County Commission Meeting – 12/30

Matt Harris on Indian Road has a spot right in front of his house where the water is running over the road when we get a lot of rain. He is concerned that the way the water is flowing is coming up around his house.

There was some discussion about the vacation policy for the people working on road & bridge crews. Too many employees are taking vacation all at the same time–particularly at the end of the year. Marty is also concerned that some employees are wearing improper footwear.

Allen Warren made a motion to go into executive session with Marty to discuss non-elected personnel issues (not related to vacation or attire).

At 10 am, the budget amendment hearing started. Employee benefits and road and bridge are expected to exceed the budget. The proposal was to adjust the budget to meet the expected expense. In order to avoid a budget violation the Commissioners will move some money from the general account where they had more income than expected to the accounts where they spent more. Exceeding the budget without amendment would put the county in violation of state law.

All objections were heard and a motion was made an passed to accept the amendment to the budget.

There was some discussion about the increase in employee benefits and if there was a plan to keep the cost of insurance from continuing to climb. The amended budget for health insurance in 2011 totals $1,557,560. With 100 paid county employees this works out to over $15,000 per employee. Some employees do not take county insurance, so the actual cost per employee is higher. (It was unclear if this figure includes the amounts that employees contribute to cover their families.)

The commissioners expressed concern that since they have not given raises for the past four years, health insurance is one of the main reasons people will work for the county. Chairman Endicott said, it is hard to get people to apply for jobs as it is.

The Commissioners were asked if there was a long term plan for dealing with the increasing costs of employee benefits. They said there wasn’t. They were also asked if the plan was to just raise the mill levy as needed to cover the increased costs of employee benefits. The Commissioners asked if there were any suggestions for dealing with other increases such as gas prices pointing out that other costs were going up as well.

There was some discussion about capping the amount that the county spends on employee benefits.

This is the first payroll that the county has done direct deposit. Employees that work in the court house will get the receipts for their payroll check in the office, but the ones that don’t work in the court house will get it in the mail.

The County Attorney (Terri Johnson) clarified that the attorney that the AG office did get the first letter requesting that they look into allegations against the County Treasurer. The letter that they didn’t receive was the second letter where the AG’s office had requested additional information from the County Attorney.

Dan Meara has yet to provide the list of people who have property that could be sold, but will be held off because it wasn’t published correctly. The Commissioners asked the Clerk’s office to request the lists from Dan Meara for the meeting on January 6th.

FortScott.biz has previously requested a copy of the list showing which property owners overpaid and which underpaid on their taxes. This information is not in the Commissioner’s hands so they could not provide it. FortScott.Biz took the position that the data belonged to the county and that the whether the physical bits reside shouldn’t matter and if it was simply a matter of requesting the data from Terry Sercer, it should be subject to a Kansas Open Records Act Request.

Terri Johnson (County Attorney) has contacted the Attorney Generals office to find out if there is any reason not to release the data and if it is indeed subject to KORA. She said that she thinks that list doesn’t actually belong to the County, but that they can request it. She suggested that the Commissioners need to request that information eventually in order to refund people who overpaid. She also pointed out that if the information is published the community needs to be careful not to vilify citizens who may have underpaid even though they were acting in good faith and paying what they had been told they owed.

Arcadia Area News

The Christmas Eve Communion Service was well attended this week in the Arcadia Open Door Mission. Pastor Roy Widmar led the singing of Christmas Songs and prayer time. He then spoke of the true meaning of Christmas after Linda Bridgewater sang a solo. Two couples then held the Bread and Communion Trays and the congregation went forward to partake at the same time. All were invited to attend Christmas Sunday morning services in Arcadia Christian Church.


