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Claussen Sworn In As District #1 Commissioner

Tom Claussen was officially appointed as County Commissioner for Mitchell County District #1. County Clerk Chris Treaster administered the oath of office at the beginning of the County Commissioner's meeting this morning.

"I'm glad to be able to serve all the residents of Mitchell County not just the First District," Claussen said. Chairman Mike Cooper and Commissioner Virgil Palen both said they were looking forward to working with the new commissioner.

Chairman Cooper told the other Commissiners and the audience that it is getting to be an embarrassment to the County and to the Commissioners but they had a message from Lloyd Larrish who was to have been here on Sunday afternoon to start finish the work on the Courthouse clock. Brian Streit, County Maintenance person, received word from Larrish that he was in Illinois and would have to cancel once again. Streit was able to get in contact with Larrish who has guaranteed he will be in Beloit the week of October 11, to finish the work on the clock.

Chairman Cooper is going to have County Attorney Mark Noah draft a letter to Larrish telling him that the County Commissioners will expect to be in Beloit at the time he has promised and that they will accept no further excuses.

Newly elected Commissioner, Claussen, asked how long they expect this project to take assuming that Larrish shows up when he says he will this time. Chairman Cooper said the exterior work has to be done from the bucket of a crane 100 plus feet up the side of the Courthouse and will take at least two days. The problem is the workers will be wearing safety harnesses and you also have to factor in the wind velocity. Cooper reiterated that he hoped the letter would be enough to convince Larrish it is time to live up to his contract.

Commissioner Palen presented two Neighborhood Revitalization tax rebate applications: Paul and Janette Remus, 318 West 4th Beloit for a two-car garage at a cost of $18,000. The second was for Bradon Hake at 307 Main St. in Tipton for a 50 by 80 Behlen Steel Building at a cost of $90,000.

Commissioner Palen attended the ribbon cutting ceremony at the Cawker City EMS Building last week. He reported a nice turnout and said it all worked out really well. Commissioner Claussen also attended and reported an excellent tour of the building and commented that it was built in a good location. Palen said the City of Cawker would be putting up signs on Main Street about the buildings location.

Chairman Cooper said the Commissioners received a letter from the First national Bank concerning a new amendment to the counties automated checking account contract. No International Transactions are allowed on this account. If a customer breaches this rule the First national will have to terminate the account. Commissioners signed the agreement.

Chairman Cooper received several calls from citizens concerned about the new ruling the Commissioners made at their last meeting allowing long time employees who are retiring early to be able to stay on the county insurance policy for a few years until they reach 65. It was specified at that time that this would be done at no expense to the county. The retired person would make the payments to the county each month.

The Concern of the callers was not so much that they would be allowed to stay on the insurance but questioned what would happen if these employees contacted a serious illness. They wondered if this would drive the insurance premiums higher for the rest of the employees.

Clerk Treaster said she thought if the commissioners made the determination to allow some retired employees to do this and not others they would be looking at a lawsuit. The Commissioners made the decision to extend the service to all long time retired employees and let their ruling made last week to stand.

Commissioner Claussen said it might work the other way if these retire employees are extremely healthy this could cause the over all insurance premiums go down. He said this is a service the City of Beloit and other companies in the county provide for their retired employees. Chairman Cooper agreed and said they just need to get this clarified.

Larry Emerson, Public Works, told Commissioners they had some flood problems around the county after last week's rains. The worst was straight south of Beloit. He said south and east of Asherville they had six to eight inches of rain. Some of the other flooding problems were on T road, and Hyde Road.

Emerson's crews plan to start sealing blacktop roads on Tuesday of this week weather permitting. This will take about a week. They need to get it done before the weather turns cold because things don't work well after that. Road and Bridge got the beams set on the bridge up on the Jewell/Mitchell County line and should have it finished in about a month, Emerson said.

Chairman Cooper told Emerson he had two calls last weekend about grain being moved on gravel roads. They requested the trucks slow down and use the blacktop instead of the gravel. Emerson said the county couldn't stop them from doing this. The callers said the trucks loaded with grain were moving 60 to 70 miles an hour. Cooper said the Commissioners couldn't do anything to stop this except bring it to the truckers attention.

Cooper also had a call from Paul Mann who lives south of Simpson about the water in the big ditch near where he lives not draining and backing up into his basement. Emerson said he has checked this several times. He said it is draining slow but is draining away clear down to the river. He plans to burn the grass in the ditch this fall after things dry up and see if something is restricting the water from running through it. That area is really flat and if they get a hard rain it just doesn't move very fast. He will go down and look at the ditch again.

Murray McGee, Community Development Director, reported he recently met with James Holland with Planning Works LLC to discuss the development of a master plan for the North Campus.

McGee told the Commissioners the First national Bank has contacted the City to begin the process for demolition of the old Ace Hardware Store building east of the main door of the bank. They have their building permit and are running it through the planning commission at the present time, McGee said.

The Beloit Crown homes project is moving forward, McGee said. In August Jay Manske met with homeowners from the Zimmer Addition to explain their plans for developing eight homes in that area. Manske plans to return to Beloit the week of Sept. 27, and hopes to have everything ready to present to the planning commission at their October meeting and start the work yet this fall. McGee discussed seven prospective business expansions he is working on and where he is at on each project.

The Commissioners left after the meeting concluded to attend a Multi-County meeting in Esbon hosted by Osborne County. Mitchell, Osborne, Jewell, and Smith Counties alternate hosting this meeting every four months.

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Beloit, KS 67420, USA