Two commissioners, Brandon Whisenhunt and David Beerbower, met to conduct county business, as District 3’s, seat is currently vacant.

Old Business

Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Govdeals.com

Beerbower brought up a complaint he had received from a local auction service regarding the commission’s decision to use Govdeals.com to sell the used medical equipment from the old hospital. He expressed concern about following due process to find an auctioneer for the proceedings and give local businesses a chance to earn the county’s business. Originally, the auction for the old hospital equipment was going to be conducted by the county, but at the last commissioners meeting, they voted to use the online auction service.

Govdeals.com charges a buyer premium, offering their services at no cost to Bourbon County.

“We might also owe it to the constituents of our county to get the most bang for your buck,” said an audience member at the meeting.

Whisenhunt who had also spoken to the local auction service provider, wants to get the sale done as soon as possible, and not take the time to publish for bids, which would add at least two weeks to the current timeline for the sale of the equipment. “So I guess we’re at a stalemate.”

Bob Johnson, county counsel said that a lot of counties just use an online auction service.

After going over the last meeting’s minutes and confirming the commissions decision to hire Govdeals.com at that time, Whisenhunt made motion to sign the MOU with Govdeals.com to sell the old hospital equipment, less the items going to the Mapleton clinic. Beerbower seconded and the motion passed.

Regarding local businesses working with the county, Whisenhunt said, “I would recommend that anybody that has a small business that thinks they might ever do business with the county bring their contact information to the courthouse so we have a list.”

Greg Post, representing Friends of Mapleton and the clinic there, spoke to the commission. There are six small items in the hospital equipment sale that they want to lend-lease from the county, which would be a benefit to Bourbon County residents.

Whisenhunt and Beerbower both said they would be glad to donate the items to the clinic. They instructed Johnson to draw up a donation agreement with the clinic, which will state that the items will be returned to the county if the clinic ever doesn’t need them.

Fence viewing discussion

Beerbower said that since initial discussion a few weeks ago, other citizens have contacted him about it. The statute shows that the commissioners do owe some kind of service. He suggested a designee from the county be assigned to the job. There has to be one designee per commissioner, per the statute, according to Johnson.

Beerbower said the parties asking for the commission to view their fences are in his district. Whisenhunt needs to direct someone to go in his stead, because if they both go it’s a open meeting which must be published, said Johnson.

“I’ve been representing counties for 25 years and I’ve never had this come up,” said Johnson.  He offered to put a memo together to help inform the commissioners fully of their obligations.

The item will also be on the next commission agenda.

Sheriff’s Tax Sale

Michael Hoyte spoke to the commission as a member of the Fort Scott Land Bank board. He encouraged the commission to use the services of attorney Christopher McElgunn with the firm of Klenda Austerman to conduct the county’s sales of properties with delinquent taxes.

He also advised the commission to have regular tax sales to incentivize citizens to pay their taxes and avoid loss of their property.

Susan Walker, County Clerk said that right now the county has about 150 properties ready for tax sale.

Whisenhunt made a motion to hire Klenda Austerman, an attorney at law, to handle the tax sales of properties. It was approved.

New Business

Zoning Discussion

Beerbower took over the handling of county zoning from Leroy Kruger when Kruger resigned two weeks ago. He said the county currently has two staff members, assigned by the previous commission, working on a plan. They also have some Allen County zoning examples to look at.

Beerbower has also met with a couple of citizens about the topic. “I’d like to see us go ahead an panel a group of citizens.” Preferably from each of the districts, depending on the letters of interested received. This would not be a voting panel, but for research to present a working plan to the commission. There will be zoning, this is to inform what kind of zoning it will be.

Whisenhunt asked the county was ready for this step. “I think we need to wait until we have a third person on the commission.”

An audience member spoke up to say this is only exploratory, information gathering step. It’s not an item to be voted on. Once a third commissioner is on there, then the zoning decisions can be completed. She is frustrated that no progress has been made on zoning since the new commission began.

Johnson pointed out that county employees have been working on this, it just hasn’t been public record.

Beerbower said that the work of the county employees will be a part of the information the panel uses to make their recommendations and he wants a commissioner to be on the panel as well.

“The panel would be the buffer before it comes to the commission,” said Beerbower.