A good number of regular and also guests were present in the Christmas Morning services in Arcadia Christian Church led by Pastor Charles Cable assisted at prayer time by Dave Bridgewater. Clay Carrington led the singing with Cable at the piano. Carol Bridgewater read the Christmas Story from the Book of Luke. Guest Landon Younge sang a special song accompanying himself on his guitar. Linda Bridgewater favored us with a solo “WHAT CHILD IS THIS?” Christi Parrish read the Christmas Story from the book of Matthew. Vera Parrish read an original Christmas poem written by John Parrish. They were pleased to have as their guests their daughter, Janet & Mark Van Leeuwen from St. Paul, Kansas and their daughter Tara Van Leeuwen, a beautician from Florida. Wayne & Christie Parrish gave Christmas wrapped gifts to the Ladies. Among other guests present were Charles Corporon & Rose Campbell from Pittsburg and Larry & Vicki Shead, Garland. It was announced the usual First Sunday dinner, Jan 1, 2012 will be held on January 5, due to the holiday.

We are sorry to read of the death of a former Arcadian, Weymouth Jones Filkins who was born and raised in Arcadia. a1940 Graduate of Arcadia High School. She and Mel Filkins built the large beautiful home on Haller Hill just west of Arcadia. Later years they moved to Council Bluffs, Iowa. After three month illness, at age 89 she died on December 14. Burial will be later in Pittsburg, Kansas. Condolences to the family..


Keith and Glen Twombly of Pittsburg took Walter Foulk to Independence, MO to visit his niece Fanny Mae Christinson. She has been ill but improving and glad far the visit.


The JOY Sunday School Class gives thanks to all who help save 1000 BEST CHOICE UPC ‘S. This is one of the ways the Class earns the funds they use to help people. Please keep saving for the send-in next December.


After a business trip to Ft. Scott, Charles Corporon and sister, Mary V. Shead traveled to Frontenac to deliver JOY Christmas Cookies to Bill Dobbins in Sunset Manor. There she met a friend from College Days at PSU, Janet Dalton who was a Freshman roommate of another AHS graduate, Velma Eggen Jewell. The visit was short but sweet!

On to Pittsburg, they visited Rose Campbell and the next stop was in the Cafe in Asbury, MO. They enjoyed a fine lunch, then on to Joplin for a visit with Mary V’s High School Class mate & husband, Juanita & Owen McWilliams. The ladies graduated from AHS in 1936. The same year, Juanita was chosen Year Book Queen. She showed her picture to Charles. This led to talk of Good Old School Days.

Nearby, lives Nelson & Eloise Corporon, so the travelers spent a delightful afternoon visiting their brother and sister. .


Ruth Holland, former Arcadian, more recently of Liberal, MO died December 22, 2011 in a Kansas City Hospital. The funeral will be held Tuesday, December 27 in Liberal Christian Church. Her sons are Don Holland of Lamar, MO and Howard & Louise Holland, Liberal, MO.


Larry & Vickie Shead spend Wednesday & Thursday last week ,December 21,22 in Tulsa visiting their family members, Marie & Clayton Whitson and Mitzi & Joel Ray and three little ones, Cademon, Atalie & Ryan. Back home on Christmas Day, they served dinner to his Mother, Mary V. Shead, his Uncle Charles Corporon and their friend Rose Campbell after attending church that morning.

Espressly For You

Expressly For You is a coffee shop located 19th street and 69 across from Shepherd’s car dealership. It is owned by Judy and Phil Friedrick and opened for business about 5 1/2 years ago.

Jackie Webster looks out the drive through window.

Expressly For You serves breakfast and lunch with specialty drinks, soups, waffles, cookies, sandwiches and much more.

When I visited I spoke with Jackie Webster who was working the front. She said that most everything they serve is homemade. She said it can take a few minutes to make the drinks or cook a waffle. If customers are in a hurry they can call ahead so it will be ready when they arrive.

The inside of the store is nice decorated, clean and friendly. Having never been in the store, it was quite a bit bigger than I expected.

Expressly For You is open 7 – 2 on Monday through Friday for drive up and in store service. If you want to call ahead, their number is 620-223-1333.

Refunds For Overpayments?

According to the audit report by Mr. Sercer, most individuals on the payment plan overpaid their interest by $800. Now that the County is aware of this error, it would seem that they would be required to send refund checks to the individuals who paid too much in interest.

It doesn’t appear that this has happened. The information about who overpaid is not in the report. It would be part of the details of the audit. These details have not been made available because they have not be requested from Mr. Sercer. The Commissioners, who ordered the audit, are hesitant to request the audit details because they feel that the Attorney General’s office may conduct an investigation and the release of the audit details would compromise the investigation.

