KVSV

Mitchell County Commissioners Meeting January 5

 

Mitchell County Commissioners

Monday, January 5, 2015

By Terry Bailey

 

The Mitchell County Commissioners conducted their first business meeting of two thousand fifteen on Monday morning, January fifth.

Commissioner Tom Claussen announced that the VFW executive committee was supportive of offering the VFW Post Home as the polling place for the two thousand sixteen Mitchell County elections. In the past years the polling location for the elections has been at the Beloit Municipal Building.

A major factor in changing the location is a lack of parking nearby the Municipal Building. This has been an area of concern for quite some time. Another factor was that the VFW has everything located on one floor with no need to go up and down stairs or to use the elevator. By consensus the Commissioners agreed to hold the two thousand sixteen elections at the VFW Post Home.

The Commissioners amended a transfer of funds completed at last week’s meeting. Last week, they voted to transfer seventy thousand dollars from the Ambulance Fund to the Special Ambulance Fund. They unanimously voted to reduce this amount from seventy thousand dollars to sixty-two thousand dollars.

The Commissioners voted three to zero to approve Resolution one dash fifteen which approves a waiver to the Generally Accepted Accounting Practices.

Commissioner Tom Claussen opened the discussion of whether or not the Mitchell County Courthouse should be closed on January nineteenth which is the Martin Luther King Federal Holiday. Claussen stated his strong support for the Courthouse to be closed on that day since it is a Federal Holiday and most government entities will be closed that day.

Commissioner Mike Cooper expressed mild support for the Courthouse to be closed but generally felt that closing the Courthouse was the right thing to do.

Commissioner Jim Marshall appeared to be less supportive of the closure. Marshall said, “Personally, I have a hard time with this thing. It is another day the Courthouse is not open.”

After discussing the issue, the Commissioners agreed that the Courthouse would close this year and for the policy handbook to reflect that in the future the Courthouse would be closed in observance of Martin Luther King’s Day.

This led to a discussion of updating the Mitchell County Policy Handbook. County Clerk Chris Treaster volunteered to contact K-CAMP (Kay-Camp) and ask them to review the handbook to see if it is all in order. The Commissioners will consider other possible updates. Once changes have been made, supplemental pages will be added to the Handbook.

Commissioner Mike Cooper informed the group that he would be absent from the February second meeting.

Public Works Superintendent Larry Emerson provided two contracts for the Commissioners to sign regarding the bridge grant for the new bridge near Brian Jordan’s home on “R” Road west of Two Fifty Road.

The contracts were between Mitchell County and the Kansas Department of Transportation for a bridge on “R” Road not to exceed one hundred twenty thousand dollars. Mitchell County will be responsible for ten percent of the cost and the State of Kansas will pay ninety percent of the cost. Schwab-Eaton has been contracted to draw up the specifications, the working plans, and to oversee the bids and to let the contract.

Emerson informed the Commissioners that Ron Heller is not interested in continuing to have gravel quarried from his property. He said Heller wanting to “think it over” before allowing additional quarrying work. Emerson indicated that the gravel quarried at Heller’s was very good quality and was excellent to spread on roads. Heller had been paid one dollar and fifty cents per cubic yard for gravel from his property. Once all the gravel has been removed, the overburden will be put back into the quarried areas and then the area will be seeded with grass.

County Appraiser, Melinda Latham, provided information she had collected in regard to a new copier for her office. She had prices on three different copiers of differing prices and ability levels. After considering the possibilities the Commissioners voted to accept Latham’s recommendation for a Xerox W7225 copier for the amount of five thousand five hundred twenty-three dollars.

The Commissioners will be attending the Four County meeting on the twenty-sixth of January in Jewell.

Have successfully addressed all the items on the agenda, the meeting was adjourned.

 

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