Another audience member spoke up asking, “Are we doing codification or zoning?” He is against codification and wanted to know what the commissioners expect to come out of this. He also expressed concern about the scuttlebutt is that there’s a 100+ page document out there. which would indicate codification.

“Coding is not even on the table,” said Beerbower. “Zoning at its most basic is what we want.”

He said the citizen panel will provide transparency. The purpose of the zoning is to deal with industries that aren’t regulated by federal or state government and therefore need county regulation.

Beerbower made a motion to post for letters of interest to form a panel to discuss zoning research and review proposals for Bourbon County to be received by April 14. Motion was approved.

Department Updates

Laura Holdridge, Register of Deeds

The Hidden Valley Roads neighborhood wants Bourbon County to now maintain their roads. However, there is no record of an agreement with the county for that maintenance. They have done their own maintenance for at least the past 21 years. The area consists of 9 miles of roads.

The commission did not agree to take on the roads of Hidden Valley.

Land locked property

At an unspecified location in the county, J&M Land Company is denying a Mr. Cook access to his landlocked field. The original road records show a road there, but in the 1987 records they’re not there.

Cook called Whisenhunt Friday, saying he can’t get equipment through on the railroad right of way that J&M Land Company offered as access because it’s severely overgrown.

Holdridge, suggested that the county keep one small section of the road open so he can get to his property. J&M Land Company, LLC is opposed to reopening road.

Johnson said that if he’s been accessing it for more than 15 years, he has a prescriptive easement. It’s a civil matter and he will talk to the parties involved this week.

Eric Bailey from Public Works said that Cook couldn’t access it last year and it became a civil matter then.

County Cemeteries

Holdridge said there are 37 cemetaries in the county, only 2 file deeds with her office. Those cemeteries include the fees in the cost of the plots. Fees are listed on the county’s website. Statues require charging for deed filing. It is the public’s responsibility to file their deeds themselves. Her office doesn’t hold original deeds, but copies.

“There was a misunderstanding between Ms. Etheridge and myself” regarding the storage of old cemetery plot deeds, she said.

Whisenhunt says the big problem is that current cemetery boards are aging and records aren’t being kept well. They need to organize and get together to work out a system to keep track. They do need to add the cost of filing the deed to the cost of the plot. We’ve got to help some of them get updated, he said.

As the county government, we can’t make them, said Beerbower. It’s not our responsibility. The county does collect taxes for 16 of the cemeteries in the county, amounting to approximately $60,000 per year that is distributed to those cemeteries.

Eric Bailey, Public Works

60th and Grand Bridge: time to choose the construction engineer. Schwab Eaton was the bid received. They did this same job for the bridge at 160th and Fern. They helped the county apply for the grant and did the design for it. Commission gave approval to send an email to KDOT to approve Schwab Eaton. KDOT will pay for that service as part of this grant.

Good Old Days committee have a meeting coming up and want approval for the county to fetch golf carts from Lamar for the June event. Commission gave permission.

Bridge at 130th is repaired.

Elm Creek roofs had a volunteer group come forward and offer to do the roof if the county will provide the materials and a couple of employees. Approving that would bring them in under budget. Cost for material is $5,409.71. Bailey said he will find a way to make it with their budget. “We have to do something with those roofs. We’ve put it off and they’ve been neglected long enough,” he said.

Whisenhunt asked about the ditch project. “They made great progress on it,” said Bailey. It will be better when the rain lets up.

Beerbower asked about dust control service from the county. Requests must be for a minimum 300 ft, and last year the cost was $1.75 per foot. Those interested can call the office and get on the list. The county will go out with flags to mark area, then work the gravel road as best they can to get it compact and then put the oil down on it. Longevity of the dust control depends on traffic and amount of turning done on the surface.

Commissioner comments

Beerbower

Asked to attend the Fort Scott Chamber community connection panelist luncheon on April 9 at 1 pm at Empress event center.

KCCA Annual Conference in Manhattan, April 21-23, Beerbower cannot attend due to medical issues. Whisenhunt has to work. They both expressed hope that the new commissioner can go.

He added two budget discussion requests to next week’s agenda regarding juvenile detention and Kansas Mental Health. He wants to discuss what was budgeted for them and discuss amending it.

Whisenhunt

A family member expressed to him that the county should have an animal shelter. Whisenhunt suggested a partnership with a shelter that’s already in place, as it’s cost-prohibitive to start one up for the county.