MITCHELL COUNTY COMMISSIONERS – Monday, January 9, 2023

By Terry Bailey

The Mitchell County Commissioners conducted their first meeting of 2023 on Monday morning, January 9th. All Commissioners and the new County Clerk, Heather Weston, were in attendance.
The first order of business was to install Commissioner Jim Marshall as the 2023 Chairperson of the Commission.
The Commissioners voted to appoint Linda Riley to a seat on the NCFHAAA (Flint Hills Area Council on Aging).
The Commissioners approved payment of the annual dues of $2,009.23 for continued membership in the Kansas Association of Counties.
The Commissioners approved a resolution naming January 2023 as Stalking Awareness Month.
Marty Hernandez, Superintendent of Public Works, was present to discuss phone service at the County Landfill location. Verizon currently provides land line phone service to the Landfill. He said the land line is the problem and that cell service generally works okay.
Hernandez has checked with Cunningham, and they are not interested in the expense of providing a single line to that location.
After a thorough discussion of the possible reasons for the malfunctioning land line and looking at numerous fixes to the problem, they decided to consult with Dan Brown of Brown's Electronics for a possible solution.
Stewart Porter of Schwab-Eaton presented the Commissioners with a contract to perform the inspection of all the bridges in the County. State law mandates an inspection of all bridges every two years. There are 291 bridges in Mitchell County that require inspection at $100 each. Additionally, there are seven Fracture Critical bridges in need of inspection. Two of these, the Fisherman's Bridge and the Causeway Bridge, require the services of a "Snooper Truck" to complete the inspection. The fee for inspecting the Fracture Critical Bridges is $1,900 each.
County Economic Coordinator, Emily Benedick, explained the SEED Grant to the Commissioners. In this case the $49,000 grant will be devoted to improving Child Care possibilities in Mitchell County. She said there are twelve day care providers in our County.
The Commissioners adopted Resolution 18-4 affirming their dedication to complying with the provisions of eliminating work place Sexual Harassment.
Eric Hamel, Emergency Medical Services director, requested a ten minute executive session to discuss non-elected personnel. No decisions were made as a result of that closed session.
Having addressed all the items on the printed agenda, the meeting was adjourned.