May 25, 2021 Tuesday 9:00 am
The Bourbon County Commission met in open session with all three Commissioners 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, Anne Dare, Mr. & Mrs. Clint Walker, Susan Bancroft, Rob Herrington, Mark Mccoy, Shane Walker and Frank Halsey.
Jim made a motion to approve the minutes from the previous meeting, Clifton seconded and all approved and signed the minutes.
Eric Bailey presented a culvert permit that had been completed for 1068 238th Street, the Commissioners signed the permit.
Eric reported they attended CIC training and are looking at moving forward with the time clock usage for the Road & Bridge department; he said they will use the cellphones to clock in or out, Jim questioned what employees without a phone would use; Eric said there is one employee without a phone.
Eric reported that MSHAW training will be June 2-4th.
Eric said they have started clearing bridge decks with a skid steer.
They plan to start pulling the shoulders tomorrow at 250th & Arrowhead.
They are working around cemeteries to prepare for Memorial Day. Lynne said that Hatch Cemetery needs rock; Eric said this will be taken care of.
They are trying to crush at the quarry, but are dealing with the weather.
Jayhawk Wind update: Eric said they are also dealing with the wet weather, but are working on private roads and working on a low water crossing.
Lynne reported that the Uniontown Mayor and KDWP is in the process of fixing the pond at 75th & Maple Road; Lynne said they need rock and hauling labor and suggested that the County do an in-kind contribution of labor and rock. Eric said he would discuss this with Uniontown and KDWP.
Lynne said KDWP has grant money and if awarded Elm Creek could use the grant to repair the dam, Lynne will give the grant information to Susan Bancroft. Lynne said Susan will need the cost to repair the dam from Eric. Jim reported that the last time they tried the valve at Elm Creek it didn’t work.
Eric reported that a tube had been ordered for the road that was recently closed.
Richard Horton met with the Commissioners to discuss Project 17; (this involves the 17 counties in our surrounding area). He asked if Bourbon County still wanted to be associated with Project 17 and said there was no fee to join. Their organization takes issues that are going on in each of the Counties and takes those issues to their board to help find connections and solutions. The four main areas they focus on are Economic Development, Workforce Development, Leadership and Health. Lynne asked Richard Horton to contact the BEDCO Economic Development Director Rob Herrington. All three of the Commissioners wanted to be associated with Project 17.
Joshua Sapp with Heartland Benefits Group, a representative from Corporate Plan Management as well as a representative from Oread Rx met with the Commissioners regarding health insurance benefits beginning in 2021. Mr. Sapp said the County paid $1,478,269.97 for health benefits in 2020 and only utilized $731,156.31 worth of benefits. He said the State Health Plan (the current County insurance carrier) rates will go up 2.8% in June. Heartland Benefits can offer a partially self-funded program and can customize a plan based on the County needs. They said by being fully insured through the State, we have been preparing for the worse, but said if we don’t use the insurance, we are losing money and said if the County were self-funded the County could retain funds. They can mirror the current plan or can build a different plan to meet our needs. They can offer NexUS (aligns physician, member and employer incentives to drive down the cost of care while improving the quality of care), Hostcare Resources (a company that looks for procedures that could be performed cheaper elsewhere), Whole Health Solutions (EAP, Telemedicine, Health & Wellness Program & Human Resource Counseling). Clifton said with a former insurance carrier he had that he had to jump through hoops to earn discounts and questioned if it was the same way with Heartland Benefits Group; Joshua said that if they couldn’t get all of the needed claim’s data, then they would need health questionnaires filled out by the employees. Joshua encouraged the County to be fully funded the first few years and then be a partially funded plan later in order to build up reserves. Susan said that the health insurance for the county employees would be a good topic for an advisory board.
Rob Herrington with BEDCO met with the Commissioners; he requested that the Commissioners provide BEDCO with up to $100,000 of the PILOT money in order for BEDCO to give the money out in grants for quality-of-life issues. Susan Bancroft said she had contacted Terry Sercer and Terry told her that the County could use this money at their own discretion. Rob said that the City of Fulton needed assistance with tearing down houses, Lynne said all of the communities want help. Rob said with this program he would have people fill out applications and the applications would then go before the BEDCO board for approval and said this could be a matching grant. Lynne discussed the Gunn Park Trails and said this was an economic draw to our community and said if it could be improved it would be a resource to draw more people to our community. Lynne said the request was to have $25,000 for the completion of the Gunn Park bike trails. Lynne suggested dedicating $25,000 to Gunn Park trails and increase the total from $100,000 to $125,000. Jim said he wanted the money to be used to focus on the community and not to be used for tearing houses down. Jim made a motion to approve $125,000 out of the PILOT money with $25,000 dedicated to the Gunn Park Trails as a grant program through BEDCO, Clifton seconded and stated that we were giving BEDCO more money, but said BEDCO could turn this money into more money, Mark McCoy a member of the BEDCO board said he would make sure the funds were spent ethically and distributed properly, all approved the motion.
Clifton made a motion to amend the agenda for a 5-minute executive session, Jim seconded and all approved.
Clifton made a motion to go into a 5-minute executive session for KSA 75-4319(b)(4) to discuss data relating to financial affairs or trade secrets of corporations, partnerships, trusts and individual proprietorships and said the subject would be trade secrets of a corporation, the Commissioners will meet in another location and reconvene in the Commission room at 10:52, Jim seconded and all approved, (the session included the Commissioners, Susan Bancroft and Rob Herrington). At 10:52, Clifton made a motion to return to open session and said there was no action, Jim seconded and all approved.
Greg Vahrenberg met with the Commissioners via telephone regarding refinancing the sewer district bonds; Greg said they had completed the sale of the 2021 bonds for the sewer district and said by doing this it shortened the payment period 3 years; the interest went from 2.75% to 2.41% and there was a savings of $54,317. Clifton made a motion to adopt Resolution 17-21 a Resolution for the General Obligation Refunding Bonds Series 2021-B, Jim seconded and all approved and all signed the paperwork.
Susan Bancroft met with the Commissioners; she said she had been attending conference calls on what the ARPA money could be used for. She said the County would be receiving $2.8 million. She said there would be a lot of reporting that would need completed and said the County would need to get registered and someone would have to draw down the funds; the Commissioners asked that she do this. Susan said when the money is received it would need to be put in a separate fund. Susan said the cities would get their own funding, but was unsure of townships. Susan said she is starting to help with budgets and said Terry Sercer is still working on the 2020 audit and said the County should have the audit the first part of July. Susan and Frank Halsey will put together an advisory board for the County health insurance.
Commissioners Comment: the Commissioners and Susan Bancroft plan to attend KAC in October and asked that Kendell enroll them for the conference and reserve hotel rooms.
At 11:08, 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
June 1, 2021, Approved Date