tony Martin
The Board of Stevens County Commissioners met in regular session. Paul Kitzke, County Attorney and Amy Jo Tharp, County Clerk were also present. Tron called the meeting to order. Pat moved to approve the minutes of the last meeting; Joe seconded. Motion carried. Pat moved to approve the county vouchers. Joe seconded. Motion carried. The County Clerk was instructed to draw warrants on the Treasurer chargeable to the various funds of the county for the following amounts:
| General | $ 44,729.63 |
| Judicial District | $ 279.18 |
| Road & Bridge | $ 37,041.36 |
| ARPA | $ 7,358.35 |
| Airport | $ 23,244.07 |
| County Building | $ 2,012.02 |
| Noxious Weed | $ 2,940.73 |
| EMS | $ 8,944.09 |
| Fire | $ 1,856.92 |
| Community Health | $ 16,678.60 |
| 911 Wireless | $ 116.34 |
| Sheriff | $ 42,604.52 |
| Emp Misc W/H | $ 17.58 |
| TOTAL: | $ 187,823.39 |
Amy Jo had the commissioners sign the Signature Addendum for the County Checking account to remove past employees of the Treasurers office and add a new employee.
Rodney came in and said he has not received the budget worksheets for the last couple of accounts payable periods. Amy Jo said she will work on getting those to him along with a copy of the proposed budget for Fire and EMS.
The commissioners discussed how to regulate insurance on an employee who works two jobs within the county. They felt it should be split 50/50 per Treasurer and EMT.
Rodney and the commissioners discussed the possibility of full-time EMS employees verse volunteer. The only issue Rodney sees would be the cost in updating the building to have living quarters put in for the full-time workers. As of now, basic EMT’s are receiving $15.00 per hour and the advanced EMT’s receive $18.00 per hour.
Shelby Martin came in and said she is looking into receiving one (1) machine which would replace three (3) of the machines at the Wellness Center. She said she will use the three (3) machines which are to be replaced as trade-ins. The commissioners asked her to get more quotes for the same type of machine when she is ready to purchase. Shelby also informed the commissioners she has grant money left and will be paying Flatlanders with those funds.
Shelby stated she felt caught up and in trouble with the minutes posted in the newspaper for the June 26th meeting. She stated at the meeting she did not feel like she was in trouble, but the minutes posted gave a different impression and she had received many phone calls from the community asking why she is getting treated unfairly. She felt the meeting did not go the way the minutes portrayed. The commissioners asked Shelby what would work for her and she stated she would like a statement to be posted in the Hugoton Hermes to reflect she has the commissioners complete support and she is doing a great job for the Wellness Center.
Joe stated the minutes were unapproved and were not official. Paul stated the Hermes can do what they want as they are not ran by the county commissioners but in the end the unofficial minutes came from the county not the Hermes, they were just relaying what they were sent. The June 27th minutes will be rewritten, and a statement will be placed in the Hermes reflecting the commissioners give any and all support to the Wellness Center.
The commissioners told Shelby they will place a statement in the Hermes stating “The commissioners are abundantly clear the minutes from June 27th were incorrect and not yet approved and they are in complete support with the Wellness Center. The unapproved minutes were in no reflection the thoughts of the commissioners.”
Shelby said she has been working so many hours overtime and with her morning class she would like to hire another part time employee as well as receive comp or overtime benefits. The commissioners stated she is a salaried position so no matter how much she works; pay is the same. Shelby said she didn’t understand why she would have to use personal time if she is in a salaried position. She stated she was short of forty (40) hours one week and the payroll clerk informed her she needed to use one (1) hour of personal time. The commissioners asked why she has working more than forty (40) hours a week if the Wellness Center is supposed to be somewhat self-sufficient. She stated she quit using QuickBooks to save money as the program is pricey and is in the process of learning the actual computer system and getting it done correctly and cleaning up the issues the past employee had left. Shelby said she feels she does not get paid enough for the computer work alone. She further explained the monthly memberships keep adding each month and showing they are new members when they are not, and she has been working to get that cleaned up. The sales of the merchandise and key fobs for the twenty-four (24) hour access is easy to do just getting the memberships correct is time consuming.
The commissioners asked if getting a new computer system would be better than hiring a part-time person as they are not all in agreement of hiring another person. Amy Jo stated there is a part-time person out there and with the commissioner’s permission could work more hours and receive KPERS but be kept under the hours to receive insurance benefits. Shelby stated she is the only employee who handles computer work.
Sheriff Ted Heaton and Duane Topliss were checking in. Ted said he will be looking for a new pickup soon to replace an existing one.
Tony Martin said the 2015 road grader is down and is going to cost around $20,000.00 for repairs. The crawler is breaking down and will need parts as well. Tony said there is a state program which will reimburse the landfill for tire disposal and he is looking into it.
Tony said Tron and him spoke with the owner of the property who put in an asphalt driveway. To get the entrance and access road plan finalized. The owner spoke with Tony later and said he visited with the other property owners and they felt they could have another entrance off of Road 12. Further discussion resulted in the commissioners agreeing the entrance would need to come off of the dirt road, Road M, and not the black top road, Road 12. The commissioners decided the County will put in the access road for them from the entrance on Road M around the gas riser down to the Hugoton City water well road entrance. They will gravel the access road but will be left up to the property owners to maintain it.
Stray dogs got into the fair grounds and killed a show pig and injured another. Tony is trying to find out how to keep them out to keep the show animals safe and hopes it will not happen again.
Jayme Rich came in and said she would like the commissioners to consider hiring an in-house IT person. She said it only took Evan Greenwood two (2) hours to fix something Nex-Tech was taking close to six (6) months to work on and they still hadn’t fixed the issues with their computers. She said Nex-Tech kept stating the Treasurers need to purchase new computers when they are only two to three (2-3) years old. The commissioners told Jayme to have Evan check out the Nex-Tech contract and give an estimate on what his work would charge.
By motion, the Board adjourned.
Attest: Amy Jo Tharp, County Clerk
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Tron Stegman, Chairman