On the other hand, the county has something of an obligation to quickly give people their money back if they were charged interest they did not owe. Even if this isn’t a legal statute it is surely an ethical requirement. In some situations, it might just be a matter of taking the overpaid interest and applying it to any outstanding tax bill for current years, but in others it may be a matter of issuing someone an $800 check.

Without the audit details, it is impossible to know who needs a refund, but there are some complicated scenarios that may to arise.

First, if someone has overpaid in the past, how is that money applied to other delinquent taxes? It would seem that their interest would need to be recalculated to keep from penalizing them for money they had been incorrectly charged.

Second, if someone is owed money due to an incorrect calculation by the county, they may be entitled to receive interest on that money. Federal taxes have a provision where the IRS can owe tax payers interest in certain situations and their may be a similar state laws.

The third scenario that may complicate things for the county involves a tax payer who has overpaid on the payment plan, but currently has property in the process of being prepared for sale for other unpaid taxes. If they have money owed them by the county and the property is sold, what happens to the extra money? If the amount was more than what they owed (unlikely), then the county would be in the position of foreclosing on someone who had paid all their taxes.  If it is for less, then the county would be in the postion of foreclosing on someone without telling them how much they actually owed.

Now it is impossible to say if anyone is in any of these situations or not. At this point, Mr. Sercer and his firm are the only ones who have the information, but it seems like it would be in the best interest of the county to make  the details public before that tax sale. Otherwise there is a chance that it will put the county into a very tricky position.

 

 

Arcadia Area News

Arcadia friends were happy to hear from Emory and Betty Briggs who live in Nowata, OK. At Thanksgiving time they entertained both Betty’s family and Emory’s family and are making plans for a similar Christmas Holiday dinner.


The Sunday before Christmas, Willa Cable, Patty Peterson and Mary V. Shead visited Mae Watt and served her Communion that afternoon and delivered to her JOY Cookies. Later that evening, the three ladies went to Ft. Scott and enjoyed supper at Wendy’s and toured the city to see beautiful homes decorated for the season.


Jo Robarts of Franklin, Kansas has been assisting postmaster in the Arcadia Post Office during this busy Christmas season. We welcome her to town.


On December 20. Presbyterian Village in Ft. Scott invited friends to an elegant wine & cheese party. It was a fine time for rekindling friendships with tenants to their former neighbors and friends. Family members were invited to join in the music, food and fellowship time.


A Christmas Brunch was hosted by the Joy Makers of the Liberal, MO. Christian Church on Monday, December 12, 2011. Biscuits, Gravy, Egg Casserole, Fruit and Juice were served to seventeen ladies. Louise Holland as Chairman led the games, drawings and gave each lady a special gift. Peggy Worsley, formerly of Arcadia read a poem concerning YES, JESUS LOVE ME. Mary Lee Payne, Arcadia guest, won the Poinesetta Plant. Kay Waring guessed the closest number of mints in a bag. Other guests from Arcadia were Helen Sisney and Mary V. Shead, Judy Rawlings. Local ladies present were Grace Bryant, Leota McClendon, Carolyn Noyes, Ruth Holland, Valorie Worsley, Karen Carpenter, Pat Thomas, Marjorie Jones,, Grace Wolf, Carolyn Clark, Kay Waring. It was a delightful morning to greet and meet new friends.


In Arcadia Christian Church on December 18, special guests came for Morning worship Hour, Hardy Dunn, Pittsburg; Jack & Mary Lee Payne, to honor her sister, Jessie Eggen Dunn as she presented a piano solo consisting of favorite hymns. Following sermon time, Pastor Cable offered a $5.00 Bill to someone who would come forward and give the correct answer to a question. Clay Carrington stepped forward. The question: Have you done anything to earn this $5.00? The answer NO! So he won! All were wished MERRY CHRISTMAS and Happy New Year. Be reminded on Christmass Morning, there will be no SS classes held and Morning Worship will be 10:30 AM in Arcadia Christian Church.

