COMMISSIONERS PROCEEDINGS
NOVEMBER 19, 2018
The Board of County Commissioners met in regular session with Joe D. Thompson, Pat Hall and Tron Stegman. Also present were Paul Kitzke, County Attorney; Amy Jo Tharp, County Clerk and RoGlenda Coulter with the Hugoton Hermes. Joe called the meeting to order. The minutes from the previous meeting were approved. Pat moved to approve the county vouchers. Tron 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 | $ 73,855.79 |
| Road & Bridge | $ 95,835.74 |
| Noxious Weed | $ 3,461.72 |
| EMS | $ 5,784.86 |
| Fire | $ 2,580.25 |
| Community Health | $ 20,260.60 |
| Sheriff | $ 34,335.58 |
| Airport | $ 102,259.87 |
| Emp P/R Misc W/H | $ 440.72 |
| 911 Wireless | $ 257.51 |
| County Building | $ 750.00 |
| Alcohol Treatment | $ 237.50 |
| $ 340,060.14 |
Joe asked Paul if he had an estimate on the costs for the trial that will likely take place. Paul said it depends on the autopsy because the coroner has changed and how much the doctor will charge to come from Kansas City to give testimony is unknown. Paul said business wise it will be no more expensive than others.
Pat asked Paul if it would be a conflict of interest to put Terry Jordon on the airport board since he is the most frequent user of their services. Paul said he feels there would only be a conflict of interest if competing with airport issues. Terry should recuse himself from certain issues to not have a conflict. Tron asked if the rent was raised would he be able to cause conflict or look at it subjectively or have to recuse himself. Paul instructed the commissioners they don’t have to approve him to be on the board as a member.
Amy Jo asked the commissioners if they wanted to pay for the tire repair on the Moscow Senior Citizens bus since it was rented out to a private individual. Pat disagreed on paying for the tire, Joe and Tron both agreed to pay for the tire but no more renting the vehicle out due to liability issues. Paul said liability with renting out a vehicle is too risky in the case of injury or accident as it would fall upon the county. KCAMP said that if they wanted to keep renting it out, they need a contract and would need to provide insurance for such instances instead of on county insurance. Paul didn’t see the need of paying for the tire or renting out the county vehicle.
Joe made a motion to pay the tire cost and stated no more renting out county vehicles. Tron seconded. Motion carried.
Vernon Anderson – Planning and Zoning was in attendance to let commissioners know everything was going good in the department.
Rodney Kelling the Emergency Management coordinator came in to let the commissioners know he has an issue with the pumper and will be needing to send it off to get repaired. Rodney stated that the pumper is about twelve (12) years old. The commissioners approved Rodney to get the pumper fixed and take the costs out of the general fund as the fires in the beginning of the year has maxed out his budget.
Rodney also told the commissioners that he only has five (5) firefighters in Moscow and only about two (2) show up to the fires. Most of the Moscow employees have quit.
Russ Ronnebaum with Hammel Scales was present.
Phillip Willis was present and brought in four (4) sealed bids for the scale at the landfill. The commissioners asked him if anyone else was expected to be present for the opening of the bids Phillip said he thought Larry Travis was coming but not sure.
While the commissioners were waiting for 9:00 AM to open bids, they asked Phillip about the sewer line at the landfill. Phillip said they had to tie it in to get the plumbing to work but there is a portable toilet for use if needed.
Amy Jo told the commissioners in regards to the question Jan Leonard presented them with at the previous meeting, she spoke with KCAMP and they informed her only the elected officials were bonded and insured. They did state that if anyone outside of the elected officials wanted to be bonded and insured for omissions, KCAMP could insure them for a fee. Amy Jo stated she heard Glen McQueen does the same type of insurance as well.
Russ was asked if the scale at the landfill could be repaired. He didn’t feel there would be a way of trying to bring it up to state code because of the outdated material and costs could be higher. Pat asked what the comparison would be from moving the scale a few feet from the old and starting new compared to replacing the whole thing. Russ said it could take up to a week longer than new because of tearing the old one out and fixing the area for the new one. Russ said either way would work, just one would be a bit faster.
Phillip said he would like the new scale in a different location because the water drains around the old scale and he feels it would cause complications in the future.
Joe began the bid opening at 9:00 AM for the Landfill scales:
- Hammel Scale – PDX with a ten (10) year warranty, $73,684
- Included freight, wiring and digging – Met all specs
- Hammel Scale – GDD with a five (5) year warranty, $67,945
- Included freight, wiring and digging – Met all specs
- Fairbanks Scales – $71,760
- Did not include wiring, digging or freight – Did not meet specs
- Travis Scale – $81,533
- Met all specs
Russ told the commissioners he has Passmore to do the digging, Hancock electric for the electrical and using a company out of Ulysses for the concrete. The warranty includes travel time, mileage and parts. He said the cost besides the warranty on the two (2) different bids given is the load cells. The PDX load cells can be repaired by just replacing a cable but the GDD load cells have to be repaired by replacing the load cell and the cable which would be more costly.
Joe asked if it would be a drive up and not underground and was assured it would be. Pat asked about pulling out the old scale and filling it in but Phillip said it would be best to leave because of the water drainage.
Tron made a motion to accept the Hammel Scale PDX with ten (10) year warranty for $73,684. Pat seconded, motion carried.
