MITCHELL COUNTY COMMISSIONERS MEETING TUESDAY JULY 5

Mitchell County Commissioners

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

By Terry Bailey

The Mitchell County Commissioners conducted their weekly meeting this week on Tuesday July 5^th because of Monday being July 4^th. Commissioners present were Mike Cooper and Tom Claussen. Jim Marshall was absent due to family issues. Also present was County Clerk Chris Treaster.

The meeting began with a request from Jeff Roberg for an executive session of 15 minutes to discuss Courthouse security with Commissioners and County Clerk Treaster. At the end of the 15 minutes, the meeting was extended by another ten minutes. When the regular meeting resumed it was announced that no action was taken because of the closed session.

Larry Emerson, Public Works Superintendent reported his crews were doing some asphalt work south of Asherville. He also reported that a bridge near Jerry Wessling’s had the decking come lose from the bridge beams. They will have to uncover the decking and reweld it to the beams. He said he had not experienced such a situation at any point in his career.

Emerson told the Commissioners that used motor graders may be on the market soon. The State of Kansas is trading in motor graders and this might be an opportunity to purchase replacement equipment at a reduced cost.

Sheriff Doug Daugherty and Undersheriff Tony Perez along with a representative from NexTech visited with the Commissioners about computer server and recorder issues. Due the ongoing addition of new technology to the system, the system is now overloaded and it having trouble keeping up. The recording devices such as cameras at the jail and the officer’s body cam’s are very memory intensive and take up a great amount of space. The system is at a point where information has been lost due to system overload. To complicate the situation the sheriff’s department computer server is almost out of date. The NexTech representative presented the Commissioners with quotes of various amount based on equipment and labor. The Commissioners will take the matter under advisement and discuss the matter seriously with when all three are at the next meeting.

Director of Communications, Becky Schaeffer, spoke to the Commissioners about the purchase of voice recording software. She has received two bids. One was from Voice Products in the amount to $16,871. The other was from Grabber for $23,942. The Commissioners voted to approve the bid from Voice Product for $16,871 with a five year warranty at a cost of $3,137.

Fred Severance and Teri Nunzum visited with the Commissioners about a recurrent budget problem they have at the beginning of each year. Because the County does not receive any money from the State until near the end of January no funds can be dispersed until February 1^st. The group discussed various options about how the problem might be solved. Chris Treaster said, “We cannot distribute funds we do not have.”

A Neighborhood Revitalization Grant was approved for Courtney and Heidi Virden for a mobile home remodeling in the amount of $185, 871.

Having concluded all the business before them the meeting was adjourned.

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