All are welcome to attend this service. Also all have been invited to attend a Communion Service in Open Door Mission on Christmas Eve at 5:30 PM

FSCC Donations Earn KS Tax Credits

Kansas has an interesting program to help community colleges raise money. It works like this: You or your business can make a donation to FSCC and earn a 60% tax credit. On top of that, you get the federal deduction for a contribution to a non-profit.

So a contribution of $1,000 would get you $600 back from Kansas. The credit is refundable, so you get the $600 even if you didn’t pay $600 in taxes. If you are at the 25% Federal Tax Bracket, the donation can get you $250 off your Federal income tax. So you can donate $1,000 to FSCC and have it only cost you $150. If you are in a higher tax bracket the savings can be even greater.

It is a great program because it lets people keep their tax money local. For a $150 out of pocket expense, you can keep $850 of tax money in our local community instead of sending it to the state and Federal government.

If you might be interested in this, give Gary Palmer a call at 620-223-2700 ext. 5830.  You can also take a look at this PDF for more details.

 

County Commission Meeting – December 12th

County Landfill

There was some discussion about the issues with people dumping the wrong materials at the landfill with roll off loads. The problem is that the workers can’t really see the entire load until it gets dumped. Construction and demolition waste is charged at a lower rate and is handled differently, but if regular trash gets dumped in the C&D pile it becomes a big problem to deal with.

The commissioners discussed making all rolloffs pay the trash price. They also talked about making rolloffs go to Arcadia.  Marty is going to call the state and see what options exist. He questioned why they can accept furniture and fiberglass boats as C&D, but not clothes.

Gas Usage

Gas usage for January through November has been 127,443 gallons. Last year it was 185,807 gallons at this point. Even though the average cost has gone from $2.497 in 2010 to $3.365 in 2011, the county has spent $35,190.51 at this point

Radios

There was some talk about trying to work with the city to buy radios at the same time. Keith Jeffreys said the county has been trying to coordinate with the city to get better purchasing power.

There was some discussion about how to make sure that the radios are compatible between the city and the county. There is a requirement to switch to a new type of radio that uses a narrow band spectrum, but the new radios and the old radios are not compatible. Because of this the county and the city need to make the transition at the same time.

The county pays $50,000 per year from the 911 funds for the city to handle dispatch for the county.

Budget Hearing

The commissioners scheduled a budget hearing December 30th at 10am. This may involve making minor changes to the budget to balance between accounts that might be slightly overbudget with those that are underbudget.

Fence Viewing

The commissioners passed a motion that the fence they viewed was not sufficient to keep cattle in and that both land owners on either side should share the cost of putting in a new fence.

Sewer District

The engineer had a few issues that needed to be discussed and decided on. There are two and possibly three grinder pumps at the lake that are installed too high for the home owner to connect to them. The engineer said that in those cases the grinder pump was placed where the homeowner or their representative specified to put it. They previously lowered Leon Culvertson’s in the past, but it cost $1,000. Some of the remaining ones are likely to cost $1,800.

The engineer feels that the contractor did what they were supposed to do based on the plan and what the homeowner specified. He said the commissioners need to decide if the cost is to be absorbed into the project or if it needs to be billed to the homeowner. He said that every additional $1,000 spent will cost about 2.8 cents per homeowner per month.

Commissioner Warren asked if it was the engineer’s responsibility to know where the sewer line came out. The engineer pointed out that there wasn’t a way for him to know where every sewer pipe comes out of every house. Commissioner Endicott said that if they knew where the holding tank was, why couldn’t that be used to determine how deep the grinder pump should be placed. The engineer pointed out that some of these were buried up to 5 feet deep.

Part of the problem is that some of the homeowner’s plumbers recommended specific places to put the grinder pump saying that it would work and after it was dug, they found out that it wouldn’t.

The sewer bill is estimated to be around $37.00 per month which is less than what had originally been projected.

The houses where there is a problem, some of the sewer lines coming out of the house are lower than where they need to go into the grinder pumps. A homeowner mentioned that since the engineer and contractor observer approved the location of the ginder pumps it seems like it should be their responsibility to move them. The engineer pointed out that when you start building things underground there is always going to be a risk associated with things that you can’t see until you dig.

