July 14, 2020 Tuesday 9:00 am

The Bourbon County Commission met in open session with all three Commissioners, the County Counselor and the County Clerk present.

Also present were the following (some were present for a portion of the meeting, some were present for the entire meeting), Jason Silvers with the Fort Scott Tribune, Anne Dare, Michael Hoyt, Mark McCoy and Nancy Van Etten.

Nick reported that Jerad Heckman would not be at the meeting, but that if the Commissioners had any issues with Road & Bridge they needed to report it to him. Road & Bridge is finishing a spot on the Landfill road and are also working on KOA road.

Michael Hoyt reported a light out on a tower at approximately Kansas and 225th.

Lynne made a motion to appoint Jody Hoener as the primary contact for the Sparks grant, Jeff seconded and all approved.

Lynne made a motion to appoint Kendell Mason as the secondary contact for the Sparks grant, Jeff seconded and all approved.

Jody Hoener met with the Commissioners to discuss the Spark grant (all Counties in Kansas were awarded a grant, Bourbon County will receive $2.9 million); she said focus areas for spending the money is health, connectivity, economic development and education. She said the Commissioners needed to hire a firm or an individual to do the accounting work and administer the Spark grant. She said she had reached out to different Counties regarding the firms they were using. Witt O’Brien’s quoted in a contract $75,000 (Jody said this amount is less than the 5% amount that it was expected to cost) to administer the Spark grant in Bourbon County. Jody said the outside agency firm has experience, Jody suggested using the firm, but said the Commissioners could hire an individual or local accountant to do the work. Jody said there is a long learning curve to learn the job and a short amount of time to spend the grant money. Lynne said we needed someone with accounting experience to do the work; the County will still be involved in the grant. Mr. Hoyt said he had done a lot of research and felt that the accounting part is the easiest part of the grant work. He said Peerless had accumulated a lot of expenses to protect their employees from COVID-19, he said the biggest part of the grant work is surveying businesses and individuals on where they need assistance regarding COVID-19 expenses. Lynne said the City of Fort Scott had offered to help provide the administrative work for free; he said we need to make sure we maintain checks and balances and said we needed an outside agency to do the checks and balances for the grant work. Jody said she didn’t feel the City or the County had the capacity to take this work on. Jeff said he was amazed that there wasn’t a standard document regarding the grant and thought counties using just a few companies to administer the grant could be beneficial. The grant money has to be spent by the end of 2020, the first report for the grant is due August 15th, the County doesn’t have a lot of time to explore and research the different firms. Lynne and Nick both felt that $75,000 was a reasonable price for administering the grant; Jeff liked the idea of using professional help. This firm will provide a tool kit for funds, assure legal work, do accounting work and provide community assessment. Mr. Hoyt said the firm would not assume the grant risk. Jody felt the County should be cautious in allowing anyone to do the grant work for free. Mr. Hoyt felt there were a lot of items not included in the $75,000 rate, (travel, etc.). Justin Meeks said he hadn’t reviewed the Witt O’Brien contract. Mr. Hoyt felt that in approximately three years, if kept locally a locally based entity could be created, he said he felt in a short time someone could be an expert in the field; Justin said the County didn’t have the luxury of time, he said they had reached out to a few individuals about the job, but the one that was interested in the job is no longer interested. Jody said she had a meeting with Kansas Works and they will be coming up with ideas for workforce development. Anne Dare questioned if the grant funds could be used to live stream the Commission meetings, Jody said yes. Jeff asked Jody to check with our local accountant to see if they could recommend any firms to use for the grant work, Jody said she had talked to other counties and they are using this firm. Jeff made a motion to accept the proposal from Witt O’Brien, he said Justin Meeks still needed to review the contract, Nick seconded, but wanted Jody to make sure the auditor or a local firm is not interested in doing the job, Jody said she would call Terry Sercer @ Diehl Banwart, and that if a local company isn’t interested in the job, then Lynne could sign the contract with Witt O’Brien. This motion was retracted. Jeff said he was in support of the firm. Jeff made a motion to proceed with finalizing the details in support of Witt O’Brien’s proposal for administrative consulting of the Spark grant, Nick seconded and all approved. Jody later reported that it would be a conflict for Diehl Banwart to do the grant work. Jeff made a motion to withdraw this motion regarding Witt O’Brien, Nick seconded and all approved.

Jody Hoener said the Bourbon County Action Team had received a grant for $12,500 to purchase a trail dozer to be used for county trails. Nick made a motion to allow Lynne to sign the affidavit to accept the grant, Jeff seconded, the Gunn Park volunteers will be stewards of the equipment, Jody said it’s proven that trails drive economic growth, and all approved the motion.

Nick made a motion to re-appoint Steve Sewell to a 3 year term as a representative for Bourbon County on the Tri-Valley Developmental Services board of directors, Jeff seconded and all approved.

Jeff made a motion that the Commissioners sign the Tri Valley agreement for services for 2020 allocating $55,000 in appropriations to them, Nick seconded and all approved.

