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Mitchell County Commissioners Meeting Tuesday January 13th

 

Mitchell County Commissioners

January 12, 2015

By Terry Bailey

 

The Mitchell County Commissioners conducted their weekly business meeting Monday, January twelfth, two thousand fifteen. All Commissioners and the County Clerk were on hand to supervise the business of the County.

The first item on the morning’s agenda was the swearing in of the newly elected officers of Mitchell County. County Clerk Chris Treaster administered the oath of office to Tammy Eck, Register of Deeds, and to Tom Claussen, commissioner for the First District of Mitchell County.

Upcoming meetings of interest to the Commissioners include: the quarterly meeting of the County’s Rural Fire Chiefs this coming Thursday at seven p.m., the disaster board meeting at seven p.m. on January twenty-eighth, and the multi-county meeting on January twenty-sixth in Esbon. This includes the counties of Mitchell, Osborne, Smith, and Jewell.

Community Economic Development Specialist, Heather Hartman, gave a thorough report of her recent trip to Greensburg, Kansas.

Everyone will remember that on May fourth in two thousand seven, ninety-five percent of the town was totally destroyed by an EF5 tornado. Because of the total devastation of the town, the city council passed a resolution stating that all city buildings would be built to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environment) - platinum standards, making it the first city in the nation to do so.

Among the new technologies utilized are wind-generated electrical power, use of building planning and computer monitoring to utilize natural light in all buildings, and a heightened awareness of a GREEN lifestyle.

At the time of the tornado, the population of Greensburg was one thousand three hundred residents. Currently eight hundred fifty people live in the town. Greensburg was a bedroom community for people working in Pratt and Dodge City because of the cheaper housing available in that rural community. The tornado destroyed all the housing in Greensburg cheap, expensive and in-between. New housing has been built but most houses have a monthly rental cost of about one thousand dollars. This had caused residents to relocate to other towns where housing is less expensive.

Kelly Hawk, Emergency Medical Services Director, presented his monthly report to the Commissioners. The ambulance serviced conducted twenty-six runs in the month of December. Fees of twenty-four thousand six hundred forty-five dollars and sixty-three cents were charged. Total monies collected for the month was seventeen thousand five hundred eighty-four dollars and fifty cents. One disturbing statistic in the report was that, for the calendar year two thousand fourteen, only fifty-four point five percent of the fees charged have been collected.

Hawk and his staff will conduct CPR training for Courthouse personnel on Thursday January twenty-second.

The last order of business for the Commissioners was to elect a chairperson for the upcoming year. By unanimous votes, Tom Claussen was elected Chairperson and Mike Cooper was elected vice-chairperson.

Having successfully dealt with all the business before them, the Commissioners adjourned the meeting.

 

 

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