The Commissioner’s decided to go ahead and do what needs to be done to make it operable and charge it to the project.

There were some questions about how to handle the short term financing of the overages and asked if the county could front the additional cost for 3 to 6 months until the longer term finances come into place. It was estimated that this would be $50,000 to $75,000. This would keep the county from needing to issue temporary bonds which would incur a cost.

There are some individuals who are refusing to connect. The holding tanks can’t be demolished until they are connected. Terri Johnson said that if they still refuse to connect after a certain date, it may be a matter of using police power to force the connection.

The engineer said that in at least once situation, the cost of hooking up is going to be very expensive so the county may need to front that money. The engineer said that a few homeowners appear that they are going to fight hooking up to the sewer until they are forced. The engineer doesn’t want to tie up the construction workers if they can’t finish demolishing the tanks.

Scottish Rite Temple For Sale?

Today several people told me that the Scottish Rite Temple had “For Sale” signs in the window. I assumed that the signs were in the old Western building that is currently owned by Harvest Ministries. But when I went by, the signs were on the part that is owned by the Scottish Rite Temple–where the Kiwanis Pancake Feed and Beacon Soup Feed are held.

I called Diann Tucker at Stewart Realty to ask about it. She had been out of town and was surprised, but after checking with another agent called me back to say that the building is indeed for sale. The asking price is $1,000,000 and some of the personal property is negotiable.

Diann said that if they are able to sell the building, the Scottish Rite will most likely build a smaller facility.

County Commission Meeting – December 9th

Commissioners discussed a budget report. There will be a budget hearing at the December 30th commission meeting.

The audit performed by Mr. Sercer cost Bourbon County $8,150. This was the audit that resulted in his report we published in October.

Ron Center came to talk to the commissioners about roll off containers at the dump. Someone came in with a roll off container and the whole thing was full of trash. He had put the load down as C&D which is a lower rate. He said people are dumping things at the lower rate knowing that it needs to be at the higher rate.  He said that the county isn’t breaking even at the dump. He said March was the only month where they weren’t in the red.

He also talked about how they need some type of loader out at the dump. He is concerned that the land field money was used to buy a skid loader years ago and it was never used at the landfill.

The commissioners talked about the need to raise prices at the landfill, but were concerned that if the prices are too high, people will just dump trash in the ditches.

A citizen came in to point out that there aren’t many places in town where you can get rid of used oil.

Ron Grey and several members of the sheriff office came in. Sheriff asked to go into executive session for 10 minutes to discuss non-elected personel matters.

The Susan Quick (Bourbon County Treasurer) said the the court fees have been set for the sale at $250 per parcel. There isn’t a tax sale date yet. Mr. Meara said he can’t set a date yet.

A tax payer came in to pay his taxes on the second. He paid for 2006 and 2007 before the paperwork had been filed in court. The Treasurer was asking if he needed to pay all of the remaining taxes including the $250 court fee or if the individual can partially redeem their property by paying the 2006 and 2007 taxes.

Mr. Endicott said that all of the properties need to be treated the same. The Treasurer was fine with that, but wanted to make sure the decision came from the Commissioners.

She asked the Commissioners if Mr. Meara could give them a date for the sale so she can tell people when it will occur.

John Scott asked if it had been determined whether the grinder pumps had a 2 or 5 year warranty. Chairman Endicott said that it was 5 years even though the instruction manual states it is only a 2 year warranty.

The Commissioners left at 10:45 to do a fence viewing in Franklin TWP. The Commissioners will declare which part of the fence needs to be maintained by which land owner.

Month of Brunch Winner

The Lyon’s Twin Mansions Month of Brunch Giveaway has a winner. Jerrod Handly’s name matched the random number generated from www.random.org.  He is now in possession of gift certificates for weekly brunches for a month at the Lyon’s Restaurant.

A special thanks to Miss Pat and the Lyon’s Twin Mansions for sponsoring the giveaway. Don’t forget they are open for lunch 9 – 2 Tuesday through Sunday and they open an hour early (at 8am) on the weekends.

If you want to make sure your name is in the running for future giveaways, please sign up for our email list here.