December 5, 2024 Thursday 9:00 a.m.
The Board of Bourbon County Commissioners met in open session with all three Commissioners and the County Clerk present.
Anne Dare, Teri Hulsey, Jean Tucker, Shanda Stewart, Mark McCoy, Jason Silvers, Mike Wunderly, Tim Emerson, and Debra Shepard were present for some or all of the meeting.
Jim opened the meeting with the flag salute.
Clifton made a motion to approve the consent agenda which includes approval of minutes from 11/21/2024, approval of accounts payable totaling $350,068.23, approval of payroll totaling $315,166.08, and approval of October financials. Brandon seconded the motion and all approved.
Jennifer Hawkins, County Clerk, stated the caterer was available for a holiday dinner on December 17th and asked that we close the courthouse as we have done in the past to allow all employees to attend. Clifton made a motion to close the courthouse on December 17th from 11:00-1:00 for employees to attend a holiday dinner and that more than one Commissioner may be present, however; no county business will be conducted. Brandon seconded the motion and all approved.
Teri Hulsey, EMS Director, stated they received grants from The Patterson Foundation, The Wal-Mart Foundation, and The Fort Scott Area Community Foundation, as well as local donations from Labconco, Neice, Peerless Products, and Mid-Continental and are now able to purchase the PowerLoad cot system for the EMS 1 truck. Jim thanked Teri for all her hard work. Clifton said he received a call from a citizen who is concerned about where they can dispose of their sharps since Walgreens is closing. Clifton asked Teri what we do with ours and if we can accept them from citizens. Teri asked Clifton to let her confirm that they are able to do that she said they had partnered with the police department in the past and had a big box that they were dropped in.
Mark McCoy, with Bourbon County REDI, said he has been here three times requesting funding and he is respectfully requesting funding in the amount of $75,000 for services rendered. Mr. McCoy said this is well under the $130,000 that was originally set aside. Jim said he is not sure that we did set aside funds for REDI in 2024 and that he would have to ask the CFO. Jim asked if anybody from REDI is knocking on business doors trying to help businesses and sell properties? Mark said no they are not physically knocking on doors but Rob has showed 2 buildings and that the Valu-Merchandiser’s building is hard to sell as the seller is staying firm. Jim said his next meeting will be on the 19th and asked Mark or Rob to do a presentation of what they have accomplished the last several years. Mark said that they will be here to do that.
Jennifer Hawkins, County Clerk, said KCAMP has a Risk Avoidance Grant in the amount of $2000 that they county can apply for. The Sheriff’s Department was able to use $800 earlier this year to purchase fire extinguishers for their vehicles and Jennifer asked permission to work with the courthouse, public works, and EMS to determine who has purchased items that would qualify and to apply for the remaining amount of the Risk Avoidance Grant. The Commissioners agreed to let Jennifer work with other departments and apply for the remaining funds.
Clifton made a motion to amend the agenda to pass out the Emergency Department funding agreement. Brandon seconded the motion and all approved.
Clifton handed out the agreement and said it was basically the same with a few changes including the name has been changed to Freeman Fort Scott Hospital, Inc., the date has been changed from October 1 to December 5th, and that payment will be due within 10 days of signing the agreement. Clifton said the City of Fort Scott will still contribute $600,000 and Bourbon County will contribute $500,000. Clifton said there is a clawback stating in the event that the emergency department is not open or operational by 6-1-2025 Freeman will have to pay back the money in monthly payments. Clifton said the agreements states that Bourbon County will let Freeman use the equipment commencing 6-1-2025. Jim asked if part B item 3 should state 6-1-2025 instead of 4-1-2025 and Clifton said yes, and to change it on the agreement he has. The Commission accepted questions from the audience while Brandon read the agreement. Anne Dare asked Clifton to reread the section of the agreement and questioned why the date was changed from 4-1-2025 to 6-1-2025. Clifton said there was no reason given. Pete Owenby asked how much money is wrapped up in the hospital building now. Clifton said 2.5 million dollars plus the building and the land. Jim said you have to look at the building as we only had “x” amount of dollars to keep up the building and that the $2,000,000 came from federal funds and the funds given by Mercy. Clifton said the money was spent on the building and you can look through their expenditures. Jim said some people who originally wanted to tear the building down are happy that we did not because of all the work KRI has done. Clifton said Legacy is the reason KRI is here. Pete asked if we could have put the building up for bid. Clifton said we tried to give the building away to Freeman, KU Med, Saint Lukes, and even Mercy and they didn’t want it. Jim said he was contacted by KRI and he asked Justin Meeks to call Legacy. Clifton said that wasn’t true that he is the one that contacted Legacy and he was shown emails between Legacy and KRI. Shanda Stewart said that people are concerned with the time it has taken to try to close on the deal. Clifton made a motion to accept the emergency department funding agreement and to allow Chairman Harris to sign it. Brandon said it is a good contract that covers Bourbon County. Brandon seconded the motion and all approved.
Jim asked to amend the agenda to discuss the moratorium because the vote wasn’t recorded. Clifton seconded and all approved. Jim said he thought we voted on it but there was a lot of noise in the room and it was not recorded. Jim stated the County Counselor said we can rescind and back date to 10-31-2024. Jim made a motion to sign a resolution rescinding the moratorium on solar projects in Bourbon County and termination of prior agreements with Hinton Creek as so voted on 10-31-2024 and the counselor says we can redate this resolution to 10-31-2024. Clifton seconded the motion. Brandon opposed. The vote passed 2-1.
Clifton made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 9:27. Brandon seconded the motion and all approved.
THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
OF BOURBON COUNTY, KANSAS
___________________, Chairman
___________________,Commissioner
ATTEST: ___________________,Commissioner
Jennifer Hawkins, Bourbon County Clerk
12-12-2024 Approved Date
