MONDAY SEPT 19TH MITCHELL COUNTY COMMISIONERS MEETING

Mitchell County Commissioners

Monday, September 19, 2016

By Terry Bailey

The three Mitchell County Commissioners and the County Clerk conducted their weekly business meeting at the Courthouse to conduct the business of the County on Monday morning, September 19th. Also present for the meeting was the new City Administrator, Jason Rabe. Rabe said he was trying to familiarize himself with the workings of the County government because the operation of the City and the County have many common goals.

First on the agenda was Jeff Roberg to present a “nuts and bolts” proposal for video backup for surveillance video from cameras at the Courthouse and at the Law Enforcement Center. Roberg had discussed possible methods of backing up the video recordings at a previous meeting. He presented a proposal with exact dollar amounts and capabilities.

In a previous meeting representatives from Nextech offered a proposal in the amount of $25,200 for a three year video backup system. Roberg’s bid, utilizing the Drobo hard drive system, was for a total of $6,587 resulting in a savings of $18,613. The Commissioners voted unanimously to accept Roberg’s bid for the video storage and backup system.

Jim Marshall was designated to be the voting delegate to the K-WORK state conference and Tom Claussen was appointed the voting delegate to the K-CAMP state conference.

Larry Emerson, Public Works Superintendent, was present to update the Commissioners regarding the activities of his department. Emerson had submitted a grant application to the Kansas Department of Transportation for funding to replace a bridge two and one half miles east and two and one half miles north of Beloit. A grand application was submitted last year for a bridge replacement and was successful. This year’s application was not approved. Emerson said only 17 applications were accepted from a total of 72 submitted. He also said they would monitor the status of the bridge and perhaps submit another grant application next year.

Emerson informed the Commissioners that the road crews had completed the sealing work on the Hyde Road and the Spicer Road. They will begin sealing on the Causeway Road this Thursday. The road will be closed for safety reasons during the work day and be open after the workday in completed each day. Finally, Emerson said they would be working on the mowing of the roads when the sealing is finished.

Sheriff Doug Daugherty and Undersheriff Tony Perez spoke with the Commissioners. In a previous appearance the Commissioners directed them to solicit other bids for vehicles they wished to purchase because only one vendor had submitted bids. Since that time, Daugherty and Perez had contacted other local vendor soliciting bids on vehicles. No additional bids have been forthcoming.

The only bid received was from Beloit Auto Truck Plaza for a 2016 Dodge Charger and a 2017 Tahoe. The price tag for these two new vehicles was $57,406 which includes the trade in of a 2008 Dodge pickup and a 2003 Chrysler 300. Daugherty had secured financing for these vehicles from the Solomon Valley State Bank at an annual rate of 1.89 percent over a three year period.

The Commissioners expressed their reluctance to spend that much money for vehicles in one year with the budget future being somewhat cloudy.

Daugherty said he understood the situation but it has always been a priority for him to have solid dependable vehicles for the officers. He said people can get hurt when vehicles do not perform as they should during emergency situations. He went on to say the pickup’s motor was burning lots of oil and will need to be replaced if not traded off. A new engine would cost about $6,000. He also explained that the vehicles spend a lot of time idling while conducting radar operations and in many other patrol operations. This is very hard on the motors especially during the summer with the air conditioners running.

After discussion of possible avenues of action, the Commissioners voted to approve the purchase of both new vehicles.

Heather Hartman, Economic Development Specialist, updated the Commissioners on her recent activities. The Commissioners congratulated Hartman on the recently released local grant awards. Hartman expressed her hopes that the money would be a wise investment in our local economy.

Hartman said steady but slow progress is being made on her website. She said she wanted to get it right the first time and make sure is does what it is supposed to do.

Additionally, she asked the Commissioners permission to change her job title to Solomon Valley Economic Development Specialist. She said it would not change what she does but it would reflect the fact that much of her work is done outside of Beloit and outside of Mitchell County. The work she does reaches a larger geographic area than just the city or the county.

The meeting was adjourned.

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Beloit, KS 67420, USA