Search Entire Site

Sign up here for the Code Red Emergency Warning System for Bourbon County

June 30, 2020 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, Mary Pemberton, Anne Dare, Michael Hoyt and Mr. & Mrs. Clint Walker.

Lynne made a motion to approve a fireworks permit for Kathy Ramirez for a stand in Mapleton, Jeff seconded and all approved. Kathy took the permit with her.

Jerad Heckman with Road & Bridge met with the Commissioners, he presented the following 2021 budget requests, Noxious Weed $169,945, Landfill $199,464, Road & Bridge Sales Tax Fund $1,164,097, Bridge & Culvert $197,294, Special Road Machinery $0, Road & Bridge $2,116,369 and Special Bridge $157,038. The Road & Bridge was up $54,038 to allow for two additional employees for a ditching crew, he said they already have the equipment to allow for these positions. Special bridge was also higher to allow for two new employees and a truck for a bridge or culvert crew.

Jerad said they previously had a vacancy in a grader position, but he moved a mower employee to that position and now has a mower vacancy. He said they have one mower employee mowing and the others are working on the asphalt crew. The Commissioners said after Indian Road and Noble road are complete they need to look at the finances before doing more work. Jerad clarified with Jeff Fischer that Jeff wanted them to do a small section at the airport when working on Indian, Jeff said yes do this.

Jerad said they are paving the Landfill road and installing a ditch liner to prevent erosion at the entrance. He said they are crushing rock at the Blake quarry, he said they are using the chips as they make them.

Lynne reported that areas in the road near 95th & Maple needed filled in. Jerad briefly discussed Yale Road; he said their long term plan there is to eventually tie back in with where they stopped reclaiming and to get the base back to a good condition. Lynne said it had previously reported to Jim Harris about a culvert plugged causing water to go towards a house, Lynne will discuss this with Jerad. Jerad said they would see what the traffic count is on 75th north of 54 Highway. Jerad discussed a low water crossing on 80th between Grand and Hackberry, he said the deck was cracked but that it wasn’t unsafe, he said it could deteriorate due to the cracks.

Bill Martin, Bobby Reed and Leslie Herrin met with the Commissioners; Bill wanted to inform the Commissioners that they had been awarded two grants. He said they received a COVID-19 grant for $113,454 to be used for supplies for PPE equipment, (he said he would work with the Emergency Manager regarding this grant). Bill said for the past year and a half he had worked on getting a school resource officer for USD 235, he said money had finally been released and Bourbon County was awarded a COPS grant for $118,792, he said this grant fund would create another position, the fourth year the County would be responsible for the wages of this position. He said that Lynne needed to electronically sign the grant so they could move forward with the school resource officer. Bill said he sent a copy to Justin Meeks in March for his review and said there would need to be a meeting to get the program going. Lynne said that the first part of the year Bill removed an employee out of the Court area and put them in a school resource position and said this wasn’t a new position since the position was already there, Bill said he was correct he did reassign a deputy to Uniontown and now that money will come back to the County and this now leaves one position open. Lynne said the COPS grant doesn’t say it is for a school resource officer; Bill said that was part of the narrative for applying for the grant. Lynne asked if they would have to buy a vehicle for this employee, Bill said no they already had a vehicle, Lynne asked if it was one of the vehicles he had previously asked to replace since it was worn out, Bill said yes it was, he said he would take a vehicle away from one of his staff and give it to the school resource officer, Lynne said they replaced three vehicles because Bill said they were worn out, but now they weren’t worn out. Lynne said part of the USD 235 buildings are in the City and part are in the County, he said if they fill the position they could request that the City and the County each pay 25% and the school pay 50% of the cost of the employee, Lynne said they would need to get approval from the City to put the school resource officer in place. Justin Meeks said the City of Fort Scott pays 50% of the cost of the USD 234 school resource officer. Bill said he was just here presenting the grant, he said they could make a choice to either accept it by signing the grant or declining it. Bill said he did everything he could to get a school resource officer in place. Lynne questioned if we could afford more taxes to cover the position once the grant expires. No decision was made on the COPS grant; this will be discussed again on July 7th.