Joe asked Russ how much the county would need to put down to start the scale project and Russ said there wouldn’t be a way to get a scale until the 1st of the year but he will talk to the state to let them know that the county is working on getting a new scale. Funding will come out of what is left of landfill at the end of the year along with what is saved up in the County Equipment fund.
Amy Jo presented the commissioners with some information on time card questions and policy that employees have brought to her attention. The policy at this time states “Time records…shall be signed by supervisors and submitted to the payroll clerk…” The issue came up about Supervisors that sign off on the time cards being able to sign/approve digitally instead of printing. Amy Jo contacted Theresa of Lewis, Hooper and Dick. Theresa told her if the time card system is all electronic, the department heads and/or supervisors can approve electronically since there are no paper time-cards and employees do not need to sign. Theresa did tell Amy Jo the department heads should be the only ones having access to the approvals. Amy Jo said the County’s policy and procedures guidelines need to be changed to reflect that information. Pat made a motion to allow department heads to approve of the employees times electronically and no signatures from employees are required. Tron seconded.
Tony Martin came in and told the commissioners that Aqua Shield completed their skylights. He also informed them of the issues with employees as far as injuries and medical procedures which leaves him with three to four (3-4) people short of his crew. They are working the best they can.
He did tell them that several applications have come in and he is in the reviewing process for at least one (1) employee.
Tony will be putting in a stop sign at the intersection of Road 18 and Road L. He is in agreement with the commissioners that the sign could be on Road L because Road 18 is more traveled. He is going to investigate the two roads more thoroughly to make sure the stop sign will be at the best position.
Joe told Tony the grader tires look pretty worn and cables were showing. Tony said he had purchased some and he usually tries to get 3,000 hours of use out of the tires.
Tron said that Road 18 going north between Highway 51 has some rough areas. Tony said it can be fixed but could be expensive. He said the best way to fix it would be to overhaul the road in spots and re-patch it. He said it will take time but will end up being better then what it is now. Tron said with the cotton crops getting better that road will have more traffic and something needs to get done.
Tony discussed with the commissioners about the raises he gave towards the beginning of the year. He would like to give the new hire a raise since he didn’t get a raise earlier with the others because he was under the probationary period.
Tony also informed the commissioners that the Federal law mandates the plan for sign reflectivity be done every year. The reflectivity gun costs around $20,000.00, so Tony has some of his employees that have been approved by the State, go around and check the reflectivity of the signs. He said he divided Stevens County into thirds (1/3) and they go out and check signs. He said it is cheaper to pay some overtime compared to the reflectivity gun.
Sheriff Ted Heaton and Undersheriff TJ Steers reported in.
Ted told the commissioners that he would like signs that prohibit jake brakes out near the intersection of Highway 56 and Highway 25. He also informed the commissioners that in order to have those signs in that area, Feterita needs to be listed as incorporated. He asked Paul Kitzke what needs to be done in order for that to happen.
Joe asked Ted how many inmates are in the jail. He said six (6) which is normal. Ted said typically he has anywhere from six to ten (6-10) inmates at a time.
Ted told the commissioners that his employees are working on getting their EMT recertification for two (2) years. Ted said other counties have protocol in place that if any of the EMT’s or Fire fighters are caught taking pictures at scenes, their phone is confiscated by law enforcement and charges could be pressed.
KCAMP is covering most of the accident with Ted’s vehicle on the car chase except for the $500.00 deductible. Pat asked if the suspect was responsible and Ted said they should be because the tag matched the vehicle that was in the chase.
Ted informed the commissioners that Hays does autopsies and he will look into it and see if they are reputable. He said it would be more cost effective instead of sending people to Topeka.
Amy Jo brought up the requested holiday schedule for 2019. Pat and Joe said they do not feel the county needs to be closed for two (2) days at Thanksgiving or Christmas. Paul mentioned that the county is open on Martin Luther King Day. The commissioners approved the holiday schedule except instead of December 25 and 26th off, the county will be closing at noon on December 24 and all day December 25.
Amy Jo requested to close the County Clerk’s office and possibly the Treasurer’s office December 31, 2019, at noon, to run the year end totals. The commissioners approved her request.
Joe instructed Tron to take care of the farm rentals through the county. Joe said he would like to get something done on the county land by the New Year. Pat suggested that they put the land up for bid on a five (5) year term for cash rent. The discussion was tabled until the next meeting.
Amy Jo was instructed to work with Susan in GIS and get a listing of the acres and areas of the county land for the next meeting.
The commissioners discussed a COLA raise or just raises for employees going on a tier basis depending on annual wage totals. The discussion has been tabled until the next meeting.
All three commissioners were in agreement of not giving a raise to the commissioner’s salary.
Joe requested a ten (10) minute executive session over non-elected personnel to discuss some employees receiving raises.
Pat made a motion to go into executive session for ten (10) minutes to discuss non-elected personnel receiving a raise. Tron seconded. The executive session began at 10:34 AM with all three commissioners and Paul Kitzke in attendance and ended at 10:43 AM. No action taken.
Vanessa told Amy Jo that the county paid the total for the current airport runway bill but still waiting on the airports ten percent (10%).
Abatement Orders for taxes year 2016 number 158, year 2017 number 104 and year 2018 numbered 1-4 were reviewed and approved by commissioners and given to the County Treasurer; total valuation added 64740 and tax assessed $14,703.23, total valuation removed $10,889 with a relief assessment of $246.31.
By motion, the Board adjourned.
Attest: Amy Jo Tharp, County Clerk
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Joe Thompson, Chairman