October 6, 2020                                              Tuesday 9:00 am

 

The Bourbon County Commission met in open session with Commissioner Oharah, Commissioner Beth present, Commissioner Fischer attended the meeting by phone, the County Counselor and the County Clerk present.

 

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

 

Lynne Oharah welcomed the new Road & Bridge director Eric Bailey.

 

Lynne made a motion for the Commissioners and Eric Bailey to meet at the County barn on 10/8/2020 and ride together to tour Thomas quarry, Blake quarry (and tour the asphalt plant while they are there), Elm Creek, Shepherd quarry, Beth quarry and tour the high risk bridges, Clifton seconded and the motion passed.

 

Lynne made a motion to go into a 15 minute executive session for personnel matters of individual non-elected personnel, Clifton seconded and the motion passed, (the session included the Commissioners and Kendell Mason).  No action was taken.

 

Lynne read a thank you note from the Riverfront Authority; they thanked the Commissioners and the County workers that paved the parking lot at the Riverfront Authority.

 

Lynne signed Spark grant vouchers to be paid.

 

Lynne made a motion to allow Clifton Beth to represent the County on EMS matters, Clifton seconded and the motion passed.

 

Greenbush representative Monica Murnan and Jody Hoener met with the Commissioners to discuss the Spark Grant funds; Monica said they have 88 completed memorandums of understandings and W9’s from the applicants and are waiting on 16 more to be completed.  She said 10/7/2020 is a reporting date.  Monica said Emergency Manager William Wallis contacted her regarding a need for shelter and was told to move forward with this need.  She said FSCC purchased a van with Spark money and was later told they needed to clarify if it was more cost effective to purchase a van or lease a van; it would have been cheaper per month to lease but they purchased a van, so they will only claim the leasing cost, this left $44,000 of the grant money they were to receive to be spent on other eligible expenses for FSCC.  St. Mary’s also planned to purchase a vehicle; Jody Hoener contacted them and will work with them on the grant money they will receive.  Monica said a lot of businesses had applied for the back to business round two Spark grant funding.

 

 

Bill Martin, Ben Cole and Lesley Herrin met with the Commissioners regarding Coronavirus Emergency Supplemental Funding; Bill said in June of 2020 they were awarded over $112,000 in grant money, he questioned how to invoice the expenses to be paid out of the grant money.  Lynne said that William Wallis had informed him about the grant; he said he understood that the Spark money had to be spent first before using the CESF grant money.  Kendell told Bill that the best way to invoice the expenses was to have the Treasurer set up an account to deposit the CESF funds into and then to invoice the eligible expenses out of the same account, this way it doesn’t affect the Sheriff budget.

 

Emergency Manager William Wallis met with the Commissioners regarding an application for an EMPG grant (worth approximately $17,000).  He said every year he applies and receives the EMPG grant; in order to be eligible to receive the grant he has to attend trainings, have an emergency operation plan and participate in LEPC meetings.  He said he has used the grant money for the building upgrades he has his office in and for utility bills there and uses the money for Code Red.  Lynne made a motion that he signs the EMPG application, Jeff seconded and all approved.  A portion of the EMPG funds were previously used to purchase an electronic sign for the outside of the Courthouse; Jeff suggested using the sign for advertising, but said the time is incorrect on the sign; William said he would ask Shane Walker to fix the time.

 

Clifton made a motion that Lynne Oharah be the voting delegate for the annual KWORCC meeting, Jeff seconded and all approved.

 

Michael Hoyt announced that the F.A.A .had accepted the windfarm structure; he said he would get a map from the F.A.A.

 

Lynne made a motion to go into a 10 minute executive session for consultation with an attorney for the body or agency which would be deemed privileged in the attorney-client relationship, Clifton seconded and all approved, (the session included the Commissioners, Justin Meeks and Lora Holdridge).  No action was taken.

 

Clifton made a motion to accept Resolution 28-20; a resolution adjusting the Road & Bridge director to a non exempt position and adjusting the wages to beginning wage of $2,020.86 a check and full scale to $2,245.39 a check and Lynne seconded the motion, Jeff did not vote. Jeff questioned if this was a change from what the former director was making; Lynne said yes it was $2,500 less annually.  Jeff said they previously had a discussion with the former director about lowering the wages for the new director and at that time the reaction was that a new director might not accept the position for anything less than the original wages, Jeff said they should have addressed this before the “changing of the guard”.

 

At 10:40, Clifton 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) Clifton Beth, Commissioner

ATTEST:

Kendell Mason, Bourbon County Clerk

October 13, 2020, Approved Date