The Commissioners previously took bids to repair the east porch, the bid was originally awarded to one company who later declined the job, MCR also bid to do the work, their bid was $87,505 + $2,600 for alternate work to be done. Jeff made a motion to award the renovation contract plus the alternate work to MCR, Nick seconded and all approved. Nick made a motion for Lynne to sign the contract, Jeff seconded and all approved. The Commissioners said the problem with the porch is that it has lost its waterproofing characteristics and that the water is deteriorating the porch and the problem will not go away and will continue to cause damage, the money to repair the porch is in the capital improvements fund, the northeast entrance is the ADA entrance for the Courthouse. Mr. Hoyt questioned if there were any historical renovation grants to assist with the cost of the repairs, Lynne said he would review this.

Economic Development Director Jody Hoener met with the Commissioners; Jody said they need to update the parameters for the CDBG grant, Jody said she had received several applications for the CDBG grant, but no applications had been processed yet, so they could update the parameters. Jeff made a motion to adopt the new CDBG program parameters, Nick seconded and all approved and Lynne signed the new parameters.

The following resolutions needed to be in place for the CDBG grants; Nick made a motion to approve Resolution 20-20, a Civil Rights Fair Housing Policy, Jeff seconded and all approved and signed the resolution. Lynne read a Procurement Policy, Jeff made a motion to reduce the minimum $25,000 to $5,000, Nick seconded and all approved; Nick made a motion to adopt Resolution 21-20, Jeff seconded and all approved. Lynne read a code of conduct resolution; Jeff made a motion to change the word city to county, Nick seconded and all approved, Nick made a motion to adopt Resolution 22-20, Jeff seconded and all approved.

Judge Ward met with the Commissioners to present District Court’s 2021 budget; he requested $297,009.60. They were approved for $267,468 for 2020; Judge Ward said the difference in the amounts was due to adding a security officer and Westlaw & interpreter fees increasing. They have been closed due to COVID-10, he said they had to have a plan in place in order to reopen, they had Plexiglas installed, they are currently still closed and conducting some business through ZOOM. Judge Ward commended the Commissioners for the work they had done this past year and making tough decisions that he thought were in the best interest of the residents of our County.

Jody Hoener met with the Commissioners regarding the CARES Act Fund; Bourbon County (Bourbon County, cities, school districts, FSCC) has been awarded $2.9 million through the CARES Act Fund, the money has to be spent by the end of December 2020. Jody said a plan to receive and spend the funds has to be in place by August 15, 2020. Jody said the first step to accept the funds is to adopt the County Coronavirus Relief Fund Resolution 23-20. Jody recommended hiring a temporary person to manage the relief fund, (the cost of this temporary person would be paid with CARES Act Funds). Jody said there needed to be a primary and an alternate contact for the CARES Act. Jeff made a motion to approve Resolution 23-20, Nick seconded and after discussion of possible areas the money could be spent all approved. Lynne told Jody to advertise for the position (Jody said she would work with the SEKRPC to get a job description and salary guidelines).

Nick made a motion to go into a 20 minute executive session for consultation with an attorney for the body or agency which would be deemed privileged in the attorney-client relationship, Jeff seconded and all approved, (the session included the Commissioners and Justin Meeks). After the session, Lynne said last week that the Commissioners had a special meeting involving the Health Department. The Governor has implemented mandatory face masks beginning July 3rd, due to COVID-19. Bourbon County is part of the Multi County Health Board and they (the health board) are responsible for health decisions. There was a lengthy discussion over COVID-19 and the cases in Bourbon County.

Lynne made a motion to give Justin Meeks the authority to contact an employee to discuss employee matters and to Lynne to move forward, Nick seconded and all approved.

Lynne read the overtime hours being paid on July 2nd, the Sheriff’s department had 102 hours, EMS had 41 hours, the Treasurers department had 24 hours, the Attorney’s department had 41.25, Road & Bridge had 70.25 hours, General had 9.75 hours and the Correctional department had 39.5 hours.

At 12:16, Nick made a motion to adjourn, Lynne 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
July 13, 2020, Approved Date