David Neville met with the Commissioners to discuss the a/c unit that isn’t working on the 2nd floor of the Courthouse; he previously talked about buying a backup a/c unit, but thinks they need to talk about buying a replacement unit because the unit has quit. David got 3 quotes to put in a 10 ton, air cooled unit and use the existing duct work. CDL quoted $13,507, KTK Electric bid $14,137.50, and Design Mechanical quoted $22,804. The Commissioners asked David to get an efficiency rating and find out how soon the units could be done. Anne Dare questioned building converting to filtrations systems due to COVID-19; the County purchased a spray disinfectant system.

The Bourbon County Soil Conservation District requested $40,000 for the 2021 budget.

Jeff made a motion to appoint Mark McCoy to the SEK Multi-County Health Board, Nick seconded and all approved.

Susan Bancroft and Dave Martin with the City of Fort Scott met with the Commissioners regarding the sewer district; Susan presented the following to the Commissioners… After discussion, Nick made a motion to adopt option #3 and require a flat hook up charge of $6000, Jeff seconded and all approved.

KCAMP representative Larry Sharp met with the Commissioners; KCAMP is the property insurance carrier for Bourbon County. KCAMP offers additional services such as Attorney assist, Kansas legal-based jail guidelines, KCAMP online university, on-site training and seminars, risk avoidance grants, roads scholar tuition reimbursement program and ThinkHr.

Bill Martin, Bobby Reed and Leslie Herrin met with the Commissioners to present the Sheriff and Correctional Center 2021 budget request. Bill requested a total of $800,461 for the Sheriff’s department, he said this includes a 3% increase for the deputies and the undersheriff, but didn’t include the $16,000 for the raise that the Sheriff received (he said he didn’t request the raise) in 2020 and did not include the SRO position, (Bill said the Commissioner still hadn’t signed the SRO grant documents). Bobby requested $1,160,000 for the Correctional Center for 2021, he didn’t budget for any raises, but did budget $40,000 for a transport vehicle.

Bill Martin questioned once he received the COVID-19 grant money he was awarded where the money would be deposited and bill paid out of; Lynne said the County would have to use the $2.9 million for COVID-19 expenses before money is drawn from anywhere else.

Michael Hoyt met with the Commissioners regarding doing the Spark grant administration work; he said the accounts receivable portion of spending the grant money would be done with the same approval process that the County currently uses. He said there would be a reporting requirement, but didn’t think doing the job was worth $75,000, he said maybe ½ of that. He said if he did the job he would provide liability insurance or a performance bond, he said he had a lot of experience around many different plants worldwide. He suggested doing the work in Bourbon County to help build infrastructure, he said a questionnaire could be placed on the website and having a ground team doing the work. He said he could start tomorrow and could start the ground work, Lynne said the ground work had already started.

Jeff made a motion to renew the annual contract with CIC and a motion for Lynne to sign the contract, Nick seconded and all approved.

Justin Meeks presented the County Counselor’s 2021 budget; he requested $87,220, this included a raise in wages. He said he had been working more than the 25 hours a week he agreed to in his contract. He said his contract would be up January 12, 2021 and said they could negotiate his contract at a different time.

The Commissioners received the County Attorney’s 2021 budget; she requested a grand total of $367,865.80.

At 12:12 Lynne made a motion to suspend the meeting for lunch and reconvene at 1:30, Nick seconded and all approved.

David Neville met with the Commissioners again regarding the a/c on 2nd floor; he said CDL is a 10 ton Allied unit with an IEER rating of 11.2 and they could start the work on Monday July 20th, KTK is a 10 ton Allied unit with an IEER rating of 13 and could start on July 27th, Design Mechanical’s unit has a rating of 12 IEER. Nick made a motion to hire KTK for $14,137.50, Jeff seconded and all approved.

Lynne gave Nick and Jeff permission to attend the public forum on July 20th, Jeff seconded and all approved.

The Commissioners held a 2021 budget work session; Terry Sercer will use the requested budgets and present a draft to the Commissioners for their July 20th meeting.

The Commissioners read the overtime hours for the payroll being paid on July 17th; EMS had 1 hour, Sheriff had 42 hours, Correctional Center had 90.50 hours, Treasurer had 8.75 hours, the Attorney had 4.50 hours and the Custodians had 4.00 hours.

The Commissioners continued their discussion over hiring someone to administer the Spark grant; Justin said that Crawford County is going to use Greenbush to administer their grant. Lynne is going to call Greenbush, Jeff made a motion to that the Commissioners will hold a special meeting on Wednesday morning to discuss further, Nick seconded and all approved.

At 4:55, Nick made a motion to adjourn, Jeff seconded and all approved.

THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
OF BOURBON COUNTY, KANSAS
(ss) Lynne Oharah, Chairman
(ss) Jeff Fischer, Commissioner
(ss) Nick Ruhl, Commissioner
ATTEST:
Kendell Mason, Bourbon County Clerk
August 7, 2020, Approved Date