KVSV

MONDAY OCTOBER 19TH MITCHELL COUNTY COMMISSIONERS MEETING

 

Mitchell County Commissioners

Monday, October 19, 2015

By Terry Bailey

 

The Mitchell County Commissions conducted their weekly business meeting on Monday, October 19. All Commissioners were present for the meeting as well as the County Clerk.

The first person on the agenda was Carol Torkelson from the North Central Kansas Regional Planning Commission. Torkelson has spent several months working her way through all the required paperwork for a Federal grant program to allow home rehabilitation for handicapped homeowners. She presented the Commissioners with the final document for their signature to initiate the process. The grant covers four counties; Mitchell, Ottawa, Saline and Dickinson. The plan is to allocate the $300,000 equally with four projects available for each county. Torkelson commented, “We could have made it a first come, first serve basis to allocate the money, but we wanted to divide it up as equally as possible.”

Other provisions of the rehab grant include:

The property must be occupied by the grant recipient. No rental properties will be allowed.

The property cannot be located in the flood plain.

Mobile homes are not allowed.

Lead-based paint issue must be addressed.

Verification of the applicant’s disability must be verified by a medical professional such as a doctor or home-health nurse.

Torkelson said that once the Commissioners sign the document she must mail it to the State for a signature there. Once the State returns the document to her she can officially take applications for the grant money. She anticipates receiving the document back from the State by the first of November. At that time she can begin distributing grant applications to interested parties.

The Commissioners voted unanimously to approve the Mitchell County Home Accessibility Plan and signed the document so that Torkelson can forward it to the State. In addition to the $300,000 grant, a USDA supplemental grant of $25,000 will be used for the rehabilitation project.

The Commissioners extended their heartfelt thanks to Torkelson for all her hard work to make this worthwhile project finally become a reality.

Becky Schaefer, Director of Communications, was on hand to tell the Commissioners that she had been elected to the office of Secretary-Treasurer of her professional organization, the Association of Public Safety Communication Officials otherwise referred to as APCO. She believes there will be many advantages of holding a leadership office in this state organization.

Schafer informed the Commissioners that she had replaced four small windows in her office in the Communications building. These windows were original windows when the building was constructed and were long past in need of replacing. Brian Streit, Director of Maintenance, helped her with the project. She said the cost of the window replacement was $600.

A discussion of the restriction of burning in the rural areas took place. With the very dry conditions and high winds, the rural Fire Chiefs have been very insistent that NO burning take place. Should a fire get out of hand the results could be very drastic.

Larry Emerson, Superintendent of Public Works, provided the Commissioners with paperwork to exchange Federal transportation funds for State funds. The Commissioners signed documents to exchange $84,904 in Federal money for $76,000 in State D.O.T. money. The major benefit of this fund swap is that the County has much greater flexibility in spending State money than Federal money. By exchanging the Federal funds for State funds, Mitchell County is not as restricted in how and for what they spend the transportation money.

Emerson said the crews are still working on the bridge replacement project on K Road. He said they were making good progress and should continue to do so as long as the weather cooperates.

The mowing has been completed on the west side of the County and the mowing crews are now focusing on the east side. Additionally the crews will mow the landfill area. Emerson said some of it needs mowed and some doesn’t but it is in the contract to mow it each year.

Crews are beginning to perform ditch cleaning operations where necessary. “With the dry weather and the wind this will be a dirty job with lots of dust,” said Emerson.

The gravel roads are not in very good shape. They really need a good rain before they get any better,” added Emerson.

He said the two township roads for which they are responsible have been bladed and are in fair shape considering the conditions.

The new mower tractor that initially had problems in running fine with no problems. The fix to the problem was an easy one.

The disposal of deer carcasses to the object of discussion. Animal carcasses cannot be accepted at the Landfill. In most cases, the deer carcasses are taken from the road to the ditch. Coyotes or other predators take care of the carcass at that point.

The Commissioners approved a Neighborhood Revitalization Grant application from Don Boden for an addition to his home in the amount of $106,000.

Heather Hartman updated the Commissioners on a number of her recent activities including the Rural Opportunity Zone project. There has been strong interest in this program. Also the Solomon Valley Community Foundation awarded a $2,000 grant to the School Marathon Project. Hartman said the undertaking took lots of volunteer helpers but she believed it had a very positive impact on all those involved.

End of meeting and they adjourned.

 

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