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Bourbon County Commission Minutes of June 14

The north wing, east side of the Bourbon County Courthouse.

June 14, 2022 Tuesday 9:00 am
The Bourbon County Commission met in open session with all three Commissioners and the
County Clerk present.
Clinton Walker, Rachel Walker, Anne Dare, Matt Crystal, Jacob Bielenberg, Bill Martin, Bob
Reed, Ben Cole, Emily Diebolt, Tayton Majors, Rob Harrington, Susan Bancroft, Shane Walker
and Matt Quick were present for some or all of the meeting.
Clifton Beth made a motion to approve the minutes from the previous meeting. Lynne seconded.
All approved.
Eric Bailey presented a culvert permit for Patrick Wood at 1004 S 230th. The commission is going to check on whether they have to approve each culvert permit. If not, it will be
discontinued. Eric gave an update on the composting permit for soybeans. The permit is still on hold. Eric said that the holdup is on their side. We’ve done everything on our side. Eric stated
there has been training on the rock crusher. It puts out a lot of rock. We are cleaning up the overburden at Blake’s. We will start asphalting next week in Hiattville. The culvert crew has
been working on 215th cleaning out the ditches and getting the tubes in.

We had some trees down over the weekend from the storm and are working on cleaning that up. Eric received a call
from Iola Post Office. Unity and 62nd Terrace where there is a water plant and a house. There is a lane that goes down there. We’ve checked with Lora and we’ve looked on the GPS maps and
that road does not show as a platted road on either map and hasn’t been bladed and they’re unable to get down to the mailboxes. Does anyone know of any agreement in this case? Jim
said he didn’t think they ever bladed it

Eric stated he received a call from a councilman from Uniontown from our meeting we had out there, it was their understanding that we were going to lay asphalt for them. I need some guidance. Jim stated that was not his understanding. He said that we would review and see if we could help them or not. Justin said we can’t do that without an interlocal agreement. We can’t compete with private business.

Justin stated that there are two more trestle bridges in the county that are becoming a problem. We’ll have to make some big
decisions on probably three of them. Eric stated working on the area Lynne mentioned is go on each side of the bridge and put barricades up stating “bridge out” and put a dead end sign. We
will be working on correcting this in the very near future.

Lynne mentioned that on Unity between 95th and 105th there is an area that washes a trench out every time we get a few inches of
rain. I think it might be a ditch problem. Jim asked what Eric needs to be really aggressive with ditching? Jim asked Eric to bring a plan. Jim said it was no reflection on Eric’s operation because we had the same issues when he was in the position.


Ashley Shelton presented fireworks permits that need signed. Clifton made a motion to allow Chairman Harris and Ashley to sign the fireworks permits. Lynne seconded. All approved.
Ashley stated there would be one more next week.

Ashley spoke on Preservation of Ballots and
Election Records per KSA 25-2708 states the records shall be destroyed after 22 months from election. When the ballots are destroyed, I have to have two witnesses, one from each party. I
have reached out to Carol MacArthur, chairperson for Democratic party and also reached out to Mark McCoy who is the chairperson of the Republican party who recommended Anne Dare.
Those two people have to be appointed by the Board of Commissioners. Clifton made a motion to appoint Carol MacArthur and Anne Dare to witness the 22 month destruction of election
material. Lynne seconded. All approved.

Ashley stated that there have been complaints from
the people that the building at 108 W 2nd. There was work done last year and paid for but it is not completed. Jim asked if there is a check-off process for projects to make sure they are
completed prior to payment. Ashley said when we received the invoice and it has been signed, we assume the work is done.

Ashley asked if any of the commissioners planned to attend the
KAC conference on October 17-19. Jim asked that Ashley make reservations for him. Clifton and Lynne will be attending, also.


Bill Martin stated that over the last 5 years there have been 90 employees go through the jail as correctional officers. In the last week we’ve had four correction officers turn in their
resignations. That brings us down to 8 to operate the jail. I’m here to inform the commissioners that I’m shutting the jail down. We’ll be transferring the inmates out until we can figure out
what we can do in regards to the employees. We’ve had Facebook posts, job announcements by word of mouth to get people to come in and haven’t gotten one application. This is being done
for inmate and correction officer safety. Bobby Reed did everything he could do.

Jim
mentioned that this is a nation-wide issue. Your situation is not unique. People don’t want to work. Bobby stated that this is a very difficult decision. I have 16 positions that are under my
control for correction staff, not including myself, my caption or my secretary. Next Tuesday, I will have 8 of those employees out of 16. Those 8 employees, if they stay, I have been told that
another one may be coming; I have another one coming at the end of August. Those 8 employees are staying on because we are not shutting the facility down completely. We are
moving all of the inmates out that we can to surrounding areas. I’ve been in contact with several sheriffs throughout SEK as far as Fredonia and we are going to have to keep those 8 people on
and figure out some sort of schedule so that when arrests are made they are still going to be booked into our system. They will then be transferred to another county. We still have to have
daily operations, depending on the court systems, we are still going to have to get the inmates to court. We will have to go get them from where they are being held to get them there. We will
still be responsible for their medical. This morning I have 62 inmates that are ours. Some counties are going to charge us $35.00/day/inmate, some counties will charge $40.00/day/inmate
and some will charge $45.00/day/inmate plus medical. Jim asked Bobby what he thought was contributing to the turnover. I

n the last couple of months, everyone that has resigned has filled
out the exit interview paperwork. I ask for details. Several years ago we opened our job pool to hire outside of Bourbon County. I had an employee who left two weeks ago that was driving from El Dorado Springs, MO. He found employment closer to home making more money. Gas prices are also playing a roll. I’ve contacted Cherokee, Crawford, Allen, Linn, Anderson and
Miami. Everyone, but Miami and Anderson County start out at $15.00/hr. They are struggling to stay fully staffed. When asked if they would take some of our prisoners they said in an
emergency they would but they are trying not to because they are short staffed as well. Miami and Anderson’s starting wage is $17.00/hr. Jim stated that according to records, their budget was
increased $48,000.00 for 2022. Bobby said back in 2018 we started out at $10.17/hr. In 2018 we got a $1.50/hr raise that brought us up to $12.17/hr. With the 3% that we got in 2022 that
brought the starting wage to $12.50/hr. Bobby stated that even if we brought the starting wage up to $15.00/hr., there is no guarantee it will bring us applicants. Bill asked about the increase
for 2022. Jim stated that there was an additional $48,000.00 for the correctional facility and an additional $50,000.00 for Sheriff’s side. When we did the budget last year we tried to address it

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