March 23, 2021 9:00 am
The Bourbon County Commission met in open session with all three Commissioners, 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, Susan Bancroft, Kim Simons, Anne Dare, Mr. & Mrs. Clint Walker, Michael Hoyt and Mark McCoy.
Jim made a motion to approve the minutes from the prior meeting, Clifton seconded and all approved and signed the minutes.
Eric Bailey met with the Commissioners; he had a moving permit from Mr. Borntrager to move a 50 X 30 X 15’6” home from an area near Xavier to Wagon Road, Eric suggested that they wait to make a decision on this permit until the required insurance had been submitted, Lynne suggested that Eric talk to Justin Meeks regarding any bond requirement.
Eric reported they did work to a crossroad at 245th & Hackberry.
Eric said they are patching potholes with cold patch mix.
Eric said they removed a large tree from the road near 240th & Birch & Cavalry, but said someone took the County barricades from this site.
Eric said they finished the blast at the Beth Quarry last week and hope to be crushing soon.
Eric said KCAMP is finalizing the details on the belly dump trailer to agree on a settlement for the belly dump trailer and truck that was involved in an accident, for the truck and trailer the KCAMP offers are $39,036 & $35,616; the Commissioners felt this was a fair offer. Lynne suggested putting the money in the Special Machinery fund when the County receives it, but Susan Bancroft said the money needed to be put in the insurance proceeds account.
Lynne reported that a low water crossing East of Fulton on Xavier doesn’t have any signs posted saying that it isn’t passable during high water.
Eric Bailey presented a map showing the site of the windmills that will be in Bourbon County, the Commissioners asked that this map be posted in the hallway. Eric said he had a meeting with APEX regarding the road use agreement to make sure everything is followed; he said Todd Foxx will be doing the inspections. He said the company did boring yesterday to see the depth of the gravel on the roads. Eric said he has been working with engineer Frank Young and said everyone is working well together.
Eric Bailey and Emergency Manager William Wallis met with the Commissioners regarding the 2019 floods; Will said this is FEMA disaster DR-4449-KS. Will said he has been working for almost 2 years gathering and submitting the data of the damage for reimbursement. The heavy rain began in April of 2019 and continued through July of 2019, with the heaviest rain occurring on the July 4th weekend. The State declared the flooding a disaster. Will said after PDA’s were done the initial estimate of damage was $366,592. Will said the Cat. A (debris removal) total was $13,600, Cat. B (emergency protective measures) total was $5,739.22, Cat. C (roads) $355,221.38 total (the County will get reimbursed 85% of this for a total of $301,938.17), Cat. Z administrative costs $18,000 (the maximum the County will get is $18,000). Will said he is still getting the cost of the culvert projects. Will said the grand total that the County will get from FEMA is $392,560. Will said Road & Bridge has already started tabulating expenses from the recent ice storm and suggested that for future disasters that once the damage starts to occur that the process starts on gathering data to make it easier and faster to report to FEMA. Eric said that Jennifer Hawkins deserved a big “Thank You” for collecting the data to submit for the flooding disaster. Lynne asked Eric what he felt they should use the FEMA money for; Eric suggested setting the money back for bridges and going after grant funds and using the money for the matching grant funds for bridges.
Register of Deeds Lora Holdridge met with the Commissioners; she said the map she present to them a few weeks ago was not the reappraisal map, but said she has since found the 1989 reappraisal map (she gave the Commissioners and Eric Bailey a copy of the map). She said this map is the latest map since the reappraisals. She said they would need to use this map to update the road record map. Justin Meeks said based on the new map he would be working with Lora to research properties. Jim questioned Lora on why she was confident the 1989 map was the correct map; Justin said this was done for 911 and said hearings were held and said they went through the process to find out what was an open road. Justin said people can petition to open or close a road.
Greg Vahrenberg with Raymond James met with the Commissioners (via telephone) regarding refinancing the 2012A and 2012B sewer district bonds. He said refinancing the bonds could result in an estimated savings of $136,500 and would lower the interest rate from 2.75% to 2.19%. He said this would be a 20 year issue. Susan Bancroft asked what the new annual payment would be; Greg estimated it to be $40,000 annually, Susan said the City is currently only collecting $30,000 a year and suggested that Greg look at a 25 year financing option. Susan said since the County just did a bond rating could they just use that bond rating; Greg said Standard and Poor’s is willing to simplify the process and said the County will have a lower rating expense because of this. Clifton made a motion to adopt Resolution 15-21, A resolution authorizing the offering for sale of general obligation refunding bonds, series 2021, of Bourbon County, Kansas, Jim seconded and all approved and signed the Resolution. Clifton made a motion to respond to S&P that the engagement letter is received and we are ready to proceed with the rating engagement, Jim seconded and all approved.
Patrick Clift with Nelson Quarries met with the Commissioner regarding the rock to be used for the Jayhawk Windfarm project. Patrick said they have built up a surplus of AB1, (he said it is pure limestone and said no fines have been added). He said Eric Bailey requested rock for the roads with less fines. Eric said Frank Young recommended using SS5, Jim Harris said if Eric and the engineer recommend using SS5, then that is what needs to be used. Eric said the windfarm company can use a different rock on private roads, but said SS5 needs to be used on the County roads. Eric said the roads (when finished) will be 4-6” thick. Patrick said they have 6,000 ton of clean 1/2” chips if the County needs to purchase any.
Lynne made a motion to go into a 7 minute executive session for KSA 75-4319(b)(1)to discuss personnel matters of individual non-elected personnel to protect their privacy regarding medical issues with an employee, the Commissioners will meet in another location and reconvene in the Commission room at 10:08, Clifton seconded and all approved, (the session included the Commissioners, Justin Meeks and Susan Bancroft). At 10:08, Lynne made a motion to come out of executive session, back into open session and said no action, Clifton seconded and all approved.
Justin Meeks briefly discussed the tax sale, he said the title company has been busy and said there are 30 parcels ready (1 of the properties was recently destroyed in a fire), but said he wanted to wait until there are at least 50 properties ready before they publish.
Justin said he would have a new contract for the sewer district in the coming weeks.
Justin said that the Attorney General’s office moved the scheduled KOMA training from today to April 13th @ 10:30.
Public Comment: Anne Dare asked where the exact placement would be for the wind turbine map, the Commissioners said it would be in the hallway. She asked if the Commissioners would have an updated 2021 map, Lynne said he hopes to have an accurate map in the future.
Commissioner Comment: Jim said a recent post on Facebook said that a ball tournament generated $200,000; he said as a private citizen or as a Commissioner in the future he would like to meet with the City and School Board regarding getting more ball diamonds in order to host more tournaments.
Clifton said he had received several comments from property owners regarding their property valuations going up; he said he wanted people to know the Commissioners were aware of this. Justin said raising the valuation was a goal of the Commissioners and said as the valuation goes up the Commissioners could lower the mill.
Justin said the topic of the Multi County Health Board needed to be added to next week’s agenda.
Jim said he has heard questions asking why the Commissioners aren’t staying until noon on meeting days; Justin said the new structure of the meetings makes the meetings go faster.
At 10:26 am, Clifton made a motion to adjourn, Jim seconded and all approved.
THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
OF BOURBON COUNTY, KANSAS
(ss) Lynne Oharah, Chairman
(ss) Jim Harris, Commissioner
(ss) Clifton Beth, Commissioner
ATTEST:
Kendell Mason, Bourbon County Clerk
March 30, 2021, Approved Date