Mitchell County Commissioners
July 7, 2014
By Terry Bailey
The Mitchell County Commissioners met yesterday morning and dealt with a brief, but very important agenda. All Commissioners were present for their weekly meeting.
First up was Kristin Kadel from the Mitchell County Health Department. Kadel brought with her the yearly contract for the Women, Infants, and Children program for Mitchell and Jewell Counties. This program offers direct services to women with children for nutritional assistance. This is universally believed to be one of the better programs that has experienced success providing important benefits to young mothers. The contract was approved by a unanimous vote.
Next on the agenda was Becky Schaefer, Director of Communications. Shaefer had solicited bid for replacement computers for her office. The current computers are seriously outdated and will no longer run the software to interface with the programs operating at the state level.
Shaefer had three bids for the Commissioners to consider. The first bid for the two new computers was from Computer Solutions, a local vendor. Their bid was for a total of one thousand nine hundred five dollars for the two computers. Shaefer found an on-line vendor, offering the same package for a total of one thousand eight hundred and five dollars. Jeff Roberg submitted a bid for a “bare bones” single computer without software for an amount of four hundred eighty nine dollars.
As discussion of the pro’s and cons of each bid, the commissioners unanimously accepted the bid from Computer Solutions. They are a local vendor who has provided excellent service in the past and their bid was only one hundred dollars more than the on-line vendor.
Heather Hartman reported that she felt optimistic about the economic situation in Beloit. She is working on a Housing Grant for submission. Hartman is expecting word on a grant application that was recently submitted.
Chris Treaster, Mitchell County Clerk, requested a ten minute executive session to discuss non-elected personnel. When the regular meeting resumed, it was announced that no decisions had been made.
Larry Emerson, Public Works Superintendent, reported that the work of the Tice Bridge has progressed to the stage where they will “get up out of the mud.”All the pilings have been set and most of the bottom concrete work has been completed.
Emerson said, “We finally got our low-boy trailer delivered.” He reported that it was a nice looking piece of equipment and should work out real well.
His crews are working on cold mix at the Sand Plant. They first need to do some hand patching on the roads but when that is completed they will begin the overlay work.
Emerson inquired of the Commissioners if the dollar amounts for their budget submissions for the upcoming fiscal year should include cost of living raises. He was instructed to not factor in raises at this time. The Commissioners believe they will be able to offer raises, but at this time they want a status quo budget to look at.
Larry Sharp, representative from KCAMP was the last person on the agenda. Sharp reported that loss liability was experiencing a shift. For a number of years in the past, law enforcement was the largest area of loss reimbursement. Recently road and bridge liability has been the highest segment.
He praised Mitchell County for their very low loss ration. According to Sharp, there are only a handful of counties with a ratio less than ten percent. Mitchell County recorded a four point nine percent loss ratio last year. He said Mitchell County will receive a bonus check at the upcoming KCAMP state meeting.
Furthermore, he informed the Commissioners that he believed there would be no increase in rates for the upcoming year. The Commissioners were obviously pleased with that announcement.
Having dealt with all items on the agenda, they adjourned.